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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 6

[miscellaneous paragraphs]

The last batch of specimen-lines we published were American; in this issue we show some German novelties. Some English designs should follow next in turn; as we have advice that a large London foundry has sent some sample-lines to our home agent.

The Waipawa Mail has published more than one article on the libel law, in which—unlike any other newspaper in New Zealand—it holds that any amendment should be in the direction of greater stringency. « There is a growing feeling. » it says, « that neither the present nor the proposed law will afford sufficient protection for the public. » This expression of opinion is the more remarkable, as the Mail has had many and acute experiences of the operation of the present law.

« The 'knights of labor' at Woodville (says the Wellington Post), informed the Minster for Public Works that they intended to hold an inquiry into the complaints of certain men on the co-operative works, and asked that the two engineers in charge be allowed to appear before them. Mr Seddon told the House that his reply to the inquiring 'knights' was that he would allow no irresponsible body to interfere with his department. » This is good so far as it goes, but the same gentleman encourages irresponsible bodies and irresponsible nobodies to harass the railway commissioners.

« Pass to the right » should be the rule, not only of the sidewalk, but of every home and every workshop. Innumerable accidents would be daily averted were this simple rule observed by common consent. It could be as easily and as early impressed upon children as the proper use of the right hand. Who has not seen when an awkward squad has been drilled, the four or five men who will turn the wrong way, locking belts and bayonet-sheaths with their neighbors, and has not heard the drill-sergeant: « Right-about-face—there you go to the left-about! » How many deadlocks in the narrow gangways of offices occur—how many cases are upset and galleys pied—through absence of a fixed rule! Any one who will try the experiment will find how much easier and more natural it is for those carrying a burden of any kind to pass to the right instead of the left. In England, this wholesome rule is most absurdly reversed on the road, where, « if you go right, you go wrong, » but the continental practice is the opposite. Let the rule « Pass to the right » be enforced in every workshop, and an immediate saving of time, temper, and annoying accidents will follow.

North Island journalists will regret to hear of the death of a well-known member of the profession, Mr E. H. Grigg, whose career was as chequered as that of the late Mr H. Anderson, whom in several respects he resembled, though possessing no such measure of literaryability. Mr Grigg was a native of New South Wales, where his father was a non-commissioned officer in a British regiment. The family removed to New Zealand while young Edward was still a boy, and he was apprenticed to Mr T. MacKenzie, of the Wellington Independent. He made good use of his time, and besides turning out a good practical printer, acquired some facility in writing. In January, 1867, in conjunction with his brother Charles, he started the Greytown Mercury, the first country paper in the province of Wellington. It was edited by Mr Richard Wakelin, who some time afterwards took over the whole concern, and changed its name to the Standard, under which title it still flourishes. The two brothers then went to Napier, where Edward took charge of the press-room in the Herald office, then still in the hands of the late Mr James Wood, the founder of the paper. Failing health led Mr Wood to relinquish the business—a very valuable property—and he disposed of it on favorable terms to the heads of the four departments, Messrs Dinwiddie, Morrison, Carlile, and Grigg, who carried on business under the style of Dinwiddie, Morrison & Co. Mr Grigg soon disposed of his share, and shortly afterwards became shipping reporter for the Napier Telegraph. Thence he went northward, and for a time managed the Auckland Star; again for a short time joined the Napier Telegraph staff as manager and sub-editor; thence back to Wellington, where for a time he acted as shipping reporter and sub-editor to the Evening Press. We are not sure that this completes the list of his engagements. In 1887 he started in Wellington a small four-page weekly called Truth, devoted to « evangelical » doctrine and « radical » polities, and which lived about six months. About this time, too, he identified himself prominently with the Salvation Army, with which he remained assocated till his death. Soon after the collapse of Truth, he returned to his native colony, and at the time of his death was connected with a Salvation Army newspaper. He was a shrewd and clever business man and a ready, though far from profound writer; but was unstable and fond of change. He was a prominent member of the Oddfellow, Orange, Rechabite, Good Templar, and other societies. Though his death occurred so long ago as 9th August, the intimation appears only just now to have reached the colony where he was known so well. In disposition he was genial and kindly, and made many friends and few enemies. He leaves a widow and grown-up family in New Zealand.

page 79

The coal lumpers' union of New South Wales have petitioned Parliament to stop the mail subsidy to the Union Steamship Company on two grounds: (1) that all its servants have to contribute to a sick and accident fund which has been condemned by the unions; (2) that the company has its headquarters and workshops in another colony.

Of a political pamphlet recently sent from home to the New Zealand press, one of our contemporaries writes; « There are only a dozen pages of it, but it is not at all probable that anybody will ever read half that number. The pamphlet has not a single redeeming feature. » Opening another exchange, we find the same production referred to in terms of extravagant praise; and the editor promises at an early date to copy it in extenso. Somewhat hasty judgment on both sides, it may be, and not altogether unprejudiced.

A young lady at Palmerston North has succeeded in gaining one of Isaac Pitman's certificates for shorthand. In his letter to her the great phonographer says:— « I might mention in this connexion that it is highly gratifying to me to find that in so remote a part of the world as New Zealand young ladies are beginning to recognize the intrinsic value of shorthand, and the advantages to be derived from a knowledge of the art, and I hope to receive further applications of a like nature from the same quarter. »

Parliament is closed, and not one useful measure can be named as having passed. Some very mischevious experiments in legislation have been tried; but the worst of the so-called labor bills were dropped—thanks in a great measure to Mr Buckland's burlesque. The female franchise had a good majority in both houses; but the Government, taking sudden alarm, strangled the bill. They also took care that the libel bill—almost the only useful and practical measure brought forward—should not pass. Members' salaries have had a big increase — some £8000 in all, and a direct subsidy has been voted to a religious body that has large electoral influence.

Another plagiarism (says a contemporary) has been committed by fact on fiction. A young gentleman who had lost at marbles, with a view of recovering his property, bet his companions that he would swallow fifty « alleys » — Master Bardell's favorite marble. He did swallow thirty-three before he began to feel uncomfortable. The doctor who was called in, declared that « on shaking the boy, there was a rattling as of a receding wave on a pebbly beach, that could be heard for yards around. » Now this is just what happened to the boy in Pickwick, with the same article in his interior, who had to be wrapped up so as not to disturb the patients in the hospital.

Newspapers are privileged in inserting correct reports of proceedings in the criminal courts. It is the rule, except with low-class sheets, to omit obscene details. The mere recording of a murder or suicide presenting exceptional features frequently leads to imitation; and still more must this be the case when the minutest particulars of an abortion trial or a criminal assault are set forth in detail. We doubt whether privilege covers such publication—there can be no pretence whatever that it is for the public good. We regret to see that the Woodville paper has filled many columns with the repulsive evidence in a recent criminal matter. We have never before seen such a case so fully reported in print, and hope never to see it again.

Immediately after the close of the session the Government made twelve calls to the Upper House. Three—Messrs Jenkinson, Jennings, and Rigg, are officers in trade unions; and five are connected with printing and publishing. Mr W. McCullough is well known as proprietor and editor of the Thames Star; Mr H. Feldwick is part proprietor of the Southland News; Mr Kerr, of Greymouth, is a newspaper man; and Messrs Rigg and Jennings are working printers. Mr Bolt, of Dunedin, is a storeman, who has published a curious pamphlet exhibiting extensive ignorance of political economy; Mr Rigg is an enthusiastic unionist, whose management of the tram-strike « fizzle » in Wellington displayed the measure of his executive ability; of Mr Jennings, we only know that he is a native of Auckland, who learned his trade in the colony. Mr J. E. Jenkinson, another unionist, is a working boiler-maker, and the ministerial organ thought it worthy of note, that on receiving his appointment, he went quietly on with his job. This was a very left-handed compliment. Apparently the Wellington Times is of opinion that the natural thing for a working man to do on receiving such an intimation would be to drop his hammer and make a bee-line for the nearest « pub. » The new members, by all accounts, are good men, but with one or two exceptions, have shown no evidence of any administrative ability. Whether they will give the expected solid vote for the ministry remains to be seen.

The paradox of « compulsory » arbitration is self evident. Arbitration can only be of use when there is an honorable desire for a just settlement on both sides, and each party is prepared to accept an adverse verdict. In the French mining dispute at Carnaux, the men declared beforehand that they would not submit to any award which fell short of their demands; and, as might have been foreseen, have carried out their threat.

A precocious New York youth of fifteen, has hoaxed The Times. Under the name of « Capt. Frank Scott, 38th Pennsylvania Rifles, » he wrote a regular fire-eating effusion, threatening terrible things against the British empire. Instead of waste-basketing the young swashbuckler's letter, The Times gave it prominence as an expression of American opinion. The affair has given occasion for much irreverent mirth on the part of the New York newspapers.

Short sentences (says a contemporary) may be incisive sometimes, but they do not usually indicate a masterly command of the best possibilities of the English language. It is thus satisfying to find that the concluding sentence of one of Mr Gladstone's recent speeches contained 300 words, with many subordinate and relative sentences. An exchange remarks that its analysis would make an excellent lesson in English grammar, for it comes out of all its involutions triumphantly correct, and marches to its end with a stately rhythm of it own.

Some of the « essays » alleged to be the work of school-children are pure inventions, as clumsy as they are witless. The following, on « Boys, » by a London school-girl of 12, is unmistakeably genuine:— « The boy is not an animal, yet they can be heard for a considerable distance. When a boy hollers he opens his big mouth like frogs, but girls hold their toung till they are spoke to, and then they answer respectable and tell just how it was. A boy thinks himself clever because he can wade where it is deep, but God made the dry land for every living thing, and rested on the seventh day. When the boy grows up he is called a husband, and then he stops wading and stays out at nights, but the grew-up girl is a widow and keeps house. »

A notable vagabond named John Burke O'Brien knocks about the North Island. He turned up lately at Foxton, where he became such a nuisance that the constable gave him a hint to move on. This he did; first inditing a long letter in rhyme to the local paper. The editor inserts three sample couplets. « Farewell to Foxton, I leave it in disgust; I have washed and wiped my feet from your accursed dust… You give J. B. O. one month in jail, For being too proud to beg, too honest for to steal… Your manufactures and flax mills, no doubt are financially sound, For every year they try to pay twopence halfpenny in the pound. » This modern Zozimus may yet adorn our New Zealand halls of legislature.

Major LeCaron has published a book substantiating his statements before the Parnell commission, and supplementing them with somewhat startling details. The book is described as « disappointing. » The fact is, it is out of date. Pigott and Parnell have been called before a higher tribunal than the commission; and those who could reveal more secret history than LeCaron himself have good reason to hold their peace. By the way, ؟when is Pigott's « diary » to see the light? It was promised two years ago, and two prominent literary men were working it up. Those journalists who had been privileged to see portions of the manuscript promised astounding revelations. It is no easy matter, apparently, to construct another man's diary, even after he is dead. Trouble seems to be in store for the Major, as several of the people mentioned in his book have threatened him with actions for libel.

A legal decision in Holland has caused consternation among the editors of that country. A suit was recently brought in one of the inferior courts by a member of the Dutch Bicyclists' Union, who had written a two-column letter to a Rotterdam paper concerning the rights and wrongs of a dispute among Dutch wheelmen. The editor, after reading half a column, dropped the communication into the waste-basket. When the writer called for the manuscript he learned its fate from the editor, who explained the custom of the newspaper was to return no articles, and that letters from readers were not preserved. The bicyclist at once brought suit for £10, and got judgment for the amount. The editor appealed, but the highest court decided against him, although in consideration of about £40 costs which the editor must pay, it reduced the damages to 7s 6d. The Rotterdam editors are now considering the means of defence against the numerous class of volunteer contributors whose writings are unsuitable. Colonial editors may congratulate themselves that this Dutch decision is not likely to be accepted as a precedent in English courts.