THE EDITORS OF "THE PRESS."

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14052, 25 May 1911, Page 15

THE EDITORS OF "THE PRESS."

In referring to the four moji who have successively occupied tho position of Editor of "The Press." it, must h<? remembered that Mr FitzGerald, the. founder and proprietor of the paper, never actually edited it, though ho mas its controlling spirit. His fertile and active brain formed and inspired tho policy of "The Press." he wrote for it continuously during nearly the whole time that he was connecte-d •with it, and his strong personality dominated it, but from the outset ho was always assisted hy an editor, to whom lie oottld entrust the control and management of affaire. As regards the influence he exerted upon the paper, FitzGerald was, in his way, another John Delano, and in a larger sphere he m?ght have left as deep an impress upon the journalism of his day and of clays to come, as did the great editor of tho London '•'Times." PROFESSOR SALE. The first mention of the first editor of " The Press " that, research lias revealed is contained in a letter by FitzGerald, in which ho announces to a friend, "For editor we have got a Mr. Sale, a grand follow." Tho Air Sale thus referred to was a young Englishman, who a few years before, after being educated nfc Rugby, had taken first class honours in classics at Trinity College, Cambridge. After being eluded <i Fellow of Trinity and holding tho post of lecturer on classics, his health gavo way, and seeking to restore it ho came out to Canterbury, and for a month or so had boi?n managing a sheep station at Lake Coleridge.. It was a small community in those days; everybody knew everybody I olso, and FitzGerald, anxious to instil into tho new venture the high tone a:tul , culldro of the best * English journals, j secured the services of tho brilliant j young scholar. In. some reminiscences contributed to "Tho Press" on the occasion, of tho jubilee of the provinco its first Editor spokb with extreme modesty of his qualifications for his new post. "I myself was a newcomer, with no knowledge either of tho colony or tho province, and with no experionce whatever of newspaper work; my

editorship therefore was only nominal." In an article in this issue he adds, "I decided to confine myself to the duty of 'getting up' the paper and to writing on general subjects or on European events." Probably this is a too modest estimate of his work, at all events thero is a suggestion that he carried out moro important duties in his later remark that in tho occasional abqonco of Mr. FitzGerald it was to Mr Joseph Brittan or Dean Jacobs that he applied for information or advice. Mr Sale's connection with the paper lasted only six months. At the end of that time, holding, apparently, different views regarding gold-mining from those expressed in his contribution to this issuo, ho went off to the Otngo goldfields. A year or two later ha became provincial treasurer and receiver of land revenue for Canterbury, then for two years ho acted as commissioner and agent for Canterbury in charge of the West Coast goldfields until the separation of Westland from this province. Within about a year of that event he returned to England and entered"'"''Lincoln's Inn. '," but the year 1870 found him back again in Now Zealand, this time as Professor of Classics in Otago University, a position which for v time was combined with tho Chair, of English. He retired some four years ago, and is now enjoying a leisured retirement in England.