IN THE BEGINNING

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19285, 14 April 1928, Page 13

IN THE BEGINNING

[By A. Wolseuct Russell.]

CANTERBURY IN THE 'FIFTIES. (srECTiixT wbittm job thb #bbsj.)

V.—JOURNALISM. Mr Mencken is kind eqough to keep reminding us that in America there is still at least in the lessor country rags a good deal of the joyously florid invective, the purple patches of diatribe against one's opponents, that Dickens and so many others have satirised. And in New Zealand too the country papers once revelled in wordy personal abuse and insinuation, so one is told. However, the local newspapers of the 'fifties seem to have possessed considerably more dignity even in those days, when a country editor had usually to keep a pistol on his desk. But, though we find little descriptive and pictorial abuse, one finds many quaint examples of a lusty naivete which performed feats of journalism that would make us gape in our modern papers. Once the settlement was under way, and whenever there was a paucity of outside news, the papers spread themselves. Even in controversy they were polite, however. Listen to this reconciliation :

"We have a delicate compliment to pay our contemporary for his playful sally of Thursday. We heartily _ appreciate the playfulness of the satire and testify willingly to the. greater effect of this style than the other. Above all we are captivated witli this evident remembranoe of old jokes, and for this alone could forgive without forgetting."

When the Home mail came in, the editorial leader was often squeezed completely out, as, presumably, that part of the paper which could most easily be spared. Once, too, some editor must have racked his brains temporarily to bits, for we have tho following effort in placo of the leading article, purporting to be the work of the printer's devil: "Not wordy diatribes on human orime Noi Party politics corrupt and wild, Nor maudlin sentiment, nor twaddle mild As milk and water, and as muddy too; Such stuff wo hato as all our readers do — We are wanting something to move the heart, At once bright and fervent, pungent and smart." The last two lines might well be the cry ol' a popular modern Trust daily. Local events were very scantily reported, for no doubt everybody knew everything that happened. The following excuse has a racy flavour suggesting that the writer himself hart not recovered from thp bapquet he is speaking of: "Our reporter would have given tho speeohes on' this occasion if lie could have remembered them, and might have remembered them if he had been there, but this essential requisite for a report was wanting." I wonder, I wonder. This brazen frankness seems to suggest that possibly he did write things up sometimes without that "essential requisite." . . . Overseas news came in irregular batches, by the mail. Often, to fill in space, articles would be "lifted" from Australian or English papers; some of these are rather unlikely. Thus in 1857 a long and circumstantial account is given, as news, of a flight across the Mediterranean from France to Algiers, in a dirigible, where the vague phrase occurs "he . . . set the screw in motion." Who was making power-driven dirigibles in 1857 P But when wo find that this accourtt had been lifted from an Australian paper, which claims to have translated it from a Dutch translation of the French original . . . one sees possibilities of the story having crown. Or was Jules Verne pulling somebody's leg? For the worthy settlers of Christchurch and Lyttelton in those Rays, writing to the papers must have been one of the chief recreations. Letters to the editpr are even more long-wind-ed, more magniloquent, more facetious than thev are to-day, Degrees of politeness in the address were apparently observed. from the curt "Sir-—" to the amiable "My dear Mr Editor." Important controversies during this decade were those over the LytteltonChristchurcb road, the introduction of a steamship service, election politics, and many others. The* editpr wquld put in an occasional spoke or enter in heartily with a string of leaders; but onoe we read that "remarks will be delayed till, the matter is well ventilated," an admirable plan. But one can't rag our journalistic forbears; however ipildly, without remembering the extraordinary difficulties under which they flourisned —how one, indeed, as I have mentioned once before, was working three weeks after the First Four Ships arrived; and how much less scurrilous and "yellow" they really seem to have been compared with many others then and now.

way the schools would be notable for all sorts of things, except the straightout schooling (unromantic matters such as sums and spelling) for which they have been founded. Who pushed the silly script writing into the schools P Who imposed the messy microby plasticene ? Who prompted some of the stupid exercises for girls P One of these queer notions requires the girls to lie prone—a matter which was brought under the notice of the Minister for Education last week, not by a, deputation hostile to the nonsense, but by one which desired the exercise to be made less damaging to the girls' clothing. The exercising yard had not a suitable surface for the prostration, and the deputation pleaded for a wasting of a wad of taxpayers' money on a "'faldelalling" of the ground, The Minister remembering the Bad hollow sound of the Treasury box when he last tapped it, gave a piece of blunt, needed advice: "Cut out the exercises." New Zealand can do with plenty more of that line—"Cut it out."

One of New Zealand's enthusiasts lives for native birds—works for them day and night. It is his firm belief that unless the present Government anrt its successors through the centuries have a strong, sound native-bird policy the country will drift to rack and ruin. He contends that continuing production of butter, meat, and woo] must depend on the native birds. Here is the argument. Native forests .must be conserved in some cases and regenerated in others to regulate the flow of rainwater into rills and streams, ana so prevent land-slides and other havoc of the surface. Forests are the safeguard of pastures, and native-birtls, feeding on seeds and berries, are necessary for the propagation of native trees. "Save the birds, and you save the surface and save New Zealand" is practically the gospel of this fervent friend of the birds. He is doing some good, too.