MISPRINT OF TREE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28541, 21 March 1958, Page 9

MISPRINT OF TREE

“ The Press ” Erred In Good Company

The printer of “The Press” who misprinted “free lovers” for tree lovers in a report last week of the formation of a Christchurch branch of the Men of the Trees, was in good company. The “Manchester Guardian” made the same mistake 27 years agoMr Richard St. Barbe Baker, the director of the Men of the Trees, told “The Press” that when he returned to Britain after his first visit to New Zealand he was asked to write an article forthe “Manchester Guardian.” A heading was added: “Richard St. Barbe Baker, founder of a society of tree lovers, has just returned from a world tour in the interest of forestry, and has contributed the following article”; but the printer substituted an “F” for the “T.” The edition went to Ireland and North Wales, but was corrected in later editions. “Punch” spotted it and came out with one of its paragraphs on “impending apologies.” During the next few days numerous letters arrived inquiring about the Men of the Trees, Mr. St. Barbe Baker said. Many were frOm old Cambridge friends he had not seen for years. One said: “I had no idea you had started anything so interesting as that. I must join your society right away.” Another begged to be “let in on the ground floor” apd made a life member. T “Great interest was created in the Men of the Trees by that simple printers’ slip,” Mr St. Barbe Baker said. “Perhaps the newly formed branch at Christchurch will be as strongly reinforced as was the Men of the Trees in England by your great contemporary.”