Fifty-Six Years Of Night Work For Newspapers

Press, Volume C, Issue 29554, 1 July 1961, Page 15

Fifty-Six Years Of Night Work For Newspapers

Fifty-six years of night work ended yesterday morning when Mr P. W. P- Jones finished work at ‘'The Press.” where he had been on the publishing staff for about 25 years. All Mr Jones’s working life has been spent in newspapers. and for practically &e whole time he has been on toe publishing staffs, with his work starting about midnight.

Even before he began work, Mr Joni's had an association with the publishing side of newspapers. As a boy of 11 he delivered the "New Zealand Times” in Wellington, and later took on a boy’s round of the "Evening Post” in addition He recalls that he delivered a paper to the Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V, when he was staying at Government House in Wellington in 1901. After leaving school in 1905 be joined the staff of the "New Zealand Times” as office boy to the editor, who was the father of Mr P. H. N. Freeth, later edito: of “The Press.” “Don’t you like office work?” Mr Freeth. sen., asked. "What would you like to do?” Young Percy Jones said he would like to go into the engineering side of the newspaper, but a few weeks of cracking coke cured him of this, and he transferred to the publishing side

Later, Mr Jones worked with the “Dominion" in Wellington, and was the first boy to sell newspapers on the Wairarapa express, travelling to the Rimutaka summit. He also worked for the “New Zealand Herald” in Auckland

before coming to "The Press.”

While modern machinery had taken its place in toe production of newspapers and cars had replaced bicycles, the work of the publishing staff had remained much the

same. Mr Jones said yesterday. although papers had become larger and machinery had taken over the task of folding. The only interruption to Mr Jones's working life was in the First World War, when he sailed with the Main Body. He returned to New Zealand in 1916, and was on the instructional staff at Featherston Camp until the end of the war.