CURIOSITIES OF THE PRESS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 49, 30 November 1909, Page 3

CURIOSITIES OF THE PRESS.

NEWSPAPERS OF THE WORLD. Few of us, when we take up our paper at the breakfast table, know the number of papers published daily in the world, or of the many and singular languages in which some of them are printed (says an English paper). Of course the preponderance of such publications appear in the English language. Tile entire number published ail over t'ne world in every language and dialect is between 5500 and 6000. (Germany publishes 900 odd dailies, one oi which, the 'Post Zeitung,' of Frankfort, is'the oldest newspaper in Europe. Great Britain prints only about 250 daily papers. Paris prints about 150 different dailies —more than the combined number printed in the cities of Loudon, New York, Philadelphia and Boston combined; and it boasts too the daily with the largest circulation in the world, 'Le Petit Journal.' The papers published in the native dialects of India are circulated among and read by more people than any other dailies on the globe—a single paper, it is said, being circulated from house to house through the entire village, and read until it is completely worn out. Six papers form the entire collection of Persian periodicals—-one printed in Syriac and five in the native vernacular. Until lately none of these Persian papers were printed from type, but were engraved. The island oi Borneo Ixiasts a paper printed in English, called tho 'Sarawak Gazette,' siae only Sin by 13in, but which was first issued in August, 1807.

Until a few years ago tho newspaper; of Iceland were supposed to be prince',! "furthest north." But now thero is a publication called the 'Escuimo Bulletin,' printed within the Arctic Circle. True, it is only issued once a year, but it is a very "newsy" sheet and is published at a missionary school. It is up to date too, its editorial column claiming the largest circulation in tin Arctic! It has devoted to "local happenings," "rural notes," "society and fashion," "marriage notices," etc. China, with all its vast population, toasts not quite two dozen daily papers, but- among them are tho two oldest in the world. The 'Kin Pair used to be considered by Europeans the oldest paper, but it has been issued a mere thousand years. The 'Tsing Pao,' or 'Pekin News,' was first published 500 years before the Norman Conquest, and has been issued without intermission for nearlv MOO vears. The

'Tsing Puo' has the appearance of n yellow-backed magazine, of 24 octavr; columns, consisting of seven "characters." Two editions are published—an edition do luxe for the Court and the upper classes, at a cost of 24 cents a month, and an edition inferior in paper and printing costing 16 cents a month. It has a circulation of about 10,000, and is really the 'Times' oi China, chronicling the movements of the Emperor and of the Court, and printing the Ministerial reports. It is. nrobablv the most exact newspaper in tho_ world; the punishment for au error in printing was, until recently at least, instant death !

Austria claims newspapers printed ir. greater number of languages than any other country. They comprise German, Italian, French, Masrvar, or Hungarian. Greek, Latin, Peb'sh, Servian, Slavic, and Hebrew. The most remarkable of them all is the 'Acta Compaction is Li tern turn Fniversatum,' being a semi-monthly of comliarafive literature, with contributions from all over the world in many tongues.