"THE DOMINION."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 312, 26 September 1908, Page 6

"THE DOMINION."

tasking the ways of nationhood with greater facility, strengthened, by a renewed confidence- for the. future in keeping with; the higher, dignity which her new title confers. When the change was mooted there were taany who i resented the alteration in the designation, of, the country; who almost suggested; that to. change "the Colony of New Zealand" to " the ' Dominion. of New Zealand" was a gratuitous insult to the gallant' pioneers of half a century ago who assisted, so materially under ..adverse conditions...to ' found, this island 'country—the England of the 'southern seas: . That feeling .was,/ no. doubt/ 'laudable'in" one respect — that of doingjhonour - too those who -' blazed the track'~but the time rinevitably arrives; wreathe ;infant the sbhOolboy of the shining face. And: so a", country ages. : It would be incongruous to i call the-United States of America a colony if' it' Tvere.- still a portion of his Majesty's dominions,"and it would be;equally out of ' •place : to label, " Our Lady of the Snows the Colony of Canada. ' Neither in area nor in population can New Zealand expect to draw up; to those ■ great ; countries, but we are citizens .of 1 £i country of great natural , resources and an unequalled climate, inhabited by a; people who. have : been inoculated with the germ 'of progress—a restive, strenuous,' healthily-discontented-people who try to do better • to-day than they did, yesterday. : Unquestionably New Zealand has done well as a colony—it is the desire-of all that she may as a Domonion do . better—much better I (The Million Year, ■ That the country wants population few will deny—that it'is gradually getting it by natural and artificial means no one who keeps an eye. on the ; deep-sea shipping (or the newspapers) will attempt to refute. "Dominion Year" will.'be known in future,as the year in which New Zealand achieved a million population—the, million year. The .fact was announced a few weeks ago by the Regis-trar-General, and though little was' made of it,. the advent of the seventh, figure iri\ our population statistics' must be accounted a milestone _on the road.v ..What will i the, morrow.bring?' A message published within' the last 1 week stated that the third-class ac-

oommodation. on. 'the New Zealand steamers was quite inadequate , for the number of passengers offering. Assuredly they aro coming. Whether it .is that Canada and the United States are making the "selection" of immigrants more severe, or that-it is the distressful times that have been experienced in the United Kingdom during the, past year that is turning heads this way, in addition to the many natural attractions of the country, cannot bo definitely stated. It is probablcr : that the " liner-loads 'of English

consist of a limited number of marketable lines of prim-, ary products at the meroy of the de-: inand in London, it will be perceived that the ice .we stand on is not so thick as we would like to believe. Following on the J great American,; fig nancial depression . came distressful r times in England. (/ The bottom ■ dropped out of the m flax market, neces- <h sitating the closing }>. iowri of many| mills-. '• '•in !the Dominion,'',' and wool: went/ •" lower and lower. Growers . who had refused fair prices offered at, local sales found to !■ their dismay that only twothirds of that price was obtained after the freight was- paid in >London. Sir' Joseph TVard stated that New Zealand would • not feel a ripple of the great tidal wave that swamped. - 'financial America, but . Sir Joseph, delightful optimist as- he always is, ■ reckoned without the recoil, or'back-kick. The effect of that kick is being felt by pro ducers of primary products every English mail day, when the shortages on bank advances are pressed home. 'It is well that the effect of the depressed mar-' ket at Home has

caused the banks to apply the pruning knife to overdrafts, 1 ' and financial institutions to view with a "downy" eye securities which, a couple of years ago, .were glowingly gilt-edged. Wellington, in common with the rest of the country, has not enjoyed

itself so much since it has been tho capital city of the Dominion . as it did when merely the chief town of the coloriy. Suburban property, which had boen booming along merrily, is still good for tho individual settlor who has not undertaken a "boom" burden, but the lot of him who has is not enviable. There is little buying or selling beyond the city's bounds, and the real estate market within has been classified as "quiet" by tho agents during tho whole of tno year tho country has

and the last ounce of our blood the invasion of any Eastern horde which, mixed with our people, would leave us a degenerate race J. of half-breeds; maintain as far as. possible the scales of justice between master and man in the wide field

of our industrialism. So shape our laws and publio opinion as to clcvatb our regard for honest manual labour, and increase.tho self-respect of every worker. Create by every proper means a widespread social sentiment beforo. which idleness and wasteful cxtravaganco will shrink away ashamed —and by tlicso means achieve that ideal of a true democracy wherein no man will bo a sponger, but each will at least pull his owu woight."-

SOMETHING ABOUT OURSELVES. WHAT THE YEAR HAS BROUCHT F °RTH. A SUCCESSFUL ESTABLISHMENT. To-day. the first anniversary of the Dominion of Now Zealand, is also the first anniversary of The Dominion. A year ago this newspaper was launched, and its position to-day in the world_ of .journalism has fully justified the enterprise of its promoters. The Dominion introduced several new features into daily journalism in Wellington. Tho adoption of some of them by other local papers merely proves that emulation is a very obvious indication of approval. "The Dominion" Premises. At this time last year The Dominion was being written in the late Mr. John Plimmer's Ark, opposite the; Sir George Grey Oak,

then, as now, decked in the tender green of budding time. The printing-house had spread itself ruthlessly over the sweet old garden below,, and the paper was being published from temporary premises in Willis Street. This has been changed. On the site of the ancient, AVillow Bank Boarding-house, which at one time pleasantly overlooked the waters of the harbour, since pushed out by the Lambton Quay reclamation, has arisen a modern three-story structure in brick, the ground floor of which is on a level • with Lambton Quay in Dominion Avenue (the public right-of-way between Barrett's Hotel and the Exchange Buildings). This is the present home of The Dominion. The building, which has a frontage of 53 feet by a depth of 142 feet, connects on the first floor with the basement of the printing-house, aud on the second, floor with the printing-house itself, that method of'construction having been necossary on account of the formation of the ground. The ground floor of the main building contains the " ffont," or commercial, office and/publishing department. On the first floor, is a fine suite of offices for the board, manager, accountant, canvassers, typists, and the commercial and agricultural editors. Rising yet another flight one reaches the literary department, where there aro large welllighted apartments for the editor, the assistant editor, _ the sub-editors, • lady editor ("Dominica"), chief -of - staff, and reporters. There is also a reference library and file-room handily located. For comfort and convenience these offices form a model literary department. The printing-house flanks nearly the whole of one side of Dominion Avenue (or what is better known as Pliinmer's Steps), and consists of a large, splendidly-lit apartment, with the " stereo." plant at one end, the linotypes at the other, and the bulks and trolly-stones (on which the formes are made up) in the centre. Through an archway at the northern end is the power and printing-machine-room, standing on a solid concrete floor. Off the machino-room is the damping machinery room, from which there is a light railway connection with the bulk storo, which fronts Boulcott Street, a • building (62ft. x 39ft. 6in.) of brick, built strong enough to carry an additional three storeys when that necessity-arises. The Dominion buildings altogether cover nearly 10,000 square feet of country in the very heart of Wellington. The Dominion buildings were designed by Messrs. Crichton and M'Kay, and were erected by Messrs Donald M'Lean and Co. ■

The air of aged decay has been removed from Plimmer's Steps, which under an agreement with the City Corporation havo been improved out of all recognition. Maseivo brick and concrete walls now flank the neatly-paved stops that form a portion of that busy right-of-way between Lambton Quay and Boulcott Street. The accompanying pictures- givo an indication of the improvements cffccted. "The Dominion's" Plant. A hallway leads conveniently from the literary pcoplo's quarters ' through fireproof doors to tho printing-house, under whoso broad roof is located tho mechanical slant, oa wliioh so much depend* in the

tho typewriter), and when a line has been completed it is sent away automatically' into the bowels of the machine to be cast ipto a solid line, in which form it emerges hot to the touch, and' as white as a new shilling.' In order that these, lines may he

cast in tho internals ■ of the - machino a melting-pot is included as part of tho paraphernalia. It will givo an idea of tho casting-work tho "linos" got through wlion it is stated that cncli machine absorbs an averago of about 801b. of metal per night— 9601b. altogether. After tho lines leave the machine they aro stacked on _ "galleys," proofs aro "pulled," read and revised by tho reading staff, and after errors aro rectified (and tbat moans much work, as oach mistake noooasitatoa tho sotting and casting of

spun' off several million copies of The Dominion, without the slightest sign of trouble. , Its mechanical • perfections , will appeal to anyone with an eye for intricate ■ machinery.. .The picture fails to fully convey this, simply because it does not exhibit the machinery in action—when the 40-inch ,ribbons- of ', paper from whirling reels ; behind race through, under, and over a maze ,of rollers, to emerge at the. opposite end, where they are caught between

; the folding • rollers, cut, folded,' and deposited in a neat stack—the complete newspaper; At the business end of the machine is a numbering apparatus, j which tolls off the ■ number printed.' Each reel of paper contains about 3} miles of paper, and. every morning some eighteen miles of Dominions go out to the waiting world.'- Taking the average circulation of -the paper throughout the first : year of its exist- , enco. this means that the length of . paper used so far is approximately be- ' tweea 5000 and 6000 miles, or about live times the distance between Wellington and Sydney. The " Foster " can print copies of The Dominion at the rate of 24,000 per. hour. The motive power is provided by direct-coupled electric motors, and there is also a 35-horse-powor gas engine, which can he called upon should any. stoppage take* place in the supply of electric current. Near the delivery end of the machine is a shoot, down which the

; bundles of papers are sent to the publishing department, two storeys below. Tho publisher's work, is about the most rushful on earth. Ho has to catch tho early trains, see that tho suburban agonts' bundles aro Bafely sent out per motor cars and express, and tho eager army of runners havo also to bo served. How well served they are let tho furthest suburbanite relate. The business of a newspaper is never done ■ —something ia always happening somewhere

settlement at Pipi,tea, ■ and another ■at To Aro. All Thorndon. Flat (as we. used to call it in the olden days), Te' Aro Flat, and what is now Newtown, were covered with' manuka flax ; and fern. The hills from the Hotel Cecil' to Manners Street were covered with forest; the tide came right up to the base of these hills, so that it was only possible to walk round at low tide. The Basm Reserve was a deep, soft swamp, and there horses and cattle were bogged to death by the : score. Where Cuba, Taranaki, and Tory Streets are now was our racecourse for several years. The hills round Vogeltown, and as far as Terawhiti, were a thick forest. ; Kilbirnie.and Miramar .were covered with all sorts of native shrubs. There w6re only a very few settlers' dwellings in Wellington at that time, and .'they were, composed'mainly of raupo whares; wooden buildings were very scarce and very smallat- that, Shipping in the Early Days. • All the ships used to lie.at'anchor.,where is now the reclamation'and so many beautiful buildings. 'The cargo was taken ; from the ships in small boats and punts, and landed on , the beach. It will bo easily understood how slow the progress was in discharging a ship. Later on, when there was a'big trade carried on between Sydney, Twofold Bay, and Wellington with stock, the sheep were landed in punts built for the purpose; and horses and cattlo were slung overboard, their heads turned towards the snore, and they generally came out all right. ' Sometimes a horse or a cow would head out to sea, and it was then an exciting experience for the. men in the boats to:turn' them towards the shore. . Wo thought it a very short time if we got a reply to English letters in twelve montM, and the postage then was one shilling. Disastrous Fire. The first big fire, that Wellington experienced was at the end of !42, when nearly all the buildings were as they 'were principally of thatch, both sides''.ana roof, and there was a. high, north-west gale blowing. .Nearly, everyone's belongings were lost. After the fire nearly all the principal buildings wore erected in brick. When .we had our first great earthquake in '45 \everytking in brick came or was very seriously injured; after the principal quake the earth trembled quite visibly for six weeks.; Then the town'was built up with..wood, and continued to be so until recent years. •

Tho Hutt. Tho first settlors wero obliged to fossick .their way tho best way they, could round tho' base of the hills from Wellington to Petone; and all tho traffic for several years between the Hutt and Wellington was by boat. ■My father startod tho first boat'from'the Hutt to 'Wellington, and many other settlors followed his example. * .. Later on all tho provincial district "of Wellington suffered very seriously from tho Na-