NEWSPAPER HISTORY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 174, 20 April 1931, Page 9

NEWSPAPER HISTORY

Celebration of Centenary ‘SYDNEY MORNING HERALD’ (Rec. April 19, 8 p.m.) Sydney, April 19. The “Sydney Morning Herald” marked its centenary yesterday morning with a sixty-eight-page newspaper reviewing the early history and progress of this journal and the State. A facsimile of the first copy, “The Sydney Herald,” of April 18, 1831, which was inset, contained some quaint advertisements and news items. Striking photographs of four generations of the Fairfax proprietary, together with pictures and woodcuts of coaching and bushranging days, primitive methods of travel of early settlement, local gatherings, the opening of the first railways, accompanied by pen pictures of the growth of commerce and industry, in addition to a magnificent illustration of the almost completed harbour bridge, make the centenary issue, of which 450,000 copies have been printed, a noteworthy contribution to Australian journalism. The newspaper is publishing the text of a sheaf of congratulatory letters which include messages from New Zealand, Australian and London newspaper managers and editors and prominent people throughout the Empire, and the Prime Ministers Of New Zealand and Australia. A special message of greeting has been received from the King. DOMINION MESSAGE Press Association’s Wishes The following message has been sent to the “Sydney Morning Herald” by the chairman of the New Zealand Press Association, Mr. A. M. Burns:—“l have much pleasure, on behalf of the United Press Association of New Zealand, in conveying the hearty congratulations of the members of that organisation to the “Sydney Morning Herald” on the attainment of its centenary. “The occasion is one of great interest Io the newspaper world, in which the “Sydney Morning Herald” justly occupies a highly-distinguished place. Its development from the modest sheet of 1831 to the influential Newspaper of 1931, has been one of the outstanding achievements of modern journalism. ‘‘The United Press Association of New Zealand has been pleasantly associated with the “Sydney Morning Herald” for many years, and will always be interested in the expansion, of its influence and growth in the best attributes of a national and Empire newspaper.”