Building Up A Rich National Literature

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 38 (Supplement)

Building Up A Rich National Literature

X Land Of Publishers, 'Voracious Readers, Able Writers

IT is New Zealand’s proud boast that her standards, of intellectual attainment, education, literacy, are the highest in the world. No other country is such a nation of voracious readers of newspapers, magazines, books. No country so young, with so small a population, has so fine a literature of her own, or supports so large a printing and publishing industry. In consequence, no people in the world is. on the whole, so well informed.

Illiteracy is practically unknown in New Zealand. One or two old, old Maori men and women in lonely and remote villages, one or two white-headed children of the pioneers whose childhood and maturity were passed in backblocks settlements, one or two foreign migrants from more backward lands—apart from the wee children too small to go to kindergarten, you could count on your two ..hands, the New Zealanders unable to read or write.

Free, secular, compulsory and progressive education has raised, the average intellectual standard high. The man in the street, the farmer in the field, wharflabourer or factory hand, can converse brightly and intelligently on many subjects far removed from the range of his daily toil, and can take a real and valuable interest in the development and progress of his country.

In consequence, there is in New Zealand an almost unprecedented demand for informative literature. Libraries' are established in all towns, and in the suburbs of the cities. There are, in all, some 450 public libraries in New Zealand, ranging from small collections of only a few hundred volumes, to such fine modern libraries as those of Wellington, Auckland, ' Christchurch, Timaru and Dunedin, which compare .with the best of the sort in towns of similar popula- ; tion anywhere in England or America. Many small villages have their own libraries, while throughout the country commercial lending libraries and book clubs find keen support. Most municipal and public libraries are administered by local bodies, two main national libraries being the Alexander Turnbull Library, at Wellington, and the General Assembly Library, in the Parliament Buildings. Books From Abroad

Imports of books, papers and music total £450,000 a year, of which three-quarters is from the United Kingdom, the rest almost equally divided between America and Australia. Of the American quota, the greater part is composed of magazines, many of them backnumbers sold at ridiculously low prices, and consequently prejudicing sales of local products. Steps have recently been taken to curb the flood of pulpj magazines into the Dominion. In addition, £550,000 worth of newsprint is imported annually to feed the country’s own presses. The output of printed matter within the Dominion is £3,750,000 annually. Printing and publishing occupy some 8000 workers. It is one of tlie biggest factory industries in New Zealand. The 375 establishments include newspaper offices in almost every country township, and morning and evening metropolitan dailies in each of the four cities.

Not only is this one of tire largest, but also one of the oldest, secondary industries. It dates back 108 years, to when, in a native whare by the Bay of Islands, a patient missionary, laboriously setting up his type by hand, letter by letter, printed on a little hand-press a few verses of hymns roughly translated into the Maori tongue, and designed to -wean the cannibal from his barbarous ways. The whalers and beachcombers of. Kerikeri jeered at the Reverend William Yate and his young apprentice, William Smith, but he laid the foundation-stone of a great literary tradition. i . Five years after, in 1835, William Colenso established his famous mission press at the Bay of Islands. He printed the first English document published in the colony, Busby’s manifesto to the Baron de Thierry, as well as many thousands of pamphlets and actual books in Maori. ■ In April, 1840, the first newspaper, the “New Zealand Gazette,” was printed in a wooden shanty 20 feet square, and published at Britannia, which is now Pctone. ■ . .. From such rude beginnings has been built up the

great industry which, today, issues some 500,000 newspapers daily in different parts of the country, and has won a world-wide reputation for presenting the latest news in an attractive, concise, comprehensive, and literary manner, without sensation and without distortion.

Apart from the great, newspaper trade, book publishing is carried on. in a small way. There are a number of publishing firms in New Zealand which specialize in the production of works by New Zealand writers. Although their entire output comprises only a couple of dozen or so works yearly, the literary quality is high. Already New Zealand has built up a national literature in which. her origins, her scenery and contemporary life is accurately and vividly portrayed. Perhaps overmuch emphasis has been laid on her brief history; perhaps her authors have so far been a little too idyllic and high-flown. Be that as it may, their work possesses a freshness and originality of outlook worthy of this new land.

It is interesting to notice that of her 8000 workers, only 750 are literary men, journalists, authors. The rest arc technicians, compositors, printers, newsvendors, clerical, advertising and administrative staff. Yet, if only so few of her population ever attain the status of professional writers, the vast volume of support lent to annuals, juvenile and university publications, and periodicals encouraging the work of young and amateur writers, indicates that fully a third of her population makes some claim, at some phase of life, to literary endeavour. This view is confirmed by the large number of volumes of adolescent verse published for private circulation. Circulations Small

Publishing in the Dominion is naturally handicapped by the size of the population. A book that sells into three or four thousand copies in the Dominion can be regarded as a best seller. Costs of production are rather higher than elsewhere. Retailers in the Dominion make a high rate of profit. The author and publisher divide the small residue left over when the cost of production and of circulation have been deducted, and if the book is to sell at a popular price they will find very little left to divide. None the less, through the desire of authors to see their works in print and of publishers to associate themselves with outstanding work, the cream of the year’s literary effort usually finds its way on to the bookstalls.

A feature of New Zealand literature is the number and high literary standard of the periodicals and magazines published in profusion throughout the country. Many of these are pictorials, specializing in scenic photography. Many, of the daily papers also produce annual illustrating the scenic and sporting attractions of the Dominion. Recently the importation of “syndicated” secondhand articles and pictures from America and the United Kingdom has greatly limited the market for the work of New Zealand writers and cameramen, as such material undersells local effort. While it has not quite the same news interest to New Zealand readers as articles dealing with New Zealand subjects, this matter is usually of high quality and interest, and is consequently very acceptable to editors. The lot of the free-lance writer in New Zealand is hard, as space rates are poor, the market limited, and competition keen. As a result, many able writers

. ■ ' ’ ; . 1 . \ ! t i ■ i i migrate yearly to Australia; Where pfospects a|e brighter, payment for original .and outstanding work high, and a constant demand exists for novel and skil-fully-handled stories. It is an interesting.phenomenon that a very high percentage of the) newspaper add literary men of Australia are New Zealanders by birth, and usually by training. Another place where loch! journalism is in the' hands of New Zealdnders is the Straits Settlements. • i The quality and technical perfection of printed matter produced in the Dominion does credit to the ability of her craftsmen of the printing shops. Mok of the latest processes are carried out in the Dominion,, except for expensive luxury types of printing for which the commercial demand would be small. Newspaper Magic The most modern methods have been adopted in the New Zealand printing trades. A visit to a great modern newspaper office leaves the stranger bewilderdd and astonished at the great, amount of human and mechanical labour that is devoted to the, daily birth cf the paper, and the wonderful organization and technical skill that enables it to be produced in the time. Few people realize that in their daily paper there fs as much literary matter as is contained in a light novel. Every article is usually written on the afternoon dr evening preceding publication. It is read and reread to check its accuracy and grammar. Every letter is set by the linotype operators, on machines like gigantic typewriters. Most of the headings are\set up by hand, in the old-fashioned way, which still persists when dealing with the larger type-faces. The news stories, now cast in lead, are arranged to. form the final pattern of the page, and are stereotyped, to give a papiefmadie impress which can, in turn, be used tc> cast Hi cylindrical drum embossed with the original type; drum is machined to fit upon the presses, and the vast machines are set in motion. At one end the paper enters in endless bands peeling off great roller spools;; at the other the papers come out printed, trimmedj folded, all ready to be sold in the .streets. Forty thousand can be printed in an hour of two.

Your morning paper is the essence of modernity. It is fresher than your breakfast egg; it contains news of things that happened at the other side of the world, between your going to bed and your awakening. It is retailed to you for 2d., and yet there is in it more; than 2d. worth of paper and ink, and the observations' of writers whose work is worth fully 2d. a line, and news cabled from all the world over at a cost of more than 2d. a letter, and any amount of advice and information and entertainment thrown in for good value.