"LATEST EDITION!"

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1915, Page 15

"LATEST EDITION!"

HOW THE PAPERS ARE DISTRIBUTED A GLIMPSE AT THE PUBLISHING ROOM The afternoon has not very far advanced when the rumble of the presses in the machine-roon^ is_ heard _ all over the building, and. coincident with their rattle, is a scene of animation and bustle in the publishing-room, the last department through which the paper passes before it reaches the expectant public outside. At 3 o'clock, half an hour before the first edition is ready for the street, the news-vendors commence to

gather, and they are a heterogeneous lot. For the most part they are lads well over the age of ten years, but there is also a good sprinkling of adults, including two or three female "runners." With such a collection of "small fry," keen and excitable, anything like silence is impossible, and always there is a ceaseless chatter, spmetimes intermixed with the retort discourteous. Occasionally there is an argument among some of the more irrepressible ones, but as soon as the first batch of papers has been thrown out by the machines there is little time ior the exchange of pleasantries in the keen competition to be first in the street with the "latest edition." As fast as the vendors can be served by the publisher they disappear one by one into the thoroughfares, where their wares are eagerly snapped up by the man in the street. The process is repeated half an hour later, when the "extra" is ready for circulation, and on. Saturday evenings when the Sports Edition is in season the band of news-dis-tributors is always on hand ready for duty. In their thousands the papers are distributed, deft hands counting them out in small or large numbers, according to requirements. A modest dozen or two is all that is required in some instances, but mostly the news-sheets are handed out in far larger quantities. The exact number, of course, depends on the "stand" or "round" which the individual "runner" has. The small boy who drifts along the street on a roving mission has his busy and slack days, according to the volume of trade, but those sellers in a larger way of business who stand at busy corners have a steadier trade, and always acquire a more or less regular "clientele." Most of the seller* are independent "tradesmen," whose remuneration depends entirely on their own efforts. But there are some who are not "free lances." They are the "runners" who work on a weekly wage for a head newsvendor, whose "round" is large enough to warrant the employ, ment of a number of " understrappers.' To all parts of the city and suburbs and along the railway routes to the neighbouring towns the papers penetrate. Hundreds upon hundreds of bundles are conveyed to the rail by express wagons, and trams play a valuable part in the distribution of the papers in. the suburbs. Trains must be caught, and it is this factor that calls for the publication of the paper right on the stroke of time. There aw Veterans in the ranks of th« newsvendors. For_ over a score of years, hail, rain, or shine, has one of The Post "runners" handed out newspapers to the community at large, and , others have also been in the service for many years. A. fp.atur© which strikes the visitor to Wellington from other patfts of the Dominion is the presence of female news-sellers. In Auckland ther* are none, and only in very recent times has one established herself in Christchurch. In former years, when ghi newsvendors were permitted to sell papers in this city, there was much more of the female element in evidence, but they are now done away with altogether. The small boy element is also discouraged, and no lad under ten years of age is supplied with papers. There are instances, however^ in which the young brother lends a helping hand to the older boy in delivering his papers. Altogether there are probably between 700 and 800 lads alone engaged daily in the distribution of The Post. When it is considered that almost every dwelling in Wellington and suburbs is supplied with the journal, this large > number of. runners is necessary in the interests of expedition and accounts for the early aud simultaneous delivery of the paper. As for the small hoy seller, he is generally a transient quantity. To-day he is on the street busily plying his calling, and tomorrow he is out of the business. Every week sees a change of faces in the publishing room, and a» th& "casuals" drop out there are always many willing and anxious to take their places,