THE MANAGER'S RECOLLECTIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12398, 11 January 1901, Page 3

THE MANAGER'S RECOLLECTIONS.

The manager of the “Lyttelton Times Company is specially qualified, by his fDongj and intimate acquaintance with the busi J ness he now controls, to speak cf the early struggles and later triumphs of the newspaper which' celebrates its jubilee to-day. He has watched the progress of the “Times” almost from its birth, through its sturdy youth, down to its present proud position, and can tell, of many interesting/ incidents in ‘its career. It was with, thesd facts firmly impressed upon bis mind that a member cf the editorial staff approached Mr Wilkin and suggested that he might, on an occasion of this sort, allow some of his experiences to appear in print. Like most newspaper men, he professed the greatest dislike to being interviewed, but after some persuasion he consented! to spare a few minutes irour Ids pressing -dixtijes to recall what he could of the “ancient (history ” of, the, paper. From this point; the reporter had only to do his best to keep pace with the manager’s flow, of reminiscences. ■ ,

“You want me to begin at the very beginning. Well, the beginning of my connection with the ‘ Times ’ was prosaic enough. I was running about Lyttelton! one fine morning in the summer of 1857,; amusing myself as boys will, when a messenger came to tell .me that I was Wanted at ‘ the paper office.’ I didn’t lose any* time in getting there—l was curious M see the inside of the place —amd) I soonl found myself installed as a handy boy.’ The printing; appliances in those dayS wore, as you may imagine, pretty primitive, and , though the circulation' of the paper was only 600 or 700, and it was only published twice a week, all bands were kept busy for twelve or thirteen hours a day. ■ _ ■ “ Mr Crosbie Wait! was the proprietor and editor at this time, and the whole establishment was very proud cf his ability as a writer and influence as a politician* Ho had' not then risen to the, height of his subsequent 'fame, , but he was . veiy popula/ with the townspeople and his employees. I remember that, even as a small boy, I felt that I was standing in the reflected glory of a great man. Mr Brad- , well was the, manager oind! .H. FBaker the pressman, and there were five or six other hands, who. all found! plenty to d'O. , “Those were good old days, at any rate for boys like me. .. Perhaps .they were hot quite so enjoyable for the people who/ had to find the money and material for carrying on the business. That thought occurred to me somewhat later in life, when I began to have little responsibilities of my own.’ Neither paper nor money was very plentiful in the later fifties. .Sometimes the printer was driven nearly to his wits’ end to find suitable baper of any kind. I have a few old copies of the ‘Times’ by me now, some of them printed on tea-paper and. others on blue foolscap. It would 1 rather startle the public now-a-days if we brought out a variegated! issue of that sorb; but the early settlers were not fastidious. They took it all in good part •so long as the manager didn’t worry them too much about the payment cf their accounts.

“ The man who put the paper on its legs, financially, I mean, was Mr William Reeves. He joined Mr Ward.’ about 1860, I think, ■ and 1 the first thiiing he ■ did was to pay up all the arrears of wages. From that day to this no man employed about the establishment has left his work at the end of the week without taking his pay in his pocket, unless he preferred to leave it with the cashier.

“ No, I can’t tell you very much about the politics of the paper in those days. But I recollect that Mr Ward was far too progressive fox' some of the subscribers to the paper, and that, they predicted that he was hurrying the province and the colony to destruction. It is curious that this sort of • thing has been sard about everyone cf his successors. Of -course, it .means that the ‘ Lyttelton Times ’ lias led the way in reforms’ that have nob beea ■altogether acceptable to'’the timid! members if the community. -Mr W T a.rd' was terribly in earnest about his politics, proclaiming them without tie ’ slightest regard bo the commercial interests of his paper, and 1 am this, too, he‘has been imitated-by all Ms .successors. Fortunately, freon a managerial point of view, they have always, m the .main, been, on the right side, and! -fhf success of their proposals! has •usually removed the irritation caused by their publication.

"But I am .wandering away from-the history of the paper. It was in 1862 that tiie plant was .removed from Lyttelton to Christchurch. A branch office had been established in Christchurch before this, but the trend of business was towards the plains, and the paper had to follow. Previously, a messenger rode over from Christchurch to Lyttelton with ‘copy’ and advertisements in the evening and returned next morning wth the papers. By this time I had been promoted to the publishing department, and I have a very lively recollection of the labour involved' in preparing the parcels for the journey over the bridle track. We brought the plant round by the zig-zag and'Sumner Road in six or seven drays, and created quit® a sensation as we drew up at the small building prepared for its reception on tire site now occupied by the splendid’ offices of the company. “ One of the drays was reserved for the staff, which had now groyn to ten or a dozen men, and we mad© quite a cheerful party. I can account for only three of the members now—Mr George Tombs, of

Burrell, the first apprentice to tie printing trade .in Canterbury,,, and! myself—but there may .be, others* still,’ liriug'., of. wham I have lost sight. I the majsdrenfVe Fxbmr the tap storey of -our 'new office, , wMeh; an budding', wo could see all over ■ tie town, and almost count the people in the streets.” “Tli- removal i. ta- Christchurch,. marked tie commencement ’m tsje v miode(rn) ‘ history of the papery,, It. has .gone on steadily ■improving its 1- appearance and •increasing :ita circuiiati'Onj ; until. it now occupies, as everyone knows, a position in tie very fQrefront ofr'crjnTiiia.l journalism. Of course it 'has, had s ySfe' ,, feriials/i'ts pathV'l l ® 3 sometimes -beeni a thorny onb, but' it,.has always beenfinspired by high-hopes and high aspirations, and now. it has-, reached a place where, if acfcnallljj!'. oea/sed jfrom troubling, it can, .at .most, only inspire s’the management to greater efforts and 1 • greater ” achfevciiißn’te. ”