The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1911. ANOTHER MILESTONE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15511, 11 January 1911, Page 8

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1911. ANOTHER MILESTONE.

People do not count n man’s years until lie has nothing else left to count, and those who tread the devious ways of journalism aro glad enough to have the same test applied to tho newspapers with whieh they are associated. The fact that the “Lyttelton Times” is celobrating its sixtieth birthday today will cause no social or political upheaval, for the simple reason that it has had a birthday every day for tho last sixty years. Ever since it was “ one times one ” it has been engaged in a daily process of multiplication, adding to its circulation, increasing its size, enlarging its opportunities and reflecting, as no public institution other than a newspaper can, tho prosperity and the growth of the community for which it caters. No newspaper can afford to grow old, and the very expression would be a. contradiction in terms. This morning’s paper springs rejuvenated from tho ashes of yesterday’s, and it is the issue of January 11, 1911, and not the fifteen thousand five hundred and eleventh publication, so far as its readers aro concerned. Most of those who were associated with tho earlier fortunes of tho paper have left us, and there were not a few among them whose names aro widely known in politics and commerce, quite apart from their connection with journalism, but they left behind them traditions which those who have followed them have loved to maintain. There are still among us, however, many w ho can remember tho modest beginnings of the “Lyttelton Times,” and who, knowing something of its history, will appreciate the labour that has boon spent in winning it through storm and stress to its present xiosition of solid independence. Three scoro of years are merely

an incident in the lives of many newspapers of the Old World, but there are very few that can claim the distinction of having begun life simultaneously with the community with which they are identified. Max O’Rell hold that a country could always bo judged by its newspapers, and he professed a very high opinion of New Zealand. The philosophy is. of course, a very general one, but it embodies more than a germ of reason. The newspapers, after all, heterodox though it may seem, are really made by the people. The measure of public support, that has been accorded to the "Lyttelton Times” during sixty long years has been responsible for its present position, and has encouraged its proprietors in their efforts to win for the paper a high place in colonial journalism. How far they have succeeded it is for the public to judge, and the public have given their verdict with an emphasis which cveryono connected with the work can appreciate. The newspaper lias been described as “the joy of every Englishman,” and in New Zealand we know that it is indispensable to every Irishman and every Scotchman. It has become, even to tho extent of a judicial ruling, a domestic necessity, and it is the tion of this fact that makes our old years young.