JOURNALS AND JOURNALISM

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 99, 28 April 1908, Page 2

JOURNALS AND JOURNALISM

At a meeting of the Philosophical Society at Palmerston North Mr E. D. Hoben delivered an interesting address on "Journals and Journalism" dealing with the mechanical, financial, literary, social and' scientific aspects of modern journalism. He compared the various great journals of the; world, and pointed out the reason vvhy some had gained a supremacy over others, tracing the factors that had been" mainly responsible for the cheapness of newspapers to-day and also the developments, that were threatening to do away with the cheap newspaper. He alluded to the: demand for sensational news, and' stated that a perusal of extracts from an ancient Pekin journal led him to the conclusion that the Chinese were almost as wicked as some people in Palmerston, as he had found it to be one of the characteristics of these people that they were continually sending in stories of wrong-doing to the newspapers which were very often quite incredible. The- press for a very considerable time was affected by the mechanical limitations of the papermaker and printing machines, from the days when the size of the paper was limited by the length of the papermaker's arm, and the size of the bed plate of the printing machine. Mr Hoben then dealt with the development of printing and type-setting machinery and pointed out what ,a large saving had been effected in the heavy labour, which was to some extent nullified by the failure of those working the machines to realise their full possibilities, and in consequence they were not getting out of them all that they were capable of doing. This necessitated two machines being used where one should suffice,*or three where two should do, and applied to both type-casting and type-setting machines as far as-New Zealand was concerned. A factor that had to be reckoned with was the threatened shortage of paper. When science revealed, the fact that- it was possible to pass forest trees through pulp machines and turn out almost indefinite lengths of printing paper it was thought that the forests of Norway and Finland would be able to supply the world's press. But the forests of Norway had been exhausted , o a large extent arid those of Finland had not pro-red as inexhaustible as was anticipated. From every source in the world supplies had been brought into requisition, until to-day there was a danger of a paper famine in the near future. America was once thought to have inexhaustible forests, but now she had entered upon a scheme for the conservation of her forests in order to meet the demands of her newspapers, apart altogether from the demands for timber. Canada was doing the same, while Norway, Finland, France, Germany and India were all replanting, not only soft woods for pulp but also hard woods for timber. In the meantime the papar-makers were^ seeking a substitute for wood, and it had recently been proposed that bagasse, the refuse from the sugar cane, should be utilised. It had also, been suggested that swamp plants other than flax should be used, which were at present beine wasted. It had also been proposed to try to use the forests in Nelson and the West Coast for the manufacture of paper. Mr Hoben then mentioned how the newspapers had been improved from time to timo. People who were in the habit of saying that there was nothing

in the paper hau iv, iJua of the amount of work entaii&d in its production. Mr Hoben slzo-wud how news collecting agencies were -at work throughout the worldl. There v/ere reporcsrs everywhere—with Admiral Jilvans' fleet, at the great 'railway disaster in Victoria; in. all the capitals ■Csl the. world—who were continually flashing messages by msans- of cuble, etc., to the various new.spiipor ojiices throughout the world, and whatever might be happening while the speaker was delivering his address would be promptly cabled to- his office till it baeanio a little whispering gallery of the world's activities. He spoke of the great confidence placed in pressmen by the leaders of the world and the men of large, intelligence. It wit; only the men of small minds, who refused to trust. The pressmen were invariably trustworthy and ut no time ! had it come to the speaker's novice that a pressman had betrayed the trust reposed in him, even though he [ would perhaps have been a great financial gainer by doing so. In fact tho modern editor was a kind of. father confessor in secular affairs. j Many people seemed to have ■ the idea I that tha staff of a newspaper had noi thing to do but answer questions over the telephone and give away valuable information that had been very diffii cult to procure and was wanted for the nest morning's paper. He had also noticed that people thought that they could dictate to the editor as to what he should put in his paper. i and what he should leave out, and vary often when they had got into difficulties of some description wanted their names left out. They also at times dictated to him as to how he should run his staff, forgetting probably that he was the best judge of that. Mr Hoben also mentioned that the difficulty in putting out a paper was not in getting sufficient material to fill it up, but in selecting from, the mass of material that pours in such as would be suitable and most interesting. A vote of thanks to Mr Hoben terminated the proceedings.