NEWSPAPER PROGRESS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 6, 6 December 1930, Page 2

NEWSPAPER PROGRESS

THE “MANAWATU STANDARD’S” JUBILEE.

The following is culled from Thursday’s issue of the Wairarap'a Daily News: —

The “Manawatu Evening Standard” affords a striking illustration of the way in which a well conducted newspaper reflects the enterprise and progress of the district in which it is published and circulated. It also demonstrates how a newspaper can be developed and extended by tlie support it receives from the people it serves. The ‘‘Standard”, was established on November 29, 1880, and celebrated its Jubilee last week. Mr Alexander AlcAlinn, a fine journalist and highly practical man, was its founder. It was the first daily newspaper between Wellington and Wanganui (as the Wairarapa Daily at Masterton, founded in 1878. was the first daily paper between Wellington and Napier). When the “Standard” was commenced, the population of Palmerston North was about a thousand, and it was a rather scattered village. It has recently been elevated to the status of a citv, well laid out, with fine buildings, both public and private, good streets and a population of over twenty thousand, and the “Standard” has simultaneously arrived at its fiftieth birthday. The paper, of four small pages, was first printed, two pages at a time, on an old hand press which an expert could work at about three hundred an hour. It is now produced by a Hoe high speed rotary machine which prints and folds several thousands of sixteen pages per hour. The type was for many years all set by hand; now a battery of six British linotype machines is used. The present proprietors, Messrs Nash and Coombe, in 1903, purchased the business from Messrs Pirani Bros., who had succeeded Mr McMinn, and by sound service to the' public and increasingly enterprising business methods, have carried the “Standard” along to its present position of one of the best newspapers in the Dominion outside the chief cities. The paper in fact has constantly kept a little ahead of the town, now a city, in which it is published, and both have reached a position which the citizens may well be proud of. We heartily congratulate the “Standard” proprietary on their Jubilee Number, and wish them the continued success which their effective journalism and forward enterprise thoroughly deserves. Says the Dannevirke News: —“Me have" to congratulate our contemporary. the Manawatu ‘Standard,’ on the celebration of its jubilee on Saturday last. The ‘Standard’ was founded 50 years ago by the late Mr Alex McMinn, described as ‘one of the most rugged and picturesque figures among the intellectual giants of pioneer journalism in New Mr McMinn also founded tlie Woodville Examiner. Subsequently the. ‘Standard passed into the hands of Mr Fred Pirani. who was joined by his brother, Mr David Pirani. Mr Fred Pirani took an active part in public life and had a brief, but stirring, career in Parliament. Messrs Pirani Bros., after 12 years in control, sold their interests to Messrs Nash and Coombe, who had been in partnership in Dannevirke in the conduct of the Advocate. They sold their interests to Messrs Buick and Russell, who carried on the journal until it became incorporated in the Evening News With the growth of Palmerston North, and the able management of Messrs Nash and Coombe, the Manawatu ‘Standard’ has made great progress, and it is now in the forefront of the Dominion’s provincial dailies.”

The “Standard” desires to thank its many friends throughout the Dominion for telegrams congratulating it on having attained its jubilee.