NEWSPAPER RESOURCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20792, 7 February 1931, Page 14

NEWSPAPER RESOURCE.

MINIATURE ISSUES. TINY SHEETS PUBLISHED OLD-TIME METHODS USED. DISTRIBUTION IN THOUSANDS. The disaster lias overwhelmed for (lift time the two newspapers of Napier, which were among the foremost in the Dominion outside the metropolitan centres—the Hawkc's Bay Herald, morning paper, and the Daily Telegraph, evening, and a third prominent paper at Hastings, the Tribune. The buildings and plant of all three have been entirely swept away, but the owners are undaunted. The Napier proprietors have kept their staffs together, and are, by a joint effort, bringing out a morning and an evening issue. The Daily Telegraph had, only on Saturday last, celebrated its diamond jubilee by publishing an excellent 32-page illustrated edition. In striking contrast was its second issue after this event, a pathetic little sheet about the size of an ordinary piece of notepaper. Resort to Hand-Set-ting. Fortunately, an old platen printing machine and a few cases of the old-style movable type were found workable on the premises of Ball and Co., printers. These were brought into requisition, and members of the Telegraph staff, who had done no hand-setting for 20 or 30 years, were organised into a "companion," with the result that by 3 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, the day after the earthquake, a miniature newspaper was distributed in thousands, containing an outline of the facts of the disaster, casualty lists, atfd all the information essential to the public, as issued by the executive committee of the city.

Similar papers are being published earlv evening, and the same service, by the same means, is being maintained in tli© mornings by the Hawkc's Bay Herald.

The Herald is. the older of the two dailies, having been established in 1857, by Mr. James Wood, until then an Auckland journalist, first as a weekly paper, then twice weekly, and in 1871 daily, with Mr. W. W. Carlile as editor. In 1871, when this stage had been reached, the property was purchased from Mr. Wood by Messrs. P. Dinwiddie, W. W. Carlile and T. Morrison, under the style of Dinwiddie, Morrison and Co. Mr. Morrison sold to Mr. R. T. Walker, and the firm became Dinwiddie, Walker and Co. That style still persists, but from 1886 the firm became a limited liability company. History of the Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph was established in 1871. It was promoted by Messrs. E. W. Knowles, G. E. Lee, A. Kennedy and T. K. Newton, who floated a company, which, however, soon became lukewarm in regard to the venture, and left it in ill a hands of its originators. In 1891 Mr. Knowles became the sole proprietor, and carried on the paper until 1908, when age and infirmity compelled his retirement, and he sold the Telegraph to the pre: ent company, which is mainly a body of Auckland journalists. The active member when they took iit over was the late Hon. W. J. Geddis, who had established himself as one of the most capable and energetic pressman in the Dominion, first as sub-editor of-the Auckland Star, then for many years as part proprietor and editor of the Auckland Observer, and later as managing director of the New Zealand Times, Wellington.

Since the death of Mr. Geddis in 1925, his son, Mr. T. M," Geddis, a native of Auckland, has been managing director of the Telegraph. Its editors have been Messrs. R. 11. Lord, Robert Price, Robert Marshall, and for the last 36 years Mr. J. W. McDougall, whoso ill-health lias necessitated Mr. T. M. Geddis taking editorial charge in the last few months. The Hastings Tribune is the successor of the older Hastings Standard, -and lias existed from about 1910. It is owned by a private company consisting of Mr. George Nelson, Messrs. T. M., John and B. Chambers, and It. Gardiner and Mr. \V. 0. Whitlock, who is editor.