LONG SERVICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23863, 14 January 1941, Page 82

LONG SERVICE

HEKALD PRINTING

MR. A. J. THOMSON

FIFTY YEARS COMPLETED Fifty years' continuous service in the commercial printing department of Wilson and Horton, Limited, has been completed by Mr. A. J. Thomson, of Trinity Street, Ponsonby. He is the 10th employee of the firm to attain that distinction, and the third who has worked for an unbroken half-century on the commercial printing side of the business. Mr. Thomson entered the composing room as an apprentice on January 5, 1891, shortly before his 14th birthday. For a number of years he was responsible for making up the pages of photographic illustrations in the Weekly News and the whole of the hitter's Christmas Number. Remarkable Changes Witnessed In 1907 he was appointed foreman of the composing department and in 1917 works manager, a position which he held until his appointment as outside representative in 1930. He has always taken a leading part in the social activities among the company's employees, and for 15 years was honorary secretary of the staff library. He organised the first Herald picnic and has been captain of the staff cricket team. During his long service Mr. Thomson has witnessed every stage in the later development of New Zealand printing. When he entered the trade composition was carried out solely by hand, and wood engraving and lithography were the only media for reproducing illustrations. Compositors had to turn their hand to all kinds of tasks, and even printing-inks were compounded on the premises. Early Electric Light

Linotypes made their appearance in 1897 for newspaper work, but some time elapsed before machine composition was adapted to 'its present wide range of uses in genera] printing. The introduction of half-tone photographic illustrations into the Weekly News in 1898 was followed in due course by three and four colour process engraving and later still by modern offset lithography in monochrome and full colour.

Among innovations which Mr. Thomson recalls is the installation of electric light, current for which was generated by the firm's own steamdriven dynamo, there being no public supply at that time. He also remembers a difficulty which arose in the early 'nineties when the office accepted an order to print a dictionary of the Tongan language. This made such heavy demands on certain letters of the alphabet, especially "k," that type had to be borrowed from another firm to complete the job. Similar occurrences were far from rare before the advent of machine setting. Congratulations on Record

A presentation was made to Mr. Thomson yesterday at a gathering of directors and heads of departments by the managing director, Sir Henry Horton, who congratulated him on his long record of service. In his replv. Mr. Th omson spoke of the changes and developments that had taken place during bis career with the company, and referred to the cordial relations existing between the directors and staff. Employees who previously completed *>o years' continuous service were: — Messrs. M. Connolly, 1914, A. D. Bruce, 1916, R. J. Adlington, 1924, Gideon Clarke, 1925, Wilber Clarke, 1929, J. .1. Darby, I's33, Arthur Hall, 1934, T. Cooper, 1935, and John Loggie, 1940. Several continued their service beyond the half-century. Messrs. Connolly and Adlington have died since retirement. The others receive pensions from the company. The managing director, Sir Henry Horton, and Mr. W. R. Wilson, director, have also more than 50 years' service. They began practical training in the composing room of the job printing department respectively in January and June, 1889.