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New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8170, 23 August 1887, Page 4

The cable message forwarded by the Press Association respecting the eclipse of the sun is manifestly nonsense. To say that the eclipse “ clouded the whole of Europe ” is to talk utter rubbish. Even if it meant that the eclipse “ darkened ” the whole of Europe there would be equal absurdity in cabling so trite and matter-of-course an announcement. It might as well be cabled that “ owing to the setting of the sun last night the whole of Europe was in darkness for several hours.” What is possibly meant is that owing to the sky being clouded all over Europe at the time of the eclipse the phenomenon was not seen. That is the only thing which would be worth teh graphing about the eclipse, unless it had been well seen and some fresh discoveries made —as in one case when a new comet was discovered during the temporary obscuration of the solar disc.

A New Zealand coroner lately refused to permit reporters to be present at an inquest, whereupon his jury peremptorily declined to allow the business to be proceeded with in the absence of the press representatives, and ultimately the matter was amicably settled. By a curious coincidence a case precisely similar is reported in a recent number of the Solicitors’ Journal, to hand by the last mail. It appears that at an inquest held at Ipswich, in Suffolk, the coroner excluded the representatives of the press, and the jury refused to let the case proceed until reporters were present. The inquest was thrice adjourned, and at its fourth sitting the coroner stated that he had consulted the Lord Chancellor on the point, and that the Chancellor informed him that it was entirely within a coroner’s discretion to admit or exclude the press.