THE NEWSPAPER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20901, 16 December 1929, Page 14

THE NEWSPAPER.

PRAISE FROM LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. COMPANIONSHIP OF BOOKS. Somi thought, on the newspaper mod on literature were offered by Lord Hewart, Lord Chief Justice, speaking at a dinner to celebrate the house-warm-ing of the' New Athenmum. In the course of his' speech Lord Hewart said: It is rather it fashion to gird at newspapers. The occasional poet is busy with “ the vespertine!' rumour and the matutinal lie ” that adorn the lucubrations of the press. The after-dinner, speaker, most unfortunate of men, has done his worst, which is also his best, with the theme. But the person who sneers at the press asks first for the newspaper when he comes down, if he does come down to breakfast,. and later in the day, if he suffers from in- ■ somnia in the afternoon, none is more urgent for the paper that boasts the fair name of evening.. In a country, that enjoys, or has or is supposed to have, representative institutions the news- - paper is a necessity. It is not any the worse for that. But do we always think as gratefully, or indeed, as justly, aa we might of the amazing ability, diligence, “ care, and learning, the wit, the humour, the skill, and the versatility, the dutifulness, the courage, the conscientiousness, and the sheer hard'work that go to the making of the best kind of news- ■ paper? • Let it be granted, if .you- please, that the production of newspapers is mixed np with the are- of making money. So, - too, are all the practical arte., So is medicine, for example; so is ■ surgery, so is accountancy, so is ■ engineering, so even is law. With such a being as man in such a world as the present, these things perhaps are not to be avoided. But when we take in our hands a really first-rate English daily' newspaper, do we always reflect upon the recurrent miracle of the leading articles—--so aptly chosen and to-day so happily named, the rapid harvest of wc , kno.w not how much brilliancy in school V and university, how severe a training in affairs, how fine a character, and how wise a mind? ‘ Or turn to the special articles, of which there may' seem to ‘ the casual reader to be an easy and unceasing supply, do wc stop to think in - what and by. whom, those topics are ; chosen, with ' what anxious care, the writers are engaged, and with what unsparing ■ labour the work is produced? Or, when we look at the telegrams and reports from all quarters of the. world, the' work of the foreign department, the work of the reviewing staff, the work of the sub-editors, the work of the reporters, and not least the work’of the law reporters, together with an infinity of. work , besides, are we not sometimes & little inclined' to take everything for granted, to think that somehow the newspaper automatically produces itself, and to forget that every issue of -that journal which means so much to us, pre-supposes and depends upon. the. daily initiative, the daily industry, and the., deliberate .organisation and correlation of the daily industrv, of a vast unseen band of highly skilled* and conscientious artists? To conceal the art is, no doubt, a work of art. But, there are occasions,, and perhaps this may be one of . them, when' a debt which is not always visible, mid is never claimed, mi ß-y at !east be gratefully acknowledged. Hib lordship then turned from news* papers to books, and said (in part): Human life, to be sure, with ell its agreeable, tasks and all its consolations, which are many, is full of disappointment. You may find treacherv where you expected loyalty, hardness where you vainly hoped for gratitude, and stark insensibility where, there might have been some little consideration. But the companionship of books remains. It never fails, and it never ceases. It may be our heritage, and our delight in the well-known words, "all the day long this troublous life, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work done.”