CHARITY JOURNALISM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 81

CHARITY JOURNALISM.

-'_"! ■ By',NETTA.,

tCTew ZKflandqprfitaeally-plumes herself on Ihe eijminatfoitftaf "rtae" pauper from her problems of ~> government.'. Not <a loophole behind which tfce living form of Bumble might shelter misses its shower of arrows from reformers .of jail; descriptions... ;The carcass of Bumbledom, in all the os'tenta- " tion of cbntuto^ty/'is-buried x-wffch'x -wffch' that' "show of tborpughnessdefeieSlrf by Banyan when the victorious '^hfisK&'in 'tTw? 1 fioly - War •would not suffer so ikrnch. as the boner of a Doubter to tpeoa tfce upper air. - It may i>& tfi^i fche spmttua pride thus engendered Ms invited "isomewMt in ■ the nature of a fall, and if .so, the fall has taken the, forni^ "of tn» 'largest^ mass- of charity journafism ev^eif borne; by* any longsuffenng lania'. l'The journalistic grof eesion at large i% not <sonM&6reAWb# rtoT on' purely philantnropic linis. Trae >" 4tne>- 'journalist proper is as 'lfftte w^tfßiblß' for the octopus rates of advertisement £b he is for the warped wood which the jerry-bnflder puts into his modest." villa. But, still, he draws his mild nonoranum at the months end, finding {herein > living if not princely equivalent for news rendered and opinion© formulated. . ' „ It is not, however,, this honest give and take between the waters offered by the opinioned journalist and th» Athenian thirst of the imopinioned public to which I refer. C&arity "journalism proper covers the huge and yearly increasing -mass of local periodicals edited for chanty, bought for charity, and read for charity—when read at aIL ' . New Zealand Is » land of light, a country of generous impulse, a place where noble aims blossom readily* into noble deeds. It is humanitarian, humane, human to the marrow, and the sea winds that rate it fore arid aft save it from being aland of lotus-eaters in aught but beauty. Therefore leagues are born here with the speed and spontaneity of bubbles on a fountain; ' only a 'goodly residue of them remain, though the greater number dissipate in rainbow nothings before the year is out. Leagues politic hold solemn caucus in Parliamentary nooks; leagues progressive for tuitoosly 'blow together and valiantly pass » resolutions for and against everything in creation; leagues social "chase the winged i hours with flying feet" or woo Minerva ' in the statelier guiee of a Mutual Improvement Society. And a curious thing happens. As soon h* es the league has cast away its feedingbottle and stood erect upon Its chubby legs I it makes a discovery. The thousand and odd dailies and weeklies of the dominion are insufficient, profitless. New Zealand and the'jeague require one authoritative, fearless edifying note which can only be sounded by the league's own organ. A bargain is struck with a printer, the best speller in the league yields to gentle constraint and is made honorary editor, another member who haa^ mastered simple addition is pressed into the service as honorary manager, all hands vaguely volunteer copy, and the league considers , whether it will bankx the proceeds of the venture or keen it bandy in an iron 6afe. t And thus, fathered by dishonesty and ,■■ mothered by fatuity, the charity journal is born. It* is a weakly infant. The rank • . and file of the league have a conviction ( that journalism thrives best on moral support and the gentle dews of heaven, like ? the bird of paradise. They remember pn1 vate business 'elsewhere whenever the honorary manager heaves in sight, and are • only whipped "up to a subscriber's duty after the annual balance sheet is read. Meanwhile the "white weeds of Tura are blossoming untimely in the hair of the • honorary editor. Though his devotion and enthusiasm are unnagiajmg and sincere, he cannot, he finds, make the two ends of ' charity editorship and a family living meet. He will not do his plain duty, which ifl to let his Bird of Paradise expire in one fiery editorial anent the sin of literary sweating; but being himself the victim of his league's defective commercial morality, he falls from the precepts of a presumably . virtuous education and goes a • That is to say, hequits the responsible precincts of the "league, and goes out with a cmb after the hapless stranger who has been watching has previous operations with the vivid alarm born of bitter experience. The %6fessional New Zealand writer is just emerging from the limbo of the un- , born. Mnch of the, shadowy intangibility -' of his late abode clingß to, him yet; he is viewed as a strange and 'dubious animal, not many removes from a vsfgrant jpn bis material side, still nearer to a moon-calf on his side, New Zealand editors are kind to him so far as they ' are allowed. Of other friends he has few. But of all the hands turned against him the charity journalist's is the heaviest. When the league reaches the inevitable stage oi- iype-feyer, and light-heartedly evolves itavpaup» organ, he is watching afar oftHftw mutfterin?; "It's play to you, but deaitlsHo mci" *lready he feels = the pistol of the literary highwayman at ' bis breast, and hears him demanding his ' copy or his life. /And when the honorary editor comes he bp^to the stroke, won- " dering whether brief plain robbery will ' content the raider, or whether periodic and permanent blackmail is the object, for the charity journalist whose conscience bas been seared by long familiarity with pauper methods will demand the hapless author, body and soul, as assistant/ locum tenens, or successor, with as much sangfroid as a smoker demanding a match. He bas the wiliness of the serpent in his - approach. "My dear sir, your tooah: is so happy, bo delicate, the league and I know of no one who can press. The Cause so well. You will, I am sure, help on the good work by editing the Eagle for six months while I recuperate? Positively, there is no one I would see in the chair —a bagatelle to you, a gain to us." And the helot of lettere, not yet assured that he possesses any human rights, chokes down the obvious reply: •; "Certainly, ww all prefer professional I tervloe —if we can get it for nothing."

i Hie feels that he is .perpetrating an in<Jelieacy and an insult to The Cause in | explaining that his employment differs from that of a bedger and ditcßer in being worse paid, lees ..certain, and a deeper drain on the vital forces. The charitable journalist listens with a polite smile, labhers up again, and departs triumphant, leaving his victim witin a <sick emptiness back of the eyes, and wondering whyJoshua's miracle of the standing sun. cannot be worked again, so as to give him a single evening off without an all-night sitting to pay for it. But after years of blackmailing, one day a spirit wakes within him, and he falls upon the amazed raider with bitter query. "Why does he (the raider) not go to a restaurant and order free catering for the League's, next social? The restaurant-keeper would doubtless accede if " told he made _ tfie best buns- in town. Anyway, he would only lose tflie buns, not ids sleep and digestion. "Why the League does not commandeer an intelligent charwoman to clean its office for love? .She would only lose the days work, not the power to scrub ta-morrow. And the best scrubber in town wouldn't mind a trifle like that in a good cause." And finally (breaking 'into direct appeal), "Can't you see that you are lolling the goose that lays ■the copper egg? If I care enough about your cause to sit -up nights over it, why in creation can't you allow me to publish where ten -tihousand will, read, rather than in a rag. that serves a hundred houses fox fire-lighters?" But the voice crying in the wilderness dies away unheeded. - Still leagues are formed, and still tiie pauper organ- wheezes on. Despite its origin, it is often a child of grace; your true New Zea'ander writes well by nature, and selects with a pair of inspired scissors. Often it has but one fault — it came unasked into a world that needed it not, a world already groaning under a fardel of magazines heavier than it can bear. Every quarter dies a charity journal ; every month a charity journal is born. It is the brain-tax of an enlightened generation which tak€s upon itself to deride the v window-tax and wneel-tax of an older time. And since man is born, to trouble, it is is a sense beautiful and ' uplifting ; ink 16 a degree less intoxicating 1 and a deal less "harmful fehan' whisky. I Were all the crafts, leagues, and causes | which at present run pauper organs to light a few fires constrained to write and! to read their own journals, the type-fever would no longer 6ap commercial morality as at present But the clarity journal is death to the helot of letters.