OURSELVES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14084, 13 December 1909, Page 3

OURSELVES.

; . * | INSTALLATION OF NEW MACHfN,,ERY. / ______ > A JIECORP OF PROGRESS. . Oiar present issue marks another step in tn& onward march of progress which . the Taranaki has made since it w*s founded on Angutffc 4,' 1862, by, -Mesirs. 6;' W; Woon and William Col;Hns, and Wo may be excused for recalling briefly the chief . incidents in the 'life of thY journal. It was Hfst published in a small stied which stood a , • little back from Devon Street,,- about ; where Messrs. Okay, Son', and Arnold's, iihop now is, the quaint ; littfe demy folip' sheets of four pages,- no larger ! than the Budget pages of to-d*y, 'being printed- o% a demy Albion press, Which may still be seen- in the establishment, pin good working.order after fifty-seven years of .service in Ijjpw Plymouth and many more- before Hihat in Auckland. f At that time there were seven other newspapers published in the young co- . lony-^the New Zealander and the Southera Cross, tri-weeklies, in Auckland, the Independent and the Spectator,-tri-1 weeklies, in Wellington., the Examiner, also a tri-weekly, in Nelson, thexLyt-. telton Times and the Otago Witness, ! both- weeklies. . Of these only two now survive, the two last-named, so that the Taranaki Herald is. the third .oldest paper ia ftew .Zealand. . In 1859 the plant was removed to hew premises ; built on the site of Messrs. Beluringers' > premises in Devon Street, which remain* led itß home until June. 1901, when, in consequence of a fire haying, partially destroyed tbe premises, it was shifted.to Ctifrie Street, into * building Of woodand iron, which, was destroyed by fire early in the morning of April "25,^ 1U09.. ' ! Prior to that, in June, 1907, the literary and oomnVercial departments and a .portion of the plant were transferred to a n»w brick .building erected/ along-? .side the other, and now the portion i destroyed: in- has been replaced by another brioK building, a facsimile almost of the one completed tWo and a half year* ago; Thus it Will be seen: that; the paper has never wandered far from its first .home, but each, shift has been into larger and better premises, ! nntil v to-day it is housed ra a manner ; second to no other paper in New Zealand, city or provincial. ; So much, for its changes of habitation, j In its earlier day* it had several cHanges.of ownership. In AprUp 1853; Mr. Woon dropped btit, and Mr. Collins, became sole proprietor, 6nly. however, for a, few months, for on Feb.ruaty 1, 185*. , Mr. Woon ieturned to ,New Plymouth,, and .took the paper over from hi* former, partner.. In 1866 Mr. A. S.. 'A*fcinsqn-for a few months was, i& partnership* with Mr. Woon, but retired from ther concern at the end of the year, on -leaving for Nelson. M*. Woon remained sole proprietor until December, 1667, when he disposed of the paper to the present owner, Mr. Henry Weston, who has been sole proprietor ever since. i ' There were also sev^rajl changes, in the editorial chair in the earlier years. The first, editors, were Mr. J, T. Wick- . steed and Mr! W. Mv Crompton, but the latter resigned - after holding the, position only nine weeks*. Mr. Richard Pbeney taking his place, and continue "»ng to wield the editorial, pen, until November, 1856, Mr- Wdon undertook the editing himself for a while,** Mr. W.,HaUe and&r. Richard Brown assisting ;biip.> a*. leader ..writers, From the beginning of 1868 to, the end Of 31866^. A., $. Atkinson (brother-rtf J3ir Harry Atkinson) wjus editor, an* on his departure Ut. R. H. Eytonsw> ceeded to. the-, vacancy, rem^niS «uu the chain until Mr. Weston aoquira tfeer paper. On January 16,- 1868^ Mr. W. H J. Seifern came from Auckland to manage and edit the paper, and^-con- . tinued to do at) until his \ retirement at the beginning of November 1 1895, .when . he was succeeded by the present editor, Jar. ,"W.' J. Perm. Thus, in forty-two, -years the paper has had ,ofaly one nroprietor and two editors, a record which yre imagine ,is unique in journalism. ,- Fox ten years^ the t ;was a .demy folio sheet, but on July 26, 1862, it came out m> a double demy^Mwer^ ; a double demi Albion press bein&4m.ported .by Mr. Woon. On,'. Maj^l^ 4869j a tri-weekly. issue was commenced, And the prioe^was reduced from suwenee ,to vibieepenoa a copy. J-h $874, a ! Mam's Patent machine was imported from Harrild »nd Sons, London, and on this the paper was printed from $ of .that, year until 1891. •On May .14/ 1877; daily publication was commenced, and the price was reiduced. to a penny. . About the same -time also The Budget was. established 'as a weekly, paper for country readers, both papers being on , the ;"MainV f machine, until 1891, whea, their, joint circulations became too ilarge fox it ana. a <touble-feed Daw,aon*B Wharfcdale wa* installed. This !d_. duty, until Ootober, 1902, .when , that becam* too heavily taxed and a Lancaster flat web machine was. puri chased. This* did, , admirable, service .untUs it wai Unfortunately ruined, by the fte© wWch.oociiiTed, in April last. For » few day* the paper Wafc kindly sprinted by our morning contemporary, 5 until a now cfouble royal Wharfedale coitta. be obtained, and erected m aya v hurriedly put, up building, alongside our .present offices. On this niadhine both the Herald and The Budget have been printed under considerable difficulty until to-day. Within a few days of the. lire the proprietor determined to instal the mosi modern plant, and accordingly instructed Messrs. James Spioer and Sons' Now Zealand representative to cable an urgent order for one of -Foßt«r's rotary web printing maoEiijie(jk Which is used for the first time to-day. - .- The marine is «.8»»lgle-rpU< rotary, manufaotured'by MeaßriuJosep* .Foster and Sons, of Preston, Lancashire, wtfo I hold a very high position among the prinjtinav.mftektnery, , manufacturers of Se, ,wwld. It is technically described as a\ singV deoker r straight-line stereo web-prmting and foWing maohine^ to print, cut, fforw r and, count m 12'» ox §4's from 16,000 to 18,00Qv«o|tt«» per .hour of an eight-pagev^ag^r, 'either -seven, eight, or nine columns, in width. It may oe transformed' into a two, three* or four docker machine, when the growth of thA Wwn and; district waiv xant;tW issue, of a larger Raper. In' on© .respect il isan advance upon any machine yet .jsrtattecUn; Nam Zealand, of. indeed in Australasia, that is in reapeet to th^fpld,ing,ap^»aratuß. The TQiionnTj in a 'letter written While the maefcine was under construction, said : .' : "In the new machine we ; have the pieastir^ of making to your order, wo ouffht to advise you we are going to build it with a new modern, folder, the fast, of its kind and our most reoaM-'ti^uwn. >As you doubtless know, the weak point on printing machines has been the folder with its cams and slamiqing block action utfojs i» the part tftat limits the sneed and gives out. .We have removed all ms, and the action of these, new fplders is absolutely cotar.v. and thesr run at «w I

speed smoothly and sweetly. We shall run this macnine in our works up to at least 10,000 to 18,000 revolutions perhour^^ instead ot the ordn^ajy t 'i2,'oou. i " Th'e'tolder is not now the limiting portion as regards the speed, v but it is the printing portion. . Any time they are rushed ror time or-lrain .they can put .on 2000 or 3000 extra and* have no doubt; about everything ,being all right. This Will be the first of its kind in Australasia, and *& ard. _. the pioneers in Jfihgland of this fast speeded folder. Mie have eighl of '-these running in Manchester, giving the highest satisfaction, and have or- I ders for six for different parts of th© I country." This, the agents | serve as an assurance that tbe machine I will be of this very latest design) andH ' contain the most up^tb-date improvements. - Li - "*"."*. ■ In the earliest stages of 1 its existence the paper was printed from tyjie, a sufficient stock of which was not |ieid ' " to enable the whole of the little sheet to be printed, at once. The cniter page* had to be printed first an&the . 'typo tfeon cliatoibutod into the.4ases t .to be used again for the inside pages. ' Later on, ot course, the jstock, of type wits added to and renewed:' from time ) to time. In August, 1901, monottneß, • a small type-sotting machine, were installed,, and .these, were . disposed of abdus tKroe years ago in favour ot the larger Knotypcs, of which four am- now in constant use. These, as mafnp of our readers are aware, set up tb.o jfype mechanically and cast each line fidpar-atefy—-Hence the name, line of- t^ype, or linotype. The lines; or slugs as they are technically termed, after corl rcction are made up into columns, .Which are then, enclosed, seven,- eight; orpine.* * of them together as the case may be, in a strong steel frame called a ofiase. • When: tightly wedge^ together, or locked up, as the technical phrase, goes, on a tahle on wheels, the whole .forme is wheeled into the stereo Worn, iere a mould in papier-mache is taken bTthe type. . The cast is placed in a mould**, molten metal is poured hv M$ the m^tal, when ©oofed^ intp p!sie half a ciwle in shape, is taken out,, dressed to remove any superfluous matter, and then -removed to the madfbre-room, where it is screwed on to a cylinder in tfee printing machine. .When eight of tnese' plates are, in position, thf machine is r.eady for printing. The '.paper to ,be printed on is in rolls, we^hmg .about 600 lb each, and containing over three milks of paper. The roll having .been placed in ( position, !th& machme is. started, and the papers dbnMT out At the other end' folded and cqpnted into twonty-foura, neady for theTpublisher to make up into "parcels fir the agents or to deliver to the nutters. The machine, which was ercted by otDr own staff under the able -direction of the chief machinist, Mr. Terns Hog* kin, is drive* by » - 15 horsp-powe* Tangye «tt eflcine, imported specially from- the makers at Birmingham, through; fheir New Zealand agents, Messrs. John Chambers and Sol). In the course of a few days we propose to trive a short description of the uew building, which will then bjft out of the hands of the builders, Messss. Boon '' Bros, and then we shall be plefced ( or our friends to call and see bow the Taranaki Herald is produced. '