MORE NEWSPAPERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6788, 27 February 1890, Page 3

MORE NEWSPAPERS.

© Saturday last, n^ya the Home N<.ws of Jau. 10, «»\v th« birth ot two newspapers — the Speaker and the Daily Graphic. Neither is calculated to sot the Timings on fire. The Speaker is somewhat ol' .a disappointment. Its editor, Jlr Wemj-sa Raid, has a great reputation us n journulL-t, which the Speaker, unless its future numbers show an exceeding improvement on the first, will do nothing to enh&nce. It is closely printed in small type ; itu viow3 are of the regulation Radical order, and the general style of the paper is heavy. In the "Prologue," winch of all things* must have had Mr Reid's careful attention, he sayß precisely whafe ho does not mean ia a sentence which runs : — " If those whom the gods love dia young, they must have been very fond of newspapers." Mr Reid intends, of course, to say that the gods must have been fond of newspapers because so many newspapers die young. His sentence implies that those- whom the gods love die because they are fond of newspapers. The Saturday Bevicw and the Spectator are both dull, and Mr W. H. Pollock and Mr. R. H. Hutton would be the better for having; to take cognisance of the competitive zeal of a Gladstonian organ. Mr Etid'o firstnumber rivals both in tl.sir respectability and want of interest. As regards the Daily Graphic, the world in interested in its fortunes because it ia tho first attempt to produce an illustrated daily newspaper. As some of its pictures are years old; and those which aim at being actual deal with eventß of a day or two previously, Mr Thomas and his editor have started by practically admitting that the thing cannot be done. Time, however, may help the conductors of both the Speaker and the Daily Graphic to realise their programme.