“I HAVE SUFFERED.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17570, 22 June 1925, Page 11

“I HAVE SUFFERED.”

EARL OF OXFORD AS JOURNALIST. PUBLICITY CHANGES. LONDON, May 10. Tbo Earl of Oxford and Asquith presided at tho sixty-second anniversary dinner of tho Newspaper Press Fiiuu, last night at tho Hotel Victoria. Submitting the toast of “ fhe Ne-rrs-paper Press Fund,” ho snid that m iho vear which had just expired tlie fund'had disbursed in grants and pensions no less than £14,000. bince it n-as established it had disbursed £ISO,COO, and its iivrestments had risen to £140,000. “No one,” proceeded the Fail or Oxford. “ I think has suffered jr.-ore front the recent derelopment of the Press than the unfortunate class to which the best part of my time 1 belonged -the politician. People who used to get five columns now get one. People who used to get one. column now get a paragraph, and those who were favoured with a paragraph now get a perfunctory sentence. (Laughter.) HTS APPRENTICESHIP. He had received his fair share, he thought-- perhaps an undue amount ot attention from the Tress. He had been suspected of cultivating distant and strained relations with them- an absurd hypothesis. (.Laughter and ] iord Ox fo rd rcca 1 led th a t fil t y yea ra ago ho served nn apprenticeship in AYellington Street under two of tho most brilliant pressmen of the A ictorian era.--Meredith Townsliend auu Richard Hutton. “1 was a regular contributor to the most staid and sober of organs known at that time—the ‘ Economist. 5 I. also, have been in Arcadia—(laughter) but tho new hazard which the professional journalist has to tear is tbo inroads of the highly remunerated amateur. 55 Responding to the toast of ‘* Ihe Newspaper Industry,’’ proposed by Sir Roderick .Tones, Air (’. A. Al’Curdy, K.G., recognised the kindly thought which hail prompted Sir Roderick •Tones to refer to tho condition and prospects of that industry. They liked in times, continued Mr M’C’urdy. when the condition and prospects of British industry gave a great amount of concern to many people, but amid all the plethora of ndvice and counsel tendered it was very rarely that anybody troubled their heads about t u e. position of the industry in which most of them were interested. A great Greek philosopher had con' tended that the limit of population which would permit of real democratic government being carried out was 100,000: for if it exceeded such a number, how would th© people b© brought into touch with those they chose to govern t hem ? Mr M'Curdy contended that the modern Press fulfilled the condition which Aristotle laid down as essential, in that it day by day placed before its readers a. panorama of all that was going on io. the world.