FOR THE CHILDREN

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16815, 5 June 1926, Page 16 (Supplement)

FOR THE CHILDREN

] J>T OF A NEWSPAPER

ft PEEP BEHIND THE SCENES.

Told by the Waikato Times.)

i have hern so busy telling people fbout the great Waikato Winter Show this week that the time seems to have I assert very quickly. However, I have i -I forgolt. n the promise I made to you little folk to continue my story. Last week you followed the first «u"‘, of my construction —-the gathering of news, its printing on the linotype machines, and then the making-up into columns, articles and pages. The next process is stereotyping. Modern newspapers arc not, as of old, printed direo! from the type. Eaoh page, as it is made up. is wheeled into the stereo room, on a trolley, frora which it is transferred to the t tereo-talih’. and a mould taken with •vet Hong—sevi rai thicknesses of pasted blotting and tissue paper, which is be.,ten will -l.ii brushes into the "•vices of the type, placed between a a avy mangle, and then dried on a »Ma.u healer. When thoroughly dry t man,d i. p aced in a curved casting box. b'to which molten metal is I . i.-i d. rid a lieiiiispnerioa.l plate of i, lii coni, ining a perfect impression c' the typ i pniduce.il. The edges of La plate have to be trimmed down ixt If M i~ \\< re not done ! should I k very untidp indeed, and you Ie ji <ipa would say. -‘The paper lie s a.- if a lilt'e mouse had been <y. wing it.” The trimming is done v ii:u ligl.uiing speed, for, as 1 told you hr i week, time is very precious at this stage, indeed, 1 might say. just, in pausing, that newspaper work is always done at high pressure. You can realise this now that you know something about my production. If news is not up to date : 1 is not of much value, and only by careful management and co-operation on tne part of the staff am I able to appear regularly and up to time. Naturally after each edition has “gone to press” the paper is made up afresh for the next. The news which appeared for the first time in the second edition will be in the first edition of the following day, and that which was published in the first edition for the first time appears in the second edition of that day. When the type is no longer required it is melted down again. The Final Processes. Now we come to the final process. Each page, now a solid semi-circular plate of metal, is taken down to the machine-room, where there is a huge machine, which towers above even a tall man. It is called a Foster rotary web printer, and it weighs no less than 40 tons, and contains 80 cogs, 50 cylinders, and 72 composition rollers. At one end of this massive piece of mechanism are rolls of white paper, five miles long. After all the plates have been fixed into position a lever is pulled and the paper starts to move. And, why I you would think it was alive! After travelling round the cylinders, just like a living tiling, and through the jazz-like movements of the folder, it comes out at the other end —not white paper but your own Waikato Times, printed,'cut, pasted and folded, and at the rate of thousands of copies an hour I Some idea of the enormous stocks of paper needed in publishing a newspaper may be gathered from the fact that on Saturdays over 20 miles are used. While hundreds of copies per minute arc being whirled off by this wonderful machine, the members of the publishing staff are hurriedly wrapping and addressing the papers to send away by the mails, and eager runners are waiting, ready to seize bundles and dash into the street crying, as you so often hear them, “Waikato Times!” or to deliver them to the regular subscribers, as the case may bo. The hour of my publication is always exceedingly busy. I cause quite a stir when I make my appearance in the street, especially when there is any news of great interest in my pages. Just a little while ago I- was often greeted with, “Ah! Here is the Times. Let's see the latest about the strike.” This week, with the show the great source of attraction, I have been greatly in demand. People would anxiously search the prize-lists and get quite excited. I was sorry for some of the disappointed ones, but they cannot ail win prizes, can they? Some were most unkind. They seemed to think it was my fault, and screwed me up and were going to throw me away, when they seemed to remember that I couldn’t help it, and I might still he of some use, even though I did not contain the much-looked-for name. A Wonderful institution.

But I must not take up any more of your time, my little friends. I hope you have enjoyed my story and that your have learned something about a very necessary and a very wonderful institution. Have you ever read of the hoy who, being asked how many people it took to make a pudding, replied “One,” and was reminded of the vast number involved directly and indirectly? Well; do you not think that the pudding pales into insignificance before the newspaper in that direction? Think again of the collecting of news, the press agencies from which cables are received from every corner of the globe, the makers and inventors of the machinery in use even in tiie comparatively small office where 1 am produced, but you could go on counting for a long time, and as my poor brain is already tired I think we will stop. If any of you would like to know more about my construction you would be welcome to have a look through the Waikato Times office, and see for yourself something of the processes J have described to you, as I am sure you will all foci quite, interested in my welfare after this little talk, and you will be hoping, as I hope, that I shall continue to grow and to he an iniluen-.e for good in the community, >.vays presenting interesting news to my readers, ami especially to you, my U?!ie people. Good-bye.

(By “Peter Pan”)