THE COUNTRY PAPER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4831, 18 May 1925, Page 1

THE COUNTRY PAPER.

« THE PURPOSE IT SERVES. DESERVING OF. RECOGNITION. We make no apology tor reprinting the following from the columns of the Rotorua Chronicle, for the sentiments and statements of facts contained therein are irrefutable and should be noted by every section of the newspaper reading public: — When the groaning presses of the great metropolitan dailies tell the tale of the progression of their cities it is well sometimes to remember tha'. the country paper is the patient feeder of these not over-modest publications. To the country paper, generally understaffed,. they look for pabulum that they can digest and interpret, or misinterpret, to the public at leisure. A district covering hundreds of miles in extent has to be combed for news for the local paper, and the metropolitan journals skim off the cream through vigilant and much-alive agents, spurred pn by the hope of becoming “our special commissioner.” Tlite country paper draw? singularly little from metropolitan sources, save an occasional fire or a murder now and then, with a. seasoning of strikes. One centre specialises in bodies found, imjuerts, and such ghoul-like incidents. The country piles the wharves of the cities high with butter and cheese, and when the tale is metropolitanly told the reader from afar would believe that every contributing cow was milked in queen Street or Lambton Quay. To the country paper the metropolitans look for the nuclei of imposing editorials. The simple statement that Jones’ cow during the season 1924-25 has produced go many pounds of milk ’ containing so many pounds of butter-fat forms the basis for learned disquisition on the cow and its products. Armed with tomes bf reference that treat with the cow since the Noah.archian period, laboratory data on .the structure of butterfat, hygiene of the dairy, *and other monuments to patient research, tne literary staff build up a story about Jones’ cow that compels the adoration of the Magi of the pail. Before the metropolitan apotheosis of the animal it was a good useful grade, neither more nor less. But Jones has ordered two dozen copies of the paper, and ifportrait of Jones and the cow can be included in the article- -as happily it might—then even twice that number. and Jones tells his friends and good business ensue,s. The inspiration—the country paper—reaps considerable abuse for not having found out the transcendental character of the beast before. The elaboration of news is an academic science that tends to foster a class whose learning is great, whose applied knowledge is small, and whose isalary (these do not draw wages) is great. The day of the “rag-planter”has gone. With the advent of high wages and high cost, of production has come a new era. The public of the country are more critical than the public of the town ; they possibly have more time to dp so. Foolish persons have stated that anything is good enough for the provincial. David said equally foolish things in haste. The country reader deserves the best that, can be set before him, or her. In their limited space, hi comparison with the great daily catalogues, the errors look large; they are probably proportionately less. Country papers have no.armies of reporters and . intelligent office boys fresh from school to appeal to. Their library of, reference is limited to a dictionary, and in ; some • offices a Shakespeare, a Bible, and a thesaurus —the latter is not to be confounded with a reptile with a somewhat similar name. Out of scanty material and a limited staff they achieve much, afid the inquiring soul who wishes io verify the statement—that to the country papers the metropolitans owe their greatness—-has only to study the ■ columns,. each, with analytical discernment.