NEWSPAPER LABOUR.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 114, 13 May 1876, Page 2

NEWSPAPER LABOUR.

The editor of the “Coromandel Mail’’ (Snyder) cautions his readers not to think lightly of the labor taken in the issue of a newspaper.' He says: “ People will road a paper, throw it down, or east it on one side saying, (here is nothing in it, when it may be that half :i dozen experienced heads have been working through the day, and half through'the night, in collecting news and completing information for easy and pleasant reading. To those who say there is nothing in the papers, only let them try the editing or sub-editing for a montli and they will think there is a precious deal too much in them. Before the compositors can handle the type, the matter has to be prepared by the literary staff of the paper. Co into a morning newspaper office at midnight, and there you will see all hands laboriously engaged under the unwholesome smell and glare of gas. The editor engaged in 7 writing his leaderupon the latest topic that has agitated the public mind. The sub-editor is revising or re-writing matter sent to him from out of door correspondents, or he is selecting and rejecting, clipping extracts and condensing them.-. Reporters are writing out the occurrences of the day obtained from the law com-ts, from the police, from officials and; from other sources which only experienced' presshands know how to get at. All this time and for long hours after, the compositors by gaslight are picking up the single letters which make up words and sentences put together by brain work,the pressman is getting ready for printing, the fly boys are being aroused from' their slumbers, and in the small hours of the night, when most others are in dreamland, all in the printing office is life and activity. Every man and also every lad engaged on the mechanical department of the paper, must possess a considerable intelligence and a thorough knowledge of his work, , So then, oh stupid foolish reader, when'you take the damp morning sheet in.your hand, don’t throw it down contemptuously on 1 one side ; don’t call .it a' rag and say there isnothing in the paper/’