MR. JULIUS VOGEL AS AN EDITOR.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 181, 12 July 1884, Page 2

MR. JULIUS VOGEL AS AN EDITOR.

A contributor to the Waikato Times writes as follows:—

I do not think it is generally known that when he was editor of the Otago Daily Times, Sir (then Mr.) Julius Vogel one day increased the issue of that paper to 20,000 copies. When Dunedin first had a town board a number of the members were ignorant men who liked to hear themselves talk, and, still better, to see their speeches in print. As there was not much news to put in the papers in those days, and as they invariably 4 ‘ treated ” the reporters, their ambition was freely gratified by long reports of the meetings of the Town Board, and the speeches that members made and tried to make. After a while the columns of the newspapers became to valuable to bo filled with twaddle, and so the reports were curtailed to a concise account of the business transacted. This did not suit the verbose members, who passed a resolution to the effect that, if the newspapers did not contain a full report of all that was said and done at the meetings of the Town Board, the reporters would be refused admission. At the next meeting the first persons to arrive were four reporters on the staff of the Otago Daily Times. The first member who arrived remarked that it was “ tarnation cold,” and went up to the fireplace, tucked up his coat tails, and stood with his back to the fire. The reporters promptly made a note of the words and action. The same thing was done with regard to every other member, as he arrived. Every word that was spoken and every movement that was made in the room that night was noted by the reporters, the consequence being that the report of the meeting of the Town Board occupied a page and three-quarters of the Otago Daily Times the next morning. By 9 o’clock the office was rushed for copies of the paper, and the crowd became so great that a posse of police had to be sent to protect the office. By 5 p.m. the circulation had increased to 20,000, and it stopped at that figure only because the printers were completely worn out by their labours and could work no longer.