GREENLAND'S PUBLICITY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 627, 4 September 1933, Page 7

GREENLAND'S PUBLICITY

ANNUAL ISSUE NEWSPAPER DELIVERED YEARLY FOR BENEFIT OF ESKIMOS. Kristoffer Lynge, a handsome, broad-shouldered Greenlander whose bronze skin, sleelc black hair and sparkling dark brown eyes betray the •original Eskimo race, while his regular features suggest the addition of European blood, is the editor of one of the strangest papers in the world. § It is called the "Atuagagdliutit" and is sent out from Godthaab' the southernmost Aettlement of the Danish colony of Graenland. The "Atuagagdliutit" • is a tiny paper; the name means "Gratuitously distributed reading," and it hears a sub-title meaning "Anything that may he amusing or entertaining to hear." The paper is published once a month in 2400 copies and is distributed to all houses and huts along the huge coast of Greenland — by ship, motorboat, rowing-boat, kayak, or sledge. It goes without saying that such a paper cannot aim at being up-to-date, so far as the ne.ws is concerned. Its back-country is so large — from north to south Greenland measures more than 1500 miles — that the various districts receive the paper most irregularly. While the inhabitants of the Godtaab district, for example, get their paper once a month, the people living in Julianehaab and the | surrounding districts receive it once a" year only — in summer when the ! ships venture up to that part of the country. The eastern coast of Greenland, which is very difficult to sail, gets it once a year, too, via Copenhagen when the first expedition of the year manages to break through the ice barrier. The northernmost part of the Cape Yorlc district gets it twice a year, once in the summer by boat, and later in the winter when the dog sledges cross the snow fields. The paper was started in 1861 by Dr. Rink, inspector for the Danish Government, who, however, soon passed it over to the Board of Admin- • istration in Copenhagen. Kristoffer Lyne, whose intelligence and ability won him a leading position among the Greenlanders, learned the art of printing in order that he, a native, might take over the editorship, writes Harald J. Rud in the "New Yorlc Times." He now controls an activity which, aceording to Greenland standard, is fairly large. In an* attractive house at Godthaab he employs six Greenland compositors who, like himself, know how to set up copy by hand, to print on a small printing press part- j ly worlced hy a parafin-oil motor, and , to bind books — including the text I boolcs used in the schools. j The newspaper adapts its contents i to the conditions of distribution and to the mental level of its readers. "Consequently," Lynge says, "we lay great stress on the educational and i entertainment elements." The paper •for August, 1930, which is perhaps typical, contains an article on "The Gradual Substitution of Danish settlement Inspectors by Natives," and another setting forth what has happened in the world, particularly such events as are of immediate interest to the Greenlanders. Here. the readers learn of the takings of various Greenland products during the year, the price of whale oil, and whether other people are encroaehing on their fishing grounds. Next comes a serial love story translated from the Norwegian; after that, an article on "inheritahle qualities" and, finally, a review of a little •agricultural pamphlet. One column that appears regularly is called the "Aperlcutit Akissutitdlo." "That means 'Questions and Answers," laughs Kristoffer Lynge. 'I introduced it two years ago in order • to see if I could get my fellow-eoun-try-men to write in the paper themselves, and they jumped at the idea."