The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1912. MAKING NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 70, 18 March 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1912. MAKING NEWS.

It is* interesting jto note a'glaring’instance of how news is made and rumour started without the slightest warrant or foundation, in the report published about Captain Scott having reached the Antarctic.' The Christchurch “Press” having a. desire to learn more about the report, immediately on receipt of Sydney files dived into > the matter; and received a. ,suiv prise, to find' the thing credited- to Now Zealand;;- “A New Zealand ,cable received last night,” said the “Herald,” “conveyed the information that Captain Amundsen had telegraphed in Sydney announcing that Captain Scott had reached the South Pole. Enquiries in Sydney, however, failed to confirm the report.” Melbourne papers published similar paragraphs, while the New Zealand press was informed that the following message had boon received by Mr Kinsey from a Private source in Sydney:—“Newspapers report Amundsen telegraphed privately from Hobart Scott reached Pole.’ The same evening a message came from Sydney:— “A private telegram received in Sydney reports that Captain ocott reached the South Pole.” Our contemporary goes on to say: Wo can find no mention in the morning papers to hand of any such private message. It may he that Air. Kinsey’s message, sent back to Sydney, was the New Zealand message 1 eferrod to in these papers, and that it was the “private telegram” referred "'to in our cables. "At any rate, Sydney and New Zealand seem to have been at cross purposes over the matter. But the mystery deepens. The Sydney “Sun,” on Thursday afternoon only a few hours after the Fram had cast anchor at Hobart, published a cablegram from London, stating that Captain Scott had reached the Polo, and that it was claimed that the statement had the authority of Captain Scott’s agent. Is this, then, the source of the rumour? Did “newspapers” in Air Kinsey’s message from Sydney mean London newspapers, and not Sydney ones, as wo naturally believed? But in that case, where did Amundsen and the Fram creep into the rumour ? The London newspapers came out before the Fram got to Hobart. W r e give it up. The mystery of the I’ole has been solved, hut the mystery of the newspaper rumour seems past finding nut unless we assume that this is another instance of journalism being “the intelligent anticipation of events before they happen.”