“Those Were the Days’’—But Were They?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 992, 7 June 1930, Page 19

“Those Were the Days’’—But Were They?

N these days of speed a newspaper photographer will return to his office with a photograph of | some topical event, and the result, thanks to the progress made by process engraving, can be placed before newspaper readers in less than an hour. Not so in the early days of newspaper illustration when an artist s sketch was laboriously re-drawn. by the engraver, and then had to be divided into small squares. Each of these squares was handed to a wood-engraver, subsequently to be fitted together with the utmost care and skill. Even with this division of labour an illustration sometimes took as long as a week to complete. The selection of wood engravings on this page records picturesque and historic incidents of the 19th century. Many of them, in the light of subsequent happenings, are of particular interest to those who are privileged to live in these progressive davs.