NEWS OF THE WORLD.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 484, 28 June 1890, Page 3

NEWS OF THE WORLD.

How it is Distributed Over the • World. Comparatively few people have any idea of the number of papers daily published throughout the entire {.globe, or of the many and singunr languages in which they are printed. No less than 4,965 papeie daily make their appearance in the world. Some of these appear in two or three languages, one of them generally being English. Fifty-nine '.different languages are employed. No country on the globe enjoys .so many newspapers as doe 3 the United States, and in no other country has the progress of journalism been so markod and rapid. In the publication of dailies the United States leads with a total of 1,494. Germany comes next with 891. New York. State alone possesses a larger number of newspapers than are found upon all the continents south of the equator. .Among the United States papers aie found one in the Magyar Language, and also one in Armenian. The first paper to appear in the United States was the Boston 'Nows Letter,’ 24th April. 1704. Canada’s first paper was the * Halifax Gazette,’ in 1763. Great Britain possesses but 229 dailies, bub their average circulation is almost five times as great as that of the United States. In its number of papers (141) and amount of circulation, Paris runs ahead'of all other cities. It publishes l'_ more dailies - than London, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston combined. Tl.f oldest paper in Europe is the ‘Po. ung,’ published at Frankfort in 161 b, >.• that with the greatest circulation a; Petit Journal’of Paris, whose daily • ..c over 600,000. China, with her 357,- .■. . . people, boasts of but 10 daily and 1 pacers (as compared with the United 65 'millions of people, and 1,494 dai 12,441 weekly and semi-weekly, n speak of the hundreds of monthly ant monthly publications). Only 11 of are in the Chinese language—the rest :ue English, save one, which is in French. Bub China, with her few papers, lays claim to the fiisb and Oldest Newspaper publication in the world. This is the ‘Pekin Gazette,’ with a daily issue of 10,000, and containing simply official information and Imperial edicts. It still retains its original form and make-up of 1,000 years ago. Its size is 4in wide by lOin long. Each issue has about 18 leaves of soft thin paper with ragged edges, printed only on one side, in Chinese characters. A thin yellow cover encloses these sheets, the whole fastened at the back by a •- few light stitches. In striking contrast to China is Japan, which, in journalistic achievements, has Forged Ahead until at the present time (and in the space of 25 years) she can count 92 dailies and 175 other periodicals. Some years ago in the English colony of Natal there appeared a paper in the vernacular of the Zulus, but this paper has now ceased to be published. The little island of Iceland, 300 miles long and 200 miles broad, and isolated from the great continents of civilisation, is found to have as great a number of newspapers as are printed in the vernacular tongue of the empire of China. The newspapers of Iceland are published at a point further north than any other journals in existence. The publications of India comprise many languages. Those in the native tongue are said to be more thoroughly read and circulated in proportion to the number of copies issued, than those of any other country. A single paper not unfrequently finds its way through a whole village, going from House to House, and being read by each inhabitant thereof, until even with the tenderest handling it is completely wornout. Six papers form theentire collection of Persian periodicals ; five ' are in the native vernacular, and one in Syriac'. Type is abandoned in the printing of these papers. When the copy is ready it is passed to a scribe, who .makes a clean copy just as the paper is to appear. This is then given to an expert, who produces a tine caligraph copy with the head lettering. This is then photographed on lithographic stones, bitten with acid, and when the 1 printed, copies are struck off they arc identical with the copy of the scribe. Tho island of Borneo, generally supposed to be inhabited by ‘wild- men and savage?, boasts of the smallest regularly-published paper in the world. This is the ‘ Sarawak Gazette,’an English paper, sizeß4in wide by ' 13in long, and was first issuod in August, 1870. Austria claims newspapers printed in a greater variety of languages than any other country. These comprise German, Italian,. French,. Magyar or Hungarian, ~ Greek, Latin, Polish, Servian, Slavonian, Roumanian, Rubhenian, Crotian, Czechish, Slavic, and Hebrew. The most remarkable of these, and perhaps of the entire globe, is ' the * Acta Comparationis Literarum Univer- j sarum,’ being a semi-monthly i -view s of comparative literature, with con Dibit*,j tors in every part of the world, et. whose articles is printed in his nasivo ! . tongue. While large circulations are Jvew advertised in the United States, some < papers of London, Paris, and Berli outstrip any that are published here. Le Petit Journal of Paris claims a daily issue of 600,000. The ‘ Daily Telegraph’s ’ h; | million has passed into a prove. . ‘Lloyd’s Weekly News ’ has an issue ct ■ 621,0001 The “ Berliner Modenwelt,’ a semi-monthly paper of fashions, circulates . 600,000 copies, 250,000 in Germany, and the balance in other languages. The five 1 principal languages, in the order of their importance, are—English (17,600), German .(7,500), French (4,000), Spanish (1,700), % Italian (1,500). The following figures ' show the number of publications on each ’continent

Total Daily publications publications. of all sorts. Europe 2,567 .. 20,202 North America 1,736 12,943 Asia • 222 800 r South America 290 720 . Australia . . . 107 „ 683 ' Africa.. 43 .. 199. i- Total ' .. 4,965 .. ' 35,547.