WELLINGTON ECHOES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 347, 24 March 1910, Page 7

WELLINGTON ECHOES.

•(From our Special Correspondent). A NEWSPAPER CONTEST. March 21, 1910. The loudvst echo ill journalistic circles and the lanJiest sounding is the echo irom the New Zealand Times otlice with the details of the famous contest for the prizes, chief of which is a trip Home with "trimmings." The thing that strikes the average man tile most about this event js the crowd on the night of the declaration. No crowd assembled to hear the declaration of the poll at a general election was ever greater than

the crowd which jostled and jambed itself under the "oig policemen—apparent lv ail the blue coats in Wellington—in the "T" fOl mod by the length of Lambton Quay between Panama street and Willis street, and the length of Grey street between Nathan's Buildings and the Quay. Nor has the public interest •ever been keener. Truly one was reminded by every word spoken in that dense gathering that nothing succeeds in this world like advertisement. # » # # A YANKEE "DOCTOR."

Here was a journal reduced to gasping condition by a powerful rival suddenly brought into the field. At all events men talked of it as moribund. Anyhow, the best that was said was compressed into a wonderful query as to which of the two would come off ibest in the amalgamation felt by all to be inevitable. In other words, the impartial public wanted to know which of the two fighting units would "pass out" first. Presently there came along from "Amurriua" a man skilled in the "doctoring of sick papers," as they say in the pitiless vernacular of the Stars and •Stripes. He just let flee an idea; the public jumped; and so did the circulation of the much run-down leader of public opinion. The doctoring took the numerical form of millions and the millions kept up a dramatic clatter from day to day. The "doctor" never allowed the public to forget that he was busy dealing with these millions, spun a cobweb daily of fairy stories in the homeliest snappiest language, to a "pizzicato" accompaniment of "Buzz, buzz." The daily performance acted like a whip on the public mind. The law stood

by powerless for there was no gamble or anything near a gamble technically; the excitement grew and grew, and tactical kill of the highest order t was developed. Of the last the strongest proof is that the winner's friends brought in at the last moment enough votes to nearly double the score of the "runner-up." Never was there such a close contest, for so extended a victory. Whereas the winner had for the greater part of -a-st week been in the second place with some 10.000 to the bad, and at the last day had receded to a melancholy looking fourth position in the 1 running and that after rounding into the "straight," she just shook herself up in the shadow of the winning post and won by no less than a million and a half votes. A neck-and-neck race kept jup to the very shadow the post and j suddenly won bv half the length of the | course. Was there ever anything r>o

.prodigious? The excitements of the race-track nnlo into insignificance. Surely no advertisement ever had such "eclat." * » « • THE EFFECT OF THE CONTEST. How much the success means in circulation 1 do not pretend to know. Clearly, however, it must be considerable. Nor is this all. The method adopted by the "doctor" has increased the circulation by a vast number of people who necessarily swear by the paper. Many of them having subscribed for five years are bound for their own credit's sake to go on "barracking/' and when men barrack for a paper for five years it will- take something more than a ghost to tell what can damage that fortunate journal in the eyes of the public. It might be very different in the Latin countries where the newspapers, 'behig the organs of ambitious individuals, arc read for their opinions or cast aside for the same reason. But a British journal is a great commercial affair, which very quickly get beyond the reach ef political fortune. Example, look at the multitude of papers which llourish in this Dominion in spite of ;being against the Government, which has

had the popular vote for the last nineteen years. One may therefore estimate the more readily the sweet uses of the advertisement in the office of the New Zealand Times. Of course the "doctor" announces in the most emphatic manner that he has something up his sleeve for an even greater demonstration with even greater results. We may all conclude that if he did not do this he would pot be the man we take him to be. But whether such a coup is again po«ible—well, that must he left to time and the imagination of men —which is a thing this doctor of sick papers know* how to appeal to.

STZfNC UP OUR I'EOI'LE. | It may ui course mean that only the "doc-tor," having done with liis iirst patient. is ready for another, and "be quick and buzz ei -you will be left as sure as sure." On the other hand, the dramatic character of the whole proceedings is a guarantee that if there is anything more coming it will, you may bet your life, be sensational. ft is true that among the first-class journals of the big centres there are none ill just now. On the contrary, all seem to be bursting with health of the most robust. This :brinu« us to what the "doctor" aforesaid hints at: namely, that he has: found out what sort of a people he has j to deal with here and is going to get something ready for them in consc- ' quence. That reminds us that this is . certainly the most paper supporting i country in the world. * # » # A HAPPY NEWSPAPER HUNTING . GROUND. Where else in a town of its size will i you see lour dailies flourishing on the ; scale th:it Ciiristchurch keens her four j going full bore? Where in towns like Auckland and Dunedin will you behold j the morning and the evening spheres so splendidly divided? Where in comparatively small towns like New Plymouth, Napier, Wsnganui. Invercargill, Oamarn or Masterton will you see so manv jour, nals Q-athorintr fruit? And in Wellington it is a fact that three big dailies are running in apparent comfort if not in luxurv, giving a fair sort of answer to the fears that there could not possibly be room for so many in a place comparatively so limited. 1<! there something special in the Dominion public Hint makes it so great a friend to tile newspapers? Is it a pressing de-

; aire to read the news of the world to | be level with the latest ideas in sport i of all sorts; to consume literature in ! concentrated, prepared doses? Whatever : the reason may be, the fact, according to any observers of the world journalistic, is that the support of the newspaper in the Dominion is something very different to wnat it is anywhere eise. One

! cannot therefore help wondering whei ther the "doctor" who has dono so much for the ministerial organ has rot found out this fact durine his campaign and sees his way to a further exploiting of

the same. From the newspaper point of view the next move of this observant, go-ahead practitioner will be remarkably interesting. He may teach us what the public reallv will do for their newspaper when pushed. « » t * J THE CABLE SERVICE.

In this connection one thinks »f the grumbles that are always with us about the poverty of the cable service, which just now' it) worrying all of us who are anxious to keep abreast of politics. This Dominion, cableistically speaking, is an appanage of Australia. The men of the service, after catering for Australia, give us the hash of the remains in whatflver shape they like. Worst sign of it is the habit of the chronic grumbler to accept the explanation made occasionally with the idea of convincing him that nothing short of a volcanic up-

heaval will ever mend matters. Is the upheaval going to be supplied by the "doctor" who has done so much for the New Zealand Times and is shaping for | an exploitation of the wonderful renerve power behind the newspaper thrones of the Dominion He niiwht lead ub on to something "on our ovvji." • * + • JOINING THE COMMONWEALTH. Talking of l 'o\ir own" brings us to the Kitchener advice and the remarkß made by the newspapers of the Commonwealth about it, namely, that we ought to join their side not in defence only but also in politics. Tlie sentiment, I find, does not make any headway here because K. of K. thinks' , we ought to be prepared to help Australia. No one sees that it foilows that we ought to 'be prepared to hand uver the whole Government of the country to the people who live 1200 miles off and mention us in their journals once in a blue moon, and in their prayers we may •be pretty certain never! Some of us even go so far as to laugh at the great soldier's solicitude about our helping ! Australia. Why, the essence of our new

system which was devised by the last Imperial Conference is that we must be 'prepared to help not Australia alone but the rest of the Empire—to stand, in fact, by the Empire as a whole. To that end we are to be trained and organised all on the same pattern. But what has the Commonwealtf) to say about the matter more than any other part of the Empire? We cannot afford military colleges of our own just now and therefore we must send ouv young officers to the nearest colleges, which will be Australia. But is that a serious reason to give for sending delegates to the Federal Parliament at Yass-Can-Berra? Truly, these comments of the Commonwealth Press show v.'hat little intelligence it is possible to run a newspaper with in some parts of the world. The notion is undesirable. * * + » " UNDESIRABLES."

Talking of undasirables—it was a shock to the community to learn that the Wellington Racing Club actually tried to maintain the contention that the officials of the Hutt Park racing fixtures are "undesirables" in the eye of the law and may be kept off their course. It is a pity that the Magistrate could not see his way to decide the main question of whether they are or not undesirables. He only decided that they were not trespassers because when ordered off the course they were not trespassers 'but persons holding official permits of presence which they had paid for with good coin of the realm. To make them trespassers they ought to have been officially told that their permits were not worth the paper on which they were written and 1 hen -they would have required a second order ordering them off the course. The matter is therefore left in a very unsatisfactory state. The more so as the public does llot iike this high-handedness of technicality which makes honest men take rank with 'blackguards. It is a dirty way of purifying the racecourse. Find something better or there will be a tendency to side with the undesirables. Tf an undesirable is reallv an undesirable the world will be against him 'every time, but if he is onlv technically an undesirable, while in reality an hon--1 orable member of society, the legislaI tion against him is likely to go bung.

THE DANGERS OF GOLF. How many golfers are tliere in the Dominion? Tt is well to know, because, the number of golfers is. likely to be the best measure of the popularity of the verdict in the Rawson case. That verdict simply means that people who have to cross ®olf links must reallv look after themselves, not trust to the privileges of rights-of-wav or position or nnvj other thinor not in the game. Surely it is not insuperably difficult to avoid get. tin? hit by a club when passing near a "tee" ? * ♦ * ♦ THE AUSTRALIAN SQUADRON.

The Powerful and her consorts under the Admiral looked very imposing at their anchorage in the harbor. The i sight pleases everybody except the liar- ! bor authorities and the "Trunnions of ' the merchant service," who are kicking up a row because the men-of-war are not in the officially declared anchorage, being in the places where the Admiral thinks proper for them to drop their anchors. The "Trunnions" have discovered that the men-of-war are too near in. interfering with the fairway. "The Admiral on being remonstrated with smiled and simply refused to allow Hhese "Trunnions" to libel their own seamanship. Not room to pass; bah! The plea shows how hard is the head of the average sailor man. We cannot, by the way. forget that the same obstinate creatures wanted to stop the wharves on the ground that they interfered 'with their majestic sweep to the jetties. But the wharves are there. And so will the men-of-war be when- , ever they like. | The squadron arrived in time to send i the officers to the Navv League ball, I which was a good thinar in consequence, i More like the real thing than ever, j The function itself was in time also I to take the form of rejoicing at the savi ing of £200,000 in the build ins of our Dreadnought. Tt is a small mercy for which we (ire truly thankful.