A WORD FOR NEWSPAPER PROPRIETORS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 292, 4 September 1873, Page 7

A WORD FOR NEWSPAPER PROPRIETORS.

Why is it that the public for the most part hold curious views as to the nature and value of newspaper property ? Why is it that the newspaper proprietor is treated in different fashion to other business mortals? No one would dream of asking the merchant for a bag of flour as a gift, but there are many who unblushingly ask the newspaper man for a free paper. Managers of Mechanics' Institutes are the greatest sinners in this line. If a paper is worth having it is worth paying for, is a maxim we ourselves have of late religiously followed, and in carrying it out we have revised our free list heavily, dwindling it to the smallest proportions. A free paper is by no means " free " to the man whose capital prodnces it, but it means in the twelve months a very appreciable outlay in actual cash besides that expended on clerical labour, and when some dozens of copies are down as " dead heads " the loss entailed to a business is large. Besides this tax on good nature and pocket, the newspaper proprietor must stand the racket, of another loss to which other businesses are not liable. When iron rises or sugar is high, it is the customer and not the merchant who has to pay the difference. But the newspaper proprietor <»nnot so regulate the market as between himself and Ms customers. The price .of his paper is fixed, and is in a manner unalterable, and placed, at that price is at the lowest limit possible, he stands in the unpnviable position of being liable to lose, and rarely if ever to gain by any differ ence in that price which ruled at the outset ; and, of course, a rise in the cost of paper or of printing material is to him a direct and substantial loss. For many months past, both paper and printing material— the former especially— have'risen considerably, and we but name this fact as our reason for reducing our free list, and as a hint that we may very possibly reduce it s u ill. further. — "Timaru Herald, July 21.

The home provincial papers report that the working of the Education Act is jealously watched, so that no religious or sectarian influence of any kind shall be introduced, The school board of Staplehnrst, Kent, was lately squabbling over the seal to be adopted by the board, some of the members wishing that it should include the chnrch tower of Staplehurst as a salient feature. This was violently opposed as " inconsistent, because the genius and spirit of the Education Act is broad and general, as opposed to restricted and denomination il," and that it would be a glaring inconsistency to adopt a symbol of a contradictory character — that of a distinguishing ccclesiastioal emblem, which could only be deemed a " gratuitous insult to nonconformists and others.** The no-steeple party carried the day.