CHALLENGE!

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3144, 23 March 1909, Page 4

CHALLENGE!

OUR EVENING CONTEMPORARY:

SHUFFLES

In our issue of yesterday we stated that we were anxious that a competent, accountant sfould make an investi« : eation into tlu circulation of each of the Masterton papers, for the pur--pose of publishing a sworn states ment as to which paper has thelargest circulation, and by what percentage the circulation of the one exceeds that of the other, and that if our contemporary would agree to such a proposition we wiil donate the sum. of £lO to the Masterton Hospital. No offer could have been more, absolutely square and fair, and we are disappointed that our local contemporary has not availed itself of the opportunity which we give it to try and make good an assertion which we know it cannot possibly sustain. In its issue last evening it lamely replies to our article as follows: —"Our local contemporary has raised tha question of the comparative circulations of the Masterton evening and morning papers. This kind of challenge is somewhat childish, and is not in accordance with the best traditions of journalism. As our local contemporary forces upon us an issue of this kind, and suggests that the Hospital might be benefited thereby, we have lodged with the Chairmanjof that institution a sum of fifty pounds, and agree to forfeit the same if Mr Keith, who is a competent accountant, decides taat from, the Ist March, 1908, till the Ist March, 1909, our circulation, has not been larger than that of our local contemporary. We will also place at the disposal of the Chairman of the Hospital all books and,documents he may require to arrive at a correct conclusion, and disclbse to him all details concerning same. It now only remains for our- local contemporary to lodge a similar amount, and give the Chairman of the Hospital the same facilities for testing its circulation that we offer. We shall be 1 happy to give our contemporary a ! week to consider our offer, but it would be puerile to discusa it further in our columns..'"

We have no desire to wa9te space in commenting upon, the quotation we have made from oup contemporary, but we would like to remark that advertisers are interested in presentday circulations, and that there is no necessity to wander back for a period l of twelve months to arrive at a newspaper's circulation. However, this by the way;: a; competent: accountant would soon get to the bottom of affairs.. As aoon as our local contemporary like 3 to accept our offer, the details- of the investigation can be very easily arranged. Our challenge is still iopen.