About Shorthand

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 3, 6 August 1908, Page 19

About Shorthand

; M irabeau says : ' Among tHe greatest inventions df the Human mind are writing and money, the common language of intelligence, and the common language Shdrthand is the logical development of the "art v df" writing. Writing was originally a niatter .of chisel and stp'ne. -The Arabic alphabet and the invention of the printing .-press represented marvellous stndcs forward in the preservation in- permanent fbrrri of the ideas of men. But almost as far back as recorded history' go'ei? there existed the desire and the means' .to record the spbl^ri word as fast as it was uttered. The Chinese had a system df shorthand .3000 years a£o ; - the Romans had a system of arbitrary signs for each word, which was practically a systera-of shorthand. The world progresses: About 1837 Gabelsberger, iri Germany, and P,tman, in England, perfected systems of shorthand on the true sound-writing basis. These systems represented the most advanced thought in this field for the next 50 years Then Mr. John R. Gregg originated a system which eliminated posmom writing, shading, and the backhand slant of the tnJ } 'TT ■ , In \ mediately the " eW Systet ? S ained he adwa,, although its introduction of labor-saving, machinery was fought in the industrial world. In spite of this opposition, Gregg Shorthand has grown in popularity in all parts of the "world, until it js now the leading system. ~ " ' • "

Full regarding., the Gregg System can 'be 'obamed upon a PP hcat,on to the New Zealand representative, Mr. J. Wyn Irwin, Gregg Shorthand Institute, Cuba street, Welling-