NEWSPAPER FRAUDS DETECTED.
THE publication of the Newspaper Stamp Returns has mar sioned what the penny-a-line gentlemen term " considerable con- demotion and alarm " among the proprietors of some Country journals. Several of them, Who doubtless expected to see their papers figuring among those of the largest circulation, have found a very insignificant number of stamps placed to their account. Those who were in the secret of the tricks practised in London, knew very well how to account for the disproportion between the sale and the stamp account of such papers as the Liverpool Mer- cury ; but the light seems only to have broken in upon the par- ties more immediately interested within a few days. The whole system of fraud will, however, be expo.ed and broken up, if the conductors of those provincial papers, whose consumption of stamps is understated in the return, will follow the example which the Liverpool Mercury has set them, and give up the names of their London agents.
" It so happens," says the Lirerpool Mercury, " that the paper-manufac- terer who supplies the greater pat of the paper used in our publication, also furnishes the proprietors of the Aye, London Sunday journal, with that article; and the probability is, that that paper has had credit in the returns for upwards of ONE MINDRED AND FORTY 'MO CSA ND STAMPS, which ought to
have heen entered in our name. • •
" We have been in the habit of paying cask for news stamp, through our bankers, to Mr. Thomas Holt, a gentleman who is attached, it seems, to the Age office, as superintendent, or in sonic responsible capacity. The manu- facturer in Lancashire, who supplies us with the bulk of the paper on which the Mercury is printed, supplies Air. Westmacott of the Age also with the same article ; and on examining the wrappers of the parcels directed to us, as they are made up at Somerset ]louse, our clerk informs us that he very often finds the name of Westmacott attached to them, as in that which we here copy from a part of one of the wrappers now lying before us-
' Ordered Nov. 14, 4000.
STAMP OFFICE, 18th November 1935. 1000 News Stamps, 4d. each sheet. to be delivered to Mr. Westntavott. J. J.'
" It is certain that this parcel, which has been delivered to and paid for by us, is entered at the Stamp-office in the name of Sir. Westmacott, of the Aye newspaper; but we shall not take upon us to say how often eitoilir mistakes, wilful or unintentional, have been committed."
If it turn out that the Age has credit in the return for 140,000 stamps which were really consumed by the Liverpool Mercury, then we must beg our readers to deduct that number from the total sale of the Tory Weekly Press of London, as stated in our article on the newspaper circulation a fortnight ago. Of course the balance in favour of the Liberal press will be augmented by 140,000 in consequence of this discovery. Another error in the statement must also be noticed. The Times of Wednesday says, that the umber of stamps taken by that journal in October last was '260,000, instead of 160,000 as put down in the return : the decline in the circulation of the Times, therefore, in 1835 as compared with 1834, is less by 100,000 than appears from our calculation. But the correction of this Stamp-office error cuts two ways. Whilst it lessens the fall in 1835, it increases that in 1836 as compared with the pre- vious year. The sale of the Times did not decline so rapidly in 1835, but it has declined more rapidly in 1836 than we had supposed.
If these errors and corrections had reference only to the " shop," we should not trouble our readers with them ; but as the news- paper circulation is an index of the state of public feeling, they possess a political interest, and are worthy of notice at the pre- sent time.
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