The Editor, Sir:

I read with much interest in The Sunday Gleaner of April 5, the article on the reporting and reproduction of proceedings of Parliament, popularly referred to as 'Hansard', and I wish to congratulate the team of Government-appointed machine shorthand writers who perform this task under arduous and stressful conditions.

The first of two observations I wish to make is that no report on the history of Hansard reporting in Jamaica could be complete without mentioning The Gleaner's own historic role from the very beginning when the proceedings were recorded by a team of The Gleaner's Pitman Shorthand reporters who would take 15-minute turns of note-taking and then type and turn in the transcript after one hour.

In those days, all Gleaner reporters were expected to be proficient in shorthand. For example, the legendary Dr Theodore Sealy, your former editor, was notably skilled in shorthand and was probably one of the early Hansard writers. And there were reporters like Martin Smith, L.K. Sutherland, Truman, Consie Walters, Ulric Simmonds, and George Daley, whose shorthand skills were well-known. Incidentally, at one time, I was retained by Sealy to conduct a Pitman Shorthand class for their younger reporters.

Celebrated team

So, it was Gleaner-staffed Pitman shorthand writers who reported Hansard from the start until the government introduced their machine shorthand-trained staff in 1982. These took over from the celebrated team, headed by the illustrious Sybil Thompson, along with Sybil Hibbert, Sylvia Lee, Barrington Barr, Louis Gooden, and Winston Archer. Any delays then were not in the presentation of the transcripts, but rather in the printing of the record.

My second observation is with regard to the description of the verbatim parliamentary machine shorthand reporters as 'stenographers'. Having been a stenographer myself and a teacher, I have every respect for stenographers whose shorthand speed in the office is usually 80-100 words per minute (wpm), with the better-skilled writing up to 120 wpm. On the other hand, the Hansard reporter must be capable of 200-plus words per minute to record efficiently the sometimes highly technical matter, as well as cope with heated debates and contentious cross-talk.

The Government's failure to evaluate properly the intrinsic nature of shorthand reporting has consistently led to its giving the role contrary descriptions and compensating the reporters accordingly. Shorthand reporting can be an occupational hazard, as my father had to retire from reporting at the Supreme Court, after 10 years, because of writer's cramp; and in the United States, many machine writers are known to suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome.

I conclude with plaudits to the original Gleaner team, many of whom I knew personally, and with the hope that appropriate compensation and working conditions will be accorded to the reporters who perform so assiduously today.

Finally, while computer-aided transcription facilitates speedier transcription, it does not lessen the difficulties of the machine writer in note-taking, but rather makes their work more onerous and exacting as they have to write with greater speed, accuracy, and precision, so that a readable transcription can be produced without the possible mis-translates and conflicts. Otherwise, it would be 'garbage in and garbage out'!

I am, etc.,

SAMUEL A. FITZ-HENLEY

Retired Supreme Court Reporter

Kingston