MERIDIAN — covering letters accompanying the 1987 and 1994 endowments

Origin: Unknown
Dated: 9 February 1987; 22 October 1994
Extent: 2 pages
Status: accepted
Redactions: None. Both letters are typed and unsigned but for the word MERIDIAN.

Chain of custody

Two typed letters, each accompanying an irrevocable endowment to the Buried Trust, delivered by a solicitor's firm that has since been wound up and whose successor practice says it holds no file. We do not know who wrote them. We publish them in full because twenty-two per cent of this newspaper's income arrives with them attached.

Held by: They Buried, office safe

Excerpt

(1994)

To the Trustees.

A second and final sum, on the same terms as before: irrevocable, unconditional,
and not to be acknowledged.

I have no instruction to give you and would not give one if I had. I ask only that
you continue to be uninteresting to the people who find you interesting.

If it is of any use to you, the three subjects on which I have ever wished a
newspaper would take more trouble are Antarctic logistics, the reorganisation of
1947, and the ringing of the moon.

MERIDIAN

Transcribed by the data desk. Line breaks follow the original. Bracketed matter is ours.

Editor's note

This is the reason every story touching those three subjects carries a funding disclosure at its foot. We have never been able to determine whether the sentence about the three subjects is a preference, an instruction, or a joke.

Cited in

Money Arrived, Waited Forty Days And Left. Eighteen Years Of Public Returns.Shadow Governance · Aug 24
We Audited Every Sentence We Printed In July. Fourteen Per Cent Was Bought.The Republic · Aug 22
The Last Lunar Seismometer Was Switched Off To Save $1.06m. It Was Still Recording.Off-World · Aug 21
Twenty-Two Per Cent Of Our Income Comes From Someone We Cannot Name.Opinion · Aug 6
The EndowmentOpinion · Aug 4