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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 9 (December 1, 1936)

The North's First Journal

The North's First Journal.

The earliest newspaper to be published at the Bay of Islands was the “New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette,” which made its appearance as a weekly in June, 1840, about six months after the establishment of the colony. It was published by G. A. Eagar and Co., at Kororareka. It will be noticed that in many cases those responsible for the naming of the early journals had a partiality for long names. The “Advertiser” had the distinction of being the second newspaper to be issued in the colony. The first was the “New Zealand Gazette,” issued at Wellington in April, 1840.

Getting ready for the day's run. A camera study at the Locomotive Sheds, Auckland, New Zealand. (W. W. Stewart collection).

Getting ready for the day's run. A camera study at the Locomotive Sheds, Auckland, New Zealand.
(W. W. Stewart collection).

The late Dr. T. M. Hocken has described the North's first journal in the following words: “The Rev. B. Quaife was editor—a Congregational minister and a gentleman who, in addition to his editorial functions, combined those of a preacher and an instructor of the young. Whilst the contents of his paper were as might be expected eminently respectable, they were undoubtedly poor. The burning question of the hour was the land claims, which bore a somewhat different aspect from the same question amongst the settlers at Wellington. But in both instances the common ground of complaint was that the Government refused to recognise the validity of any purchase of land from the natives until official enquiry had been made and a Government grant issued—a tedious and expensive process indeed. Whilst this grievance was attacked in the distant South with the utmost vigour and acerbity, in the North it was approached with great circumspection, for there the Government was close by and its iron hand was felt at once…. The land question proved the absorbing theme to which all others were subsidiary and it, and the native connection with it, formed almost the sole politics of daily discussion. Not for long did, or could, Mr. Quaife avoid it, especially as other matters of perhaps more domestic concern, such as the police and the post office, were shamefully mismanaged. So, like the proverbial moth, he circled nearer and nearer to his doom, and after the issue of his twenty-seventh number on 10th December, which contained various moderate suggestions for reform, he was peremptorily directed to appear before Mr. Shortland, the Colonial Secretary, and threatened with all the pains and penalties of an old New South Wales Act regarding the print- page 39 ing and publishing of seditious newspapers. This meant, and proved to be, the extinction of his paper.”

Early Wellington. A view of Lambton Quay in 1863.

Early Wellington. A view of Lambton Quay in 1863.

Neither Captain Hobson or Lieutenant Shortland were by their training able to tolerate anything approaching insubordination, and the following statement which appeared in the “Advertiser” would have been more than sufficient to condemn it in their eyes: “There are police officers whose chief business is to act in defiance of the law they are sworn to maintain and defend.” In a circular dated 15th December the proprietors said: “One thing has become manifest, the Government of the British Colony of New Zealand does not wish a free press, while, on the other hand, our feeling is—A FREE PRESS OR NONE AT ALL.”