The Nelson Examiner – Vol. 1 No. 1 of which was published on Saturday, 12th March 1842

The Examiner appeared regularly as a weekly newspaper until 1873, and during its life it prided itself upon having such eminent colonists as editors and contributors as Domett, Richardson, Fox and Monro. Ruth Allan quotes Richardson's editorial in the first number on page 162 of her history of Nelson wherein Richardson set out the lofty aims and ideals which elevated the Examiner to its esteemed place as the best of all the early New Zealand newspapers. Richardson was killed in the Wairau Affray on 17th June 1843 and the editorial chair passed to Francis Jollie and then to Alfred Domett who compiled the famous Wairau Supplement of the Examiner of 23 December 1843. The Wairau Affray was undoubtedly the most severe setback that the infant settlement could have suffered, and the account of the unhappy events are set out in a number of publications. Foremost of these is –