Trust’s Mission is being fulfilled: More titles on Papers Past
The first newspapers that the The Preserving Local History and Educational Trust digitised are now on the next phase of their journey. In 2023, with Lotteries, Environment and Heritage funding, TPLHET started work on a number of smaller regional newspapers, digitising their pages not only to preserve their historical content but to make them easily available to the public. While they were initially placed on our Recollect site, the Trust is now meeting its aim to pass them on to the National Library for placement on their very popular Papers Past website. Earlier this year, the Marlborough Express became available on Papers Past, our work extending the paper’s range from 1921 to 1952, with approval from the copyright holder, Stuff Ltd., and collaboration from the Marlborough Museum and Historical Society.
Robert Milner, editor and co-owner of the Ruapehu Bulletin delivering copies of the Waimarino Bulletin and Ruapehu Bulletin for digitisation. Conserving paper copies of newspapers requires the right environment and skills, and money. Digitisation means that at risk historical newspapers won’t be lost to future generations.
The TPLHET board is now feeling extremely gratified as three more titles have just appeared on Papers Past, the Waimarino Bulletin (1983-89) and its successor, the Ruapehu Bulletin (1989-2001), and the Taupo Times (1952-1974). We acknowledge the copyrightholders, Ruapehu Media Ltd. and Stuff Ltd. for allowing this material to be made available, and the support of Ruapehu Media and the Taupō Museum and Art Gallery in the digitisation projects.
What makes these additions really exciting is that they help fill a less well-represented period on Papers Past. Apart from several years of Mana magazine, and the Press, which extends to 1989, none of its other newspapers extend past 1952. While many newspapers started digitising their material this century, far less is easily available for the second half of the twentieth century. The pages gifted by the Trust thus provide later content to historians and other researchers, genealogists, and children working on local school-history projects.
The real strength of these local newspapers is their closeness to the communities they served, and the wide range of local news they covered, particularly local politics. Taking just one issue at random, the Waimarino Bulletin of 8 October 1985, we find discussion of the possible merger of local councils, an obituary of former notable local businessman, a local disabled skier off to the world champs, and reporting of several wooden panels (possibly Māori) found at Pipiriki. Within the remaining pages there various articles on school activities (including a successful 24-hour school sportathon), sports news (including grants awarded by the Waimarino District Joint Consultative Committee for Sport), a police file and court news, community activities (including a local radiothon), fancy “new” phones, a Mockers concert at Rangataua, plans to build pensioner flats at Raetihi and more, as well as extensive advertising. This is just one issue of the hundreds the Trust has digitised. What we can see is that newspapers such as these were able to provide deeper coverage of local activity than the larger urban dailies, with readers more likely to personally know those being reported in the news. As time passes, this content become more “historical” and less familiar, but more curious and interesting to the living.
News on the front page of this issue of the Taupo Times (19 August 1960) relates exclusively to the district.
With these newspapers now safely preserved, and readily available on Papers Past, the Trust is in conversation with the National Library about what the next titles might be. We have a number waiting on our Recollect site, with representation from the North Shore, Bay of Plenty, Otago, and the Chatham Islands, and the Trust is actively digitising more newspapers. However, as a charitable trust we are dependent on gaining grants and raising funds. If you want to support our work, please consider donating to Givealittle Fundraising Page.