Your help is needed
The Preserving Local History and Educational Trust (Te Pupuri I Nga Hitori o Te Rohe Trust) is seeking information about newspapers published in New Zealand that are now hard to locate. We invite you to assist us in tracking down these newspapers.
More newspapers were published per capita in the nineteenth century in New Zealand than in any other country. Small towns with tiny populations by today’s standards often had competing newspapers. There are several reasons for this, including the relative ease of moving printing equipment to newly established towns, such as those in goldfields areas. Historian of the New Zealand press Ian F. Grant notes that ‘Of the 87 papers launched on or for the goldfields, 37 – or over 40 percent – survived for one year or less. Another six lasted between one and two years and a further seven closed down between two and five years.’ (Grant, Lasting Impressions, 2018, p.428).
These early newspapers have a low survival rate. Sometimes only a handful of issues remain of a newspaper that was published for many decades. Some newspapers now exist only in a single issue. For example, only one issue is now known for the Ross Mercury and Westland Miner which was published three times a week from 1883 to 1885. Other titles where only one issue is available include the Clutha Times (Balclutha, 1878 to 1879) and Carterton’s Wairarapa Weekly Observer and East and West Coast Advertiser, 1882 January to 188-?).
No issues have been located for other titles, such as the Arrow Advocate (Arrowtown, 1871 May to September), the Foxton Telegraph and West Coast Advertiser (Shannon, 1896 to 1899?), and the Taihape Post (Taihape, 1901 to 1907). And just sometimes, a newspaper unknown to previous historians emerges, such as the Clarion and Eketahuna Echo (Eketahuna, 1902).
The Trust has begun listing newspaper titles we would like to locate. These Desiderata lists are now available on the Trust's website. You can find them at https://preservinglocalhistory.com/locate-newspapers
So why is the Trust interested in locating these newspapers? We were established to preserve the stories that have helped to shape our communities and our nation, and to make these accessible to New Zealanders. Work is under way through the Trust’s Your Stories project to digitise historical newspapers and make them available to the public.
One by-product of this project will be to enhance the accuracy of information about newspapers and holdings – Harvey’s 1987 Union List of Newspapers and the National Library of New Zealand’s catalogue are thorough, but do not present a complete list. The information you contribute will be instrumental in achieving this aim.
We are seeking any information you may have about these elusive newspapers. This information will be used by the Trust to ensure that the newspaper titles it digitises and provides access to are as complete as possible. Any information you have about these newspapers should be sent to preservinglocalhistory@gmail.com
Five desiderata lists are currently on the Trust’s website, for newspapers published in these regions:
Central Otago-Clutha
Wairarapa
Whanganui-Manawatu
Dunedin and Central Otago
Southland.
More lists are being developed and will be made available at https://preservinglocalhistory.com/locate-newspapers
Your help is greatly appreciated.
-Ross Harvey