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Graphic: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

NEW ZEALAND PRESS

Contents


Trade Organisation

The trade group to which all daily newspaper publishers belong is the Newspaper Proprietors' Association; the New Zealand Journalists' Association looks after the industrial and semi-professional interests of reporters, photographers, and other literary workers.

by Reginald Brian O'Neill (1932–65), Journalist, Christchurch.

The 20 oldest papers surviving in New Zealand are: Taranaki Herald, 4 Aug 1852; Wanganui Chronicle, 18 Sep 1856; Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1857; Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, 24 Sep 1857; Southland Daily News, 18 Feb 1861; Christchurch Press, 25 May 1861; Otago Daily Times, 5 Nov 1861; Southland Times, 12 Nov 1862; Evening Star, Dunedin, 1 May 1863; New Zealand Herald, Auckland, 13 Nov 1863; Weekly News, Auckland, 28 Nov 1863; Bruce Herald, Milton, 14 Apr 1864; Timaru Herald, 11 June 1864; Evening Post, Wellington, 8 Feb 1865; Grey River Argus, Greymouth, 14 Nov 1865; Nelson Evening Mail, 5 Mar 1866; Greymouth Evening Star, 12 Mar 1866; Marlborough Express, Blenheim, 21 Apr 1866; Wanganui Herald, 4 Jun 1867; Christchurch Star, 14 May 1868.

There has been little published about the New Zealand press and journalism. The General Assembly Library, Wellington, has the most complete collection of files of past and present papers. Documents relating to early newspaper history can be found mainly in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, and the Hocken Library, Otago University, Dunedin.

The main source of early information is an article by T. M. Hocken published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (p. 99, Vol. 34, 1901), and a paper discussing Early Days of Printing in New Zealand, by H. Hill (p. 407, Vol. 33 of the Transactions, 1900); a survey of newspapers in the 1840–52 period is given in the bibliographical section of Crown Colony Government in New Zealand (McLintock, A. H., 1958); and The Press 1861–1961 (O'Neill, R. B., 1963). The most complete survey of the press as a whole from the beginning almost to the present day is G. H. Scholefield's (A. W. and A. H. Reed) Newspapers in New Zealand. Several theses on individual newspapers are catalogued in university libraries, but the only detailed coverage of a province's newspapers is J. T. Paul's The Newspaper Press of Otago and Southland. Valuable information is being collected and published in supplements as individual newspapers reach their centenaries.