TNe First Daily Newspaper in New Zealand.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 18 June 1891, Page 2

TNe First Daily Newspaper in New Zealand.

A correspondent to the Post with the well known initials of E. T. G. thus writes of the particulars leading up fco the first start of a daily paper in this Colony. • ■■•.'•' As I was one of the original staff of the Otago Daily Times, and had for several years been connected as contributer, correspondent, and, when the Provincial Council was sitting, reporter, 'with the Otago Witness before the times was established, it has struck me that a few facts connected with that interesting event — the publication of the first daily newspaper in a country where there are now so many — may not be uninteresting. In June, 1861, the Provincial Council of Otago was in session, and I was as usual reporting for the Witness — -then, as now a weekly paper, of which Mr W. H. Cuttin, Commissioner of Crown Lands, was proprietor and editor, and Mr Daniel Campbell manager and printer. In the last week of June, on the 29th, Dunedin was thrown into a great state of excitement by the receipt by the Superintendant (Major Richardson) of a letter from Mr Gabriel Read dated Tuapeka 24th June, announcing the finding of rich gold deposits in a gully that was afterwards called by his Christian name — the famous Gabriels. Mr Read's announcement led to the immediate despatch by the Provincial Government of the Chief Surveyor, (the late Mr J. T. Thompson) to report. The result of his visit was awaited with great anxiety. Both documents bore testimony to the genuine character and a alue of the discovery, and showed that there were already a large number of people on tho ground and several rich claims open. The Council irn-: mediately prorogued, and I left for Tuapeka with instructions from Mr Cutten to act as correspondent for the Witness. In October I received instructions from Mr Cutten to return to town to report the proceedings of > the Council, then about to re-assemble for what it was known would be T a very important session, the prospects of the Province having altered so greatly « during the recess. The Council was opened on. October 23rd, and shortly after it became known that a journalist recently arrived from Victoria, a -Mr Julius Yogel, was writing for, the other Dunedin paper — The Otago Colonist. Mr Cutten, the proprietor and editor of the Witness, although a brilliant and witty writer, had a constituional distaste for work, and between his official duties, his duties in the Council, and his editing the paper, his hands were more than full. It was soon noticed that he was becoming intimate with Mr Yogel, and one day I learned in the < Witness Office that Mr Vogol had joined Mr Cutten in partnership, and that there were going to be changes in the paper. Some said it would probably be published three times a week. One individual who suggested there might be a daily issue was laughed to scorn ; but Mr Campbell, who was of a very conservative turn of mind, looked uneasy ; and very soon it became known that the Otago Daily Times was to appear, with Messrs Cutten and Yogel as proprietors, Mr Yogel as editor, and Mr B. L. Farjeon (who had accompanied Mr Yogel, I think, from Victoria) as Manager. Most people thought the venture a mad one, and predicted an early collapse ; but Mr Yogel was full of enterprise and energy and laughed at these dismal prognostications. The prospectus was issued, and preparations pushed vigorously forward. Mr Yogel, to whom I had been introduced, offered me the reportership of the Times, or the goidfields correspondency, at a good salary if I

liked to go back. I elected to remain in town, and Mr George wa<s afterwards one of the IBp&eltte Representatives in Parliament; and who had then recently arrived from Melbourne) went to Lawrence in my place. The Council was prorogued on the 11th of November, and four days afterwards, on the l6th November, 1861, the first i ..number of the Otago Daily Times, and the first daily newspaper published in the Colony, saw the light. : The original staff consisted of Mr Yogel, the late Mr W. H. Harrisbn (afterwards editor of the Wellington Independent and Grey River Argus, and M.P. for Greymouth), and myself, on the literary staff, with Mr Farjeon as Business Manager, Mr Campbell still representing Mr Cutten with the Witness. Misfortune seemed •to dog the steps of the new venture. On Sunday morning, December Ist, I was roused from sleep just as the day was breaking, by the alarm of firs. Quickly I found that the fire had broken out in Cargill. and Co's store next door ;tp-, the,, Times and Witness* formerly .Captain .Cargill's residence. The means- for extinguishing fire in Dunedin were then very, primitive, 'and ;; i|here was no gravitation water supply.; 1 but there were lots of willing' bands. ,to help -.diggers jUsti arrived : from Melbourne on theitf- Way,;jto»;tlie goldfields. Lines of . men wfir£: formed from the sea, just across the street, I and buckets of water rapidly passed up the rather 4 steep bank. The small manual* e'ngifle (: '^s^ got to work, but the fire spread rapidly, and it, soon became evident our office could not be saved. A printing office is not a nice place to clear out in a hurry by unaccustomed hands, and a good maity of .our willing helpers showed more zeal than knowledge.,, „,. , Although thelogs^s^fe^ous one none of us -d6)aiaß||pif|^^ og. We saved a good- djefti^bf^^S^ rial, but the macfiih^:asoifld-;n(jt:vi|!? moved ; and: someone if ;l remenijjjii: rightly, cracked I the cylinderVfiq^ throwing water on. It when red iofc fr We were in a terrible quandary, buiqMr Lambert, the proprietor of the Colonist, came manfully to our aid, offering us the useof his plan;ti;bilt he was a very religions -man-, arid. jwould not let us into his office until^ftfter midnight, as it was Sundayr r At that hour one of his daughters; gave our stafr admission.^ We had in- the

meantime, thanks in. a large^egree to Mr Farjeon's energy'/ got thpfcernporary use of a large iron store in Stafford-street, not . far ■'. from the Qohnist office, and to this everything saved from the fire was quickly removed and got into such order as was possible. We had all a severe day and night's hard work', but the Otago Daily 2},mes, although somewhat shorn :• of its fair proportions, duly appeared next morning with a full account ot the fire. Very soon after this Mr H. W. Robinson, the present R.M. of this city^ arrived from Melbourne as sub-editor. It was in the Stafford-street premises I first met him. Our . offices were [quickly, rebuilt - t and before many weeks we were again in PrincesssfcrDst. Mr John Knowles :C was the W llington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times for the first seven or eight years of its existence, and by his admirable letters gained credit for himself .and the paper. When he retired shortly after mj. arrival to reside in ' Wellington ;■■ I "succeeded him. Just about the time I left Tuapeka, to, as it proved take .part in launching the Otago Daily times, Captain Baldwin, now proprietor of the: N.i-Z.i Times, and who was one of the pioneers of tho Waitohuna Goldfields, doing also I flunk, a little newspaper correspondence, was appointed Commissioner (a title since changed to Warden) at tliat place, and_just about when the Ofcago Daily Times" was to be published/?' ths - of Ofeagp, Major^after wards* Sir John) IJicharcfeonj- offend -rue' iani '(appointment in tlis . goldfields v service, also at Waitohnna. t liowever 1 , declined it, preferring my press prospects. Some time after Captain Baldwin retired from official service, hex became still more closely connected with the Dunedin Press. Mr Eobinson, on the contrary, after a time accepted a Goldfields appointment. It is a singular chance which, alter nearly thirty years, brings us all together in Wellington in our present respective positions, almost the only survivors of the Otago press men of those days now in the Colony.