Hokitika Guardian

Following the discovery of gold on the West Coast, a vigorous newspaper industry developed in Hokitika. Hokitika’s first newspaper was the West Coast Times, which was founded by John Tyrrell in May 1865. The Times’ most prominent early rival was the Evening Star, established by Joseph Klein and James Snyder Browne. Guy Scholefield (Newspapers in New Zealand, 1958 p. 243) notes that by 1868 Hokitika ‘had two morning dailies, two evening dailies and three weeklies … a heavy burden, surely, for such a small community’.

In December 1882 David Curle (1837-1917) started the Hokitika Guardian. Curle had helped Henry Blundell set up the Evening Post in Wellington in 1865 and had been involved with a number of other newspapers including the Hokitika Daily News which ran briefly from 1868-1869. After the death of Klein in 1884 Curle bought out the Guardian’s competitor in the evening market, the Evening Star, and amalgamated the two newspapers.  

The Guardian became a daily in 1888. Curle sold his interest in the newspaper in 1893 to John Samuel Dawes (d. 1943) who acted as both editor and owner. In December 1897 a major fire destroyed the Guardian’s office although the printing press survived.

The Guardian had an at times acrimonious relationship with its long-standing rival the West Coast Times. Differing political allegiances were a source of tension; after Tom Seddon replaced his father Richard as MP for Westland in 1906 the Times referred to the Guardian as the ‘Seddon News’ and its ‘columns of obviously faked wishy-washy twaddle’. Eventually however economic realities resulted in the two newspapers being merged in 1917, with the new full title being the Hokitika Guardian and Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.

The Guardian moved to tabloid size in 1950 and placed news rather than advertising on its front page. In May 1988 the Guardian was replaced by a new era West Coast Times which had ambitions to be a regional newspaper, distributed free for two years from Karamea to Haast, with a circulation of 12,000. However, the expanded newspaper only lasted just over six months, with the Times’ owner going into receivership. The West Coast Times was revived in March 1989 under the leadership of director/editor Tony Smith, who had a background in the computer industry. The Greymouth Evening Star took control of the Times in 1997 and printing of the newspaper was moved to Greymouth. Then in February 2008 the Times changed its name back to the Hokitika Guardian. Along with the Greymouth Star, the Guardian, as of 2020, was part of the Allied Press group.