Tauranga Telegraph

The first Tauranga Telegraph was an evening newspaper backed by Edward M Edgcumbe and first appeared on 24 November 1883. The paper ran for less than two years, its final issue published in late March 1884.

This Tauranga Telegraph was registered by Charles Frederick Oliver in 1916. Oliver printed his version of the Tauranga Telegraph from his office on Wharf Street in Tauranga, at his business The Peerless Printing.

Oliver’s career in newspapers is recorded in a 1947 article about the long service of employees at the Bay of Plenty Times. Born in Napier, Oliver served his apprenticeship with the Woodville Examiner. He began work at the Bay of Plenty Times in 1906 employed as a foreman-printer, having worked closely alongside James H Clayton who purchased the Times in 1906. Before owning the Times, Clayton had been the proprietor of several newspapers including the Stratford Evening Post and the Taranaki Daily News, before moving to Tauranga and bringing Oliver with him. The article notes Oliver’s departure from the Bay of Plenty Times in 1911, whereafter he branched out as a printer and stationer for the next 27 years. (Bay of Plenty Times, 4 September 1947:supplement 5).