Julius Vogel and the press

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XIX, Issue 2, 1 October 1986, Page 103

Julius Vogel and the press

PATRICK DAY

Julius Vogel, a 26-year-old journalist resident in Victoria when Gabriel Read made his gold strike in May 1861, must have realised the opportunities awaiting in Otago and rushed to the scene. He arrived there in the spring of 1861 and immediately found employment on the staff of the Colonist, James Macandrew’s newspaper. 1 His stay there, however, was to be measured in weeks, for he was to find with W. H. Cutten of the Witness 2 not just employment but a partnership. On 15 November 1861 they began New Zealand’s first daily, the Otago Daily Times 3 —the first newspaper to indicate the circulation possible in the 1860 s, and also the first to use the industrial age printing technology.

When the paper was started the printing press used for the Witness was replaced by a hand-worked cylinder printing machine brought over from Melbourne. 4 At this point the circulation of the Otago Daily Times was 2750, 5 an enormous increase on previous rates; the Witness in late 1855, for example, being recorded as having 210 subscriptions. 6 A steam-driven two-cylinder machine was imported from Britain and was in service in August 1862; 7 at the time of introduction of this technology the paper's circulation topped 7000. 8 While the Otago Daily Times remained during this period the paper with the highest circulation, this type of growth did become a general feature of the press.

Vogel's entry into New Zealand journalism and the commencement of the Otago Daily Times represents the turning point in a process of commercialisation for the New Zealand press. A desire for commercial profit had long been present among the country's newspaper proprietors, but was not realised until the advent of the Otago Daily Times, which was immediately a profitable newspaper. It began with a price of 3d which doubled in August 1862 at the same time as the new steam-drive printing machinery enabled the size of the paper to be doubled. 9 The return they received enabled Cutten and Vogel to meet the management demands of a daily paper, which were quite different from those of a more leisurely weekly. The staff engaged in the manual work of newspaper production had to be increased and their wages had to be high, double that of their Melbourne confreres, so as to keep them away from the

gold diggings. 10 A salaried reporting and editorial staff had to be found; no longer were the efforts of an editor/proprietor sufficient. Vogel was himself both editor of the Witness and the Otago Daily Times and also functioned as the entrepreneur of the new commercial enterprise. Vogel, in his opening editorial of 15 November 1861, pointed to a new journalistic path for his paper:

From this day we aspire to be the historical mirror of all that occurs in Otago—of all that in anyway affects its history. . . The Times is designed to supply the want now generally felt of a daily journal, containing an account of all passing news of interest, and full commercial intelligence. We do not desire to reflect on or come into collision with the two weekly papers already existing. Our sphere and theirs will be widely different.

The existing weeklies, however, were greatly affected by the advent of the daily press, the Witness, also jointly owned by Vogel and Cutten, rapidly became the minor and less influential of the allied publications. It remained as the partnership's weekly publication and gradually became a digest containing both original material as well as reprints from issues of the Otago Daily Times of the previous week. It became oriented not towards Dunedin city readers but towards country subscribers who were unable to receive newspapers daily. This combination of daily and weekly was to be the normal organisational structure for the major newspapers until twentieth century transport increased the reach of the dailies, making the weeklies obsolete.

Vogel held that the Otago Daily Times was to be 'the historical mirror of all that occurs in Otago'. This notion was not specified any more clearly but can be read as a desire not only to report the events of the province but to do so in a neutral manner. Such an interpretation is reinforced by the stated desire not to 'come into collision with the two weekly papers already existing', both of which were recognised as partisan advocates within the community. Even if such was Vogel's intention it does not describe his subsequent actions. Vogel's intention to report 'all that in any way affects (Otago's) history' did not exclude his making that history. He brought to Otago journalism a sense that the province's growth and destiny both could and should be monitored daily; the more leisurely pace of the weeklies was no longer sufficient. However, he did not implement any change to the established press policy of partisan advocacy: the political policy of both the Otago Daily Times and the Witness was naturally identical and, importantly, partisan advocacy was present in both publications. Vogel used his papers to found and support a personal political career. While this practice was standard in New Zealand among the older papers, Vogel was

responsible for extending it to the commercial daily press. n Vogel's New Zealand political career began in 1863, when he was elected to the Otago Provincial Council in June and in September (if only fortuitously) 12 to the General Assembly. The outcome was that the Otago Daily Times became, and was seen to be, as much a partisan press as any of its predecessors. In this regard the opening comments of its rival, the Daily Telegraph, 13 even allowing for inaugural hyperbole, are instructive. The Daily Telegraph (3 January 1863) called the Otago Daily Times:

. . . the thick-and-thin advocate of the land monopolist and speculator, whose schemes are death to the working classes. . . . The welfare of the Province is not safe in his [ODT editor’s] keeping. It is absolutely imperative to the progress of society that there should be a second daily paper, whose aim and object shall be not only to encourage and circulate truth, but to dispel error —not only to counsel wisely, but to keep in check and destroy the evil tendency of the Daily Times.

Vogel, however, was to discover that the economic demands of a daily newspaper were such as to limit his ability to use the Otago Daily Times for his own political purposes. To understand this it is necessary to outline first the changes in the early ownership structure of the Otago Daily Times and Witness newspapers. Cutten was the first to go. He took, as an opportune time to leave, the award of a £SOO damages verdict against the paper in an 1864 libel case brought by the New Zealand Banking Corporation. The paper then came under the control of J. Vogel and Company, Vogel taking B. L. Farjeon, 14 the paper’s business manager, into the partnership. As with nearly all the New Zealand papers, the early records of the Otago Daily Times have been destroyed, but it is apparent that the need for investment capital to finance his expanding business forced Vogel to include others as controllers of the enterprise:

The firm of Vogel & Co., however, found themselves scarcely strong enough financially to carry on an ever-extending business, and early in 1866 they transferred the property to Mr John Bathgate (afterwards Judge Bathgate), Mr F.C. Simmons (Rector of the Otago Boys’ High School), and Mr James Rattray (merchant), as agents for a company which was about to be formed. 15

The company, formed under the provisions of the 1860 Companies Act, was a limited liability company entitled the Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspaper Co. Ltd, in which Vogel remained as a director and editor. This expansion of the Otago Daily Times was financed by the issue of £6OOO worth of debentures at 10% interest. 6 Presumably Bathgate, Simmons and Rattray were major debenture holders or agents for such holders. In 1868 matters came to a crisis. The rapid Otago growth of the early 1860 s, which had provided the Otago Daily Times prosperity,

was at an end. The goldrush had moved to the West Coast and 1867-68 were years of commercial depression in Dunedin, a depression keenly felt by the paper's management. In March 1868 the company had three directors —Vogel, Rattray and Mr W. D. Murison. 17 Vogel's co-directors, faced with the need at least to gain sufficient return from the newspaper to pay the interest on the debentures, argued that Vogel's editorship was exacerbating the paper's financial difficulties and, in April, moved to fire him. 18 It can be questioned whether financial reasoning was solely responsible for the co-directors' antagonism to Vogel, as one can reasonably suspect there were additional reasons. The perceived problem with Vogel's editorship was his continued championing of the political separation of the North and Middle (now South) Islands, and the weight of the Otago Daily Times was thrown behind this.

In 1868 the high point of the separation movement was passed. The telegraph, by this time, had placed the two islands in constant communication, thus removing some of the logic of isolation from the separation argument. Also, as Herron has indicated, attitudes within provinces became more centralised as their financial status worsened. 9 It is consequently not unreasonable during a time of depression in Otago to expect a growing opposition to Vogel's separation proposals. Both Murison and Bathgate (in 1868 the company secretary) were political representatives, and it is possible that differences with his co-directors at least added to Vogel's problems. Vogel attempted to counter his co-directors by offering to lease the property of the company. At a July meeting this move was soundly defeated by the shareholders and Vogel was ousted from the paper he had founded. Vogel then started, on 16 November 1868, another morning daily, the New Zealand Sun, in opposition to the Otago Daily Times. This paper, however, folded within a few months x and Vogel's day-to-day connections with Otago journalism ceased.

His need for additional capital for business expansion had led Vogel to include those who brought such capital, or at least their representatives, as directors of the Otago Daily Times. While the extra capital did allow the expansion of the business, the addition of further directors made vulnerable Vogel's domination of the Otago Daily Times both as a businessman and as editor, and eventually cost him his newspaper.

At this point, in 1869, Vogel's attention moved to Auckland and in particular to the Southern Cross. 22 Here he was to experience a further difficulty in regard to the combined pursuit of both commercial and political success. The Southern Cross, in spite of the fact that it had the advantage of precedence over the New Zealand Herald 23 was financially the less flourishing of the Auckland dailies, its disadvantage being the absence of a guiding leadership. It was

owned by the absentee William Brown and had had various editors during the 1860 s, the longest serving one of which, Robert Creighton, spent much of his time in the field as a war correspondent and thus was out of day-to-day contact with his charge. Newspaper management and editorship could no longer be the part-time or absentee occupation of previous decades. The decline of the Southern Cross was indicative of this change which Vogel was to ignore to his cost. In 1869 he formed a company which took over the paper for £I2OOO, acquiring a controlling interest with a personal investment of £4600. However, almost immediately on completion of these arrangements, Stafford's ministry fell, Fox became Premier and Vogel was summoned to Wellington as Colonial Treasurer. The paper was thus again under the control of an absentee owner and continued as a losing concern, and Vogel eventually sold his interest.

Vogel was already an important figure in press history. He had begun New Zealand's first daily and had demonstrated, albeit in a rather negative way, some of the difficulties associated with continuing the established New Zealand combination of journalistic and political activity within the new environment of the daily press. He is at least equally significant for the way he used the telegraph for a combination of political and journalistic purposes.

The first telegraph line in New Zealand was between Lyttelton and Christchurch and was completed in June 1862. In a prodigious burst of activity, lines from Bluff to Picton, Dunedin to Queenstown, Christchurch to the West Coast, Picton to Nelson and a Cook Strait cable to Wellington were completed before the end of 1866. North Island telegraph development did not proceed at the same pace. Not until 1872 was Auckland connected with Wellington and the South Island. The telegraph was to be of enormous significance to New Zealand as it facilitated the unification of the country in a manner previously impossible. It was also to allow newspapers a previously unavailable access to news.

The telegraph lines from Bluff to Dunedin and Dunedin to Christchurch were completed within days of each other in May 1865. On the completion of these lines both Vogel and J. E. FitzGerald of the Press 6 made independent arrangements to obtain telegraphed summaries of overseas news. Vogel had news summaries prepared in Melbourne, forwarded on the mail ships and telegraphed from Bluff —the usual first port of call. But in late 1866 Vogel, Fitz Gerald and Crosbie Ward of the LyHelton Times, 21 prevailed upon the Postmaster-General to have the Government take over this task. 28 The Postmaster-General had an official of the Telegraph Department prepare the news summaries in Melbourne, ship them to Bluff, from where, for payment of an annual subscription, they

were then telegraphed to the various New Zealand newspapers. This was a somewhat cosy arrangement. Vogel, Fitz Gerald and Ward, all newspaper proprietors, were also all members of the House of Representatives. The Postmaster-General was John Hall, who was regarded by Canterbury journalists as the doyen of their craft, 29 and Crosbie Ward had himself served as PostmasterGeneral from 1861 to 1863. The fact that the Government provided a telegraphed news summary was not publicised and came to light only in 1868 when, after the ousting of Vogel from the Otago Daily Times, that paper complained of the arrangements. George Barton, Vogel's successor as editor, wrote of the arrangements as follows: The General Government virtually compels the leading newspapers of the colony to accept such telegrams as it may please to send them. . . In doing so it inflicts a wrong upon the public as well as upon the journalists. It undertakes a duty which it is not competent to perform, which it is not asked to perform and which it has no moral right to perform. 30

In 1869 Stafford, the Premier, himself took over Hall's portfolios of Postmaster-General and Electric Telegraph Commissioner and began to dismantle the Government-operated system. But before he had completed this, his Ministry fell; Vogel became, as well as Colonial Treasurer, Postmaster-General and Electric Telegraph Commissioner, and the system continued. Vogel's newspaper, the Southern Cross, received little benefit from the summaries. Being an Auckland newspaper it did not, at the time, have access to the telegraph network. Vogel, however, was considered to gain political advantage and the news summaries were frequently criticised by his opponent journals after the first complaints appeared in the Otago Daily Times. By 1870 dissatisfaction with the government service had become general among newspapers. Many complaints were in regard to the quality of journalism evident in the telegraphic reporting. Even Vogel's supporters complained:

We had hoped that the repeated complaints made by almost all of the papers in the colony would have led to some improvement in the compilation of the telegrams of English news which the Government practically compels the newspapers to take and pay for. We have, however, been disappointed, for the telegrams received on Sunday last, and published in our last issue are even worse than usual. 31

No official explanation for the ending of the government service was published. Vogel had no desire to end the Government’s role in news collection and dissemination. The management of most newspapers, however, were to refuse to continue their purchase of the news summaries. Vogel was left with no choice but to close down the operation, and it ceased at the end of July 1870. While he

received the political support of many newspapers their allegiance did not extend to allowing him to continue a news service they had found wanting, and it was their rejection of the service that led to its demise. It was to be replaced by two press agencies. The Otago Daily Times had in 1866 under Vogel's stewardship

established its own news service which in 1870 the management reestablished and expanded. The paper’s own version of events after 31 July 1870 is as follows:

We made arrangement for supplying the foreign mail and interprovincial telegrams to the Daily Times, and to the principal newspapers in the other provinces. Agents were appointed in Melbourne and San Francisco to compile telegraphic summaries of the mail news; and agents were also appointed in every town and port of importance in New Zealand. The leading newspapers in the other provinces cordially approved of this system, and agreed to take their telegrams from our agents. The agreement was, in every instance but one, accompanied with a condition that we should not supply telegrams to any rival newspaper in the same town. These arrangements were purely a matter of business. Political considerations had nothing whatever to do with them. Ministerial as well as Opposition newspapers agreed to join. The Lyttelton Times, the Press, the Evening Post, the Hawkes Bay Herald, the Nelson Colonist and Examiner, the Wanganui Chronicle, the Wairarapa Mercury, the Grey River Argus, the Marlborough Express, the Westport Times, the Timaru Herald and the Oamaru Times are supplied with our telegrams. 32

Whether the Press does correctly appear in this listing is open to doubt. The statement that, 'The agreement was, in every instance but one, accompanied with a condition that we should not supply telegrams to any rival newspaper in the same town' runs at odds with the fact that two Nelson papers as well as the Lyttelton Times and the Press, two Christchurch papers, are in the listing. If the Press was in the Otago Daily Times group it was only for a short period, for it soon became part of a competing agency. The telegraph credit line of the Otago Daily Times service appeared in newspapers in the weeks after the closing of the Government news service. Concurrently with the start of the Otago Daily Times service the telegraph credit line 'Greville's Telegram Company, Reuters Agents' began appearing in newspapers that were not receiving the Otago Daily Times summaries—principally the Dunedin Star, the Press, and the Wellington Independent. 34 Greville's Telegram Company began as part of Reuter's developing international news carrier service. Greville obtained the agency for Reuters and also obtained his international news via that source. Greville was an Australian journalist and his was primarily an Australian press agency serving newspapers in that country, 5 of which the New Zealand agency was a branch. He appointed C. O. Montrose as the manager of the New Zealand central office which was in Wellington.

The two press associations ran as opposing agencies for two years. The Otago Daily Times remained a strong opponent to the Fox-Vogel Ministry and the revival of its press agency was, at least partly, an attempt to escape from what it saw as Vogel's political control of the compilation and dissemination of news summaries. However both associations were primarily business rather than

political organisations: newspapers with opposing political outlooks were present in both agencies. The two Nelson papers in the Otago Daily Times group were in political opposition to one another. The Evening Post 36 was an opposition paper while the Hawke's Bay Herald 37 supported the Government. Most notably the Lyttelton Times was a staunch supporter of Vogel while the Otago Daily Times was his most fervent opponent. The Wellington Independent was with the Greville group, and, while it was a Vogel supporter and thus at odds with the Otago Daily Times, both it and the Otago Daily Times held that their presence in opposing press agencies was on account, not of political differences, but of an inability to agree on a price for the supply of telegrams. Despite the primarily business orientation of the two press agencies, the Government, in particular Vogel, was often to be accused of improper interference with agency telegrams. The most serious incident was one which escalated eventually to become known as the Telegraph Libel Case, 39 which took place during the FrancoPrussian War and had to do with the news of the victory of Prussia, the surrender of Napoleon 111 at Sedan and the declaration of France as a republic. The S. S. Gothenberg was about to leave for Bluff when the news began arriving at Melbourne. The ship waited until a telegraphic summary for the Otago Daily Times group was prepared and thus sailed with it but not that of the rival agency. And yet this news was carried in the Wellington Independent before it appeared in either the Otago Daily Times or the Evening Post, the Wellington member of the Otago Daily Times agency. The Otago Daily Times on 1 October 1870 accused the Government of holding back its telegrams until opposition news summaries appeared:

By Electric Telegraph. Wellington September 30. The English mail telegrams this morning were kept back until a message containing a summary of the news had been sent to the Government. The contents of this message were communicated by the Government to the Independent which thus issued an Extra before a single line of the Press telegrams was received. The Evening Post denounces this conduct as grossly unfair and dishonest.

In the editorial on the same day, the argument continued: A greater degree of excitement has never been witnessed in Dunedin on any similar occasion than that which seized all classes of the community yesterday, when the nature of the English mail news was made known. A crowd of two or three hundred literally besieged our door. . . We regret the delay which took place in the publication but the delay was not owing to any neglect on our part. . . We assert that the Telegraph Office, acting of course under instructions from the General Government unnecessarily delayed our telegrams in order to serve a political purpose. The object of this delay is sufficiently explained in the Wellington telegram which appears in another column.

Two days later, after comparison of its own news columns with those of its rivals, the Otago Daily Times made a more serious charge:

The telegrams in this morning's issue of the Independent differ materially from their Extra, and are simply a reproduction of ours, a few unimportant items which were in our message —but, which we did not print as being unimportant or anticipated —being given word for word. It is perfectly evident that the Government's first telegram was compiled from ours. . . . The bitterest opponent of the present Government would hesitate to believe that a transaction of this nature, which cannot appear in any other light than that of an infamous breach of trust, could take place under its administration. We believe that we have legal evidence, however, to prove the astounding fact that the Government not only suppressed the news for several hours throughout the colony, but that it appropriated to its own use the telegrams to which it had no more right than it has to the pocket handkerchiefs or the watches of private individuals.

In earlier years there had developed an understanding and acceptance that a government had a duty and a right to learn of overseas news as soon as possible. Prior to 31 July 1870 this had been accomplished by giving government agents responsibility for the collation and despatch of press telegrams. After the formation of the two press associations and the cessation of the government service, the Government's need to acquire information remained. In practice it meant government officials regularly perused the press associations' telegrams. The charges by the Otago Daily Times and other newspapers, were against both the practice and its abuse. One charge was that members of the Government, through press telegrams, had apprised themselves of the nature of the diplomatic emergency, demonstrating that, at least in the first months of the new press associations, there was not a general acceptance of the Government's right to be informed of overseas events. This was a charge the Fox-Vogel Ministry would have had little difficulty rebutting. However a further charge was that members of the Government had then interfered with the delivery of the press telegrams so as to give their supporting newspapers first publication of the eagerly awaited news.

The Government had little option but to defend itself and chose to do so by trying G. B. Barton, the editor of the Otago Daily Times, on a charge of criminal libel. This did little to placate public opinion, as his solicitor was able to portray the fact that proceedings were taken against the editor rather than against the proprietors of the newspaper, as indicative of Vogel's personal animosity against the man who had succeeded him. The lack of any proceedings being taken against the Evening Post, which had been at least equally outspoken, added to such an impression. Furthermore, the charge itself came to naught, being abandoned after it reached the Supreme

Court where it had foundered on the questionable constitutionality of a free pardon offered to a sub-editor of the Otago Daily Times so as to force him to attest to G. B. Barton's authorship of the articles in question.

The abandoning of proceedings was generally regarded as a victory for the Otago Daily Times and a vindication of its stand. It also pointed to an increasing separation of press and Government interests. The earlier identity of interests between press and Government began to crumble once some of the major papers began to lose access to the Government through editors and proprietors who held high Government office. The Otago Daily Times was not the first to find itself in this position, but it was the first to find itself the object of Government antagonism and vigorously and successfully to defend itself by defining the Government action as improper. Beginning in July 1872 there were major changes to the New Zealand press agencies which led by November 1872 to their amalgamation into the Holt and McCarthy agency. The only public acknowledgement of the amalgamation appears to be a passing reference by Vogel in his 1873 report. After discussing the problems faced by the Telegraph Department from two competing press agencies, he writes: . . . the special pressure before mentioned has ceased because one of the Press Associations has ceased to exist'. 40

Holt is referred to as 'Captain Holt' and had a maritime career. During this period and especially prior to the 1876 laying of the Australia-New Zealand cable, his type of expertise was necessary for a successful press agency. Florence Romauld McCarthy (18341914), the better known of the two, had worked as a compositor in New York and arrived in Otago in 1861 as part of the great influx of gold-seekers. He later obtained work in Otago as a printer. The final 35 years of his life, from 1880-1914, were spent as editor of the Grey River Argus. 41 During the lifetime of the Holt and McCarthy agency, McCarthy's journalistic connections were with the Wellington Independent. When the agency began the Independent was still owned by Thomas McKenzie, but McCarthy is named as one of the quartet who controlled the paper. 42 The Holt and McCarthy agency was run from Wellington with the locus of control and coordination being the Wellington Independent.

The major impetus behind the formation of the Holt and McCarthy agency, however, was Julius Vogel, a politician always supported by the Wellington Independent. Vogel, in 1872 when the agency began, was Colonial Treasurer, Telegraph Commissioner and Postmaster-General as well as proprietor of the Southern Cross. As had happened previously, his involvement in the formation of the Holt and McCarthy agency, was to provoke large scale discussion on the propriety of the close connections between his press and

political interests. 43 He was not only to replace the two press associations with a single organisation but was to have that organisation under his personal control for the next four years, until he resigned as Premier and left for London.

In April 1872 a mail steamer service between San Francisco, New Zealand and Melbourne was finalised with annual subsidies from the Victorian Government of £32,500, and the New Zealand Government of £27,500. From July 1872 Australia was also in telegraph communication with England. 44 It was the build-up to these events that led to the changes in the New Zealand press agencies. Vogel had been in Melbourne in early 1872 negotiating with the Victorian Government in regard to the mail steamer service, and while there he concluded an agreement with Hugh George, manager of the Melbourne Argus and the Australian Associated Press, for the sole Reuter agency for New Zealand. 45 The agreement was open as to whether Vogel acted as a Government Minister or a newspaper proprietor:

For the sum of five hundred pounds (£500) per annum this office is prepared to sell to your Government, to yourself, or to any agent appointed by you, for the use of the newspapers published in New Zealand, the exclusive right of treating with those newspapers for the publication of Reuters messages in New Zealand. 46 The agreement was a final rather than an initial proposal and included completed practical arrangements:

I have today written to our London agent, instructing him to see Reuter, and to request that the price of New Zealand securities, New Zealand bank stock, New Zealand hemp, as well as any item of special New Zealand interest be included in the direct telegraphic reports from London. 47 Montrose, the New Zealand manager of Greville's Telegram Company, which had up till then been the Reuters agency, saw the agreement as calculated to end his agency: The object of the Associated Press is to drive the [Greville Telegram] Company out of the field. . . . With the same object it would, of course, be glad to contract with Mr Vogel on such terms as would drive the New Zealand branch of Greville's Telegraph Company out of the field. 48

And so it was to prove, with the Greville telegraph credit line last appearing in New Zealand newspapers in November 1872. Montrose further argued there was a connection between the mail steamer negotiations with the Victorian Government and the press agency agreement with the Australian Associated Press: ... in entering into this contract Mr Vogel has been making a bid for the support of the Melbourne Argus and Sydney Morning Herald in his negotiations with the Australian Governments’. 49

The Argus, which had initially opposed subsidising the mail steamer service, did change its position and came to support a Victorian subsidy for the enterprise. Subsequent debate, however, centred not on this point but on Vogel's improper use of his official position. In signing the agreement with Hugh George, he had acted on his own initiative without a mandate from his political colleagues. Montrose's statement that . . . [Vogel] acted on his own personal responsibility without in any way consulting his colleagues who were ignorant of what he had done until I myself actually informed them' ' was not challenged. As eventually stated by Vogel's ally, the Wellington Independent, Vogel's aim was to re-establish a Government news service:

Mr Vogel's idea was that it would be a good thing for the colony if the Government were to purchase these telegrams, with the view of supplying them to the papers in New Zealand free of cost except wire charges, the Government trusting to more extended use of the wires to recoup it for the outlay; but in the arrangements with Mr George he did not in the slightest degree commit the Government and ultimately the sale was made to Mr Vogel himself, or any association to which he might transfer it. The inference is that Vogel did not receive sufficient support from his Ministerial colleagues to re-establish government control of news telegrams. As a result Vogel began a private agency managed by Holt and McCarthy but under his own control. The events were viewed more harshly by Vogel's opponents. On 29 April 1872 the Evening Post reported:

Mr Vogel's agreement with the Australian Associated Press, in regard to the English telegrams, was of the double blooded character we predicted. He made it in his capacity as a member of the Government, and used his influence as such to induce Mr George to come to terms with him, but, knowing he had no authority to enter into such a contract officially, he added a proviso, that in the event of the Government refusing to ratify it, he would in his other capacity, as proprietor of the Southern Cross, carry it out himself.

The opposition was heated, with continued reference to such matters as 'the unscrupulous use Mr Vogel has made of his official position as Treasurer of New Zealand to further his own individual interests in the matter of Press telegraphy'. 52 The Holt and McCarthy agency was to have a commanding position in the collection of news, and Vogel's exclusive purchase of the Reuters agency gave him domination in New Zealand of overseas news despatches. Initially, however, the agency was not conceived as monopolistic. The original intention was to restrict membership to morning newspapers and, in spite of the political nature of the debate concerning the foundation of the agency, its membership was considered only on commercial grounds. The rationale for this

arrangement was presented by the Lyttelton Times on 8 June 1872:

There is an exceedingly good reason why evening papers should be excluded (from Mr Vogel's proposed new Press Telegraphic Association). If they were admitted the morning papers would simply be contributing a considerable sum annually to assist in the extremely delightful process of cutting their own throats. Thus, when the Anglo-Australian telegraph is completed, which it will be presently, the most important telegraphic messages will come from Australia by the weekly, or thereabouts, steamers. In a majority of instances these arrive either at Hokitika or the Bluff at such an hour as would allow the summaries to be transmitted in time for publication in the evening papers. It follows, therefore, that ordinary prudence compels the proprietors of morning papers to exclude evening journals from the Association.

This rationale was somewhat exaggerated. While arriving mail boats naturally chose to enter harbour if possible during daylight hours, their arrivals were determined by the tides and did, of course, occur during all daylight hours. Morning arrivals were to the advantage of the evening papers but from early afternoon any arrivals were too late for the evening papers to be able to print the news that day. It is possible that the restriction to morning papers was an application in New Zealand of an Australian Associated Press requirement. In Australia the services of that association were at first available only to the morning papers. Entry there to evening newspapers was offered only after New South Wales morning papers failed to get a legal monopoly for their cable service. 5 However, the New Zealand restriction to morning papers was shortlived. The rationale for the restriction became irrelevant from 1876 when the Australia-New Zealand sea cable was completed; but well before this, by the end of 1872, the Greville credit line had disappeared from the New Zealand press and Holt and McCarthy, the only press agency operating, counted amongst its members both morning and evening papers.

Not only was the Holt and McCarthy agency to become the only one in New Zealand handling overseas news: it was also to gain a monopoly control over internal news dissemination. The agency's rules of association do not survive and consequently it is not known if they followed the common pattern of not allowing subscriber newspapers to also receive competitive services. However, the Otago Daily Times service ceased, but not necessarily because it had been forced out of existence by the Holt and McCarthy agency. Expense was an everpresent impetus towards amalgamation—the logic of sending costly, and usually similar, long press telegrams to separate press associations had often been questioned. The Holt and McCarthy agency did away with the duplication that had previously existed, by establishing 'a service of interprovincial news . . . available for all New Zealand papers that cared to

subscribe to it'. 54 For the first time the communication difficulties for newspapers within New Zealand were met by establishing a system of cooperative mutual exchange of news among all newspapers. The Holt and McCarthy agency was soon to be accused of political bias. Vogel was the dominant New Zealand politician of the day and the Holt and McCarthy agency was at times accused of being more interested in supporting him and the Waterhouse Ministry than in its ostensible role of news supporting. On 13 November 1872 the Nelson Examiner 33 observed:

It is important to notice that the telegrams of the New Zealand Press Association 56 omit to mention the destruction by the natives of the Wanganui Bridge. We have noticed other omissions. The defeats of the Ministry during the last few days of session were passed over in silence. . . . The frequency and character of these omissions show that the telegrams are supervised with paternal care in high quarters, nothing coming out through their instrumentality which could impair the trust and filial piety of a loving party.

Similar accusations were made throughout the six years when Holt and McCarthy was the sole New Zealand press agency. Vogel was, furthermore, to exacerbate the concern felt by his opponents by the successful moves he made to control the Wellington Independent. Vogel had purchased the Southern Cross in Auckland immediately prior to his move to Wellington, when he took national political office. The paper proved to be too distant from his seat of operations, and although the Southern Cross was not sold until 1876, Vogel had earlier disposed of his interest in it, and found a Wellington base for his journalism. McKenzie's Independent was the obvious paper for him to look toward. It was a prestigious paper, being the only morning daily and the oldest paper in the city, as well as the administrative centre of the Holt and McCarthy agency. Moreover, it was his political supporter. Vogel formed in 1873 the New Zealand Times Company which that year took over the New Zealand Mail 51 (the Independent's weekly stablemate), and at the end of January 1874 also purchased the Independent. The Independent was renamed the New Zealand Times.

McKenzie,- who, with the Independent, the Mail and his printing business, was head of a large and successful concern, was under no financial need to join with Vogel. Nor, although he had been running the Independent since 1845, was he an old man. To quote Scholefield: 'McKenzie was only 46 years of age, vigorous in mind and body and under no necessity to think of retirement, but he succumbed to the blandishments of Vogel and merely retained a sizeable interest in the new company'. McKenzie may have succumbed to Vogel's eloquence, but, equally, he may have shared

something of Vogel's vision for New Zealand and joined with him in that cause. His public reason for the change was published in a letter to the Independent on 30 January 1874: I have disposed of the sole proprietorship . . . but shall retain a considerable interest in the concern ... A general desire was expressed that a colonial paper should be established, one that would embrace the interests of the colony as a whole; and Wellington, from its central position, was considered the most fitting place for its publication. With this view a company was formed, including a majority of leading citizens of Wellington. Being equally anxious to advance the interests of the Colony, there was no difference of opinion in this respect between the projectors and myself.

Vogel aimed to make the New Zealand Times 59 a national, rather than merely a Wellington newspaper. This is clear from both his manifesto for the paper and McKenzie's letter. His highly impracticable dream was one shared by McKenzie who had started the New Zealand Mail with a similar intention: We shall be well content, at starting, to make the Mail the best patronised journal in the province; but we hope to secure for it eventually a colonial circulation; and to obtain this object we shall spare neither trouble nor expense. The publication of several editions of the paper, each specially adapted for the districts in which it will circulate, will rather facilitate than retard this object; it will combine the advantages of a metropolitan with those of a local newspaper; and there is no place in the colony which offers such facilities for these purposes as Wellington. '

It may have been that both Vogel and McKenzie wished to try to start a national paper and both considered that only together could they attempt such a task. This, from the available material, is a possible explanation and seems the only likely one for McKenzie voluntarily relinquishing control. Vogel's motives, on the other hand, were considered to be political as well as commercial. He 'aimed at consolidating his political position through the medium of a national newspaper'.' However the New Zealand Times did not become a national newspaper. In the 1870 s a variety of difficulties prevented any serious pursuit of the matter. With the 1872 arrival of the telegraph in Auckland, the four main centres were finally linked and it would theoretically have been possible to attempt separate regional printings of four, or more, daily editions of a New Zealand Times. However, the large scale financial gamble involved in any attempt to start, in effect, four large daily newspapers, each in its own competitive market, all with records of failure for late-comers, was apparently too much, even for Vogel. The New Zealand Times remained a Wellington newspaper. With his dominance of the New Zealand Times and the Holt and McCarthy agency, Vogel was now in a position to exercise considerable control over the collection and dissemination of news in New

Zealand. But his political duties (he was Premier at the time he purchased the Wellington Independent) precluded him from assuming day-to-day control. More importantly, his long absences from New Zealand during this period kept him from exercising effective command of the paper. Vogel left New Zealand in September 1874 on political duties. Because of health problems his return was delayed until February 1876, and then he was back in New Zealand for a period of mere months. Resigning the Premiership in September 1876 after appointing himself Agent-General in London, he moved to London taking up residence there early in 1877. His example was soon followed, and direct political control of newspapers was to be a feature of at least the capital city until well into the twentieth century. Political control of newspapers had been a New Zealand practice

long before Vogel arrived in 1861. Vogel, however, signalled a significant extension to the practice. The newspapers of the 1870 s were no longer small circulation weekly publications whose political partiality was expected and acknowledged. They were mass circulation dailies that publicly professed a political neutrality. Vogel, after the initial failure of his ousting from the Otago Daily Times, was successful in merging partisan political control with the commercial orientation of the daily press. Furthermore, with the development of a national press agency, and in the context of the contemporary political change from provincial to national rule, he brought political control of the press from a local to a national perspective.

An expanded text of a paper read to members of the Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, 9 October 1985.

REFERENCES 1 Colonist, Dunedin, 28 June 1862-1 January 1863. 2 Otago Witness, Dunedin, 8 February 1851-28 June 1932. 3 Otago Daily Times, Dunedin, 15 November 1861-. 4 Otago Daily Times, reprint of Diamond Jubilee Issue (Dunedin, 1924), p. 17. 5 Ibid, p. 13. 6 Otago Witness, 22 December 1855. 7 Guy H. Scholefield, Newspapers in New Zealand (Wellington, 1958), p. 173. 8 Otago Daily Times, Diamond Jubilee Issue, p. 16. 9 Ibid, pp. 16-17. 10 Ibid, p. 16. On one occasion, however, all but one of the composing staff had 'fled to the fields'. 1 1 Many who began daily newspapers after Vogel—such as Henry Blundell of the Evening Post, Robert Lucas of the Nelson Evening Mail and William Wilson of the New Zealand —were to advance and practise a journalistic philosophy whereby newspaper proprietors should not stand for political office. 12 R. M. Burdon, The Life and Times of Sir Julius Vogel (Christchurch, 1948), p. 23. 13 Daily Telegraph, Dunedin, 3 January 1863-9 April 1864. 14 Farjeon was not to remain long in journalism. Receiving kindly criticism of his first novel from no less a person than Charles Dickens, he severed his business connections and moved, in 1867, to England to pursue a literary career. 15 Otago Daily Times, Diamond Jubilee Issue, p. 18. 16 This is surmised from Vogel's 1868 offer to lease the company for £IOOO per year. The offer included the following sentences. 'By accepting this offer the company will be in a position to pay off a considerable portion of the debentures, thus leaving the £IOOO rent, less interest on the remaining debentures, to be divided among the shareholders. Suppose that £3500 of the debentures are paid off, the remaining £2500 having many years to run, would only entail a charge of £250 a year, leaving £750 for division among the shareholders'. Ibid, p. 19. 17 William Dick Murison (1837-1877) became the third editor of the paper in 1871 . He edited the paper until George wick gained control of the company in 1877. Murison, a runholder, was a member of the Otago Provincial Council (1863-1865) and MHR for Waikouaiti (1866-1868).

18 'Mr Vogel's editorial advocacy of the political beliefs personally entertained by him, tended to increase the financial embarrassments of the Otago Daily Times, and finally compelled a severance which at the time was regarded as mutually regrettable'. Otago Daily Times, Diamond Jubilee Issue, p. 20. 19 David Herron, 'The Structure and Course of New Zealand Politics, 18531858'. (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Otago, Dunedin, 1959). 20 New Zealand Sun, Dunedin, 16 November 1868-1869? 21 The latest copy remaining is dated 11 March 1869. 22 Southern Cross, Auckland, 22 April 1843-30 December 1876. 23 New Zealand Herald, Auckland, 13 November 1863-. 24 Scholefield, p. 78. The register of affidavits lodged at the Auckland Supreme Court under the Printers and Newspapers Registration Act 1868 records Vogel as the new proprietor on 12 April 1870. New proprietors Charles Williamson and James Rogan are recorded on 12 May 1873 (National Archives, Auckland Office, JC- A). 25 A. S. Helm, 'The Early History of South Island Telegraphs'. (Unpublished M.A. thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 1951). 26 Press, Christchurch, 25 May 1861-. 27 Lyttelton Times, Christchurch, 11 January 1851-31 July 1929. 28 Otago Daily Times, 24 October 1868. 29 R. B. O'Neill, The Press 1861-1961: The Story of a Newspaper (Christchurch, 1963), pp. 29-31.

30 Otago Daily Times, 23 October 1868. 31 Wellington Independent, 31 March 1870. 32 Otago Daily Times, 3 October 1870. 33 Evening Star, Dunedin, 1 May 1863-3 November 1979. 34 Wellington Independent, Port Nicholson, 2 April 1845-30 May 1874. 35 In Australia the agency was known as Greville and Bird. It was based in Sydney and was probably the first press agency there. R. B. Walker, The Newspaper Press in New South Wales 1803-1820 (Sydney, 1976), p. 202. 36 Evening Post, Wellington, 8 February 1865-. 37 Hawke's Bay Herald, Napier, 24 September 1857-16 January 1937. 38 Otago Daily Times, 3 October 1870. Wellington Independent, 16 August 1870. 39 The Telegraph Libel Case: Report of Proceedings in the Resident Magistrates Court, Dunedin, on the hearing of the charges of libel brought by the General Government of New Zealand against Mr George Burnett Barton, in the case of Regina v Barton. Printed at the Daily Times Office, (Dunedin, 1871). Hocken Library.

40 AJHR, 1873, F.-7, 9th Report of the New Zealand Telegraph Department. 41 Grey River Argus, Greymouth, 14 November 1865-22 February 1966. 42 Scholefield, p. 29. 43 The Managing Committee of the Holt and McCarthy agency was Vogel, of the Southern Cross, Reeves, of the Lyttelton Times, and Harrison of the Wellington Independent, (Evening Post, 19 and 20 June 1872). Vogel and Reeves were proprietors. Harrison, an employee of the Independent, had been a foundation staff member of Vogel's Otago Daily Times. 44 The Java to Darwin cable was opened on 20 November 1871. The Overland Telegraph from Darwin to Adelaide (with a gap of 200 miles covered by horse express) was opened on 24 June 1872. Communication was frequently disrupted, often for long periods. (Walker, p. 203). 45 The managements of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Argus in June 1872 formed the Australian Associated Press and for £4OOO per annum gained from Reuters an agreement that Reuters would in Australia supply its news only to the A. A.P. (Walker, p. 205).

46 George to Vogel, Wellington Independent, 18 June 1872. 47 Ibid. 48 Letter from Montrose to editor of Wellington Independent printed per favour of editor of Evening Post, 10 April 1872. 49 From a circular by Montrose quoted Wellington Independent, 10 April 1872. 50 Letter from Montrose, Wellington Independent, 20 April 1872. 51 Wellington Independent, 15 June 1872. 52 Evening Post, 13 June 1872. 53 Henry Mayer, The Press in Australia (Melbourne, 1964), p. 28. 54 George Fenwick, The United Press Association: Foundation and Early History (Dunedin, 1929), p. 7. 55 Nelson Examiner, Nelson, 12 March 1842-28 June 1873. 56 The Holt and McCarthy Agency was also known as the New Zealand Press Association. Both titles were used in telegraph credit lines. 57 New Zealand Mail, Wellington, 29? January 1871-1 November 1907. 58 Scholefield, p. 33. 59 New Zealand Times, Wellington, 1 June 1874-22 January 1927. 60 New Zealand Mail, 25 February 1871. 61 Scholefield, p. 33.