NOW ERIC Cryer and his wife Saralie have to decide what to do with the newspapers, some of which like the one pictured above, are rare first editions.
THERE’S something “very real” about reading accounts of historic events written just days or weeks after they took place.
That’s the conclusion of Tongapōrutu identity Eric Cryer, 82, who recently discovered 20 historic newspapers in his cupboard, some more than 170 years old.
The papers, which quote the likes of Governor Grey and King Tāwhiao as if they were speaking yesterday, are generally in excellent condition, including first editions of the Waikato Times, Auckland Chronicle and others.
Eric and his wife Saralie did not realise they owned the newspapers, which came to light following a request from Mokau Museum for Eric to assemble documents to write up the history of the Tainui St John Ambulance.
Eric was shoulder-tapped for the job as he is both the chairman of the organisation, plus one of its few surviving foundation members.
“Our minute books should date back to about 1972 but we don’t know where a lot of them are, unless somebody already sent to them to the museum years ago and they got lost in the files after that.”
However, when Eric looked in his cupboards he discovered documents and photographs given to the household for safe keeping by Saralie’s late mum Phyllis more than 20 years ago, and these included the newspapers.
“These papers are quite a find. I loved reading them because some of the content is just so vivid,” Eric said.
“For example, there are accounts of British troopers fighting “the enemy” at Patea which sound like it all happened yesterday.”
The couple think the newspapers may originally have belonged to Saralie’s great-grandfather, Joshua (Mokau) Jones.
In the year 1878 Mokau Jones, as he was known, organised a meeting between Sir George Grey and Rewi Maniapoto, who had, following the Land Wars battle at Orākau, maintained the strictest seclusion. For this, it is said Mokau Jones was presented with a taiaha as a token of peace between the two races.
However, the find of the old newspapers has left Eric and Saralie scratching their heads over what to do with them, as few have any connection to Mōkau.
The first edition of the Waikato Times, published on May 2, 1872, carried a large advertisement promoting Cobb & Co coaches which travelled three-days-a-week carrying parcels to Auckland, Otahuhu, Ngaruawahia, Cambridge and Hamilton.
There were daily passenger boat services, including between Mercer and Ngaruawahia, Ngaruawahia and Hamilton, Ngaruawahia and Cambridge and Mercer to Waikato Heads.
The editorial in the newspaper’s first edition said it would back no specific political party but always take the side that promised the best social progress for its Waikato readers.
With the Waikato Land Wars a few years behind them, one of the news briefs in the first Waikato Times had a sad feel to it, as follows:
“The old chief Marsh, in the course of a conversation with two Europeans who passed through Te Witu, a few days back, requested that they would ask the superintendent a road to Te Witu. He said that he and his natives would assist in the work and explained that he now saw the error of his ways. He had fought against the Government in former times but would never do so again.”
The newspaper reported that a group of chess enthusiasts had to come together at Ngaruawahia to establish a chess club. The folk there wanted other Waikato towns to follow suit, to encourage regional chess competitions.
Whatever happened to the New Zealand Lantern?
Eric discovered two copies of its first edition, published August 23, 1879, among the trove of rare newspapers handed down from his mother-in-law.
In a front-page editorial, publisher John Newburn, of Auckland’s Grafton Rd, apologised for asking two pennies an issue but said it was the only way to preserve journalistic integrity.
“We are asking the reading public to give us two pence for each copy because the blank paper will cost nearly one penny . . . if the reading public must have a penny paper they must consent to read anything the big advertisers consider proper and nothing else.”
It’s possible publisher Newbury did not persuade many readers to cough up two pennies for his four-page newspaper. There is no mention of the New Zealand Lantern on the Papers Past website. It seemed to disappear without trace following the first edition.
The first edition of the Otago Witness looked pretty boring. About half of the general editorial was devoted to a dispute over a census taken among Otago residents, which the writer claimed grossly under-counted members of the Free Church of Scotland. However, some ads were interesting.
One of these offered young gentlemen, “religious, moral and intellectual training” at “moderate terms”. “The course of the study embraces Latin, Greek, the mathematics, the theory of book-keeping, natural philosophy, agricultural chemistry, drawing and, “the usual branches of polite and useful education.”
An 1843 issue of the Auckland Colonist covered the arrival of the new Governor of New Zealand Robert Fitzroy, who was welcomed by dignitaries “and an enormous number of natives” when his ship ‘The North Star,’ arrived off Auckland’s Commercial Bay.
The governorship of Fitzroy was overshadowed by his replacement in 1845 of Governor Grey.
But Fitzroy, who had been the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin’s famous voyage, was recorded as a leader who attempted to protect Māori land rights more than the controversial, divisive Grey.
Like the other newspapers of the day, the Auckland Colonist carried a lot of news from Britain, South Africa and Australia.
According to a real estate ad in the Colonist, “two snug houses and 31 feet of land” were being offered for sale for 35 pounds.
Other old newspapers in the collection included The Taranaki Herald (1986); the King Country Chronicle and Te Kūiti Times (1978) and the Waitemata and Inglewood Press (1988).
