Heritage

Fitzgerald and the Newspapers

James Edward Fitzgerald

Born: 1818, in Bath, England

Died: 2 August 1896, in Wellington

Early Life

  • James Edward Fitzgerald was the youngest son of an Irish landowner.
  • He was educated in England at Bath, and at Christ's College, Cambridge.
  • He was unable to join the Royal Engineers because of poor eyesight, and instead joined the British Museum as a junior assistant in 1844, becoming assistant secretary of the Museum by 1848.

imageAdult Life

  • Fitzgerald spent time travelling in Scotland and Ireland, and became concerned with the problem of the poor, especially during the Irish Famine of 1846.
  • He became interested in the issue of colonisation, and after meeting Edward Gibbon Wakefield in 1849, became secretary of the Canterbury Association.
  • He married Frances Erskine Draper on 22 August 1850, and shortly after left with his new wife on the Charlotte Jane for New Zealand.
  • When they reached Lyttelton on December 16 1850, Fitzgerald was the first to leap ashore.
  • Fitzgerald was appointed sub-inspector of police and also worked as the emigration agent for the Association.
  • He edited the Lyttelton Times, the first newspaper in Canterbury, and published a weekly edition from 11 January 1851 on.
  • At first he lived on the hillside above Lyttelton, but moved to a cattle and dairy farm west of Christchurch in 1853. He was not very successful as a farmer but became a leading figure in Canterbury.
  • In 1853 Fitzgerald won the election to become first superintendent of Canterbury.
  • During his time as superintendent (1853-1857) the population of Canterbury doubled from 3,000 to 6,230; the new Canterbury province took over the debts of the Canterbury Association, but gained the Hagley Park, Cathedral Square and Market Square in Christchurch.
  • The road connecting Lyttelton and Sumner was completed, and Fitzgerald opened it by driving his dog-cart over the road.
  • Fitzgerald was probably responsible for naming the new school opened by the Reverend Henry Jacobs, Christ's College, after his old college at Cambridge.
  • He was Member of the House of Representatives for Lyttelton for the first meeting of the new parliament in 1854, but played only a small part in politics after the first session because of ill health.
  • Fitzgerald resigned from parliament in 1857 and returned to England where he continued to work for Canterbury as emigration agent, sending 4,000 new settlers out to New Zealand, and working on projects such as a provincial railway system, Christ's College and the Christchurch Cathedral.
  • Fitzgerald returned to New Zealand in 1860, and soon became involved in local politics again.
  • He was strongly opposed to the proposal by William Moorhouse to build a rail tunnel through the Port Hills to link Lyttelton and Christchurch, because of the huge costs involved, and used The Press, which he had founded, to attack Moorhouse.
  • Fitzgerald was a born journalist, and as well as The Press, brought out an evening newspaper and, more successfully, the Weekly Press. However he wanted to put the Lyttelton Times out of business and went into debt trying to do it. In the end he had to pass control of The Press over to a company in 1868.
  • Fitzgerald became involved in national politics again during the 1860s, at the time of the New Zealand Wars. He supported Māori rights, and equal civil and political rights for all New Zealanders regardless of race. He wanted Māori to take part in government, and was opposed to the policy of land confiscation, and the use of British troops.
  • In 1865 Fitzgerald became minister for native affairs but the new policies he tried to introduce to improve relations between Māori and pakeha did not succeed.
  • In 1867 he retired from politics and moved to Wellington.
  • He spent the last thirty years of his life in Wellington, where he was an important figure in the intellectual and cultural life of the city.
  • Following government cutbacks in the 1880s, Fitzgerald helped found the Public Service Association in July 1890, to act as a union for civil servants. He was the first president of the new association.
  • Fitzgerald died on 2 August 1896 in Wellington, aged nearly 80.

Summary

  • James Edward Fitzgerald had both public speaking and writing skills. He used these abilities to help establish himself as one of the leaders of the new settlement.
  • He played an important part in Canterbury politics and used his influence as editor of first the Lyttelton Times, and then The Press to do this.
  • At a national level he was a strong supporter of Māori rights and later, the rights of civil servants who worked for the government.

Explanations

Lyttelton Times
The Charlotte Jane carried the equipment needed to print a newspaper. Less than a month after the arrival of the first ships, the first issue of the Lyttelton Times was printed on Saturday, 11 January 1851, in a shed on Norwich Quay. A printer, Ingram Shrimpton, had been involved with the planning for the newspaper back in England, but had not emigrated to New Zealand immediately. James Edward Fitzgerald offered to edit the paper without pay until Shrimpton's arrival. A year later Fitzgerald hoped to buy the Lyttelton Times and set up as a full-time publisher. The paper was still a weekly, and it was thought that most of the work was done by Fitzgerald's assistant, Francis Knowles. However by 1853 Fitzgerald had abandoned the scheme of buying the paper, and taken up dairy farming instead.
The Press
One of the first attacks in print Fitzgerald made on Moorhouse was in a 5,400 word letter to the Lyttelton Times, but this was met by angry criticism of Fitzgerald in the paper, which supported Moorhouse. A group of Fitzgerald's supporters raised the money needed to establish another paper. The first issue of The Press was printed in a clergyman's cottage in Montreal Street on 25 May 1851, and sold for sixpence. The Press became Canterbury's first daily newspaper (and New Zealand's second daily) with the issue published on 17 March 1863.

Sources