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Newspapers Guide

Contents

Historical outline of the main Christchurch newspapers

Lyttelton Times

1851 January 11 - 1935 June 29
(Library has: 1851-1935; microfilm: 1851-1935)

The first issue of the Lyttelton Times appeared on January 11, 1851, some 26 days after the presses arrived on board the Charlotte Jane on December 16, 1850. The printing plant was set up in a shed on Section No. 2, Norwich Quay. The paper was financed chiefly by Ingram Shrimpton of Crown Yard Printing Office, Oxford, although he himself did not come to New Zealand until 1854. Shrimpton engaged a foreman, a compositor and persuaded his son and nephew to come out as cadets. James Edward Fitzgerald agreed to act as unpaid editor until Shrimpton came out, although, in fact, he virtually relinquished this position once he was elected Superintendent of the Province.

The paper was published weekly until 1854 when it became bi-weekly. It was printed on double foolscap paper until 1857 when it increased its column length from 11 inches to 14 inches. In 1863 the business was moved from Lyttelton to Christchurch into a two storeyed building with a Cathedral Square frontage, but the name remained the same until August 1, 1929 when it changed to the Christchurch Times.

The Lyttelton Times began as a non-party paper but by the 1860's was distinctly liberal in flavour and remained so throughout its history. It achieved an enduring reputation in the newspaper world. Its demise on June 29, 1935 was the result of one of the most notable struggles in recent newspaper history. At this time Christchurch had two morning and two evening newspapers and the competition proved fatal. The rationalisation which occurred resulted in the publication of one morning paper by the Press, and the Lyttelton Times Co. (renamed N.Z. Newspapers Ltd) published the evening paper called the Star-Sun. At the time of its cessation it was the oldest surviving newspaper in New Zealand.

Press

1861 May 5 -
(Library has: 1861- ; microfilm: 1861-

The first issue of the Press appeared on May 25, 1861. Its establishment as a rival to the Lyttelton Times arose out of the need, felt by some, for an alternative means of political and public comment. Fitzgerald, who had edited the Lyttelton Times in its early stages, now found that paper to be a supporter of Moorhouse, the Superintendent of the Province, who, in Fitzgerald's view, was spending too lavishly. In particular, he was pushing the Lyttelton Tunnel project which was contrary to Fitzgerald's own scheme for leading all traffic through the district of Sumner. Although Fitzgerald denied having a financial interest in the paper he was certainly to the forefront in its instigation.

The first home of the Press was a small cottage in Montreal Street. In January 1862 it moved to a single storey building in Cashel Street and in 1909 a new building was completed in Cathedral Square. The Press started life as a 6-page weekly tabloid; in 1862 it became an 8-page bi-weekly and in 1863 a daily, the first in the Province. In 1865 it commenced publishing the Weekly Press preceding by 5 months the Canterbury Times published by the Lyttelton Times Co.

Star

1868 My 14 -
(Library holdings)

The Star, an evening paper, was started by the Lyttelton Times Co. on May 14, 1868. It was a four page paper costing 1d which was reduced for some time to 1/2d. It had some competition in its early days from a paper called the Evening Mail and from the Press's evening paper the Globe. However, neither of these survived and the Star jogged along until it received a jolt in 1914 when the Sun began publication. The Star's position was strengthened with the publication of a Saturday night's Sports Edition and the addition of 6d "wanted" advertisements.

In the rationalisation of newspapers which occurred in 1935 the Sun and the Christchurch Star combined and the new paper was published as the Christchurch Star-Sun. It retained this name until 1958 when it reverted to the Christchurch Star. In 1980 it became simply the Star, but returned to the Christchurch Star at the end of 1988. The Star-Sun made innovations in typography, adopting the horizontal style of make-up, illustrated the news pages freely and introduced a new style of headline.

Sun

1914 F6 - 1935 Je 29
(Library has: 1914-1935)

With the advent of the Sun, Christchurch now had three evening newspapers (the Evening News - published by the Press, the Star and the Sun itself), two morning papers and two weeklies. This number of papers for a town with some 88,000 population was intolerable and the Canterbury Times and Evening News ceased publication in 1917. The Sun first appeared on February 6, 1914 and was a new type of newspaper for New Zealand, being modelled on the London Daily Mail. It gave a bright display of news, used illustrations freely and proved very popular with the public. It was combined with the Star in 1935.

Weekly Press

1865 F18 - 1928 O24
(Library has: 1866 Ag - 1867 Ja; 1868; 1870-1877; 1879-1880; 1881 Jl - 1888; 1889 Jl -1923; illustrations only 1924-1928 ; microfilm: 1865-1928 Oct)

The Press Co. commenced its weekly in 1865. It was directed at country districts and became very popular, containing sports news, agricultural writing, light reading, and original writing. It later became New Zealand's most popular magazine. The Weekly Press took the initiative in the South Island in illustrating in half tone engravings from 1894 and soon it contained several pages of illustrations of exceptional quality. These illustrations now provide a most important photographic history of the Canterbury area and further afield for the early part of this century. Many photographs in the Library's photograph collection come from the illustrations published in the Weekly Press and Canterbury times.

Canterbury Times

1865 Jl 3 - 1917 My 30
(Library has: 1865 Jl 3 - 1871 S ; 1872-1874 ; 1877-1917 ; microfilm: 1885-1900 Ap)

This was the Lyttelton Times' answer to the Weekly Press starting some 5 months after that paper. It was a weekly also designed to meet the needs of settlers remote from Christchurch. It too featured half tone illustrations, regularly appearing from 1895.

Christchurch Citizen

25/7/2002 - 5/7/2003

The Christchurch Citizen was first published under the title The Citizen Today by Media Publications, chief executive Geoffrey Botkin. It changed its title on 24 November 2001. It was published three times weekly (M, W, Saturday) at a cost of 50c per copy. In the first editorial, it was said that "If a city wants to understand the times and is concerned about the wide, sometimes confusing but always urgent range of issues before us, then it needs several papers". The paper aims to inform all citizens, including the less well-off.