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Thames Star
Available issues
Background
Region
Waikato
Available online
1874-1938
Also published as:
Evening Star; Thames Evening Star
The first major gold discovery in the Thames area took place in 1867. In the same year William Shaw arrived in Thames and started up the Times and Thames Miners’ Advocate along with Jeremiah Harnett.
Amongst other newspapers, Shaw also started the Thames Evening Star in 1869 (it first appeared as the Evening Mail). By this stage, there were 18,000 inhabitants in the town. After his bankruptcy it was taken over by James Hopcraft (editor until his death in 1879) and William McCullough, amongst others.
One innovation of the time was the use of messages sent by pigeon to deliver news reports, known as ‘pigeongrams’.
In 1893 the daily paper became known as the Thames Star.
Rival paper the Thames Advertiser was purchased by McCullough and incorporated into the Star in 1912. Further changes of ownership followed.
The Thames Star merged with the Paeroa Gazette in 1998 to become the Thames Valley Gazette, but the new publication lasted less than a year.
Copyright statement
For material published 120 or more years ago, to the best of the National Library of New Zealand's knowledge, under New Zealand law, no copyright exists in that material. You can copy that material, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this material, it is helpful to include the source.
For material published fewer than 120 years ago, the following statement applies.
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Thames Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.