EARLY HISTORY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 278, 5 September 1936, Page 8

EARLY HISTORY.

FIRST NEWSPAPER IN CANTERBURY. On Saturday, January 11, 1851, appeared the first (weekly) number of the “Lyttelton Times,” a journal which has shared the fortunes and fought the battles of the Canterbury settlement ui) to the present date. (This was written in 1916). Mr Fitzgerald very ably filled the position of editor, and Mr Shrimpton, an Oxford printer, took charge of the mechanical department. “The Lyttelton Times” became at once on important part of the young settlement’s institutions “As long as there is hut one public journal in a colony” said the introductory leading article. “We hold it to be the duty ot the editor to avoid, above all things, making it exclusively the organ oi any particular party. He ought so far to consult the public good as to make Ins journal a means for enabling parties or individuals to lay their views before their fellow countrymen, and his columns ought to he equally and liberally open to all. As we are living at present under a Government which affords the colonists no legitimate and constitutional mode of stating their opinions upon questions of public interest, such as they would possess under a representative government, and such as they themselves enjoyed up to the moment they left their native shores. The new journal was welcomed Jiy the “London Times,” of July 5, 1851, in a kindly and appreciative article. The writer concludes, “It is difficult to glance at the first number of “The Lyttelton 4411103,” now before us, and associate its existence with a community not a month old. So far from being ashamed at our namesake, we are positively proud of his acquaintance, and envious of his power. If the editor ca.. create so much out of nothing, what would he make of such a breeding heap as this of London?” 7’his article was reproduced in “The Lyttelton Times,” of November 22. 1851. The delay. gives some idea ol the time occupied in the conveyance of mails in those early days. (From "Wigram’s story of Christchurch)