OTAGO PIONEER DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 225, 23 September 1929, Page 8

OTAGO PIONEER DEAD.

SIR GEORGE FENWICK. VETERAN JOURNALIST. LEADING CITIZEN OF DUNEDIN. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, this da}-. Sir George Fenwick, managing director of the "Otago Daily Times," is dead, aged 82. He had been ill a short time with influenza. Sir George Fenwick grew up with Otago. The province was founded in ISSI, and he emigrated with his parents from Sunderland, his birthplace, early in 1853. The family spent three or four years in Victoria, "and then moved to Dmiedin, where, at the age of 12, young Fenwick was apprenticed to the proprietor of the "Otago Witness," a very small sheet, published weekly, and then the only newspaper in the province.

During his apprenticeship gold was discovered, at the Lindes Pass, and at Tuapeka, in 1861. The "Otago Daily Times" was started on November 15 of the same year, and in that office Mr. Fenwick learned his trade. The goldfields rush seemed to offer an opportunity at Tuapeka, and Mr. Fenwick, then under 20, took Mr. James Matthews with him from the "Times" ofrice and founded the "Tuapeka Press."

Ninety-mile Ride With Papers. There was already one newspaper in Lawrence, the principal town of the district, and Mr. Fenwick and his partner found the competition too keen. In October, 1869, they sold their interest to the rival paper, but not before they had decided on their next enterprise, the founding of the "Cromwell Argus." Opposition threatened, and Mr. Fenwick took characteristic steps to forestall it. The last ieeue of the "Tuapeka Press" was printed on a Saturday afternoon, and at 6 p.m. Mr. Fenwick started off on horseback on a ride of 90 miles to Cromwell, with 500 copies of the first issue of the "Cromwell Argus" strapped at the front of his saddle. He reached Cromwell at nine o'clock on Sunday night, and on Monday morning before breakfast he had distributed all the papers. The paper thus started overcame the opposition, and prospered, but Mr. Fenwick decided that the field was too small. Purchase or "Otago Daily Times." Returning to Dunedin, Mr. Fenwick started business as a general printer, his partner being Mr. John Mackay, who was afterwards Government Printer. After some years he was appointed manager of the "Otago Guardian," which, in competition with the "Otago Daily Times," difficulties. The company sold the paper to Mr. G. M. Reed, who had formerly been in partnership with Mr. (later Sir) Henry Brett in the "Auckland Star," and Mr. Fenwick continued manager. The "Guardian" did not prosper, but Mr. Fenwick conceived the bold design- of purchasing the "Otago Daily Times" and "Otago Witness." He secured promises of the necessary financial support, the rival papers were merged, and he became managing director. That position he lield for over half a century, and his tenure of it was terminated only by hie death. Founfler of Press Association. Sir George (he was knighted in 1919) was one of the founders of tha Press Association, and (a Press Association message states) he was looking forward to celebrating its jubilee on December 19 of this year. He was chairman at the time of his death, and only quite recently had compiled an historical record of the events which led up to its formation, with an interesting account of Us early stages and subsequent development. He was also chairman of the New Zealand branch, of the Empire Press Union.

Sir George Fenwick was closely associated with public life in Otago, and was at various times a leader of many societies and institutions. He founded the Otago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was married in 1874 to Mise Jane A. Proudfoot, and they had a family of two sons and four daughters. The two sons are Dr. G. E. 0. Fenwick, of Auckland, and Dr. D. E. Fenwick, of Wellington.