THE FIRST EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14052, 25 May 1911, Page 15

THE FIRST EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

PROFESSOR SALE'S REMINISCENCES. Professor G. S. Sale, MJ_._ the first Editor of "Tho Press," now living in retirement in England, writes: — "Tlio Press" newspaper, as its readers are aware, was- founded in 1861,' tho first number appearing on May 25th of that. year. I myself arrived at Lyttelton in the last week'of February, and two months afterwards was invited by

the promoters of tho paper to take the position of editor. It may b© well to mention the names oi some of tho principal persons concerned in tho undertaking, for I think tho gratitude of the whole colony, and especially of the Province of Can tor bury, is due to them for what thoy did. They wero, po far as I knew them, first ami foremost, Mr James Edward FitzGerald*, who was tho heart and soul as well as thc originator, of tho enterprise; then Mr Watts Russell, Mr Honry Lance, Mr Croyke, Mr Isaac Cookson Mr Hnrman, Mr Joseph i Brittan. the Rev. J. Raven, the Ri-v. - H. Jacobs, and others—all of them men of tho lu'ghcst character and position, and all of them, I think I am entitled to say, actuated by .the noblest motives. . ."' :". . '

The scheme of starting a. new paper was not entered into by them as a commercial speculation. They all thought that the well-being of the provinco required that tbe views which, they held should find expresii»n; and this was impossible so long as tho "Lyttelton Times" had the field to itself, for "Tho Standard," tho only other newspaper, had no political views at all, and was, In fact, nothing .but an advertising sheet.

The year 1801 was an extraordinarily important year, both for New Zealand and still moro for the Province of Canterbury. How important it was. I niyself, a newcomer, was of course unable to recognise.: and now, after an interval of fifty years, I am astonished at my own prcsnir.ption in accepting tho position of Editor of "The Press.* 1 when offered tome by men ivho did know and ivho were able to realise tho importance of tbo occasion. For tl-.c great- and allimportant question to bo decided was: AVoro wo, as a province, to enter oh a courso of borrowing on a'large'scale, and did out resources -warrant, such .a courso? t'p' to thnt time the only debt .- incurred by the province had boon a small immigration loan of, I think, .ill-.QOO; and it was now proposed to borrow an indefinite sum—it turned out ultimately to bo £400,000—for the construction of the Lyttelton railway and

tunnel. The groat difficulty and costliness, of the undertaking was only just beginning to bo realised. Tho original contractors who bad undertaken the work had quite recently beon released from, their contract, on tho ground that it was beyond their powers, owing : to the extreme hardness of the. rock through which tho tunnel would havo to bo carried. It is true that, as wo know now, these difficulties were o\*orcome. Messrs Holmes and Richardson entered into a new contract, the hard rock was found to occur only in isolated masses, and the work was finally completed for tho sum of £400,000.

But tbo question at tho timo ,was: Were wo, a small community of a few thousand people, with nothing but our . wool to export, justified in. onteriing into enormous contracts of this sort. . Was thero not a serious danger tbat.wo might ho unablo to meet our engage- : ments, and might .incur tho infamy of - such - a position ? And it must be borno in mind that the borrowing party oould not adduco any reason to justify their courso; they wero bent on 'borrowing and spending money, regardless of consequences. . It was this recklessness that their opponents dreaded, and "The Press" was started for the express purpose of protesting against it. It is true" that extraordinary, almost nunacalous events occurred shortly afterwards, which upsot all.calculations and seomed to prove that prudence wns unnecessary. But what prophet in May,' 1861,-could hay© foretold tho marvellous access.cm to our population, and tho consequent increase in our wealth, which was ck«tined to tako place owing to. tho discoveries of rich alluvial goldfields, first in Otago in 1861", and sub__qucntly on the West" Coast,in 1866P For it was - these -events, and these events' alone, that enabled ns to fulfil our engage- ' ments. It is ono of the most extraordinary ironies of fate that the (great discovery of gold in took ptaco in the, very week in which "The Proas'". began its career, and was announced in tho first number of that journal. Am*J although I hold, as most men I believe do, that alluvial gold is ultimately a curso instead of a blessing to the country in which it occurs, still, it must be ' admitted that the temporary prosperity caused by the gold discoveries lasted" long enough to justify' the sanguine views of the borrowers, nnd apparently to falsify tho gloomy anticipations of tlieir opponents

It is almost impossible for tlie present . generation to realise what was the state of things in Canterbury early in 18C1. Perhaps tho statement of a. few facts may help them in trying to do this. Our exports consisted of wool, and practically of wool only.. There was no such thing as frozen or even tinned meat. Thero was no gold, no coal,, except.a littlo lignite of no. great timber even, except what wo. required, for our own uso; no wheat, no -barley, no oats—beyond what we consumed-our-selves. You could rido from Christchurch to tho Malvern Hilla without being stopped by a single fence. Thert waa not a single made road, except the two which led to Port Lyttelton—ono by Sumner, tho other over tho': Port hills. There was not a single" bridge over any of the largo rivers; even tho Heathcote had to bo crossed by a ferry. I shall never forget the desolate sight which presented itself-when Chariton Howitt and myself njouhted to the top of the Port hills," on -our way. from Lyttelton to Christchurch. The few scattered wooden houses which formed the town wero scarcely visible in the distance. Not a trco was to bo seen, except the small patch of native bush which still existed at Riccarton, and a still smaller patch,. soon afterwards destroyed,. at Papanui. .Qhristchurch itself had but few attractions. There was no theatre, .scarcely a" bil-liard-room. There was certainly a free-and-easy concert at tho "White Hart, tho chief, or, rather, tbo only performer at which was a clever singer named Charley Martin. The only occupation for tho idle was the -rainouone of drinking at' hotel bars,. at a cost of one shilling—afterwards reduced to sixpence—-a glass. Tho West Coast was practically unknown and inaccessible ; even small coasting steamers at that time hardly existed; and it co happened that on the very first night that I spent in Christehur.li I met at Rule's boardinghouso a gcntloman who had just brought overland a small mob.' of cattlo from Nelson, and who told mo that a few months beforo ho had taken into the Grey River tho first schooner that ever entered it. It is true that John and James- Rochfort had, a littlo beforo this, explored a considerable part of tho west coast of Nelson with a whaleboat. and had dbv s.\_*; 'Z

covered what seemed to be valuable coal seams in that district, and had also found gold on the Waimangaroa river, but not in quantities sufficient to start a goldfield.

It is clear, I think, from what I have said, that early in 18G1 Canterbury was simply a wool-growing country, and that at that time no one liad any right to expect that it would ever bo anything else. I will go further, ftnd say that it would have been happy for Canterbury if it had remained for years longer a wool-growing country, if its progress had never l>oen unduly hurried by the discovery of alluvial gold, and if it could have quietly waited for tho gradual development of pastoral, and, in due time, of agricultural and manufacturing industries.

To return to "Tho Press," and to my own position as editor. I saw at once that I had no right whatever to pronounce an opinion on the burning question of the day, and I recognised that I had been appointed editor mainly because of my supposed literary qualifications, as being a Fellow of Trinity. I therefore- decided to confine myself to tbe duty of "getting up" tho paper, and to writing on general subjects or on European events. For any subject wbir-b required a knowledge of provincial politics or the past history of the province or of the colony I referred either to Mr FitzGerald himself or, in bis absence, to Mr Brittan or Mr Jacobs. My editorship was only undertaken for six months. At the end of that time I went to tho Otago goldfields, and then, and not till then, began my real personal acquaintance with thc affairs of tho colony.

Before closing these reminiscences I should like to add that, in ray opinion (and I am sure also that it was tho opinion of all the friends with whom I was acquainted in Canterbury) the province would do honour to itself as well a*; to tho memory of a great man, if it were to. erect a statue of James Edward FitzGerald in Cathedral square in some position corresponding with that of John Robert Godley.