Former NZPA manager dead

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 3

Former NZPA manager dead

PA Wellington One of the best-known figures in New Zealand journalism for many years, Mr Trevor Miall Hinkley, has died in Wellington. He was 173. After early training on the “Otago Daily Times.” Mr Hinkley went to Wellington in 1924 and for the next 46 years was a member of the staff of the New Zealand Press Association. He was a member of the Parliamentary press gallery during the early 1930 s and fin 1934 was appointed manager of the NZPA office in Sydney, an appointment that continued until 1937, when he was recalled to Wellington to become the fifth manager of the association. He continued as manager until 1964, when at hrs own request he relinquished that post but continued as secretary until his retirement in June, 1970.

Mr Hinkley was bom at Broad Bay on the Otago Peninsula—a nearby point is named Hinkley’s, after his father—and educated at Otago Boys’ High School.

Under his leadership the Press Association’s news gathering and dissemination were considerably strengthened. In 1950 he introduced a system of using leased circuits for the delivery of news from the association to the member newspapers. This was the first application of the leased circuit system in New Zealand, one which is now widely used by commercial firms as well as newspapers.

The NZPA network in 1950 was the first step in a service which culminated recently in a computerised system. During his time with the association he saw it develop from a stage where operators used to transmit news by morse code at the rate of hundreds of words a day to the stage where newspapers receive the news on teleprinters running at 100 words a minute. One of the stalwarts of New Zealand rowing, Mr Hinkley was a life member of the Star Boating Club in Wellington and a member of I the New Zealand Rowing Association’s council.

He was also keenly interested in other sports and in his later years was a member of the Wellington Bowling Club. Mr Hinkley is survived by his wife, two sons, and a daughter. “The death of Trevor Hinkley brings to a close an outstanding career in New Zealand journalism and in the administration of the country’s major news service,” said the chairman of the Press Association (Mr N. L. Macbeth) yesterday. “Through four and a half decades he worked diligently and conscientiously for the development of the news agency into the streamlined and efficient organisation it is today,” Mr Macbeth said.