Mr I.W.T. Munro was colourful journalist

Press, 17 January 1979, Page 4

Mr I.W.T. Munro was colourful journalist

One of the great characters of New Zealand journalism, Mr lan William Thomson Munro, died in Auckland last Week, aged 71. For a number of years he was Supreme Court reporter of the “Star-Sun,” in Christchurch, but was perhaps better known for his very popular Nature column, “Out in the Open.”

A lover of animals and birds, Mr Munro wrote with authority on anything from the blue-nosed dolphin to the common sparrow. The column was published in the “StarSun,” the. “Auckland Star,” various provincial newspapers, and in the “Weekly News.” Several of Mr Munro’s articles on Nature were collated by the Department of Education and distributed as school journals in the 19405. Mr Munro was also one of New Zealand’s leading feature writers, being knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects. He was one of the first journalists to report the Napier earthquake in 1931, travelling from Auckland with a typewriter and a razor as his only baggage.

For the “Weekly News” he wrote extensively on hydro-electric development in the South Island, articles which are still regarded as authoritative of their kind. During Mr Munro’s years reporting in the Supreme Court in Christchurch, a judge who sometimes browsed in bookshops in his lunch hour bought books on such subjects as spiders and left them on the reporters’ bench at the court for Mr Munro. Mr Munro was also an expert on sailing ships and their rigs and a writer of stories about ships such as the Pamir, in which he sailed with the pilot to the heads and beyond when the ship departed from Lyttelton. When Mr Munro left Christchurch he went first to the “Gisborne Herald.” then to the “Whakatane Beacon,” and then to the “Weekly News.” He had always wanted to return to Auckland.

Many fascinating stories are told about Mr Munro. One of them refers to an incident during his time with the “Beacon.” Mr Munro was working

on the “Whakatane Beacon” at the time when the town was served by the | Northern Shipping Company. Former staff members of the company tell of the elaborate precautions taken to ensure that the intention to stop trading did not leak out. A whisper did reach Mr Munro, however, and he immediately telephoned a top company executive, introducing himself as “Munro of the Beacon.” The whole story was “poured out” over the telephone, including some pertinent comments about the conditions of the Whakatane River bar port. Publication of the facts brought an irate executive down from Auckland. He then admitted that when Mr Munro had referred to the “Beacon” he thought he was talking to a lighthouse keeper. Mr Munro is survived by his wife, Freda, and a son Neil Munro, who started in newspaper work as night messenger at “The Press” and is now a senior journalist with the Australian Boradcasting Corporation in Sale, Victoria.