FIFTY YEARS The Evening Post Inbilee

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1915, Page 13

FIFTY YEARS The Evening Post Inbilee

Lr — i r~^\J HE history of the Evening Post is primarily tf. the story of a literary printer and his three sons. Few things are more certain than that the little sheet, 16^ inches by 10 inches, " W which ushered in daily journalism in WeljdLJb^k lington on Bth February, 1865, would not 1 have survived its early troubles had it not been in the hands of a man with two or three crafts at his fingers' ends, backed by sons equally persistent, all of them united by the closest bonds of blood and inspired by a common purpose. First and foremost, the founding of the Evening Post was a triumph of the oldest and still the greatest institution in human nature — the unit of civilisation, the family. In some circumstances, the establishment of a newspaper is a feat of no particular merit. A pioneer printer, with some ability for stringing words, comes in at a wellchosen moment. He starts without opposition. The town grows, and he grows with it. _ Perhaps he reaches a position of comparative affluence, still without competitors. He has fallen into a lucky groove. He does a good deal for the community, but the community does more for him. Still, he has founded a newspaper. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. Different it is when the ground has already been broken, and when other would-be founders are in the field, living mainly on hope deferred, and on a present diet of economy. Victory then is to the strongest, the most progressive, and the grittiest. Thus it was when the Evening Post was founded. Wellington already possessed, in February, 1865, two tri-weeklies and a bi-weekly. The new paper struck root by virtue of being a daily, but it could not have met the strain, physical and financial, of daily issue but for the magic of family co-operation and ideals. In those times of small beginnings the mere project of a news-sheet renewing, itself every twenty-four hours, in a tiny and almost isolated community, without telegrams and cablegrams, and with the slenderest resources, was in itself a bold conception.^ That it was realised was due solely to the brain that guictea ancT the hand that wrote, and to the other three pairs of hands that spread themselves over the various essential details of newspaper production: simple enough perhaps in themselves, and yet all links in the chain of efficiency and success. THE RISK— AND THE PRIZE. The papers in existence in Wellington when the Evening Post entered the field in 1865 — the year of the transfer of the capital from Auckland — were the Spectator (biweekly) and the Independent and the Advertiser (triweekly). None of these seized the chance of becoming pre-eminent by virtue" of daily issue. Their failure to do so is quite understandable. It is a not infrequent experience that, in small communities, papers which pay their way as tri-weeklies become losers and bankrupt as fullfledged journals. To assume that responsibility involved great risk before the attainment of the great reward. The founders of the Evening Post took the risk, and, through sheer hard work and persistence, won the prize. Otherwise these lines, fifty years later, would never have been written. It seems easy when we look back now. What it really meant to the men who did it can hardly be underStood except by those who have been through a similar experience. Over thirty years ago, in chronicling the death of Mr. Henry Blundell, the Evening Post of that date pays him the following unpretentious but sufficient tribute: — "Mr. Blundell, along with his sons, stuck to the enterprise, conquered all difficulties, and made the journal a decided success. Had it not been for the unflagging perseverance and business tact displayed by the late Mr. Blundell, that result would not have been achieved." HAVELOCK— GENESIS AND EXODUS. Investigation of the origin of the Evening Post carries back to a time preceding 1865, and to a town other than Wellington. The founders of the paper, the late Messrs. Henry Blundell and David Curie, first staked their fortunes across the Straits, at Havelock, in Pelorus Sound. So rapid has been the growth of the capital city that to-day-it seems as if there could never have been any comparison between Wellington and Havelock; yet in the early 'sixties, while the Wakamarina goldfield flourished, Havelock was a centre by no means to be despised. In those days, when economic industry hardly existed, the glitter of gold counted for very much, and the remarkable enterprise of goldmining communities, transient though they were, attracted some of the best ability in New Zealand. Fortunate indeed were those who had sufficient foresight to transfer their interests from fluctuating goldfields to places of progressive permanence, such as Wellington, from its geographical position, was destined to become. Messrs. Blundell and Curie, who were associated, with others, in the publication of the Havelock Mail, did not abandon the fight there till the decline of the Wakamarina gold output made it plain that journalism in Havelock would never promote their joint fortunes. Faced with this position, they retired across the Strait to Port Nicholson ; and it is noteworthy that the first daily newspaper established in the Capital City of New Zealand was published with the aid of plant brought over from Havelock. It is by no means the only notable case in which Wellington bettered itself by means of ability diverted from the goldfields. It is interesting to recall the fact that before coming to Wellington the possibilities of Wanganui were carefully considered; in fact, Mr. Blundell went so far as to take the Havelock plant to Wanganui, with the idea of establishing the paper there ; but owing to the trouble with the Maoris the idea was abandoned, and Wellington was selected as the birthplace of The Post. RETIREMENT OF THE PARTNER. The uphill nature of the fight in Wellington and the severity of the early struggles of the Evening Post are sufficiently indicated , by .the fact, that Mr. - Curle^ did not remain long in the partnership. - The business was still not

>th February, 1865, Wellington's first daily newspaper, the Evening Post, began a busy life. As geologists measure time, half a century ; merely a tick of an eternal clock; even to a veteran pioneer, when vivid memories of early days flash through the crowded storehouse of the mind, a passage of fifty years can vanish. And for a heart-thrilling moment a sight, a sound, a scent of young manhood is of yesterday— and the grey hair and the grandchildren seem unrealities, figures of a pleasant day-dream in a garden, which a dazed awakening will banish. Half a century has brought wonderful changes to the capital of a young country, as these pages to-day do show, and through struggle md stress The Post has prospered with the people. The city's record is not one of unchecked progress. This generation is a witness of a splendid rard for hardy courage and tireless energy, but Fortune's gifts had to be won in stubborn fight. The prize was for the worker, and the toil arduous. For many the harvest was a weary waiting after the ploughing and sowing; many saw their years of labour lost. Time held many Jisappointments for the hopeful, and The Post had its share of the sadness. It is often said that the founders of a newspaper are as men who plant a tree, Erom which others gather the fruit. The history of many a journal is one of misfortune for the original investors and profits for successors. Long ago Fhe Post's proprietors had days when the outlook was not cheery, and, though they were spared the anguish of a " last Post," the battle for survival called jp all reserves of activity, and the enterprise required very careful management. It is a long run from the four small four-column pages of 1865 to the broad >heets of 1915 — a great relay face in which stalwarts have done their part manfully. The rows of large volumes in the fire-proof file-room are as a tide-gauge sf Wellington's welfare, a register of flow and ebb, with the movement steadily upward after occasional periods of depression. "What a wealth of history is 'between those covers — sorrow and joy, domestic and national, in all countries, told day by day before the sunset! The world's face had been much changed in five decades— before the great war with Germany began last year. The healthy red on the world's face has spread wonderfully in fifty years — and the colouring has not reached a limit. The Post is nearly five years older than the modern German Empire, Britain's rival on the seas, and challenger for first place among the Great Powers. Boundaries and systems of government in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America have 'been amazingly altered: some by revolution, others by evolution. Man's inventions and his machines have multiplied till the word "distance" has lost its mystery, and solitude is threatened with abolition. To the boys of :o-day, agog to dabble in wireless telegraphy and to make models of aeroplanes, the " good old days " must seem infinitely remote, and yet the decades of greatest development can be counted on one hand. Wellington has now the whole of New Zealand and the wide world under observation day by day, and che shock of a clash in Europe is felt immediately in these seas; the world is now a huge, sensitive organism, with a marvellous nervous system of electric ines; the modern newspaper is a daily bulletin of the great world's state of health — and this has come in half a century. When The Post modestly made its bow to the public in f 65, Imperial regiments and colonial volunteers were at grips with brave Maori tribes, and :here were no telegraph lines to flash the war news to anxious citizens. The arrival of a schooner or small steamer with despatches from Wanganui was i cause of tense excitement for the town, and the people had three governments in those stirring times — Provincial Council, the National Parliament, and Sovernor Grey (Sir George), The Governor-in-Council was a potent administrator fifty years ago; he was in the hurly-burly, and had hard knocks from lostile critics, who strove for restriction of the Pro-Consul's power. Within fifty years New Zealand repaid part of the debt to the Mother Country by sending 10,000 men over 1 0,000 miles to fight for the Empire. The South Island, free from Native troubles, was developed much more quickly and smoothly than the wild North. Before the middle of '65, telegraph wires reached from the Bluff to Cook Strait, and preparations were made to take soundings for a cable across the gap. Railways were pushed on in the South, but the North bad to wait for more settled times. Wellington Province had not a yard of railway in '65, but the settlers had no lack of other things o keep them from fretting about the delay. One distraction was the rush to the goldfields of Nelson and Westland, for '65 was the year when Hokitika >egan its giddy career of rapid gains and losses. Perhaps the next fifty years may have greater changes in store for Wellington than the past half-century has made. In the natural course, by excess of )irths over deaths, a British community doubles itself in about thirty to thirty-three years. Assuming then, a quiet, steady progress, the population of Greater Wellington would be over two hundred thousand in fifty years hence, by natural increase, according to present statistical standards, if the supporting primary md secondary industries are well maintained. At this stage The Post has the spectacle of one fifty-year cycle of the city finished, and another is beginning. \. new Wellii. .on is rapidly taking shape over a wide area. Old buildings on valuable ground are passing away, and the signs are that foresight is to igure systematically in the city's expansion. Dearth of imagination in designers, and the absence of co-ordination between independent local authorities, the jovernment and private enterprise are blameable for costly mistakes and much inconvenience. But there is one comfort in the blunders: they should teach he City's directors how to avoid errors. Therefore The Post to-day, confident that the dearly-bought experience will not be wasted, has a vision of a city plendid, by the people's will and the planner's art.

sufficient in scope to be lucrative to both proprietors, and Mr. Curie sold out to his partner, and left Mr. Henry Blundell and his three sons to carry the undertaking through. Mr. Curie was afterwards proprietor of the Hokitika Guardian. The last imprint in the names of Blundell and Curie appears in the Evening Post of ;th July, 1865. Next day the name of Henry Blundell appears alone in the imprint.