AN EPISODE IN NEWSPAPER HISTORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22741, 29 May 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN EPISODE IN NEWSPAPER HISTORY

QNE of the most potent conductors of conversation is a rainy day. And if the rainy day occurs in a very rural district, where the roadsides are muddy, and where there are no pavements or shop windows or theatres, then you can settle down in comfort before the great log fire, because it is then that stories and histories and romances and high adventure are in the air. All this T discovered at a little wayside guest-house, where, as in Longfellow's wayside inn, "there sat a group of friends. . . . who from the far-off noisy town had to tho wayside inn como down." And if Longfellow's student, "to whom all tongues and lands were known," was absent, and if neither the pcarly-teetlied Sicilian, nor the Spanish Jew, nor the poet, nor the musician, nor the theologian was there, there wore several commercial travellers, and (as .conversationalists) commercial travellers are famed. Moreover, the very rural district where this "wayside inn" was set was one of tho most storied spots in the land. Valiant Souls The story of the Albertlanders has been set down many times. It has been discussed many times, too, before it was discussed in the friendly radiance of tho blazing pine-logs on this particular rainy day. Yet, of all the folk that pass into or through Port Albert, only a few know that it was theso green bills rolling down to the muddy banks of the Oruawliaro River that were the objective of a host of valiant souls that set out from England on

The Albertland Gazette

By RONALD VINE

May 29, seventy-five years ago, to build a city that was to put to shame the precocious child called Auckland. There is a certain patch of very rampant gorse and blackberry rambling round the straight old boles of a grove of lofty poplars. It is the spot where a business thoroughfare once ran down to the water's edge, and among the straggling, weatherbeaten businessplaces of that thoroughfare was a certain building that housed, as well as a residence, a newspaper office. A great deal of the conversation centred round tho Albertland Gazette that rainy day. Their First Printer 0110 of the ships—the most famous — that brought the members of the Albertland Movement out from England was the Matilda Wattenbach. An English journalist, Mr. Samuel Johnson, was ono of the passengers. Mr. Johnson intended to pyblish a newspa per in Port Albert as soon as tho settlement was commenced, but he grew impatient of the long journey across the world, and before tho four months that tho trip occupied was up he had published the first two copies of the Albertland Gazette 011 board tho Matilda Wattenbach. Those two copies were published on June 14 and July 12 of 1862. Then on August 1, 1863, Mr. Johnson printed the first copy at Port Albert. Number 12, printed in June, 1864, was tho last. In the front garden of a weatherworn, high-gabled old homestead, the staple of an old green-painted print-ing-press stands at the foot of a giant Norfolk pine. It is the press on which the Albertland Gazette was printed, and the weatherbeaten homestead stands on the fringe of tho blackberry

patch that hides the site of the old Gazetto office. In it dwell two very old folk who have been Albertlanders sinop the Matilda Wattenbach first sailed into New Zealand waters.

What a topic for conversation on a wet day, while "the woodfire claps its hands of flame." At the "wayside inn" they said that a complete issue of the Albertlaud Gazette still existed in Port Albert, and that it was the treasured possession of a very old resident living quite near to the garden with the printing-press. He let mo see it. Every copy was there, including the two published on board the Matilda Wattenbach. They were stained and yellow with time, and some were torn, but there they lay, between their protecting sheets of pasteboard. The amazing and thrilling thought came to me that here in my hand lay no mere facsimile or reproduction, but something very real and genuine—a product of the achievements of a past era. Not even a curio or a curiosity (excepting, perhaps, the two ship-board numbers) made to be pawed over and written about by a scribbler of a future generation, but the earnest effort of Samuel Johnson (3s quarterly in advance and post free) in the interest of his livelihood and the service of his fellows—nearly seventyfive years ago. A newspaper, telling the news of a township where the brambles twine and the poplar leaves and pine-needles strew, not pavements and shop verandahs, but green fields and country lanes! A Document of Faith The first two copies were, very small, each page scarcely larger than "the picture at the foot of this page. They were headed "The Albertland Gazette and Ocean Chronicle," and at the foot of tiic last page was the ship's position at sea. The editorial in Number 1 is superb. Here arc some extracts, printed in common printer's ink, but the first edition must have been a document of faith etched deeply 011 the parchment of a host of overflowing hearts whose greatest friend was Hope. It is headed "God Rest Thee." God rest thee. So spake a worn pilgrim, days bygone, as lie passed a pilgrim-brother bound for Palestine. And so may we, pil-grim-friends that we are, say to one another, as we tread these decks, counting the slow moments which bear us away toward the land of our future homes. Kest thee. O father of sons and daughters, after thy days and nights of card Rest thee. O anxious mother, after thy many tears! God rest ye, brothers and sisters all, now that the burden of your first great resolve is lightened—now that your first wave of sorrow is overpast. . . . God giyo us quiet hearts, patient hope, loftv faith, and the calm enthusiasm of the past to look on and await "the day 'of Jubilee" which is yet to dawn. ... "The inheritance and tho rest" are sure, if we stand fast and bear all things. . . . And then, by and by, when the chapter of life is ended, a still moro glorious rest remaineth; a rest serene aud everlasting in God's holy paradise. The Awakening

The pathetic story of the awakening from the dream that was to bo Port Albert City runs through the pages of the Gazette until the sad announcement of the end appears in the final number, published on June 19, 186-1. To a newspaper man whose paper had been the cherished child of his hopes and /strivings, this finale must have been the very dregs of a bitter cup:

To my subscribers. The period lias again arrived when it is necessary to address you. . . a task I would gladly have avoided. From -the commencement of this unfortunate business, I have felt that the Gazette would have to succumb. ... At last even hope lias failed me, and I have only a passing word to say, and close my efforts. I have expended much valuable time and money whilst trying my utmost to improve the settlement, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that all my exertions have not been in vain. It now only remains to thank sincerely those friends who have accorded me support, especially during this trying period, and to the rest I would merely -say that when next I appear before the public of Albertland I trust to be better understood, having always had only tho good of the settlement at heart.

That is all. No, not quite all. There is a tiny postscript: "I will thank my friends to call and pay their accounts at their earliest convenience. —bamuel Johnson."