MAORI JOURNALISM

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2426, 11 December 1930, Page 6

MAORI JOURNALISM

THE PHOENIX AND THE LONELY LARK. In an historical review of the New Zealand press, published in recent issues of the Dunedin Star, most interesting information is given, not the least in importance being the part devoted to Maori journalism. The contributor thus deals with an effort at Te Awamutu'in the early days:— A chapter more picturesque than important in the history of the New Zealand press is that 'which deals with a conflict in Maori journalism. When the Austrian geologist, Hochstetter, was ih New Zealand in 1859 two chief attached themselves to him and accompanied him back to Vienna. They were made much of in court circles, and when the Archduke Maximilian asked, them what they would like as a gift they expressed their desire for a printing press. They were presented with a hand-press, and taught the compositor’s business in tho Imperial Printing Works., They took the press back to the King Country • yith them, and issued a political paper called Hikioi, which has been translated Phoenix. In the days immediately before the Waikato war the Phoenix became a very truculent bird. Sir John Borst was the Government’s agent at Te Awamutu, then a remote outpost in the midst of hostile countiy, and, under instructions of the Governor, Sir George Grey, he produced the opposition journal, called Te Pihoihoi Mokcmokc, or The Lonely Lark. The Lark had the better of the journalistic argument, but the Kingitcs were not prepared to let it go at tnat. They descended on the printing house and carried off the type and press of The Lonely Lark. The type, it was said, was converted, into bullets, which, when the war began, proved the most effective kind of editorials. According to another version of the story, it was the type cf their own newspaper that the Maoris used as bullets when their natural supplies ran short. Probably they used both stocks in that way.