Bratska Sloga

Bratska Sloga (‘Brotherly Unity’ in English) was the first of two newspapers published in Croatian in Auckland late in the nineteenth century. Each issue also contained some English content.

The fortnightly newspaper only appeared four times during May and June 1899. Three issues ran to four five-column pages. The fourth issue was six pages and carried more advertising than before. The paper, published and edited by Antun Bulat (1874-?), was priced at 3d a copy. Matthew Ferri (1869-1936) was described as the co-editor in the first issue.

A few Croatians had arrived in New Zealand during the gold rushes. More Croatians emigrated in the 1880s and 1890s, mainly from the Dalmatia region. Most settled in Northland and worked as gum diggers. Speaking little or no English they were regularly cheated by gum buyers who traded on their ignorance of the current kauri gum price in Auckland.

There was clearly a need for a paper in Croatian to inform and support the small, isolated communities of Dalmatians in the north and those who, over time, had ventured to Auckland and worked in trades and the catering industry. But, with a very small subscriber base, Bulat struggled financially from the beginning.

The paper was also committed to nurturing better relations between the Dalmatian community and New Zealanders, who, with an imperfect knowledge of European history and politics, usually considered them ‘Austrians’ (the Austro-Hungarian empire ruled Dalmatia at the time).

The value of Bratska Sloga to the community was underscored by a letter that appeared in the fourth and final issue. A reader, who had been offered an unacceptably low price for gum, showed the buyer the current gum price listed in an earlier issue of Bratska Sloga, and was hurriedly offered the true price. Other buyers quickly learned that the diggers were now much better informed.

The paper’s slim chance of surviving was dealt a fatal blow when Ivan Šegetin launched a rival paper, Danica, (‘Morning Star’). Accused in Bratska Sloga of starting his paper out of spite, Šegetin had been labelled ‘Mr Donkey’ – an euphemism for ‘dunce’ – among other things, and promptly took Bulat to court, claiming he had been libelled.

Held in the Auckland Police Court on 28 June 1899, the case received extensive coverage in the next day’s New Zealand Herald. The presiding magistrate dismissed the case but, with no costs awarded to Bulat, it was also the end of Bratska Sloga. Despite more advertising, the issue published on 26 June was the last.

Šegetin’s paper did not last much longer and no copies of it are known to survive. Other Croatian newspapers followed, such as Napredak ('Progress') in 1906-1909 (also edited by Ferri) or Zora ('Dawn') in 1913-1917. None lasted more than a few years. Bulat applied for bankruptcy in 1900 and it appears that he later returned to Dalmatia.