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There are competing stories about the origins of the Dunstan Times – at what later became Clyde.
The Otago Daily Times ran one version in February 1864: ‘The ‘Dunstan Times’ or the ‘Dunstan News’ redivivus, made its debut on Saturday morning.’ It went on to say: ‘It is a double crown sheet, tolerably well got up’. But the next sentence raises doubts about whether it was the Dunstan News reborn, or a completely new publication. It read: ‘The matter is of that style peculiar to a gold field, and infinitely better written than the rubbish that disgraced its predecessor.’ There is other evidence to suggest that the Dunstan News continued to at least December 1864.
The Dunstan Times, a bi-weekly for a period, was run by George Fache for more than a quarter century. A Londoner, George Fache was attracted to the Southern Hemisphere by the Australian and New Zealand goldfields. After Gabriel’s Gully, he was part of the ‘rush’ to the Dunstan goldfield – and stayed. As well as running the Dunstan Times until 1895, he had an auctioneering and commission agency business in Clyde.
The paper was later controlled by the Stevens family. In 1948, Stevens Bros amalgamated Clyde’s Dunstan Times, which they then owned, and the Lake County Mail in Queenstown with their Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette. The resulting Central Otago News was published twice weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays), and based in Alexandra.
As of 2015, the Lakes District and Central Otago News was a tabloid weekly, owned by Allied Press, publishers of the Otago Daily Times.
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