Franklin Times

The Franklin Times (known in its early days as the Pukekohe & Waiuku Times), one of South Auckland’s longest-lasting local newspapers, was published in Pukekohe from 1912 to 1971.

On 8 March 1912 Pukekohe businessmen Richard Eames and William Cargill brought out the first issue of the Pukekohe & Waiuku Times. The new tabloid was just four pages long and came out once a week. As demand grew it increased in size and frequency, becoming bi-weekly from 1 October 1912 and tri-weekly from 5 July 1915.

The Franklin Printing & Publishing Company acquired the Pukekohe & Waiuku Times in November 1914. The new owners changed the title to the Franklin & Pukekohe Times on 2 September 1919, then to the Franklin Times on 1 February 1921.

Despite the changes of title, the volume numbering remained consistent throughout.

The changes of title in part reflected broadening coverage. The original masthead shows the paper aimed to include Pukekohe, Waiuku, Mercer, Tuakau, Drury, Papakura and Bombay news. It then sought to reach into all parts of Franklin County. For some years it included a Papakura section on the back page, and sometimes also included Otahuhu and Manurewa news. In later years coverage reached southward across the Waikato River to include news from the northern parts of Raglan County.

A short-lived companion title, the Pukekohe & Otahuhu Times came out between 13 April 1917 and 28 December 1917. A later companion title, the Tuakau and District Times, lasted from 10 March 1932 to 14 September 1939. In November 1964 the Franklin Times absorbed its almost equally long-lived small-town rival, the Waiuku News. (The 1965 masthead read: 'The Franklin Times, incorporating the Waiuku News. Circulating in the whole of Franklin County and parts of Raglan and Manukau Counties').

The last issue of the Franklin Times came out on 19 January 1971. It was then merged with the South Auckland News Advertiser to form the Franklin Times Advertiser. However, after a subsequent merger with the South Auckland Courier, the Franklin Times was revived as a stand-alone title between April 1974 and July 1979.