Huntly Press and District Gazette

The first issue of the Huntly Press and District Gazette was printed in May 1910 by James Henry Claridge (1862-1946). Claridge was a compositor, editor and publisher who founded a number of newspapers in New Zealand including the Eltham Argus and Kaponga District Advertiser (1897), the Martinborough Star (1904), the Waipukurau Press (1905), the Taumarunui Press (1906), the Morrinsville Star and Matamata Gazette (1911), the Otorohanga Times (1912), and the Tuakau Press (1916). His most unsuccessful paper was the Pio Post (1920), which only lasted for one issue.

Claridge learnt the newspaper trade during the 17 years he spent at the Hawera Star. He left in 1897 when he bought his first newspaper in Eltham. Claridge’s large family supported his career by carrying out tasks such as hand-setting type. Like many early newspapers, the first issues of the Huntly Press were printed using an Albion cast iron hand press and it came out weekly.

Claridge did not own the Huntly Press for long. He sold it in 1911 to Walter H Hutchinson, a journalist at the Hawera & Normanby Star. The change in ownership from Hutchinson to the newly formed Huntly Press Co around 1912 and then to the Huntly Printing and Publishing Company in 1926 was the start of an era where the paper was managed on behalf of a number of shareholders.

The newspaper continued as the Huntly Press and District Gazette until 1977. For the majority of this period it remained a weekly, except for a short period in the early 1930s when it was published bi-weekly.  From the late 1970s, the masthead changed regularly, first to the Press, then the Huntly Press, the Huntly and Ngaruawahia Press, back to the Huntly Press and finally, in 1991, it became known as the Huntly and Districts Press.

The Press continued to be published every Wednesday. In July 1993 the editorial team introduced a free weekend title called Expressions. Promoted as ‘being full of positive news about our town’, it was delivered to 6,500 homes in the Huntly region. In April 1994, the publishers decided to close Expressions and to make the Huntly Press a free weekly paper from 10 May 1994. Unfortunately, the paper only lasted a year after that, closing in May 1995. At the time it closed, it was owned by the Wilson & Horton Group, owners of the New Zealand Herald.