King Country Chronicle

Because European occupation and development of the King Country came much later than most other parts of New Zealand, newspapers also came relatively late to the area. The King Country was the heart of the Maori King movement, in parts still strongly antagonistic to European settlement, so it was not until the main truck railway line pushed through the area that towns developed. The railway from Auckland reached Te Kuiti, a Maori village, in 1887. European settlement dates from that year, when a railway construction camp was established, including an iron foundry to make girders for the Waiteti Viaduct. The main trunk line slowly extended south, reaching Taumarunui in 1901.

It has been claimed that, at the beginning of the 20th century, there were 134 Europeans in Te Kuiti but the completion of the rail link brought in more settlers, the beginning of pastoral farming and cutting down of dense forests. The weekly King Country Chronicle was launched in Te Kuiti in 1906 by Arthur Hayward and Norman Matthews. The Poverty Bay Herald announced in its 2 November issue that the new paper ‘is excellently got up and has a substantial look’. Hayward left shortly afterwards, and edited the New Zealand Farmer in Auckland until his death in 1914. Matthews continued to run the paper for a number of years.

In the early years of settlements, newspapers saw ‘boosterism’ - the boosting and often exaggerated promotion of their communities as a key role. When Te Kuiti became a borough in 1910, the King Country Chronicle published this doggerel:

‘Ho, Te Kuiti has a Mayor
Say the word and hold your breath
From the Waipa right to Taupo
She’s the greatest and the best
From the great majestic river
That all nations flock to see
Westward to the rolling hills
Te Kuiti is the town to be.’

By 1911, the European population of the King Country was just over 15,000. Te Kuiti and Taumarunui were the largest towns, each with about 1,000 Europeans.

In May 1918, the New Zealand Herald announced that the Waikato Times Publishing Company and Mr W Thomas, proprietor of the Taumarunui Press, had joined interests and taken over the King Country Chronicle. ‘The business of the three papers will be run in the name of the Waikato and King Country Press’. The agreement was either very short-lived or never finalised because the next year Matthews sold the King Country Chronicle to John Hamill. His ownership was not without its difficulties. In December 1921 Hamill was the defendant in a Hamilton Supreme Court case, sued for £4,000 by the clerk of the Waitomo County Council, who alleged libel. It was decided the statements published in the King Country Chronicle were defamatory and £50 damages were awarded. The next year the paper was sold again, this time to Samuel Craig, member of an Invercargill printing and publishing family that part-owned the Southland News.

The King Country Chronicle was subsequently a bi-weekly run in conjunction with the Otorohanga Times (1912), which was begun by ‘rag-planter’ J H Claridge and later purchased by the Craigs. In 1980 the King Country Chronicle and Otorohanga Times were merged. The Waitomo News, as the resulting newspaper was named, was sold to the Spring family in 2002. The free tabloid, delivered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, is part of the Spring’s privately-owned group which includes the Whakatane Beacon, Bay Weekender and Opotiki News.