Shannon News

The Shannon News was founded by Herbert G. Kerslake and Robert H. Billens on 2 June 1921. Published bi-weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays, the Shannon News was the second paper named for the town, preceded by the Shannon Advocate (one of the first papers in the Horowhenua district). The paper survived for nearly twenty years. It was reduced to a weekly publication shortly before its final issue in 1940, closing – like other papers at the time – because of the wartime shortage of paper.

The Shannon News was just one of Kerslake and Billens’ newspapers. Having already acquired the Horowhenua Chronicle in 1917, the Otaki Mail in 1920, and the Manawatu Daily Times in 1922, the company Kerslake & Billens, Ltd. was formed by the partners and their respective wives, Mary Louise and Myra Mary, in 1922. Its office was on Levin’s main thoroughfare, Oxford Street, and boasted the formidable Model 14 Mergenthaler Linotype line-casting machine amongst its assets. Following Kerslake’s death in 1934, the company joined forces with Leslie A. Humphrey, another local master printer with decades of experience in the industry, changing formally to Kerslake, Billens & Humphrey, Ltd. in 1945.

Kerslake, a well-respected member of the Horowhenua community throughout his life, married Mary Louise in Sydney in 1913. Interestingly, they shared the same surname – ‘Kerslake’ – before their marriage but were in no way related by blood. Mary Louise went on to become a co-director of the company, alongside Billens and his wife, after her husband’s death and the directorship was eventually passed to their sons. The Kerslake family retained shares in the company until its amalgamation into Wilson & Horton Newspapers in 1997.

Billens’ career in newspapers continued after Kerslake’s death and he later courted controversy as the editor of the Manawatu Daily Times. In 1943, he published an article, titled “The Gag Again”, criticising the denial of his request to publish about a “certain matter”, namely the airing of workers’ grievances during the wartime years. His actions were considered serious, deemed “prejudicial to the public safety”, and he was fined £5, the equivalent to $NZ412 in 2018. Following a trial, conviction, and subsequent appeal, which attracted much public attention and debate, his conviction was eventually quashed but, at the same time, his appeal was dismissed. Billens retired in 1955 and eventually passed away in 1959. The Kerslake and Billens families had a lasting impact on the Manawatu-Wanganui region through decades of dedication to local papers such as the Shannon News.