'Journalist of Repute': Alexander McMinn and the early years of the Manawatu Standard

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XVIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1985, Page 87

'Journalist of Repute': Alexander McMinn and the early years of the Manawatu Standard

NICOLA M. FREAN

In 1880 a second newspaper was set up in the young township of Palmerston North; it was this paper which was to survive and prosper. The lengthy struggle between the two enterprises is beyond the scope of this article —I examine here only the first surviving issues of the Manawatu Standard —but this examination does cast light on the early printing and book trade, that is, newspapers and printing, stationers, booksellers and a public library, which began in Palmerston North in the mid 1870 s, and by 1890 had more or less taken lasting form.

Alexander McMinn founded the Standard in 1880. Its full title, The Manawatu Standard, Rangitikei Advertiser, and West Coast Gazette, gave notice of his energy and ambition. Unfortunately, the first three years' issues of the paper have not survived to their centenary; the General Assembly Library holds the earliest run (1883 to June 1886), and the Palmerston North Public Library is indexing issues from 1903 on. So the narrative of the first years of production has to be drawn from external sources.

Pakeha settlement at Palmerston North began in 1871, and for a decade at least the town was very much a poorer inland relation of the thriving port of Foxton, at the mouth of the Manawatu River. But Palmerston North soon began to prosper, a tramway was built to link it with the coast, in 1875 the Manawatu Gorge was bridged, and communications with the Wairarapa improved. At this stage, John Law Kirkbride and Joseph Poulter Leary (who only five months before had set up the Rangitikei Advocate in Marton) established the first newspaper, the Manawatu Times, and at the same time set up a newspaper for the Scandinavian community at Palmerston North, called Skandia. The editor of the Manawatu Times was C.J. Pownall, the editor of the Marton paper, one Alexander McMinn, and the short-lived Skandia was edited by Hjalmar Graff, a bookseller in Palmerston. 1 Perhaps prophetically the port of Foxton, soon to be eclipsed by its inland rival, did not acquire a newspaper until 1878, when the Russell brothers founded the Manawatu Herald 2 The Kirkbride-Leary partnership seems to have

ended within a few years; Kirkbride is recorded as sole proprietor of the Marton paper, while Leary kept control of the Manawatu Times, changing editors several times before selling the paper in 1878 to John Boulger Dungan, but retaining the job-printing side of the business in his own hands.

John Dungan had been a compositor at the Times, and in charge of its 'literary columns' for the previous six months. Contemporary accounts indicate that he was extremely popular in the township; after his death the Court was adjourned for two hours and the whole of the business premises of Palmerston North closed down so that people could attend his funeral. 3 According to Leary, he was 'fond of the genial glass (in the plural)' 4 and sometimes incapable of getting the paper out, but this may have been the reaction of a staunch Methodist proprietor. Despite this, once he owned the paper Dungan used it to promote his plans for a public library for Palmerston North —a reading room had been established in June 1876 but had languished for want of subscribers. A new reading room had been set up in 1877, and two years later the great leap to a lending library was made. Dungan

not only joined the committee and canvassed for support but also promoted the library’s cause in his editorial columns... [and] the paper... launched an appeal to its readers to donate books to the library. The services and runner boys were offered to collect the volumes from each household and The Times regularly published their titles and the names of donors under the heading ‘Roll of Honour’. 5

As a result Palmerston North had a lending library with control vested in the Borough Council by June 1879. At the same time, the Times was carrying advertising for 'J.P. Leary, Stationer', and was supporting Leary's stand for the Council. 6 It was Dungan himself, however, who was elected to Council the following year. It was into this rather cosy scene that Alexander McMinn intruded in 1880. An Irish journalist sent out by one of the London papers to report on the Anglo-Maori Land Wars, he had arrived in Auckland in 1863. After the fighting was over he had turned his hand to teaching, for a short time at Wanganui Grammar School, then in 1866 at Turakina. On being sacked by the school committee for insubordination, he promptly set up a rival school and took away almost all the pupils. 7 But at some time in the 1870 she turned back to journalism and joined the Wanganui Herald, then owned and edited by John Ballance. In the course of his work McMinn made quarterly trips to Wellington, passing through the Manawatu, and in 1875 he moved to Marton as editor of Kirkbride and Leary's Rangitikei Advocate. During his term he took the paper from biweekly to triweekly issue. He also came into editorial conflict with John Dungan over the

burning issue of 1877-78, the route for the proposed Manawatu Railway Line. The Rangitikei Advocate was 'absolutely committed to the Foxton route,... Dungan was going hot for Palmerston North'. McMinn had attended all the pro-Foxton meetings and on one occasion had by his mere presence broken up a secretlyorganised pro-Palmerston North meeting at Woodville. 9 One of Dungan's editorials on the issue speaks for itself:

There are some men who would prefer to reign in hell than serve in heaven, while others who find it morally impossible to speak a word of truth,... and glory in their preeminence in falsehood. Such a man is the editor of the Rangitikei Advocate. 1

In 1880, contemplating establishing his own newspaper, McMinn first planned to set up in Feilding, accepting the inevitable competition with the two-year-old Feilding Guardian. But he was persuaded by Sylvester Coleman, a Palmerston North land and commission agent, to found his paper in Palmerston North instead. x 1 Coleman's motivation for this is not clear. He had moved to Palmerston North from Marton, where he had no doubt known McMinn, and for two years had been on the Council which Dungan had just joined. Evidently McMinn took his advice and on 29 November 1880 presented him with the first copy of the Manawatu Standard, Rangitikei Advertiser, and West Coast Gazette. The Standard was probably therefore a political as well as an economic rival to the Times (understandably, Leary did not advertise in the Standard), it was also a daily competitor to the biweekly Times, and had the selfconfessed objective of initiating a chain of newspapers in the central North Island —an unusual, and one of the earliest such undertakings in New Zealand. Competition among newspapers was the norm, but that in Palmerston North, with a population of just under 1400, was to be particularly fierce. Nor was it likely to be mitigated by the fact that where Dungan was from Dublin originally, and Catholic, McMinn was from Belfast, and Protestant.

From the beginning the Standard seems to have hit the Times hard. After a few months Dungan had moved his premises to the commercial centre where McMinn's were, and was advertising for a double demy printing machine to equal the Standard's size. 1 He was also indulging in venomous editorial exchanges with his 'reptile contemporary', 13 accusing McMinn of, among other charges, pirating the Times's news telegrams. (This was not true, though it was apparently a known practice in New Zealand. The Manawatu Standard had become a member of the United Press Association on 27 November 1880, for a fee of twenty-five pounds.) 14 This slanging match culminated in a suit for criminal

libel against Dungan, provoked finally by an editorial beginning: There are certain specimens of humanity—they can scarcely be called men —whose instincts are so base and grovelling that they delight in wallowing in low notoriety, and periodically court the dragging of their names through the mire. Of this class the 'Journalist of Repute' [McMinn's usual epithet in the Times] stands in the foremost rank. With a private history as familiar to the residents of the West Coast as household words, he, HE of all others, has the audacity to enter the private circle, and defame the fair name of respectable ladies... [how he] could court another expose is beyond all comprehension, unless it is that he got tired of vegetating in the mud, and wished once again to be dragged through his native element. 15

McMinn brought two charges of criminal libel against Dungan, which were referred to the Supreme Court in Wanganui, and the day after followed up with two informations for sureties of the peace against Dungan. The latter he was persuaded to drop, but a reference in the journal Typo indicates that he won his libel cases, though his suit for £3OO damages was reduced to £25. Dungan, not to be outdone, brought two charges of libel himself against McMinn the following month; after a hearing in the Palmerston North District Court, however, he was forced to withdraw them, and subsequently restricted his editorial comments to the most virulent sarcasm. 16

The /Standard battle thereafter took more orthodox business channels. In June 1881, the Times upped its circulation to three times a week; in December it began advertising 'The Times Book Depot and Stationer's Hall', which offered in addition to books and stationery a virtual newspaper library for people to browse in. 17 But unfortunately Dungan died before these changes had shown results, in May of the following year. 18 The newspaper was bought by J.R. Russell, one of the brothers who had started the Foxton Manawatu Herald. By January 1883 it, too, had become a daily paper. 19

McMinn, meanwhile, having got the Standard on its feet, pressed ahead with his plans for a regional chain of newspapers by establishing the Woodville Examiner, Waipawa Advertiser and East Coast Gazette, and once this was under way he attempted to start another paper at Opunake. However the difficulties of obtaining finance, the problems of poor communications and the lack of suitable staff eventually defeated these plans —the Opunake scheme fell through, and in 1885 he was forced to sell the Woodville Examiner. In part this was due to the strain on his health —twice a week he used to carry columns of type set in the Standard's office, and

after seeing the Standard issue published and having provided for the following day’s issue, he set out on horseback late at night for Woodville via the Manawatu

Gorge. Midnight would find him leading his horse and literally feeling his way round the winding precipitous Gorge road, the bushclad cliffs above him, the turbulent river many feet below Having arrived in Woodville in the early hours of the morning he immediately set to work to get the paper to press, and the next night would see him on the return hazardous trip to Palmerston North. 20

Though Alex McMinn was a strong man —six and a half feet tall and weighing eighteen stone —this strain eventually proved too much. The Standard itself prospered, despite the depression of the 1880 s. In fact 1883 was probably its peak year. McMinn began issuing town and country editions, the newspaper was appointed the official District Gazette, 21 and it entered the job-printing business:

Having completed arrangements with a view to carrying on a large Jobbing Business, the Standard is prepared to undertake all kinds ofjobbing Printing, which will be executed with neatness and despatch and at Wellington prices. Visiting cards, Posters, Billheads, Business cards, and all other classes ofjobbing Printing executed at the Standard office, Wellington prices. 22 A month later the Standard also began advertising the wares of John Watt, a Wellington bookseller:

JOHN WATT Bookseller and Stationer Willis-Street WELLINGTON Look out for new advertisement of STOCK to arrive Shortly... 23

This is slightly ambiguous —was the newspaper the agent for these books, or were people to be enticed to Wellington? Either way, it was a canny tactic on McMinn's part, for the next month Hjalmar Graff, who had edited Skandia for J. P. Leary, finally began advertising his bookshop in the Standard. In January 1884 Macro's Tobacconist also took out advertising for the stationery they sold. 4 Meanwhile McMinn took on three more apprentices, began to issue Sunday supplements, and produced a Sheet Almanac, for sale in 1885.

Editorially, McMinn tended to support Liberal policies, but he did not involve himself in local politics as Dungan had. 26 (When the library burnt down in 1885 there were no newspaper appeals to restock.) The somewhat aloof stance may have been due to the status of District Gazette; when the Times, for instance, criticised the administration of the Manawatu County Council in 1883 it found itself boycotted from its supply of news by the Council. 27 Certainly when Fred Pirani, a member of the Standard's staff, stood for the House of Representatives in 1890 the electoral roll was printed by

the Manawatu Herald rather than by the Standard. 28 (Pirani was unsuccessful, though Ballance did take his Liberal party to power.) But after the elections, for reasons which remain unclear, McMinn decided to sell up his business and leave Palmerston North. He became sub-editor of the Wairarapa Daily Times in Masterton, and Fred Pirani took over as proprietor and editor of the Manawatu Standard.

The issues of the Standard themselves for the first surviving years reveal certain continuing anxieties concerning the business, notably insecurity of capital and difficulties in retaining staff, which made necessary a heavy emphasis on advertising, and meant McMinn never delegated the burdens of running the paper.

The press used for the first months of issue was an old Albion handpress from the Wanganui Herald, capable of producing 250 sheets an hour, and since McMinn could only afford a small lease, it was located in the upper storey of a wooden building in the Square, to the trepidation of the confectioner, Mrs Eng, underneath. 29 By 1883 McMinn had acquired a larger Wharfedale stopcylinder press, which ran on steam power and could print 1300 sheets an hour, and he had taken over the whole building, 30 though after a few months the front half of the lower storey was to let again. The Standard had also earned sufficient to buy some land, for grazing in its paddocks was offered in the advertising columns. 31 McMinn must have been frequenting secondhand sales of printing equipment, too, for according to the knowledgeable R. Coupland Harding, his small pica type had originally belonged to William Colenso. The paper on which it was printed was double royal in size, and varied considerably in quality —an indication that McMinn was saving money, at least in the short term, by buying it in small lots. On one occasion he was caught out, and had to ‘beg wrapping paper from a friendly grocer and paste pieces together to obtain sheets of the necessary size. 33

Finding long-term staff was another perennial problem—a letter in March 1881 soliciting staff speaks of having ‘had 3 or 4 amateurs, but I am tired of them and am determined to have a good man or none at all’. 34 The Standard began with Henry Lyes and Edward Roe (son of Charles Roe, the Wellington printer, and scarcely an ‘amateur’), and at various times thereafter employed N.H. Nash, who later worked on the Times, Frank Knowles from Kaikoura, and Fred Pirani; in addition there were usually two or three apprentices at a time. McMinn’s son Archibald became a compositor, while another son ‘Tiny’ worked on a Carterton paper in the 1900 s. There were also tenuous partnerships; Henry Lyes was registered as printer, publisher and co-proprietor of the Standard when it was first issued, though McMinn took over all three roles

by 1881. In 1882 one John McKelvie was registered as the proprietor, with McMinn as printer and publisher—again, a short-term involvement. 5 These episodes deserve more investigation, but in this context, they signal both McMinn's inclination for sole control, and periodic financial crises.

The internal evidence of these early issues suggests that the distribution of the paper was quite a problem. McMinn employed a 'collector', and warned that a coloured wrapper on one's paper meant that it would be discontinued unless the bill was paid. He seems to have used men on horseback to carry the country edition, which came out in the early afternoon, and local boys to distribute the 4 p.m. second edition, and there was usually a notice in the paper asking subscribers to report any 'irregularity in distribution'. Presumably these tactics were successful, for by December 1884 he claimed he could guarantee a circulation of 1500 copies.

The chief compensation for these business difficulties came from McMinn's attention to the advertising side of affairs. The price of the paper had to equate with the Times's 3d biweekly, i.e. Id per copy, 5 shillings quarterly, or 6 shillings and sixpence if booked. In every issue the editor extolled the power of advertising and the extent of his circulation, for example:

IF YOU WANT A SITUATION TO BUY ANYTHING A SERVANT TO LET FURNISHED TO SELL ANYTHING OR UNFURNISHED OR

To increase your business ADVERTISE IN THE MANAWATU STANDARD

The largest circulation in the district, and consequently the best medium for advertising. Advertising is to business what steam power is to machinery—the grand propelling power. 36

Variations on this theme were sprinkled throughout every issue. Illustrations for advertisements were always plentiful (eighteen different designs in one four-page issue in March 1883, for example) and in October 1884 several larger frames for advertisements were received. The cost of advertising was not extolled in each issue and is difficult to determine, presumably individual agreements were reached rather than a standing rate being applied. Special terms enticed employers and servants to advertise in the 'Wanted' column: 16 words for one shilling. 37 McMinn also took care to appeal to his rural subscribers,

Special pains are taken in the compilation of information for country residents, which will be found to be accurate and reliable in every respect. NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC The Manawatu Standard having by far the largest circulation of any journal published in the Manawatu, has been selected by Messrs Stevens and Gorton as the only paper issued in Palmerston in which all their district stock sales, special notices, &c, &c, will for the future appear. 38

As for news content, the Standard usually ran to about six of its thirty-two columns, derived principally from the large news networks:

WANTED KNOWN.— The Manawatu Standard is a subscriber to the United Press Association and Reuters Telegraphic Agency, and contains the very latest English and Foreign Intelligence to the hour of going to press.

On occasion this could have disadvantages: 'Owing to an atmospherical disturbance the wire was working badly today, thus causing delay in the receipt of press telegrams.' 40 But in addition to these established channels McMinn himself wrote up local news — once routing his printers out of a billiard room to put out a late story —and printed the Borough Council minutes. He also employed a 'Special Correspondent' at Foxton, who relayed in particular the shipping news. And from February 1884 a separate 'Commercial' column began to give information about the London and Sydney markets.

The printing trade was an early and prolific immigrant in New Zealand —presses like the Albion were portable and comparatively cheap. But the bread-and-butter of the trade was the newspaper element, and local newspapers were largely one-man concerns whose success depended entirely on the energy and ability of the proprietor. Alexander McMinn's experience with the Manawatu Standard was decidedly a success story —he might be a 'Journalist of Repute', but he also had the acumen to run his paper as a business venture, and the ability if necessary to perform any or all of the roles involved.

REFERENCES The author would like to thank lan Matheson, the Palmerston North City Council archivist, and Ross Harvey, for their advice and assistance. 1 G.H. Scholefield, Newspapers in New Zealand (Wellington, 1958), pp. 55, 57. G.C. Petersen, Palmerston North: A Centennial History (Wellington, 1973), p. 150, notes, concerning Skandia, ‘lt was overlooked however, that the Danish alphabet contains letters foreign to the English... Consequently the first issue of Skandia did not appear until 18 November... The tradespeople generously supported its advertising columns, the local doctor offered his services on moderate terms, a local Swede advertised for a wife (beauty not essential if a competent housewife) ’

2 Printing, Bookselling & Their Allied Trades in New Zealand Circa 1900: Extracts From the Cyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington, 1980), p. 23. 3 The Tablet, 19 May 1882, p. 17. 4 Manawatu Times, 23 October 1909, p. 2. 5 I. Malcolm, Palmerston North City Library: 1819-1919 (Palmerston North, 1979), pp. 4-7. Dungan was on the Library Committee of the Borough Council. 6 Manawatu Times, 4 June 1881, pp. 3-4. 7 C. R. Howlett, Turakina: the Centenary of a Country School (Wanganui, 1959), pp. 24-27. 8 Scholefield, pp. 51, 56-57, and Petersen, p. 151. 9 Manawatu Times, 31 May 1916. 10 Ibid., 16July 1879, p. 2. 11 T.L. Buick, Old Manawatu (Palmerston North, 1903) p. 355. 12 Manawatu Times, 23 November 1881, p. 2.

13 Buick, p. 355: 'Looking over old files we see such striking titles... as "A Registered Slanderer", "The Trail of the Viper", "Disreputable Journalism", and in one wild effusion we find the following crushing denunciation... "There are spots to be found on the sun, there are scabby sheep in all flocks, and we regret to say that the ranks of colonial journalism has at least one representative who is a disgrace to the order, and a worthy follower of his prototype, Ananias" ' (taken from the Manawatu Times, 5 July 1879, p. 2). 14 J. Sanders Dateline-NZPA (Auckland, 1979), p. 12. 15 Quoted, Evening Post, 21 May 1881, p.2. 16 Criminal Record Book of the Palmerston North District Court, vol. 1, 17 and 18 May 1881 and 28 June 1881. I. Matheson, The Birth of Palmerston North (Palmerston North, Manawatu Evening Standard, 13 March 1971) p. 40. Selections from Typo (Wellington, 1982) p. 46. Efforts to locate Wanganui Supreme Court records for 1881 have proved unsuccessful.

17 Manawatu Times, 31 December 1881, p.2. 18 His widow Mary is, however, recorded as a 'bookseller', with property in Palmerston North valued at £7OO. Return of the Freeholders of New Zealand, October 1882 (Wellington, 1884). 19 Petersen, p. 160. 20 Reminiscences of McMinn's son Gordon, quoted in Petersen, p. 151. 21 Manawatu Standard, 23 June 1883, p. 3. 22 Ibid, and 5 July 1883, p.2. 23 Ibid, p. 4. 24 Ibid, 3 January 1884, p. 3. 25 Ibid, 3 December 1884, p. 3: 'Wanted known: The Manawatu Standard is the only paper on the West Coast which gives to its subscribers every Saturday a fourteen column supplement gratis.'

26 His former employer, John Ballance, by then Liberal M.P. for Wanganui, is reported as having written the leader for the first issue. Buick, p. 354. 27 Manawatu Times, 7June 1883, p. 3. 28 Selections from Typo, p. 110. 29 Petersen, p. 150. 30 Palmerston North Public Library photograph archive, Bc3, 'Standard Steam Printing Works', c. 1885; Manawatu Standard colophon 1883. 31 e.g. Manawatu Standard, 27 March 1883, p. 3. 32 R. Coupland Harding, 'Relics of the First New Zealand Press', Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 32 (1900), 400-404 (p. 404). 33 Petersen, p. 151. 34 Unpublished letter from McMinn to William Henry Smith, editor of the Marlborough Times, 18 March 1881 (Palmerston North City Council Archives). 35 Selections from Typo, p. 125. 36 Manawatu Standard, 8 October 1883, p. 4. 37 Ibid, 3 December 1884, p.l. 38 Ibid, and 4 February 1884, p.l. 39 Ibid, 13 February 1883, p.2. 40 Ibid, 15 January 1884, p.2.