Freethought Review

Following on from the setting up of a Freethought Association in Wanganui, a monthly journal, the Freethought Review, was published from October 1883 until its last issue in September 1885. John Ballance, founder of the Wanganui Herald, committed secularist and Premier of New Zealand from 1891 to 1893, was a key figure in the establishment of the Review. The first issue stated ‘…it is believed there is room for a periodical without encroaching on the ground taken up by other publications devoted to the spread of Freethought principles, which shall openly and without reserve discuss questions affecting society, as well as the problems in religion and politics on the solution of which the social conditions themselves depend. Our aim, first and foremost, is the happiness of mankind in this life.’ (p.8)