Te Karere o Poneke 1857-1858: Commentary

Te Karere o Poneke 1857-1858

The Messenger of Wellington

Bibliographic Details    Background    Subject Matter    Availability

Bibliographic Details

Published: September 17, 1857 - December 27, 1858?

270 x 210mm., 4 pages, with occasional 2 page supplements, 3 columns, all Maori, issued every Monday after the first issue, some illustrations, the Royal Coat of Arms has the lion and unicorn facing one another rather than the more usual face to the reader, advertisements - 3 pence per line for the first time, 2 pence per line for subsequent times. The newspaper cost 20 shillings per year, payable half yearly. The imprint at the end reads, "I taia tenei Nupepa; te Perehi o Mekenihi raua ko Miua, Poneke, Niu Tirene" [This newspaper was printed by McKenzie and Muir, Port Nicholson, New Zealand].

This newspaper is similar in format and style to Te Manuhiri Tuarangi and Maori Intelligencer and is likely to have been edited by the same person, Walter Buller.

The last issue appears to have been published December 27, 1858.

For further physical details refer to Herbert W. Williams, A Bibliography of Printed Maori to 1900, Item 284.

This paper is written in Maori.

Background

The publishers of this paper were McKenzie and Muir who, in 1845, set up the Wellington Independent (Scholefield, 1958: 28). It is likely that this Te Karere is the successor to Te Ao Marama, the Wellington Independent's earlier Maori language newspaper, which appears to have ceased publication in 1849.

Subject Matter

Contents and topics of this paper include:

  • market prices for foodstuffs
  • advertisements for
  • lost property
  • entertainment
  • banking
  • lectures to be held (one on breaking in horses)
  • rewards for the capture of runaway sailors
  • an English calendar (in 1858)
  • correspondence on issues of the time
  • articles on the importance of newspapers
  • English Court procedure and the process by which judgments are decided
  • the establishment of Native Districts (Governor Grey's form of Maori self-government) with their own resident magistrate, assessors, policemen, and local courts.

Availability

This newspaper is on microfilm and microfiche. Original copies are held at:

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington:

1858Nov. 29

The Parliamentary Library, Wellington:

1857Sept. 17 and 24, Oct. 15 - Dec
1858Jan. - Feb. 22, March 29 -Dec. 27 (June 21 and Aug. 23 held).