The New Zealand gazette and Britannia spectator [electronic resource]

The New Zealand Gazette and Britannia Spectator, August 29, 1840

Wellington's first newspaper was actually printed in London before the embarkation of the New Zealand's Company's first ships to Petone. Samuel Revans, a merchant, speculator, and printer of some notoriety, had skipped Montreal, Canada in the wake of the Papineau Rebellion. When he arrived downunder, he quickly established The New Zealand Gazette, which was initially the voice of his employers and highly dependent on their goodwill for advertising revenue to keep the operation solvent. As Revans flexed his muscles in the new colony, however, he had several differences of opinion with the New Zealand Company and the paper went through a number of sea-changes. It was renamed The New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator in November 1840, and in October 1844, under the able management of Edward Roe, became the New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian.

Further Reading:

• K.A. Coleridge, Building a Paper Economy. Advertising in Wellington Newspapers 1840-1859. A Descriptive and Statistical Study. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington Library, 1991.

• K.A. Coleridge, "Thriving on Impressions. The Pioneer Years of Wellington Printing," in The Making of Wellington, ed. David Hamer. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1990.