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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 4 (July 2, 1934.)

In Journalism

In Journalism.

William Pember Reeves was born at Lyttelton in 1857. His father was the Hon. W. Reeves, who was Minister of Public Works in the Fox-Vogel Government of 1873, so it may be considered natural that he should develop a bent for argument and the arena of party contention. He was a clever lad at Christ's College, where he gained five scholarships, but he did not follow this up with a University course. He did, indeed, go to England with the intention of graduating at Oxford, but ill-health compelled a return to New Zealand. He studied law and qualified as a barrister, but the attractions of newspaper writing, where he had the opportunity of expressing himself on all manner of topics from day to day, far outweighed those of a law office. He became a contributor to the “Lyttelton Times”—now the “Christchurch Times”—and after editing the weekly “Canterbury Times” for a time he became, in 1889, editor of the daily. There he had the fullest scope for his pen, which was now beginning to be described with truth as brilliant. He was a young editor of ideas and ideals; he had his own conceptions of the duties and rights of democracy, and he was ambitious to lead the way in the establishment of a reformed social order which should replace the old conservative methods of government and life that were becoming intolerable. Inevitably all this led on to an entry into politics; in fact two years before he became editor of the “Lyttelton Times” he had found his way into Parliament as M.H.R. for St. Albans, Christchurch.