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Some categories of publication

The student of publishing in New Zealand is handicapped by the lack of bibliometric studies. There is, for instance, no equivalent for New Zealand of Simon Eliot's Some Patterns and Trends in British Publishing 1800-1919 (1994), a study which examines the size, patterns and nature of book production based on detailed statistical analyses of lists of what was published. We do not have for New Zealand any firm knowledge of quantities published, and what kinds of publications they were, beyond the most cursory information. Short surveys of some of the most important of the categories of publications produced in New Zealand form the bulk of this chapter. The selection of categories is not comprehensive: there is, for example, no coverage of map publishing. Nor is the selection balanced, and in this sense it reflects the current state of research into aspects of New Zealand's print culture.

Government publishing

From its earliest days the State in New Zealand has been a major publisher. The colonial government's first official notices were printed on the Church Missionary Society's press in early 1840; its first separately issued official Gazette came out towards the end of the same year. Rachel Salmond tells the story of those early and sometimes makeshift days in Government Printing in New Zealand, 1840 to 1843 (1995), drawing expertly upon archival sources. W.A. Glue's History of the Government Printing Office (1966) takes the narrative briskly forward more than a century. Glue's account focuses on personalities, equipment and buildings, but nonetheless makes the magnitude of the State's undertakings as a publisher clear. Its parliamentary publications kept citizens informed in great and sometimes crushing detail of their government's activities; its legislative publications guided citizens (or at least their lawyers) on their rights and duties; its departments became exemplary publishers in the fields of agriculture, education, statistics, science and health, with even occasional excursions into the world of arts.

     Unfortunately, the mass of material so produced over the years has been less than perfectly mapped. Alison Fields, writing in New Zealand Libraries (1995), noted that New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world to have national bibliographic coverage for monographs for the entire span of its written history. Yet, within this record, government publications are in fact a submerged, although substantial, part of a miscellaneous bulk. Navigational problems are acute. Guides include Kathleen Shawcross et al., A Guide to the New Zealand Primary Sources in the Davis Law Library (1977), C.L. Carpenter's Guide to New Zealand Information Sources Part V: Official Publications (1980), updated by Jill Best in 1994, and J.B. Ringer and C. Campbell's New Zealand Government Publications: An Introduction (1980). The Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives has published the Users' Guide to Parliamentary Publications (1989). David McGee's Parliamentary Practice in New Zealand , first published in 1985 but revised and expanded in 1994, includes much incidental detail on the organisation and form of parliamentary publications. J.B. Ringer's An Introduction to New Zealand Government (1991) includes not only chapters on parliamentary, legislative and statistical publications, but also notes on publishing by local government and selected quasi-state organisations. The tripartite format of each chapter offers background information on the history, functions and structure of government, guidance on using related publications and lists of further references. This guide, however, like the others mentioned above, now badly needs updating, particularly in relation to the new MMP environment.

     The above guides are manuals of a kind, pragmatic in nature. This is also true of the few legal textbooks that give guidance on the availability of statutes, the most informative of which is perhaps J.F. Burrows's Statute Law in New Zealand (1992).

     Over the past decade attention has gradually turned from the practice of government publishing to its theory: from what is available to what should be available, and in what format. This has been in part inspired by the consequences of the major government restructuring which began in the mid 1980s. The deregulation of government printing in 1986, the sale of the Government Printing Office in 1989, and the continuing fragmentation of the public service have had a major effect on departmental and other government publishing programmes. Pleasance Purser's article 'Production, distribution and bibliographic control of New Zealand government publications' (1988) reviewed the scene after deregulation but prior to the sale of the Government Printing Office. D.I. Matheson's 'Access to New Zealand government information' (1988) reviewed current and potential problems of accessing information.

     It should be clear by now that there are large gaps in research on New Zealand government publishing. The bibliographic groundwork has not even been done. Some departments have issued spasmodic promotional catalogues of their publications; some have more or less regularly issued bibliographies or chronological lists (the Department of Statistics has been perhaps the most consistent performer here). However, few if any systematic and comprehensive bibliographies of any aspects of government publishing have been compiled, nor are satisfactory cumulative indexes available to the major publications.

     Apart from Salmond (1995) and Glue (1966), and a chapter on the Government Printing Office in R.A. McKay's centennial compilation (1940), little or no work has been done on the history of the government's involvement in publishing. This is especially true of departmental publishing. Few departmental histories make more than a fleeting mention of their department's publishing programmes. This is the case even for the publicly-funded scientific institutes, one of whose primary functions is, presumably, to publish. A rare exception, Rose-Marie C. Thompson's The First Forty Years: New Zealand Oceanographic Institute (1994) still devotes no more than two pages to the topic. A more notable exception is Sir George Wood's Progress in Official Statistics 1940-57 (1976).

     No work at all has been done on the publication practices of local and regional government, or state owned enterprises; little research has been done into the accessibility and usefulness of government information in print form. R.C. Lamb, writing in New Zealand Libraries (1958), examined the idiosyncrasies and shortcomings of a cumulative index to the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives (matters left uncorrected in subsequent indexes). Genealogical researchers such as Denis Hampton and Alan Tunnicliffe have focused on the historical uses of major publications to family historians—uses incidental to the original purposes of publication. David Hay in What About the Users? (1991) suggests that public sector reports in today's formats are of little use and little valued by external users (that is, users other than parliamentarians and their staff).

     The ideology underlying government publications has also been little studied. The Education Department's long term flagship, the School Journal , is one exception, with a pioneering essay by David Jenkins on its social attitudes (1939), and a history by P.R. Earle (1954), followed by an article by B.P. Malone, 'The New Zealand School Journal and the imperial ideology' in New Zealand Journal of History (April 1973), and more recent unpublished work by Rebecca McLennan and Michael Reid. Now that government departments and agencies have more overtly than ever taken up advocacy roles, similar service could well be done for virtually any of them. A framework for future study is potentially provided by Judith Urlich's thesis 'Government communication in New Zealand: changing roles and conventions' (1995), although this pays little direct attention to individual publications or publications policies. The field is therefore open.

Science journal publishing

Scientific publishing is defined as the formal communication across time and distance of methods, results, and implications of scientific research. Its purpose is both deposition (archival aspects) and transmission (awareness aspects); fellow scientists (peers) are the prime target audience for science publications which comprise mostly articles ('papers') in learned journals.

     In New Zealand, Mäori had of old a practical interest in scientific matters (horticulture, fishing, medicine, geography) but without a written language their findings cannot be considered published. It was not until this century that their orally transmitted knowledge started being committed to the scientific record.

     Although sighted in 1642 by the Dutch explorer and trader Abel Tasman, New Zealand was not visited by western scientists until 1769. They recorded their observations in discovery logs, made public upon return to their homelands. These publications, mainly of a descriptive nature in the fields of plant and animal taxonomy and geography/geology, are exemplified by the logs of Captain James Cook, and of the scientists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander who accompanied him. The first book published about New Zealand was an account of Cook's first voyage by John Hawkesworth (1773) based on material from the journals of Cook, Banks and others aboard HMS Endeavour . Ernest Dieffenbach's Travels in New Zealand was the first general scientific account of the country. Published in London in 1843, it attracted the attention of other scientists and travellers from the United States, France, Germany, and Austria. Consequently many detailed reports, books, and articles concerning scientific matters relating to New Zealand appeared from Northern Hemisphere publishers.

     Since the early colonial days (the mid 1800s) New Zealand has had an active scientific community. Scientific societies were formed in nearly every main centre and several major museums and universities were built. A national scientific academy was established in 1867. Initially named the New Zealand Institute, in 1933 it became the Royal Society of New Zealand. Sir Charles Fleming published a centennial history of the Society: Science, Settlers, and Scholars (1987). In it he lists one of the main reasons for federating local societies under the New Zealand Institute as 'to give a publication medium for New Zealand scientific research, such as none of the individual societies could afford'.

     The early New Zealand Institute publications were in two categories, published in a single volume: Proceedings , defined as 'a current abstract of the proceedings of the Societies . . . incorporated with the Institute' and Transactions , 'comprising papers read before the Incorporated Societies'. In 1885 the Board of the Institute also resolved to publish monographs, eventually bringing out a Bulletin series as well as occasional publications. Dissatisfaction with the annual Transactions (particularly the lag between submission and publication) led to the establishment of a quarterly Journal of Science in Dunedin in 1882. Too few contributors and subscribers meant that this journal folded after three years, to be resurrected in 1891 but lasting only one more year. In 1887, the New Zealand Medical Journal was established. It ran for ten years, was briefly discontinued, then resumed under the same name (restarting with vol.1) in Dunedin in 1900, where it is still being edited.

     The establishment of the Polynesian Society's Journal in 1892 was followed by that of the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture in 1910, and by the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology in 1918. Neither of the latter has survived, but a greater variety of more specialised journals, research reports, and bulletins has emerged from various sources.

     The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) was established in 1926. By the Scientific and Industrial Research Act 1926, it was given a statutory responsibility for the dissemination of scientific research. It took over publication of the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology (established in 1918) from the Board of Science and Art, established in 1913 primarily to print scientific papers. The editor of the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology was also responsible for a Bulletin series initiated by the Board of Science and Art, the Annual Report of DSIR , and Geological Bulletins of the Geological Survey, previously published by the Mines Department. The Geological Survey had been established in 1865 and, with the Government Analyst and the National Museum, was part of the first government-funded scientific organisation in New Zealand. It became a prolific publisher of New Zealand scientific books and maps.

     Between 1938 and 1957, the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology published alternating Parts A (Agricultural Section) and B (General Section). Science and scientific output greatly expanded in New Zealand, especially at universities which added active research to their teaching obligations. To provide publishing avenues for this expanded research effort, in 1958 the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology was replaced by the New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research , the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics , and the New Zealand Journal of Science . Soon after, additional journals emerged:

      New Zealand Journal of Botany (est. 1963)
      New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research (est. 1967)
      New Zealand Journal of Experimental Agriculture (est. 1973)
      New Zealand Journal of Zoology (est. 1974)

The relative importance of the generalist New Zealand Journal of Science decreased, and in 1984 it was replaced by the New Zealand Journal of Technology ; it folded in 1987.

     A perceived overlap between the New Zealand Journal of Experimental Agriculture and the New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research was remedied by changing the name and content of the former to New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science in 1989. The New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research then concentrated on pastoral and animal research.

     Agricultural extension had been a prime role for the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture (1918-88), originally established as Journal of the Department of Agriculture (1910-12), later the Journal of Agriculture, NZ (1913-18). This journal remained with the Department of Agriculture until 1965 when a commercial publisher gave the contents a more popular focus. After a series of takeovers, it finally disappeared.

     Within the DSIR, direct responsibility for publishing had mostly resided within its head office, since 1944 as a separate unit, from which a Science Information Division emerged in 1975. The Science Information Division undertook to produce the Department's journals and bulletins series, as well as a variety of other science publications. The publications were produced using hot-metal typesetting and printing, predominantly at the Government Printing Office. Although established in 1864 as the Government Printing and Stationery Department for parliamentary documentation, the Government Printing Office became also an important publisher of science monographs, such as the monumental Flora of New Zealand series.

     In the late 1970s and early 1980s, computer developments and applications started to have an increasing impact on New Zealand publishing and on the scientific community. The Government Printing Office introduced computer typesetting in New Zealand in 1976. Developments in association with the Science Information Division of DSIR resulted in the ability to prepare input files outside the printing plant, for example at the Hansard office. This was a world first. The cost-effectiveness of this and other developments undoubtedly helped to further centralise the production of DSIR journals, bulletins, and other departmental publications.

     In 1989, following major changes in government structure, DSIR had to compete for research funds, which forced it to streamline its operations, including publications. Reorientation placed greater emphasis on the profitability of publishing scientific and popular-scientific books. The name of the unit was changed to DSIR Publishing in 1988. As DSIR Publishing now had to charge other divisions within DSIR and outside organisations for its services, scientific publishing became less centralised, even within the Department. For example, the Entomology Division assumed full production control of its monumental Fauna of New Zealand series. The 1989-90 financial year saw the biggest reorganisation of DSIR since 1926. As a result DSIR Publishing's books enterprise was closed down entirely, leaving only the journals and the Alpha series of educational leaflets. Printing was tendered to commercial printers, since the Government Printer, now GP Print, had been privatised.

     It was mainly for financial reasons that the DSIR in 1990 sought to distance itself entirely from its research journals. A Cabinet Committee on Education, Science, and Technology indicated that the potential of the journals should be investigated. After wide consultation with the scientific community, officials from DSIR and the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology found that publication of New Zealand journals was justified on several grounds, which included the 'profound' influence they have on the quality of research, and 'preservation of knowledge'.

     As a result of the external evaluation, the six journals were transferred to the Royal Society of New Zealand, separate from any government department, on 1 July 1991. The unit started operating under the banner 'Scientific and Industrial Research Publishing of New Zealand', SIR Publishing for short. With the transfer came an allocation of funds (supplementary to subscriptions) for three years. Funding has continued for these New Zealand science journals through an annual contract with the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

     Now the major national scientific publisher, the Royal Society continues to produce the quarterly Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand (successor to the Transactions 1869-1971) and the annual Proceedings of the Society, alongside the 'ex-DSIR journals'. Although experiments with various electronic formats for journal distribution have been conducted using CD-ROM and the Internet, the principal form of science communication remains that of articles printed in its seven quarterly scientific journals.

Newspapers

Newspapers assume special significance in the New Zealand publishing context. Unlike the situation in Britain, where book publishing was established well over one century before newspapers were produced, in its New Zealand colony newspapers came first. J.E. Traue comments, 'If New Zealand's cultural topsoil was deficient in monographs, it was enriched by the newspaper printing press,' and he demonstrates this by citing numbers of newspapers produced in New Zealand: 16 by 1851; 28 by 1858; and between 1860 and 1879, 181 newspapers were founded (1985, pp.12-13). The study of newspapers in New Zealand, especially for the 19th century, therefore assumes special significance in the history of print culture in New Zealand.

     This section is primarily concerned with publishing of newspapers, rather than with production aspects (see Chapter 2) and with the role of the media in the political process; note, however, that this distinction is on occasion difficult to draw and so the user can profitably read both sections. It is also heavily weighted to 19th-and early 20th-century newspapers, the period which has been most closely examined. Research into more recent aspects of the newspaper press have been largely concerned with control and ownership of the newspapers and with their role in the political process, which is not the primary interest of this section.

     The student of the history of New Zealand newspapers needs to be constantly vigilant about distinguishing fact from fiction, and this is as true for recent material as it is for the 19th century. Journalists and editors, perhaps because their stock in trade is skill with words, manufacture their own myths and history rather more than other writers.

     A considerable amount of information about newspapers is to be found elsewhere in this guide. Note in particular the section on Mäori newspapers later in this chapter, and also the sections in Chapter 6 which note newspapers published in New Zealand in languages other than English and Mäori.

History

New Zealand, as a British colony, took its models from that country and retained strong links to it. Newspapers were no exception. British immigrants were advised to arrange, before leaving, 'to receive a file of some weekly London paper' (Wakefield, quoted in Hankin, 1981, p.39); this provided important links to 'home' and reinforced the colonial's ties with Britain. However, no research has been carried out to establish more precisely the similarities between the British models and their New Zealand offshoots, nor to ascertain when and how divergence from the models occurred. Works about British newspapers such as Brown's Victorian News and Newspapers (1985) provide a starting point for such research, and Australian models should also be examined for similarities and differences.

     Harvey in 'Formula for success' (1993b, pp.208-209, based on Day, 1990) has characterised the establishment of newspapers during this period. In the 1840s and 1850s newspaper ownership was unremunerated, political advantage rather than financial profit being the main incentive. During the 1860s many newspapers were established with financial profit as the main motive: both large city dailies and small circulation weeklies were feasible, and newspaper management became a full-time occupation. The 1870s saw a rapid expansion in the number of titles and the opening of the trans-Tasman cable in 1876; and in the 1880s the telegraph and other factors resulted in a uniform news service and newspapers played a role in establishing the national identity.

     Newspapers were initially established in New Zealand as government organs, whether directly or indirectly subsidised, and were centred at or close to the main areas of European settlement. Government control of these early newspapers is an essential element to understand and has been examined in several studies, most notably in G.M. Meiklejohn's Early Conflicts of Press and Government (1953) and Rachel Salmond's Government Printing in New Zealand, 1840 to 1843 (1995). A still useful study of these early newspapers is Patricia Burns's 1957 thesis 'The foundation of the New Zealand press, 1839-50'. More recent is Patrick Day's The Making of the New Zealand Press (1990) which examines the shift of newspapers from a primarily political role to become profit-oriented businesses.

     As European settlement expanded and as land communication links (rail and road) were gradually developed, more newspapers were established. A newspaper was regarded as an essential requisite of every progressive town, as this 1875 rhyme suggests: 'Our printing press, telegraph, and steam, / Proclaim our town's advance no idle dream' (Hogg 1875).

     Newspapers (many of them short-lived) were established as a response to the sharp increase in immigration which followed the discovery of gold; the phenomenon of the goldfields newspaper in New Zealand has been briefly examined by Harvey (1994) but deserves more serious attention. The arrival of the telegraph in the mid 1860s caused a major shift in focus from local opinion to news from a wider catchment area, and the inclusion of overseas news became feasible when a cable link to Australia was established in 1876. Day (1986) notes some aspects of this in 'Julius Vogel and the press'. The 1860s and 1870s saw the founding of the major dailies, most of which are still publishing today.

     Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the period of consolidation which occurred from the 1880s. As settlements became more established, their newspapers became more stable. Chains of newspapers were now feasible in country areas such as Taranaki and Southland where there was sufficient population density to support them. They were established by such 'rag-planters' as Joseph Ivess and J.H. Claridge: Ivess is examined by Harvey (1988), and Claridge's activities are noted by C.J. Claridge (c.1965), J.C. Claridge (1975), and Stella Jones (1979, 1980). The consolidation extended also to the main population centres where some vigorous battles for circulation ensued during this period. The 1890s saw the introduction of technological innovations, chief among them mechanical typesetting machinery (primarily Linotypes), which had a major impact on the personnel of the newspaper trade and on the trade organisations. Curiously, this appears not to have been studied in the New Zealand context.

     Geographical conditions in New Zealand were particularly conducive to the establishment of small-town newspapers. (A study of the relationship between New Zealand's geography, its settlement patterns and its newspaper press is well overdue.) A short tongue-in-cheek but informative introduction to the difficulties which small-town newspaper operators faced is found in 'New Zealand's country press' (1906). This attributes the high rate of failure of such enterprises to lack of capital, especially during the initial period until a new country paper became firmly established.

     The weekly newspapers, which were usually particularly targeted to rural areas, were influential—older New Zealanders will recall the pink covers of the Auckland Weekly News —and require further study. No serious research has been carried out into the contents of these or into their influence, for example as a factor promoting social cohesion. An interesting small study could also be made of the uses which were made of these weekly papers beyond those immediately intended: E.H. McCormick, reminiscing about his childhood, noted:

     Up to World War II, the newspaper in New Zealand was essentially of two kinds: a large metropolitan paper, owned by a company or perhaps still under family control; or a small or medium-sized country paper, perhaps issued daily but more likely issued bi-weekly or tri-weekly, and very likely to be under the control of a working proprietor in the case of the smallest papers or, in larger towns, family owned and perhaps also family operated. World War II changed this. Skilled personnel was in short supply and many newspapers closed, never to reopen. (This, too, has not been well studied: for instance, a series of case studies to more closely identify the forces which caused closure could be carried out.) After 1945 the ownership of newspapers gradually consolidated into the hands of a small number of companies.

     Other factors also reshaped the face of newspaper publishing in New Zealand, although few of these, if any, were unique to New Zealand. Overseas ownership of the media was hotly debated, especially during the early 1980s. Competition from other mass media was of concern. Technological change, this time from hot-metal to electronic typesetting, and reskilling caused considerable anxiety in the newspaper trade, as Hill and Gidlow (1988) demonstrate. The rise of free community papers ('shoppers') is a phenomenon which warrants further study. The combination of changing demographics and changing economics of production have resulted in casualties, recently the Manawatu Herald , well over one century old, in May 1997.

     Media comment about newspaper publishing in the 1980s and 1990s is plentiful and is usually focused on the question of ownership and control, especially in relation to ownership by overseas companies or by investment houses. Some of the most informative of this writing is the media comment found in the monthly magazines North and South and Metro . Examples include Pat Booth's 'Catch a falling star: Christchurch's newspaper blues' (1991), Carroll du Chateau's 'Why two old bodgies couldn't save the Star' (1991, about the Auckland Star ) and Jim Tucker's 'Sunday snooze' (1994, about Auckland's Sunday newspapers). The indexes to current New Zealand periodicals can be used to identify similar material.

Sources

Harvey (1991a) summarises the history and current state of the bibliography of 19th-century newspapers published in New Zealand, concluding that they are 'bibliographically well controlled but . . . only to a limited degree'. To locate surviving copies the starting point is Harvey's Union List of Newspapers (1987). Still lacking is detailed bibliographical work to provide a full account of the number of newspapers published, where they were published, and their impact on New Zealand society, for by no means all newspapers published in New Zealand have been preserved. Harvey has made a preliminary beginning on this for 19th-century newspapers (Harvey 1989b). Other listings, compiled for specific reasons, also exist and are useful to the researcher; for example, the List of Newspapers Placed on the Register at the General Post Office, Wellington was first published in about 1883 and notes titles registered in order to be eligible for cheaper postal rates.

     Few New Zealand newspapers have been indexed. Those indexes to individual titles which have been compiled are listed in Peacocke's Newspaper Indexes in New Zealand (1994) and also Harvey (1987). Useful detailed indexes to a range of titles published in one city or region also exist in libraries throughout the country; an example is the index located in the Dunedin Public Library, to references about newspapers published in Dunedin city.

     The major collection of New Zealand newspapers is at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington. Significant collections also exist at Auckland Public Library and at the Hocken Library, University of Otago (these are especially strong for local titles) and at the British Library, London. The National Library of New Zealand's microfilming programme has provided increased access to many newspapers.

     Scholefield's Newspapers in New Zealand (1958) remains the only general survey, but is not error free and should be used with caution. Much briefer general accounts are those by Cohen (1922) and Mills (1940) which incline towards the myth-making approach to newspaper history often favoured by journalists. Ruth Butterworth (1989) has provided a more recent, but regrettably short, overview.

     No recent studies have been made of newspapers in particular regions or localities, yet there is considerable scope for such studies, particularly for the 19th and early 20th centuries when local and regional interests overrode national interests, and when communications channels were not fully developed. Existing studies include F.A. Simpson's 'Survey of the newspapers and magazines of the Province of Otago' (1948) for Otago, A.A. Smith's Printing in Canterbury (1953) and A.E.J. Arts's A History of the Canterbury Master Printers' Association, 1889-1989 (1989) for Canterbury, and R.F. Johncock's Brief History of the Press (1991) for Hawkes Bay.

     Material about local newspapers and their history is frequently present in local histories. Two examples of the many which abound can be found in Tauranga 1882-1982 ('Communications', 1982) and in Bagnall's Wairarapa (1976).

     Newspapers in Mäori are noted later in this chapter. Newspapers in languages other than English and Mäori are noted in Chapter 6.

     The only detailed published history of an influential daily newspaper is R.B. O'Neill's 1963 study of the Christchurch Press . Other newspapers await similar detailed studies. More plentiful are studies which address specific periods during the life of a newspaper or a newspaper business. Two works based on work originally submitted as university theses are Salmond's Government Printing in New Zealand, 1840-43 (1995) which examines John Moore's role in the Auckland Newspaper and General Printing Co., and the role of the newspaper in the governmental process in a fledgling British colony; and Lishi Kwasitsu's Printing and the Book Trade in Early Nelson (1996) which notes the Nelson Examiner from 1842 to 1874. Frances Porter's Born to New Zealand (1989), a biography of Jane Maria Atkinson, includes in passing much about the day-to-day editorial concerns of running the Taranaki Herald during its early years. Harvey (1994) notes one year of the Inangahua Herald , Reefton, a case study of the setting up of a goldfields newspapers. R.C.J. Stone's biographies of the Auckland businessman Logan Campbell (1982, 1987) include much about the day-to-day running and financing of the Southern Cross . Many similar works have been published.

     Anniversary issues—especially centennial issues—of newspapers may provide useful information, although the user should take into account their often anecdotal and not always critical approach. Some which contain useful newspaper history (as distinct from anecdote, or reproductions of early issues) are:

      Taranaki Herald Centennial Issue 1952
      Taranaki Daily News Centennial Number, 14 May 1957
      The Otago Daily Times First Hundred Years, 1861-1961 , 15 Nov. 1961
      The Ensign 1878-1978 (Gore)
      120 Years: The Nelson Evening Mail, 1866-1986 , 11 March 1986

Theses are also an important source of studies of individual newspapers or of specific periods of their lives. An example of this genre is Graeme Robinson's 'The Evening Press 1884-94' (1967).

     An unusual, perhaps unique, source for newspaper history is a film running just over two minutes which depicts some of the activities involved in producing the Taranaki Herald in 1912 ( The Production of the Taranaki Herald and Budget , 1912). Its shot list notes: 'Public Offices and Office Staff; Editorial Room; Linotypes, setting the evening paper; Stereo room, casting plates for printing press; Machine room, Foster Rotary single reel press; Premises; Exterior shot of building, people rushing out with newspapers.'

     The only newspaper company history is Leslie Verry's 1985 study of Wellington based Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL). This contains histories of the individual newspapers which eventually combined to form INL, chief among them the Evening Post , the Dominion , Truth , the Waikato Times , the Manawatu Evening Standard , the Southland Times and the Timaru Herald ; and more recent history of the company and its mergers and takeovers. Verry's final chapter is titled 'How independent are Independent Newspapers?', the theme of much of the recent writing about newspapers in New Zealand.

     Much has been published about individual newspaper personnel, although it has not yet been collected into a directory of printing trade personnel. Starting points are the entries in biographical compendiums. The biographical entries in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand have been extracted and reproduced in Printing, Bookselling and their Allied Trades in New Zealand c.1900 (1980). The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1990-) notes the biographies of some newspaper personnel, and the earlier Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (ed. Scholefield, 1940) is still a valuable source. For the late 1870s and early 1880s useful biographical data about newspaper personnel (especially those who were itinerant, moving within New Zealand as well as between New Zealand and other countries, mainly the Australian colonies and California) is present in the New Zealand Press News and Typographical Circular and the Colonial Printers' Register .

     There are also many periodical articles and monographs with biographical content. An early Wellington newspaperman and his role in the New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser (Wellington, 1842-43) can be found in Coleridge's 'Edward Catchpool, Master Printer in London and Wellington' (1993). The newspaper activities of Barzillai Quaife, the editor of the anti-government newspapers the New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette and the Bay of Islands Observer published in Kororareka (Russell), New Zealand's first seat of government, are noted in Peter Kennett's biography (1991). From a later period Alexander McMinn's activities have been documented by Frean (1985). The activities of J.H. Claridge in establishing numerous newspapers in the early 20th century can be read about in at least four sources (C.J. Claridge, c.1965; J.C. Claridge, 1975; Jones, 1979, 1980). Autobiographical accounts by journalists include Robyn Hyde's Journalese (1934) and William Thomas's The Inky Way (1960).

     Politicians in New Zealand have often also been newspapermen, not surprising as the newspaper was, until the advent of other mass media, the primary vehicle through which politicians could express local needs. They have been well investigated by New Zealand historians. Some, like Julius Vogel, have warranted more than one study (Dalziel 1986, Day 1986). McIvor's biography of John Ballance (1989) includes much about Ballance's newspaper, the Wanganui Herald . The newspaper activities of a less successful politician, Joseph Ivess, are noted by Harvey (1988).

     Much unpublished biographical material still remains to be fully assessed. One example is the diary of David Burn, an invaluable and probably unique autobiographical account of the day-to-day activities of an Auckland newspaper editor and shipping correspondent during the 1840s and 1850s; a flavour of it can be found in Harvey (1990). Another example is T.S. Forsaith's 'Autobiographical memoranda' (1846-) which includes material about the Daily Telegraph (Dunedin).

     Press associations were formed for the purposes of controlling and disseminating news by regulating access to the telegraph. They played a key role in New Zealand's newspaper history. The New Zealand Press Association was established in 1879 as the United Press Association, continuing the activities of several similar organisations such as the Reuters Telegram Co. The United Press Association changed its name to the New Zealand Press Association in 1942. Throughout its 19th-century existence it was the cause of much contention, particularly because it acted as a cartel which represented the interest of its powerful members, the major metropolitan daily newspapers, and in effect ignored all others. It monopolised the supply of news to New Zealand's newspapers by its control of the telegraph and consequently was frequently criticised, for example by politicians—there was a parliamentary enquiry into its activities in 1880 (Press Telegrams Committee 1880)—and by newspaper proprietors who were not eligible to become members of the Association.

     The standard history of the New Zealand Press Association and its predecessors is James Sanders's Dateline-NZPA (1979). An earlier and still useful work is George Fenwick's The United Press Association (1929). The archives of the New Zealand Press Association archives, held at the Turnbull Library, contain a wealth of information about the day-to-day operation of

the news gathering process, for both overseas news and local news redistributed to newspapers through the telegraph system leased to the Association. This material will repay further investigation.

     Another relevant association history is that of the New Zealand Journalists' Association (1962), covering the period 1912 to 1962.

     The day-to-day activities involved in running a newspaper and the economics of the newspaper business have been an area of interest to researchers. Harvey (1993a, 1993b) examines available evidence about profitability, circulation, income, expenditure, advertising revenue and similar factors for 19th-century titles. Other publications deal with specific aspects. Advertising is noted in Roderick Cave's 'Advertising, circulation and profitability' (1989), Coleridge's Building a Paper Economy (1991) and 'Newspaper advertising in a pioneer colony' (1995), and by Kwasitsu (1996). Aspects of government advertising, an important form of patronage for early New Zealand newspapers, is noted in Harvey (1988-89); there is scope for further study on this, and the returns of government advertising published in the AJHR provide a starting point. Circulation figures for 19th-century newspapers are noted in Harvey (1988-89), and in Harvey (1996) which examines circulation figures in relation to population size for a range of titles.

     Aspects of the news-gathering process in the 19th century are covered by Day (1986) for the role of the telegraph, and by Rollo Arnold, who provides in Chapter 15 of New Zealand's Burning (1994) a study of the role of the 'own correspondent' (local correspondents) and also of the weekly newspapers. News gathering in more recent times can be read about in John Hardingham's The New Zealand Herald Manual of Journalism (1967).

     Harvey's 'Editors and compositors' (1990) notes, from contemporary accounts, some of the day-to-day activities involved in running newspapers in 19th-century New Zealand.

Further research

Despite the considerable number of publications which exist about New Zealand newspapers, particularly for the 19th century, much research is still needed. In addition to the lacunae noted above, more needs to be known about newspapers published in specific regions, and about news-gathering (including the role of the telegraph). More histories of individual newspapers are essential, for example to allow better knowledge of whether New Zealand newspapers differ from colonial papers published in other countries. This list can be refined and extended almost indefinitely.

     Many sources are available to further this research. The New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) warrant attention: they include, for example, information about postage rates and subsidies for newspapers, about funding of the Mäori language newspaper Te Waka Maori , and about government patronage in the form of advertising. Significant archival material is available in libraries: demanding attention in this category are the New Zealand News archives (Turnbull Library), a major source awaiting further investigation and analysis. They include, among much else, detailed business records of the Lyttelton Times Co. Other extant business records of newspapers are noted in Chapter 2. Government publications, such as the AJHR, will reward further study. The registrations of newspapers required under various Acts from 1868, available at National Archives and some High Court registries, are also an untouched source.

Mäori newspapers

Many newspapers published in the second half of the 19th century used Mäori language, though not all were published by Mäori. The earliest titles were those published by the government or its spokesmen. Te Karere o Niu Tireni (in various titles, 1842-63) contained government announcements and correspondence, Te Pihoihoi Mokemoke i runga i te tuanui (1863) was established to counter Te Hokioi (see below), and Te Waka Maori (1863-79 and 1884) was under government control after its first few years. Newspapers produced wholly by Mäori begin with Te Hokioi o Niu-Tireni, e rere atu na (1862-63) under the auspices of the Mäori King Pötatau, and range from

Te Paki o Matariki (1892-) produced for King Täwhiao, to Te Wananga (1874-78) and Te Puke ki Hikurangi (1897-1913). These newspapers illustrate the high degree of Mäori confidence in printing their own language and are invaluable historical and cultural taonga. Periodicals in Mäori which used a newspaper format also included several of a religious motivation: The Anglo-Maori Warder (1848), Te Whetu o te Tau (1858), Te Haeata (1859-62) sponsored by the Methodist Church, Te Korimako (1882-88), and Te Hoa Maori (1885-97), published by the Plymouth Brethren, are examples. Most of these newspapers in Mäori took a particular stance on political or religious issues, but they all frequently also contain reports of hui, obituaries, waiata, advertisements, local news, correspondence and so on, which are all valuable sources of historical information.

     Periodicals in Mäori which can be defined as newspapers declined in numbers from the early 20th century. Although there were several Mäori magazines, it was not until the 1980s that Tu Tangata subtitled itself Maori News Magazine . Mäori newspapers began to flourish again from the 1980s. Some are listed in a 1986 Tu Tangata article, for example Te Iwi o Aotearoa, Maori Kuii-ee! (from Sydney), and in the 1990s Kia Hiwa Ra (Te Küiti).

     Brief overviews of the early Mäori newspapers are included in articles by Sheila Williams and by Nicola Frean in the 1990 issue of the Turnbull Library Record .

     Publications about Mäori newspapers have so far concentrated on extracts from them. Huia Publishers has produced three volumes in Mäori only, Te Pakiwaitara , Te Puni Wahine , and Te Mareikura . Letters to newspapers are included in the writings of Sir Apirana Ngata, and of Rëweti Köhere, edited by Wiremu and Te Ohorere Kaa. Individual stories in Mäori newspapers have been the focus of Margaret Orbell's articles in History Now .

     Study of Mäori newspapers has been hampered in the past by the location of scarce copies in research libraries. In an attempt to improve accessibility the Alexander Turnbull Library, in cooperation with other libraries which held copies, first produced microfilm copies through the National Library, then in 1996 produced microfiche copies, aiming to allow study through any library or institution with a microfiche reader. The complete set of Niupepa 1842-1933 has been purchased by a few major libraries, and digitisation of the papers is currently under discussion. However, the microfiche edition includes only those titles which began publication before 1900. Some later titles are available on microfilm from the National Library of New Zealand.

     Avenues for further study of Mäori newspapers are many. Bibliographic coverage is patchy so far. Ross Harvey's 1987 Union List of Newspapers gives place of publication, frequency, date ranges, title changes and holdings information for most early titles. Cataloguing of the early titles for the New Zealand National Bibliography in 1989, in preparation for microfilming, means a form of bibliography can be produced through the New Zealand Bibliographic Network. A 12-page booklet issued with the 1996 microfiche gives title, place of publication, language(s) used, frequency, alternate titles and continuations, inclusive dates, and number of microfiche, for the titles which were microfilmed. An Early Mäori Imprint project is currently in progress in the Alexander Turnbull Library and will include many of the titles above, but only a small part of its overall coverage will be periodicals, and those only from the 19th century. Bibliographic coverage as planned will therefore remain patchy; in addition, studies interpreting the content of Mäori newspapers will require further information about their context, ownership, and readership.

     There is therefore an urgent need for a distinct and detailed bibliography of Mäori newspapers including, for example, changes in size and pagination, title changes, supplements issued, editors, printers and publishers, addresses, and language, and summary of contents. Twentieth-century newspapers in particular need study, as they are excluded both from the microfiche available, and from the Early Mäori Imprint project. Studies of individual newspapers are also needed, and hopefully they will be written by Mäori with access to iwi support and resources. Comparative studies of, for example, production, readership, iwi linguistic variations, and the way Mäori owners and publishers used Päkehä printers, will not be possible until sufficient individual studies have been produced.

     Newspaper content is a rich source of historical material (used by Judith Binney and Anne Salmond among others) and more writers confident in using sources in 19th-century Mäori are needed. Indexing of the newspapers would help enormously. Mäori newspapers are also a rich source for linguistic studies. Elaine Geering's analysis (1993) of words 'loaned' from Mäori to English from the 1860s to 1900, drawing on articles in the Weekly News and Auckland Weekly News , is an example of this from an English language viewpoint. In contemporary times, an interesting comparison of print and oral cultures could be made between the growth of Mäori radio stations such as Te Upoko o te Ika and Te Reo Irirangi o Te Arawa, and modern Mäori newspapers.

Periodicals

Periodicals include glossy magazines, annual reports, newsletters, critical journals, conference proceedings, monographs in series, directories and almanacs. They are published for a variety of purposes by private firms, government agencies, educational institutions, political parties, individuals, church and community groups. Many periodicals are not strictly published items, for example, newsletters that are intended solely for the members of a club. In New Zealand most periodicals have been written in English, but some have been written in other languages, especially Mäori. They are usually published on paper but sometimes in microform and now electronically. Some periodicals are produced simultaneously in more than one medium. Some have been copied to other media, such as microform, for preservation.

     Periodicals, along with newspapers, have been very important in the development of New Zealand literature. In the 19th and early 20th centuries they were the main outlets for writing in New Zealand because of the commercial difficulties of publishing books here. The publishing of periodicals has until recently paralleled that of newspapers, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one from the other. The pictorial newspapers such as the Otago Witness and New Zealand Free Lance that were popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries have been considered as both newspapers and periodicals.

     Newspapers and periodicals have been published since the early days of European colonisation. Most had a short life span. In the 19th century periodicals and newspapers regularly failed because the population was too small and scattered to support them financially. In the 20th century there were additional reasons for their failure, such as shortages of staff and paper during World War II, and the competition from broadcast media, especially television. Periodicals have, in New Zealand, also had to compete for readers with overseas magazines like the Bulletin . Newspapers and periodicals also competed with one another, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when newspapers regularly carried literary pieces and published weekly digests and pictorial issues.

     Most popular and serious periodicals published in New Zealand have lacked originality. They were usually modelled on British and Australian titles. In the last 20 years there has been a resurgence in periodical publishing with the success of general interest magazines like Metro and North and South and niche magazines like New Zealand Gardener and Marketing .

     Despite their undistinguished and often ephemeral nature, New Zealand periodicals are a valuable source of information, covering a wide range of topics. They can all conceivably be used for research. They often provide a record of an organisation and its business. However, there has been little research into periodical publication in New Zealand. Only literary periodicals have received much attention, although there has been a little done on directories and almanacs by Hansen (1994).

     The essays by McEldowney and Thomson in the Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English (1991) and G.A. Wood's Studying New Zealand History (1992) are the starting points for research into periodicals in New Zealand. They give some history and cite the basic sources for research. Research into periodical publication is, however, hampered by the fact that there is no definitive listing of New Zealand periodicals. It is probably impossible to know how many periodicals have been produced because so many were ephemeral, short-lived and local. The Alexander Turnbull Library estimates that there have been at least 20,000 titles produced. The Union List of Serials in New Zealand Libraries , (3rd ed. 1969) has over 40,000 titles, but unfortunately the New Zealand titles are not distinguished from the overseas ones. According to the New Zealand Official Yearbook 1990 , 560 periodicals that accepted advertising were published in 1989. New periodicals have been catalogued in the New Zealand National Bibliography since 1966. Periodicals registered with the Post Office were listed annually in the List of Newspapers and Magazines Placed on the Register at Post Office Headquarters, Wellington (1886-1986).

     Some subject bibliographies of periodicals have been published, such as Iris Park's New Zealand Periodicals of Literary Interest (1962), and subject bibliographies that include some periodicals, for instance Ann Burgin's Women's Societies in New Zealand (1965). Periodicals are often cited in the bibliographies included in monographs.

     The best collection of New Zealand periodicals is held at the Alexander Turnbull Library, which is responsible for building and maintaining the nation's collection of serials published nationally. Local periodicals are only collected comprehensively for the Wellington region. Good collections of New Zealand periodicals are also held at the National Library, the Parliamentary Library, the Hocken Library, the larger public libraries, the university libraries and the libraries of the major museums.

     Periodicals need indexing to improve access for researchers. Although considerable indexing of New Zealand periodicals has been carried out, much of it is recorded on card indexes in libraries and is not readily accessible. The Index to New Zealand Periodicals (1941-86) is the most important index. This was continued as Index New Zealand and is available online as INNZ through Kiwinet. Other databases on Kiwinet include entries for periodicals, such as the Legal Index (LINX) and Newzindex (NEWZ) . Some periodicals issue their own indexes, for example Landfall , and indexes have been published for some periodicals, for instance J.J. Herd's Index to 'Tomorrow', 1934-40 (1962).

     Even when periodicals have been identified, the next problem is locating them. Many important older periodicals, such as New Zealand Building Progress and the New Zealand Tablet , are quite rare. The National Library of New Zealand has recently begun microfilming periodicals, for example Tomorrow , in an attempt to improve access. On-line indexing, and indexes on CD-ROM and microfiche, will also raise awareness and appreciation of periodicals as a research source, and encourage further research into their publication.

     The scope for further research into New Zealand periodicals is immense. There is a great need for subject bibliographies of periodicals to augment the basic bibliographical details given by library catalogues. Research is needed into the commercial aspects of periodical publishing. Some starting points are available: Here and Now and Comment published articles on these aspects in the 1950s and 1960s, and Nielsen Press Research have published media guides since the middle of the 1980s that give information on print runs, circulations, subscriptions and advertising rates. Coleridge (1995), Harvey (1993b) and Cave (1989) have published articles on the commercial aspects of the press in New Zealand in the 19th century. While these articles are mostly concerned with newspaper publication, their approach can be applied to periodicals. Anniversary issues of periodicals sometimes contain information about their publishing history.

     Some other areas that require research include: popular periodicals, especially women's magazines and sports magazines; the influence of overseas periodicals on New Zealand periodicals; politics and periodical publishing, for instance, the role of government in periodical publishing, the ideological underpinnings of periodicals, and the influence of periodicals on public opinion.

Children's books

From the earliest years New Zealand's isolation and small population have had a profound impact on local publishing for children. During the last century and early this century, New Zealand authors have had to find publishers overseas. As few copies of these early books made it back to these shores the authors were frequently popular overseas, but remained little known or unacknowledged in their homeland. Within New Zealand, the smallness of the market meant, until recently, that it was only commercially viable to publish texts or cheap booklets which were likely to be purchased in quantity by schools, or which were affordable for families. Publishing of well produced children's books as we know them today could only be a small sideline.

     The first recorded book for children featuring New Zealand was the anonymous Stories About Many Things—Founded on Facts , published in London by Harvey & Darton in 1833. From 1869 children's books with a New Zealand connection were being published in England at an average of one per year. Edward Tregear's Fairy Tales and Folk Lore of New Zealand and the South Seas , published by Lyon & Blair in Wellington in 1891 marks the true beginning of children's book publishing in New Zealand. Fittingly it focused on one of the themes which were to be dominant in New Zealand children's books for the next 70 years: the landscape (its wild strangeness to British eyes, and man's efforts to traverse and tame it) and the tales of the Mäori.

     Whitcombe & Tombs produced their first children's title, Johannes Andersen's Maori Fairy Tales , in 1908. Their third children's book, published in 1918 (Edith Annie Howe's Wonderwings and Other Fairy Stories , only the tenth New Zealand-published children's title) marked the beginning of a 14-year period when Whitcombe & Tombs dominated local trade children's publishing (as distinct from the publishing of educational books and readers), producing at least one title per year and 28 books altogether. At the same time they were producing their prolific series of Whitcombe's Story Books for the educational market. (For more detailed discussion of this aspect, see 'Reading and Literacy' in Chapter 5.)

     In 1930 Whitcombe & Tombs published Frank Acheson's Plume of the Arawas: An Epic of Maori Life . In 1938 Reeds picked it up and issued an edition of 5,000 copies as their first large scale children's title. As Whitcombe & Tombs' trade output waned, Reeds gained a dominance of local publishing that was to last 35 years. However, the field was not restricted to these two publishers, with other publishers issuing significant New Zealand children's books, such as The Book of Wiremu by Stella Morice (Progressive Publishing Society, 1944) and Turi, the Story of a Little Boy by Lesley Powell (Paul's Book Arcade, 1963). These titles were landmark New Zealand children's books, not only as early winners of the Esther Glen Award, but also as the forerunners of numerous later stories exploring the relationship between young Mäori children and their elders.

     Paul's Book Arcade (later Blackwood & Janet Paul) had their children's publishing heyday in the 1960s. Price Milburn, while predominantly an educational publisher, made a contribution to books available for children's leisure reading, beginning in 1961 with Smitty Does a Bunk written by Brian Sutton-Smith and illustrated by Russell Clark. From the mid 1960s Elsie Locke, Eve Sutton and Ruth Dallas each published several books helping children to look back at and appreciate our pioneering past. The same decade also saw the publication of several photographic books aimed at establishing a post-colonial New Zealand identity (for example, Pat Lawson's Kuma is a Maori Girl (Hicks, Smith, 1961), Gay Kohlap's David, Boy of the High Country (Collins, 1964) and Ans Westra's controversial Washday at the Pa (first prepared as a School Bulletin; reprinted by Caxton Press, 1964).

     New Zealand's most notable children's author, Margaret Mahy, was writing fantastic stories before local publishing was ready to diverge from the realistic. Apart from the stories published in the New Zealand School Journal , all of her books have been published overseas. Through the School Journal and other publications, Learning Media Ltd (formerly the School Publications Branch of the Department of Education) have been, and for many still are, the only vehicle in New Zealand in which writers of children's fiction can be published.

     Commercial publishing expanded in the 1960s and by the early 1970s overseas publishing houses—chiefly Ashton Scholastic, Collins, Heinemann, Hodder, Oxford, and Penguin—had set up offices in New Zealand. This provided an avenue for New Zealand children's books to reach both New Zealand and international audiences. However, it was (and remains) frequently at the cost of the reduction or removal of distinctively New Zealand features and idiom in order to make the books acceptable to the overseas markets and sell in the quantities needed to make publication viable.

     From the 1970s children's publishing generally pursued urban rather than the earlier rural themes. Books featured social problems and non-traditional family structures. As overseas, fantasy and science fiction stories became popular. Publishing of picture books in English and Mäori began with Jill Bagnall's Crayfishing with Grandmother (Collins, 1973), for which Hapi Pötae provided the Mäori text. Patricia Grace's The Kuia and the Spider and Te Kuia me te Pungawerewere (Longman Paul) followed in 1981. The 1980s witnessed the evolution of the 'teenage novel' as a specific genre, with notable early contributions by Margaret Mahy, Tessa Duder, William Taylor and Jack Lasenby.

     Since the 1980s there has been a continued growth in distinctively New Zealand publishing, encouraged by enterprising publishers who have actively encouraged new talent. Notable among these is Mallinson Rendel (perhaps best known for publishing Lynley Dodd's internationally acclaimed picture books, beginning with Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy , 1983) which matches high production standards with a rigorous selection policy. Mallinson Rendel publish casebound books, whereas most other New Zealand books for children are now paperback. Cape Catley and McIndoe are, similarly, literary publishers with a small output. When McIndoe ceased publishing children's books in recent years their children's editor was among those who set up Longacre Press, which has published books by acclaimed authors Jack Lasenby and Paula Boock.

     Ashton Scholastic (now Scholastic) has also established a reputation for encouraging local authors and illustrators and produces a steady flow of books, both literary and more popular. Harper Collins introduced the Tui and Tui Turbo series, in emulation of the 1980s British trend of producing uniform format series of books to encourage children to make the transition from picture books to novels.

     New Zealand was placed at the forefront of international books about children's books with the publication of Dorothy Neal White's About Books for Children (1949) and Books Before Five (1954). Babies Need Books , by Dorothy Butler, was an international success when first published in 1980 and continues to be reprinted. Betty Gilderdale's A Sea Change (1982) is the standard work on New Zealand children's books to 1978. >From 1970 to 1995 a vibrant periodical for children, Jabberwocky: New Zealand's Magazine for Children (Auckland) provided stimulating reading and opportunities for children's own literary efforts and comments to be published. This publication continues under the new title Allsorts & Jabberwocky .

     A variety of awards have encouraged writing and publishing for children. Lynley Dodd was the first recipient of the Choysa Bursary for writers of imaginative work for children. Numerous children's authors have had terms as 'writer in residence' at colleges of education and universities, or have received grants from the State Literary Fund (now Creative New Zealand). The New Zealand Library Association initiated New Zealand children's book awards with the Esther Glen Award in 1945 and later introduced the Russell Clark Award (for illustrated books) and the non-fiction award. In addition the Government Printer sponsored an award which became the AIM and is now the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.

     New Zealand children's book publishing is still in a healthy state in the late 1990s. Publishers demonstrate both an awareness of overseas trends and a growing interest in publishing books which reflect the New Zealand experience and Mäori and Pacific cultures and languages. The fine reputation of New Zealand's highly successful educational publishers, such as Learning Media Ltd and Wendy Pye, in overseas markets is also providing additional opportunities for non-educational books by New Zealand children's authors to be marketed internationally. One thing lacking is a willingness on the part of most local newspapers and magazines to provide opportunities (or even adequate space) for in-depth reviewing of children's books.

Educational publishing

This section is limited to a study of school and college textbooks published in New Zealand. It is based on Hugh Price's collection of these textbooks, which was used to compile an informal catalogue, School Books Published in New Zealand to 1960 (1992). This collection of books is to be deposited in the Alexander Turnbull Library.

     Before the publication of Price (1992) the subject was obscure because, on the one hand, there were known to be many titles and editions, while on the other hand A.G. Bagnall had elected not to list school textbooks in his New Zealand National Bibliography to the Year 1960 (see vol.2, 1890-1960, p.viii), except for the few that were written by 'authors of note'.

     In Price (1992) about 2,500 titles are identified. Many went through edition after edition (in the world of school books, reprints or new impressions tend to be claimed as new editions) so that the total number of books printed was enormous—an estimated total number of all the copies of the 2,500 titles printed is about 60 million (to 1960). Since that date we can perhaps add another half as many again. Sixty million is more that the total of print runs of all the books listed in Bagnall's bibliography—the recognised output of New Zealand's book publishers—so that we have the astonishing fact that most books published in New Zealand were educational books. This promotes them to the mainstream of New Zealand publishing, printing and book reading, and an economic base for New Zealand book publishing.

     This is an unfamiliar view, for we are used to identifying the books from our publishers and printers as those we see in bookshops and public libraries, and it reminds us that there is an alternative world of books out there—school textbooks. It is also a reminder that in earlier days schools were often authoritarian and unwelcoming, so that many children left them with a loathing for books, determined never to open another one if they could help it. (Of course, the distinction between school books and the books a reader will choose to buy or borrow, for interest or recreation, is dissolving with the growth of school libraries and the determination of some educational book publishers to issue more attractive books: for example, some infant reading books are now as well illustrated and well written as good children's picture books.)

     Nearly all the school books published in New Zealand before 1950 came from the Christchurch office of Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, so that the strengths and idiosyncrasies of Whitcombe & Tombs governs all. They began publishing in the 1880s and by the turn of the century could take a full-page advertisement in an educational journal, offering a range of books for every subject in the primary school curriculum. Their vigorous publishing held the field for the next half century.

     Whitcombe & Tombs were able to publish books more cheaply than similar books that they could import from Great Britain, because they combined in one firm the three roles of publisher, printer and bookseller. As publisher-printers who sold many of their books from their own bookshops, they could choose not to take a full profit 'mark up' at each stage of the book's progress from manuscript to school room (publishing, printing, book-selling). This choice was not available to any other New Zealand publisher—indeed it was almost unique in the English-speaking world, for only one other book publisher, Angus & Robertson of Australia, combined within itself a considerable publishing department, a big book-printing plant, and a national chain of central city bookshops. (But despite this vertical integration, Angus & Robertson published very few school textbooks.) Inside Whitcombe & Tombs it was widely believed that their several printing works were kept alive during the Depression (1929-35) by orders, from their publishing department, to reprint school books.

     Whitcombe & Tombs's publishing office was well staffed with competent editors and designers (A.W. Shrimpton, editor for 40 years, had family connections with a book printing business in Oxford) and driven by George Whitcombe who aspired to publish all the books needed by New Zealand schools. Their printeries were well equipped, so that the books they produced stood comparison with comparable books produced in Britain (they were much better than those from Australia). Whitcombe & Tombs's growing chain of bookshops dominated the bookselling trade, with central city shops in each main centre, always well stocked with Whitcombe & Tombs's educational books, which were naturally more easily available than school books from the other side of the world.

     It was a winning formula, with two extra ingredients. One was the nearby Australian market, which was reached by Whitcombe & Tombs's bookshops in the main Australian cities, who were both wholesalers and retailers of school books to local schools. In fact, Whitcombe & Tombs published many school books for Australia (and some in Australia). For example, their 1946 catalogue shows many more arithmetic books for Australian schools than it does for New Zealand schools, and many more Australian history books than New Zealand history books. Each of the Progressive Readers (Primers) was published in both New Zealand and Australian editions, and there were specially adapted editions for particular Australian states. On the other hand, there was only a very small flow of Australian-produced school books to New Zealand.

     The other special ingredient was the publishing skill and flair of the management of Whitcombe & Tombs. As an example: they pushed ahead the astonishing series of school library books, Whitcombe's Story Books (1904-56) which, in its day, with about 450 titles, was the biggest series of children's books in the world. The Australian bibliographer Ian McLaren has produced a thorough bibliography of this series (1984), and reports that over 12 million of these story books were published.

     Another educational publisher was the New Zealand Department of Education. It issued the New Zealand School Journal from 1907, and gave one Journal a month to every school child, so, for example, three million Journals in 1953 (on average 10,000 every working day). After World War II, the Department published many Bulletins and English and arithmetic textbooks—and, after 1960, school readers too.

     After 1950 Reeds became active educational publishers. Ten years later educational publishing in New Zealand changed profoundly as several big overseas publishers set up publishing offices in New Zealand: Oxford, Collins, Heinemann Educational, Hodder, Scholastic and Penguin among them. These active publishers proved too much for Whitcoulls, which struggled on, but finally closed its publishing office in 1995. Overseas-based publishers grouped in Auckland and had their printing done overseas. The fine reputation of New Zealand teachers for teaching beginners to read has helped several specialised publishers—notably Wendy Pye, Shortland, Price Milburn (now Nelson Price Milburn) and Lands End—to sell junior reading books around the world, building on the export successes of Whitcombe & Tombs in the 1930s and before.

     Information about New Zealand's educational publishing to 1960 collected in Price (1992), and in its bibliography, are a departure point for further study. The New Zealand Education Gazette , from its beginning in 1921, to 1952, contains informative articles, reviews and advertisements. The New Zealand Book Publishers Association and its successor has annual figures about books published in New Zealand. Whitcombe & Tombs's various publishing account books, royalty records, and printing order books have reached the Alexander Turnbull Library. Two recent books add detail: Paul and Thomson's Landmarks in New Zealand Publishing: Blackwood & Janet Paul (1995), an account of a publisher who issued some educational books; and Price's bibliography of a writer of infant reading books, Beverley Randell: A Checklist (1996).

Religious publishing

From the advent of the book, religious publishing was the most prolific area of publishing. The New Zealand experience was somewhat different. From the first the religious instinct was weak in the colony and churches struggled for support, yet there were strong traditions of literacy, and in the 19th-century volumes of Bagnall's New Zealand National Bibliography to 1960 (in contrast to those of the 20th century) the proportion of religious works is reasonably high. Religious tracts and pamphlets were frequent in the 19th century, and as controversies invaded the religious scene they were reflected in pamphlet literature.

     General bookshops sold a variety of religious literature. They would not handle slow-selling denominational resources, and this encouraged the formation of specialist bookshops. Denominations and organisations like the Bible Society distributed their specialist literature from a shelf in the shop of some sympathetic retailer, often not a bookseller, although the ideal was to use a bookseller. In Auckland William Atkin called himself a church and general printer from his shop in High Street and was appointed Anglican diocesan printer. When Octavius Hadfield, as Bishop of Wellington, became prolific as a pamphlet writer he used James Hughes and then Lyon & Blair, although his key works were sent abroad for publication. Wesleyan bookrooms were started at the request of the Australasian Conference in Christchurch in 1870 and were linked with Armitage & Smith's business.

     The first Christian bookshop chain was the New Zealand Bible and Book Society, formed in 1873 by an interdenominational committee based in Dunedin. It used shops and colporteurs to sell books and tracts, and it also published a few books, including those by the notable literary Presbyterian minister in Dunedin, Rutherford Waddell. It also had a Wellington branch. The Auckland Sunday School Union set up a bookshop around 1900 in its building in Queen Street, and this too handled stock previously distributed by denominational shops.

     Publishing itself was limited to denominational yearbooks and official publications, denominational magazines, and religious pamphlets and tracts. The religious periodicals were very important because they supplied information to very scattered religious communities. Most Anglican dioceses began magazines in the 1870s. A Methodist monthly began in 1870. There had been various regional Presbyterian magazines from the 1860s, but in 1894 Rutherford Waddell began the Christian Outlook , which, from 1901 to 1910, became a combined magazine with the Methodists and Congregationalists. The Catholic Diocese of Dunedin published The New Zealand Tablet from 1873, the New Zealand Baptist began in 1883 and the Brethren magazine The Treasury began in 1899. Such magazines proved to be very long-enduring and were sometimes willing to engage in a little book publishing as well. Clearly readers wanted news as well as short edifying articles.

     Of other forms of publishing in the 19th century, little now stands out apart from Mäori publications. The largest New Zealand book of the 19th century was the Mäori Bible, later editions of which were produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society in London in association with its Auckland Auxiliary. New editions of the New Testament were produced in 1840, 1842 and 1844. The Old Testament was produced in parts by the mission press in 1847 and 1855, as a whole in London in 1868, and in a controversial new revised edition in 1889. Overall some 126,000 copies of the Bible or portions of it were produced. A range of other Mäori religious works was also produced, many of them on New Zealand presses, including hymn and service books, and sectarian publications. Mäori culture of the 19th century was deeply affected by its exposure to so much of the Bible.

     English literature included pamphlets reflecting hot controversies. Perhaps the most famous in the 19th century was the pamphlet from the Otago academic William Salmond, The Reign of Grace , which was published in 1888 by the stationer James Horsburgh. Typically such pamphlets were printed by the local newspaper and distributed privately, so were not as well known as they could have been. However a controversial book by Rev. J. Gibson Smith, The Christ of the Cross , was published by Gordon & Gotch in 1908. The smaller sects used publishing to spread news about themselves and their beliefs, and some of these works were quite substantial, for example the A.B. Worthington lectures, issued by a bigamist renegade Christian Scientist in Christchurch in 1891.

     Gradually colonial authors became known, but many of these were published abroad, including Lionel Fletcher, the Congregational minister in Auckland; A.S. Wilson, the Auckland Baptist minister published in Britain by Marshall Morgan & Scott; Frank Boreham, the Baptist minister in Mosgiel; and a number of women including the Methodist deaconess Rita Snowden, whose books probably kept Epworth Press afloat. J.W. Kemp, the very successful minister of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle and founder of the Bible Training Institute, produced his own pamphlets, Bible Correspondence Course and magazine, while a little tract by R.A. Laidlaw, The Reason Why , written in 1913, was widely distributed. Tracts were part of the whole flavour of Protestantism, for it was word-centred, and produced and consumed very large quantities of books. The smaller religious denominations were particularly avid readers and book distributors. Literature held their scattered movements together, linked them to others of their faith in other countries and enabled them to compete with larger denominations.

     As local publishers emerged in the 20th century, the situation changed somewhat. Whitcombe & Tombs published little religious work, although they stocked a very fine range of religious books in their Christchurch shop. Once the Bible Society formed its national committee in 1918 some publishing initiatives were taken in local Bible production, for example an edition of Bibles for hotels. These were commissioned from the London printers.

     It was in children's religious publishing that a breakthrough came. There was a major demand for religious publishing for children, since Sunday schools annually awarded children books and certificates as Sunday school prizes. The Auckland Sunday School Union met some of this demand, but supplying the needs of Sunday schools was the origin of the first large scale New Zealand publisher. Alfred Reed was a Dunedin Sunday school superintendent who in 1911 began to import Sunday school material and distribute it to many Sunday schools in the dominion. This became a very successful mail-order business and he also printed various certificates and prizes. In 1922 he first published religious pamphlets and a magazine, and the collapse of the Bible and Tract Society in the late 1920s gave him opportunity to publish works by the popular Rutherford Waddell, beginning with The Dynamic of Service in 1926. In the early years Christian books and New Zealand history formed the staple business of his company. Alfred Reed's nephew A.W. (Clif) Reed took the company to Wellington and it eventually lost its religious focus.

     A gradual change, which might be called secularisation, was occurring. More and more religious bookshops emerged alongside the secular shops. A.H. & A.W. Reed were able to supply them both from their own publications, and from overseas publishers which they acted as distributors for. The most notable of these bookshops were the Presbyterian Bookrooms which commenced in Christchurch in the 1920s and spread to three other places. Bible and book depots opened in many different places, under private ownership. Many of the owners were Plymouth Brethren or Baptists. In 1949 a Brethren Trust, the Gospel Publishing House, was established, which took over several shops. Various Anglican dioceses opened bookrooms, while Catholics had both diocesan and independent bookshops. There were Epworth Bookrooms in Auckland and Wellington.

     The age of denominational shops came to an end after 1960. Denominational distinctiveness diminished and the overheads of running bookshops increased, while many customers took advantage of cheaper overseas prices. The Presbyterian Bookrooms closed down completely in 1975, and many other booksellers reduced to a single mail-order shop or sold out to more eclectic and specialist shops which concentrated on books.

     Evangelical bookselling meanwhile flourished. In 1933 Clif Reed entered an arrangement with Dr John Laird, the first General Secretary of the Crusader Movement, to distribute the British Scripture Union's Bible reading notes. Then in 1937 Reed opened a Crusader and CSSM Bookroom in his Wellington building. In 1946 the Bible Training Institute opened a well managed bookroom in a building it had purchased in Queen Street. Its emergence alarmed Reed and he sold the Crusader Bookroom back to the Crusader Movement. This was the origin of the Scripture Union Bookshop chain. Alongside this there emerged many small Christian bookshops in most towns and cities, run as independent bodies.

     This necessitated more local wholesalers of religious books. In 1963 the wholesale distribution of Christian books began to change when Bill Moore was appointed the agent for the evangelical American publisher Moody Press. This was the first of many agencies which he acquired in the next 20 years. His business was later acquired by Church Stores under the name Omega Distributors. In 1996 the large Scripture Union chain was integrated with Omega and two other evangelical booksellers.

     It was in this context that later religious publishing continued. The Presbyterian Bookroom was very active in publishing in the 1950s, including doctrinal works like Rev. J.M. Bates's Manual of Doctrine (1950), and devotional works by William Bower Black. But the whole enterprise became too expensive to the church, and the chain was reduced and then closed in 1975. The Bible Society produced revisions of the Mäori Bible in 1925 and 1952, and some general Bible production for the English-speaking market in New Zealand. The Methodists started a Board of Publications, which issued editions of C.T. Symons's Our Fathers Faith and Ours (1946, 1947, 1953, 1959), but inadequate resources inhibited other publishing. Catholic publishing was largely centred on the Diocese of Auckland, which produced the magazine Zealandia . In 1950 an Auckland priest, Fr Ronald Knox, wrote the popular work, The Gospel Story which was published by the Youth Movement of the diocese. The Catholic Publications Centre was later established, and this issued a small range of works, notably those by Bishop John Mackey. There were a few other small publishers but they were not large scale or commercial in orientation.

     Serious readers interested in New Zealand theological thought were largely served by the proximity of the larger Australian market. Australian publishers, including the Joint Board of Christian Education, Lancer Books, Albatross and Scripture Union, all published jointly for the trans-Tasman market. Some secular publishers issued religious works. Over the decades Ormond Burton has been published by Forward Books of Wellington, H.H. Rex by Paul, Bishop Brian Davis by Caxton Press, and Sister Pauline O'Regan by Bridget Williams Books. The key theological works were likely to receive international attention if they were published by one of the British or American theological publishers, so key works like Professor John Dickie's systematics, The Organism of Christian Truth , were published abroad. A departure came with the Geering controversy of the late 1960s over the historicity of the resurrection, for the general publishers Hodder & Stoughton added his works to a New Zealand list, and commissioned a response from the prominent Auckland academic E.M. Blaiklock. Lloyd Geering's lesser works were published by a small trust in Wellington, and this was not untypical of local serious authors. Blaiklock and J.O. Sanders, the evangelical missionary statesman, were extensively published by American and British houses. Fr Ronald Cox wrote works which were picked up by a London publisher.

     The Charismatic movement was very successful in New Zealand and a flurry of pamphlets was issued debating the validity of the movement. David and Dale Garrett became symbols of the movement through their Scripture in Song music. There were also popular books published by such authors as Barry Smith and Ray Comfort, and these were read far beyond New Zealand. The typical reader of such publications read for excitement, for stimulation and to discover new spiritual experiences. Changing tastes in religion have meant that some of the latest religious works tend to advocate the New Age rather than Christianity, and the stock in secular shops largely reflects this change in taste.

Music publishing

Most of the history of music publishing and music publishers in New Zealand remains to be written. Very little has been documented, either of the companies or individuals involved in the industry, or of the actual material published by them, so any analysis of output, trends or influences has not been carried out. John Mansfield Thomson's The Oxford History of New Zealand Music (1991) does mention a number of early New Zealand music publications, but in the music history context rather than as a more specific publishing history. However, his survey does point to the desirability of further exploring the relationships between the social context and publication patterns, for example the proliferation in publications of nationalistic songs which occurred during any period of conflict.

     Early music publishing was usually in the hands of individual printers or lithographers, with some involvement by the newspaper presses. Identification of the individuals or firms involved has barely started, nor has the relationship between many of the publishers, printers and composers. Entries in works such as the Cyclopedia of New Zealand are few and far between, and it is apparent that the early music publishers had this work very much as a sideline, making tracing their development more difficult. Research through more general printing and publishing trade listings could well prove fruitful.

     Three companies attained a long term prominence in the industry. Arthur Eady (and its various off-shoots), Charles Begg, and the Wai-te-ata Press are the most important New Zealand music publishers, yet there has been almost no work on either their company histories, or their publications. Work on other individual firms, including the Brett Printing Co., the Dresden Pianoforte Agency (later Bristol Pianos), Whitcombe & Tombs, Price Milburn, Maoriland, Sevenseas, the Lyttelton Times, Daly's, and Newson & Stroud is also urgently required as the source material is becoming scarcer and is deteriorating. It is regrettable that the fates of the publishing records of most of these companies are currently unknown.

     There is no bibliography of the actual published items. Given that the earlier national bibliographies did not include sheet music, there is still much to be found and documented. The somewhat ephemeral nature of some printed music makes the search for the early published items all the more urgent. Recent technological developments resulting in the relatively easy production of scores from the personal computer has made research into recent publishing history even harder because there has been an increase in the self-published, or published-on-demand titles. The lists compiled by Ross Harvey ( Music at National Archives , 1991b), and Elizabeth Nichol ('New Zealand music registered for copyright 1879-1900', 1984) act as a starting point for music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Various issues of The Canterbury Series of Bibliographies, Catalogues and Source Documents in Music also serve as useful references and pointers to other avenues of investigation. A survey of the music publishing history should also take note of the various music periodicals such as Music In New Zealand (1931-37) which sometimes contained complete musical works, either of a New Zealand origin or from overseas.

Directories

Directories are books which are designed to provide specific information about particular people. The directories discussed here were business-residential directories, lists of householders along with their addresses and occupations. Directories of this type were usually published annually and often contained elements of the almanac which had preceded them. The purpose of business-residential directories was, and still is, commercial: to bring buyers and sellers together. They were produced in large numbers in New Zealand from the 1860s and, while they are still produced in a reduced format, their popularity began to dwindle in the 1950s with the emergence of the telephone book and the yellow pages.

     The first business-residential directories produced in New Zealand were based on English examples. They were compiled, published and distributed by immigrants, usually British. Yet the conditions that publishers such as Henry Wise, John Stone and Arthur Cleave met in the colony were radically different from those they had encountered at 'home'. Directories had existed in Britain since the street guides of Elizabethan times, but the rural, under-populated and non-mechanised society of New Zealand was very different from the highly urbanised factory economy of 19th-century Britain.

     Directories in New Zealand fulfilled three main functions: to boost the local and regional economy by bringing producer and consumer together; to provide a compendium of useful information to benefit the local population as well as the would-be migrant; and to create in printed format a resource which would help meld isolated communities together.

     Directories commonly contained as many as eight distinct sections. These included an almanac, an alphabetical list of residents, a list of occupations together with names of those who practised those jobs, a street directory, official information pertaining to local and central government, non-official information, advertisements, and a selection of maps. In the earliest directories, those which preceded the publications produced by Wise and Stone, the almanac was an essential ingredient. An almanac gave directions for the current year in the form of tide tables, new constellations, seasons, the physical landforms and so forth. It was of great assistance to early settlers because subsistence farming and fishing helped those newly arrived through lean patches.

     Between 1840 and the early 1870s there were literally dozens of directories published annually throughout New Zealand. Nearly all of these were regional, providing information about the local community. Most small directories were produced by newspaper proprietors. Moody's Royal Almanac for the Year 1842 was the first almanac ever printed in New Zealand. It included a trade and official 'Directory of names, &c.'. Other early directories included Chapman's Auckland Provincial Almanac and Goldfield's Directory of about 1869, and further south the Otago Almanac and Directory , published between 1858 and 1859 by William Lambert of the Otago Colonist newspaper. These directories were not only for local consumption: Lyon & Blair's 1876 Almanac and Descriptive Handbook of the Province of Wellington answered 'the questions continually asked by the people at home [the United Kingdom]' and the provincial government ordered 500 copies for sale in Great Britain.

     There were two early efforts at providing New Zealand with a national directory. The first was The New Zealand Directory published in Melbourne and Wellington between 1866-67 and 1867-68. The second was Wright's Australian and American Commercial Directory and Gazetteer published in New York in 1881 and 1882-83. These were short-lived and it was not until Wise's went national in the early 1870s that New Zealand finally had a directory of some substance which was destined to survive for over 100 years. Between the early 1870s and the mid 1950s, three firms dominated the market. These were the directories published by H. Wise & Co. (NZ) Ltd, directories published by Stone Son & Co. Ltd, and Cleave's directories which covered the Auckland provincial district. Their directories represented a break with the past because the almanac component was either dropped (by Wise) or included (by Stone, but only reluctantly). What Wise and Stone also had in common was a desire to promote large scale business, both within the colony and between New Zealand and other countries, most notably Australia and Great Britain. Wise was to create the country's premier national directory while Stone (in conjunction with Cleave) produced its provincial directories.

     Wise produced his first directory of Dunedin in 1865 and in 1872-73 went national with his Wise's New Zealand Commercial Directory . In 1881, Wise won permission to refer to his directory as the official New Zealand Post Office directory. Wise's continued to publish their mammoth directories in a single volume until the mid-1950s, when they adopted the provincial format copied from Stone's, who had ceased producing directories in 1954. Wise's continued producing directories from their Dunedin office until 1972 when they sold the publication rights to Universal Business Directories in Auckland, who still produce them today, albeit in a reduced format (and now also on CD-ROM).

     John Stone's first directory of Dunedin appeared in 1884 and within three years it had grown to include all of Otago and Southland. By 1891 Stone was producing a directory of Wellington and by the turn of the century Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough and Westland were included too. For the next 60 or so years, Stone was a formidable rival to Wise. As Stone's directories did not include the Auckland provincial district, his position was strengthened by his 40-year working relationship with Arthur Cleave. Cleave's directories covered the Auckland provincial district between 1889 and 1930. The last of Stone's directories were published in the mid 1950s, after which time the cost of producing such a detailed work became untenable.

     By the late 1960s Wise's, too, were having problems in sustaining the production of such a publication. Smaller, nimbler rivals such as Cook's New Zealand Business Directory , which listed occupational groupings only, had emerged in the mid 1930s, as had the Business Who's Who . In addition, the postwar growth of New Zealand's cities meant canvassing on foot was no longer feasible. There were more towns, too, as company towns like Tokoroa (a forestry town) and Twizel (built to house hydro-electric workers) emerged. As the number of domestic dwellings increased, so had the numbers of telephones, as well as a newer reliance upon the telephone directory and its Yellow Pages. The Equal Pay Act 1972 made the cost of paying female canvassers prohibitive. All these factors conspired against Wise's.

     Information for the three main sections of business-residential directories (the alphabetical list of names, the names attached to the list of occupational headings, and the streets directory) was acquired by means of a house-to-house canvass of the country's metropolitan areas and of homes in the surrounding countryside. The name of the head of the household was listed, as well as male lodgers aged 18 years and over (21 years in some cases). The spouse was excluded unless he or she owned property on his or her own account, as were children over the age of 15, even if they were in the workforce. Those who only rented property were also usually excluded. Official information (such as customs tariffs) was gleaned by writing to the particular government department concerned. Non-official information (such as the names and opening hours of recreational bodies, cultural societies and church groups), was had, again, by writing to the representatives of those bodies. Maps were seldom compiled from scratch as copies of local street maps were usually provided by a local printer or by the town council. For maps of the country, the assistance of the Surveyor General was usually called upon. Business houses were solicited for advertisements.

     In the case of small directories, the publisher was usually the owner of a newspaper who had ready access to type, paper and the necessary printing skills. When directories grew larger, a local printer or publisher was commissioned to produce the item. Stone's, operating from Dunedin, at first used the presses of the Evening Star . Later they bought their own presses, not only because it was cheaper but because the production schedules were tight and the company could not afford to allow their printing needs to become secondary to those of the Star .

     Both Wise and Stone encouraged buyers to take out subscriptions to their directories. This made the economics of producing directories easier as the number of directories to be printed could be estimated with some accuracy. Copies were also available through most bookstores and from catalogues. Wise and Stone aimed not so much at the householder but at those in business: hoteliers, mercantile houses, and manufacturers. Wise's, however, as the publisher of the country's quasi-official directory, had to provide one free reading copy in each Post Office.

     It is remarkable that for such a small country, New Zealand should have possessed not one, but two firms producing outstanding directories, three, if Cleave's is included. Clearly the emergence of significant directories rested largely with the personal initiative displayed by Henry Wise, John Stone and Arthur Cleave. Wise's directory had succeeded in part because the Post Office had assisted him, while Stone and Cleave had boosted their fortunes by promoting those of the provinces. But there are other reasons. Nineteenth-century New Zealand was settled by Europeans whose culture was a print-based one and they needed a printed resource which helped them come to terms with, and understand, a new country. Secondly, New Zealand was settled by small craftsmen and -women, and the business-residential directories described in this section were a necessary aid to people in business who had neither the time, expertise or finances to advertise their wares and skills for themselves.

     There have been few studies of the directory-publishing industry in New Zealand. Keith Maslen's pioneering study of Wise's directories which appeared in the BSANZ Bulletin in 1988 was a start. Maslen's study was complemented by a 1995 study of Stone Son & Co. (coincidentally Wise's rival) by Michael Hamblyn in the same journal. This was followed by the same writer's 1996 thesis 'Kei hea to whare? Titiro ki roto: John Stone's New Zealand directories 1884-1954'. Prior to this research, A.C. Penney of Wellington had produced Almanacs and Directories: The Alexander Turnbull Library Collection of New Zealand Almanacs and Directories (1979). In 1994 Donald Hansen published The Directory Directory , based on the holdings of libraries nationwide. Another recent publication is Maslen's 1994 'Early New Zealand directories: a brief guide' which details almanacs and directories held by the Hocken Library in Dunedin.

     Future research remains to be carried out on almanacs and directories printed in Mäori. As well, work on the emergence of the telephone directory and the Yellow Pages needs to be done. This is particularly so as the telephone directory played a major role in dislodging the business-residential directory from its position of pre-eminence. Research is also needed on more recent directories specialising in sport, commerce and the arts, such as the Air New Zealand Almanac published between 1982 and 1989.