The first Dunedin newspapers were not just about news, they were also a forum for dispute and controversy.
Dunedin’s original newspaper the Otago News was first published on 13thDecember 1848 - only nine months after the first arrival. Started by Henry Graham, he was the printer and came from Carlisle, England.
Graham upset the settlement’s leaders by suggesting Otago was not really suited for agricultural development. As a result, Captain Cargill withdrew all of the official subscriptions in protest. The Otago News folded at the end of 1850.
The Otago Witness was the next newspaper to appear; edited by Captain Cargill’s son-in-law William Cutten. The first issue appeared on 8 February 1851 and it was printed on the same press that Cutten had purchased from Graham.
The printing press on display in the Museum is the second press used to print the Otago Witness. It is an Albion hand-lever press, dated 1858, and was manufactured by Hopkinson & Cope in London.
Basic rundown of operation
Everything was done by hand. Cast metal type characters or sorts were composed into words and lines of text then tightly locked together in a metal frame to make up a page image called a forme.
The forme was placed on the iron bed of the press and inked by roller.
A sheet of paper was placed on the tympan (an apparatus to even out the pressure on the paper) and the frisket (a sheet of material to hold the paper in place and cover the bits you didn’t want printed on) was closed down over the tympan.
Next the tympan, with its frisket in place, was folded down over the forme.
The rounce, a handled apparatus, was used to run the bed with the forme, tympan and frisket under the platen. The platen pressed against the forme by pulling the bar and made the impression on the paper.
Then the bed was then run back out by turning the rounce handle, the tympan lifted off, the frisket lifted off the tympan and the printed sheet revealed.
Albion hand-lever printing press, dated 1858