Robyn Parkes
The Takaka News was established in 1889 by George Girling-Butcher with the first print circulated on 9 November.
George was born in Norfolk and arrived in New Zealand in the 1880’s, becoming a well-known journalist who worked for a time at the Christchurch Press and the Nelson Colonist, leaving the latter in 1889 to establish the Takaka News.
In its first edition he guaranteed that the paper would include local reports and comments along with a promise to maintain items of interest to the Tākaka area.
With two newspapers in the district, the other being the Golden Bay Argus, there was good competition for stories and advertising, and in a move to be fair, the Collingwood County Council resolved in July 1891 that advertising for the Aorere would be given to the Argus, and for the Tākaka riding, advertising would go to the Takaka News.
George was challenged in June 1892 for publishing the paper without proper registration, and for not publishing all the details as required by the Printers Registration Act in the imprint of both the paper and the supplement.
The Magistrates Court dismissed the complaints but Mr Hayes, the complainant, was not satisfied with the decision and appealed the case in October of the same year. The case was again heard and the bench of the Supreme Court decided that only a technical breach had occurred and a fine of one shilling was given.
In April 1895, George sold the newspaper to Samuel Gaskell Robinson and J. Hayes (the man who had taken him to court), as he was planning to leave the district to seek a better education for his children, having no belief in the state system.
Robinson and Hayes owned the paper for around three and a half years, after which they sold it to S. Fittall of Sutton’s Store, Collingwood in December 1898. From this date on the paper continued to be known locally as both The Takaka News and the Golden Bay News/Times.
Fittall reported in January 1900, a sad but unbelievable event concerning two racehorses owned by Mr J. Byrne.
Following races at Motupipi, they were turned out into a paddock at East Tākaka where there were several bee hives, and somehow they disturbed the bees who retaliated with multiple stings, resulting in one horse dying that day and the other being destroyed the following day. The newspaper office and dwelling, situated on Commercial St was put up for sale in December 1908 by Fittall.
Six months later the newspaper was sold again, with the new owner being Mr E. Cann who took charge from 1 June, turning it into a bi-weekly publication. He also built a new office on the junction corner by the Pioneers Memorial on the riverbank in September 1910 which was only six months old when the building and everything inside it was destroyed by fire.
Cann, with a “can do” attitude, had the paper up and running within a couple of weeks.
In February 1913, 24 years after the paper began, George Henry Allan, owner of the Golden Bay Argus bought out the Golden Bay Times, and in 1915 amalgamated the two newspapers.
The amalgamated paper continued until 1938 when it was merged with the Motueka Star into the Star-Times.
