The Otago Witness was a prominent illustrated weekly newspaper in the early years of the European settlement of New Zealand, produced in Dunedin, the provincial capital of Otago. Published weekly, it existed from 1851 to 1932. The introduction of the Otago Daily Times, followed by other daily newspapers in its circulation area, led it to focus on serving a rural readership in the lower South Island, where poor road access prevented newspapers being delivered daily. It also provided an outlet for local fiction writers. It is notable as the first newspaper to use illustrations and photographs and was the first New Zealand newspaper to provide a correspondence column for children, which was known as "Dot's Little Folk". Together with the Auckland-based Weekly News and the Wellington-based New Zealand Free Lance it was one of the most significant illustrated weekly New Zealand newspapers in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
History Background Nine months after the first immigrant ships had arrived in Otago, Henry Graham published Otago's first newspaper on 13 December 1848, the fortnightly Otago News. Graham had working class sympathies and was not enamoured with existing class structures, nor with the Free Church of Scotland and its connections to the New Zealand Company, which he held in low regard. He was English and an Anglican, and together with his views, this meant he was not going to receive any sympathy or financial support from the Scottish leadership of the settlement. At the time the settlement had a population of approximately 500, and it is estimated that the publication at its peak had a maximum of 80 subscriptions.
Graham expressed views in his newspaper such as advocating for a 10-hour working day, suggesting that the province was suitable only for grazing and not the agriculture that settlement was being planned on. Matters deteriorated when he directly attacked the Free Church Association, the New Zealand Company and William Cargill accusing them of spreading misleading information about the prospects of Otago: This resulted in the cancellation of forty subscriptions. In June 1849 the newspaper began publishing weekly. In November 1849 the newspaper received a letter signed by 147 citizens (which was nearly every adult male in the Dunedin) in which they stated that they had no sympathy for the editor's views. Despite this, and even though Graham was ill with consumption (tuberculosis), the newspaper continued to be published until 21 December 1850. Graham died in February 1851.
Founding James Macandrew, who was planning to immigrate to Otago, was aware of the Otago News and its combative relationship with the settlement's leadership and that the copies being circulated in the United Kingdom were undermining efforts at marketing Otago. As a businessman he was keen for the settlement to prosper, so soon after his arrival in Dunedin in January 1851 he joined a group of eleven leading citizens (the others being A. J. Burns, T. Burns, J. Cargill, William Cargill, William H. Cutten, J. R. Johnston, John Jones, Edward McGlashan, William H. Reynolds and W. H. Valpy) in providing the capital necessary to purchase the printing plant of the Otago News. Using the newly acquired printing plant, the first issue of the Otago Witness appeared in early February 1851, three years after the founding of the settlement, which by now had a population of 745. Committing itself to principles in agreement with those of the settlement's founders, its name was chosen to indicate the city's connection with Edinburgh, where the Edinburgh Witness was a popular paper.
After trying the plan of a many-jointed editorship, and finding it impracticable, the owners appointed the Englishman William H. Cutten to the editorship. Cutten was genial, witty and more of a pragmatist than Graham. Cutten was a lawyer by training – he had entered business becoming a merchant and auctioneer and lacking any practical printing experience. As well as holding down the editor's position, Cutten was also the publication's reporter, advertising canvasser, subscription collector and pressman, with the only assistance provided by J.B. Todd, who was the compositor. The two men with occasional help from volunteers were the only staff of the newspaper. On publication days people would come to watch the two men hand printing while they waited for their copy.
The Witness was originally a four-page fortnightly newspaper, becoming a weekly publication within its first year. In its early years the business struggled financially, which meant that it had to be heavily subsidised. Management of the newspaper by a committee of the eleven owners provided unwieldy, and management by a sub-committee of two of the owners was tried before, in 1852, the owners handed control to Cutten, who could only be removed by a vote of three-fourths of the owners based upon their shareholding. Cutten meanwhile was developing other mercantile activities. He later entered politics, serving on the Otago Provincial Council from 1853 and Parliament. With Cutten becoming increasingly occurred with his other activities, William Reynolds acted in his absence with the experienced compositor Daniel Campbell, who was bought out from Edinburgh to take responsibility for the newspaper's printing and publishing.
By 1855 the newspaper had a circulation of only 210 out of a population of 3,000. By 1856 it had expanded to six pages and a year later had eight pages. The newspaper however began showing at times signs of the partisanship that its predecessor had been accused of. The most notable example occurred when the newspaper objected to the Provincial Councils policy of continuing an immigration policy with an emphasis in line with Cargill's of encouraging Scottish Presbyterian settlers. Cutten had married Cargill's daughter, which lead to a falling out between the two until they reconciled. Generally, however, the newspaper supported Cargill, who was the province's first superintendent. The Witness''' early issues gained some notoriety for its polemical editorials, which were often skewed in favour of the political views and policies of Dunedin founding father Captain William Cargill, but it soon became a more balanced journal.
The Witness had no opposition until a strong antipathy developed between Cutten and James Macandrew, who had political ambitions. This led Macandrew to financially support the experienced English printer William Lambert to move from Auckland to launch the Otago Colonist, which from mid-1857 was supporting Macandrew's views and political career.
Impact of the Otago Daily Times In 1861 Julius Vogel (later Sir Julius) immigrated to Dunedin during the boom following the discovery of gold at the Tuapeka, the first of the Otago goldrushes. After initially working for a few weeks at the Otago Colonist, he left and joined Otago Witness as editor and also became its co-owner when he purchased a half share in the business from Cutten, the business becoming Cullen and Vogel. Vogel convinced Cutten that due to the rapidly increasing population due to the gold rush now was the time to publish a daily newspaper, which they did in 1861 when they launched the daily Otago Daily Times. It soon had a circulation of 2,750 compared with the 250 of the Otago Witness.
Both the Witness and ODT were originally published from premises in Princes Street. On 1 December 1861 a fire swept through the premises. William Lambert offered the use of his printing plant, with the condition that as he was deeply religious they could use it until after midnight on what was to him the sacrosanct Sunday. While this restriction reduced the content of the Monday edition of the daily ODT it had no impact on its weekly sister.
Despite the competition introduced by ODT, the boom in Otago's wealth and population which followed the 1861 Otago gold rush dramatically improved the financial health of Witness and secured its future. By 1864 it had expanded to 24 pages and was selling 4,500 copies a week. In that same year the 6 February edition featured its first linograph, that of George Parr's touring All-England cricket eleven. During this time a special gold fields edition of the paper was regularly being published. It was being widely distributed throughout the South Island.
Vogel, who was editor of both newspapers, identified that the completion of telegraph lines as the country was opened up gave the daily ODT an advantage. The completion of a telegraph line from Campbelltown later Bluff) to Dunedin in August 1862 in particular allowed the ODT to gain quicker access to international news from ships arriving at Bluff before coming to Dunedin. As more telegraph lines were opened, it gave a daily newspaper the ability to more quickly convey the latest news to the public than a weekly newspaper. As a result, the Witness declined in importance relative to its daily sister and it slowly became a digest of reprints from its daily sister and original material oriented towards rural readers. By 1864 this original material began to include fiction which would appeal to woman such as a serialisation over 35 issues of Sir Massingberd sourced from Chamber's Journal. It was then followed by Lord Oakburn's Draughters by the popular novelist Ellen Wood.
Cutten sold his share in both the publications to Vogel in November 1864. Vogel took on Benjamin Farjeon as his junior partner in what became J. Vogel & Co.
By early 1865 with the business struggling financially and Vogel beginning his political career, Farjeon and Vogel in March 1865 sold a majority shareholding in the business to a number of prominent Dunedin citizens on the condition that they were kept on as manager and editor respectively. The new owners formed a public company in 1860, the Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspapers Co. Ltd, with Vogel, John Bathgate, F. C. Simmons and James Rattray as directors.
Vogel was subsequently forced out of the business in April 1868.
Takeover In 1878 ownership of both the Witness and the ODT were taken over by George Fenwick and George McCullagh Reed, with Reed becoming the editor of both publications. George Fenwick's brother William Fenwick (1851–1906), who had previously worked at a number of publications including the Cromwell Argus (1869–1872), Otago Guardian (1873–1877) and Dunedin Evening News (which was later renamed the Age), became printer of the Witness.
In 1878 in response to a downturn in the Otago economy George Fenwick and Reed converted their business into a public company called the Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspapers Company, Ltd. Following the death of editor Robert Wilson, his wife and four of their six children in the Octagon fire of 8 September 1879, William Fenwick was appointed as his replacement and remained in this position for 27 years until his death in 1906. He greatly expanded the publication both in size, circulation and content from 28 pages with an occasional four-page supplement to issues typically of 34 pages and sometimes 92 pages, of which eight were devoted to illustrations. Its original masthead, which had been designed by the Dunedin engraver James Brown, was replaced on 26 July 1879 with a more elaborate specially design one.
In April 1886 it moved from publishing on a Saturday to a Friday before moving in January 1889 to a Thursday, then in September 1900 to a Wednesday.
Although conservative in its views, by the latter half of the nineteenth century the Witness provided an important outlet for local fiction writers with stories appearing such as Louie A. Dawson's A Gentleman of the Slums (1893), Fabian Bell's The Wonder Stone or Arita's Vengeance (1893) and Fred Morris's Castle Ludlow or Thrown Away (1894).
Twentieth century The publication received its first Linotype machines in 1899.