File photo / NZ Herald
Today we proudly mark 150 years of publication of The New Zealand Herald. We look forward with confidence to our journalism in print and on digital devices continuing to be a substantial and positive voice for the public interest and progress in this country.
The Herald has been welcomed as a trusted source of news and debate - and as a daily companion in homes and businesses - by six generations of readers.
We have reported history, daily, through more than 45,000 issues of the paper and 15 years of internet and mobile channels. A proud advocate for Auckland city, the Auckland province and the nation, we stood with readers through every war, election, disaster, triumph, boom, bust, civil and economic upheaval, social, medical and technological breakthrough. Through our family notices columns we have hatched, matched and dispatched generations of families. Through our pages numerous businesses have introduced products and services to a mass audience with sustained commercial success and lasting connections.
Through our reporting we exposed the bad and tested the good. We launched a thousand careers and shook a thousand more for the public good. We committed from day one, November 13 1863, to be 'an untrammelled exponent and supporter of public opinion' and to strict party political independence.
The Herald has served New Zealand longer than institutions as diverse as the NZ Rugby Union, all our political parties and broadcasters, Plunket and Federated Farmers.
With today's paper and in a special interactive feature on nzherald.co.nz, we chart the Herald's life and times through 150 years of great New Zealanders. These are the people who made the country; each day's news columns being history in the making.
A warts-and-all appraisal of the paper makes clear how much the Herald has changed. The great issues of the day in 1863 were the 'native rebellion' just south of Auckland - and the threat to Auckland's place as capital and leading centre of the colony. The Herald's stridency in favour of the British forces and highly charged antagonism towards Maori fighters may have been true to the attitudes of 'white' New Zealand at the time, but are no less distasteful given the context of hindsight. That was then - over the past generation the paper has been a consistent advocate for confronting and righting grievances through the Waitangi Tribunal and other settlements.
Like all news media, we are imperfect. Yet we do our best to report and inform early, accurately and fairly the fullest picture it is possible to construct. Our inaugural editorial recognised this: "It cannot be expected that every arrangement shall be rendered perfect on the instant, but every care shall be bestowed... to deserve a share of the public support which we now most respectfully venture to solicit."
Today our purpose is to find out for, and from, our 830,000 daily readers in print and digital platforms 'what is really going on' and through that to make the country a more informed, engaged, entertained and inspired place. A rapidly changing market for news, entertainment and for readers' time is an opportunity as rich and appealing as when William Wilson spied a gap in the printed newspaper market 150 years ago.
The Herald has adapted many times to great change. We are at once a daily newspaper, instant news agency, video channel, website, smartphone and tablet app and presence on social media; the Herald is 'consumed' daily in seven distinct digital forms. More than 1.3 million Kiwis engage with us, actively, each week.
To our highly valued readers and advertisers we offer sincere thanks, and renew our commitment from this column just 50 short years ago 'to identify ourselves in a real and intimate fashion with the community we serve'.
Read the New Zealand Herald editorials from 1863, 1913 and 1963.
Te Reo version
I tenei ra ka whakanuia te ekenga o te 150 tau o te whakaputanga The New Zealand Herald. E anga atu ana te titiro ki a matau mahi ripoata i runga nupepa me nga purere mati hei reo nui, reo pai hoki mo te iwi whanui me te anga whakamua i tenei motu.
E whirinaki atu ana te marea ki te Herald hei puna korero pono, werowero whakaaro hoki - hei hoa ki roto i nga kainga me nga pakihi - mo nga whakatipuranga kaipanui e ono.
Kua purongohia e matau te hitori, ia ra, i roto i nga whakaputanga 45,000 o tenei nupepa, a, tae atu ki nga hongere ipurangi, pukoro hoki mo nga tau 15. He kaitaunaki pakari mo te taone nui o Tamaki Makaurau, te porowini whanui o Tamaki Makaurau me te motu, i tu kaha matau i te taha o nga kaipanui i roto i ia pakanga, potitanga, aitua, wikitoria, wa whaihua, wa korekore, tututanga papori, ohanga hoki, tae atu ki nga kokiritanga papori, hauora me te hangarau. I roto i a matau panui a-whanau kua whakamohiotia atu e matau e hia whakatipuranga i whanau mai, i marena, i taupae atu hoki ki tua o te arai. Kua whakaputahia i roto i a matau wharangi nga hua me nga ratonga a nga pakihi maha ki te tini me te mano kia turoa te angitu, kia pumau hoki nga tuhonotanga.
Na a matau purongo i whakina e matau te kino me te whakamatau ano i te pai. I whakarewahia e matau nga umanga mahi mo te tokomaha me te tatari ano i te maha atu mo te painga o te iwi whanui. I pumau matau mai i te ra tuatahi, te 13 o Whiringa-a-rangi 1863, kia 'tu hei mangai herekore, kaitautoko hoki i nga whakaaro o te iwi whanui' me te pupuri tonu i to matau rangatiratanga motuhake mai i nga ropu torangapu.
He roa ake te noho pononga a te Herald ma Aotearoa i nga ropu whakahaere katoa penei i te Uniana Whutuporo o Aotearoa, o tatau ropu torangapu katoa me nga ropu papaho, tae atu ki a Plunket me Federated Farmers.
I roto i te nupepa o tenei ra me tetahi ahuahira pahekoheko i nzherald.co.nz, e titiro ana matau ki te ao o te Herald mo nga tau 150 ma roto i nga tangata nui whakaharahara o Aotearoa. Koinei te hunga i waihanga i tenei motu; ko nga korero o ia ra ka noho hei hitori tuku iho.
I roto i te arotaketanga o te nupepa i marama te kitea o te rereke haeretanga o te Herald. Ko nga tino putanga i te tau 1863 mo 'nga pakanga whenua' i te tonga o Tamaki Makaurau -- me te moreatanga ki Tamaki Makaurau hei taone matua mo Aotearoa, hei wahi matua hoki mo te taipuwhenua. Ahakoa i tautoko te Herald i nga ope a te Karauna me te kaha mauahara ki nga taua Maori na te penei o nga whakaaro o te iwi 'Pakeha' o Aotearoa i taua wa, engari ehara koina nga whakaaro onaianei i te mea na te wa i mohio ai ehara era mahi i te mahi pai. Ko nga ahuatanga o mua era -- i roto i tenei whakatipuranga e pumau ana te nupepa nei ki te taunaki i te whakatikatanga me te whakaeatanga o nga nawe ma roto i te Taraipiunara o Waitangi me etahi atu whakataunga.
Pera ano i etahi atu papaho karere, he takarepa ano matau. Heoi, ka ngana matau ki te purongo me te whakamohio tomua, totika me te pono kia purangiaho rawa. I ahukahuka ta matau panui etita tuatahi i tenei: "Ehara i te mea ka tika tonu i a matau ia korero, engari ka whakapau kaha tonu... kia whiwhi tautoko matau i te iwi whanui e toro atu nei matau."
I tenei ra ko ta matau kaupapa he rapu korero ma a matau kaipanui 830,000 o ia ra, mai i a ratau ano hoki, i roto i nga ahuatanga ta, a-mati hoki hei motu mohio ake, tuhonohono ake, whakangahau ake, wahi whakaawe ake hoki. He makete tere huringa mo nga korero o te wa, nga whakangahau me te whai wa mai o nga kaipanui ki tetahi whai wahitanga nui rawa, pera ano i te kitenga a William Wilson i tetahi whai wahitanga i roto i te makete nupepa i nga tau 150 tau ki mua.
He maha nga urutaunga o te Herald kia tino pai ai tona rereke haeretanga. He nupepa o ia ra matau, ka mutu he pokapu karere wawe tonu, hongere ataata, paetukutuku, taupanga waea atamai me te paparorohiko, a, me te whai wahi ki nga papaho papori; kei 'roto' te Herald i nga ahuatanga mati rereke e whitu. Neke atu i te 1.3 miriona nga tangata o Aotearoa e tuhonohono mai ki a matau ia wiki.
Tenei te mihi atu ki a koutou a matau kaipanui me a matau kaihapai hira rawa, me te whakau ano i ta matau pumau mai i tenei tuhinga i nga tau 50 ki mua 'kia ata kitea putia matau i roto i te hapori e mahi nei matau'.
OUR SPECIAL 150TH BIRTHDAY EDITION COVER BY DICK FRIZZELL
Experts urge calm, highlighting long-term market resilience over short-term fears.