Hocken. — Early New Zealand Literature. 109' 



newspaper clippings, their fighting editor insisted that the 

 appearance of his articles was more than ever desirable. And 

 so amidst this wild tumult Auckland's first paper ended in 

 April, 1842, after ten months' existence. The whole printing 

 plant of the company and the copyright of its defunct paper — ■ 

 quoad valeat — were sold by auction to the Government for 

 £1,700, and remained under the management of the same 

 printer, J. C. Moore. 



Upon its ruins, and in a week's time, was erected the 

 Auckland Standard, the second paper, and issued presumably 

 in the interests of the Government, as might be expected. 

 Yet, curious to say, it was not wholly so, for government in 

 those days was not of the responsible type, and many of its 

 supporters were half-hearted, swaying the balance according 

 to personal interest. Besides, Governor Hobson was not 

 entirely popular. Though strictly honourable and of high 

 integrity, his manner was often overbearing and passionate, 

 and had much of the quarter-deck character. The same may 

 be said of his chief officials, Lieutenant Shortland and Mr. 

 Coates. 



The Standard was edited by Mr. William Swain son, who 

 had recently arrived at Auckland under appointment as 

 Attorney-General by the British Government. The prevailing 

 fatality of early extinction befell it also, and on the 28th 

 August, 1842, after but four months' struggle, the Standard 

 also departed, mournfully deploring its own exit and the 

 gloom which seemed gathering over the whole community. 



Now appeared, on the 5th September, 1842, what surely 

 was — or after the publication of its first few numbers was — 

 the most extraordinary-looking paper ever printed. This was 

 the Auckland Times, owned and edited by Mr. Henry Fal- 

 wasser, formerly a storekeeper or merchant in Sydney, whose 

 sister married the Rev. J. F. Churton, the first Auckland 

 clergyman. At first it was printed by the accommodating Mr. 

 John Moore on the type the Government had so recently pur- 

 chased ; but, whether any suspicion arose as to Mr. Falwasser's 

 ability to pay for tbe printing or as to the doubtful odour of 

 his articles, it is certain that Lieutenant Willoughby Short- 

 land, then the Acting-Governor, speedily stepped in and 

 stopped the paper somewhere about the tenth number. But 

 Mr. Falwasser was a man of ingenuity and resource. From 

 any quarter he gathered a miscellaneous assortment of old 

 type, such as is mostly used for printing bill-heads and rough 

 jobs, and, with the aid of a mangle and coarse paper, triumph- 

 antly produced these weekly specimens now regarded as such 

 a curiosity. His original motto had been " Veluti in specu- 

 lum " ; now he changed it to " Tempora mutantur — nos non 

 mutamur in Mis." His imprint was: "Auckland: Printed 



