Newspapers

The Wairarapa has a rich history of newspaper publishing. The first Wairarapa newspaper was Richard Wakelin’s short-lived Journal, published in 1867. No copies have survived.

The Wairarapa Mercury was published in Greytown from 1867 until 1872, when it changed its name to the Wairarapa Standard. It continued publication until 1942, but few copies remain after 1886. The Wairarapa Archive has microfilm of these two papers from 1867 until 1886.

Masterton’s first newspaper, the Wairarapa News and Valley and East Coast Advertiser was published in 1874, later combining with the Newsletter to form the Wairarapa Register. The Wairarapa Free News was briefly published in 1878. The Wairarapa Archive holds some copies of these newspapers on microfilm.

The Wairarapa Daily was first published in November 1878, changing its name to the Wairarapa Daily Times in 1892. The Wairarapa Star commenced publication in 1881, changing its name to the Wairarapa Age in 1902. The Wairarapa Daily Times and the Wairarapa Age combined in 1938 to form the Wairarapa Times-Age in 1938. The Wairarapa Archive holds microfilm of the Wairarapa Daily/Times and Wairarapa Times-Age from 1879 to the present, and bound copies of the Wairarapa Star/Age from 1896 until 1938.

We also hold the Wairarapa Times-Age’s photographic archive, with negatives arranged in chronological order of publication from circa 1960. They are able to be scanned upon request.

The Wairarapa Archive has been indexing local stories in both the Wairarapa News and the Wairarapa Times-Age since 2001. Search the Newspaper Index.

Wairarapa newspapers also feature on the New Zealand archive of digitised newspaper, Papers Past.