Newspapers of yesteryear go digital

FAST ACCESS: Very early copies of The Wairarapa Standard are now online.

Being able to reach back further into the past is bread and butter to family historians, and Wairarapa people researching their roots will now be able to do just that with a few computer key strokes.

Papers Past, working in conjunction with Wairarapa Archive, has uploaded copies on its website of the old Wairarapa Standard dating from 1867 to 1887.

This means a net gain of online information from old Wairarapa newspapers of 12 years - up until now the database reached back to 1879, being early copies of the Wairarapa Daily - a forerunner of the Wairarapa Times-Age. The Standard, which was published in Greytown, started life in 1867 and was called the Wairarapa Mercury for a time.

Its owner and and first editor was Richard Wakelin, who was to become known as the "founder of New Zealand journalism".

The newspaper was later sold to William Nation, who began Arbor Day in New Zealand with a celebration and tree planting in Greytown in 1890.

Ironically, Mr Nation was a very prominent spiritualist who earned himself the sobriquet of "father of New Zealand spiritualism".

Wairarapa archivist Gareth Winter said this week being able to extend the online library back to 1867 was a huge plus for researchers.

He said Greytown had a small population in those early days - only a few years from the town's settlement - and the newspaper reported virtually everything that happened.

"It covered everything and not just in Greytown either, as it extended its reach into other parts of Wairarapa," Mr Winter said.

By going to the website, www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz, researchers could search by entering key words, names or locations.

They should be able to quickly ascertain information, if it existed.

As far as the archive itself was concerned it would speed up finding information enormously by taking away the need to laboriously thumb through hard copies of the papers.

"So it's a win for the archive and for our customers," Mr Winter said.