Archive
Why use Papers Past?
The newspapers in Papers Past are a good source of information about the social and political events of the times. Researchers of family history and whakapapa (genealogy) will find the shipping news, births, deaths and marriages of interest. Advertising also features strongly. A range of South Taranaki newspapers are available on the site, making it a valuable source of information for researchers and general history buffs alike.
Search any of these Taranaki newspapers on Papers Past below:
| Paper titles | Date range |
| Hāwera and Normanby Star | 1880-1924 |
| Hāwera Star | 1924-1935 |
| Ōpunakē Times | 1894-1949 |
| Pātea Mail | 1875-1941 |
| Stratford Evening Post | 1911-1936 |
| Taranaki Daily News | 1900-1935 |
| Taranaki Herald | 1852-1920 |
The Hāwera Star
On 11 January 2017, Aotea Utanganui became the kaitiaki/guardian of the Hāwera Star Newspaper & Photography Collection. It spans 138 Years of Hāwera Star Newspapers, bound and a complete series 1880-2016. While we are the kaitiaki of the collection, the legal ownership remains with Stuff Ltd (including copyright) in perpetuity (view the copyright policy here).
The photography collection spans approximately 40 years and includes prints, negatives, and printing-out-papers, 120 Medium format and 35mm Negatives. The quantity of the collection is approximately 10,000 negatives. The collection also contains numerous publication booklets produced by the Hāwera Star over the years.
This is both a regionally significant collection because of its completeness, quality and ‘slice-of-life’ aspects showing happenings in small communities, and the research, collaboration, scholarship and potential engagement this collection has to offer our communities, will be felt long into the future.
Fairfax employees brought the collection to the Museum on Friday 17 February 2017. They had a van and two cars loading in Hāwera and unloading here in Pātea with the help of Aotea Utanganui staff and council volunteers. They made about four trips in total in order to bring the entire collection. The first load arrived at 8.30am and the last was 4.15pm.
The Livingston Baker Archive holds the photography collection and publications; and in Storeroom 1 are the Hāwera Star bound copies from 1880-2016. Some are on the original shelving from the Star building and the rest are on one of the shelving units.
This newspaper and photography collection is the intellectual property of Stuff Ltd. Contact the museum if you would like to undertake research or just look through the collection by calling 0800 111 323 or email.
