Hastings District Libraries

The information below is from "First Impressions : History of printing in Hawke's Bay" by Laraine Knight, 2003

Hastings

Immediately after the 1931 earthquake, the only published editions of the Hastings newspaper The Hawke's Bay Tribune were quarto news sheets, as the newspaper offices and plant were badly damaged by the earthquake (and the chief reporter was killed).

These news sheets informed the public of casualties and gave emergency instructions.

They were printed by another printer who still had plant working. The first news sheet was printed on 5 February and continued until a normal-sized four-page paper was published on 16 February.

Napier

The Hawke's Bay Herald building was completely destroyed by the fire after the earthquake.

Within a few weeks the Herald was being printed in Hastings by the Hawke's Bay Tribune.

Eventually these two newspapers were to be published by a new company as the combined Hawke's Bay Herald Tribune, based in Hastings - 1937.  

The Daily Telegraph offices were destroyed and a staff member was killed.

The paper re-appeared the day after the earthquake in small quarto size, printed at another printing office with handset typesetting and a treadle press.

There were eight daily news bulletins published on behalf of the HB Herald and the Daily Telegraph.

They then had to move from the printer's building (as it was declared unsafe) to the Te Awa School play shed.

Here they produced news bulletins for about three weeks after the earthquake.

Photo: Pre-earthquake postcard from the "S.C. Smith H.6." series of Karamu Road North with, on the left hand side, Hawke's Bay Tribune building and, on the right hand side, the National Bank of New Zealand, built in 1914 and destroyed by the 1931 earthquake.  From HDL Archives LH10 98_758