CAMBRIDGE MUSEUM - PRINTING PRESS

Printing Press and Newspaper
Donated by the Muirhead Family
Accession No.s 129 and 1155

© Cambridge Museum

This relic was discovered and salvaged from a swamp on the Muirhead's farm at Te Miro in 1958. Made in the USA by Kelsey & Co., it is noteworthy in that it was used to print leaflets at Maungakawa Pa where a Maori Parliament had been established in 1890 under the leadership of King Tawhaio.
A Maori newspaper called "Te Paki o Te Matariki" or "The Girdle of the Plaeiades" (Seven Sisters Constellation) was also published at the Parliament from 1891 to 1902. Very few copies of the papers remain and a photograph of the first page is displayed with the press. The editor latterly was one Rawhiti.
The Maungakawa settlement was vacated in the late 1890's possibly because of a devastating influenza epidemic.

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