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Mahurangi Matters founder Ray Chappell with the very first copies of the paper, printed in 1989.
Ray printed his newsletter/paper for nearly six years before shutting down when he had distribution issues.
This edition of the paper marks 500 issues from when the paper restarted under Ray and John Ross’ joint management in 1995.
Ray, who is about to turn 80, still runs his printing business from his home in Summerset Falls.
The Warkworth Museum is marking Mahurangi Matters’ 500th issue with a special exhibition of back issues.
“Where the heck did that time go?”
Welcome to the 500th issue of the Mahurangi Matters.
That’s right, since the first issues rolled off the press at Chappell Print in Warkworth in 1995, we’ve survived the Great Financial Crisis, a pandemic, extended storm blackouts, the Supercity, newsprint shortages and some truly horrific typos. We’ve been taken to the Media Council for unfair reporting (and won), threatened, yarn-bombed and last year, we were named NZ’s top community newspaper. It’s been a heck of a ride!
Thirty years of reporting what used to be called “parish pump” news represents thousands of hours spent at council meetings, public meetings, weekend sport, flower shows, festivals and school fetes, fire station fundraisers and honours nights, not to mention Environment Court sittings. The list is endless.
Over the past three decades, the paper has changed its size several times, had several name changes, including Matakana Matters and Local Matters, and gone from a monthly to a fortnightly publication. But one thing that hasn’t changed has been its focus on presenting balanced coverage of local news.
One of the earliest stories we ran was fact-checking a rumour that a primary school was to be built at Snells Beach, steadfastly denied by the Ministry of Education. Rodney Councillor Betty Paxton was doing an early version of the Viewpoint column in 1995, which continues to give our local politicians a platform today. Dr Warwick Palmer was introducing Drs Bruce Sutherland and Elspeth Dickson to the community, and Constable Terry Mills was telling readers to be on the lookout for “winter burglars”. Not a website address or mobile phone number was in sight.
You could buy a section (with a sea view) in Algies Bay for $66,000 and Janice Bogue was selling a three-bedroomed house in Warkworth, just a “gentle walk away for the township”, for $245,000.
Correspondents were also busy on the letters page, complaining about neighbours planting tall trees and blocking their view, and the state of the roads. One of the longest running stories on these pages has been the Hill Street intersection, with many local advocates promising that “a fix” was just around the corner, including the late Rodney Mayor Sir Gordon Mason. The front page in October 2004 was all about the transformation of a timber yard in Matakana into a marketplace, which would open on Labour Weekend, “when Auckland moves en masse to Matakana, lured by the beginning of spring, the Matakana School Gala, Morris & James annual sale, Matakana Country Park Farmers Market and the Leigh Preschool Gala”.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the steadfast support of some loyal staff, particularly our indefatigable administration manager Angela Thomas, and advertisers such as Ray White Real Estate, Insite Security, Drummers, Wharehine, Warkworth Glass, Haigh Workman engineers and TW Wright, who have been with us all the way.
This 500th anniversary is being marked from the days when the late John Ross, and Ray and Ann Chappell, assisted by Diane Norburn, were at the helm. However, we have just recently learned that the very first iteration of Mahurangi Matters was printed by Ray Chappell in 1989. It was a single coloured (blue or red) four-page newsletter, with advertisements and notices, which was distributed to about 2000 homes in the Mahurangi East area. Ray’s wife Ann is credited with coming up with the name Mahurangi Matters.
The media landscape has certainly changed since then. Today, newspapers struggle to compete with digital media, as online platforms provide instant news updates and draw more advertisers away from print. Rising production costs have forced many newspapers to downsize or shut down, so it is a privilege to have travelled through the past three decades with the community so staunchly behind us.
So here’s to the next 500 issues – assuming we don’t get replaced by AI!
The Warkworth Museum is marking Mahurangi Matters’ 500th issue with a special exhibition of back issues.
