A free press, one of the features of a democratic society, became part of colonial New Zealand society from its very beginnings. This 1848 story from the Wellington Independent newspaper highlights Wellingtonians’ wish to institute democratic government – as opposed to governance by an unelected group – emphasising settlers’ beliefs that they were entitled to have political rights at least equal to those of British citizens in the ‘mother country’.
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National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past
Reference:
Wellington Independent. 23 December 1848, p. 2
Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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