Zoom in to read details of the front page of the first issue of the New Zealand Gazette, which appeared on 21 August 1839, making it New Zealand's first newspaper. It was published by Edward Gibbon Wakefield's New Zealand Company, which promoted migration to New Zealand. This and the following issue of the Gazette were printed in London and distributed to migrants en route to the new colony. The Company's printer, Samuel Revans, travelled with them, and continued producing the paper as soon as their ship disembarked in Wellington Harbour. He and his printing press are evidence of the vital importance of newspapers from the earliest days of colonisation.