Zealandia

Zealandia was a New Zealand tabloid newspaper owned, and published weekly for 55 years, by the Catholic Bishop of Auckland. Its first issue is dated 10 May 1934 and its last is dated 23 April 1989. It was founded by the seventh Catholic Bishop of Auckland, James Michael Liston and even though its focus was on Catholic religious matters, well-known New Zealand writers were published in its columns such as James K. Baxter and John Reid. Its editors included Cardinal McKeefry and Bishop Owen Snedden (as they later became), the historian Father Ernest Simmonds, the later prominent traditionalist priest, Father Denzil Meuli and Pat Booth, the newspaper's first lay editor. Editors Peter McKeefry (1934 - 1948) Owen Snedden (1948 - 1962) Earnest Simmons (1962 - 1969) Patrick Murray (1969) Denzil Meuli (1969 - 1971) Pat Booth (1971 - 1972) Owner/Editor conflict 1969 Dismissals Zealandia was closely controlled by its founder and owner, Archbishop Liston, who did not attend the Vatican Council and expected his authoritarian management style to continue into the late 1960s. In 1962 he appointed Father Ernest Simmons as the editor and Father Patrick Murray as assistant editor. Simmon's main preoccupation was the implementation of the decrees of the Vatican Council to which he was very favourable. He criticised the Cuba blockade and the war in Vietnam. He also published a range of opinion (including dissenting material) on the papal encyclical on contraception, Humanae Vitae. This all (but especially the last matter) displeased the archbishop who dismissed Simmons as editor and transferred him to parish duties in January 1969. Father Patrick Murray, was promoted to editor in January 1969. He continued Simmon's approach. At the end of July 1969 he too was dismissed.