Alexander McMinn

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Alexander McMinn

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Dundonald, Castlereagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Death: October 21, 1919 (77)
Devonport, Devonport, Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Place of Burial: Bayswater, Auckland, Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Immediate Family:

Son of Francis Joseph McMinn and Mary McMinn
Husband of Helen McMinn
Father of John Francis McMinn; Amelia Helen Whalley; Francis Alexander (Paddy/Alex) McMinn; Stanley Livingstone McMinn; Private and 4 others
Brother of Francis Charles McMinn; Charles William McMinn; Alfred McMinn and Edward Graham McMinn

Occupation: teacher, journalist, newspaper proprietor
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Alexander McMinn

OLD MANAWATU, OR THE WILD DAYS OF THE WEST. BY T. LINDSAY BUICK, J.P., PALMERSTON NORTH : BUICK & YOUNG, PRINTERS, CUBA STREET. 1903.

On the 20th of November, 1880, Mr. Alexander McMinn published the first issue of " The Manawatu Daily Standard. 1 ' The paper was printed on the hand-press which printed the first number of the " Wanganui Herald," and afterwards the first number of " The Examiner," at Woodville, and the first copy " pulled" was presented to Mr. Sylvester Coleman, a well-known pioneer and former Borough Councillor. The introductory "leader" was contributed by the late Hon. John Ballance, with whom Mr. McMinn had been associated on the " Herald " away back in the " sixties." The " Standard " was the first daily paper published between Wellington and Whanganui. The "Times" following suit two years afterwards, then the "Rangitikei Advocate", and the "Feilding Star" at a much later date. Considering the size and state of the town, the establishment of a daily paper was a venturesome plunge, and the years of struggle and anxiety which it involved might have killed a dozen less sanguine men than Mr. McMinn, but there were soon troubles to engage the attention of the local newspaper proprietors other than financial worries, for with the advent of a " reptile contemporary " it was not long before there were razors flying through the journalistic air. In their references to each other the papers became anything but too polite, and on looking over old files we see such striking titles to the leading articles as " A Registered Slanderer," " The Trail of the Viper," " Disreputable Journalism," and in one wild effusion we find the following crushing denunciation of a brother journalist which is typical of the period: " There are spots to be found on the sun, there are scabby sheep in all flocks, and we regret to say that the ranks of colonial journalism has at least one representative who is a disgrace to the order, and a worthy follower of his prototype, Ananias." This pace was, of course, too severe to last, and it led to the natural but rather serious result of one of the editors standing his trial for criminal libel at the sittings of the Supreme Court. After that, wiser counsels prevailed, and a holy calm pervaded the journalistic mind. What outbursts of editorial anger there have been since then are too recent to be revived here, but it is gratifying to know that the journals of the town are now conducted with a much greater regard for the legitimate functions of a newspaper, and the occasions upon which an editor rises in his wrath to smite his contemporary are rare in occurrence, and his chastisements comparatively mild in their severity.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219093835/alexander-mcminn

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Alexander McMinn's Timeline

1842
August 28, 1842
Dundonald, Castlereagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
1842
Dundonald, Castlereagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
1867
April 22, 1867
New Zealand
1872
September 15, 1872
Wellington, New Zealand
1874
November 10, 1874
Turakina, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand
1876
October 26, 1876
Whanganui, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand
1880
August 14, 1880
Marton, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand
1882
May 22, 1882
Palmerston North, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand