Category: Australija i Novi Zeland

Information needs of Croats in the past and today are different. However, there are also some similarities. Here are some texts with similar content from old New Zealand newspapers and from Facebook pages of New Zealand Croatian clubs.

Figure 1. Thanks to new members or subscribers:

Napredak, vol. 2, no. 2 (January 23, 1907); The United Front, vol. 1, no. 9 (June 25, 1942); Facebook post (Dalmatian Cultural Society, December 5, 2018)

                      

Figure 2. Advertisements for new books:

Napredak, vol. 2, no. 31 (October 30, 1907); Facebook post (Dalmatian Cultural Society, October  23, 2018)

        

Figure 3. Death notices of important members of the Croatian community:

Napredak, vol. 2, no. 33 (November 13, 1907); Facebook post (Dalmatian Cultural Society, October 23, 2018)

   

Figure 4. Clothes advertisements:

Napredak, vol. 2, no. 3 (February 6, 1907); Facebook post (Dalmatian Cultural Society, October 28, 2018)

Figure 5. Christmas and New Year greetings:

Zora, vol. 1, no. 12 (December 20, 1913); Facebook post (Canterbury Croatian Society, December 24, 2018)

Figure 6. Learning languages (English then, Croatian today):

Napredak, vol. 4, no. 6 (February 6, 1909); link shared on Facebook (Canterbury Croatian Society, December 15, 2018)

                  

Figure 7. Croatia in our hearts:

Napredak, vol. 2, no. 18 (July 24, 1907), beginning of a poem, author T. Despot; Facebook post (Canterbury Croatian Society, November 27, 2018)

     

Figure 8. Photos of Ban Jelačić Square in Zagreb (the same building is in the back):

The United Front, vol. 1, no. 21 (December 3, 1942); Facebook post (Tarara Folklore Ensemble, August 1, 2018)

Figure 9. Call for a subscription:

Vjesnik, vol. 1, no. 3 (June 1946); Facebook post (Hrvatski Vjesnik Croatian Herald, February 29, 2020)

Figure 10. Call for contributions for a memory book:

The United Front, vol. 2, no. 9 (June 25, 1942.);  Facebook post (Dalmatinsko kulturno društvo, August 2, 2020)

 

Figure 11. Tug of war

Pučki list, no. 7 (1898); Facebook post (Dalmatinsko kulturno društvo, January 18, 2022)

Translation of the above text:

Here I am sending good news from the faraway New Zealand… Every year we challenged the English to a tug of war, but they always refused, saying they couldn’t compete with us. To our great delight, this year they agreed to do so… and we set the date of the competition to Boxing Day… We chose thirteen of our fiercest youths. Here are their names: Ilija Kuluz, Nikola Vojković and Frano Kumarić from Sućuraj, Ivan Curin from Gdinja on Hvar, Matij Drešo and Jure Franić from Račišće on Korčula, Ivan Visković Tomin from Podaca, Luka Lović from Igran, Luka Suhor from Nakovanj, Nikola Šaržunić from Vrboska, Ivan Vicetović from Pelješac, Mate Perić from Vis and Vicko Šeput from Vrućica. At exactly 3 P.M., the English flag and the Croatian tri-colour were flown and the tug of war began. Luckily, our young Dalmatian hawks prevailed three out of five times, all the while cheering loudly: “Long live Croatia!” Even the English cheered our boys on: “Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!” When the competition ended, the English gave our boys the money they’ve earned and then they all ate and drank their fill like brothers in the tavern, praising our beloved homeland Croatia and its cradle, Dalmatia… We hope that the news of this event will bring you joy too…

Napredak (Progress) was published in Auckland, New Zealand from December 1, 1906. It was published bi-monthly at the beginning, and weekly from vol. 2, no. 12(July 12, 1907). Matthew Ferri was editor-in-chief, and he was also the editor of the first Croatian newspaper in New Zealand (Bratska sloga (Brotherly Unity), 1899). The newspaper was published in Croatian, as the majority of Croats in New Zealand at that time did not understand English.  The last issue was published in 1909.

94 issues of Napredak were digitized in May 2022 in collaboration with the Auckland Council Libraries. All the issues are available in virtual collection of the Croatian Emigrant Press Repository and at Auckland Council Libraries: Kura: Heritage Collections Online. Here are examples of four issues:

1st Decembre 1906. – No. 1, vol. 1

30th October 1907 – No. 31, vol. 2

5th February 1908 – No. 6, vol. 3

26th June 1909 – No. 24, vol. 4 

A virtual exhibition shows selected texts on the timeline. The texts, or parts of the texts, are from each issue of Napredak published in 1906 and 1907. The texts are an illustration of social situations of the time but also of information needs of readers at the time. The texts are also interesting for its archaic language.

Pokretanje novina

God. 1, br. 1 (1. 12. 1906.)

Pokušaj ubojstva

God. 1, br. 2 (19. 12. 1906.)

Problemi s dostavom

God. 2, br. 1 (9. 1. 1907.)

Vjenčanje i ubojstvo

God. 2, br. 2 (23. 1. 1907.)

Tržište smole

God. 2, br. 3 (6. 2. 1907.)

Oglasi

God. 2, br. 4 (20. 2. 1907.)

Reklame

God. 2, br. 5 (6. 3. 1907.)

Grozna nesreća i veliki zločin

God. 2, br. 6 (20. 3. 1907.)

Stvari koje treba znati

God. 2, br. 7 (3. 4. 1907.)

Traži se slagar

God. 2, br. 8 (17. 4. 1907.)

Zlatna prigoda

God. 2, br. 9 (1. 5. 1907.)

Porez za neoženjene

God. 2, br. 10 (15. 5. 1907.)

Nesloga

God. 2, br. 11 (29. 5. 1907.)

Tjedne novine

God. 2, br. 12 (12. 6. 1907.)

Policijska akcija

God. 2, br. 13 (19. 6. 1907.)

Čovjek i tigar

God. 2, br. 14 (26. 6. 1907.)

Ženidba-udaja

God. 2, br. 15 (3. 7. 1907.)

Poziv na slogu

God. 2, br. 16 (10. 7. 1907.)

Ubojstvo u Sydneyju

God. 2, br. 17 (17. 7. 1907.)

Iz uputa za useljenike

God. 2, br. 18 (24. 7. 1907.)

Snaha i svekrva

God. 2, br. 19 (31. 7. 1907.)

Obiteljska svađa

God. 2, br. 20 (7. 8. 1907.)

Otac i sin

God. 2, br. 21 (14. 8. 1907.)

Iseljavanje

God. 2, br. 22 (21. 8. 1907.)

Pad vlade

God. 2, br. 23 (28. 8. 1907.)

Iznenadna smrt

God. 2, br. 24 (4. 9. 1907.)

Pismo uredniku

God. 2, br. 25 (11. 9. 1907.)

Bijela košulja

God. 2, br. 26 (18. 9. 1907.)

Cijena zemlje

God. 2, br. 27 (2. 10. 1907.)

Kratke vijesti

God. 2, br. 28 (8. 10. 1907.)

Poljubac

God. 2, br. 29 (16. 10. 1907.)

Zanimljivosti

God. 2, br. 30 (23. 10. 1907.)

Oglas za knjigu

God. 2, br. 31 (30. 10. 1907.)

Pitalica

God. 2, br. 32 (6. 11. 1907.)

Obavijest o smrti

God. 2, br. 33 (13. 10. 1907.)

Štrajk

God. 2, br. 34 (20. 11. 1907.)

Zemljište

God. 2, br. 35 (27. 11. 1907.)

Brzojavne vijesti

God. 2, br. 36 (11. 12. 1907.)

Upozorenje

God. 2, br. 37 (19. 12. 1907.)

Before the work on the Croatian emigrant press project there was no evidence of existing issues of Borba (The Fight), a newspaper published between the two world wars in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Information about the newspaper could be found through secondary sources where some contradictory data can also been found. Većeslav Holjevac in his book Croats outside their homeland that was published in 1968 says the first issue was published in 1927:

The first bulletin was Borba, published in several hundred copies in Broken Hill in 1927.

Mato Tkalčević in his book Croats in Australia says that the first issue was published in 1913:

The first publication of Croatian immigrants between the two world wars was the bulletin Borba. The first issue was published in Broken Hill on June 15, 1931. The founder of the bulletin and its editor-in-chief was Ivan Viskich. He was born in Gradac in 1899 and came to Australia in 1926. Borba was a political bulletin promoting the ideas of socialism. Ivan Viskich wrote about the bulletin: “That was a small bulletin with many technical, grammatical and political mistakes. But the small bulletin was the foundation of our press in Australia.”

Borba was published in Croatian language, but Australian authorities at that time did not like it. According to the Printing Act it was not possible to get permit for publishing newspapers in Croatian. That is the reason, according to Tkalčević, why the publication used to change its title:

Bulletin Borba was not approved by the authorities and that was the reason for changing the title every few issues. The titles were Plamen (The Flame), Iskra (The Sparkle), Oganj (The Fire), Pravda (The Justice) and Proleter (The Proletarian). 

Holjevac  mentions two more titles that were probably also titles of publications that derived from Borba: Naprijed (Foreward) and Sloboda (The Freedom). 

How much problems Borba  caused for the authorities is evidenced by the correspondence available in the Australian archive. In July and August 1932, the Australian Minister of Defense and the State Prosecutor corresponded about the unregistered Borba newspaper, published “in the Yugoslav language” and which should be checked “for communist propaganda”. The editors of the paper apparently hid well because the authorities were unable to find out who the publisher was. Part of one document is in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Part of a document available in the National Archives of Australia (NAA, series no. A467, control symbol SF7/6).

Tkalčević says that the newspaper Napredak (the first issue published in 1936) was also one of the extensions of Borba. The source for that statement is a publication by Ivan Viskich, editor of Borba. The publication in question is Important dates from the lives of our emigrants, published in Strathfield (Sydney) in 1981, however not available in Croatian libraries.

An issue of Borba (from October 1932) was found in the National Archives of Australia during work on the Croatian emigrant press project and the issue was digitized.

The first issue of  Zora (with a parallel English title The Dawn) was published in Auckland, New Zealand, on August 16, 1913, after Croatian Publishing Company was established. The editor and manager was George Leon Scansie. One of the goals of the newspaper was recognizing the term Croat for people from Croatia, instead of the term Austrians (as Croatia was at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

There were other editors of Zora – P. Katavić for vol. 3, no. 35 (September 4, 1915), J. S. Petricevich for vol. 4, no. 1(January 22, 1916) and Bartul Mihaljevich (for a short period in 1915). No later than vol. 4, no.3(May 13, 1916) the subtitle The Southern Slav Bulletin was added because Zora became the official organ of the London Yugoslav Committee. The concept of the newspaper had been changed, from the appearance to the content and language. Until May 1916 most of the texts were in Croatian, and change of that practice caused subscription cancellations. By January 1918 Zora had ceased to publish.

Issues of Zora are held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum Library (printed and on microfilm). Some printed issues from the legacy of Stephen A. Jelicich are available in the archive of the Dalmatian Cultural Society in Auckland.

In National and University Library in Zagreb, 16 issues are available (from no. 7, vol. 1 to no. 5, vol. 4), one of them incomplete. The16 issues were digitized as part of the Croatian Emigrant Press Project, in cooperation with the National and University Library in Zagreb in September 2023.

List of issues of Zora in three instututions

Zora, first page of vol. 2, no. 3(January 17, 1914)

Zora, first page of vol. 4, no. 3(May 13, 1916)

December 2018:

Dom i svijet (The Home and the World) was a magazine published in Perth, Western Australia in 1932. Only two issues were published. Today we do not know of any existing copies, although there is a possibility of finding some copies in private collections. The only source that proves that the magazine was published in two issues was the Australian newspaper  The Swan Express. In vol. 33, no. 48 (November 3, 1932) there is a short notice: “The Dom i Svijet will be published next week”.  The next information about the journal was published in the same newspaper in vol. 34, no. 3(December 22, 1932): “… The next issue of this magazine is indefinitely deferred…”.

January 2024:

During research in the library of the War Memorial Museum in Auckland in November 2023, a copy of the first issue of Dom i svijet was found. The copy was donated from a private collection and was made available only after previous research in that library (after 2019). The discovery of that copy is significant for several reasons – for the first time it allows the public to see the contents of the publication; it proves that the use of secondary sources in creating a bibliography is the correct way to find information; it proves that the assumption about the preservation of numerous lost publications in private collections is correct; it made the digitization possible. Digitization has been done and the issue is available in the Croatian Emigrant Press repository in open access.

Brotherly Unity (Bratska sloga) was the first newspaper in Croatian, published in Auckland, New Zealand, bi-monthly from May 15, 1899 until June 26, 1899. Only four issues were published, each consisting of four pages. In the first issue, Antun Bulat is mentioned as the editor, and Matthew Ferri as co-editor.

Croatian immigrants in New Zealand were mainly from Dalmatia (the surrounding area of Makarska and from the islands of Korčula, Hvar and Brač). The first recorded arrival of Croats in New Zealand happened in 1858 when the Austrian frigate Novara arrived in Auckland. Of the ship’s complement, 175 were Croats.  More Croatian immigrants started arriving after 1880 and they settled mostly in the northern part of the Northern Island. They mostly worked as kauri gum diggers, living in bad conditions, in small communities. They communicated only in Croatian and  did not understand English. That was the reason why they did not know the exact price of the kauri gum. Gum buyers used to take advantage of that by not paying the full price. Another problem at the end of the 19th century was very restrictive Kauri gum Industry Act that was unfavorable to immigrants. Therefore, newspapers in Croatian were very important at that time.  In no. 4 of Brotherly Unity one reader writes in his letter to the editor:

Dear Editor, today we wanted to sell kauri gum to a gum buyer…  The gentleman saw our gum and offered an unacceptable price… We gave him the latest issue of Bratska sloga showing the current price of gum in Auckland… he did not know what to do so he agreed to pay our price. Afterwards, he returned to his fellow gum buyers telling them that it is not easy to buy cheap gum from our people as we have our own newspapers and we know the price of gum in Auckland.

In time, some Croatian immigrants started inhabiting urban areas, working in trades and the catering industry. Newspapers in Croatian were a valuable source of information and a good advertising platform.

Brotherly Unity had financial problems from the very beginning. The number of subscribers was too small so in each issue editors called for new subscribers. At the same time a serious rival newspaper, Morning Star (Danica), was published. Editors of   the Morning Star were Ivan Šegetin, Baldo Marušić and Ivan Pavlinović. As far as we know, there are no copies of the Morning Star, but thanks to  Brotherly Unity we know that the newspaper was published. The editors of Brotherly Unity decided to publish a lot of criticism about the Morning Star as they were a serious rival on a small market. In New Zealand newspaper New Zealand Herald (June, 29, 1899) a text on libel case at the Auckland Police Court was published. Ivan Segetin, the editor of Danica, charged Antun Bulat, the editor of Bratska sloga for calling him “a donkey” (tovar in Croatian) and questioned his intellectual abilities.

Because of the extremely complicated situation, only four issues of Brotherly Unity were published. The lifetime of the Morning Star was probably not much longer.

Here are links to all four issue of Brotherly Unity. Copies are held in Alexander Turnbull Library Collections at the National Library of New Zealand.

Brotherly Unity, no. 1

Brotherly Unity, no. 2

Brotherly Unitiy, no. 3

Brotherly Unity, no. 4