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Greymouth Star Linotype
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DescriptionWe got the Linotype cranking at the Greymouth Star today. They were last used for the paper in 1979.Date of PhotoBetween 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2017Map[1] External Linkhttps://vimeo.com/203939444
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CommentsBrian Howard Hello Alan.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 4:47pm
Doug Sail
Doug Sail A couple of Grey Star legends there
Unlike · Reply · 3 · Yesterday at 4:56pm
Write a reply...
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Lavinia Hamilton
Lavinia Hamilton Awesome video of Shirls and Rodney. Jeanne McEwen are you able to tag them?
Unlike · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 5:42pm · Edited
Jean Wilson
Jean Wilson Hi Alan
Unlike · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 6:48pm
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Great. I recall Mr Weaver our near neighbour was a Star linotype operator. Arthur Fong too I think.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 7:06pm
Robert Messenger
Robert Messenger Yes, Arthur was a long-serving Linotype (capital L, Don Hutton, it's a brand name) operator at the Star and wrote the West Coast entries in the NZ Rugby Almanack. Aub Weaver wrote interesting little snippets in the Grey Star 100th anniversary supplement in March 1966.
Like · Reply · 1 · 20 hrs
Lee Williams
Lee Williams Journo Mr Messenger , the raw potato eater late at night in the Gilmer kitchen !
Like · Reply · 1 · 20 hrs
Robert Messenger
Robert Messenger That's me Lee, lovely to hear from you!
Like · Reply · 10 hrs
Laura Mills Detlaff
Write a reply...
Choose File
Claire Ward
Claire Ward How fantastic! :)
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 7:17pm
Jean Mehrtens
Jean Mehrtens I got sacked from my saturday morning job proof reading - i wasn't looking for errors - I just read the stuff. Noisy ruddy thing - they should have muffs on.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 7:23pm
Lee Williams
Lee Williams I used to proofread that type upside down and back to front without a galley proof !! From 1970 to 1976 at the Grey Star ,my boss was Mr Keown ,then Tony Negri.Editor Russell Nelson Snr ..
Unlike · Reply · 3 · 20 hrs
Andrew Macdonald
Andrew Macdonald My grandad, Leo Ogilvie, worked there, mostly as printer but also as a linotype operator after the war. Back in those days, they used to keep lunch warm on the lead melting pot! As an aside, my grandad found that -- in the 1940s/50s -- he could with some tweaks and adjustments alter the composition of the pre-mixed ink to get extra mileage and a faster drying time, thus saving the paper money and giving the hacks just a little bit extra time at the typeface!
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 19 hrs · Edited
Jeanette King
Jeanette King Blast from the past. My father Ross King was a Linotype operator on the Coast, notably at the Hokitika Guardian. But he also worked for the Evening Star too I think at one time. Possibly he used this very machine? I well remember watching him work, I was fascinated by how the lead bars melted and made type, and the quick typing on the keyboard, not Qwerty, forming the lines of type one at a time before lifting the lever for the line to be pressed and it falling down into the tray. The whole process was mesmerising to watch
Unlike · Reply · 4 · 15 hrs
Dave Lyes
Dave Lyes I too was lucky enough to see your father in action Jeanette. I thinnk I have a few examples of the lead bars floating around somewhere......
Like · Reply · 1 · 10 hrs
Laura Mills Detlaff
Write a reply...
Choose File
Albie Rose
Albie Rose Repaired and set by Wayne Richards ex ChCh Press.
Like · Reply · 11 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton When I was a paper boy around 1950 - 52 we often had to walk from the printing press area at the back through to the front office where Joe Wilson (manager) or Athol Keown (accountant) would tell us about added or deleted customers on our runs, so we p...See More
Like · Reply · 10 hrs
Robert Messenger
Robert Messenger Yes, Don Hutton, greatly missed by those with printer's ink still floating around in their blood. The compositing room was known worldwide as "the stone", and not all journos have the lasting memories of working with those magnificent "stone hands". Russell Nelson generally oversaw the final make-up process (see attached photo). Mrs Russ (from Camerons?) was our proof reader back then, very good at her job. The nosiest part of the building was the Teletype room, manned by Frank Neate. Behind that was the large job printing department, which ran parallel to the compositing room, and where Dave McKenzie worked. Behind Mrs Russ's room was where the bound Grey Stars dating back to the 1860s were kept. Beyond that was where the Klischograph machine operated, turning wire pictures (as well as Joe Quinn's photos) into engravings to be mounted on wooden blocks. Beside that was the reporters' room, then Russell's office. Like James Joyce in Mountjoy Square, I could still find my way around that building blindfolded. The reporters I worked with were Jack Turner (chief reporter), Scott Jones, Kevin Bell, Ivan Agnew, Warren Inkster and Kevin Clancy, and later John Crowley and Kathy Ewen. A wonderous place to work. If you learned your trade at the Grey Star, you could hold your own anywhere in the world, even beyond English-speaking countries, even in Argentina and Egypt.
Image may contain: one or more people
Like · Reply · 2 · 9 hrs · Edited
Andrew Macdonald
Andrew Macdonald John Crowley was my boss at nzpa!
Like · Reply · 1 · 9 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Robert Messenger Excellent stuff Robert. I recall Russell Nelson well both at the Star and as a rugby player I admired. You're quite right about the Star being a good training ground. My very good friend Graeme Barrow (ex Kilgour Rd) started there in the 1950s as a compositor, showed ability as a writer and was given a chance by Mr Gaffaney the editor, then moved into reporting elsewhere in NZ and Australia, finally ending up as a senior media person in the parliament in Canberra and author of numerous books.
Like · Reply · 1 · 8 hrs
Laura Mills Detlaff
Write a reply...
Choose File
Lawrie Quinn
Lawrie Quinn My dad Joe Quinn worked as a compositor here before before becoming a photographer.
Like · Reply · 1 · 8 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Yes, Lawrie, he did the "conversion" during the time I was at GTHS 1951 - 55. Among other things at the Star he dished out papers to the boys like me c.1951 but by 1955 he was taking photos of the school sports teams in the employ of your grandfather L...See More
Like · Reply · 1 · 7 hrs
Graeme Barrow
Graeme Barrow I was so lucky to get a job as an apprentice at the Star, my leaving school (without a backward glance) coinciding with the son of a workmate of my father's finishing his apprenticeship at the Star's job printing department and moving on. By some miracle I was accepted as his replacement. My boss was Andy Dalzeill (the spelling may be wonky). After a slow start I came to enjoy the job especially the hustle and bustle of setting up race books in the middle of the night and printing them in time for that day's races. Another enjoyable task was the printing of Christmas cards for various bigwigs around the town, seeing them come in and pore over our selection. I yearned to be a reporter and would spend my lunch hours reading the stories already typeset and placed in pages; I also studied changes the editor George Gaffaney made to reporters' copy. All this must have rubbed off on me because when I was 16 or 17 George began accepting pieces I'd written for inclusion in the paper. One of the very early ones, perhaps the first, was a cricket piece that George topped and tailed and used as his editorial for that day. I can still see Arthur Fong calling me over and showing me that he was typesetting my story! I had another stroke of unbelievable luck when the finish of my apprenticeship coincided with a junior reporter's job being advertised on the Ashburton Guardian. I applied for it and got it and have often wondered whether I owe it to George Gaffaney who may have been asked about me. They were heady days for a teenager on the Star, working in the job printing area by day and as a journo at night. When I was 18 or so I was approached and asked whether I'd take over the paper's cricket coverage. I played of course (when it wasn't raining) and would gather up the scorebooks and laboriously type my stories on a Sunday night on an ancient typewriter my dear mother bought for me. No payment from the Star, but I loved it.
Like · Reply · 2 · 7 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Great stuff Graeme Barrow. Hope I didn't steal your thunder. Have been wondering how you have been after the "medical misadventure." Hope you're feeling a lot better now :-D
Unlike · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 4:47pm
Doug Sail
Doug Sail A couple of Grey Star legends there
Unlike · Reply · 3 · Yesterday at 4:56pm
Write a reply...
Choose File
Lavinia Hamilton
Lavinia Hamilton Awesome video of Shirls and Rodney. Jeanne McEwen are you able to tag them?
Unlike · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 5:42pm · Edited
Jean Wilson
Jean Wilson Hi Alan
Unlike · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 6:48pm
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Great. I recall Mr Weaver our near neighbour was a Star linotype operator. Arthur Fong too I think.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 7:06pm
Robert Messenger
Robert Messenger Yes, Arthur was a long-serving Linotype (capital L, Don Hutton, it's a brand name) operator at the Star and wrote the West Coast entries in the NZ Rugby Almanack. Aub Weaver wrote interesting little snippets in the Grey Star 100th anniversary supplement in March 1966.
Like · Reply · 1 · 20 hrs
Lee Williams
Lee Williams Journo Mr Messenger , the raw potato eater late at night in the Gilmer kitchen !
Like · Reply · 1 · 20 hrs
Robert Messenger
Robert Messenger That's me Lee, lovely to hear from you!
Like · Reply · 10 hrs
Laura Mills Detlaff
Write a reply...
Choose File
Claire Ward
Claire Ward How fantastic! :)
Like · Reply · Yesterday at 7:17pm
Jean Mehrtens
Jean Mehrtens I got sacked from my saturday morning job proof reading - i wasn't looking for errors - I just read the stuff. Noisy ruddy thing - they should have muffs on.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 7:23pm
Lee Williams
Lee Williams I used to proofread that type upside down and back to front without a galley proof !! From 1970 to 1976 at the Grey Star ,my boss was Mr Keown ,then Tony Negri.Editor Russell Nelson Snr ..
Unlike · Reply · 3 · 20 hrs
Andrew Macdonald
Andrew Macdonald My grandad, Leo Ogilvie, worked there, mostly as printer but also as a linotype operator after the war. Back in those days, they used to keep lunch warm on the lead melting pot! As an aside, my grandad found that -- in the 1940s/50s -- he could with some tweaks and adjustments alter the composition of the pre-mixed ink to get extra mileage and a faster drying time, thus saving the paper money and giving the hacks just a little bit extra time at the typeface!
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 19 hrs · Edited
Jeanette King
Jeanette King Blast from the past. My father Ross King was a Linotype operator on the Coast, notably at the Hokitika Guardian. But he also worked for the Evening Star too I think at one time. Possibly he used this very machine? I well remember watching him work, I was fascinated by how the lead bars melted and made type, and the quick typing on the keyboard, not Qwerty, forming the lines of type one at a time before lifting the lever for the line to be pressed and it falling down into the tray. The whole process was mesmerising to watch
Unlike · Reply · 4 · 15 hrs
Dave Lyes
Dave Lyes I too was lucky enough to see your father in action Jeanette. I thinnk I have a few examples of the lead bars floating around somewhere......
Like · Reply · 1 · 10 hrs
Laura Mills Detlaff
Write a reply...
Choose File
Albie Rose
Albie Rose Repaired and set by Wayne Richards ex ChCh Press.
Like · Reply · 11 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton When I was a paper boy around 1950 - 52 we often had to walk from the printing press area at the back through to the front office where Joe Wilson (manager) or Athol Keown (accountant) would tell us about added or deleted customers on our runs, so we p...See More
Like · Reply · 10 hrs
Robert Messenger
Robert Messenger Yes, Don Hutton, greatly missed by those with printer's ink still floating around in their blood. The compositing room was known worldwide as "the stone", and not all journos have the lasting memories of working with those magnificent "stone hands". Russell Nelson generally oversaw the final make-up process (see attached photo). Mrs Russ (from Camerons?) was our proof reader back then, very good at her job. The nosiest part of the building was the Teletype room, manned by Frank Neate. Behind that was the large job printing department, which ran parallel to the compositing room, and where Dave McKenzie worked. Behind Mrs Russ's room was where the bound Grey Stars dating back to the 1860s were kept. Beyond that was where the Klischograph machine operated, turning wire pictures (as well as Joe Quinn's photos) into engravings to be mounted on wooden blocks. Beside that was the reporters' room, then Russell's office. Like James Joyce in Mountjoy Square, I could still find my way around that building blindfolded. The reporters I worked with were Jack Turner (chief reporter), Scott Jones, Kevin Bell, Ivan Agnew, Warren Inkster and Kevin Clancy, and later John Crowley and Kathy Ewen. A wonderous place to work. If you learned your trade at the Grey Star, you could hold your own anywhere in the world, even beyond English-speaking countries, even in Argentina and Egypt.
Image may contain: one or more people
Like · Reply · 2 · 9 hrs · Edited
Andrew Macdonald
Andrew Macdonald John Crowley was my boss at nzpa!
Like · Reply · 1 · 9 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Robert Messenger Excellent stuff Robert. I recall Russell Nelson well both at the Star and as a rugby player I admired. You're quite right about the Star being a good training ground. My very good friend Graeme Barrow (ex Kilgour Rd) started there in the 1950s as a compositor, showed ability as a writer and was given a chance by Mr Gaffaney the editor, then moved into reporting elsewhere in NZ and Australia, finally ending up as a senior media person in the parliament in Canberra and author of numerous books.
Like · Reply · 1 · 8 hrs
Laura Mills Detlaff
Write a reply...
Choose File
Lawrie Quinn
Lawrie Quinn My dad Joe Quinn worked as a compositor here before before becoming a photographer.
Like · Reply · 1 · 8 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Yes, Lawrie, he did the "conversion" during the time I was at GTHS 1951 - 55. Among other things at the Star he dished out papers to the boys like me c.1951 but by 1955 he was taking photos of the school sports teams in the employ of your grandfather L...See More
Like · Reply · 1 · 7 hrs
Graeme Barrow
Graeme Barrow I was so lucky to get a job as an apprentice at the Star, my leaving school (without a backward glance) coinciding with the son of a workmate of my father's finishing his apprenticeship at the Star's job printing department and moving on. By some miracle I was accepted as his replacement. My boss was Andy Dalzeill (the spelling may be wonky). After a slow start I came to enjoy the job especially the hustle and bustle of setting up race books in the middle of the night and printing them in time for that day's races. Another enjoyable task was the printing of Christmas cards for various bigwigs around the town, seeing them come in and pore over our selection. I yearned to be a reporter and would spend my lunch hours reading the stories already typeset and placed in pages; I also studied changes the editor George Gaffaney made to reporters' copy. All this must have rubbed off on me because when I was 16 or 17 George began accepting pieces I'd written for inclusion in the paper. One of the very early ones, perhaps the first, was a cricket piece that George topped and tailed and used as his editorial for that day. I can still see Arthur Fong calling me over and showing me that he was typesetting my story! I had another stroke of unbelievable luck when the finish of my apprenticeship coincided with a junior reporter's job being advertised on the Ashburton Guardian. I applied for it and got it and have often wondered whether I owe it to George Gaffaney who may have been asked about me. They were heady days for a teenager on the Star, working in the job printing area by day and as a journo at night. When I was 18 or so I was approached and asked whether I'd take over the paper's cricket coverage. I played of course (when it wasn't raining) and would gather up the scorebooks and laboriously type my stories on a Sunday night on an ancient typewriter my dear mother bought for me. No payment from the Star, but I loved it.
Like · Reply · 2 · 7 hrs
Don Hutton
Don Hutton Great stuff Graeme Barrow. Hope I didn't steal your thunder. Have been wondering how you have been after the "medical misadventure." Hope you're feeling a lot better now :-D
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West Coast New Zealand History (2nd Jun 2018). Greymouth Star Linotype. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 5th Apr 2026 02:46, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/19338