FOR 57 years (until 1969), the newsprint for The Fiji Times was supplied from the Powell River Mill in British Columbia, Canada.
The Fiji Times was described as the mill’s oldest surviving partner.
When Powell River’s first newsprint-making machine began operations on April 26, 1912, it was programmed to fill orders for The Fiji Times and a Seattle newspaper which has since ceased publication.
Powell River Mill is a pulp mill and paper mill located in the Canadian town of Powell River and was established by The Powell River Company in 1912 as the first manufacturer of newsprint in Western Canada.
About half the newsprint for The Fiji Times and associated newspaper came from Canada at the time.
Souvenirs on tapa
A practice started by The Fiji Times founder George Littleton Griffiths and continued by Sir Alport Barker, was to print occasional souvenir copies of The Fiji Times, on masi (tapa), or baka cloth.
This could be done while the newspaper was produced on a sheet-fed press.
The masi was fed into the machine instead of a single sheet of paper.
The practice ended with the introduction of the Cossar (printing press) in 1958. Since then the newsprint has passed through the machine from large reels.
There are only two known locations of these souvenir prints.
The Fiji Times has in its possession three copies which were gifted by Sabrina Ryan-Wishart, the granddaughter of Sir Alport who founded the Western Pacific Herald newspaper in 1901.
The other known location is the Fiji Museum.
A masi print dating to 1887 is preserved in its archives.
Ms Ryan-Wishart presented to The Fiji Times on September 23, 2013, three special editions of The Fiji Times and Herald dated May 13, 1937.
