FROM THE ARCHIVES

TO BE USEFUL, CHEERFUL AND HAPPY WAS OUR MAGAZINE’S EARLY MISSION

A look back at the first issue

When our founding editor Audrey Argall wrote her editorial for the firstever issue of The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, she can’t have known how true her words turned out to be. The Weekly had a shaky start – Audrey and her business partner Otto Williams were forced to sell the fledgling title after just 12 weeks – but their original vision and hope for this magazine was realised soon after and, 85 years on, continues.

Every newspaper or periodical has, or should have, some definite mission or objective. On the sound-ness and importance of this mission or objective depends its ultimate success. Hundreds of new publications make their appearance every year. Some are still-born, others are strangled at birth – others again lead a short and languishing existence, and eventually die of inanition – only a few survive and live to a ripe old age.

The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly is born with a definite mission and a definite objective. It is to go forth among New Zealand women – rich and poor, young and old – and preach the gospel of usefulness, cheerfulness and happiness. Its mission is to teach, to entertain, to assist and to amuse: its objective, to become a national family journal in the truest and fullest sense of the word.

It will contain clean, bright fiction in keeping with modern times and ideas; intellectual articles dealing with important questions and problems of the day; helpful information and illustrations from experts in the world of fashion; useful hints and suggestions concerning the home and family, and the health and welfare of its members; bright pages for children; and regular features for the lovers of art, poetry, and nature. And all for the trifling sum of threepence!

The laws of the survival of the fittest govern the publishing business to a greater extent than most other trades and professions. Public opinion is infallible and inexorable in its judgment, and fastidious and conservative in its taste.

In introducing The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly at the popular price of threepence per copy, we feel confident of its success. Certainly we do not intend to leave any room for failure. Years of experience in the publishing field and extensive knowledge gained from long and intimate contact with the New Zealand reading public have taught us that value and service are the prime essentials to success. Of these we will give full measure. There exists a great scope, indeed, there is a distinct necessity for a New Zealand woman’s weekly, and ours is the only journal of its kind published in the Dominion.

All our competitors come from overseas and though their number is legion, we do not fear comparison, nor have we any misgivings as to the ultimate results. We ask for no preference or favours on national or patriotic grounds, but ask to be judged on quality and merit. Knowing, and catering solely for, the taste and requirements of the women of this country, we feel confident that we can give better value and better service – in other words, we feel that we can do just a little bit better than our contemporaries from overseas.

It is with these thoughts, and these aims and ambitions, that we launch the first issue of The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and make an earnest bid for the loyal support of a wide circle of prospective readers. Our journal is not only a national publication with a distinct New Zealand appeal to people throughout the whole of the Dominion, but a journal that will cater for the whole of the people, irrespective of class, greed, age or social standing. Our ambition is to make it a cheerful companion for every New Zealand woman and child; a friend to be welcomed and looked forward to in New Zealand homes, no matter how humble or how exalted.

It is our earnest desire to keep in close touch with our readers and to serve them to our utmost capacity. With this in view, we always welcome the fullest criticism and suggestions that may tend to improve the general character of our journal and add to its usefulness. We will endeavour to answer enquiries and questions of a personal and general nature, and gladly pass on information that may be helpful and useful to others. Contributions, by way of short stories, articles, hints and recipes, photographs, puzzles and competitions, etc., are invited and will be dealt with as explained in another column.

In short, The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly is completely and entirely at the service of its readers.