1955: Better cool than Yule
For more than 50 years, starting in 1937, poet Allen Curnow had a side project, writing satirical verse for The Press and then other newspapers under the name Whim Wham.
It began when he worked as a reporter and a sub-editor at The Press.
On December 17, 1955, Curnow turned his attention to the topical story of Operation Deep Freeze, the US Antarctic project that departed from Lyttelton and the new airport at Harewood: ‘‘Ploughing the polar Seas With Operation Deep Freeze Must be more Fun than being trapped in the Jaws
Of Operation Santa Claus;
For one Thing it’s comparatively cool Down there compared with Yule Tide in this midsummer Heat. You don’t get run off your Feet . . .’’ There was an air of excitement around Operation Deep Freeze in Christchurch.
‘‘New Zealand, and Christchurch in particular, have been happy to receive the advance guard of the expedition in the last few weeks,’’ The Press wrote on December 14, 1955.
‘‘The sight of American uniforms in New Zealand streets is no less welcome now than on another occasion within the memory of all but very young New Zealanders, when this country had reason to be grateful not only for America’s friendship but for its protecting arms.’’
Americans were welcome for another reason. The Press reported that around $300,000 had been spent by Americans in Christchurch over the previous five or six weeks.
The Press also reported that about 20 men were left behind when the main US fleet sailed south from Lyttelton with only a few hours’ notice. They went later by icebreaker.
‘‘A publican telephoned the ship to say he had found a member of its crew, but the man was in an alcoholic stupor and refused to go to the vessel. The master of the freighter sent a guard up the hill in Lyttelton and the rating, protesting violently, was manhandled aboard.’’
It was better to fly. At dawn on December 20, two Neptunes and two Skymasters flew south from Harewood for Antarctica.
The US Air Force planes carried four bundles of The Press, which thus became the first newspaper ever delivered to Antarctica on the day of issue.
160 Years is a series marking the launch of The Press newspaper in Christchurch on May 25, 1861.