Punch in Canterbury

A DigitalNZ Story by Donna Robertson

The first issue of Punch in Canterbury was published on 8 April, 1865. It was modelled on the English magazine, but did not survive for long. "In 1860 Taranaki of all places, ironically when one considers the fortunes of war, produced the first of a series of short-lived imitations of Punch which proliferated throughout the country until the eighties. Some of these reached a standard not too far behind the original, and their crude, vigorous cartoons added zest to political encounters and were an amusing distorting mirror of provincial personalities. The most successful of the early versions (which somehow never survived more than a few issues) was Punch in Canterbury (1865), which carried cartoons of quite sophisticated artistry and succeeded in imposing on the popular imagination its own version of stock colonial types, such as the squatter, a rather raffish character combining both privilege and enterprise. Next in merit was Otago Punch. Twenty years later, in 1888, the Dunedin-published New Zealand Punch was a distinguished production and the last in the succession." http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/literature-literary-periodicals-and-criticism

Punch, satire, christchurch, canterbury, comics, cartoons, comedy