Newfoundland Gazette
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The Newfoundland Gazette began publication as the Royal Gazette and was Newfoundland's first newspaper. The early issues contained extensive reprints from the foreign press, a very small amount of local news, shipping news, reports of associations such as the Benevolent Irish Society, very long rambling letters from readers (invariably unsigned), legal and official notices, and advertisements of all types, including ones seeking to apprehend deserting seamen and indentured servants. As other newspapers began publication in the Colony, the Gazette published extracts from their columns as well as letters from government officials disputing statements in other papers. After the establishment of the Legislature and the Supreme and Circuit Courts, the proceedings of these bodies were included. In the last half of the nineteenth century, the Gazette had its own London correspondent. Because the Gazette was a semi-official publication, it was expected to maintain an impartial editorial policy and the other papers were quick to criticize the slightest digression from the straight and narrow.
By 1924, when the Royal Gazette became the Newfoundland Gazette, everything except government notices had disappeared from the paper. The basic format and contents have remained unchanged since that time.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Gazette is still printed today.
This newspaper's description was sourced from Suzanne Ellison's Historical Directory of Newfoundland and Labrador Newspapers.
Issues on the DAI:
6 January 1925 to 31 December 1982
Issues by Month
View other Newfoundland and Labrador newspapers available on the DAI.
If you have a Newfoundland / Labrador question please contact the Centre for Newfoundland Studies.