In 1834 a printing press was set up by the Church Mission Society at the Bay of Islands, in charge of Mr.William Colenso.

Neither few nor small were the difficulties which beset this missionary printer.

At the outset he got his press successfully from ship to shore by lashing two canoes together and laying planks across them.

Though the chiefs surveyed the type with greedy eyes and hinted that it would make good musket-balls, they did not carry it off.

But on unpacking his equipment Colenso found he had not been supplied with an inking-table, composing-sticks, leads, galleys, cases, imposing-stone, or printing-paper.