In today's age there seems to be an increasing cynicism of media as we struggle to decipher just what is the truth.
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With online news websites using clickbait to entice you, sometimes the message can be lost or caught up in sensationalism.
There was a time however, when newspapers could be trusted to provide factual information, as well as entertainment.
In fact, during the depression years, the local newspaper was sometimes the cheapest form of entertainment.
Leeton shire has been well served by its local newspaper for over 100 years and it provides important historic information which would other wise would have been lost.
The first newspaper in Leeton shire was the Irrigation Record whose editor was Mr JG Youll and its first publication was on February 15, 1913.
It would continue to be published for almost four years, with the last edition being published on February 1, 1917.
Its demise was probably due to the introduction of the Murrumbidgee Irrigator, which from its inception, became the main medium for the publication of news.
In 1915, the printing works and office were set up on the corner of Palm Avenue and First Street (Jarrah St) and the first publication was on April 23, 1915.
The paper promised to "... make (it) a credit to the area..." and "... to always represent impartially the balance of public opinion, giving equal justice to all".
The first owner of the newspaper was Mr George Hopkins, who sold the business only six months later to Mr JJ Sullivan.
It was a tough gig those days with only one publication a week (Friday), with the type being hand set on a small sheet tabloid size. While it is not clear, it would seem that neither Mr Hopkins or Mr Sullivan were real "newspaper men".
A year after buying the business, Mr Sullivan sold the newspaper to Mr William Wrightson, who would go on to really firmly establish The Murrumbidgee Irrigator.
William was born on a spring day in April, 1862 at Bolton Abbey, Wharfedale, Yorkshire England to a civil engineer father William Wrightson and mother Mary Walsh.
The abbey he was born in had been lived in by his mother's family for over 300 years, but unfortunately when his father died in 1867, the Duke of Devonshire declared that he wanted no widows on his property and his mother and her three children were evicted.
His mother and two siblings migrated to New Zealand and when William was 19, he decided to join them and, on his arrival, commenced his newspaper career as a reporter for The Wanganui Daily.
The owner of that paper was Mr John Ballance, who would later become the Premier of New Zealand in 1891 and would have been a great mentor for the budding journalist.
As an aside, Mr Balance died in 1893 of cancer with doctors trying to treat him by injecting champagne directly into his veins.
In 1890, William moved to Australia and worked on honing his craft by working in country newspapers in Tamworth and Dubbo before moving to Wagga to work for The Daily Advertiser.
In 1905 he had his first foray as a newspaper proprietor when he commenced a paper at Bowraville on the Nambucca River.
The paper and William were highly acclaimed, but William could see the great potential in the newly established Yanco Irrigation Area and sold the Bowraville paper and purchased The Murrumbidgee Irrigator.
He immediately made huge changes to the business, installing a type setting machine (linotype), changing the paper to a broadsheet and publishing it twice a week on Tuesday and Friday, just like it is now, over 100 years later.
His whole aim was to give Leeton a newspaper that would prove of service to the community.
Through its columns he did much in helping Leeton and the whole irrigation area to develop into a flourishing state.
William married Catherine Dunn in Sydney in 1903 and were married for over 50 years, but the couple had no children.
After retirement they moved to Sydney where William died in 1953 at the age of 91.
He is buried at the Northern Suburbs cemetery. Of interest, William had an extremely valuable oil painting of his grandfather (also William Wrightson) hanging in the offices of The Murrumbidgee Irrigator for several years.
The painting at the time of William's death, was over 100-years-old, and was admired by many in the community, particularly those who were a good judge of art.
The painting was a family heirloom and it had to be retained by a family member with the name of William Wrightson.
As William had no children, the painting was sent to a relative in New Zealand, one of William's cousins, who had a child bearing the William Wrightson name. I wonder where that painting is today?
