HE had a feeling for words, alert eyes for news and an instinct for efficient organisation.
When R. W Robson bought the Fiji Times in February, 1956, he was faced with the problem of bringing it into line with the economic, social and political development that was already evident in Fiji. With a wealth of experience behind him he was determined to succeed. Originally from Central Otago in New Zealand, in 1904 he served as a journalist at New Zealand and Australian newspapers. In 1921 he found himself as the general manager of the Daily Telegraph, Sydney.
For five years from 1924 he was in London. When he returned to Australia, he set out to fulfil a dream that had come while he was on a tour to the Pacific Islands with the New Zealand Governor-General. He would start a magazine that would give news of the various Pacific territories and help them to realise that they had many common problems and interests.
Thus the Pacific Islands Monthly was born in 1930. The story of how he acquired the Fiji Times is told in his own words elsewhere in this supplement. When he looked at his own new purchase, he came to three major decision.
* If the Fiji Times was to grow with the colony, modern plans would have to be installed to produce it.
* To increase the news cover to that required of a national newspaper, the editorial and reporting staff must be increased.
* To get same-day distribution of the newspaper throughout the scattered islands and towns of Fiji, it must be published in the early morning and full used must be made of the Colony’s growing air service. The newspaper was then printed on a Wharfedale press, into which the sheets were hand-fed. Malakai Soi, one of the oldest and most honoured of the Fiji Times employees, developed an astonishing speed and skills.
An automatic folding machine was acquired in the late 1940s. The machine was entirely adequate while the circulation of the newspaper remained small. But by the time the newspaper was bought by Mr Robson, more then 2000 copies where being printed every day. Production was a long process and the limit to expansion had been reached.
This was demonstrated forcefully in 1957, when Sir Lala Sukuna died. The Fiji Times then established a new record. A 16-page paper was issued and the demand was such that 6000 copies were printed. This required almost 20 hours of printing. Mr Robson and his associates decided that the whole plant must be modernised.
The process was necessarily slow. Money had to be found. Here Mr Robson called on his own resources and those of friends in Australia and in the Australia and New Zealand Bank Ltd.
The major purchase was a Cossar press through which the paper ran from large reels, newspapers of up to 16 pages being printed, folded, counted and delivered in one continuous operation at nearly 4000 an hour.
The first Cossar issue on November 27, 1958, said of the new machine. “It should cater for the needs of the two newspapers (Fiji Times and Shanti Dut) for at least a couple of decades.” The prophecy was wrong. Ten years later, progress had been so great that the Cossar was not able to cope with the demands of now four newspapers ( Nai Lalakai and Ni Bula Mai having by then been added to the company’s publication) and in March, 1969 another big step forward taken.
The Fiji Times “went offset” and with the installation of a Goss Community web-offset press, was able to produce up to 32 pages, in more than one colour if required, at 15,000 copies an hour- a new chapter in the newspaper’s 100-year history was opened.