Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Revans, Samuel
REVANS, SAMUEL (1808–1888), colonist, the ‘father of the New Zealand press,’ was born in England in 1808 and brought up as a printer. He came into contact with Henry Samuel Chapman [q. v.], and emigrated with him in 1833 to Montreal, where he helped to start the ‘Daily Advertiser.’ Some indiscreet articles in the paper led him to leave Canada in 1837 and return to London, where he identified himself with the Wakefield scheme for the colonisation of New Zealand. In 1839 he was appointed secretary to the executive committee for inaugurating the settlement of Port Nicholson. In the same year he published in London the first numbers of the ‘New Zealand Gazette,’ and on 18 April 1840, soon after his arrival in the colony, brought it out in Wellington, being himself editor, printer, and publisher. He assisted with his own hands in building an office for the paper, which on 22 Aug. 1840 blossomed into the ‘New Zealand Gazette and Britannia Spectator.’ In 1843 he published at this office the first Wellington almanac. He was long remembered as a prominent figure in the early days of the Wellington settlement.
In 1847 Revans gave up his connection with journalism, removed to the Wairarapa, residing at Woodside, near Greytown, and took up land for sheep-farming in partnership with Captain Smith, R.N. An effort in 1851 to make a new settlement in California proved a failure, and after his return to sheep-farming in New Zealand, Revans and his partner held as much as fifty-five thousand acres. For a time he represented Greytown district both in the House of Assembly and in the Provincial Council. But he fell into pecuniary embarrassments, and died unmarried at Greytown on 15 July 1888, dependent on his friends.
[Wairapara Standard quoted by New Zealand Times, 17 July 1888; Mennell's Dict. of Australian Biography; New Zealand Parliamentary Papers.]