The University of British Columbia

Epilogue: BC's First Printing Press

What happened to Bishop Demers' press after it was replaced with improved printing technology by the British Colonist? In 1863, two of Amor De Cosmos' reporters opened up another newspaper, the Evening Express, to compete with the British Colonist. After slightly over a year, George Wallace and Charles W. Allan were forced to abandon the paper [45]. Purchasing Bishop Demers' press from De Cosmos, George Wallace travelled to the Cariboo, ending up in Bakerville, a thriving town built on gold. In June 1865, the Cariboo Sentinel was published for $1 per copy, or $52 per year, making it one of the most expensive early BC newspapers [46]. After making a substantial profit in 1866, Wallace sold the machine to Warren Lambert and Charles W. Allan [47]. Unable to sustain splitting the profits between two partners, the paper closed on October 31, 1867. Allan reduced the price of the newspaper and continued printing until 1872. Six months later the paper was printed under the new ownership of Robert Holloway. When fire burned Bakerville to the ground on September 16, 1868, Robert Holloway took Bishop Demers' press, the type, a ream of paper, and fled to Richfield, a few miles from Bakerville and missed only a single issue [48]. Keep in mind that for George Wallace to get Bishop Demers' press from Victoria to Bakerville, the press was dismantled, and transported by mule, and manual labour. It was truly a miracle that Hollloway rescued the press from the 1868 Barkerville fire. Although fire did not burn Bishop Demers' press, the Cariboo Sentinel ended on October 30, 1875 with Holloway announcing his decision to take a cruise. He never returned to reopen the paper [49].

Bishop Demers' press was to follow the gold trail once more to Emory. When the settlement floundered, the press was moved to Kamloops in 1884. By 1890, Bishop Demers' printing press had become obsolete, as new printing technology like the cylinder press had now spread inland. After exchanging hands, the press, in 1908, returned home to the Sisters of St. Ann Academy in Victoria, an institution originally founded by Bishop Demers [50]. The miraculous printing press had produced at least five early BC newspapers (in chronological order): the Vancouver Island Gazette; the News Letter and Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Calédonie simultaneously; the British Colonist, and the Cariboo Sentinel [51].