The city of the strait : Wellington and its province : a centennial history / by Alan Mulgan

Mulgan, Alan, A.W. Reed, Wellington, N.Z., 1939

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Title: The city of the strait : Wellington and its province : a centennial history / by Alan Mulgan.

Author: Mulgan, Alan

Published: A.W. Reed, Wellington, N.Z., 1939

FHE CITY OF THE STRAIT

... . • t r „ Drawn by A. H. Messenger from a sketch by C. Hcaphy. Dominion Museum. J The Tory and Cuba meet in Cook Strait, 1810.

THE CITY OF THE STRAIT

WELLINGTON AND ITS PROVINCE

A Centennial History

by ALAN MU LOAN

We are those tools who could not rest

In the dull earth we left behind,

But burned with passion for the West

And drank a frenzy from its wind

The world where small men live at ease

Fades from our unregrclful eyes,

And blind across uncharted seas

We stagger on our enterprise

-St John Lucas, “ The Ship of Fools.

PUBLISH KD FOR

THE WELLINGTON PROVINCIAL CENTENNIAL COUNCIL

BY A. H. & A. W. REED

WELLINGTON

1939

VVHITCOMBK & TOMBS LTD.

CHRISTCHURCH AUCKLAND WELLINGTON

DUNEDIN' INVERCARGILL N.Z.

I ON'DON MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY

PRINTED IN NEW ZEALAND BY WHITCOMB! AND TOMBS LIMITED

WELLINGTON

FOR FAVOR!)

BV lilt

WELLINGTON PROVINCIAL CENTENNIAL COUNCII

The Wellington Provincial Centennial Council felt that the Province’s celebration of the National Centennial should include a history, handy in size and moderate in price, of the Wellington settlements, so that this generation and its successors might know what were the forces that led to the foundation of these settlements, what

manner of men and women pioneered the province, and how development has proceeded from the camping life of 1840 and earlier to the smoothly ordered civilisation of to-day. It should be emphasised that this is not a history of Wellington City only, but a history of the province, for which the Provincial Centennial Council, as representing the whole area, is responsible. As the centre of the province and the beginning of organised settlement, Wellington City looms largely in the narrative, but the author has linked the capital with the growth of the out-districts, and then told their stories separately. Nor does this record of a hundred years of colony-building take the place of detailed local histories ; its scope precludes that. What it attempts to do is to treat the Wellington Province as an entity within the national entity of New Zealand. I commend this book particularly to the people of the Wellington Province as a narrative of the growth of the society with which they are most intimately associated.

r. c. A. HISLOP

Mayor of Wellington

Chairman , Wellington Provincial Centennial Council

AUTHORS PREFACE

Every organised settlement in New Zealand history, from the great undertakings of the New Zealand Company to small enterprises like Waipu and Puhoi, has its special interest. The adventure that planted a colony on the shores of Port Nicholson, whence settlement spread north and east and west, was the first of its kind. It set off into the blue with no assurance of what it would encounter in land provision or government. The New Zealand Company did more than any other nonofficial agency to found New Zealand. I have tried to make the history of that effort and what it brought forth through a hundred years into a running story ol human endeavour. I hope I have included enough detail to give the narrative weight and authority, but not more than a book of restricted size will bear. Lists of early pioneers and holders of official positions, trade and other statistics, and a chronology will be found in an appendix.

My best thanks are due to a large number of helpers for a great deal of assistance of various kinds. There are my colleagues of the Provincial Historical Committee who formed a sub-committee for the supervision of the book—Dr. G. H. Scholefield, Parliamentary Librarian : Mr. J. Norrie, Chief City Librarian ; and Mr. A. W. Reed. The Town Clerk of Wellington, Mr. E. P. Norman ; the City Engineer, Mr. K. Ei. Luke ; and the General Manager of the Tramways Department, Mr. M. Cable, and their staffs, have been most helpful in furnishing information about the city's development. Mr. A. G. Barnett, General Manager of the Wellington

The City of the Strait

Harbour Board, and his staff, have done me a similar

service in respect to the history of the port. To Dr. Scholefield who read my manuscript, and his assistants at the Parliamentary Library, I am very grateful, as 1 am to Mr. C. R. H. f aylor and his staff at the Alexander Turnbull Library, and to Mr. Nome and his assistants at the Central Public Library. To Mr. James Cowan 1 owe a double debt—for information from his books, and his personal interest, including the reading of my narrative. Mr. Herbert Baillie placed his library at my disposal and gave me the benefit of his very exceptional knowledge of Wellington history. I also wish to acknowledge assistance from the Department of Internal Affairs (Centennial House); the Dominion Museum ; the Lands and Survey Department; the Meteorological Office ; the Defence Department ; the Geological Survey ; the Publicity Department of New Zealand Railways ; the Department of Agriculture ; the Census and Statistics Office ; the Union Steam Ship Company ; authorities on local Church history; Mr. L. J. B. Chappie, of Wanganui, who helped with the chapter on that district ; Mrs. A. G. W. Dunningham, of Dunedin, whose thesis on the provincial period of Wellington history has been very valuable ; Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Marshall, of Tutu Totara, Marton; Mrs. T. R. Barrer, of Masterton ; Miss Phyllis Nicholls and Mr. G. H. Nicholls, who lent me the theatrical records of their father, the late H. E. Nicholls ; and the Borough Councils and County Councils of the province, who forwarded local information. The many other helpers whom I cannot particularise 1 ask to accept my thanks.

ALAN MU LOAN

Wellington

October Ist, 1939

CONTENTS

CHAP.

PAGE

1

1. Earth’s Foundations

2. Maori Wellington

12

3. The Men of the Strait

26

4. Dreams and Conflicts

38

58

5. Advance Guard and Main Body

89

6. On the Beach

7. Rivalry and War

102

142

8. The Provincial Period

204

9. Modern Wellington

10. The Out-Settlements: Wanganui

260

11. The Out-Settlements: Rangitikei and Manawatu

271

288

12. The Out-Settlements: Wairarapa

APPENDICES

A Wellington Chronologs

300

306

Wellington’s First Passenger Ships

Political Roll

324

336

Roll of the Province’s Mayors

340

Statistics

343

Some Books About Wellington

Index

345

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Tory and Cuba meet in Cook Strait

Frontispiece

FACING PACK

Edward Gibbon Wakefield

16

Te Aro Flat and Mt. Cook, Wellington, about 1840

17

Map of Port Nicholson

32

Te Puni

33

Te Rauparaha in 1847

33

Coat of Arms of the New Zealand Company

64

Seal of the Wellington Provincial Council

64

Fort Richmond, Lower Hutt, 1847

65

The Hutt Valley Road, near Taita, in 1847

65

Barrett’s Hotel, Lambton Quay, in the early forties

65

Lambton Quay in 1854

80

Gillet’s Whaling Station, Kapiti Island, 1842

80

Queens’ Wharf about 1863

81

Te Aro, 1864

81

Rutland Stockade, Wanganui

128

A Soldier of the 58th Regiment

129

An Early Wairarapa Homestead

144

Rev. Octavius Hadfield’s Cottage at Otaki, 1849

144

Bishop Hadfield

145

Dr. I. E. Featherston

145

Wellington Waterfront, Old and New

160

Toll-gate on the Hutt Road, at Kaiwarra

161

Petone, Hutt Valley, 1879

161

Three Ships, Kaikoura, Rotomahana, Taranaki

176

Wiremu Kingi

177

Major Kemp (Te Rangihiwinui)

177

Modern Wellington from the Air

208

Steam Tram and Horse Tram, Wellington

209

Wanganui Collegiate School, Past and Present

221

Wanganui To-day from the Air

225

Palmerston North, Past and Present

256

Massey Agricultural College

257

Evolution of a Homestead

272 and 273

Maori Church at Otaki

288

Masterton, Past and Present

289

Map of Wellington Province

End Paper

A

CHAPTER ONF

EARTHS FOUNDATIONS

There rolls the deep where grew the tree

O earth, what changes hast thou seen

There where the long street roars, hath been

The stillness of the central sea

—Tennyson.

Among authorities the geologist should be the first resort of the historian, for the foundations of earth determine in great measure the destiny of nations. We are what we are—our industries, our political systems, our dispositions even—largely because ages ago the crust of the earth heaved and crumpled and flowed in certain ways ; mountains took forms as final as finality can be considered in the ever-changing skin of the globe ; plains were laid down for pasture ; and from the ocean depths arose the sites of future cities of pride and power. The process has never ceased. We may see to-day in the erosion of our hills, the face of the country slowly changing before our eyes. What may be loosely called chance, but what was really the play of natural forces, determined where men should live, what they should eat and weave and snare, where trade should flow and battles be fought, what winds should blow upon man’s home by day and what frosts nip his crops bv night. Because the Southern Pacific region was so convulsed and moulded and pared in times far distant, men muster flocks on the Wairarapa plains and hills to-day ; our relations with the Mother country are somewhat differ

2

The City of the Strait

ent from those of our neighbours the Australians ; traffic inspectors are occasionally stationed at a certain spot in Courtenay Place, Wellington, to save pedestrians from the savage onslaught of wind ; and North Island versus South Island is an annual fixture in New Zealand's Rugby football programme.

Resemblances in plant life indicate that in the abyss of time New Zealand was part of a vastly greater land system. The end of the greater geological changes left an island group over a thousand miles long and so shaped that no spot was more than fifty or sixty miles from the sea, a group lonelier than any of the larger lands that were to make up the British Commonwealth of Nations. New Zealand has been called the antipodes of England, but it lies considerably nearer the Equator. Put New Zealand in the Northern Hemisphere and in the European system ; the North Auckland peninsula projects into the Sahara, Auckland city corresponds to Algiers, Wellington is roughly in the same latitude as Rome, and Stewart Island, where one looks southward over a waste of waters to the Antarctic continent, lies

near Berne. There are, of course, important differences in conditions. Algiers, Rome and Berne are part of great land masses. New Zealand is the most insular of important island systems. West and east the ocean ranges unbroken more than a thousand miles to Australia, and six thousand to South America. The Fiji group to the north is about as far away as Australia. Comparatively New Zealand is a narrow ridge in an ocean with no influencing land masses near it, a ridge back-boned by mountains that for hundreds of miles reach alpine rank, and sundered by two straits. Cook and Foveaux. It is no wonder it has some reputation for wind. When nature had moulded it. New Zealand was a land of mountains and forests—no country in the world, perhaps, was more bountifully wooded—plains

3

Earth’s Foundations

and downs, swift rivers, deep lakes and sheltered bays, hot springs and volcanoes, sub-tropical warmth and eternal snows, sunshine and rain and wind well mingled —as wonderful a collection as could be found anywhere not only of natural wonders and beauties, but of conditions suitable for human settlement.

But the architecture of nature, by leaving these islands well outside the orbit of the early European explorers, profoundly influenced New Zealand’s political and economic future. When the Maori first came to New Zealand is a matter of doubt ; it may have been as far back as the tenth century, and it is probable that he did not find the land uninhabited. But, so far as we know, the first Europeans to see New Zealand were Abel Tasman and his men, who came to it in 1642, a hundred and twenty years after Magellan showed the way across the Pacific. Tasman did little more than glance at the islands and sail away, but he made their existence known to the world. He has a special interest for Wellington in that he nearly discovered the strait that divides the two main islands. His pilot made a chart showing an opening in its direction. More than a century passed before Cook put the main outline of New Zealand on the map. If nature had intended to isolate New Zealand she did her work well.

In considering the natural condition of the provincial division called Wellington, once a political entity and now only a land and statistical district, but still a province in popular classification, it must be admitted that the boundaries are somewhat arbitrary. There is, for example, no good geographical or communal reason why the north-western frontier should run from just south of Patea to the more natural line of the Whanganui river.* But in this present provincial

• " Whanganui ” is the correct spelling, but “ Wanganui ” is now almost always used. The jjopular spelling will be followed in this book.

4

The City of the Strait

area, which stretches from Cook Strait to Lake Taupo, there is abundance of variety. The splendid playground of the Ruapehu-Tongariro uplands, with its sweep of open tussock country, its snowy peaks, volcanic activity, cold lakes and bordering areas of primeval forests, has its official home in the capital. Even the southern end of Taupo, an ancient crater of gigantic size, is within this jurisdiction. Southward of this is the river-fissured papa country centred on Taihape, where sheep now flourish on a thousand hills, bordered on the east by the line of the Ruahine ranges and on the west by the thickly verdured gorge of the Wanganui. Southward again is the belt of down country and lower coastal lands confined by the great curve of the Taranaki Bight. In pre-European days nearly all this country south of the high central region was heavily forested. It is thought, indeed, that the more or less open nature of the coastal strip, the condition that the early settlers found, was the result of Maori felling and burning : originally the forest came right down to the sea. The forest extended, unbroken but varying in width, from Cook Strait to a point near Manukau Heads.*

Such a condition, which was paralleled in other parts, was to prove an important and tragic factor in the relations between Maori and European. The Maori’s use of the land and his attitude towards it lay at the root of the troubles between the races. Estimates of Maori population in the old days vary greatly, but even if the highest are accepted ** the numbers were not great enough to make anything like full use of the land according to European ideas. When the early settlers

* For the condition of these parts of New Zealand in prc-Euroj>can davs, see S. Percy Smith’s History and Traditions of the Maoris of the West Coast.

••Cook estimated the population at 400,000. Estimates for the 1835 period vary from 114,000 to 200,000. Official documents give 114,000 and 120,000. Sec Census Reports.

5

Earth’s foundations

came to the North Island, they saw great areas ol land under forest and scrub, and they asked, with rising impatience, why they should not have access to them. It was plain, they contended, that the Maori was not using the land. In a sense, however, the Maori did use the land ; at any rate he considered the land his, whatever its condition. He had named every hill and stream, and youngsters of the tribe were carefully instructed in tribal boundaries and the history of natural features. Looking at the Taranaki-Wellington country as it was in 1839, the uninstructed European might well think it virgin land awaiting the pioneer’s axe. Along the coast southeast of Egmont was a strip of open land varying in depth ; it was deepest about Feilding, but even there large patches of wood dotted the plain. Fern predominated in the north, but south of Wanganui there grew toe-toe, flax, tea-tree and cabbage tree. Inland was the primeval forest. Most of the Maoris lived on the coastal belt, but the country inland, besides being cleared in a few places for settlement, was visited to obtain birds and eels, and wood for weapon and canoe. There the Maori hunted and snared and marked down trees for cutting. In the season most of the people of a village would go but in search of food. Many of the trees belonged to individuals or families, and were named. The Maori, therefore, did not admit the land was lying idle ; it was his, and he was tied to it by many associations, material and sentimental. Even the peaks in the centre of the island were considered to be Maori property. That uncompromising pagan Te Heuheu of Taupo forbade Europeans to climb the Tongariro group of mountains. “ Tongariro is the mountain ; Taupo is the lake ; Te Heuheu is the man,” it had been said of him. The mountains were woven into the legendary history of Te Heuheu’s tribe, and when, in the time of his son. a Wanganui tribe laid claim to some

The City of the Strait

6

o£ the Ngati-Wharetoa lands, Te Heulieu Tukino pointed conclusively to the smoke of Ngauruhoe.

“ That is my fire of occupation,” he said. It was Te Heuheu Tukino who gave these mountains to the people of New Zealand in perpetuity, through the Crown ; they were the nucelus of the Tongariro National Park. When the second thoughts of the Maori followed large scale sales of land to the New Zealand Company, a clash came, and there were not many Europeans who appreciated the Maori point of view. It is not fully appreciated even to-day. Perhaps New Zealanders would feel more sympathetic towards the Maori if they were told by foreigners that, since at the end of a hundred years the population of New Zealand is only a million and a half, they themselves invite just such a criticism as was levelled at the Maori in those days, that he was not making the fullest use of his country.

South of the Manawatu river the coastal strip narrows to an end at Paekakariki, cut off by the southwestern end of the mountain chain that begins at Cook Strait and goes right through the island to the East Cape. The Tararua and Rimutaka ranges (properly Remutaka) and the hills that run down to Sinclair Head and Terawhiti, may be regarded as one system, and Wellington harbour as a mountain lake that washes its base, but with an outlet to the ocean. Between the Tararuas and the Ruahines is the sword-cut of the Manawatu Gorge. Eastward of the Tararuas is the Wairarapa Valley, which was forested and gladed in Maori times, and the district to the north once known as the Forty Mile Bush ; and beyond these is a belt of open hill country, bounded by a coast completely devoid of shelter. The great peninsula of the Wellington Province, stretching from the Manawatu Gorge to Cook Strait, is high and broken, and as one approaches the

7

Earth’s Foundations

strait by the west coast route hills dominate the landscape more and more. As the traveller sees it from the entrance to the strait, the south-western butt of the island has its wild beauty, but it is a forbidding looking stretch of iron-bound coast and steep-sided valleys. It may seem strange that a flourishing capital should have been reared in such a tumbled landscape where access to the hinterland is so difficult. As late as the year 1937 a middle-aged South Islander, who had never been further north than Wellington, said, with the ring of Wellington’s hills in his mind and the Canterbury plains before his eyes, that he could not picture flat country beyond those hills, nor could he see any way ot getting out. Similar thoughts have possibly occurred to many. But the pioneers did plant a city by the waterside and send it skirmishing and entrenching up slopes so steep in places as almost to be called cliffs ; and they drove roads over the closely pressing hills and pierced them with railway tunnels and roads. This courage and energy is an integral part of Wellington’s story.

There are times when one is tempted to think nature was in a malicious mood when it made the strait that Cook discovered. It is sinuous, so that a ship sailing from Wellington to Nelson describes the letter “ S,” and generations of mariners have been troubled by its tides and currents, its steep seas, and thick gales. Politically it might be described as a major disaster in New Zealand’s history, for it made two islands out of one, and the separation by such a formidable waterway gave a clearer definition to the long-drawn-out battle of North versus South. The depression that caused the rift left the sea-floor like the land on either side, a place of hills and valleys. Navigation may be difficult enough when there are powerful engines under the captain’s feet ; in the old days of sail it was apt to be a nightmare.* A sailing ship might be caught on a lee shore on

•ii should be added that Cook Strait’s worst disaster was the inking of a steamer, the Penguin, in 1908.

8

The City of the Strait

either hand, according as the wind blew from north or south, and the wind had a habit of changing quickly and rising rapidly. Ships bowling north from southern ports before a stiff southerly, bound for Wellington or the west of the strait, were apt to run into danger when they passed Cape Campbell, for the north island coast from Cape Terawhiti to Cape Palliser was lee shore, with only the narrow and possibly obscured entrance to Port Nicholson for a haven. Much of the tide that moves north along the east coast of New Zealand flows through the strait and back again. Moreover tidal streams in the strait are apt to be capricious ; they have been known to be hours late, and to run in the opposite direction from what they should. Add a good deal of poor visibility, from fogs to gales laced with rain and sleet, and you may form some idea of what Cook Strait has meant to those who handle ships. For this very reason, however, it has done one great service to New Zealand ; it has helped to breed seamen. Of course with the help of echo-sounding apparatus and radio direction finders, navigation is much easier than it was.

Wellington Harbour may be described as a lively backwater of Cook Strait. This roughly oval sheet of water is about six miles across from west to east, and has a navigable entrance about a mile and a quarter wide. Hills rise sharply from most of its circumference. It is the product, not of volcanic action, but of what geologists call tectonic forces, the thrust of mass on mass in far-off ages. Here were clashes and grindings such as helped to make the strait itself, leaving a circle of hills looking down on a deep lake-like harbour. Wellington, and especially the western shore, on which the centre of the city is built, lies on what some geologists consider a long geological fault, which runs from the South Island up through the Taupo and Rotorua country to the Bay of Plenty and away north. This accounts for Wellington’s earthquake risk.

Earth’s Foundations

9

Without Cook Strait Wellington would be a very different place. It could not so proudly wear its motto Suprema a situ if express trains ran the whole length of the two islands without a break. It would be only a central port on the coast. As it is Wellington is the main gateway of the Southern portion of the North Island, and the northern terminus of all the shipping passenger services between the islands. It is the country’s greatest gathering and distributing centre. If you want to go to the South Island by sea you must go by Wellington. Cook Strait is the ocean highway of the city and has become an integral part of its life. As the Hauraki Gulf is to Auckland, Cook Strait is to Wellington, but the two waterways are different. The Hauraki Gulf is island-studded, and therefore to a considerable extent sheltered, which makes it one of the finest resorts for those who take their pleasure in small craft. It is what the Maori called “ Tai-Tamahine,” “ the sea of girls,” a place where women could paddle canoes. Cook Strait is a much less friendly sea. There the south-easter sweeps in unchecked ; the south-wester and the northwester have room enough to raise a high sea ; and the swell that breaks on Barrett Reef and the rocky coast round to Terawhiti moves with the pulse of the ocean. Though the lure of the Marlborough Sounds is not far away, there is little sailing for pleasure on the dividingwaters. This would be “ Tai-Tamatane,” “ the man-like sea,” a waterway fit for the warrior. Yet the Wellington dweller grows to appreciate Cook Strait or to accept it more or less cheerfully as a characteristic background to his high-pitched and wind-cleansed home. It may be unfriendly, but it is strong and beautiful, and it carries a large part of his fortunes. Its strength may slow down the powerful steamer express that drives southwards nightly to Lyttelton ; its beauty is most penetrating on still clear days in spring, autumn or winter, when its

ID

The City of the Strait

rhythm tumbles lazily in a smother of foam on the rocks at Island Bay, and beyond the wide floor of deep blue are seen the snows of the Kaikouras, with Tupae-u-nuku (Footsteps of the Rainbow) lifting its peak above its neighbours to the fraternal blue of heaven. It is beauty touched by grandeur, and the watcher is aware of hidden power. The smooth swell suggests the sleekness and strength of the panther.

Cook Strait and the hills that border it north and south are the chief makers of Wellington weather. These heights and the waterway that winds between them fan up the northerlies and southerlies for which Wellington is notorious. The prevailing winds are south-south-east and north-north-west. Many are the jokes and blasphemies that Wellington weathei has evoked. Much of the capital’s reputation in this respect springs from the disposition of visitors to argue from the particular to the general. Because it was wet or windy (or both) when they were there, it is always wet or windy. Cold statistics do show' that Wellington has more than average share of wind. Strong winds blow in Wellington on 57 days a year, in round figures, against Auckland’s 31 and Dunedin’s 16. But what has produced Wellington’s reputation for windiness is not so much the strength of its winds as their gustiness. The dominant northerly is the greatest offender. It has a capacity for acceleration that must make a motor-car manufacturer envious. In an instant it will leap from ten to fifty miles an hour. It is this playful hahit that brings up pedestrians standing at corners, rolls hats along the streets with malicious gaiety, and now and then knocks people off their feet. The southerly can be a fury too, but he is more of a gentleman. It is he who is mainly responsible for Wellington’s clear skies, and they are often magnificently clear, with a livelier iris changing on the burnished dove of the ranges across the

Earth’s Foundations

II

harbour, and the air calling for quick action. Wellington enjoys plenty of sunshine. It is substantially behind the sunniest spots in New Zealand, but with its average of 2049 hours it is slightly better than Auckland and Christchurch, and well ahead of Dunedin. Torquay, a South of England resort that advertises its sunny hours, stands some hundreds of hours below Wellington. And against the biting fury of the winter southerly has to be set the fact that frosts are not common, especially in the city itself ; for one thing there is too much wind. You would not call Wellington’s climate kindly, but it is encouraging and bracing, and the weather often touches the landscape to almost incredible beauty. Men and women walk briskly, and middle age runs lightly up steps. “No one can speak of the healthiness of New Zealand ” said Bishop Selwyn, " till he has been ventilated by the restless breezes of Port Nicholson, where malaria is no more to be feared than on the top of Chimborazo, and where active habits of industry and enterprise are evidently favoured by the elastic tone and perpetual motion of the atmosphere.” It was an Auck land visitor who said he asked himself when he woke in the morning, “ I wonder what's for 1 breakfast!” If good digestion waits on appetite, we may find here one reason why, in the country that leads the world in lowness of death-rate, Wellington’s rate is the lowest among the four main centres of population.

CHAPTER TWO

MAORI WELLINGTON

Of all the scenes familiar to the men of yore in the Land of Tara nought remains unchanged save the contour of the great hills and the rippling waters of the Great Harbour of Tara. No more are seen the hamlets that girt the Red Lake round, the cultivations that fringed the Awa-a-Taia the paddling of many canoes to the fishing grounds. No longer are the fortresses of Motu*kairangi crowded with fierce fighting men as of old. ready, at the sign of the signal fires on Te Ranga-a-Hiwi. to grasp spear and club in defence of their homes. Never again shall the chieftain’s war canoe swing across the waters of Tawhitinui, and never more shall the hills of the Land of Tara re-echo the roaring chorus of the war-song.*

■Elsdon Best, “ The Land of Tara.

There is evidence that the land about Port Nicholson once supported a much larger Maori population than that which greeted the New Zealand Company’s advance guard in 1839, but it never had so much attraction for the Maori as the isthmus on which Auckland rose. This is easily understood. The climate was colder and more boisterous, and the sharp descent of the hills left smaller areas for cultivation. The fairness of Tamaki-makau-rau, the much contested land, or the land of many

lovers, and its position between the northern peninsula and the Waikato, drew upon it war and rapine. Whanganui-a-Tara, as Port Nicholson was called, was

• Awa-a-Taia was the channel between Evans Bay and Lyall Bay. Motu-kairangi was Miramar, and Ranga-a-Hiwi the range of which Mt. Victoria is a part.

Maori Wellington

IS

on the track of migrant tribes and raiding parties, for it lay at the toe of the North Island, and the harbour and Kapiti Island were jumping off places for journeys to Te-Wahi-Pounamu, the South Island, but the Land of Tara was never so much a Belgium as the northern isthmus. It would appear that the Wairarapa valley, and the east coast south of Hawkes Bay, which provided one route of attack from the north, were at no time closely settled. There was more Maori life on the Manawatu coast and round the Bight to Taranaki. There much cultivable land lay beside the food-giving sea, and the long run of the beach provided a natural route to and from the Wanganui country and Taranaki, and further away, Taupo and the Waikato, by way of the Wanganui river or the Rangitikei. Large areas of what became the Wellington Province were too mountainous and rugged to draw and support any large population, but the coastal parts were attractive. Tradition has it that Turi, the great chief who came to Aotearoa in the canoe Aotea in the fourteenth century, chose Patea as his home from a description given him before he left Rangiatea, and from that party sprang the Nga-Rauru, Ngati-Ruanui and other tribes of the coast. The Wanganui river was one of the great inland routes, as also was the valley of the Rangitikei, and Jerningham Wakefield’s record of his journey up the Wanganui to Taupo shows it to have been dotted with settlements.

According to Maori tradition the discoverer of Wellington harbour was the myth-encrusted Kupe, who with another chief, Ngahue or Ngake, and a considerable following, came down from Eastern Polynesia perhaps as far back as the tenth century, perhaps later. Kupe made his landfall in the far north, sailed down the east coast, refitted in Palliser Bay (to give this and other places their modern names), entered Wellington Harbour, and landed at Seatoun, which was afterwards

II

The City of the Strait

known as 1 uranga-a-Kupe, possibly because Kupe was hurt while bathing near the Pinnacle Rocks. It may be that Ngake had paid a previous visit, because a local myth accounts for the entrance by making the harbour originally a lake, and placing in it two monsters, Ngake and Whataitai (Hataitai is the native name for Miramar peninsula) . These two tried to force their way out of the lake. Ngake formed the present entrance, but Whataitai failed at Evans Bay. Kupe and Ngahue went on round to Porirua, leaving a trail of place-names, before crossing Cook Strait and exploring the west coast of the South Island. We may now jump two centuries or so and come to Tara, the traditional coloniser of the land round Wellington harbour. Tara was the son of Whatonga, another Polynesian migrant, who settled on the coast of Hawkes Bay. Whatonga sent out his son Tara and Tara’s half-brother Tautoki, on a tour of inspection, just as the New Zealand Company spied out the land centuries later, and in a twelve-month journey they travelled round the south of the North Island, and striking inland from Patea, returned home by Taupo. They reported to their father that the best place they had seen was “ at the very nostrils of the island.” In that place there were tw'O islands named by Kupe—Matiu (Somes) and Makaro (Ward) —and a larger one to the southward, where two channels connected with the ocean. This largest island was tv hat is known as Miramar peninsula, and as Mr. Elsdon Best remarks, perhaps the most interesting feature of this oral tradition, which was given to him in great detail by an old Maori over seventy years ago, is the testimony that seven hundred years back the sea flowed, though only shoal water, between Evans Bay and Lyall Bay.* There is scientific evidence that the isthmus was covered by the sea at a late geological period, and there is a Maori tradition that the land was raised by an earthquake in the fit-

* The Land of Tara, by Elsdon Best

Maori Wellington

15

teenth century, as parts of the foreshore were in the nineteenth. On the other hand there is a strong geological opinion against a water connection as late as Tara's time, and the myth of the two monsters suggests that when the Maori came there was only one entrance to the strait. Elsdon Best is sceptical of the earthquake story. Dr. P. Marshall has given his opinion emphatically to the author that Miramar, though undoubtedly an island once, was not an island within Maori times.

However, the two travellers reported well of the soil on Somes Island and Miramar, and of the conditions at the bottom of the Wairarapa Valley. So Whatonga and his sons and followers came south by sea, and after exploring Lake Wairarapa—Tautoki was the ancestor of the Rangitane tribe, of the Wairarapa, lower Hawkes Bay and the Manawatu—they settled on Somes Island and Miramar and built their fortifications from timber cut in the Hutt Valley. Whether Miramar was an island or not (perhaps it was a “ near ” island) , this citadel of the tribe where they gathered when danger threatened, must have been a strong and wellfavoured dwelling place. It provided, in the Maori idiom, two “ good baskets,” that of the ocean and of the land, and it was relatively safe from surprise. The garrison had its outposts on the line of hills from Mt. Victoria to Lyall Bay, and warning could quickly be given of war parties coming along the beach from the direction of Kaiwharawhara (now miscalled “ Kaiwarra.”) The surface of the land, however, was hard there and elsewhere, and there seems to have been little of the strong entrenching that was so characteristic of Maori fortification in Auckland and Taranaki. For this reason there are about Wellington to-day few obvious signs of Maori occupation. Thus was founded NgaiTara, the tribe of Tara, and the harbour came to be known as Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the Great Harbour of Tara.

The City of the Strait

16

[IBIV

Of the struggles and changes between Tara’s time and the early years of the nineteenth century, little can be said here. Pressure of population and love of fighting and adventure set northern tribes on the march south, and Ngai-Tara were in the path. For instance the Ngati-Mamoe, whom Best describes as “ a section of the Mouriuri aborigines ” (Mai-oriori, or popularly Moriori) —a reference to the mysterious original inhabitants of New Zealand—came to Whanganui-a-Tara, were allowed to live in peace, and subsequently moved to the South Island, where, after many vicissitudes, they vanished into the mists of the Otago mountains. Some of the Ngai-Tara and their kinsmen the Rangitane, also settled on the other side of the strait. Another migration from the north that is worth noting was that of NgatiKahungunu, mixed descendants of Mai-oriori aborigines and Polynesian immigrants, who pushed into the Wairarapa some three hundred years ago and overflowed to the shores of the Harbour of Tara. We shall meet them in the days of Wellington’s settlement. About the same time there came to the same places the tribe of Ngati-Ira from Poverty Bay, descendants of Ira the Heart-Eater, a people numerous and famed in war. Largely through peaceful penetration, for the Maori had other instruments of advancement besides war, Ngati-Ira became the dominant tribe round Wellington harbour and gave their name to a mixed population that extended beyond Porirua. These were the people whom Cook saw when he lay off the entrance in 1773, but he had previously met some of them at Queen Charlotte Sound on his first visit. The dominance of Ngati-Ira lasted until the introduction of muskets into tribal warfare heralded the end of the stone age.

Their first experience of the terror came in 181920, when a strong party from the north, with which Te Rauparaha made Iris historic inspection of the Mana-

Dominion Museum. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, as a young man.

21! *- ; B Miss Irma O’Connor. Edward Gibbon Wakefield in his last days. The bust in the Colonial Office, London.

Wellington Harbour Board. p rom a water-colour by C. Ifrafhy. Te Aro Flat and Mt. Cook, Wellington, about 1840.

17

Maori Wellington

ISI9-]

watu-Cook Strait coast—Ngapuhi, Ngati-Whatua and Ngati-Toa—raided as far as Wellington harbour and the Wairarapa. It may be noted that the raiders found the harbour of Tara not prolific in natural food, but they made up for it by their cannibalism. In one pa in the Hutt Valley, so a warrior said long afterwards, they killed until they were weary, and stayed there three weeks, cutting up and eating the slain and drying the flesh. Te Rauparaha was reputed to be a leader in acts of treachery and deceit. It says much for the courage of Ngati-Ira that though they were terrified by the guns, they took heavy toll of the invaders. This was a preliminary to the most important event in the modern Maori history of the Cook Strait region, the coming of Te Rauparaha to Kapiti and the coast opposite. The most famous (some would say infamous) fighting chief of Maori-European times, Te Rauparaha, like Hongi, has been called with some justification the Maori Napoleon. He had the strategical insight, boldness, swiftness, and moral courage that mark really great commanders. Te Rauparaha was born about 1768, so that he was an old man when the Wellington colonists arrived, though Jerningham Wakefield, on first meeting him, said he was “ at least sixty,” and might have passed for much younger. He was rather under average height, strong active and wiry in body, and aquiline in feature. Te Rangihaeata, his nephew and right-hand man, the most implacable enemy of the Wakefield settlements, had the same eagle look, but he was a much taller man, handsome and magnificently built. Te Rauparaha was of chieftain blood in his Ngati-Toa tribe, which dwelt on the lands round Kawhia harbour, between the Manukau and New Plymouth, but not of the highest rank. This deficiency, however, was much more than balanced in Ngati-Toa eyes by his natural gifts as a leader, which he began to show at an early age. As head

B

The City of the Strait

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[lB3l

of Ngati-Foa he made the most difficult of decisions. He was a troublesome neighbour to the powerful Waikato tribes, and they threatened his people with extinction. Kawhia was a highly favoured spot tor the old-time Maori, but it had little contact with Europeans, so Rauparaha could not get the muskets on which, so he was quick to realise, safety now depended. On his raid south he had marked down Kapiti Island as a good base where he would be in contact with European traders. For the era of firearms had begun, and the years between 1818 and 1838 were most tragic for the Maori.

The Maori had always been eager for battle, and gunpowder gave a new and more terrible edge to his sport with death. A couple of muskets conferred a distinct advantage on a war party if the other side had none ; a score put it in a position of overwhelming superiority. In the old hand-to-hand fighting losses had been heavy, perhaps nearly as heavy at times as when guns were used, but possession of muskets made their owners more eager than ever to fight, which is saying a good deal, and if there were guns on one side and not on the other something like annihiliation was liable to follow. The record of these years is an appalling story of war and slaughter. As was customary, if an excuse for war was needed it w r as soon found, and the natural blood-lust of the race was inflamed by the new means of killing. After victory it was a case of woe to the vanquished ; the victors glutted their ire and their stomachs on their enemy. When Pukerangiora, the great Taranaki pa, fell in 1831, Te Wherowhero, the Waikato leader, had prisoners led up to him and slew them one by one with his mere, to the number of some 250, until his arm dropped with fatigue. Among the tribes there was a frantic rush for what could be bartered, such as (lax and slaves, for the necessaries of war. The scraping

Maori Wellington

40

IS2I

of flax by hand was a laborious process, and at one time it took as much as a ton, and later half a ton, to buy a musket. The effect of this diversion of energy on the tribe was grave. Cultivations were neglected and famine came. European diseases took their toll, all the more so probably because men and women were weakened by want of food. Tens of thousands of Maoris must have perished in this period.

Such was the state of affairs that was developing when in September, 1821, the year of Hongi’s first great raid from the Bay of Islands, Te Rauparaha led the Ngati-Toa tribe in their historic migration from their ancient home-lands of Kawhia. It was an act of great moral courage. The Maori was passionately attached to his ancestral home, and Kawhia, the resting place of the Tainui canoe, from whose company they were descended, was most dear to Ngati-Toa. What Te Rauparaha planned was nothing less than the moving of a whole tribe, from infants to old men, to a distant part of the country, through territories where they would have to win a passage by diplomacy or fighting, and where they might find themselves trapped. Their leader had been there before, and had left a reputation behind him which might well provoke reprisals. Indeed when they moved south the Ngati-Maniapoto of the Waikato were hot on their trail. Te Rauparaha had to prepare his way by diplomacy and make arrangements for halting and feeding his multitude, and the gifts of organisation he displayed rank him as much more than a soldier. He led his tribe to Taranaki, beating off the Ngati-Maniapoto by force and guile on the way. There they stayed some time, planting and harvesting and fighting. Joined by strong detachments of Ngati-Awa and Ngati-Tama, of Taranaki, the migrants set out on the second stage of their journey, by the inland forest tract east of Egmont and then by the shore route along

-[lB2l-

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The City of the Strait

the Bight, where they seized canoes for the transport of non-combatants. They traversed the lands of NgatiRuanui, of Nga-Rauru, with whom they fought, and of the people at the mouth of the Wanganui, and came to the country of Ngati-Apa, Rangitane (who were partly of Wairarapa and partly of the coast) and Muaupoko. Their first settling place was on the Waikawa river seven miles north of Otaki. There Ngati-Toa came into contact with Muaupoko, whom Rauparaha was to harry relentlessly for so long. In a fight with Rangitane further north the newcomers had killed a woman of Muaupoko, with which tribe Rauparaha had made a peace compact, and in satisfaction Muaupoko planned a treacherous revenge. No doubt there was also a feeling that this was a good opportunity of getting rid of a dangerous man. With twenty of his people, mostly relatives, Te Rauparaha went by invitation to share a feast of eels at Lake Papaitonga, south of Levin. There was a promise of canoes, which Rauparaha wanted for his occupation of Kapiti and realisation of his dreams of South Island conquests. Their hosts rose in the night and killed nearly all of them, including two of Rauparaha’s daughters and a son. Rauparaha escaped by breaking through the wall of his hut. This massacre is important for two reasons. It shows that Te Rau paraha the sinner was sinned against. Perhaps of all Maori chiefs he has the blackest reputation for treachery and ferocity. Maoris said he taught them deceit. If he did he had apt pupils. He was treacherous, but so was Hongi, whose conduct at the Thames was too much for some of his Ngapuhi. He was bloodthirsty, but so was Te Wherowhero, who passed from the killing of captives at Pukerangiora to the respectability of an English gentleman’s dress in Government House society, where he was quite at home. Te Rauparaha was a Maori chief, and if he was worse than most of his

Maori Wellington

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IS2l\

fellows he was worse in degree but not in kind, and it is worth while noting Lindsay Buick’s point that the Maori code of honour was not what it had been. The treachery of Muaupoko, and connivance at the deed among Ngati-Apa and Rangitane, had an almost inevitable result. Te Rauparaha resolved to exterminate Muaupoko and Rangitane, and he had the better weapons. At length the harried Muaupoko took refuge on artificial islands in Horowhenua and Papaitonga lakes, the first of which now almost borders the town of Levin. Ngati-Toa and their Taranaki allies took these pas and slaughtered men, women and children. The conquerors feasted, and so did the eels. It is a striking proof of the courage and resource of Rauparaha's men that the first island pa was stormed by swimmers. Some of Muaupoko escaped and scattered to Paekakariki and the hills. They were never again a strong tribe, and after further punishment became vassals of Te Rauparaha.

The slaughter at the lakes took place about 1823. In that year Te Rauparaha took Kapiti island from Ngati-Apa by mingled guile and force, and placed himself there with three pas, one at each end and one in the middle. Some of his people stayed on the mainland, but he withdrew them after receiving two checks. A band of Ngati-Kahungunu and Ngati-Ira from the Wairarapa and Port Nicholson fell on a victory-satiated party of his warriors at Paekakariki, and drove them to Waikanae, and one night Ngati-Apa attacked Ngati-Toa at Waikanae and killed sixty. At this point possibly the invader's fortunes were at their lowest ebb. There was another crisis when a Muaupoko chief organised a great confederation of tribes from the coast north of the Wanganui to the strait districts of the South Island, and the Wairarapa. Two thousand men assembled against Kapiti, an exceptionally large force for Maori

22

The City of the Strait

[.1826

warfare, and, in the age-old phrase, their canoes darkened the sea. The attackers met with some success when they’ landed on Kapiti, but, as has so often happened in war, victory went to the side which, though it was numerically the weaker, showed the greater cohesion, determination and resource. The defenders’ victory was crushing and decisive. A feature of the defence that deserves to be remembered was the amazing feat of Te-Rau-o-te-Rangi, a young chieftainess, in swimming at night from Kapiti to the mainland, with her daughter of four on her back, to summon reinforcements. She chose to swim because she feared a canoe would be seen by the approaching fleet, and she swam seven miles, an effort that far surpasses Hinemoa’s romantic swim from the shore of Rotorua to Mokoia Island.*

Te Rauparaha’s position was now strengthened by the arrival of more parties from Taranaki, and what was more important, an accession for which he had long been pressing, migrations of the Ngati-Raukawa tribe from Maungatautari in the Waikato. Te Rauparaha’s mother was a Ngati-Raukawa woman, and he himself had been accepted by the tribe as a chief, not only by birth but by prowess. Ngati-Raukawa had for some time been in danger from other tribes of the Waikato and of the Thames, but they were naturally reluctant to make a move to so distant a territory. In the end Te Rauparaha’s success and the reports of the rich lands he had conquered, probably turned the scale. The leader of the migrants from the Waikato was one who, amid the shiftiness, ferocity and blood-lust of those days was to stand out for honesty and courageous clemency— Te Whatanui. “ That grand old member of a magnificent race” Lindsay Buick calls Te Whatanui, and |erningham Wakefield described him as a true Christian gentleman. Te Whatanui took the hunted Muaupoko

• See Hero Tales of New Zealand, by James Cowan. Te Ran was the grandmother of Sir Maui Pomare.

Maori Wellington

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mz 5-J/i

under his protection, and eventually told Te Ruaparaha that if there were any more attacks he would defend them by force of arms.

Before 1830, Te Rauparaha was master of the coast, and in the proud position of parcelling out its lands, with himself as overlord. His possession of Kapiti put him in a first-class strategical position, and its safe anchorages gave him access to trading ships, which sold him guns in return for flax from Manawatu lands. The whaling industry was now being added to life in the strait. John Guard had established himself at Te Awaiti, in Tory Channel, in 1827, and in 1830 a whaleship brought the first oil to Sydney from Kapiti. NgatiRaukawa were centred in the district round Horowhenua Lake, and extended north to the Rangitikei. Ngati-Awa were allotted the land south to Port Nicholson. In 1825-26 Ngati-Awa had occupied the western shore of the harbour, and eventually they drove NgatiIra and Ngati-Kahungunu from the eastern shore to the Wairarapa. It is said that Ngati-Ira had few cultivations, but that Ngati-Awa settled down to clearing and tilling the land where Wellington city now stands. They had a line of settlements from Te Aro to Kaiwarra, and what is now known as Thorndon was all under cultivation and supported several villages. Where Hawkestone Street notv runs is reputed to have been the richest part, and it is even said that cultivations extended over the Tinakore hills in suitable places.

There was soon to be another accession to the strength of the confederate tribes. The Waikato invasion of 1831 left Taranaki almost without inhabitants, though the invaders met their match when they attacked Moturoa pa, near the present New Plymouth breakwater. The reason for this check was important for the future of Port Nicholson. Living with the defending Maoris were eight British traders and whalers. led by

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[18)1-32

John Love and Richard Barrett, the Dicky Barrett who was to take Colonel Wakefield to Port Nicholson in the Tory ; and Te Wharepouri, the Maori leader of the besieged, was one of the chiefs with whom Wakefield negotiated for the purchase of the site of Wellington. Barrett had married into the tribe. It is possible that but for this association of Barrett with Wharepouri, Wakefield might not have been led to Port Nicholson as the locality of his first settlement, and when he was, his negotiations might have been more difficult. It is certain that hut for the skill and determination of Love and Barrett and their companions, Moturoa would have fallen. They added to the now usual musket equipment three small cannon. The defeat of the invaders did not remove fear of further attacks from the Waikato, and m the following year there was a large scale migration of Ngati-Awa and other tribes to Te Rauparaha’s country. On the way Love and Barrett, and a third man, Billy Keenan, fought, Maori fashion, in a battle on a spot that is now in the centre of Wanganui city. Some of these migrants, under Te Puni, Wi Tako and Wharepouri, settled at Port Nicholson, and were there when the Tory arrived in 1839.

Meanwhile Te Rauparaha was realising his dream of South Island conquest, a dream engendered by desire for territory, power, glory, greenstone, and revenge. He was not at all likely to forget that tribes from Nelson and Marlborough (to give them their later names) had taken part in the joint attack on Kapiti. Kaiapohia pa (Kaiapoi) fell in 1831, the same year as Pukerangiora. Into the details of his southern campaigns, which have become classics of Maori military art, it is not necessary to go here. In these he reached his greatest heights as a commander, and committed the infamy for which he is most notorious among Europeans, the kidnapping, followed by torture and

Maori Wellington

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death, of the chief Tamaiharanui at Akaroa, in Stewart’s brig Elizabeth. It is only fair to say that the greater guilt has been held to attach the European who lent himself to the enterprise. Te Rauparaha established his people on the Marlborough plains, an act that had a sequel in what is known as the Wairau massacre, and on the shores of Tasman Bay. The strength of his arm was felt as far as Akaroa, and parties of his colonists settled themselves in Westland, and sent out an expedition that accomplished, though it met with ruin at the end of the journey, the most remarkable feat of the kind ever recorded—Te Puoho’s march down the west coast, over the Haast Pass, through Central Otago, and down the valley of the Mataura. By reason of his command of trade Te Rauparaha was able to arm all his warriors with guns. His generalship and organisation were first class, and his prestige was worth the Maori equivalent of a division. Though he was not uniformly victorious, his men were accustomed to conquer, and the sight of his hooked nose on the battlefield may have been as reassuring as Wellington’s in the Peninsula. If we are shocked by Te Rauparaha taking so seriously an insult by a Kaikoura chief, we should remember that these things mattered a great deal to a Maori, and after all at that very time gentlemen in England, even Ministers of the Crown, faced each other with swords and pistols on similar provocation.

Time, however, was running on to the great change in New Zealand, and before we come to this we shall look at Cook Strait from another angle.

CHAPTER THRKI

THE MEN OF THE STRAIT

It you slop to find out what your wages will be And how they will clothe you and feed you

Willie, my son, don’t go on the sea. For the sea will never need you. —K

ipling.

The delay in the unveiling of Whanganui-a-Tara to the gaze of the modern world is one of the curiosities of New Zealand exploration. It is the only first-rate natural harbour in the Wellington Province, and, more than that, if you start from Cape Maria van Diemen in the extreme north of New Zealand and sail down the west coast, round the north island to the Hauraki Gulf, where Auckland stands, Port Nicholson is the one

harbour of this rank that you pass. And it stands on Cook Strait, in a splendidly central position. Yet so far as is known it was not entered by Europeans until Herd took his party of would-be colonists in there in 1826. Tasman did not discover the Strait. Cook had this honour, but missed the harbour on his first voyage, and while he discovered it on his second, did not enter. Von Bellinghausen the Russian, who sailed through the Strait in 1820, did not add to the world’s knowledge of the harbour, nor Dumont d'Urville the Frenchman in 1827, nor H.M.S. Warspite in the same year. Even when it was definitely put on the map it had little attraction for whalers and traders. The narrow harbour mouth was not easily picked up in the Strait from a distance.

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177)

and despite Colonel Wakefield's subsequent comment that “ the navigation at the entrance could not perplex a novice in nautical matters,” one may venture the opinion that it was not nearly so friendly or handy as a working place and refuge as Queen Charlotte Sound or Cloudy Bay (Port Underwood). One could not slip in and out of it so easily, for the prevailing winds, which were frequent, and liable to change quickly, blew either up or down the narrow channel, and on one side was a nasty line of reef. Moreover, this stretch of coast from Sinclair Head to Cape Palliser was off the general track of whales. When they took their seasonal course through the Strait they kept close to the South Island coast and sometimes calved in the bays. North of the Strait they bore inshore near Kapiti. Whales were thus much handier to hunters based on the Marlborough bays, Kapiti, Mana, and Porirua harbour, than they were to dwellers at Port Nicholson.

Cook’s experience illustrates the weather factor. On November 2nd, 1773, sailing across the Strait from Cloudy Bay in the Resolution he saw to the east of “ Cape Tierawitte ” (Terawhiti, properly Tarawhiti) a new inlet, and made to enter it. Unfortunately, after reaching the entrance on the flood tide, he met the ebb, and the wind was north-west, so he anchored, a mile from what came to be known as Barrett Reef. Maoris came off in canoes and showed themselves “ extravagantly fond of nails.” Forster, who accompanied Cook, described the land about the heads as “ dreary blackish barren mountains, of a great height, almost wholly destitute of woods and shrubs ” “ this miserable country.” When after two hours the wind shifted to north-east, he weighed anchor apparently to enter the harbour, but “ the anchor was hardly at the bows ” before the wind went round to the south, and he got out of the bay quickly. He observed, however, that the

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1 1526

inlet inclined to the west. Cook never sailed into Wellington harbour. The story that he came in between Miramar and Mt. Victoria seems to have been given currency in a book written in 1863 by Sir James Alexander, a soldier who served in the Maori wars ; Cook s boats, it was said, took this passage. The statement crops up from time to time, but there is no foundation for it.

So far as can be ascertained the first European to enter Port Nicholson was Captain James Herd, who in 1826 brought the barque Rosanna into the harbour with a band of Scottish emigrants. These had been sent out by an organisation that was the forerunner of the New Zealand Association and the New Zealand Company of the thirties, a body of Englishmen who hoped by colonisation to relieve the existing depression. The party sampled various spots in New Zealand, but the project failed. Its most important result was the incidental describing and charting of Port Nicholson. Both Herd and Barnett, captain of the tendering cutter Lamb ton, made charts of the harbour, and in 1832

Herd published in the Nautical Almanac a description of it, which must have attracted the attention of the enthusiasts who, a few years later, made plans to colonise New Zealand. “ Here,” said Herd, “ all the navies of Europe might ride in perfect security.” This description contained what is believed to have been the first printed reference to Port Nicholson. Why “ Nicholson ?” Herd had been in these waters before, and it is

believed he got to know Captain John Nicholson, who did him a kindness. Nicholson, a Royal Navy Master (that is, sailing master) on half pay, visited New Zealand in the brig Haweis in 1820, and in 1821 w r as appointed Master-attendant and Harbour-master at Sydney, a position he held for twenty-one years. Nicholson was judge and treasurer of the first regatta held in

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Sydney, and was a Justice of the Peace. When he retired from his position as Harbour-master he was presented with a piece of plate by public subscription. He died in 1863. Evidently Nicholson was a man of character and standing. Barnett of the Lambton also knew Nicholson, for he publicly “ presented ” to him his chart of the harbour. There is some doubt, therefore, which of the two men is entitled to the honour of naming the harbour, but the presumption is in favour of Herd.*

Between 1826 and the coming of the Tory in 1839 only a few vessels seem to have visited Port Nicholson. Captain Kent did so at least once, and John Guard, the whaler from the Sounds, said he was there in 1834. The most important visitor was the brig Lord Rodney, for it was the Lord Rodney that the Ngati-Awa seized for their raid on the unfortunately peaceable Moriori of the Chathams. When the Lord Rodney arrived from Sydney Ngati-Awa were preparing for an exodus to the South Island, and it is a still more striking proof of the unrest that was so widespread among Maori tribes at this time that they had discussed seizing a ship and going as far as Samoa. However Ngati-Awa heard that the Chathams, peopled by an unwarlike folk, were an easy mark, so a number of them, mostly the NgatiMutunga branch under Pomare, decided to go there. The Lord Rodney, which had come in to trade, was compelled to carry a large party to the Chathams, and return for another. The warriors of the mainland made short work of the Morioris, aftd the ultimate result was the extinction of this people. The effect of this enterprise on the future of Port Nicholson was important, for the removal of so many Ngati-Awa made easier

• Information about Nicholson is to be found in Lindsay Buick’s Jubilee of the Port of Wellington and McNab’s Old Whaling Days and has been supplemented by material supplied by the Mitchell Library, Sydney.

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Wakefields task of buying land and settling his colonists.

Only a handful of white men seem to have known Port Nicholson in those years. David Scott from Sydney stated that he came to the harbour in 1831 to buy flax and lived in a hut on the Lambton Quay waterfront till 1834. George Young, a whaler, claimed to have lived on Thorndon flat in 1834 and 1835, and when the Tory arrived in 1839 a white man named Joe Robinson was living at the Hutt and had managed to build a small ship with a hand saw for a tool and nails made out of hoop-iron. Dicky Barrett, who piloted the Tory into port in 1839, had been there before. In that year, not long before Wakefield's arrival, two Wesleyan missionaries visited the harbour and were followed (after Wakefield had gone north) by the famous Anglican missionary Henry Williams and a young newly ordained recruit named Octavius Hadlield. Williams’s comment on the harbour is significant. “ Very different from what is represented on the map of Captain Cook,” he remarked, and the historian of Williams’s church commented that this showed how little had been known about this “ magnificent inlet.” Though Williams had been sixteen years in New Zealand and as a former naval officer must have been more interested than most men in such things, apparently he knew the coast only from Cook’s information. Herd’s and Barnett’s charts seem not to have been available to British seamen and explorers until after the settlement of Wellington. In 1837 the New Zealand Association in London represented Port Nicholson as trending to the eastward instead of the westward, and when Wakefield entered the harbour in the Tory he was agreeably surprised to find there was no bar.

Meanwhile European industry and civilisation had touched the lands of which Port Nicholson was to be the

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centre. Just as there were white inhabitants of Canterbury before the Pilgrims came in 1850, so there were Europeans living about Cook Strait (many more, indeed) before the Wellington pioneers arrived in 1839-40. “ The little gray company, before the pioneers,” they might be called, only they were distinctly vivid in their activities and dispositions. It was shore whaling that gave the impetus to this settlement. Whaling and sealing from ships—the sealing involving the establishment of shore parties—had made the first industrial contact with New Zealand. By about 1830 permanent shore whaling began, and settlements sprang up in quite a number of places in both islands. The whalers chased their quarry in open boats propelled by long oars, with a hand-harpooner in the bow and an oar-steersman in the stern. By the strength of their arm they towed the whale back to the station where it was reduced to oil and bone. It was a calling demanding the greatest physical endurance, skill, and courage. There was the race to the whale, often against competitors, the moment the look-out gave the alarm ; then the manoeuvring for position to make fast ; then the struggle, so fraught with danger, ending perhaps in a kill with lances ; and finally the long tow home, it might be ten or even twenty miles, with the heavy carcase. Such an occupation, the most strenuous and heartbreaking and perilous labour ever devised by man it has been called, followed in an un-governed country peopled by fierce savages who were liable at any moment to turn on the newcomers, naturally attracted many masterless men. Convicts and ex-convicts from Australia, deserters from ships, men fleeing from the law, adventurers of various types, joined these shore stations, round Cook Strait and elsewhere. The perilous life they led at sea ; their contact with the war-loving Maori whose cannibal feasts they sometimes witnessed ; com-

32

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[non

petition between rival ships and parties and nationalities ; and above all the absence of social restraint and legally constituted authority-all these tended to depress order and morality, and scathing comment on these communities was passed by European observers. Lieutenant Chetwode of H.M.S. Pelorus, who explored Pelorus Sound, and Bumby the missionary, found evil dominant in the Cook Strait settlements. “ They practise every species of iniquity without restraint and without concealment,” reported Bumby after his visit to Cloudy Bay.

It is not unreasonable to suspect missionary exaggeration in this. There was something to be said for these toilers of the sea, whose blood runs in our people to-day. Henry Williams, whose training made him more a man of the world than most of the missionaries, formed a higher opinion of them than his fellow missionary Bumby. Both Colonel Wakefield and his nephew Jerningham had a good word for the Maori women with whom the whalers lived. It was the custom to take a Maori wife, a relationship that at first was without benefit of clergy, and the state of this primitive society would probably have been worse without her. The Maori wife was proud of her position. She looked after her man, cooking his meals, mending his clothes, and keeping his hut tidy ; in short she gave him what at worst was the semblance of a home and at best was something quite comfortable. Every now and then there was a clash with the Maoris, but this did not happen so frequently as one might expect. The ties formed by so many Maori women with the Europeans was a protection. So was the strength and courage of the whalers. And Te Rauparaha himself was a friend of these adventurers. It pleased him to see trade expand ; it brought him goods of war and peace, and, like some other chiefs of that time, he was acquisitive for himself. “ The

Map of Port Nicholson.

Dominion Museum. From a painting by C . D. Barraud Te I*uni.

Mr. James Cavan. From a dratviny made at St. John's College, Tamaki, by John BambriJpe. Tc Rauparaha in 18/7.

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56

whalers and traders, who had the best opportunity of being intimately acquainted with him, and that too at a time when his power to injure was greatest, invariably spoke of him as ever having been the white man’s friend.” This testimony to Te Rauparaha is all the more impressive because it comes from a missionary, the Rev. Richard Taylor. Te Rauparaha even expressed a wish that a British settlement should be established in Cook Strait, and that missionaries should come there.

In the thirties there was much coming and going in Cook Strait. When John Guard set up his station at Te Awaiti, Tory Channel, in 1827, he had the greatest difficulty in hanging on, for the Maoris more than once burnt his buildings and his party ran short of food. Ultimately he moved to Cloudy Bay, or Port Underwood, where his family is to be found to-day. Te Awaiti is still a whaling station, but launches with the speed of destroyers now hunt the whales, and the harpooner poised in the bow has given place to the more accurate and deadlier gun. In a few years stations were firmly established at these two places, at Mana and Kapiti islands, and on the mainland at Porirua. Sydney and Hobart Town firms were behind some of these adventures, and there was general trading as well. The Maori sold pork, potatoes, flax and curios, including that most terrible of exports, dried tattooed human heads, and in exchange took guns and ammunition, tobacco, cloth, knives and rum. It is noteworthy that when Stewart sailed his bloodstained ship Elizabeth back to Sydney from Kapiti, he carried two European traders as passengers. It would be interesting to know what they and the captain talked about on the voyage ; we do know that apparently the passengers did not busy themselves in bringing Stewart to justice. Besides these shore stations, British, American and French whaling ships worked the coast in numbers. The French made history,

c

34

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1/544-J5

for trench interest in New Zealand was quickened, leading to the despatch of the colony to Akaroa, and this trench activity spurred Edward Gibbon Wakefield and his associates of the New Zealand Company to stronger and more persistent agitation and swifter action. There were American stations on the little islands off the south end of Kapiti, and as early as 1835 a newspaper in New Bedford announced that mails would be carried for the South Atlantic Ocean and New Zealand.” At one time as many as seventy or eighty whaleboats would put out together in Cloudy Bay to cut off whales. The best equipped and most efficient station seems to have been that on Evans Island east of Kapiti. There “ the discipline of a man-of-war pervaded the whole establishment. The crews were in rough uniform, boats’ gear and apparatus were kept spotlessly clean and carefully attended to, and when on shore separate accommodation was provided for the headsman and the boatsteerers and for the crew.”

There must have been a lot of individual daring in those days. It was a wild and stirring life, and if a man’s nerve and strong arm failed him there was not much for him to fall back upon. A trip across the Strait in an open boat was all in a day’s work. John Nicol, whaleman and trader, used to hoist his lugsail, put out his steering oar, and with his Maori wife for crew (perhaps she had an infant in arms), would run before a southerly wind from the Sounds to Kapiti or Waikanae. Nicol, who, tvith his wife, afterwards kept the accommodation house off the beach at Paekakariki, went trading to the Wanganui district by open boat and canoe in 1834. He took his life in his hands, and his long series of adventures there alone should be sufficient to dispel the idea that there is nothing in our early history comparable with the material in other lands that has fathered so many bovs’ books.*

* The story was told in the New Zealand Times, Feb. 18th and 24th. 1891.

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The early thirties saw the beginning of farming by Europeans. A man named Bell from Sydney settled on Mana—Te Rangihaeata’s island, as Kapiti was Te Rauparaha's—grazed sheep and cattle, and even grew a crop of tobacco. Te Rangihaeata used to help himself to Bell’s sheep. There were also cattle on Kapiti. In 1835 a shipment of wool was sent from Mana to Sydney, the first from the Wellington district, though not the first from New Zealand.* In 1834 it was noted for the benefit of passing ships that fresh beef and mutton could be obtained at Mana, which is a reminder that to the founders of Wellington one of the advantages of the Strait as a place for settlement was that it lay on the track of ships sailing across the southern Pacific. These expectations of trade, however, were not realised, for it became the practice of ships bound from Australia to the Horn or South American ports to go south or north of New Zealand, and a through ship in Cook Strait was a rarity.

The influence of the Church was creeping in. A Wesleyan missionary named White called at the Sounds on his way from Sydney in 1836, but the rest of the work was done by missionaries and mission-taught Maoris from north Auckland. Gradually the Church establishments in the North extended their influence and operations southward. By word of mouth bom tribe to tribe, by travelling converts, and by products of the printing press at Paihia, the Word was spread in advance of the missionaries themselves. The aged Marsden visited Cloudy Bay in 1837. The Rev. John Bumby and the Rev. John Hobbs, Wesleyans, brought christianised Maoris to Port Nicholson in 1839, shortly before Wakefield arrived, and for church purposes took an option over land at Te Aro, a transaction that was

* According to McNab’s Old Whaling Days, the first shipment of wool came from the Bay of Islands.

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ys}9

to cause trouble when the New Zealand Company bought all the land round the harbour. The first Christian services held at Port Nicholson were conducted during this visit, at Pipitea on June 7th and at Te Aro on June 9th. * The two missionaries went on to Cloudy Bay, where Bumby formed his low opinion of the shore whalers. Meanwhile the tidings of Christianity had reached Te Rauparaha’s tribes on the Manawatu coast; one of Henry Williams's Maori pupils from the Bay seems to have settled there some years before 1839. It was in response to a request for missionaries, made by Te Rauparaha’s son Tamihana and others, that Henry Williams came dorm from the Bay, accompanied by Octavius Hadfield, who was destined to be Bishop of Wellington and to live in New Zealand history for his saintly character and his understanding of men. The two missionaries went on from Port Nicholson to Cloudy Bay, Mana and Kapiti, and Hadfield, whose health was poor, was left at Otaki, to begin his long association with the Wellington province. What Bumby observed was significant. The whalers did not want missionaries, but the Maoris did. The Maoris were holding services twice on Sundays, scraps of printed Testament were cherished, and a young Maori was multiplying copies by hand. After the intertribal fight at Waikanae in October 1839, fought on the day the Tory arrived at Kapiti, the dead were not eaten, as had been the custom, but were buried with military honours. McNab considers the credit of introducing Christianity to Cook Strait is evenly divided between

Anglicans and Wesleyans. The work done by the Maori pupils of these churches should not be overlooked. We

* Strictly speaking the gathering on the 7th was a meeting, Jinn 9th is kept by the Wesleyan Church as the anniversary of the firs service.

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know the names of some of these humbfe forerunners, but there must have been others of whom no record remains.

“ Later men might be greater men ; but the first must ever remain the first,” writes the Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt of the founding of Christianity at Port Nicholson by these Wesleyan missionaries, European and Maori, and his words may be applied to the Anglicans as well. “ Their work operated powerfully to restrain rebellious feeling in the turbulent years of early colonisation, and to transform the remnants of the tribes amongst whom they laboured into a healthy element in national development. Their influence accelerated the impulse that promoted greater harmony between Maori and pakeha, and contributed to give helpful direction to the whole course of European life and colonisation.”

CHAPTER FOUR

DREAMS AND CONFLICTS

You and 1 have often agieed that many of the worst things that happen in the world arise rather from timiditv than from cither vice or error. —Edward Gibbon Wakefield to John Robert G odtew

We now have to go across the world to look at the forces whose resultants were the despatch of the ship Tory to prepare the way for the settlers of the New Zealand Land Company, and the commissioning of Captain Hobson to annex New Zealand with the con sent of the Maori and act as its first Governor. The springs of these forces lay deep in the social, economic and political life of England. It has first to be noted that though Cook had taken possession of New Zealand on behalf of George 111, the British Government in 1823 declared that New Zealand did not belong to Britain. In those days the official world was not in the least desirous of adding new colonial jewels to the Crown. Britain had lost the American colonies and the loss had depressed the whole meaning of the world colony. The idea of colonisation was in the doldrums, Australia was being used as a convict station ; Canada was in a ferment and had yet to receive her saving charter of self-government ; in South Africa Briton and Boer were beginning their long record of dislike and hostility. The old colonial policy had failed or was failing, and the new, which was to produce such aston-

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Dreams and Conflicts

ishing results in nation-building and Imperial senti ment, was yet to be born.

Ideas, however, were working in society. The humanitarian movement, the product partly of the French Revolution and the English evangelical revival, was making headway, and achieved a great victory in the emancipation of slaves. Radicalism in politics took strength from the terrible conditions of the poor after the Napoleonic wars and the stupid repression that was almost all authority could devise tor a social policy. There were men of insight and imagination who turned to colonisation as one remedy for the ills of society, and it was this motive that actuated Lord Durham (then John Lambton) and his associates in promoting the ill starred expedition to New Zealand in 1825-6. Very few, however, had thoughts that went beyond what could be described as “ the shovelling out of paupers,” though fortunately some of those few were men of high standing and official rank. What was needed was a man to bring together the new ideas of colonisation and fuse them by his own conceptions and the force of his genius into a policy that would appeal to Governments and people, and would work. Such a man appeared in the person of Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

It is necessary to say something about the irremovable blot on the private life of this man, the most original thinker and planner and the strongest driving force in the history of British colonisation, tor in its direct and indirect results this lapse closely touched our history. The Parnell divorce case recalled to John Motley the saying that private fault was public disaster. Wakefield’s fault was public loss of two kinds, definite and potential, but at the same time immeasurable public gain. Born in 1796, Wakefield eloped with and married when he was only 20 a girl of 16 who was an heiress and a ward in Chancery. It was a love match, and when his

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wife died four years later leaving him with two children, the shock was most severe. Six years later he plotted with his brother William, who was destined to be the leader of the Wellington colony, to marry by false pretences a girl of 16, an heiress, whom he had never seen. She was removed from school by a servant in the Wakefield family on a lie about her mother, and taken to Scotland on lies about her father. The pair went through a form of marriage at Gretna Green and travelled to France, where they were pursued by indignant relatives of the bride. Wakefield returned to England voluntarily to face a trial, and he and William were both sentenced to three years imprisonment. The marriage was annulled. The offence has been described as a mad freak. It was certainly mad. Wakefield’s motive, according to two biographers, the late Edward Garnett and Dr. A. J. Harrop, was less financial gain than ambition ; he wished to get into Parliament with the help of the girl’s wealthy and influential father. Surely this was the strangest preparation on record for a Parliamentary career. Did he think that because he had once carried off a girl against the law he could do so again ? The action was a cold calculated crime, redeemed only by the fact that Wakefield never tried to make the marriage more than nominal, and faced the consequences. It indicated a grave fundamental weakness in the character of both men. It ruined Edward’s prospects in English political and official life, and one might have confidently predicted that he would have no opportunities for public usefulness.

Yet all Wakefield’s career as a reformer in colonisation lay ahead. His imprisonment in Newgate changed the course of his life. Brought into contact with prisoners, he studied their character and the conditions that had sent them to prison. Many were about to be transported to Australia. This led Wakefield to reading and

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■ll

thinking about settlement in Australia and colonisation generally. The result was the publishing of a pamphlet called Sketch of a Proposal for Colonising Australia, and eleven letters in the Morning Chronicle of 1829, issued in book form the same year under the title of A Letter from Sydney, a work as important in the history of colonisation as the Origin of Species in the history of biology. It should be added that Wakefield was also moved by what he saw in Newgate, including the truly appalling treatment of criminals before execution, to write on the prevention and punishment of crime, and his powerful and searching treatment of the subject in The Punishment of Death in the Metropolis had farreaching results. The book, says one of his biographers, was “ destined to be chiefly responsible for several important changes—the reshaping of the criminal code of England, the inauguration of the present system of public prosecution, the abolition of the death penalty for all but the most serious offences, and the institution of a public agitation against the transportation of convicts overseas.”*

Drawing evidence from the British Empire and foreign countries, Wakefield attacked the system of colonising by making large grants of land without providing labour to work it. What was the use of giving a man thousands of acres if he was without workers for the axe and the plough ? Western Australia obligingly provided proof of the soundness of this argument. The Swan River Settlement, where one settler was given 250,000 acres, failed ; “ every man planted himself down in the midst of his vast acres, and practically starved.” Land, contended Wakefield, should be sold at a sufficient price. This must vary with circumstances, but the price should be substantial, and part of the money so

* Edward Gibbon Wakefield : The Man Himself, by Irma O’Con nor. page 53.

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obtained should be spent on organised emigration to provide the necessary labour. Wakefield’s ideas are not entirely original. There are generally forerunners of reform, fie owed something to a number of men, including Robert Gourlay, who had proposed similar methods for colonial settlement. Wakefield gathered, however, all such ideas together, added something of his own, and gave the whole conception a power and force it had never had before. He was accused of trying to reproduce oversea the social and economic conditions of the Mother Country ; the labourer, sent abroad to work for the capitalist, was to remain a labourer, ft is interesting to quote the comment on this of so Radical a colonial statesman as William Pember Reeves—

“ sheer nonsense.” Wakefield’s ideas had defects, but that his theories did not meet with the success in practice that he hoped for, may be ascribed mainly to the human factor, and the impossibility of making any theory work perfectly in the varying and largely unforseeable conditions of colonial life. Where these conditions, natural and human, were most favourable, in the Canterbury settlement, success was greatest. But Wakefield’s work for colonisation was infinitely wider than the points of his land policy. He blew a fresh breath of life into the whole business. He fought the convict system, opposed the land-shark and monopolist, and visualised colonisation, not as a more or less casual method of getting rid of criminals, paupers and misfits, or a means of enriching investors by cheap labour, but as the erection of a complete social and economic organisation operated by free and proud men. His theories were first put to the test in South Australia. In our own country his influence was directly exerted on settlement from Taranaki to Otago, but his wider field was the whole British Commonwealth. He made people feel that the planting of colonies was a task

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worthy of a great nation. He “ found colonisation a by word and left it a branch of statesmanship.”*

It was said just now that Wakefield’s fault was public loss. The official life of Britain was denied the services of a remarkably able man, and whatever cause Wakefield put his hand to ran the risk of his scandal being used against it. The movement for the colonisation of New Zealand suffered by the fact that Wakefield was one of its leaders.** It is not unreasonable to suppose that the same factor affected the attitude of the Northern missionaries and the Government at Auckland towards the infant settlement at Wellington. Not only had this settlement been conceived in a spirit of rebellion, and assumed authority illegally, but its lead ing spirit in England had been imprisoned for a serious crime, one that touched the sacred institution of marriage, and the director of operations on the spot was his brother and had been his accomplice. These counter currents, however, amounted to little compared with Wakefield's ability to advance along the road of colonisation reform. Released from prison in 1830, he at once busied himself with this subject, and found helpers in a number of men of standing and promise. The Colonisation Society did not last long, perishing from dissensions among its members, but the names of John Stuart Mill ; Charles Buller, who, like Wakefield, was to go with Durham to Canada on his historic mission : and J. C. Hobhouse, friend of Byron, and in the forties a member of the British Cabinet, indicate the quality that was attracted by the new crusade. The reformers won their first point when, in 1831-32, free grants of land were abolished in New South Wales, and sale by auction at a minimum price was substituted, the pro-

• Reeves, Slate Experiments in Australia and New Zealand.

••Sec Dr. A. J. Harrop’s reference to opposition by The Times in England and New Zealand, page SS.

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[1834-3 7

< ceds to be devoted to the transport of emigrants to tht colony.

From then on for many years Wakefield threw him self into the cause of colonisation with all his strength. He was not an easy man to work with. Absolutely convinced he was right, he hated compromise, and quarrelled with men rather readily. Nor was he always fastidious in the means he employed to push his beloved cause. But as a crusader, or, as we might say to-day, a propagandist, he was unequalled. He believed passionately in his ideal ; he worked tirelessly ; his grasp of facts was firm ; his gift of expression was exceptional ; and he had to a very remarkable degree the capacity to persuade men. His was to be the main driving force in the new movement. He wrote, gave evidence before committees, made ammunition for other men to fire and plans for other men to operate, argued and pulled strings behind the scenes. Without occupying any official position, he provided most of the brains and energy that went to the establishment in 1834, under Act of Parliament, of the colony of South Australia, and the foundation embodies his own leading principles. This was a great event in the history of British and indeed world colonisation, and New Zealand was soon to provide another. In 1836 Wakefield told a committee of the House of Commons set up to enquire into the disposal of land in Australia and elsewhere, that very near to Australia “ there is a country which all testimony concurs in describing as the fittest country in the world for colonisation, as the most beautiful country with the finest climate and the most productive soil ; I mean New Zealand.” In 1837 there was formed in London the New Zealand Association. After some exploration of the Government’s attitude, the Association announced its plans to the public in a manifesto on October 20th, and this date may be considered the official

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birthday of the movement to colonise this country on the new model. The manifesto set out information about New Zealand, and explained that the colonisation would proceed along Wakefield’s lines and wotdd be directed by a corporation called “ Founders of Settlements in New Zealand,” who would be authorised to make treaties with the native tribes for cession of territory and all other purposes. The New Zealand Association consisted of two classes of members, those who had determined to settle in the proposed colony, and “ public men, who, for the sake of public objects alone,” were willing to “ undertake the responsible and not very easy task of carrying the measure into execution.” The committee of the Association, so the management went on to say, consisted entirely of this second class. The roll of the committee reads like a list of Wellington place names. The chairman was the Hon. F. Baring M.P. and among his colleagues were John Lambton, Earl of Durham, a Radical who was to give his name to the epoch-making report recommending self-govern-ment for Canada ; Sir William Molesworth, who was prominent in the agitation that put an end to transportation of convicts to Australia ; Lord Petre, a Roman Catholic peer; and Sir George Sinclair M.P. Of the seventeen members of the committee eleven were members of the House of Commons, and one might think the high standing of its personnel would have protected the Association to some extent from charges of being actuated by motives of self-interest. Writing years afterwards, Bishop William Williams of Waiapu said of the New Zealand Company, which was shortly to succeed the Association, that “ the first and only object aimed at was the interest of those who took up this matter as a speculation.” This was as absurd as it was unjust. Of the movement in its earlier stages, The Times, in the franker style characteristic of journalism then, remarked

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that in some illiberal minds we can conceive that such an association may be identified with no other ideas than those of fortune-hunting and a fraudulent circumvention of savage chiefs ; but in the gorgeous fancy of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield and the minor magicians by whose wand it has sprung into existence, it doubtless conjures up a state of things, resembling as near as maybe a moral and political paradise.” Later The I imes pitied the Maoris as being “ a prey to all sorts of vultures, unprincipled Jews, French usurpers, fugitive convicts, licentious crews, fraudulent bargainers, peddling grog-sellers, Durham land-companies, and what not.” This was the sort of hard hitting that the founders of systematic colonisation in New Zealand had to stand up to.

There were several reasons for this strong and sometimes bitter opposition. To begin with the connection of Durham and other members of the Association with the venture of 1825-26 was unfortunate, because the Association was to take over its interests, and The Times said bluntly that Wakefield had pushed “ this New Zealand job " to serve Durham, who had taken Wakefield with him to Canada “ as a temporary solatium for the non-realisation of their Polynesian hopes.” Wakefield went to Canada to join Durham in 1838 and returned at the end of the year. He and Charles Buller helped Durham to write his report.* The New Zealand Constitution, says Dr. A. J. Harrop, was the offspring of that report. It was still more unfortunate that subsequently the New Zealand Company put down in its balance sheet a ridiculously extravagant sum

* There is difference of opinion about the share of Durham’s staff in the final form of the report. The question is discussed in the biography of Durham by Professor Chester New, of Toronto. His conclusion about Wakefield is that he provided only the economic theory in the report, and he considers that the document is sub stantiallv Durham’s own work.

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for the purchase of these earlier interests.* Other factors were party feeling, for the Association was largely a Radical venture, and remembrance of Wakefield’s lapse. But the most potent factor of all was concern for the Maori, and to understand this one must glance at the state of New Zealand in the thirties and its reaction upon English opinion.

It was certainly time someone stepped in and asserted authority in New Zealand. There was “no shadow of government,” said Henry Williams, the strongest and ablest of the resident missionaries, and this was true enough. There were about two thousand whites in New Zealand and many of them came from the off-scourings of humanity. Traders, whalers and adventurers were free from restraint in a community of warring tribes whose moral and social code was understood by few, and whose chief desire in trade was guns and powder. Maori custom came into conflict with European ignorance and greed, and there was no arbitrator with power to impose law. Europeans kidnapped Maoris and Maoris retaliated, so that the peaceable and respectable Maori and European alike stood in fear of their lives. The infamy of Stewart of the Elizabeth was not much less shocking than the breakdown of the legal proceedings against him in Sydney. When the Governor of New South Wales reported this affair to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and referred to the traffic in human heads, Lord Goderich replied that it was “ impossible to read without shame and indignation the details which these documents disclose.” Another complication was the land-shark. The possibility of organised colonisation gave an impetus to the sale of land. Huge tracts roughly defined—in some cases the boundaries were put in after signature—were bought by speculators. The same piece of land might

• Harrop. England and New Zealand, pages 188-189.

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[18)1-38

he sold to several parties in succession. Maoris sold land who had no right to sell. Millions of acres were involved in this irregular traffic, conducted often with lack of scruple on both sides. Half a dozen Maoris in Sydney professed to sell the whole of the South Island. It was obvious that there would be serious trouble if buyers sought to take possession in such a disturbed community, where there was no authority to settle disputes and give titles.

In 1831 thirteen Maori chiefs petitioned William the Fourth for British protection, and in 1833 James Busby came to the Bay of Islands as British Resident. Busby was less of the comic failure than is the picture generally painted of him ; since he had no real authority and no force at his back, his position was impossible. As the end of the decade approached it became clearer that something more must be done. Trade interests were becoming important, and despite the devoted work of the missionaries, the state of the country was a scandal to the world. If Britain did not step in, some other country would, and the most obvious rival was France. French explorers had contributed to knowledge of New Zealand, French whalers were active in New Zealand waters, and the French people were showing an increasing interest in those parts. Then there was Baron de Thierry’s attempt to establish a kingdom in New Zealand. It is true he was a British subject, but he was French by name and parentage, and having been informed that New Zealand was not a British possession, he approached the French Government for help. The arrival in 1838 of Bishop Pompallier, a Frenchman, to establish a Roman Catholic mission, was taken as another danger signal. The Protestant missionaries, who had a strong anti-Catholic bias, were not kindly disposed towards him, and he was believed to be an agent of the French Government. There is no evidence of

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such a connection. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that Bishop Pompallier’s sole concern was his religion, and it may be added that in 1851 he became a naturalised British subject. However, his presence helped to turn Protestant missionary opinion towards acceptance of British colonisation and annexation. Throughout the decade there was apprehension about French plans, and towards the end the French themselves began to discuss the colonising of New' Zealand. From these discussions there emerged in 1838 the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, which took over the rights of Captain Jean Langlois to a large block of land on Banks Peninsula which he claimed to have bought. Wakefield skilfully used this French interest to support his case for colonisation, and his activities became an argument in Paris for greater energy in the protection of French interests.* It is amusing to note that English opponents of Wakefield's scheme joined him in wishing to keep the French out. They had no desire to see the French flag floating over New Zealand. When the French moved to found the Akaroa settlement it was too late.

Such in outline w’as the position when the New Zealand Association asked for a charter. The strongest opposition came from the missionaries. The Church Missionary Society was a powerful body. It had friends at court, and was backed by much outside opinion, which, encouraged by the abolition of slavery, w'as suspicious of any scheme that threatened to interfere with the rights of aborigines in any country to their land. Lord Glenelg, and the permanent head of the Department, James Stephen, were officials of the society, and

• Dr. Harrop. after a study of French evidence, says it is arguable that but for the New Zealand Association and the New Zealand Company, there would never have been a French expedition to colonise New Zealand— England and New Zealand, page 257.

n

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»()

[JB39

Stephen had not only worked hard for slave emancipation, but had himself drawn up the necessary legislation. Stephen has attracted more attention than any permanent official in the history of the Colonial Office. An able man of great industry and high principle strongly held, he was regarded by colonial reformers of that day as their arch enemy, and he came to be identified with a policy of bureaucratic obstruction. In reality he had liberal ideas about colonisation; before the British Government decided to annex New Zealand Stephen laid down that two cardinal points should be kept in view in establishing “ a regular colony ” there —first the protection of the aborigines, and second, “ the introduction among the colonists of the principle of self-government to the utmost extent in which that principle can be reconciled with allegiance to the Crown, and with the colony moving in the same political orbit with the parent State. Any restrictions which aim at more than this, at -the Antipodes, will, in my judgment, be utterly futile.” This reads much more like 1939 than 1839. Stephen was deeply humanitarian and religious, and all through the negotiations with the w T ould-be colonisers of New Zealand he was distrustful of Wakefield and his associates, and leaned towards the missionary side.

The missionaries had every right to be heard. Those on the spot were the only organised representatives of European stability and civilisation in a country where conditions were becoming chaotic, and in the face of hardship and at the risk of their lives they had laboured in the field for twenty-five years. In London Dandeson Coates and representatives of two other missionary societies agreed that “ the effect of European intercourse has been, upon the whole, a calamity to heathen and savage nations." James Stephen said the Association’s proposals would “ infallibly issue in the

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conquest and extermination of the present inhabitants.” Here in brief, supported by missionary opinion in New Zealand, was the objection in principle to the colonising scheme of the New Zealand Association. Nothing is so noteworthy in the controversy that led up to the colonisation and annexation of New Zealand, as the importance attached to the welfare of the Maori. When an answer is needed to the contention that Imperialism is a grasping thing without soul, one cannot do better than turn to this story. It was against its will that the British Government annexed New Zealand. All three parties in the battle, the Government, the Missionaries, and the New Zealand-Association-Company, professed, though for reasons and in terms not identical, solicitude for the original New Zealander, and there is no reason to doubt that, on the whole, this altitude was perfectly sincere. The Company, it is true, did not view the welfare of the Maori from the same angle as the missionaries, and after it established itself in New Zealand it showed a very definite bias in favour of its own interests. It opposed the Treaty of Waitangi, and the comment of one of its representatives that the Company doubted whether the Treaty was legally anything more than “ a praiseworthy device for amusing and pacifying savages for the moment,” cannot be forgotten. With the missionaries the Maori’s interests came first ; with the Company they came second. Nevertheless the Company proposed to civilise the Maori ; its land settlement plans included reserves for his benefit; and among Colonel Wakefield’s instructions was a most specific injunction to punish severely “ any act of aggression or affront from any of the Company’s servants towards any native of New Zealand.”

The Government’s attitude, which greatly weakens the traditional case against the Colonial Office as an unimaginative, obstinate, and stupid department, was

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best defined in the words of the Secretary of State, L.ord Glenelg, at the end of 1837. “ Great Britain has no legal or moral right to establish a colony in New Zealand without the free consent of the natives, deliberately given, without compulsion, and without fraud. To impart to any individuals an authority to establish such a colony without first ascertaining the consent of the New Zealanders, or without taking the most effective security that the contract which is to be made with them shall be fairly and freely made, would, as it would seem, be to make unrighteous use of our superior power." It may be asked how much there would be of the British Empire today if this principle had strictly ruled the advance of the flag, but at any rate this was the policy that led to the Treaty of Waitangi. The motives of the British Government in annexing New Zealand were as pure as anything of the kind in history.

The Church Missionary Society in London, after considering the proposals of the Association, resolved against the acquisition of sovereignty in New Zealand, on the ground that New Zealand was independent and its independence had been recognised. The missionaries in New Zealand were equally opposed to the Association’s scheme, but there was an important difference. Dandeson Coates did not realise as well as the men on the spot how grave was the condition of the country. He had in mind rule by the missionaries, a sort of theocratic State, under British protection. The actual labourers in the field, however, were coming to see that annexation was inevitable. Henry Williams’s comment on the Association’s proposals was that unless some protection was given by the British Government, the country would be bought up “ and the people pass into a kind of slavery, or be utterly extirpated.” His colleagues thought the plan “ must terminate in the total ruin of the people,” and one of them said that if

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New Zealand was going to be colonised, let it be done by the British Government. It was to Henry Williams at the Bay of Islands, as well as to James Busby, the official British representative, that Hobson naturally turned for help when he came to annex the country, and Williams did all in his power to bring about the new order.

About eighteen months passed between the issue of the Association’s manifesto and the despatch of the Tory from England, a short period in the history of British colonisation, but a long one to impatient men. The Association persistently pushed its case, and its opponents defended vigorously. When the House of Commons threw out a Bill embodying the Association’s proposals, The Times congratulated members on defeating an attempt to establish a monopoly “ conceived in the most sordid spirit, and only maintainable by the most peremptory despotism,” while the Spectator, whose powerful support Wakefield had enlisted, spoke, with equal pleasantness, of the majority in the voting as “ a combination of Ministerialists, Tories, Saints, and Blockheads of all parties.” The Association, however, had many friends, and Wakefield, besides being a born persuader and manipulator, had plenty of courage and determination. Pressed by the agitation and influenced by continual reports about the lawless state of New Zealand, Glenelg had told the Association at the end of 1837 that he recognised the need for some form of settled government, and the Government woidd con sent to the incorporation by Royal Charter of a jointstock company to colonise New Zealand. The Association’s reply was that it had been formed by men who expressly stipulated that they would neither run any financial risk nor reap any financial advantage from the undertaking, and in a joint stock company it would be difficult to prevent a clash between the private in-

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terest of shareholders and their public duty as the Government of the colony; shareholders would be exposed to accusations of having obtained privileges. The Association was forced to dissolve, but there were ardent spirits who would not give up hope; besides, prospective emigrants had already been attracted, and some had even made preparations to leave England. The next step was the formation in August, 1838, of a private co-partnership under the name of the New Zealand Colonisation Company. It was this body that decided to send an expedition forthwith to New Zealand, and for this purpose bought the barque Tory from Joseph Somes. Later it bought the interests of Lieutenant McDonnell in land he claimed in New Zealand, including a frontage of three miles on the Hokianga River. This claim was the sole asset in the way of land for settlement that the promoters possessed when they despatched the Tory a few months later, and allowed the first emigrants to follow 7 her. From this organisation there emerged in the spring of 1839 the New Zealand Land Company, afterwards known as the New Zealand Company, the body that was to colonise Wellington, Taranaki and Nelson, and influence the settlement of Otago and Canterbury. It was to live through nearly twenty stormy years, during which it was continuously disputing with the British Govern ment or the New Zealand Government or both.* The change may have been inevitable, but it was also inevitable that a foundation in which a profit and loss account was a necessity and dividends a possibility, would leave the promoters more open to suspicion. The Company, says one historian, was forced “ to inscribe gain on its banner, instead of public service.’ **

* The Company surrendered its charter in 1850 hut several years were occupied in winding up its affairs.

*• J. S. Marais: The Colonisation of Neu 1 Zealand , page 40.

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This joint stock concern had a capital of £lOO,OOO in 4,000 shares of £25 each. Lord Durham was the first Governor, and Joseph Somes Deputy Governor. When one looks at Somes Island, so picturesque and though so near so inaccessible to the public, it is worth remembering that the man whose name it bears rose from a lighterman’s apprentice, to be “ the greatest shipowner in the world.”* When Durham died Somes succeeded him. The directorate differed considerably from the committee of the Association ; here is the list : Lord Petre, J. W. Buckle, Russell Ellice, R. Fenwick, J. B. Gordon. W. Hull. M.P., G. Lyall, S. Majoribanks, G. Palmer, M.P., J. Pirie, Sir J. Sinclair, M.P., Abel Smith, M.P., W. Thompson, M.P., Colonel Torrens, Sir H. Webb, Arthur Willis, and G. F. Young. Later in the year the Hon. Francis Baring and Sir William Molesworth joined the Board, and Wakefield became a member in 1840. Wakefield, however, was always the chief supplier of ideas and energy, ft was he who in the time to which we are now coming, urged the immediate despatch of the Tory. He had a seat on all important committees, and, says Mr. Marais, “ the most pregnant suggestions and the most far-reaching proposals originated in his mind.”

Meanwhile Lord Glenelg retired from the Ministry, leaving behind him a reiteration of his opinion that some action by the British Government in New Zealand was necessary. The promoters had high hopes of Lord Normanby, whom they were able to inform that they had fulfilled the condition of his predecessor. They were told, however, that the Government was not bound by an offer that had been rejected, and that the personnel of the new body was different from that of

* New Zealand Journal. July sth, 1845. Somes was at least the largest owner, or one of the largest, in Britain. The island was named hy the crew of the Tory, who had the firm in mind and not Joseph Somes onlv.

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the .Association. Stephen disliked the composition of the committee of the Colonisation Company ; leading members, he said, were Catholics, and if the Company were given a charter New Zealand would “ infallibly become a Roman Catholic country.” Wakefield and his friends decided to push on the despatch of the Tory, which had been refitting. On the eve of her sailing an appeal was made to the Colonial Office for letters of introduction to be carried by the leader of the expedition, Colonel William Wakefield, to the Governors of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. Lord Normanby’s reply was that it was impossible that he should do anything which could be construed into direct or indirect sanction of such an irregular proceeding. The promoters were undeterred, and Wakefield saw reason to speed the Tory on her way. The ship left London on May sth for Plymouth, and Wakefield, fearing that the Government might stop her, travelled to Plymouth as fast as he could by post-chaise to hasten the ship’s departure.* The Tory left Plymouth on May 12th, 1839, and the great adventure began. Such are the bare outlines of the story. In the next chapter we shall follow the Tory and the fortunes of her adventurers, but the tale should be rounded off here with a brief reference to certain events. In July of that

* The story of Wakefield’s drive to Plymouth is told by his biographers. Irma O’Connor, Wakefields great-grand-daughter, says she had it from Albert Allom, a younger brother of Wakefield's secretary, “ and himself an excited witness of this dramatic episode in his boyhood.” Miss O’Connor informs the author that the story has been a commonplace in her own family for as long as she can remember, and also in the family of Miss Frances Torlesse. daughter of Wakefield’s sister. The story has been challenged on the ground that Colonel Wakefield did not mention the arrival of his brother at Plymouth, and that the distance is against it. It is suggested that the journey was to Gravesend. See correspondence in the Wellington Dominion , Scptcmber-October 1939. Anthony Trollope mentions the story in his Australia and New Zealand, but gives Heal as the deslina tion.

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year Normanby recommended the appointment of Captain William Hobson R.N. as British Consul for New Zealand, and in the instructions he sent Hobson later, empowering him to treat for British sovereignty, he repeated the Government’s objections to intervention : “ We retain those opinions in unimpaired force, and though circumstances entirely beyond our control have at length compelled us to alter our course, I do not scruple to avow that we depart from it with extreme reluctance.” The circumstances that pressed most strongly at the moment were the New Zealand Company, and especially Edward Gibbon Wakefield. It is often said the Company compelled the British Government to annex New Zealand. It is plain, however, that if the field had remained clear, annexation would have come without the Company’s efforts; the state of New Zealand would have forced it. But the “ if ” is vital. France was moving, and the expedition to Akaroa arrived only a few months after Hobson’s ceremonies at the Bay of Islands. It may be that enterprise was suggested or quickened by the Company’s activities: these are the main facts. What would have happened had the French emigrants not found on their arrival that British sovereignty had been proclaimed in both the North Island and the South Island? New Zealand might have become a French colony, or, as was suggested in France, it might have been divided between the two nations. It was a close thing; for England the little more that was so much, for France the little less and what worlds away.

CHAPTER FIVF

ADVANCE GUARD AND MAIN BODY

You leave your fatherland, it is true, my British, Scotch and Irish friends ; but you leave it for your own good. You go to colonise a fine and beautiful country, where wages are high, where bread is cheap, and where employment is uninterrupted and regular. . . . Neither the one nor the others are the labourer’s lot here ; his remuneration is not high, his bread is not cheap, his employment is not regular and constant, his prospects are full of gloom and apprehension.

-Rev. Dr. Rudge on the sailing of the “ Lady NugentlS.

As the Tory headed south in those summer days of 1839, she had in front of her almost complete uncertainty, and behind, responsibility for numbers of emigrants already preparing to leave. If one parent of the Wellington settlement was idealism, the other was rashness. The New Zealand Company was about to plant a colony at the other side of the world, in a country where there was no British sovereignty or government of any kind, and where, save for the shadows it had bought from the company of 1825 and McDonnell’s estate, it had no claims to land. It based its hopes of success on its ability to buy land from a savage tribal people, whose system of tenure was at best very complicated, and notv was being confused by the operations of speculators and adventurers and the genera] impact of European civilisation. Of the complexity of this problem the Company was blissfully unaware, but such ignorance of the law was to be of

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no more avail than it is to the citizen who pleads it in court. In the circumstances it is not surprising that the company would not wait until the party in the Tory sent reports home ; the adventure had to be undertaken with a rush. Nevertheless it was incurring a great risk to do what the Company did, to order emigrantcarrying ships to follow the Tory into the blue. The Cuba, a ship of 273 tons, bearing a surveying staff, was dispatched on August Ist, and the first settlers sailed in September, with orders to meet at Port Hardy, D’Urville Island, in Cook Strait. The instruction was significant ; the Company did not know where the settlements were to be. The Tory sailed in May 1839. It was March 1840 before the first word of her arrival reached England. Three months before that date the Company had sent out eight vessels carrying over a thousand settlers. What would have happened if the Tory had been lost on the w'ay and the emigrants had arrived to find that no arrangements had been made for their settling?*

However, great enterprises are not undertaken without risk, and this particular risk lay all the more lightly on the shoulders of the leader of the advance party because he was a soldier and had seen service. Let us take a look at the Tory and her complement. After Tasman's Heemskerck and Zeehaen and Cook’s Endeavour, the Tory is the most historic ship in our annals. The Company chose its ships well ; Joseph Somes may have found that the New Zealand enterprise served his pocket as well as his ideals, but he knew a good ship when he saw one. The Tory was a sound wooden ship of 381 tons, five years old, and for those pre-clipper days she had a good turn of speed. Only 111 feet long and 27 feet in beam, she looks a tiny ship to our eyes, but such a size was not considered small for long voyages. The

• The Tory was lost in Eastern seas in 1841

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Tory s captain, who was new to her, was well satisfied with her sailing. She passed everything going the same way, so he reported, could make up to eleven knots, and averaged eight on the wind with a good breeze. The Tory was run on man-of-war lines. There were eight guns, six twelve-pounders and two nine-pounders. Incidentally there can be no more striking proof of the enormous increase in the cost of armaments in the last century than the fact that these eight guns cost the Company only £l9 9s. Od. Below were muskets and cutlasses. Not only was there danger to be feared in New Zealand, but an entry in Colonel Wakefield's shipboard diary suggests that there may have been a faint apprehension about pirates. By a strange coincidence the Tory’s figurehead was a representation of the Duke of Wellington, and before his name was bestowed on the Port Nicholson settlement members of the crew got into the way of referring to the place as “ Wellington’s harbour.”*

Colonel Wakefield was a younger brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and when the Tory sailed he was in his thirty-seventh year. He had worked with his brother at the British Legation in Turin and shared his brother’s disgrace. Alter his term of imprisonment he took service in the Lancers of the British AuxiliaryForce in Spain and Portugal. This intervention was undertaken ostensibly in the interests of dynastic right and constitutional government, but really it was an assertion of English rights against French. Since he was a colonel at thirty-five and a knight of Spanish and Portuguese Orders, it is reasonable to suppose that his career there was distinguished. William had nothing of his brother’s genius, but he was a capable man of action.

* For the history of the Tory sec articles in Evening Post by H. E. M, Fildes, August 15 and 16, 1929. The statement about the figurehead seems to rest only on the authority of the son of the Tory s boatswain.

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cool, level-headed, dignified and courageous. Though he seems to have been over-reserved in demeanour, he had that bearing of the gentleman and the leader that was calculated to impress the Maori, and it is significant that although the Maori made trouble over Wakefield’s land transactions, he liked and respected him. Wakefield’s mistakes were less his own than the product of his instructions and the circumstances in whiclr he had to plant the colony.

Wakefield’s principal companions in the Tory were men of mark. The choice of Captain Edward Main Chaffers to command the Tory was a good one.* As Master of H.M.S. Beagle, which carried Darwin round the world, he had visited New Zealand in 1835. He recharted Wellington Harbour and was appointed harbourmaster by the Company. His name is given to the inside passage, formerly taken by small ships, leading out of Port Nicholson. The mate of the Tory was Richard Lowry, after whom Lowry Bay was named. Charles Heaphy, who sailed as draughtsman and artist, made his name in peace and war. He left us some of the best descriptions of early Wellington. He explored in both islands, and especially the West Coast of the South Island, where his name has been given to a remote and turbulent river, and in the Waikato he won the only Victoria Cross awarded to an officer of the New Zealand volunteers in the Maori wars. Dr. Ernst Dieffenbach, a German naturalist and doctor, and an exile for political reasons, was one of several foreign men of science who unveiled and explained New Zealand’s phenomena. Dr. John Dorset, a passenger, like some other prominent men in early Wellington, had been a fellow campaigner of Wakefield’s in Spain. He served as the Company’s surgeon in Wellington, and was a leading figure in the

• Chaffers signed himself “ Edward Main.” hut has been commonly referred to as “ Edmund Mein.”

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early days ol the settlement. Then there was Edward Jerningham Wakefield, the nineteen-year old son of Edward Gibbon, a young man old for his years but filled with a boyish love of adventure. Fortune had endowed Jemingham with many gifts, including courage and high spirits, but it denied him that sense of direction and balance without which shining qualities are apt to come to grief. He did not fulfil the promise of his youth, but he left New Zealand the raciest and most readable of its volumes of pioneering reminiscences, f here was also a Maori named Nayti, who had come from Cook Strait to Europe in a French whaling ship and had stayed for two years with the Edward Wakefields in Chelsea. Nayti adapted himself readily to European life, and though his rank was really quite humble, he was lionised as a prince. He was to act as interpreter when the party reached New Zealand, but Wakefield found him unsatisfactory and most of this work was done by Richard Barrett, who was not well qualified for it. Richard Doddrey sailed as storekeeper and additional interpreter, and Wakefield brought a servant. Dr. George F. Robinson was ship’s surgeon. Officers and crew made up the ship’s company to thirtyfive.

Wakefield had much to think about in those months of landless voyaging. He had with him books about New Zealand, and he and his companions formed a debating society.* His instructions from the Company were long and detailed and set forth with admirable clarity. He was to buy lands and prepare the way for settlements, and in doing so at such a distance from his employers he was to be prepared to take responsibility. It was to be his special endeavour to buy land extensively on the shores of that harbour which appeared to be most suitable as a centre of trade. His attention was

* Wakefield’s diary and Tory papers

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particularly directed to Cook Strait. Of the harbours there Port Nicholson appeared to the directors to be the best, but the Company was anxious that he should obtain land round at least one good harbour on each side of the Strait. The natives must be treated with the utmost frankness. They must be made to understand that the land they were selling was for settlement, and all the owners must approve of the purchase and receive their due share of the money. Boundaries should be set forth most clearly, by plan as well as by words.

The references to “ wilderness land ” contained the core of the Company’s idea about native ownership and welfare. “ Wilderness land,” said the instructions, was worth nothing to its owners, or nothing more than the trifles they could obtain for it, so the Company was not to take much account “ of the utter inadequacy of the purchase money according to English notions of the value of land.” This Maori land could become valuable only through a great outlay of capital on emigration and settlement. The directors doubted whether the native owners had ever been entirely aware of the consequences resulting from cession of the whole of tribal lands, and justice demanded that these should be explained, “ and they should be protected against evils they are not capable of anticipating ’’—the danger of finding themselves landless in a society where land had become valuable. This was candid enough, but something more remarkable still was to follow. The directors thought that “ if the advantage of the natives alone were consulted, it would be better perhaps that they should remain for ever the savages that they are.” One tenth of all land ceded by the Maoris was to be held in trust for them, and after development of the general estate this one tenth would be far more valuable than the whole had been before. The Company did not intend to reserve large blocks, as had been done in North

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America, by which the natives were encouraged to con tinue as savages living apart from the civilised community, but reserves were to be set aside just as if they had been bought from the Company on the Maori’s behalf. One tenth of the sections to be drawn by lot, in accordance with the Company’s plan of settlement, were to be reserved for the families of the selling tribes, so that wherever a settlement was formed this native property would be intermixed with that of the settlers, and the chief families of the tribe would have every motive for embracing a civilised way of life. The directors had used the word “ trifles ” in connection with the value of “ wilderness land,” but they used it again in a warning to their Chief Agent. Colonel Wakefield was not to accept land for “ mere trifles he was to add “ to the goods required such a quantity as may be of real service to all the owners of the land.” The instructions mentioned “ purchase money,” but it was goods that was meant. Under the Chief Agent’s feet as he walked the deck there were piles of “ trifles.” The Tory carried goods for barter to the value of just under £5,000, from gunpowder and tobacco, axes and spades, to mirrors, umbrellas, and Jews’ harps.

If, however, one were asked to choose one document that would serve best as a defence of the New Zealand Company, one might choose this. The weakness of the Company’s was, first, that it did not know exactly where it was going, or indeed if it could go anywhere, and, second, that its attitude towards purchase of land was based on only partial knowledge of conditions. The reserves to be made for the Maori, so Wakefield was instructed, were far more important than the considerations to be given for the land. The position of the Maori was to be vastly improved by the civilisation that the Company was to introduce. The Company was to take nine-tenths of the Maori’s land and pay him

General Assembly Library. Coat of Arms of the New Zealand Company,

Dominion Museum. Seal of the Wellington Provincial Council

Mf. James Cowan. Drawing by W. Swainson, F.R.S. Fort Richmond, Lower Hint, 1847.

Mr. Herbert Baillie. Painting by Sir Francis Bell, Snr. The Hutt Valley Road near Taita in 1847.

Drawing by S. C. Drees. Barrett’s Hotel, Lambton Quay, in the early forties.

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handsomely through the enhanced value of the reserved tenth. “ The intention,” says Mr. Marais, “ was to create a Maori aristocracy which would be able to represent and defend their weaker brethren. These weaker tribesmen were to have no lands, but were to work as

labourers on the estates of European or Maori employers. This, of course, involved the break-up of the tribal system, and the conversion of the Maori chief into an English country gentleman, a process that sounded easier in England than it proved to be in New Zealand.” * The Company did not realise that, as has been pointed out in an earlier chapter, the Maori had no conception of “ wilderness land.” All land was owned by some tribe or other, and if it was not more or less useful to him, it had a value of association. Further, while the Company had been at pains to study the substantial literature about New Zealand, as the secretary’s pamphlet about colonisation showed, it seems to have been very ignorant of the nature of Maori land tenure, with all its complexities of chieftain authority, tribal rights, individual rights, claims through conquest and claims by the conquered through maintenance of home fires—complexities which have kept Native Land Courts busy for some eighty years.

The Tory made Cook Strait on August 16th, 1839, and anchored at Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, the following day. Ninety-six days was a quick passage for those times ; the early emigrant ships were to take a good deal longer. Wakefield spent some time in the Sounds. He visited Te Awaiti, and met there the rotund and merry Dicky Barrett. It is not surprising that after the long voyage in cramped quarters, “ a merry party sat round their grog that evening.” Wakefield thought that he should look at the Pelorus country, so the Tory was taken up the Sound as far as she would go, and the

• Marais. Colonisation of New Zealand, page 59

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adventurers went on by boat. The country did not attract them. What would have happened had Wakefield explored the upper reaches of Queen Charlotte Sound, and established himself, as Saunders the historian thought he should have done, on the Marlborough plains, with Picton for an outlet ? However, he decided to try Port Nicholson, and taking Barrett for pilot and introducer, he crossed the Strait and on September 20th anchored off Pito-one (Petone) beach. It was a fine day with a northerly breeze when the Tory beat in through the heads and raised the harbour, and Heaphy has left a record of his feelings, which doubtless were shared by others, as the scene unfolded itself.

The harbour resembles an inland lake rather than an arm of the sea, and in beauty certainly far surpasses our English lakes. As we worked up to the anchorage, the noble expanse of water, surrounded by a country of the most picturesque character, formed a scene of indescribable beauty ; and as the valley of the Hutt river opened up to our view, apparently extending far inland, until bounded by the snow range, we wondered that a place which seemed so much to invite settlement had not before been colonised.

In those days the hills were clothed with bush nearly everywhere, and on the waterfront on the Tory’s right as she moved in, where suburbs are now dotted from Muritai to Point Howard, trees dipped into the water, as they did also from Petone beach round towards I .ambton harbour. The land of promise must have seemed fair indeed. Wakefield was a little more practical in Iris reactions. He noted the excellence of the harbour as a site for a commercial centre, and the strategic value of Matin (Somes Island) in a scheme of defence. It was the harbour that settled the matter. Wakefield had yet to learn that Port Nicholson, with its ring of mountains separating it from any great expanse of easily farmed land, had a serious disadvantage from the land settlement point of view.

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Wakefield acted quickly, and was helped by the prompt friendliness of the two leading chiefs, Te VVharepouri of Ngauranga, and Te Puni of Pito-one (end of the sand), as strictly Petone should be called. They came out to meet him before the Tory’s anchor was dropped between Somes island and Pito-one, and spent the night on board. Of these two men, whose friendship was to mean so much to the settlers, Wharepouri, whom we met as a warrior in Taranaki, was the younger, “ a fine commanding man of about thirty-five,” says Jerningham Wakefield. He combined good manners in the company of Europeans with a restless and militant disposition. Te Puni was a milder and wiser man, and became the Maori father of Wellington. Through the troubled days that were to come, when Maori and European were at loggerheads over land, he was a stabilising influence, and his staunch friendship for the settlers never wavered. When he died in 1870, Wellington closed its doors for business on the day of his funeral, and the greatest of Native Ministers, Donald McLean, was one of the pall-bearers. Te Puni is buried in the old cemetery in the Petone street that bears his name, where his pa stood in 1839. This was one of several settlements round the shores of the harbour. They were loosely called pas, but were really palisaded villages, if not open, and it is doubtful if any of them could have withstood a vigorous attack. There was one at Te Aro, where Taranaki Street now crosses Courtenay Place; a tiny settlement at Kumototo, where Woodward Street joins Lambton Quay ; Pipitea Pa on the point of that name ; Tiakiwai, on the northern side of the point, and Pukuao, near the lower end of Tinakore Road ; Kaiwharawhara and Ngauranga (not “ Ngahauranga ”asit is generally called now); and then Pito-one, near the western end of the beach, and Waiwhetu between the Heretaunga river (now the

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Hutt) and the Waiwhetu stream. Altogether there were about five hundred Maoris living on or near Port Nicholson. They lived between the hammer of Te Rauparaha, whom they were in no position to withstand, and the anvil of Ngati-Kahungunu in the Wairarapa, and this had a good deal to do with the willingness of some of them, indeed their eagerness, to sell their land to the newcomers. Wakefield, with his ship and his authority, and the people who were to join him. would be a protection.

Te Puni and Wharepouri were sellers from the outset, and “ heartily glad to renounce war and cannibalism.” The next few days were spent in looking at the land and negotiating. Wakefield went off on September 21st, and was taken up the Heretaunga river in a canoe. In the valley there was a mile and a half of flax swamps and sand hummocks before the forest began. On September 22nd, Sunday, a number of Maoris came aboard the Tory for a service. On September 23rd Wakefield and his nephew started out on a round of the Maori settlements. While they were with Wharepouri at Ngahauranga, parties from the further pas arrived and took part in the discussion about the proposed purchase. The Wakefields then, in Jerningham’s words,

“ visited one or two settlements at the southern end of the harbour,” presumably Pipitea and Te Aro. Later, at Pito-one and on board the ship, the talk was continued. One of the chiefs, Puakawa, opposed the sale. What, he asked his fellows, would they say when they had parted with all their land bom Turakirae to Rimurapa (Sinclair Head) ? How would they feel when they went to the white man to beg for shelter and hospitality, and the white man told them, " with his eyes turned up to heaven and the name of God in his mouth, to be gone,” for the land was paid for ?

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Puakawa’s counsel, however, was not heeded. The goods were displayed on the deck of the Tory. Te Puni and Whareponri stood there and pointed out the boundaries of the land they were willing to sell, the whole visible landscape up to the summits of the surrounding mountains. The deed of sale was prepared by Jerningham Wakefield according to his uncle’s instructions, and the boundaries were put in from Wharepouri's dictation. The eastern boundary was from Turakirae, on Cook Strait east of the harbour entrance, to the beginning of the Tararuas about forty miles inland. The northern line seems to have run across to the Paekakariki hills, and the western line came out at Rimurapa, that is, Sinclair Head. On the measurements given in the deed, the estate, including the harbour, was about thirty miles in breadth, but this is clearly too much, for the boundaries were to run twelve miles from the eastern and western shores of the harbour, and twelve miles west from the Thorndon waterfront would take the line well into Cook Strait. This shows how vaguely the deed was drawn. Jerningham read the deed sentence by sentence, Barrett translated it, and sixteen chiefs signed.

By the document, which was dated September 27th, the chiefs assigned to the Company “ true and undisputed possession ” of lands within these boundaries “ for ever.” The consideration given was set out as follows, but without the money values.

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The values given have been taken from the London invoices in the Tory papers and may be regarded as approximately correct. It will be noticed how largely guns, ammunition and tobacco bulk in the total.

Superficially, at any rate, it was an amazing transaction. In a few months’ time Hobson was to pay £15,000 to a European for a site for a capital at the Bay of Islands, and the present owners of the land would probably be glad to get a fifth of this sum for it. The

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Maoris parted with more than the site of the future capital, for an immediate payment of goods of ridiculously inadequate value. This, however, is only part of the story. The Company’s answer to the charge of buying a great tract with trifles was that it was the reserves that really mattered, and there was something in the contention. Some of these native reserves remain in the heart of Wellington to-day. For instance, do the thousands who watch football matches in Athletic Park realise that this property, which if placed on the market would fetch many thousands, is such a reserve, and that its rent goes to Maori purposes ?

Why did the chiefs sell ? They were quite frank in saying that they wanted the white man’s protection. They reflected, no doubt, that the presence of the whiteman would be good for trade. The glitter of the displayed goods was irresistible to men who in this respect were children. Moreover, as was indicated later when they refused to vacate their villages and accept the reservations made for them, and when Barrett was crossexamined before Spain’s court, most of them did not understand the full meaning of the transaction. Nor, indeed, had the chiefs the right to alienate their lands without the consent of all members of their tribes.

However, the agreement was signed on September 27th, the goods were distributed among the tribes, and on September 30th Wakefield landed at Pito-one pa and in the presence of a crowd of joyful Maoris, hoisted a New Zealand flag to a salute of 21 guns from the Tory. It was a kind of informal annexation. This New Zealand Hag was the flag that had been designed for the confederation of northern chiefs a few years before. It consisted of the St. George’s cross on a white background, a blue hoist carrying another red cross and a star in each quarter. Though few have been aware of the connection, this flag has been familiar to generations

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of New Zealanders, for the house-flag of the Shaw Savill line was copied from it and differs from it only in a minor detail. The Maoris, who had dressed themselves in a mixture of their own garments and clothes handed over by Wakefield, and even sported the umbrellas, entered into the affair with the greatest of zest. If they had had doubts about the wisdom of parting with their land, these were probably banished, for the time being, by the fun of the fair. Te Wharepouri, who had put on a large hussar cloak belonging to Wakefield, led a bloodcurdling war dance. After song and dance and sham fighting there was a meal cooked in Maori fashion. Wakefield must have gone to bed that night feeling that he had safely taken his first big step. He did not realise how imperfect his title was.

Leaving a trader named Smith, whom he had brought from Te Awaiti (not to be confused with Captain W. Mein Smith, who was to lay out Wellington) to prepare for the reception of the emigrants, Wakefield went off in the Tory to treat with Te Rauparaha and other coastal chiefs for more land. He arrived at Kapiti to find that Te Rauparaha had just been defeated in battle on the mainland, and he sent his surgeons across to succour the wounded. The buying teas conducted at Kapiti as it had been at Port Nicholson—goods on one hand and land on the other. Wakefield’s negotiations with Te Rauparaha, Te Rangihaeata and other chiefs began amicably, but Maori eagerness to lay hands on some of the goods offered for payment caused Wakefield to call the deal off until the other side could control itself better. High words were then used by the chief, and Wakefield was threatened. The Company’s agent, however, remained cool and firm, and eventually he obtained an agreement, executed on October 20th, similar to the one signed at Port Nicholson, by which he acquired land “ extending from the 38th to the 43rd

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degree of latitude on the Western coast, and from the 41st to the 43rd on the Eastern,” that is, roughly, from Kawhia in the North Island to Ross in the South Island, on one side, and on the other from Castlepoint to Cheviot. He then went to Queen Charlotte Sound where on November Bth he completed (if the term may be used) this purchase of a huge area in both islands. Wakefield then decided to go to Taranaki to secure that rich but now sparsely populated territory, and on the way saw some Wanganui chiefs at Kapiti and arranged for a provisional purchase of their land. The Tory touched at what is now New Plymouth, where Barrett was put ashore to prepare the natives for purchase, and Dieffenbach made the first ascent of Egmont. The ship then went on to Hokianga and Kaipara. When the Tory damaged herself by running aground in the Kaipara harbour, Wakefield crossed to the Bay of Islands and chartered the brig Guide to take him to the rendezvous with the emigrants at Port Hardy. He arrived there a day after the date appointed, to find that the emigrant ships had not arrived, but that the survey-ship Cuba had come and gone on to Port Nicholson. Sending the Guide to bring off the Kaipara party and complete the Taranaki purchase, Wakefield crossed the Strait by open boat and reached Port Nicholson on January 18th.

The upshot of all these transactions was that Wakefield reported that he had acquired some twenty million acres, nearly the whole of the present provincial district of Wellington and Taranaki, and a great slice of the northern portion of the South Island. Again the question arises, why did the chiefs sell ? Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata were not influenced by the fear that moved the Port Nicholson chiefs. Te Rauparaha, however, wished to encourage the white man’s enterprise, and he was highly acquisitive. The white man’s goods made

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just as much appeal to the Maori of the West Coast and the Sounds as to the Maori of Port Nicholson, and in Queen Charlotte Sound there was such a scramble for the articles that the Europeans had great difficulty in securing a fair division. But far more important is what was in the minds of the chiefs when, with a wave of their hands, as it were, they parted with the estate of their people. Did they know what they were doing ? Did they deliberately deceive Wakefield ? We shall never know the whole truth. Reeves says of the transaction as a whole that it is certain the Maoris “ never had the least notion of selling the greater portion of this immense area.” Wakefield himself, before ever he reached Port Nicholson, had doubts, for on August 29th he noted in his diary that neither Te Rauparaha nor Te Hiko (another West Coast chief) possessed the power to dispose absolutely of any portion of land in Cook Strait, and in a despatch to his directors reporting the purchases he said he had not obtained a title to all the land included within these parallels ; there were difficulties to be overcome, but he was confident of overcoming them. Soon after he signed the deed, Te Rauparaha denied he had sold as much as Wakefield claimed, and Wakefield upbraided him sharply for going back on his word. Moreover, on the morrow of Te Rauparaha’s signing, Wakefield noted rumours that there were Maoris who did not consider the transaction binding for all time. Wakefield acted far too precipitately. When George Clarke, Protector of Aborigines, visited Port Nicholson in 1841, he expressed the opinion that

“ the work which the New Zealand Land Company is said to have accomplished in a few weeks in their land purchases would occupy several years' time of an agent well qualified to treat with the natives.” Wakefield's excuse was that his colonists were already on the water, and that if he did not jump in and buy, he might be

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forestalled by speculators from Sydney. The future of the Company’s lands was a large question mark with a sting in its tail, and by now Wakefield must have had some inkling of this truth.

It is time to turn back and consider these men and women and children on the water. What manner of people were they, and why did they set out on this adventure ? The New Zealand Company, except for the risk it was taking about land, prepared well for its colonisation. The attractions of New Zealand were advertised in Great Britain and Ireland, and the Company tame to have agents in some fifty towns. They aroused interest in the Company’s enterprise, sold its shares and land orders, and obtained emigrants. Land was offered first at one pound per acre, and for £tol one could buy the right to take up a town lot of an acre and a country lot of 100 acres. The first town to be laid out was to cover 1100 acres, besides streets and squares, boulevards and public gardens. Town planning is as old as New Zealand itself. Each subscriber w'as to draw by lot in London his priority of selection in New Zealand. For the Maoris 110 acres were to be reserved, and these sections, like those of the Europeans, were to be drawn by lot, so that the natives should not be placed at a disadvantage. There was to be a settlement of 110,000 acres of country land by the same method. Numbers of intending emigrants came forward, and some speculators. The enthusiasm for the enterprise was real. The advantages of this brave new world were skilfully proclaimed by the Company and its agents. The sympathy of the eminent in brains and social position was enlisted, and public meetings organised to promote the movement. The Duke of Argyle, the Duke of Hamilton, and the Earl of Glasgow helped in promoting emigration from Scotland, and on the New Zealand Committee of Ireland were the Lord Mayor and

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the Archbishop of Dublin and the Provost of Trinity College. When the Company’s offshoot in the West of England, the Plymouth Company, farewelled the emigrants who were to begin the colonisation of Taranaki (October 1840) numbers of “ the gentry and nobility ” of Devonshire and Cornwall and officers of the Army and Navy, attended. London was placarded with inducements to working men to emigrate.

This enthusiasm is explained by the state of the United Kingdom. Emigration was sincerely believed to be a remedy for the misery in which the working classes lived. The England of 1839 was an England without education or opportunity, an England of festering slums and starvation wages, divided, in Disraeli’s phrase, into two nations, the propertied and the poor. Women and children still worked in mines ; women crawled on hands and knees harnessed to trucks. The Duke of Buckingham was taken to task by the New Zealand Journal, published in London, for having spoken of 9/- a week as “ good wages ” when wheat was upwards of 70/- a quarter. There is nothing more striking of its kind than the actions and utterances of the Rev. Dr. Rudge, of Hawkchurch, in Dorset, some of whose parting words to emigrants appear at the head of this chapter. Dr. Rudge brought to London twenty labourers from his district, looked after them in London while they waited for the Lady Nugent to sail, and satisfied himself that they would be well treated. It was the policy of the Company to devote 75 per cent, of the money from the sale of land to the expenses of emigration, and the Company was soon in funds, for by July 18th 1839 all the available sections in the first settlement were sold. The buyers, however, did not know what they were buying. They did not even know where in New Zealand the land was situated ; and it was expressly stated in the terms of sale that the Com

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pany did not guarantee title. Moreover it was not stipulated that buyers should emigrate, and this approval of absentee ownership was to weaken the settlements. It meant that areas were worked only in patches, so that an industrious settler might have to bear the whole cost of fencing, instead of having a neighbour to share it with him, and that capital was lacking for the absorption of labour. In the Nelson settlement the Company sold in England 442 properties to 315 purchasers, of whom only 80, proprietors of 109 allotments, went out, and in 1844 the New Zealand Gazette threatened that unless absentee claims were abolished, the Wellington colonists would be compelled to go somewhere else.

To return to the preparations in London ; a buyer of land was entitled to a 75 per cent, drawback on his purchase money to cover his passage to New Zealand and that of his family and servants, provided the latter were approved by the Company as to sex, age and character. The Company sought labourers on its own account, and with very definite ideas. It may be said for the Company that it raised the whole standard of emigration, both in choice of emigrants and conditions on shipboard. The Company restricted its free passages to mechanics and craftsmen, agricultural labourers and domestic servants. Persons living in workhouses or “ on the parish ” were permanently disqualified. To keep the sexes even in the new land, married couples were preferred. Single women were taken only if they went out under proper protection, and their number was governed by the number of single men accepted. Thirty, and later thirty-five, was the limit of age for men, but older men might be taken if they had large families. Preference was given to men undertaking to work for capitalists who intended to emigrate. Good character was indispensable and the Company tvas not content

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with testimonials ; it made its own enquiries, not only about the applicant but about his sponsors. Emigrants were medically examined in London, and it they showed signs of disease before the ship sailed they were liable to be sent home.

Among the tree-passage emigrants in the ships that planted the colony of Wellington, agricultural labourers and labourers predominated. There were gardeners, bootmakers, bricklayers, bakers, one gamekeeper, one printer, and one candlemaker. It is apparently not known whether the gamekeeper hoped to follow his trade out here—there have been many men in our history who were quite willing to give him an opportunity—but the candlemaker must have been most useful in a community where lighting was primitive. But what of the capitalists ? Who were they and why did they leave the ease and comfort of England for the hardships and risk of life in a new and unproved land ? “ They were mostly,” says Mr. Marais, “ small men who, having some available capital, thought the chances of increasing it, by their own effort, in New Zealand, were better than in Britain.” There was also a sense of adventure. It was the beginning of a great era of colonisation ; ideas and ideals were in the air and wholesomely infected all classes. Young fellows like Jerningham Wakefield thought emigration a lark, and were ready for anything. Older men were moved by mixed motives—curiosity, and that same sense of adventure, the hope of bettering their future, a wish to make for themselves and their families a clean start in a land that offered opportunity and was untrammelled by privilege and convention. For younger men of the middle and upper classes opportunity in England was restricted. This, it must be remembered, was 1839-40, before the Victorian expansion of industry and commerce under free trade, and that development of the Empire which

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was to suffuse with the golden light of sentiment the Indian summer of the Queen. Besides, social convention decreed that for sons of the gentry there were only a few callings worthy of their class—the Army, or the Navy, the diplomatic service, the Church and the Bar. Trade and industry were frowned upon. Such restric tions largely explain why then and subsequently so many sons of county families emigrated to New Zealand. Sir William Molesworth’s testimony is interesting. His brother F. A. Molesworth, so he told a public meeting, went out in one of the first ships on his (Sir William’s) advice. “ He was a young man, in want of some occupation, unwilling to live in idleness. I told him all employment, all occupations, are here overstocked; in every branch of industry, in every description of trade, in all the professions, competition is excessive. ‘Go there,’ I said ; ‘ imitate the example of your ancestors, and make for yourself a career in a new world of your own creation ; and be assured that, in seeking in this manner to advance your own interests, you will confer a great and lasting benefit upon your native country.’ ’ It must also be borne in mind that large families were the rule in those days. Duncan Fraser, who emigrated to New' Zealand in one of the early ships, and settled in the Turakina district, was one of fifteen children, his wife w r as one of fifteen, and they had a family of fifteen.*

The tone of Sir William Molesworth’s statement was on a par with the proceedings of a society called the First Colony of New Zealand, formed in May 1839, four months before the first ships left. Consisting exclusively of heads of families and others who intended to settle in New Zealand, it strove to carry out Wakefield’s programme. It collected books and money for a library, to which it was proposed to attach a museum ; it planned a hospital for both Europeans and Maori ;

• Sir James Wilson, Early Rangitikei

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it published in London the first number of the New Zealand Gazette, which was transplanted to the beach at Petone ; and it framed a code of laws that was to be binding on colonists. We find therefore that the parties sent out to New Zealand were composed of carefully chosen labourers and artisans and their wives and children, and men and women of varying means who, as a class, took the enterprise seriously and brought to it an important contribution of brains, character and culture. The fact that all these people, from the agricultural labourer to the scion of an old family, were prepared to sail into long distant uncertainty, as the) did, was in itself proof that they had exceptional enterprise and courage.

We come now to the ships, and the voyages, and here again the Company showed energy and wisdom. The ships were well chosen, staunch vessels of 500 tons and upwards, chartered by the Company ; a good deal smaller on the whole than the emigrant ships of the seventies, and much slower. Tonnage is a vague term ; let us look at the measurements of these ships in which our pioneers crossed the world. The Aurora, the first to arrive, was 550 tons. Her length from the stern overhang to the butt of the bowsprit, was about 123 feet ; her lower deck, on part of which the steerage passengers lived, was 108 feet. Her beam was 30 feet. These dimensions are certainly more comforting than those of Drake’s Golden Hind, which ravaged ports in South America and sailed round the world. Site measured but the length of a tennis court. The Aurora, however, was a small ship compared with that queen of the emigrant trade in the seventies, the Lady Jocelyn, which was 275 feet long, and the Aurora would be tiny if put by the side of the 10,000-ton liner of twentieth century emigration traffic. In such a vessel of 500 or 600 tons were placed 150 to 250 emigrants with a crew of about

Dominion Museum. Sketch by John Gilfillan. Gillet's Whaling Station, Kapiti Island, 1842.

Wellington Harbour Board. Drawing by C. D. Barraud. Lambton Quay in 1854. Vicinity of R. Hannah & Co.’s boot shop.

at

Queen's Wharf about 1863, showing Post Office with Time Ball (left) and Old Queen’s Bond (large building at head of wharf) .

Wellington Harbour Board. Te Aro, 1864. Hotel St. George corner on right.

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thirty. A full emigrant steamer of our own century, twenty times larger in tonnage, would carry about 550 passengers, so the packing in those early days was close.

In the stern were two floors of cabins, reserved for the cabin class passengers, otherwise the gentry, or if there was a second cabin class it would take the lower set. The intermediate social position of the second cabin might be described by the Irish expression “ half sirs.” By modern standards the size of some of these poop cabins was quite good. The A urora had them 12 feet by 9 and 9 by 8. The cabins below were 6 feet square. The cabin occupied by the Rev. J. F. Churton and his wife in the Bolton (he was the first Church of England clergyman among the emigrants) was twelve feet six by ten feet six, but seeing that they had five children, they would hardly be grudged the space. Among these cabins, which included those of the captain and officers, was the saloon or cuddy ; there might be one for each deck. The arrangement by which cabins opened off the dining room persisted into our own time in ocean-going ships and may still be found in small ones. The captain was the ruler of that little community aft, an Olympian figure mixing with mortals. “ The captain presides as at his own table,” travellers were warned ; “ the passengers are considered as his guests ; and in deportment and dress they are expected to govern themselves accordingly.” The steerage accommodation stretched from the poop to the forecastle on the lower deck. There was a cabin for single men forard and one, as far away as possible, for single women aft, and a similar arrangement of hospitals. Along each side of the ship were ranged cabins for married couples. These compartments were six or seven feet deep and four feet six to six feet wide. In one ship they seem to have been as narrow as three feet six. In the cabins were two bunks one above the other, and in the space

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between the bunks and the opposite wall the occupants had to move.

This may sound rather terrible, but the tiny cabin was a feature of ocean-going ships long after sail gave way to steam. Within recent years the writer of this hook was quartered for a time in a two-berth cabin that measured six feet six square. Where the modern ship is so enormously superior to these pioneering craft is in the general space available for passengers. These steerage emigrants had to accommodate their children in the cabins or sling them in hammocks in the ’tween decks outside, and they were allowed only a minimum of belongings to hand. They messed in the ’tween decks and amused themselves there when the open deck was not usable, in a space broken by masts and hatchways.

Steerage passengers had to provide their own bedding and certain utensils. At first the Company let a contract for the feeding of passengers to the shipowner, but later took the catering into its own hands. It laid down a scale, and it was part of the surgeon’s duty to see that the food was in good condition and served out properly. For adults, and that meant everyone over fourteen, the food allowance per day was one and threepence, with children in proportion, except that there was no allowance for children under one year. Biscuit, beef, pork, “ preserved meat,” flour, raisins, suet, peas, rice, potatoes, butter, tea, coffee, sugar, pickled cabbage, salt, mustard, and water, were the rations. Barley, oatmeal and molasses were served out in illness, and other “ medical comforts,” as the term was, included lemon juice, wine, and, for nursing mothers, stout. This last provision was perhaps considered a set-off to the exclusion of infants. All meat was preserved in some form or other, except whatever live stock was carried, and one may doubt whether the steerage got much of that or of the milk from the cow. It was reported of

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the Bengal Merchant, one of the first four ships, that her passengers had had a four months’ diet without fresh meat or vegetables, but it may be added that one passenger recorded that not for one day was he unwell. Water had to be doled out; three quarts a day was the allowance for adults, but children under twelve had to share their parents' quota.

The historian of the British Army, Sir John Fortescue, says the labourers who won Wellington’s victories, badly fed though they were according to modern ideas, were probably better fed than they would have been if they had not joined the Army, and there is more reason to say this of the New Zealand Company’s emigrants. The regimen pressed hardest on the children, of whom large numbers were carried. The Duke of Roxburgh had twenty-nine between the ages of one and nine; the Martha Ridgway eighty-three under fourteen. In a voyage of just under four months, the Aurora lost one child, who, so the doctor reported, would have died on shore. On the other hand the record of the Lloyds, which in 1842 brought out the wives and children of Nelson labourers, was appalling ; fifty-eight children died. The chief causes of this loss were the youth of the children and protracted bad weather. The Land and Emigration Commissioners entirely exonerated the Company.

Next to the captain, the surgeon appointed by the Company was the most important person on board. Indeed in the control of the emigrants he was above the captain. The care taken in this department did the Company credit. The Company began by examining applicants for the position of ship’s surgeon, a very necessary step if Dickens did not exaggerate when he drew Bob Sawyer and Benjamin Allen. Then the Company gave the appointed doctors the most detailed instructions, running into thirty-seven clauses, about

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their duties on ship-board. They had to inspect the food every day, and the emigrants themselves, see that the quarters were kept clean, and generally watch over the welfare of their charges with the utmost vigilance. The ship was run on strict routine. The steerage was up at seven and there was personal inspection before breakfast. After breakfast there was a clean-up, including carrying bedding on deck for airing, and from eleven to twelve there was school. Everyone who could read well was expected to help in teaching. Dinner at one was followed by an hour’s school. Tea was at six. Children had to be in bed by eight, and everyone else by ten. In the interests of good behaviour, and to keep an eye on the lights and be ready for an emergency, the married men kept four-hour watches during the night. The worst fear of captains must have been fire, and for this reason especially they must have welcomed this night watch.* To help him the surgeon superintendent recruited an assistant superintendent and a number of constables from the passengers.

These pioneer bodies of emigrants were farewelled with an organised interest and ceremony such as our time has not known. The sailing of an emigrant ship was an occasion ; the departure of the first companies for Wellington, New Plymouth and Nelson was an event. Flags flew, bands played, dinners were eaten, speeches were given. If the emigrants had to wait for their ship, the Company looked after them. When the day came the directors, accompanied by men and women of high social position, went down to the port to inspect the arrangements and hid the emigrants a personal farewell. The emigrants put on their best clothes, there was a special dinner, the voyagers were addressed on deck, and the blessing of God was asked for the under-

* The Cospalrick, an emigrant ship bound for Auckland in 1874 caught fire, and out of 476 souls only half a dozen escaped.

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taking. When the Bengal Merchant was farewelled on the Clyde, die principal speaker broke into verse :

On Zealand’s hills where tigers steal along.

And the dread Indian chants a dismal song,

Where human fiends on midnight errands walk

And bathe in brains the murderous tomahawk ;

There shall the flocks on thymy pastures stray

And shepherds dance at summer’s opening day.

Let us hope that the dinner consoled the emigrants against the thought of what might happen to them personally during the process of change so graphically predicted.

These were special occasions ; later ships left amid less excitement. We may take it, however, that the personal touch which meant so much to people leaving for so distant a land, was never wholly dropped. The New Zealand Company had to meet much criticism in England and New Zealand, but Mr. Marais remarks that its conduct of emigration was the least criticised part of its work.* When things went wrong on shipboard this was generally the result of circumstances over which it had no control. It could not guarantee the behaviour of owners, captains or the weather. Primarily this success was due to the enthusiasm and hard work of the directors. They did not stand aloof and take the credit of others’ work, but with their coats off got down to the job. Behind this brief summary of the organisation for choosing emigrants and looking after them, lay an immense amount of detailed labour by directors’ committees and staff, and the Company, besides meeting the material needs of its people, saw to it that they left England fortified in hope, without which the whole expedition would have been meaningless.

Well, the ship has dropped down the river, and perhaps is weatherbound for some days in the narrow

• The Colonisation of New Zealand, p. 71

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seas before she gets a slant along the Channel and south across the Bay. As time recedes and comfort and luxury multiply and safety increases, it becomes more and more difficult to project ourselves into this past, but we must sincerely try to do so if we are to catch the true spirit of our centennial. At one time or another some of us have longed to take a grumbling traveller out of a deeply cushioned smoking room and shove him back into the ’tween decks of the Aurora or the Oriental. He would begin by realising that the peril of the sea was far greater then than now. The confined space, the smells, the half darkness, the monotony of food, the wild pitching of the ship, would be an education. The discomfort in bad weather must have been acute. The rolling and pitching of our inter-island express in a bad southerly is nothing to the frenzied dancing of a 123foot ship in a Cape storm. Rest was impossible. Food was lost on its way from the galleys, or rolled on to the floor from the tables. Joseph Conrad has described such a sleepless night in those latitudes. “ Nothing seems left of the whole universe but darkness, clamour, fury—and the ship. And like the last vestige of a shattered creation she drifts, bearing an anguished remnant of sinful mankind, through the distress, tumult, and pain of an avenging terror.” The Company named Rio and Capetown as ports of call, but many ships made the run without stopping anywhere. A community crowded into a small ship would be expected to develop quarrels ; we know how easily these arise in the comfort of to-day. The Adelaide, which took six months, was not a happy ship, and she put into Capetown to settle a dispute. William Deans, of Riccarton fame, tells us that he acted as second in an affair that was amicably settled in the Aurora, and in another that ended in a duel after her arrival.* Generally speaking, however,

• Pioneers of Canterbury. Deans gives no particulars of this raeelinj

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emigrants got on well together at sea, and we may attribute this mainly to the fact that, in the steerage at any rate, they had no time to be bored. Steerage passengers especially had to live to a timetable—to clean their quarters, and take turns in drawing rations and meals and keeping watch at night. The company was divided into messes of six, and each man in turn had to get rations for his mess and then wait his turn at the galley, often a long wait, to cook the food. They had school and amusements. There was dancing every fine night in the Aurora, reported a passenger. And life was very different from what it is now. Its tempo was slower and simpler. There was all the interest of a sailing ship at sea to occupy them in their leisure, a spell more intimate and thrilling than that cast by the independent liner of to-day. In all its majesty and wrath, its beauty, its magic, its cruelty and its caprice, the sea was much nearer to them. It was not merely something to be seen from the rail of a high deck or through the windows of a lounge. They saw the sailors reefing and trimming, and the captain taking his sights. In fine weather they might go aloft and bask in the sun, or perhaps, like young Robert Stout a generation later, lend a hand on a yard or at the end of a rope.

And so they came, those little ships of 1839 and later, on an enterprise which, if it was rash, was also gallant. What needs to be emphasised especially is that the communities of 1839 and early 1840 were different from all subsequent groups, in that they were sailing to they knew not what. In The Night-Watch Song of the Charlotte Jane, the Canterbury Pilgrims drank a toast to “ the land we are going to,” but they knew that a considerable measure of security awaited them at their journey’s end. New Zealand had had a government for ten years, and the place of their settlement was fixed. The men and women in Wellington’s first ships had

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neither of these assurances. Their setting fortli was an act of faith. Let us try to imagine what the adventure seemed like to them, and what heaviness of uncertainty was in the hearts they left behind. Indeed for all emigrants in those days, parting was much more distressing than it is to-day. For most it was goodbye for ever.

So the barque Aurora, 550 tons, having left Gravesend on September 18th, 1839, with 148 in the steerage and 21 in the cabin, dropped anchor in Port Hardy on January 17th, 1840, made Port Nicholson Heads on the 21st, and on the following day, January 22nd, beat into the harbour against a northerly and anchored off Somes Island. “ A most beautiful voyage,” wrote one passenger. This, the arrival of the first emigrant ship, is kept as Wellington’s birthday.

CHAPTER SIX

ON THE BEACH

Most of the early settlers left England to escape from the subordination of the ordinary people to the privileged few—however gracious and public-spirited these few may often be. They sought in the freer, if cruder, life of a new country the possibility of developing their own lives in their own way and of giving their children even tetter opportunities.

—Professor J. B. Condliffe, 8.8.C. debate, 1938

The Aurora was followed by the Oriental, 506 tons, on January 31st ; the Duke of Roxburgh, 417 tons, on February Bth, and the Bengal Merchant, 503 tons, on February 20th. These ships had left England or Scotland between September 15th (the Oriental’s date) and October 30th, so there was not much difference between their runs. The Adelaide left on the same day as the Aurora, September 18th, but called at Teneriffe and spent a fortnight at Capetown, and did not reach Wellington until March 7th. On the same day the Glenbervie arrived laden with stores for the Company, but carrying only ten passengers. She carried currency for the Union Bank of Australia, which was to be the district’s pioneer bank. One of the passengers, John Smith, was the manager of this new branch. The Bolton, 540 tons, arrived on April 21st.

There were many ships to follow, and any division into “ first ” and subsequent ships is arbitrary, but these all left Britain before the end of 1839, so they may be

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[1839-40

considered to form a group.* With the Tory and the Cuba they brought out 1079 passengers, mostly in the steerage. In the passenger lists were names that were to become prominent in local or national history, such as Wm. Deans, of Riccarton ; Charles Henry Kettle, explorer in the Wairarapa ; George Hunter, Mayor of Wellington under the first and short-lived municipal constitution ; Daniel Riddiford, founder of a leading family of pastoralists ; the Reverend John Macfarlane, the first clergyman among the emigrants ; Major Durie, another of Wakefield’s companions in arms in Spain ; Samuel Revans, the father of New Zealand journalism. Of these ships all set out from England except the Bengal Merchant, which sailed from the Clyde with a community drawn from the Lowlands. A later ship, the Blenheim, which arrived in December, 1840, brought a number of men and women from the Highlands. It is recorded that a recruiting agent in Sutherlandshire got forty or more men to agree to go out to New Zealand, and in order to have them married before they went, arranged dances and invited suitable girls to meet them. The owners of the ship that brought these emigrants from Inverness to London sold them twenty pairs of trousers in the Sutherland tartan. There were a few Irish people in the first ships, but there was no separate Irish contingent. Wellington was predominantly an English settlement.

It took some time to get the emigrants and their belongings ashore from these ships lying between Somes Island and Petone beach (as we shall now call this district), but of course the later comers had an easier time than the Aurora’s passengers. Tents were pitched near the beach, and temporary huts were built

* The Coromandel, with 44 passengers, left London on December 11th, 1839. but calling at Sydney did not arrive in Wellington till August 30th. 1840. She was not a Company ship, but carried Company passengers.

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with the help of the Maoris. Some hundreds of Europeans camped on the waterfront. For a time it was a huge picnic. For a few blankets or pounds the Maoris would put up a fair-sized house built of stakes, raupo, fern or flax, perhaps of wood and clay. Deans got such a house of stakes and foliage, thirty-four feet by seventeen —“ a more comfortable place I never saw ’’—for six blankets. Colonel Wakefield and Jerningham lived in a room that had a piece of canvas for a window, and a badly-fitting door taken from a ship. The floor was shingled from the beach, and the roof, though 'waterproof, bent with the wind. However, nobody seemed to mind draughts ; the main thing was that these elasticsided houses stood up. All round was the excitement of a new world, where the skies were bright, the soil at hand rich, and the Maori life fascinating to men and women who for the most part had never seen primitive dark-skinned people. It was good fun camping like this, and being able to shoot as many birds and catch as many fish as one liked. The first two passengers to land from the Aurora walked straight to the edge of the bush and shot two pigeons, an act of ill omen for the birds of the country. “ No tyranny rules in this blessed land,” wrote one ecstatic immigrant, who appeared to be particularly impressed (after the rigid game laws of England) with the freedom there was to use rod and gun. “No taxes are levied here to oppress us.” This, of course, was before the settlement was requesting the recall of Hobson, the Governor, because he was held to favour his new capital, Auckland, at Wellington’s expense. There was plenty of work to keep the newcomers occupied. Pending the drawing of country sections a certain amount of squatting was allowed. A number of capitalists, including Francis Moles worth and Henry William Petre, built substantial houses a little way up the valley, and machinery for cutting timber and grinding flour

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was erected. Clearing the forest beyond the open fringe by the shore was hard enough work for anyone, and the surveyors progress in the valley was slow. One disappointment was the river itself. The Company had advertised it as navigable for eighty miles, but though some little time was to pass before the valley was explored to its upper end, it was quickly apparent that this was a gross over-estimate.

If a man could not get work from a private employer, the Company guaranteed him a pound a week, less an allowance for rations. There was plenty of money in the community, and the early establishment of a bank—the Union Bank of Australia opened its doors at Petone on March the 24th, 1840—facilitated its distribution. This bank was the first strong bank to start business in New Zealand, and the presence of such a house connected with London and Sydney was of great value to the infant settlement. Pioneers in other parts of New Zealand used it. A Taranaki settler noted that his community lacked these two aids to advancement—a bank and a newspaper. Britannia, as the settlement was called, had both. Samuel Revans published the second number of the New Zealand Gazette at Petone on April 18th, 1840. The first number had been issued in London. The settlers found food plentiful, though it is an interesting sidelight on the economics of first years in colonies, that, as in Australia, flour had to be brought long distances. A cargo of flour from England, shipped by the Company, arrived in June, and there were imports from South America. Supplies from the ships were augmented by the Maoris’ produce, quickly grown vegetables, and plentiful fish and fowl. Nor was liquor lacking. It never was even in those early days. At a birthday party in that same June thirty persons consumed three dozen of champagne as well as other wines. The excitement of a new and more

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democratic society was in the air. Here, where goods were strewn on the beach, and meals were often cooked in the open, and everybody felt he had to lend a hand, the class barriers of England were broken down. The labourer worked side by side with the shirt-sleeved and sweating “ squire;” and there is almost a touch of awe in the note that “ Mr. Petre tramps through bog and river with the utmost nonchalance.” The women shared in this freer life. ‘‘We have six visitors for every one we had at home,” was one piece of news sent back in a letter.

The first Christian service in the settlement, excluding one held in the Tory as she lay at anchor on September 22nd, 1839, was conducted in the Aurora on Sunday, January 26th, 1840, bv the Reverend J. Buller, a Wesleyan missionary. Buller was sent down from north Auckland to minister to the immigrant needs, and it is significant that he covered the 500 miles on foot or by canoe. The first clergyman among the immigrants was the Reverend John Macfarlane, a Presbyterian, who was a passenger by the Bengal Merchant. One of the congregation describes a service he conducted in a karaka grove off the beach, where there was no bell to summon the worshippers, but the woods were musical with the song of birds and the note of the bellbird could be heard above the others. It is a little curious that for a colonising enterprise which was overwhelmingly English, the Established Church was not represented until the arrival of the Reverend J. F. Churton in the Bolton on April 21st, 1840.

The immigrants, however, had not come across the world to picnic on a beach. A town had to be laid out, and land farmed over a wide area. The first decision of great importance was the choice of a site for this town. Wakefield chose Lambton Harbour, but in his absence in the north, Captain Mein Smith, R.A., the

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Company’s Surveyor-General, arrived in the Cuba and began to lay out the town at the Hint. Britannia it was called. When Wakefield returned from the north he took the opinion of the settlement and it was decided to move to Lambton. The case for the Hutt valley must have been strong. There was plenty of flat land, whereas there was very little on the western side of the harbour. On the other hand, the valley was heavily forested and swampy ; the Hutt River was liable to flood ; and the shore where the wharves would have been built was exposed to the full force of southerlies. Flood water invaded some houses and naturally caused alarm, though the situation was met with good humour. W. D. B. Mantell, afterwards M.L.C. and Minister of the Crown, was seen sitting on top of a pile of furniture playing Home, Sweet Home on an accordion, with water surging around him. If the city had grown up at the Hutt, probably the main port would have developed at Lambton.*

The change was a wise one, but it still further delayed the necessary apportionment of land. There were complaints then and later of the slowness of the surveys. The Company had sent out a strong team of surveyors in the Cuba, but the settlers followed hard on their heels, and the natural difficulties were formidable. Cutting lines in the Hutt valley was heavy work, and what transport was like may be judged from the fact reported by William Deans, who had a track-cutting contract, that it cost £9O a ton to get provisions to his

* A P lan £or a town in the Hutt Valley was drawn in London by Samuel Soundy Cobham, who came to New Zealand in the Company’s service and afterwards practised as a surveyor in Wellington. The plan, based on the misapprehension about the Hutt river, shows a river-mouth harbour with a tunnel running under the river. The town was laid out in the form of a rectangle, with forts at the corners, and generous provision for public buildings, which included a “ Covent Garden ” theatre and a “ President’s Palace.”

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men.* When Dr. Dieffenbach made the first journey to the head of the Hutt valley in July, 1840—the season being winter, it is true—it took him six days to reach the junction of the Akatarawa with the Hutt. Captain Mein Smith had to make a fresh start and lay out the town on a site that was some miles away and as yet not connected with Petone by road. It says something for his industry that he had the plan for the new Britannia ready for inspection on July 20th, and the choosing of the town sections according to lots already drawn in London began on July 28th. At the same time he had to prepare plans for the country sections, which were open for selection immediately after the town sections had been allocated.

Writing some months afterwards Captain Smith described the plan of Wellington as having been worked out under every species of disadvantage and inconvenience. The settlers were importunate ; the winter was on him ; his quarters were a windowless hut so dark that sometimes he had to work all day by candlelight. The plan that he produced is the core of the Wellington that we know, except for the reclamations—the Wellington that begins at the bottom of Tinakore Road, runs along the old waterfront to Oriental Bay and goes back to the town belt. The familiar streets of this area, inside the line of the old waterfront, are his planning ; so are the reserve of Mount Cook and the Basin Reserve, originally set aside for docks to be connected with the sea by a canal along Cambridge and Kent Terraces ; the grounds on which the Houses of Parliament stand ; and, largest of all, a wide belt round the town. A total of 1,100 acres was divided into lots, including 110 acres for the Maoris, and there were about 150 acres of road and 1,100 acres of public reserves. The 110 sections for the Maoris were chosen by Captain

• Pioneers of Canterbury

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Smith and were scattered about the town. One of them was the site of Barrett’s hotel, where the lots were drawn.

In order to visualise that old Wellington one must apply imagination to facts. Lay-out was largely determined by the waterfront, and that was very different from what it is to-day. Thorndon Quay and Lambton Quay were then the sea-front. In this year, 1939, there is an old lady in Wellington who, when she sets out to shop in Lambton Quay from her home somewhere on the hill, says she is “ going down to the beach.” Further along, the waterfront lay the depth of one acre sections from Manners Street and Courtenay Place. East of Cambridge Terrace and Kent Terrace it was called Clyde Quay and Oriental Bay. Beyond where the Clyde Quay wharf stands to-day there is only a thin line of reclamation, but all of Wellington east or north of the line indicated above—the railway yards, the old Government Buildings, the Featherston Street, Customhouse Quay, Jervois Quay, Wakefield Street and Cable Street area—has been won from the sea. The lie of the land and water in 1840 determined the trend of building and the disposition of interests. Thorndon became the centre of the official world because it contained a considerable area of flat land and was nearest to Petone and the route to Porirua and the west coast. The high land at the back of Lambton Quay and Lower ’Willis Street, where trees came down to the water’s edge, restricted development. Clay or Windy Point, now known as Stewart Dawson’s Corner, had a bad reputation for wind, and what with that and the narrowness of the path between cliff and sea it was a forbidding spot, especially for women on foot. There was not room for two drays to pass. For these reasons the front section was not valued highly. One of the first bits of reclamation in Wellington, perhaps the very first, was

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a little pickaxe and barrow work done at the end of the forties by George Bennett. He threw the spoil into the harbour and improved the path. The western end of Te Aro, the waterfront near Manners Street and Courtenay Place, attracted business. It was more sheltered than Thorndon and the water was deeper. There Captain W. B. Rhodes, of Australia, leader of a family that was to leave its mark on New Zealand business and public life, built the first substantial wharf in 1841. These early wharves were light affairs of wood put up by merchants to serve their own ships and stores. Ships lay off and were tendered. The first Customhouse was in that area, and the Exchange, which was Town Hall, library and general purposes building. The Te Aro flat beyond the Maori village and the outlying European houses was a waste of flax bushes and swamp. Part of it, including what became the Basin Reserve, was an impassable bog. Sometimes cattle landed on the beach would break away and get caught in this swamp, and it is related that an escaped prisoner, with the help of Maoris, hid there for some weeks.*

Early Wellington, therefore, should be pictured as two knots of settlement, one mainly official but partly commercial, and one mainly devoted to business, joined by a narrow road along the shore. On the hill just above the beach ran The Terrace, one of the first streets to be made in Wellington. Thorndon contained, or was to contain, the immigration barracks and the first military barracks, Colonel Wakefield’s verandahed house in what is now the Parliamentary enclosure, and the most important building in very early Wellington, the original Barrett’s hotel. The nucleus of the hotel was a house brought out in sections from England by Dr. G. S. Evans and sold to Richard Barrett, who erected it on the beach where the Hotel Cecil stands to-day.

♦ Alexander Sutherland Papers, in possession of Alexander Sutherland, of Hinakura. G

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Our illustration shows the hotel as it was enlarged. The projecting wing contained a billiard room below and a Freemason’s hall above. In the very early days Barrett's was the chief rendezvous of the town. There the town plan was laid out for lot-holders to see before they chose their sections. There citizens repaired to air their grievances, which were many ; to eat ceremonial dinners, which were almost as numerous ; to dance at balls ; and to found societies. Hobson and Fitzßoy held their levees there ; Grey used one room as a Council Chamber ; it housed the Colonial Government offices ; and when the earthquake of 1855 partly wrecked it, in consequence of which the license was transferred to the present site at the end of the Quay, it was providing a council chamber for the Wellington Provincial Government. The lines of the building as depicted by Brees are worth noting. Design in those days was simple, and the result was often pleasing to the eye. One notes this not only in town buildings but also in country homes. It was left for a later generation to exemplify the fallacy that ornamentation is necessary for the achievement of architectural beauty.

Reading, apart altogether from the construction of streets, was an early problem. Britannia, Thorndon, was separated from the first Britannia by a foreshore along which horses and wheeled traffic could not go. The pedestrian scrambled through the bush and over the rocks as best he could. For some time most of the traffic went by water, and the first ferry service in Port Nicholson was by open boat between the two settlements. It was only when the sea was too rough that the mails were carried by land. There was a good deal more water in the Kaiwarra and Ngahauranga streams than there is now, and even after the road round the waterfront was made, Maoris carried travellers over at sixpence a head. The making of this road

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between Thorndon and the Hutt was an obvious necessity ; and it was completed—the first long road to be made in Wellington—in 1841. The first vehicle to be taken along it was a bullock dray. The road was improved considerably in the next few years and much of the stonework was done by soldiers of the garrison. The earthquake of 1855 lifted the road and thereby prepared the way for the fast traffic thoroughfare we know to-day.

The use of bullocks, those indispensables of early transport, points to another element in the life of the infant settlement. Enterprise in Australia was quick to take advantage of this colonisation, and ships from Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart Town and Launceston, brought over merchants of several kinds, from traders to grog-sellers, and settlers, miscellaneous workers, and live-stock. Between the beginning of December, 1839, and the end of May, 1840, eighteen ships arrived from Australia, with 128 passengers and some 1,500 sheep, cattle and horses. Some of the arrivals in those early

days were to be prominent in the development of New Zealand. There were, for example, J. C. and C. R. Bidwill, the former one of the early explorers of the middle of the island, and the first European to climb Ngauruhoe, his brother the first man to take sheep into the Wairarapa ; and James Coutts Crawford, who farmed part of Miramar, looked for gold in the Wairarapa, was President of the Philosophical Institute, and wrote a valuable book on his colonial experiences. Capital and energy from Australia were a welcome recruitment to the colony. Also whaling ships took to dropping in to Port Nicholson for supplies, and their trade helped to tide the colonists over those economic shoals that every such community has to cross.

It was a busy, confident little society that was now entering on a long period of difficulties with the newly-

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established Government in the north and with the Maoris, which we shall consider in the next chapter. There were ships in the bay and well-stocked stores on shore. The land had proved itself fertile and the hard work of bringing it into use was begun with zest. Evans Bay and Lyall Bay were country districts. The Morri-

sons of the Wairarapa started farming at Evans Bay. The level area of Karori was discovered with delight, and Heaphy reported as a noteworthy achievement that in six months two young Scots cleared twenty acres of heavy forest in this district and built a house with the help of one Maori, who brought them provisions. Alexander Sutherland, a passenger by the Oriental, and also a Wairarapa pioneer later on, took up land at Lyall Bay, and one fete day, when meat was scarce in Wellington, drove some cattle to Clay Point, killed and dressed them, and hung the meat on a ngaio tree for sale.* Advertisements in the New Zealand Gazette suggest a brisk trade. One advertiser hoped that “ the competitive system of puffing so much practised in the old world, will never be practised in this country ; he therefore refrains from introducing prices, and merely invites a trial.” He did not live to see that his hope was vain. Nor were the amenities of life neglected. The foundation of a Pickwick Club in the first year of this most remote of British settlements is an impressive proof of the rapidity with which Dickens conquered the world.

In that first year the settlement received its present name. The Duke of Wellington had helped Edward Gibbon Wakefield to get his South Australia scheme through Parliament, and in return Wakefield wished to call the capital after him. Royalty was judged to have a prior claim, so the capital became Adelaide. Wakefield decided that the Duke should be honoured

• Sutherland Papers.

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in New Zealand, and early in 1840 the directors of the Company gave their first colony the name of Wellington. The choice was notified to the people of Britannia on November 28th, 1840. It was a happy choice, much happier than Britannia. Despite “ Rule, Britannia,” this personification of Britain is neither a familiar nor an inspiring word. It has a touch of the archaic and the theatrical. There is even something brittle about it. Wellington, on the other hand, is a good sonorous word, and it commemorates one who, with all his faults, was a really great man. Wellington was an Irishman, but one may recall Mr. Bernard Shaw’s remark that he (Mr. Shaw) is a typical Irishman ; his people came from England. An ancestor of Wellington’s left Somerset for Ireland in the reign of Henry 11. When Sir Arthur Wellesley was raised to the peerage after Talavera in 1809, he took his title from the name of the Wellington of Somerset, where his ancestor was said to have owned land. The Somerset Wellington is an ancient town. King Alfred held its manorial rights, and the place is mentioned in Doomsday Book.* So Wellington, New Zealand, has a good pedigree, and there is something in the bold lines of its landscape and the bracing quality of its weather that suggests the iron self-control, the “ publish-and-be-damned,” of the great Duke. In the outline of its hills one may even detect a likeness to the famous indomitable nose.

♦ The Duke’s family name was really Colley, but his grandfather changed it to Wellesley, of which Wesley is a variant, and further back a Wesley had married a Colley. Professor Arnold Wall supplies this note on the name. The original meaning of " Welling ” was ** the inhabitants of, or dwellers in, the temple meadow,” and the suffix “ ton ” is town or village. We may imagine, he says, that the original '* Wellington ” was an open glade in a forest with a heathen temple in it. and that in later days, when the country was developed and the open places used for pasture, a village grew up there and commemorated in its name the site of the old pagan place of worship.

f 1839-40

CHAPTER SEVEN

RIVALRY AND WAR

When colonists, I am speaking generally, and would allow for exceptions, differ upon such a point, for example, as the amount of a proposed import duty or the direction of a road, both sides treat the question as if it were one of life and death; and instead of compromising their difference or giving a quiet victory to the preponderating weight of votes or influence, they instantly set about tearing each other to pieces with the tongue and pen. . . .

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, “A View of the Art of Colonisation

When the New Zealand Company sent its settlers to a country that had no civilised government it naturally made some provision for the introduction of British law and order. Before the emigrants left England they signed an agreement by which they bound themselves in a solemn league and covenant to set up English law in the new settlement. Courts were to be established and the signatories were to be liable to be mustered and drilled for the protection of the community. Under the presidency of Colonel Wakefield there was to be a committee of control, which was to have power to call out the armed inhabitants and to levy duties and rates. Thus British law was to be established where there was no British sovereignty, and the Colonial Office, not without satisfaction in finding a joint in its enemy’s armour, took notice. The directors, alarmed, sought legal opinion and were advised that the agreement was illegal and the directors should at once abandon it and notify all concerned. The directors immediatelv wrote to

1819-40]

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Colonel Wakefield informing him of this and instruc ting him not to put the voluntary constitution into operation, but suggesting the establishment of an " association of order ” which would send offenders to Coventry. The constitution, however, had a start. The directors also engaged the Rev. J. G. Butler, who had worked in New Zealand as a C. M. S. missionary and held a New South Wales Commission to act as a magistrate in New Zealand, and sent him out in the Bolton. Mr. Butler was relied on to serve as “ a sufficient temporary provision for the prevention of such offences as might otherwise have been committed with impunity.”

Meanwhile the settlers were on the beach and some sort of authority was needed. The first lot landed, it must be remembered, a week before Hobson arrived in the Bay of Islands, and it took some time for the news of his proclamations and the meeting at Waitangi to reach Port Nicholson. Even if it could have been claimed that the colonists themselves were a uniform body of saints, they were not the only factors in the situation. On March 10th alarm was caused by the sound of firing heard on the hills to the east of the Hutt River, and Wakefield issued arms to the settlers. The firing came from local Maoris who were searching for their missing chief Puakawa. His body was found with its head cut off and the heart taken out, and the woman and the slave boy who had accompanied him into the fields were missing. This, the work of “ foreign ” Maoris, was the first sign to the colonists that their might be serpents in their Eden. In April some Maoris believed to belong to the Ngati-Kahungunu tribe, in the Wairarapa, stole articles from a house on the river, and inflicted a wound on a boy from which he died. Te Puni and Wharepouri were genuinely friendly, but the settlement lay between two uncertainties, Te Rauparaha and the Ngati-Kahungunu. The committee met first

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early in March, and an agreement was made with the local chiefs for the exercise of sovereign rights. Constables were appointed, one for Petone and one for Thorndon. Offenders were tried, and a militia established in which all men between 18 and 60 were required to serve. Meanwhile Hobson had established himself at the Bay of Islands, and made arrangements for getting additional signatures to the treaty of Waitangi and proclaiming sovereignty in the southern districts.

To understand the quarrels between Hobson and the Company and the claims of Auckland and Wellington that were to embitter New Zealand politics for some years, one must get a clear picture of Hobson and his environment. Hobson came to New Zealand with the Colonial Office view of the Company’s proceedings, and probably the British Government’s instruction of December 1839 that the Port Nicholson settlers were to be “ regarded with consideration and kindness ” did not reach him before he was stricken with his illness on March Ist. Moreover, though it was obviously to the advantage of the Company that Hobson should think well of it, Edward Gibbon Wakefield was attacking him fiercely in London. Hobson’s illness was a deplorable happening for New Zealand. It laid him on the shelf for a while at a critical time, and though he recovered sufficiently to serve as the Queen’s representative for another two and a half years, he was never the same man. The difficulties of his office were formidable enough to try the strength of the most robust. Hobson is by far the most pathetic figure of early New Zealand history. His private life was unassailable ; his public career in New Zealand was one long wrestle with nature and man. When he came to New Zealand his health was already undermined by tropical service, and with no more force at his back than four policemen from Sydney

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and a British warship whose captain was impatient to fulfil his original order to go to the China station, he was asked to introduce and maintain British sovereignty among a turbulent savage race already unsettled and corrupted by contact with Europeans. He had as little money as military backing. He was required to govern, with a handful of civil servants and inadequate shipping, a country a thousand miles long in which travel by land was painfully difficult and slow. And that civil service was neither as capable nor as scrupulously honourable as it might have been. Lieutenant Willoughby Shortland is described by Dr. G. H. Scholefield * as “ an outspoken naval officer, vain and overbearing, lacking both tact and experience.” Cooper, the Treasurer and Collector of Customs, adds Dr. Scholefield, “ was even less satisfactory than Shortland.” He was convicted of misuse of Customs monies, and his career came to a sudden end. The Civil Service was so small that Felton Mathew, the surveyor, who laid out Auckland, was for some time without a draughtsman. Even with the missionaries as a reserve, the ability and character Hobson could command at the Bay of Islands and for the first year or so at Auckland, was far below what was at Wakefield’s disposal in the south. Unlike Hobson, Wakefield had an organised colony to draw from. The arrival in 1841-42 of William Swainson, AttorneyGeneral, William Martin, Chief Justice, and Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, three men who would have been ranked as outstanding anywhere, greatly strengthened the community about the Governor, but Hobson died in September 1842, and, unfortunately for him. the Wellington colony had ranged itself against him from the start.

After Waitangi Hobson planned to visit Port Nicholson as soon as possible, but in March at the

• Captain William Hobson p. 161.

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Waitemata he was stricken with paralysis and made quite unfit for work. Hobson was taken back to the Bay, and in a few weeks he made a recovery sufficient to enable him to transact business. It is not surprising that Dr. Scholefield draws a contrast between Hobson’s position and condition in those March days—” Sick, harassed by worries, surrounded by unreliable counsel lors, arrested in the midst of a task of supreme importance ’’—and the rejoicings at Port Nicholson about that time, “ the cheers of five hundred hopeful and energetic Britons and the guns of a squadron ” when two more of the Company’s ships arrived. The news of Hobson’s illness caused Governor Gipps in Sydney to send Major Thomas Bunbury, of the 80th Regiment, and a detachment of that unit to New Zealand. The eighty men of the 80th Regiment (now the 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment) whom Gipps sent over, were the first of the British Army to be stationed in the colony. Bunbury and Hobson soon became friends and the sick Governor begged Bunbury to take his place in the expedition to the South, so at the end of April Bunbury set off in the Herald to get more signatures for the Treaty and proclaim sovereignty. From Henry Williams, who had been treating with the chiefs of Cook Strait, Hobson heard of the European community that had settled at Port Nicholson and was proceeding to govern itself. In April there arrived news that really alarmed Hobson. The brig Integrity had arrived in Wellington from Sydney. The charterer had a dispute with the captain and invoked the aid of the local law. The captain refused to recognise this authority and was arrested and committed for trial and kept in custody. He escaped, re-joined his ship, and sailed north to complain to Hobson. The Lieutenant-Governor decided not to await a report from Bunbury in the Herald, but to despatch Shortland immediately in the

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Integrily, with an escort of 30 men from the 80th Regi ment and five mounted constables to proclaim sover eignty at Port Nicholson and assert the Government’s authority. Hobson reported to his superiors that the proceedings there amounted to high treason, and described the colonists as “ demagogues.’’ Indeed at the Bay the settlement at Port Nicholson seems to have been commonly referred to as the “ Republic.”

Shortland arrived at Port Nicholson on June 2nd, and proclaimed British Sovereignty over the North Island and the whole of New Zealand, and dissolved the “ illegal association ” set up by the colonists. It was a situation in which the greatest tact was called for. “ Well, gentlemen, without authority to do so you have established a government. We realise that the circumstances were exceptional. You must realise that dtere can be only one authority, that of the properly constituted British Government, and that must be established at once. Let it be done in as friendly a fashion as possible.” If this had been Hobson’s and Shortland's attitude, subsequent relations between North and South would not have become so strained. Hobson, however, regarded the settlers with a very unfriendly eye, and he was a sick man. When Shortland arrived in Port Nicholson, he at once sent a constable ashore with a letter to Wakefield stating that he would land next day and read the proclamations. Early next morning the constable again went ashore and hauled down some flags that were flying on public buildings, including the one at Wakefield’s house, a proceeding that was not the friendliest of introductions. That day, June 3rd, was too rough for Shortland to land with becoming dignity, but he was waited on by some of the leading settlers, including Dr. Evans, the Company’s “ judge ” and umpire, and Captain Chaffers, who had become harbourmaster, and the Governor’s representative was assured of the com-

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munity s pleasure at the arrival of the Queen’s representative. It was explained to Shortland that the conduct of the settlers had been grossly misrepresented ; they had acted solely to maintain order in the settlement, and were delighted to have this authority replaced by that of Her Majesty. The Port Nicholson settlers, indeed, regarded the alarm of the Government as a joke. They had come to New Zealand in the hope and expectation of being in a British community and of establishing the Queen’s writ. Hobson was simply satisfying this wish. Shortland replied that he would be glad to believe this was so, and asked that the Council declare itself dissolved and that all New Zealand flags be hauled down. This was at once agreed to. Next day, June 4th, Shortland landed in state, and w r as received by Wakefield and leading settlers ; the proclamations were read ; the I nion Jack was saluted by all ; and the Maoris rejoiced in their own lively way. The terms of the proclamation about the local government—references to usurpation of Hobson’s powers “ to the manifest injury and detriment of all Her Majesty’s liege subjects in New Zealand caused some resentment, but this did not seriously affect the community’s acceptance of the new order. Shortland and his soldiers established themselves at Thorndon, and Shortland settled down to the transaction of public business, including the adjustment of disputes between the Company and the Maoris. He reported to Hobson that Her Majesty’s Government had been fully established and that “ both the European and native population are in a very satisfactory state.” He noted the industry and respectability of the settlers ; and attested to the courtesy and consideration of Wakefield and his officers. Shortland, however, did not make himself popular. He displayed his authority too much. To impress the settlement, and no doubt the Maoris also, Shortland asked Captain Nias of the Herald to come

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into the harbour and sail round the bay. This Nias did, and the Herald was the first British warship to sail the waters of Port Nicholson. He took her out against a southerly one evening, with boats’ crews holding lights to guide him past Barrett Reef. (Nearly a hundred years later, in 1937, a daughter of Captain Nias, Miss Carolin Nias, who had come to New Zealand to visit the scenes of her father’s service, flew over Cook Strait from Blenheim to Wellington.) The settlers in public meeting voted an address to Hobson expressing attachment to the British Crown. Wakefield went to the Bay of Islands to present it, and when he returned, impressed by Hobson’s “ kindness of heart and nature, his love of justice and his high-minded and straight-forward con duct,” prospects of good relations between North and South must have looked bright.

Two factors, however, were to strain these relations for years to come—the site of the capital and the land question. The settlers had tacked on to their expression of attachment a suggestion that Port Nicholson should be the seat of government, and to this Hobson would not agree. He had chosen the Waitemata, and in September his preparation party began work on the shores of that harbour. Hobson described this as a central position and one well adapted for internal communication. He was influenced by his duty to the Maori race, with large numbers of which he would be in touch at Auckland. Port Nicholson was furious at the choice. The settlers urged that their position was the most central and that they were by far the largest community in the colony. The directors of the Company protested to the Colonial Office and while they absolved Hobson of “ any more dishonest motive than that of a poor jealousy of those who presumed to begin the colonisation of New Zealand,” they suggested, unjustifiably, that the choice had been made during his illness, in the

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interests of another colonisation company. Thus began the long rivalry between the two centres, which were not only a world apart geographically, but very different in foundation and character. Wellington was founded by organised immigration. Auckland was founded by the Government of New Zealand, and the establishment drew a miscellaneous lot of people who were not animated by a common purpose. There was a good deal of land speculation in Wellington—many sections were sold in the early months at an advance—but there was far more in Auckland. Wellington thought Auckland was an upstart, a mushroom settlement set down in poor lands, a desert site. Auckland retaliated by referring to the “ mountains, marshes, and fens of Cook Strait,” the windiness of the harbour, and the dangers of the entrance. It was a “ miserably chosen settlement.” Relations would have been much more friendly if communication had been better, but for years delay in getting news from the capital was a grievance in Wellington. The two settlements were hundreds of miles apart by sea, and land communication was fatally slow. For some time sea transport was entirely by sail. Commenting on the arrival of a ship from Auckland in 1842, Jerningham Wakefield noted that the previous news from the capital was 127 days old, and the news from London was only a fortnight older. At the same time the Nelson people were complaining that they had not heard from Auckland for nearly a hundred days. Sometimes mails arrived from Auckland by way of Sydney. As late at 1854, when the first New Zealand Parliament was sitting in Auckland, the Wellington Spectator acknowledged with pointed comment the receipt of Parliamentary intelligence by this roundabout route of over 2,000 miles. It is little wonder that the people of Port Nicholson were restive. They could not get the grievance about the capital out of their heads. When they

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sent a loyal address of congratulation to Queen Victoria on the birth of her first child, they added a request that the capital should be moved.

They had other grievances. The legal machinery was inadequate. The powers of the police magistrate, M. Murphy, were restricted, and it was complained that debts remained unpaid, contracts unfulfilled, wills unproved and unexecuted, and that accused persons were kept for months without being brought to trial. The methods of the police sent down from the North, with their parade of force, were regarded as smacking too much of the convict conditions of New South Wales, from which colony the Government was derived. Another grievance concerned Captain Chaffers. He was appointed harbour-master at Port Nicholson but the New Zealand Government would not confirm the appointment, and Chaffers went back to England. It was complained, too, that the Government would do nothing to make the entrance to Port Nicholson safer for shipping, and it was left to the Wellington people to put up the first marks, a beacon on Pencarrow Head and one on Beacon Hill. “ We might be the savages of Timbuctoo ” wrote the Gazette in July 1841, “ and Captain Hobson a seller of slops in the West Indies, for any care the Government takes of us.”

Hobson’s Government might have been more attentive to the needs of the largest of its settlements, but tiie truth is that his establishment and his finance were inadequate for the supervision of his scattered and growing family. Particularly serious in the eyes of Port Nicholson was the complaint that Hobson enticed Wellington artisans to Auckland. What happened was that Hobson was laying out Auckland, and labour was scarce, so he announced at Port Nicholson that the Government was prepared to engage masons, bricklayers and carpenters at Auckland for six or twelve months, at

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from 7/6 to 9/- a day. Perhaps it was not a wise step, but it does not seem that any substantial hardship was inflicted on the Port Nicholson community, which was ahead of Auckland in town development but was checked by the doubt about land-titles. Port Nicholson, however, scented a conspiracy against it on the part of the colony’s prejudiced Governor. These immigrants had been brought out by the Company to develop the Port Nicholson settlement, and it was most improper of the Governor to seduce them from their allegiance. The bitterness of feeling may be gauged by the remark of the Spectator that Hobson should be known as “ Captain Crimp.” When a number of Wellington citizens met in February 1841, to adopt a petition to the Queen praying for Hobson’s recall, this was set out as a main grievance, following the declaration that the LieutenantGovernor had “ systematically neglected his duty to Her Majesty’s subjects settled at Port Nicholson.” The two settlements, however, were to agree on one thing at least, for before he died, the citizens of Auckland also petitioned for Hobson’s recall.

As the months passed by and 1841 succeeded 1840 and no Hobson came to the largest settlement in New Zealand, discontent deepened. Over all was the huge uncertainty of land titles. It is quite impossible in a history like this to do more than sketch the barest outline of a problem that plagued New Zealand for years and drew the two races into war. It is enormously complicated, this history of the purchase of Maori land ; the evidence is in a hundred books and records of the Native Land Court, which is still busy with native titles. The Company purchased from the Maoris, but it had never guaranteed nor was it able to give, a title. British sovereignty was introduced, and Hobson’s proclamation that the Crown would not recognise any titles to land not derived from or confirmed bv the Crown, and that

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future purchases from Maoris would not be recognised, brought the first degree of order into confusion. The Company, no doubt, was comforted by the promise that all existing claims would be inquired into, but when, in August, news arrived in Wellington of Gipps’s Land Bill in the New South Wales Parliament—New Zealand was still part of that colony—there was something like panic. This legislation withheld town sites from private selection, and placed a limit of 2,500 acres on holdings. There was even talk of moving settlers to Chile, in those days a place of more interest to New Zealanders than it is now, for sometimes mails would be sent to Europe via Valparaiso. A deputation went to Sydney to interview the Governor. Sir George Gipps received them in a friendly spirit, and offered to let the settlement take 110,000 acres in one continuous block about the harbour. His idea was to prevent the settlers spreading over a vast extent of country, choosing the best land and leaving inferior to those who came after.

The deputation returned pretty well satisfied, but the spirit of the offer was violated by the Company's action in opening up land at Wanganui, which was a long way from the proposed Wellington block. Wanganui was an over-flow settlement from Wellington. Nelson was the Company’s No. 2 colony, but the first settlers did not arrive in that settlement until early in 1842, and meanwhile there was pressing need for more land. The churches, represented by Henry Williams, James Buller and Octavius Hadfield, had pioneered the Wanganui district at the end of 1839 and the beginning of 1840, and Williams and Hadfield brought copies of the Treaty for Maoris to sign. In March 1840 Jerningham Wakefield went to the Wanganui river to complete the purchase of land begun by his uncle. He used the same methods,—the meeting, the explanation of the sale, and the display of goods. He distributed £7OO worth

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and there was a riot over the distribution. In June of 1840 the Rev. John Mason, accompanied by his wife and a lay catechist Richard Matthews, settled two miles up the river. The first settlers arrived late in that year and encountered difficulties that were not to be resolved for a long while. When the Company opened Wanganui land for settlement the Government warned colonists against taking it up, and the warning was to be amply justified by a long, and in the end, a bloody dispute between Europeans and Maoris. Meanwhile, as one may read in the lively but biassed pages of Jerningham Wakefield, Wanganui or Petre, as the little town was called, was a distant outpost of Wellington, which one reached by sea in small craft, or by walking over the Porirua track and along the beach. To us in this motor age it is astonishing how many men walked to Wanganui and back, and thought nothing of the long tramp and the many rivers to be forded. William Bell, a Scottish farmer, became a celebrity when, in 1841, he drove a team of bullocks with packs on their backs over the partly finished Porirua track and along the coast to Wanganui.

The dispute between the Company and British authority became more and more confused and dangerous. The British Government disapproved of Gipps’s arrangement with the Company. While the Company’s Agent on the spot was trying to settle its difficulties, the directors in London, so far away that it took the best part of a year to get an answer to a despatch, were making arrangements of their own. Peace was made with the British Government, and Lord John Russell sealed the pact by dining with the directors. Early in 1841 the Company received its formal charter, which was to have a currency of forty years, and before the end of 1840 the Colonial Secretary had agreed that the Company should get four times as many acres of land as it had expended

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in pounds sterling. On this basis the Company was entitled to about a million acres. This settlement was received with great satisfaction by the Company, but it did not usher in the expected era of peace with the authorities. Indeed, until the end of its career in the fifties, the Company was in a continuous state of war with the British and New Zealand Governments, and often in conflict with its own settlers, many of whom were bitterly disappointed. It was chronically short of money. Its only revenue was from land sales, so the inducement to sell land was very strong. What cut across all its hopes was the difficulty about titles. It was one thing to talk about a million acres in London, but quite another thing to deliver these acres in New Zealand. When the Company’s purchases were investigated by William Spain, the chief Land Commissioner, it was found that the claims were open to most serious doubt. The Company’s conception of the rights of the Maoris was fundamentally different from that of the New Zealand Government and the Colonial Office. The Company held that the treaty covered only the lands occupied by the Maori, and that “ waste ” lands reverted to the Crown. In that it was supported by the British Parliamentary Committee of 1844, but steadfastly opposed by Governors on the spot and Ministers in London, and in the end it was the official view that prevailed. So long and confused was the struggle over titles, that, though the Company was given authority to issue these to its settlers, when it moved to surrender its charter in 1850 it had not issued a single one.

Distance proved to be a most disturbing factor in the situation. Despatches written in New Zealand came back after months to revive old animosities and suggest new grievances. In November 1840 New Zealand was separated from New South Wales, and there was rejoicing when the news reached New Zealand. At any

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rate one side of the triangle of Government which stretched right across the world, had been removed. Colonel Wakefield, who had kept aloof from the Wellington campaign against Hobson, and always treated him with courtesy and consideration, signed the address of congratulation to Hobson on his promotion. Unfortunately the address contained a ha’porth of congratulation and a deal of the old grievance about the site of the capital. However, in August, 1841, Hobson paid his long-deferred visit to Wellington. One wishes there was more information about those days. Jerningham Wakefield’s account is a sad exhibition of bad manners. He persistently sneers at Hobson, and rejoices that the bulk of men of standing kept away from His Excellency. If they did, and there does not seem to be much doubt, we must think so much the worse of them. The local paper said a complimentary dinner to Hobson fell through because of insufficient support. There was ground for Wellington’s grievances, but after all this was the representative of the Queen, and an invalid carrying a crushing burden of care. Hobson granted the people of Wellington relief in respect to customs-duties and legal tribunals, and, what was much more important, gave them definite assurances about occupation of land, subject, however, to the vital condition of validity of title. The land so “freed” comprised over 100,000 acres round Port Nicholson and in the Manawatu district, 50,000 acres each at New Plymouth and Wanganui. On the other hand, there was a difference of opinion between Hobson and the Company over the site of the Company’s second settlement. Hobson offered a site north of Auckland ; the Company suggested Port Cooper, later known as Lyttelton. Hobson objected to such dispersion of settlements, and finally the Company fell back on what was known as “ the Company’s district,” on either side of Cook Strait, and the Nelson territory was finally chosen.

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Hobson mixed his comment in his reports on the visit to Wellington. In addressing the new Legislative Council in Auckland, he spoke of “ the zeal and vigour with which the Company have conducted their operations, the enterprising, energetic and independent character of their settlers,” and the “ natural advantages of Port Nicholson.” To his chief in London however, he reported that he had found “ one portion of the community in a great ferment, agitated and excited by a venal press and by a few discontented spirits, who, when they fairly brought their case before me found they had no sufficient grounds for complaint, and that they had been anticipated in almost every measure they sought by the previous provisions of the local Government.” Felton Mathew, Hobson’s Surveyor-General, criticised the lay-out of the town as too extensive for the population and providing inadequate reserves for public purposes. He also shook his head over the settlement’s surroundings, but he considered “ a more beautiful and romantic spot it would be difficult to conceive,” and “ a finer harbour cannot be desired.” The Governor agreed with his official’s description of the town and its surroundings, but he mingled his praise of Port Nicholson as a port with references to violent winds, the extensiveness of the “ estuary,” and the shallowness of the approach to the shores. When Hobson’s criticism of his Wellington critics got back to Wellington it did not help matters. Indeed Hobson’s hopes for real and permanent improvement in the relations of Auckland and Wellington were not realised. Wellington did not see him again. He died in Auckland on September 10th, 1842, pursued to the end by circumstances and his enemies.

The most ironical thing about his end was that nearly six months later, the Under-Secretary in London, unaware that death had intervened, recommended as the

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only way out of the difficulties that were accumulating in New Zealand, a change of Governor. The judgment of history, however, is much kinder to Hobson. The people of Port Nicholson were soon to find that the whips of Hobson were to become scorpions under Fitzßoy, and that the bottom of blundering, confusion and impecuniosity was yet to be sounded. Meanwhile, under the handicap of uncertainty about land they progressed as best they could. As in all infant colonies, the colonists lived partly by taking in one another’s washing. Fortunately many of them brought money ; they had the Company behind them ; and the regular arrival of fresh parties fed the stream of currency. It was estimated that in 1841 sales of merchandise in Wellington totalled £BO,OOO, and that note circulation was £150,000. Two hundred Maoris had credit in the local stores. The flow of immigration was strong and fairly steady. In 1841, the year in which the Company “ touched the zenith of its prosperity,” eleven ships carrying immigrants arrived at Port Nicholson.

This stream of immigrants made it more and more necessary for the authorities to find land, and little that was open and accessible was available. The Hutt Valley, Miramar and the Strait bays. Happy Valley, Karori and Porirua, were not sufficient, and much of this land was heavily forested. Exploration to the east was a necessity. Dieffenbach, starting in from Lowry Bay in 1839, had seen Lake Wairarapa and Palliser Bay. When Jerningham Wakefield visited the Manawatu in August 1840 he was told by Jack Duff, a European trader on the Manawatu River, that travelling by canoe, he had traversed a gorge in the mountains and come out into rich level land. Duff seems to have been the first European to see the gorge, and his reports of the lower Hawkes Bay district naturally pleased this representative of the Company. However, something nearer to Port

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Nicholson was required. In November 1841, Robert Stokes, with a mixed party of five, left Petone and went up the Hutt Valley to find a direct route to the Wairarapa. Taking the route now followed by the road over the Rimutaka range, the party reached the Wairarapa Valley, explored it, and after an absence of twelve days, returned by the coastal route with much valuable information about the land available for settlement and possibilities of communication with Hawkes Bay and the West Coast. In May 1842 Charles Kettle, surveyor to the Company, tackled the problem from the other end. l.eading a party of six Europeans and seven Maoris, Kettle passed through the Manawatu Gorge, and came south to Mount Bruce and down the Wairarapa Valley. They were baffled by the barrier between the valley and the Hutt and suffered from fatigue, exposure, and shortage of food. The leader of the Maoris showed them a route he had taken twenty years before, and crossing by the route now taken by the railway, they reached Wellington on June Bth. It is worthy of note that although the Wellington Maoris feared the Maoris of the Wairarapa, these explorers received every help from the owners of the land. In the following year S. C. Brees, principal surveyor to the Company, formed a track over the Rimutaka range on Stokes’s route.

These discoveries must have greatly cheered the people of Wellington, and in 1843 a number of men decided to pioneer the Wairarapa. They were C. R. Bidwill, brother of J. C. Bidwill, who was the first European to climb Ngauruhoe, Frederick Weld, afterwards Premier of New Zealand, and author of the “ selfreliant ” policy in respect to the Maori wars ; Charles Clifford, (afterwards Sir Charles, and Speaker of the House of Representatives); W. Swainson, F.R.S., F.L.S.: and the Hon. Henry Petre. In 1843 a, visit was paid to the Lower Wairarapa and permission obtained from

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the local chiefs to establish stations. In 1844 some hundreds of sheep, brought from Australia, were driven round the coastal route—the eastern bays of Port Nicholson, Pencarrow, and the shores of Palliser Bay. Round the Mukamuka rocks in Palliser Bay, which were always awash (they were raised some years later by an earthquake) Bidwill and three helpers carried 350 sheep, one by one, without any loss. Bidwill was the first to take sheep to the Wairarapa. The others were the first to get their sheep on to their stations. We shall see later how these pioneers fared. Meanwhile it is important to note that they went outside the Company’s system and negotiated directly with the Maoris for land. A land-seeker who was driven further afield by difficulties in Wellington was William Deans, who with his brother John took up land at Riccarton, near Christchurch, and preceded the Canterbury Pilgrims by some years. Deans visited Palliser Bay as early as October, 1840, and was attracted by what he saw, but apparently did not follow up his exploration.*

The Company’s land system was fast breaking down, and before these sheep began to feed on the grass round Lake Wairarapa much had happened. The Treaty of Waitangi cast a doubt upon the Company's right to buy land. Annexation introduced a new authority and the Maoris were not slow to see the importance of this. It gave an opportunity to all those who wished to repudiate sales, and the temptation was increased by what followed. The Company claimed that it should be given its million acres with a title ; the Commissioner insisted, and was upheld in this, that the validity of title to all land should be established. Un-

• It is believed in the Barton family that the founder, Richard Barton, a Hutt Valley pioneer, selected White Rock station, beyond Cape Palliser, in 1842. but did not slock it till a few vears later. Documentary proof is lacking.

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fortunately the investigation was slow in beginning and proceedings lasted a long while. Speed, as Reeves well says, was the first thing needful, and the second and the third, but William Spain, the commissioner sent out from England to adjudicate land claims in the Com pany’s districts, did not reach New Zealand until December 1841, and it was May 1842 before his first court was opened. This was in Wellington, and the Commissioner and Colonel Wakefield were soon regarding each other as enemies. Spain, indeed, roundly charged Wakefield with persistent obstruction. His investigations, which were carried out in great detail, dragged on until 1845, by which time there had been a terrible tragedy arising out of land claims in Marlborough, and on Wellington’s outskirts war was at hand. Delay greatly complicated the whole problem. Even Spain, who was strongly pro-Maori, was exasperated by some of the Maori claims. Long before the court opened in Wellington trouble had begun. The natives of Pipitea and Te Aro pas complained to Hobson of settlers encroaching on their villages and cultivations, and declared that they had not sold them and would not sell. At Porirua, Rangihaeata and his men broke down bridges on the road, felled trees across it, and destroyed some unfinished buildings. When, owing to the drowning of a chief, the Maoris declared the West Coast beach tapu, and stopped traffic on it, the Police Magistrate declined to take action ; he had no power, he said, to interfere with “ an immemorial and recognised usage among the natives.” At the Hutt in 1842 a native chief of Kaiwarra named Taringa-Kuri, sat down with some followers on William Swainson’s property. He drove off settlers and felled trees in defiance of authority. There were frequent reports of similar actions at Wanganui. An applications for a warrant to arrest Rangihaeata was refused by the Supreme Court after judgment had been

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reserved for four months. In the circumstances this policy was wise. Had either court acted as the applicants desired, the results would have been grave for the settlement. The handful of soldiers had been taken back to the north, the establishment of a militia was forbidden, though the British Government had given instructions that it should be formed, and law and order depended upon a few policemen. But the spectacle of British authority unwilling or powerless to assert itself did not impress the Maoris, especially the more restless.

The position was not improved by the examination of Dicky Barrett at the Commissioner’s Court, and Spain’s findings. Barrett admitted that he had not put the “ tenth ” system before the Maoris who sold to Wakefield ; he had merely said they would get “ a certain portion of land.” And Spain found that the Company’s purchases had been made “ in a very loose and careless manner;” that the greater part of the land claimed by the Company in Port Nicholson and between Port Nicholson and Wanganui and in Wanganui had not been alienated by the natives ; that the Maoris at Te Aro and Pipitea did not consent to sell; that except at Petone the natives who executed the deed had not intended to sell their pas, cultivations, and burial grounds ; that the interpretation in the buying and selling had been “ exceedingly imperfect.” The Maoris had been given only a slight idea of the amount of land to be acquired, and the interpreter’s explanation of the system of reserves was “ perfectly unintelligible ” to them. Though Spain held that the Company’s title to the “ whole site of the town of Wellington ” was “ most defective,” he awarded the Company its 1,100 acres, together with 70,800 acres of country land, subject to payment of compensation. The Porirua purchase—and this finding is important in view of Rangihaeata’s conduct—he ruled out all together.

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For fifteen months after Hobson's death Lieutenant Shortland acted as administrator. Captain Robert FitzRoy, Hobson’s successor, also a naval officer, was an impulsive, erratic man of poor judgment, the least competent of the Queen’s representatives in the days before responsible government. The public dressingdown he administered to Jerningham Wakefield at his levee in Wellington illustrated his lack of balance. He inherited an impoverished estate, and as a result of his own blunders and the insufficient backing of the Government in Britain, he left it still poorer. Six months before he arrived there occurred what is popularly known as the “ Wairau Massacre,” when Captain Arthur Wakefield, Colonel Wakefield’s brother and head of the Nelson settlement, and twenty-one other Europeans lost their lives in trying to assert British authority against Te Rauparaba and Te Rangihaeata, claimants to the Marlborough lands. Some fell in fight with the Maoris ; the others were killed as prisoners, to satisfy Rangihaeata’s demand for utu* The judgment of the Colonial Office has been endorsed by later generations, that “ the whites needlessly violated the rules of the law of England, the maxims of prudence, and the principles of justice.” Indeed, when the Nelson authorities took this step, Spain was about to adjudicate on the lands in dispute. It would be easier to praise Fitzßoy for his moral courage in frankly admitting that the dead had been at fault, if any other course had been open to him. He told Te Rauparaba and Te Rangihaeata to their faces that as the white men were in the wrong he would not avenge their deaths, and he said the same to the people of Wellington. It would have been madness for the

• Te Rongo, wife of Te Rangihaeata and related to Te Rauparaba, was killed by a stray bullet. According to the account in Lindsay Buick’s Old Marlborough Te Rauparaba was reluctant to kill the prisoners, but Te Rangihaeata insisted. The date was June 17th, 1843.

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Governor to lake military action against the two chiefs, for he had only a handful of troops.

It may easily be imagined, however, how Wellington felt about the tragedy. Horror and furious indignation were accompanied by fear for the safety of the community. The victims were of their own race, members of a neighbouring settlement, friends and relations. In such a community—it happened in Taranaki some years later—the dominant thought is that the white man is in the right and the native in the wrong. Besides, the facts behind the foolish attempt to arrest Rauparaha and Rangihaeata could not have been fully known at the time. What most people saw was cold-blooded murder, and a blow struck at the ruling race which must be repaid with interest. The immediate need, however, was the defence of Wellington. The reputation of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata was well known, and it seemed reasonable to believe that, flushed with their success, they would descend on Wellington from Rapid and the west coast. Indeed these chiefs returned to their homes to forestall the reprisals they felt sure would follow. It must be borne in mind that Rauparaha and his followers considered the Company had acted in bad faith, and the threat to put the chiefs in irons deeply wounded Maori pride. Te Rauparaha was sure of his Ngati-Toa for an attack on Wellington, but he failed with Ngati Awa and Ngati-Raukawa. The influential and courageous Hadfield was on the spot, at Waikanae, and the Europeans had a staunch friend in the Ngati-Awa chief Wiremu Kingi te Rangitake of Waitara, who. years later was repaid with injustice in the Taranaki war. Hadfield countered the exhortations of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata to Ngati-Awa and Ngati-Raukawa, and Wiremu Kingi, who had been baptised by the missionary, stood firm by his side. It is extremely doubtful whether the little settlement at Port Nicholson could

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have withstood a combined attack, but the chiefs were unwilling to move with only one tribe. Then came George Clarke, Protector of Aborigines, and William Spain, Land Claims Commissioner, with promises that there would be no move against Te Rauparaha before the case had been investigated.

Meanwhile steps had been taken to defend the town. A committee of safety was set up, over five hundred volunteers were enrolled, and drilling began. Three guns belonging to the New Zealand Company, which had been mounted on Somes Island, were dragged to the top of Clay Point, above the present junction of Lambton Quay and Willis Street, and set in an emplacement with a trench nine feet wide. A redoubt was built at Thorndon, on the edge of Pipitea Point, between the foot of Pipitea Street and the site of the present St. Paul’s Church. It consisted of three sides of an oblong, with a ditch and parapet ; the rear was left open.* Imagine the surprise and indignation of the Wellington people when immediately after his arrival from Auckland, Major Richmond, the newly appointed Police Magistrate, ordered the disbandment of the volunteers, and issued a proclamation warning the settlers against the “ unlawful assemblage of people under arms.” Major Richmond brought with him two officers and 53 men of the 96th Regiment (now 2nd battalion Manchester Regiment) but the people of Wellington were to be forgiven if they thought this garrison somewhat inadequate. At any rate they went on drilling. Early in December of the same year Major Richmond had to call in the soldiers to help the police to arrest a Maori for theft; and when the prisoner was tried there was a threat of rescue and the troops were kept ready to turn out.

* Reminiscences of John Waters, a pioneer, quoted by Mr. James C-owan in the Auckland Star, 25/3/39.

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Under Fitzßoy the condition of New Zealand became worse. The defenders of Kororareka were driven to their ships, and the town was sacked. A British force of Regulars was checked with severe loss in trying to bring Hone Heke to book. When Fitzßoy was recalled in 1845 the Treasury was empty and British prestige stood at its lowest ebb. Captain George Grey, fresh from successes in Australia, where he had put the colony of South Australia on its feet, took over in November of that year. Grey is not only the most brilliant figure in our political history ; he is one of the recognised Empire-builders of his time. No man, however, is more difficult to sum up in a few words. He inspired both devotion and intense dislike deepening to hatred. To some he was a noble and practical idealist ; to others he was a mean demagogue. The perspective of the years has thrown his errors, and they were neither few nor unimportant, into stronger relief, but it should not dim his astonishing record of achievement as soldier, statesman and patron of the arts. Grey was sometimes tortuous in method, vindictive in attitude, and extravagant in expression. A genuine liberal-democrat, he was thoroughly autocratic in his ways and could not work successfully with others. He was an able administrator, a man of vision, great personal charm, and rare courage, imaginative in reflection, bold and swift in action. Grey had genius, and he stood alone, ever ready to take the highest responsibility, even to the point of flat disobedience to orders. No public man has influenced the life of New Zealand at so many points.

Grey came to New Zealand at the early age of thirty-three, and he was much more vigorous in mind and body than either of his predecessors. He had, too, this advantage over Hobson and Fitzßoy, that he got strong support from England. The tragic folly of trying to develop a colony by starvation treatment was at last

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realised in London. Grey was given men and money. He reformed the finances, settled the war in North Auckland by mingled force and clemency, and put the Civil Service on an efficient footing. He had soon to turn his attention to Wellington, where the situation in the Hutt Valley was becoming impossible. The dragging out of the proceedings before the Land Claims Commissioner, and the delay in paying the compensation that Mr. Spain recommended, weakened the position of authority. The Maoris were paid £1,500 compensation for their Port Nicholson rights, but it was a long time before the land tangle w r as straightened out. It was one thing for Europeans to set reserves for the Maoris away from their villages, but quite another to induce them to take these up. Naturally enough, they wanted to stay where they were. Unfortunately the Te Aro and Pipitea settlements were in the centre of the town, and therefore very valuable commercially to the settlers, and there were strong complaints about their condition ; Wakefield referred to the “ filthy pas ” of the Maoris as late as 1847. After Wellington had had its war, over 500 acres in the Port Nicholson purchase that had been sold to Europeans were still being cultivated by Maoris.

The actual danger, however, lay in the Hutt, and it is worth noting that when fighting began there the Maoris of Wellington proper, as well as Te Puni at Petone, offered their services to the Europeans. In the dispute at the Hutt there was right and wrong on both sides. Taringa-Kuri was adjudged by Spain to have no right to squat on the Swainson land, but there was trouble about boundaries of reserves, and in 1846 even the friendly Te Puni complained that the Ngati-Awa reserves at Taita were occupied by European settlers. A payment of £4OO to Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata as a second purchase of the Hutt Valley did not mend

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matters ; the actual occupants did not benefit and they refused to move. Then at the beginning of 1846 there was an unfortunate occurrence that caused the Europeans to be charged with bad faith. Taringa-Kuri had built a village called Makahi-nuku on the Hutt river about two miles above the present Lower Hutt bridge. The Governor sent the Rev. Richard Taylor, the wellknown missionary, as a messenger to Ngati-Tama and Ngati-Rangatahi to say that if they left the ground peaceably he would see that they got compensation for their crops. The principal chief Kapara-te-Hau agreed to the terms, but in the meantime troops had advanced, and the Maori village, including the church, was burned. Taylor saw Europeans desecrating the church and plundering houses, though he afterwards told Rangihaeata that the burning was accidental. The incensed Maoris said this was the end of peace, and Taylor took back this decision to the Governor. Then followed raidings and murder. In the view of the Maoris the Europeans had began hostilities. According to Taylor, Rangihaeata gave a tomahawk to two young men and bade them go and kill some European. On the Ist and 3rd of March the Maoris, divided into bands, descended swiftly on the home of Europeans on the banks of the Hutt and the Waiwhelu, drove away the inhabitants with only the clothes they were wearing, smashed furniture, and took away or burned goods. In little parties the plundered settlers walked into Wellington and were there looked after by the Government. From the number of persons to whom rations were supplied we can form a rough idea of the effect of their raids. There were 236 recipients all told—79 adults and 157 children. A month later, on April 2nd, Andrew Gillespie and his young son Andrew were suddenly attacked and so severely injured that they both died next day. Gillespie was the first settler to be placed on

Alexander Turnbull Library. , . _ , r 1 rom a sketch by Major-General J. O. Hamley. Rutland Stockade, Wanganui.

The men who fought at Boulcott’s Farm : A soldier of the 58th Regiment in the uniform of the time.

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the land from which Maoris had been evicted a few weeks before.

There were troops at the Hutt when these raids took place early in March, and the reason why they were not used immediately illustrated the tragic confusion into which the land question had fallen. The Governor had been advised by the Crown Law Office that he was acting illegally in evicting the Maoris, inasmuch as the grants issued by his predecessor had excepted all native cultivations and homes, and the advice went on to say that the natives were justified in resisting such eviction by force of arms. Sir George Grey was much troubled. He told Taylor that he was “ more like a bailiff turning the poor natives from their pretty cultivations, than a British Governor.”* Events, however, were too strong for legal opinions; the larger issue of the protection of settlers prevailed. On March 3rd the Governor issued a proclamation establishing martial law over a wide district, but excluding the town of Wellington, and on the same day the first shots were fired in a campaign that was relatively only a series of skirmishes but is an integral part of Wellington’s history and has many points of military or human interest.

The storm had been a long time brewing, and much preparation for it had been made. A year before, in April 1845, an alarm from the Hutt had brought fifty men from the 58th Regiment to relieve the militia garrison at Fort Richmond, which stood at the first bridge to be built over the Hutt River, about where the Lower Hutt bridge is to-day. Two companies of Regulars were stationed in Wellington in 1845, and these were backed by volunteers and by a militia established under an ordinance passed in March of that year. This conscription measure made all males between eighteen and sixtyliable for service within twenty-five miles of their post

• Rev. Richard Taylor’s diaries.

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offices ; they had to drill on twenty-eight days in the year. Already, however, news of war in the North and of danger near home, plus anxiety inherited from Wairau, had stimulated volunteering, and when news of the militia ordinance reached Wellington, 220 men were under arms. The men drilled with old Tower flint-lock muskets imported by the New Zealand Company for bartering with the Maoris. It is a measure of the meagreness of military equipment in the colony that both small arms and artillery despatched by the unofficial expedition were used in an official war. By the end of 1845 the New Zealand Government had at its disposal about a thousand Regular troops and five warships, from which contingents could be used for land operations, and the closing of the war in the North enabled the Governor to transfer most of his forces to the Wellington district. In February 1846, nearly six hundred men were shipped from Auckland to Wellington. There were detachments from the 99th Regiment (now 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment), the 58th Regiment (known as the “ Black Cuffs ” and now 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment), the 96th Regiment and the Royal Artillery. The first detachment of the 65th Regiment (called the “ Royal Tigers ” because their badge was a Bengal tiger ; now Ist Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment) to reach New Zealand arrived in Wellington in July 1846, in time to take part in the operations against Rangihaeata in the Porirua country. In this regiment, which was to see much service in Taranaki and the Waikato, Wellington has a special interest, for the York and Lancaster is the unit in the British Army to which is linked the Wellington Infantry Regiment, City of Wellington’s Own. Wellington was to know the 65th as a garrison regiment for some years.

These reinforcements brought the Regular garrison of the town up to nearly 800 men, but probably the

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excitement caused by their arrival was surpassed by that aroused by the sight of the first steamer to visit the port —H.M.S. Driver. This handsome brig was a paddle steamer of 1,058 tons, armed with six guns. Wonderful to the colonists, she was much more so to the Maoris, who had had no idea that a ship could be driven by fire against wind and tide.

Meanwhile the settlers, besides drilling, built fortifications. The earth-work at the edge of Pipilea Point thrown up when the news of Wairau came, was supplemented by a stronger work, fitted with guns, known unofficially as Clifford’s Redoubt but officially as Thorndon Fort, near the junction of Mulgrave and Pipilea streets. The principal fortification of the town was the redoubt at Te Aro, between Manners Street and the sea. One side ran parallel to Cuba Street and one ran along Manners Street towards Willis Street. The other two sides were left open, but the houses standing there were capable of defence. The trench and parapet enclosed several large buildings, including the Union Bank, and the whole seems to have been large enough to accommodate all the people at that end of the town. On the eastern side of Lower Cuba Street, a stockade, built in Maori fashion, enclosed the Government commissariat building.*

It was, however, the outposts of settlement that provided the most interesting precautions. The Hutt settlers built a stockaded fort on the left bank of the Hutt by the bridge. Captain George Compton, the settler who commanded the Hutt Militia, had lived in the back country of North America, and he planned Fort Richmond on lines devised for protection against the Indians. Fort Richmond was a stockade 95 feet square, with two flanking bastions at opposite angles commanding the bridge and the river. The bastions

• Reminiscences of John Waters.

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were small two-storied block-houses with the upper storeys set diagonally across the lower so that fire could be directed from above against an attack on the base. Stockade and bastions were loopholed. “ This,” says Mr. Cowan “ was the first of scores of stockades and blockhouses on the Maori border-line throughout this North Island, the advanced settlers’ refuge and protection, many of them garrisoned until the early eighties.” There was another post at Taita, a small blockhouse of slabs surrounded by a stockade, which stood on the western side of the present hotel. The block-house of sawn timber that stands, still sound but shabbylooking, off the road at Wallaceville, half a mile from the railway station, inappropriately adorned in its interior with a myriad of visitors’ names, is of much later date. It was built in 1860, with another near the bridge, as a rallying place for settlers in case of a Maori raid. At that time there was a hostile feeling among some of the Otaki natives, and there was a request for protection by Wairarapa settlers. This Hutt block-house never smelt powder nor housed refugees.

In the bush clearing of Karori, the settler-militia, helped by sailors from the Calliope and police from the town, made a stockade, some thirty feet by twenty, to guard against an attack from the direction of Owhariu in the west, and inside the enclosure was a two-roomed house, with one room for the garrison and one for women and children if they had to be gathered in. This was in May and June 1846, and through the time of alarm some of the settlers worked on their holdings with cartridge belts over their shoulders and guns at hand. The stockade stood on the right hand side of the present deep cutting in Lancaster Street, coming from the main road. The Hutt and Karori were Wellington’s flanks. The centre was the Porirua road, and along this was a line of little military posts, one at Khandallah, not

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fortified, popularly known as Mount Misery and officially as Sentry Hill ; a stockade at Johnsonville or “ Johnson's Clearing,” east of the present main road and railway and on the south side of the road running eastward to the old Petherick farm ; and then down to Tawa Flat and on to Paremata—Middleton’s Stockade, McCoy’s Stockade, Leigh’s Stockade and Fort Elliott, called after officers in charge. Late in 1846 the officer commanding at Fort Elliott, which stood near the site of Porirua railway station, was Captain A. H. Russell, father of the late Sir William Russell and grandfather of General Sir Andrew Russell, the leader of the New Zealand Division in the World War. These posts linked Wellington with Porirua Harbour, where Rangihaeata had his base, and protected the soldiers whom the Governor set to improve the north road out of the town. But Rangihaeata could attack the Hutt Valley by crossing the hills from Pahautanui (correctly Paua-taha-nui), using a route that came out opposite Belmont railway station to-day, and slip out of the valley by the same way. This he did.

The first shots in Wellington’s war were fired on the morning of March 3rd, 1846, at a company of the 96th beyond Boulcott’s farm. The Governor, who was in the town, sent reinforcements to the Hutt. Neither this, however, nor warnings received from Maori chiefs, including one from Te Rauparaha himself, prepared the authorities for what happened in May. The Governor was away in the north, and Major Richmond, the local superintendent, disbanded the militia in Wellington and reduced those at the Hutt to twentyfive men. Early on the morning of May 16th Rangihaeata’s men attacked the military post at Boulcott’s farm. The valley was still largely forest and Boulcott’s clearing, like others, was set in the frame of living and dead timber that was to become so characteristic of New

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Zealand settlement. The Boulcott homestead was close to where the Hutt Golf Club-house stands to-day, but one side of the clearing faced the river, and the Heretaunga—a hungry river, which has also swept awav the site of Fort Richmond—has considerably changed the contour of the battlefield. The general site is easily located, for at the corner of Old Military Road, leading down from the main road, there is a memorial to those who fell on that day. Lieutenant G. H. Page and fifty men of the 58th Regiment were posted at Boulcott’s farm. Half of the force occupied a large barn that was surrounded by a loop-holed stockade, and the rest were in Boulcott’s cottage, in out-houses and in tents. The disposition of the soldiers seems not to have been good ; at a later date, one supposes, an officer would not have placed some of his men in unprotected tents. The Maoris were able to creep close to the camp without being seen (actually they carried bushes as screens), and to catch the garrison divided. At dawn the sentry saw a Maori head, fired at it, and ran for the picket tent; but was overtaken and killed. The attackers fired volleys at the floor of the tents and came on with their tomahawks. None of the picket escaped. One of these was William Allen, known in New Zealand story as Bugler Allen. Roused by the shot Allen jumped up, seized his bugle and, running out, began to sound the alarm. As he did so a Maori struck him down with a blow on the right shoulder, nearly severing the arm. The young soldier tried to rise and seized his bugle with his left hand to sound his call, but a second blow, on the head, killed him. Allen’s conduct was brave enough without the embroidering it has received. When he tried to sound the alarm the camp had already been awakened by gun-fire. Nor was he the boy that popular accounts report him to be, a mistake that has arisen from the

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word ' bugler.” He was a private twenty-one years of age.*

The position of the garrison was now grave. Some forty-five men faced about two hundred Maoris, men from Rangihaeata’s country and a band from the Upper Wanganui. For a little while the soldiers were on the defensive, but Lieutenant Page, joined by some of his men, fought his way, sword in hand, through the press of enemies, to the barn, where the sections under the sergeants were coolly firing. Page may have erred in his plans for the defence of the camp, but in action he showed himself skilful and resolute. His tactics were an object lesson in the value of boldness against odds. Believing that attack was the best defence, he left a small party to hold the stockade and barn, and led his men in skirmishing order with fixed bayonets, into the open to meet the Maoris. The steadiness and fire discipline of the Regulars held the enemy, and then seven of the dis banded Hutt militia, who had kept their arms, dashed into the fight. The Maoris began to retire, and after i struggle lasting an hour and a half, were driven across the river. Other reinforcements came up and forced them into the bush. Six Europeans were killed and two died of wounds.

Even the briefest account of Boulcott’s farm should include the story of John Cudby, a youth of seventeen, whose job was to cart stores to this post. On that morning he was driving his cart along the rough road without the usual escort, when he was met by two men on a cart coming as quickly as they could in the opposite direction. “Go back, boy, go back!” one of them shouted.

• Information about Allen’s age has been obtained from the Regimental Depot at Northampton. A silver bugle commemorating the incident is used by the bugler of the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, and mounted on the bugle is a bronze leaf which is reputed to be part of the original bugle.

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“ The Maoris have attacked the camp!” But Cudby had in him something of Corporal Gregory Brewster (“ The Guards need powder, and by God, they shall have it!”) “ I dursn’t go back,” he replied ; “ I’ve got the rations to deliver.” So he drove on through the perilous bush to the farm, to find the trouble over. His cart was used to carry the bodies of the dead to burial.*

The battle stirred Wellington. More volunteers were enrolled, the outskirts of the town were patrolled, and arms were served out to the Maoris at Petone and in the town villages. Two hundred and fifty Maori auxiliaries took the field. There was more fighting on June 16th, when a composite force marched out from Boulcott’s towards Taita on a reconnaissance and had a brush with the enemy, from which it retired in good order with several wounded men. Te Puni and his Ngati-Awa finished the day by returning to the scene and forcing the enemy to take to the safety of the western hills. Meanwhile the militia-men at the Taita post had heard the firing, and Ensign White and a dozen men advanced in its direction and engaged the enemy for more than an hour until danger of envelopment made them retire. The Hutt militia acquitted themselves well in the campaign. They and their Wellington comrades had this advantage over the Regulars, that while the English soldier was braced up in a tight tunic and a high stock, the colonial wore a blue shirt, a cap like a sailor’s, and “ any kind of trousers.”

The Governor returned from Auckland on July Ist, and, as he had done in north Auckland, and was to do at Wanganui, he put life into the campaign. He gave orders for quicker building of the roads to Porirua and in the Hutt Valley, established a base in Porirua harbour, and decided to arrest Te Rauparaha. How much

• The New Zealand Wars and the Pioneering Period Vol. 1; ami Hero Stories of Nexv Zealand, by James Cowan.

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Te Rauparaha was responsible, if at all, for the fighting at the Hutt, has been debated. He was the fox rather than the lion, and it is to his credit that he gave warning about the attack at Boulcott’s. He also denied all knowledge of the murder of the Gillespies. But news came that reinforcements for Rangihaeata were coming down the coast from the Upper Wanganui, and Rauparaha was supposed to be party to this move. His complicity was never proved. Grey met the Ngati-Awa at Waikanae, explained the danger of this threatened junction of forces, and asked the tribe to prevent it. The head chief Wiremu Kingi, who had already served Wellington well, promised that if the Wanganui men marched by the coast he would stop them, but said that he could not take his men into the bush. Grey then pounced secretly and suddenly on Rauparaha in his village of Taupo, on the north side of Porirua harbour. The raid was made at dawn and the old chief was carried off, struggling and shouting for help, to H.M.S. Driver. Other chiefs were also arrested and arms and ammunition seized. A canoe full of Rangihaeata’s men put out to the rescue from Pahautanui, but an armed boat from the Calliope chased them home. The legality of the arrest was more than doubtful. Rauparaha was never tried, and Grey admitted afterwards to the Colonial Office that it was not possible to prove his guilt in a court of law. Lindsay Buick, who in his biography of Rauparaha is critical of Grey’s action, remarks that its justification lay in its success. This rapid stroke, “ however high-handed and arbitrary, compelled waverers to pause, and paralysed those who were already in active hostility.” On the other hand it is certain that Grey’s action did harm in later days by weakening Maori trust in British justice.

The old warrior was treated in captivity as a guest rather than a prisoner. He was taken in the frigate Cal-

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Hope to Auckland, where he was allowed to visit his student-son Tamihana at St. John’s College, and entertained with the consideration due to his rank. He delighted in wearing the epauletted uniform of a naval captain. He returned to his tribe at the beginning of 1848, and he lived at Otaki until his death on November 27th 1849. He spent much of his time towards the end with the Rev. Octavius Hadfield, to whom he loved to tell stories of his past. It is said he was very religiousminded in those last months, and though there is evidence that this was accommodation rather than sincerity, we may fittingly take leave of this ruthless pagan, perhaps the best hated man in New Zealand, by remembering that he was given Christian burial.*

Meanwhile there had been lively doings in Porirua harbour. Travellers by train may notice on a grassy flat by the sea, north of the railway bridge which crosses the narrow water at Paremata, the ruin of a stone building. There are many who do not know what it is. The place is the site of Toms’s whaling station and a ferry was established there. The Governor saw that Porirua was the key to the west coast. In April of 1846 he set up a military post on this site to serve as a base against Rangihaeata, who had built a strong pa at the head of the Pahautanui arm, exactly where the church stands to-day. The stone blockhouse, which stood inside a stockade, was a two-storied building with walls two-feet-six through made of undressed stones and a few bricks. It was not finished till 1847, by which time the troubles were over, and the earthquakes of 1848 and 1855 put an end to its usefulness. In the war period the site was the important thing. Ships could lie out in the bay and keep the fort supplied and boats could ply in the inner

• Te Rauparaha, however, so there is very good reason to believe, does not lie in the churchyard at Otaki, where there is a headstone to his memory. His body was taken away secretly at night hy some of his tribe and hidden on Kapiti Island.

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harbour. The hero of these naval operations was H. F. McKillop, a midshipman in the Calliope, whose exploits read like a chapter in one of W. H. G. Kingston's stories of navy life. McKillop started by reconnoitring Rangihaeata’s position at Pahautanui in a light four-oared boat, and narrowly escaped being cut off. Then he was supplied with the long-boat of a barque, equipped with a 12-pounder carronade in the bows and a small brass gun. With these weapons and a crew of six he proceeded to give battle to Rangihaeata. One morning in July 1846, going close in, he fired a charge of canister into the manuka on Long Point, a promontory now dotted with homes and seaside cottages, and brought out a crowd of Maoris, headed by Rangihaeata himself. The boat was nearly cut off, and the men must have been thankful that bedding had been lashed inside the top side to stop bullets. Also the small gun burst when McKillop fired it, and he was knocked down and nearly blinded by the explosion. The pa on the church hill was a different proposition. The sea then came closer to the foot of the hill, where the main road runs to-day, than it does now, but the front of the Maori position was well protected by shallow water and marshes. The rear was the weakest point, and the Governor decided to attack there, by the long route across the hills from the Hutt Valley. He entrusted this task to a mixed force of militia, police and Ngati-Awa. The column took the track used by Rangihaeata’s men in their raids from the Hutt, and hard marching it was through heavy wet bush, where the militia no doubt were glad that they were allowed to wear “ any kind of trousers.” Near the stronghold the column captured an Upper Wanganui chief named Whare-aitu, who was out scouting. The capture was observed from afar and alarm was given, and the attacking police took an empty position. This was to happen frequently in wars with the Maoris.

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Whare-aitu was court-martialled for rebellion and hanged, a stupid action which helped to make trouble at Wanganui a little later.

Rangihaeata retreated to a hill-top above the Horokiwi valley and there was fought the last fight of the Wellington campaign in which Europeans were engaged. To-day a tar-sealed road winds through the gorge to the ascent of the Paekakariki hill. Thousands of people in comfortable cars admire the beautiful bush on either side, and some of them stop to picnic under the trees by the clear swiftly running stream. How many are aware that on a now grassy narrow ridge above them Rangihaeata and his men withstood an attack by a strong British column ? Stop the car opposite the late Mr. Nicholas Abbott’s homestead, and look for a little footbridge over the stream. In a tree-shaded paddock there is a little cemetery, and in one grave lie two Europeans killed in the fighting on the hill-top in those August days of 1846. Kipling speaks of great days ranging like tides and leaving England’s dead on every shore. Such tides have flowed for centuries, and here is one of the limits of their waves. The scene to-day is beautiful and peaceful, and the landscape so different from that of 1846 that we have to exercise our imagination to picture it. It seems only a step from the harbour, but in those far-off days the forest was dense and the going in its winter-wet thickness was very heavy indeed. The main British camp was on the flat where the homestead stands to-day, and on August 6th the soldiers climbed a bush-covered ridge to the enemy’s position several hundred feet above. The trees were cut away by pioneers in advance of the troops. The column w 7 as a very mixed one—Regulars, Militia, Armed Police, bluejackets, Ngati-Awa friendlies, and, so curious were the ways of the Maori, even some Ngati-Toa, men of Rangi haeata’s tribe. Rangihaeata had dug a trench and built

1846]

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a breastwork. In front was a cleared space, and his flanks could be turned only by working through thick bush. The British commander, remembering what happened in Heke's war, declined to make a frontal attack, and contented himself with keeping up a heavy rifle fire, which had little effect on the well-protected enemy. With great labour two small mortars were brought up from Paremata and the position shelled. On August 10th the European troops were marched back to Pahautanui, with a loss of three killed and eight wounded, but their Maori allies remained before the position. Three days later Rangihaeata slipped away under cover of darkness and rain. The friendlies followed him through very rough hill country north of Paekakariki ; Rangihaeata could not descend to the easier coast country because Wiremu Kingi and his Ngati-Awa would have barred the way. One must admire the old warrior’s spirit. Hampered by women and children, short of food and ammunition, with the Wellington Maoris at his heels, he retreated from one position to another, until he reached the Horowhenua country. There he built a pa on a mound in a swamp—like Hereward the Wake in the fens of Ely, says Mr. Cowan—and no attempt was made to take him. The second Wanganui war-party, influenced by the arrest of Te Rauparaha and possibly by the thought of Wiremu Kingi’s Ngati-Awa, did not march south. Ten years later Rangihaeata, as typical an irreconcilable as ever tried to stop the march of European civilisation, fell a victim to an unscheduled weapon of his enemies. He caught measles, took a cold bath in a river for relief, and died.

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD

My deliberate conviction is that Caligula here would be better than a Managing Committee of Angels in London, because we could persuade or bully, or upset Caligula, but our angels, impenetrable in their ignorance and their distance, would make us all out to be in the wrong—to their own complete satisfaction.

■John Robert Godley, in a letter to his father, 1852.

New Zealand is divided into several settlements, separated by long intervals, having in some respects interests totally different from each other, and none of them exceeding the other so much in wealth and importance as to possess a preponderating influence and recognised superiority.

-Sir George Grey, 1846.

With the flight of Te Rangihaeata northward, peace came to the Wellington settlement, and remained unbroken. There was a certain amount of anxiety for the next twelve months or so owing to the trouble at Wanganui, and again in the sixties, but there was never any fighting nearer than the Wanganui district. At the end of 1846 troops were moved up from Wellington for the protection of the penned-up community of some two hundred Europeans at Wanganui, and in May, June and July of 1847 there was fighting around the town, which will be described in a later chapter. Early in 1848 the Governor made a peace that lasted until the first Hauhau war of 1864-65. In Wellington the war with the Maoris left much less of a mark than at

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New Plymouth, where the fighting lasted some years and the damage done to settlements was far greater, or at Auckland, which was for so long a garrison town and the base for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty operations. Little of the confiscated Maori land lay within the provincial boundaries. This was a disadvantage in that it retarded settlement, but an advantage in that there was not that embitterment of relations between the two races that affected the history of Taranaki and Auckland.

Relieved of anxiety about Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, Wellington was able to give more time and energy to its development. In 1845 there were more than 4000 people about the harbour. Of these the town itself accounted for 2667, and the Hutt valley 649. The other divisions of this census show how greater Wellington was shaping. There were 215 people at Karori, a community that was carving a home out of the forest. In Wadestown and Kaiwarra there were 231 people. Wadestown, called after John Wade, a leading figure in the town and one of the aldermen in the short-lived Municipal Council, was a country section cut up into acre and two-acre lots, and the first settlers were mostly wage-earners who worked on their properties in their spare time. Lowry Bay, Ohiro (Owhiro, now Brooklyn), and Evans Bay, a curious grouping, had 87 inhabitants, and there were 225 on the Porirua Road. Immigrants were still arriving, though the stream was smaller in the middle forties than in the earlier period. The more that arrived, the greater the demand for land, and that demand was slow in being satisfied. There were a few Europeans between Wellington and Wanganui, but some time was to pass before land there was opened up for regular settlement. In the Wairarapa squatting had become established, and in 1849 it was calculated that 100,000

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acres had been taken up in 14 runs, but close settlement did not begin until the establishment of Greytown in 1854. What conditions were like on the west coast may be gauged by the exploits of Tom Scott, who was employed by Sir George Grey to carry mails between Wellington and New Plymouth towards the end of this decade. Tom Scott and his wife afterwards kept the accommodation house and ferry at the mouth of the Rangitikei river. Scott ran a certain amount of risk from hostile Maoris, but a good deal more from the many rivers he had to cross, especially as he could not swim. He walked all the way, and as he traded as well, the weight of his pack went up to 75 and 100 pounds. If he could not get a canoe at a river, he made himself a raft of raupo, and floated across on it. For this service he was paid a pound a week.

One of the local questions taken up in the second half of this decade was the disposition of the native reserves or tenths and the Maori cultivations in the Port Nicholson district. Lieut.-Colonel McCleverty of the 48th Regiment, who had been appointed by the Colonial Office to act as liaison officer with the Company in their land transactions, recommended an arrangement by which town and country sections were taken out of the Company’s tenths and awarded to individual Maori communities, and in return the chiefs agreed to give up to the Government all the cultivations allotted to European settlers. The history of the town reserves may be summarised by saying that some were disposed of in this way, and others were taken by the Crown for public purposes—hospital, education and defence—transfers justified on the ground that the Crown was making other provisions for the Maori. At present there are some thirty-six acres of Maori reserves in the city.*

• See The New Zealand Company’s Native Reserves, by Roland L Jellicoe A.1.A.N.Z., Chief Clerk in the Department of Native affairs.

Alexander Turnbull Library. Sketch by Wm. Swain son, F.R.S. An Early Wairarapa Homestead—Morrison’s, at Hakeke.

Mrs. J. W. Marshall. Rev. Octavius Hadfield’s Cottage at Otaki, 1849.

Mr. Cuy Fcathcrston Johnston. Dr. I. E. Feathers ton.

Mrs. J. W. Marshall. Bishop Hadficld.

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In Wellington the excitement of war was followed by the excitement of politics. The Colonists had always been profoundly dissatisfied with government from Auckland. They had had a brief taste of municipal government, which only whetted their appetite for more. Wellington became a borough by proclamation in August 1842, and a Mayor and eleven aldermen were elected in October. The law provided that all males were entitled to register their votes on payment of one pound ; 350 did so, and 273 voted in the election for Mayor. The election was lively. “ Gentry ” and wage-earners formed parties, and meetings were stormy ; at one of them Dr. Evans was pulled off the table by a stockman from Australia. On polling day a band paraded on the beach, flags went up, cockades were worn, and liquor flowed. Voting was open, as it was in all elections in New Zealand for many years. The gentry, wrote Jerningham Wakefield, “ secured a very good Council.” George Hunter, a Duke of Roxburgh passenger, the father of a family of ten, and one of the partners in the well-known firm of Bethune & Hunter, was chosen Mayor, and he presided over the following Council ; William Lyon, William Fitzherbert, John Wade, George Scott, F. A. Molesworth, John Dorset, Robert Waitt, William Guyton, Abraham Hort, Edward Johnson, and Robert Jenkins. There arc some well-known names on this list, but the greatest character was Jenkins. According to Jerningham Wakefield he arrived from Australia at the birth of the settlement, bought a barrel of beer, and set it up in a hut on the Thorndon beach. From this he went to “ a pretty neat grog-shop,” and then to a large brick establishment at Te Aro, where men of all classes gathered, and eventually he branched out into transport, stock-dealing, and farming. Pioneering society gives plenty of opportunities to this hard-headed, ener-

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getic, enterprising and shrewd type. It is worthy of note that there was a reserve list of six candidates out of which extraordinary vacancies could be fdled. The Council, however, had a very short life, for about a year later news came that the legislation setting it up had been disallowed by the Colonial Office, because some of the powers conferred were considered objectionable—a pretty example of the evils of distant control. The Council originated measures for preserving the Town Belt, setting up markets and slaughterhouses, maintaining roads, and framing terms for the leasing of reclaimed land. From then until 1863 Wellington was governed by the National Government and the Provincial Governments.* Then followed seven years of local government, first by a Town Board and then by a Board of Works. Full municipal government was introduced in 1870.

Even if the Municipal Council had lived and developed, it would not have satisfied the people of Wellington. They demanded a good deal more. When the new Governor told them they were well fitted for self-government, they had great hopes, but these were dashed when Grey declined to implement the Londonframed constitution of 1846. In that year, partly as a result of the New Zealand Company’s influence, the British Parliament passed an Act establishing, in addition to a General Assembly of two Houses for the whole Colony, a system of provincial governments and municipal corporations. The Colony was to be divided into two or more provinces. The provincial parliaments were to consist of a nominated Legislative Coun-

• The authorities were the Governor and Legislative Council of New Zealand and the Lieutenant-Governor and Legislative Council of New Munster, and later the Superintendent and the Provincial Council of Wellington Province. Resident Magistrates had considerable powers, and to some extent carried out the regulatorv powers now entrusted to local bodies.

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cil and a House of Representatives elected by the municipal corporations. Grey considered the Constitution premature and not truly representative. He feared the effect of it on the Maoris, who were not to be represented, and would resent the proposed taking over of their waste lands, a distinct breach of the Treaty of Waitangi. The European minority, he thought, would be tempted to acquire the Maoris’ land, even at the tost of war. In the history of British colonies there can have been few acts of moral courage so remarkable as Grey’s in deciding to set aside the greater part of this Imperial Act and advising the Colonial Office to modify the Constitution. In taking this step he was supported by Bishop Selwyn, Chief Justice Martin, and the Wesleyan Mission Committee. The Colonial Office accepted its subordinate’s advice like a lamb ; an Act was passed suspending the Constitution ; and “ in effect ” says Mr. W. P. Morrell* “ Sir George Grey, whose bold action earned him a knighthood, was given a free hand to guide the constitutional development of New Zealand along whatever lines seemed best to him.”

A new Constitution conferring self-government was passed by the British Parliament in 1852, and followed mainly the lines suggested by the Governor. It was proclaimed in the colony in January 1853 and was put into force with the establishment of provincial governments in July and October of the same year. Meanwhile there had been several years of marking time, confusion, and agitation. From being popular, Grey at once became unpopular. It must be borne in mind that representative Government had been expressed or implied from the very beginning of organised settlement in New Zealand, and men and women who had

• The Provincial System of Government in New Zealand, 1852-1876, p. 29.

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had the courage and enterprise to uproot themselves in England and start afresh in an untamed land at the other side of the world, were certain to demand the right to manage their own affairs, parochial and national. The feeling in Wellington was particularly strong. For some years the settlement had endured what it considered the gross misgovernment and dislike of the Colonial Government at Auckland. FitzRoy had given it a superintendent in Major Matthew Richmond, but he was a mere agent, with little executive scope. The “ reform ” movement in Wellington attracted most of the leading men in the town. The Settlers’ Constitutional Association, led by

Dr. Featherston, demanded a programme that was not fully realised for a long while—" the absolute control of the internal affairs of the colony, without any inter ference whatsoever on the part of the Imperial Gov eminent.’’ The Wellington Independent charged the Governor with “ trifling with and trampling upon the best feelings of a whole community,” and the Association invited his chief in London to look at this question from a colonist’s point of view, and “ not to regard it through the eyes of one who sees in the colony only a stepping-stone to personal aggrandisement and the gratification of ambitious schemes.” The shade of Hobson must have smiled wanly. Auckland, as when Hobson was Governor, could agree with Wellington on one point, for just about the time these attacks were made (in 1849), a number of Auckland residents sent a memorial to the Colonial Office in which they described Grey's government as “ a despotism of the worst form," and four months later a petition for Grey’s removal was forwarded. However, a change was introduced that arose out of the suspended Constitution of 1846. In 1848 the Colony was divided into tw r o provinces of New Ulster, from the North Cape to the middle of

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the Island, including Taranaki ; and New Munster, the rest of New Zealand. In 1840 the three islands had been designated New Ulster, New Munster, and New Leinster.

The politics of this period from 1848-1853, when the new Constitution came in, are difficult to follow. The new order was intended to bridge a period of years while the colonists became more fitted for a larger measure of self-government. Grey became Governor-in-Chief of the whole colony and Governor of each province. Under him in Auckland was the LieutenantGovernor of New Ulster, and in Wellington the Lieutenant-Governor of New Ulster. The subordinates in Auckland were Army officers of the local garrison, but E. J. Eyre was sent to New Munster from England. Of all the distinguished Englishmen who have played their parts on the New Zealand stage, Edward Eyre is to New Zealanders the most shadowy. It is probable, indeed, that most New Zealanders who come across his name in the histories of their country—generally only a bare mention—do not know that he was the Eyre whose journey of exploration on the shores of the South Australian Bight is so stirring a tale of suffering and fortitude, and whose severe handling of a negro rising in Jamaica called Carlyle, Ruskin, and Tennyson to his defence and Mill, Huxley, and Herbert Spencer to his prosecution. Eyre was an able man, but Grey, who spent a good deal of his time in Wellington, left him very little to do. There seems to have been no liking between the two men, and if Mrs. J. R. Godley is to be believed, Grey treated his subordinate shabbily and in such a way as to belittle his office in the eyes of the country.* Eyre showed his moral courage, if not his discretion, by telling the Governor-in-Chief in

letters from Fmtl\ New Zealand, Charlotte Godley

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meeting that he was actuated by personal bias towards a third person.* Eyre should be remembered for his work in the Wellington earthquake of 1848, and for the fact that he was the first European to climb Tupae-u-nuku, the highest peak of the Kaikouras, which is often a shining feature of the Wellington landscape. He was within a quarter of an hour of the summit when he was forced by the lateness of the hour to go back. This was before mountaineering became a skilled and popular pastime in Europe. In the government of New Munster from Wellington Eyre was assisted by Alfred Domett, Colonial Secretary, Daniel Wakefield, Attorney-General, H. W. Petre, Treasurer, and Lieutenant-Colonel McCleverty, Principal Military Officer. Domett was Browning’s friend Waring, who laid out Napier, became Premier of the Colony, and wrote that unread classic Ranolf and Amohia. Mr. Morrell expresses a current idea about poets when he remarks that most of the work probably fell upon Domett, who though a poet “ showed considerable aptitude for official life.” The same may be said of Milton.

Partly to pacify the dissatisfied colonists and partly to prepare the way for representative government, Grey provided for the setting up of Provincial Councils, consisting of officials and nominated members. The New Ulster Council was never summoned, and the New Munster body sat in one short session. It was not at all popular. The nominee system of appointment was disliked, and at the Reform banquet in Wellington in 1849 the healths of the six men who had declined seats, including Featherston and Weld, were honoured. Grey then tried another advance ; he would make the Provincial Councils partly elective. Wellington replied by pledging itself to resist the measure “ by every con

• Letter to J. R. Godley, Canterbury Museum.

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stimtional means.” Really Grey was only trying to create a makeshift, for he himself was working on recommendations to London for a complete new Con stitution. Slowness of communication, however, was an important factor in those days. In May of 1852. being without news of the British measure he antici pated, Grey proceeded to establish elective councils in the two provinces, but in August, on learning that the British Government was moving, he suspended proceedings. Meanwhile the impatient Wellington reformers had advanced their demands. In 1851 they wanted not only responsible government, but an elective Upper House and universal male suffrage. They were to wait a good many years for the third demand and the second has not yet been realised.

While Wellington agitated for self-government it had other things to think about. One was the earthquake of 1848. Cook had found that New Zealand was subject to earthquakes, and so had the settlers on Petone Beach and later in the town itself, but Welling ton was unprepared for the shocks of Monday, October 16th, 1848 and succeeding days. The first shock came at 1.40 in the morning, in a gale from the south-east with heavy rain, and continued till after daylight. The shocks went on for more than a week, and the most severe was on the Thursday. If there was terror among the people it was no wonder, for buildings crashed down, two-fifths of the chimneys were broken off at the roof, and what the Wellington Independent describes as “ the incessant wave-like motion of the earth,” was unnerving. Some people took to the open ; others went aboard ships in the bay. Eyre reported to his chief in Auckland that these ships were “ crowded to excess with colonists abandoning the country, and numbers are unable to obtain passages.” It is possible that many of these refugees were seeking immediate

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safety and did not intend to leave Wellington. Eyre took steps to check an exodus, but did not absolutely forbid people leaving, for the Sobraon sailed for Sydney with forty passengers. The pilot took the ship out through Chaffers Passage against the advice of the captain, and when she got into difficulties lost his head and his ship. No lives were lost and most of the pas sengere settled down in Wellington again. Theii experience gave point to a remark by a speaker at a public meeting after the earthquake of 1855, that travelling to England was as dangerous as their recent experience on land.

Those eight days of earthquake in 1848 were a pretty severe test of the settlers’ fortitude. Movement of earth’s foundations strikes at the physical basis of human life, and these colonists saw much of their town fall down. Three lives were lost. Barrack-Sergeant Major Lovell of the 65th Regiment and two of his children were buried beneath falling bricks in Parish Street. The Board of Survey that reported on the visitation estimated the damage at £15,000. Over seventy buildings were listed as destroyed or damaged, from Mt. Cook and Te Aro to Kaiwarra and Porirua. The settlement, however, did not lose heart, and a few months later the Governor congratulated it on its recovery. Its spirit of self-reliance was displayed when Auckland subscribed £5OO for relief of the earthquake's victims. A public meeting declined the gift with thanks, partly on the ground that the money had been subscribed “ under the influence of grossly exaggerated statements.”

The earthquake of 1855 did less damage in Welling ton itself, but its effect on the landscape was much more marked. The first shock occurred at between nine and ten on the evening of January 23rd, and was followed by others over some days. Wellington was

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better prepared for such shocks. There were fewer brick houses, and brick-work had been made stronger. However, a good deal of damage was done. The twostoried wing of the Barrett’s hotel block, which had been used for General Government offices and for the Provincial Council Chambers, became one storey. The front of the new Union Bank building was ruined. There was a pile of brickwork in every room of un occupied Government House. One life was lost in Wellington and tour Maoris were killed in the Wai rarapa. At sea and on land the effects were more startling than in 1848. For eight hours the tide in the harbour ebbed and flowed every twenty minutes. A wave twelve feet high came across the Strait. The narrow entrance to Port Nicholson broke most of its force, but in Palliser Bay it did some damage. Ships reported immense quantities of dead fish in the Strait. The Hutt Bridge was destroyed, the Hutt Road was damaged, and there were many slips in the eastern hills. The foreshore of Port Nicholson rose as much as four or five feet, but later subsidences reduced the rise to two or three feet. In Palliser Bay and the Rimu taka range the effects were much more startling. The west shore of Palliser Bay was raised as much as nine feet. The rise on the fore-shore of Port Nicholson facilitated later reclamation work, and made easier the formation of water-front roads.* Psychologically there was this difference that Wellington was not completely surprised, and it was observed that the alarm was not so great as in 1848. Commander Drury of the Pandora, who came ashore immediately, noted that “ there seemed to be neither fear nor thought of robbery, but a generous and manly feeling to ease each other’s bur-

• See Earthquakes in New Zealand, Dr. J. Henderson, Director ot Geological Survey. New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology', 1932.

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dens pervaded all classes, from the Colonel to every soldier of the 65th Regiment.” The soldiers of the regiment were of great assistance in 1848 and 1855, and by the later year the regiment must have become an institution.

The earthquakes left a permanent mark on the architecture of Wellington. Brick and stone became unpopular, and it was to fear of earthquake that the city owed what used to be called “ the largest wooden building in the world,” the block of Government offices on the Quay. Wellington College, a boarding school three stories high, was also wooden, and the staff must have lived in constant dread of fire. There were, however, obvious limitations to building in wood, and when construction in permanent materials became common, design for the most part followed heavy lines, with parapets and ornamentation, which, as experience elsewhere was to show, added materially to earthquake risk. Forty years later, a speaker at the Philosophical Society roundly attacked the City Council’s building regulations for their lack of precautions against earthquake, and a councillor who was present admitted that the Council had more fear of fire.* It must be added, however, that the study of building in relation to earth quakes was then in its infancy. It was not until after the earthquake at Napier and Hastings in 1931 that New Zealand gave anti-earthquake construction the attention it required.

Colonel William Wakefield died after a short illness on September 29th, 1848, in his forty-eighth year, and Wellington kept the day of his funeral as a day of mourning. He was buried in the Bolton Street Cemetery, and the inscription on his grave sets out the main facts of his public career. Had he not been so prominently associated with the New Zealand Com-

• Transactions. New Zealand Institute, Vol. 21

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pany, and drawn its mistakes as well as his own upon his head, his record would have received greater general recognition, and there might be a worthy memorial to him in the city he founded.

This is a suitable place to record that within a few years the greatest of the Wakefields appeared on the scene. Edward Gibbon Wakefield suffered an attack of paralysis in 1846, and was laid aside for some time. He recovered sufficiently to take up his project for the foundation of a Church of England settlement in New Zealand, the result of which was the plantation of Canterbury, and to support the movement for self government. These were heavy labours for a man in his condition. He then decided to go to New Zea land. The New Zealand Company had ceased to function, though the payment of compensation to it was to agitate New Zealand politics ; the colony had at last power to manage its own affairs ; and Canterbury was being colonised. Wakefield arrived in Lyttelton in February 1853, and came on to Wellington in March. There is something exceptionally satisfying in the thought of Wakefield’s arrival in the colony that his genius had helped to found. He himself said that “ the utmost happiness which God vouchsafes to man on earth ” was " the realisation of his own idea,” and now he saw with his own eyes the fruits of his idea. He was even to sit (as Member for the Hutt) in the first Parliament under the Constitution for which he had fought. But over what should have been a triumphant union there stole an atmosphere of disappointment and failure. One may well believe that the appearance of this specialist in controversy, the chief brain behind the Company’s operations (and the Company was very unpopular with many) caused some apprehension in Wellington political circles, especially as elections were in sight. Miss Irma O’Connor says “ the whole

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atmosphere of Wellington was, in truth, a bitter disappointment to him ” ; he found “ selfishness and self seeking, jobbery and corruption and a general allround lowering of standards.” This stale of affairs he attributed largely to the rule of Sir George Grey. Wakefield had fought him in England, and he nowrenewed the fight; Grey’s cheap land proclamation, bv which rural land could be obtained for 5s and 10s an acre, outraged Wakefield’s most cherished principle of colonisation—the sufficient price.* So Wakefield plunged into politics, local and general. He was elected to the first Wellington Provincial Council under the revised Constitution and at the same time to the General Assembly. The last scenes were a painful anti climax. At the General Assembly in Auckland, where he should have stood out as a revered “ elder statesman,” he allowed himself to become the unofficial adviser of the Acting-Governor, and helped to produce the fiasco that followed the demand for responsible government. When he returned to Wellington in December of 1854 he spoke for five hours to his constituents at Lower Hutt, a feat of endurance that testified to his ardour but not to his prudence. A few days later he took ill again and until his death on May 16th, 1862, lived in seclusion. The truth is that he was not suited to a political career. Pride and bitterness consumed him. A comparison between his portrait as a young man and the bust of him that stands in the Colonial Office is illuminating. In the portrait there is the strength and hope of youth ; the bust, made from a portrait taken not long before he died, shows “ lines of mingled weariness, disappointment and almost savage defiance.”** Yet what character is there ! The features

* These prices did not apply to the Canterbury and Otago settlements •• Irma O’Connor, p. 261. The bust was made by Joseph Durham. A.R.A.. from a photograph taken when, says Miss O’Connor, the very shape of his face had been altered by illness.

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help to explain why he drove so fast and so far. Edward Gibbon Wakefield rests beside his brother in the old Wellington cemetery. Both died poor men ; according to Miss O’Connor, his son’s affidavit stated that Edward Gibbon's entire estate did not amount to £5OO. In the shadow of private fault and public controversy Edward Gibbon Wakefield lies unhonoured, and by many forgotten.* But he was a great man, and neither his faults nor the neglect of after generations can dim the real worth of his contribution to our national development and to the whole field of colonisation.

The provincial system that was introduced in 1853 was born of the conditions of settlement in New Zealand, and one of the reasons why it was abolished in 1876 was the improvement in communication between the districts. It was a necessary step in the country’s political evolution. It is significant that Sir William Fox (as he became) called the book that he wrote in 1851 The Six Colonies of New Zealand, not The Six Settlements, so great was the separation by distance and circumstance. In the words of Mr. Morrell, “ for practical purposes, New Zealand was not one community but many.” The state of inter-communication was a governing factor. To what was said about this in an earlier chapter may be added such facts as these : In 1851, three years after the foundation of Otago, Canterbury had no news from that settlement between April and November. Grey reported that in the same year six vessels arrived at Auckland direct from England, forty direct from Sydney, and only six from the other settlements. There was naturally some reluctance to serve in the National Parliament, just as there was in England in the Middle Ages. Indeed, to most New Zealanders, provincial politics at first were the

• A movement is now on foot to erect a monument to Edward Gibbon Wakefield. There is a bust of him in the Houses of Parliament.

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more important. The Provincial Government was something that touched their daily lives ; the Central Government was a distant abstraction. Moreover, there were vital differences between settlements. The North Island communities were checked in their expansion by native land problems, and large areas of their territory were forested. Canterbury and Otago had not only no native land problem but possessed great areas of open land, which could be put to immediate use. Then land revenue was valuable, and they became still richei when gold was discovered in Otago and Westland. A feeling of national unity had yet to come. Men thought in terms of their local desires and difficulties. When he had been less than three months in New Zealand, Edward Gibbon Wakefield wrote that “ everybody’s ideas seem to be localised to his own part of the coun try. I have not met with one person as well acquainted as I am myself with New Zealand in general.”

The core of the Constitution was finance. The Central Government was to pay certain proportions of net revenue to the Provincial Governments, and, naturally enough, the Central Government had the last say in the matter. The Provincial Governments had certain local revenues. They obtained control of their land sale proceeds, but whereas this meant a great deal in Otago and Canterbury, it meant less in Wellington, and still less in Auckland, so there arose a demand from the poorer provinces for the pooling of these revenues. The Provincial Councils and the Superintendents were elected for four years. The Superintendent became a combination of Lieutenant-Governor and Premier, and his position was not unlike that of the President of the United States. He was the chief executive officer in his province but he did not sit in the Council. He appointed a “ cabinet ” from the Council; initiated all money bills; and could not only propose any kind of

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permitted legislation but suggest amendments. When he gave assent to Bills they were sent to the Governor for approval or disapproval. The Provincial Councils could legislate for the “ peace, order, and good government of the province,” so long as they kept off thirteen specified subjects, including customs duties, the Post Office, coinage and currency, marriages, and the criminal law except summary punishment. Every man over 21 was entitled to vote who possessed a freehold valued at £5O or a leasehold valued at £lO a year, or occupied a tenement of the annual value of £lO in town or £5 in the country. In Grey’s opinion such a franchise would be virtually universal ; but there was no question of one man one vote ; a man might vote in any electoral district in which he held a qualification. After 1858, however, plural voting was abolished for the election of a superintendent. This strengthened his position with the working classes, who thus regarded him as representing democracy against the powerful interest of the landowners.

We have been looking ahead from 1853. The voters of Wellington were full of hope when they went to the elections of that year. They had fought for selfgovernment and had won. The western boundaries of their province ran from east of Patea in a north-easterly direction to the 39th parallel, in the centre of the island, and followed this parallel to the sea, to the north of Mahia Peninsula. It thus took in the whole of what is now Hawkes Bay. Settlement in Hawkes Bay had not been organised and was comparatively late. Ahuriri was known as a port of call in the forties. Settlers seeped into the fertile lands north of the Wairarapa, and before 1850 there were complaints of squatting on irregular leases. It is stated that when J. D. Ormond, who was to become one of the great figures of Hawkes Bay and prominent in colonial politics, took up land

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in the early fifties, there were only twenty settlers in the territory. In 1850 Donald McLean, who became the greatest of Native Ministers, bought areas for settlement from the Maoris, and also the land on which Napier stands. The town was founded in 1855, and the streets given their literary flavour by the cultivated Domett. But once a start was made, Hawkes Bay advanced rapidly in wealth. There were great areas of bush in the south, but large stretches of open land in the north, and these quickly proved their value in the rearing of sheep.

This was the area which the first Provincial Council was called upon to manage and develop. The importance of the new responsibility was duly recognised in Wellington and elections were held with all due form and ceremony. In those days the now purely symbolical word “ hustings ” had a material meaning. The hustings was the platform erected for the reception of nominations and delivery of speeches in the presence of the people. In Wellington the stage was put up near “ Plimmer’s Ark,” a well-known feature of the Lambton Quay front in those days. John Plimmer, the “ Father of Wellington,” as he came to be called, bought land at what came to be known as Plimmer’s Steps, and when the ship Inconstant was wrecked he had her towed to the strand where the Bank of New Zealand stands to-day. A two-storied house was built on the deck. The process of nomination and election then was very different from what it is to-day. In its first stages it was like the annual meeting of a society. The Returning Officer stood on the platform and called for nominations. The proposer and seconder of each candidate was entitled to make a speech, and apparently the right was fully exercised. Then the candidate expounded his policy to the crowd. There were sixteen candidates for the seven city seats that day in 1853, and the nomination process took four hours. Nomina-

r-m ■■ ■ -1 r iWUr'V - . " . ■■ .. ■■ .-■■-■■3 By permission Lands and Survey Department. Wellington’s Waterfront, Old and New.

Toll-gate on the Hutt Road, at Kaiwarra.

Petonc, Hutt Valley, 1879.

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tions having closed, it was the rule for the Returning Officer to call for a show of hands, and declare one or more of the candidates elected. If someone demanded a poll, a polling day was fixed, perhaps on the morrow. In this Wellington election, of the seven candidates declared elected by show of hands, only three were elected at the ballot next day ! Voting by ballot was open ; the voter handed the Returning Officer a paper containing his name and the names of candidates for whom he voted. Progress of the voting was known from hour to hour, which was an inducement to the parties to collect more voters. In some quarters the secret ballot was looked upon with deep distrust. It was the view of Swainson, the Attorney-General, one of the ablest men in public life, that if citizens abused the open vote, it was a question whether they deserved to be trusted with any share in government.

The elections were fought mainly between what was called the “ Nominee ” party, supporters of Grey (the name came from the old method of appointing members of the Provincial Council) , and the “ Constitutionalists." The latter won an overwhelming victory. Here is the composition of the first Council, and it will be noted how many names there are that are still familiar to Wellington people. The City of Wellington elected Charles Clifford (afterwards Sir Charles) who was to be Speaker of the Council and of the General Assembly; Dr. John Dorset; Dr. (afterwards Sir) William Fitzherbert, who was to be prominent in provincial and national politics for many years, and succeed Dr. Featherston as Superintendent ; George Moore, John Wallace, William Lyon, and Kenneth Bethune. The Wellington Country District chose Alfred de Bathe Brandon, Robert Waitt and Andrew Brown ; the Hutt District Alfred Renall, Alfred Ludlam, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and George

L

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Hart; the Wanganui and Rangitikei districts William Watt, and Henry Shafto Harrison ; and the Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay Samuel Revans and Francis Dillon Bell. The last-named wrote his name in New Zealand history from the time he joined the New Zealand Company’s service in London in 1838 until in his last years he served as Agent-General in London. He was agent for the company at Nelson and New Plymouth, held office in four national Ministries, and as Commissioner of Land Claims did the country great service by unravelling the tangle of land questions affecting both races. When he was Agent-General in London from 1881 to 1891, he was recognised by his Australian colleagues as their leader in representations to the Colonial Office on Western Pacific questions. He was the father of Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell, who was one of W. F. Massey’s right-hand men, leader of the New Zealand Bar, and the foremost elder statesman of the post-war era.

The most conspicuous person in Wellington Provincial politics, however, was the Superintendent, Dr. Isaac Earl Featherston. He was elected unopposed, a fitting tribute to that ascendancy in the community which he had established and was to maintain for so many years. He was Superintendent continuously from 1853 to 1871, and when he retired he became the first Agent-General in London. Dr. Featherston was an Englishmen trained in medicine at Edinburgh. He arrived in Wellington as a ship’s surgeon in 1842 and became the leader of the Wellington settlers in their struggle for self-government. A man small and slight in stature and not robust in health—he was threatened with consumption before he came to New Zealand— Featherston combined intellectual gifts with that mysterious thing called personality. He was honest, unselfish, loyal and purposeful, and he won popularity

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without seeking it. Though he was not striking in appearance, and spoke in such a way that his hearers were constantly afraid lest he break down, and though he had to be interpreted when he dealt with Maoris, he was able to gain and hold the confidence of the Maori people, so that in the great meeting between Ngati-Raukawa and Ngati-Apa about a land dispute, which nearly led to tribal war, he kept the peace and was accepted by both sides as arbitrator. Featherston was a convinced provincialist, believing that every province should be a self-governed community, with which the central authority should interfere as little as possible. As a leader of the Provincialists he was to be prominent on two fields in the political struggle that was now opening, the provincial and national arenas. Featherston was a member of the General Assembly as well as Superintendent of Wellington. The Constitution allowed men to serve in both legislatures, and many took advantage of this. There was thus a definite provincial party in the national Parliament, composed of members w 7 ho faced a divided duty.

The spectators that crowded into the Council Chamber for the first session witnessed a dignified ceremony, modelled on proceedings at Westminster. Clifford was elected Speaker, and his election was reported to the Superintendent as the choice of Speaker is to the Governor-General to-day. The Provincial Councils modelled themselves so closely on Westminster, with their ceremonial and Ministerial crises, as to bring ridicule on themselves ; citizens could not help contrasting the smallness of the population with the pomp and ceremony of the governing bodies. Wellington seems to have been more modest in this respect than some of the provinces. Featherston started his career as Superintendent with one clerk, and took £5OO a year as salary, which was afterwards raised to

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£6OO. His Executive consisted of a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Solicitor. The main problems that he and his councillors faced were finance, land settlement, and transport. They had a great estate to administer, but it was not easy to develop. The Goun cil had control of the province’s waste lands virtually from the beginning, but it was some years before it was allowed to buy land from the Maoris. In 1849 Donald McLean, without much trouble, had bought land from the Maoris between the Rangitikei and the Turakina, and it was quickly opened for settlement. In 1853 Grey and McLean, by buying land in the Wairarapa, had begun the process of regularising titles there. The Wairarapa squatters, leasing their land from native chiefs, were really in illegal possession. They continued to farm on a system of depasturing licenses. Grey lowered the price of land to 10s and 5s an acre, and planned a system of small-holding settlement based on “ hundreds ” under which there would be a town centre, and holders would have rights of pasturage over common land. These cheap land regulations were hailed with joy by the landless and moneyless class, and the battle was joined more closely between the poor and the well-to-do, or, roughly speaking, the capitalists of the Company’s plantation and the labourers. Grey’s policy assisted small settlement, but it also encouraged aggregation of estates, for it threw open large tracts at low prices, and statesmen of a later generation felt compelled to deal with this result by legislation.

The Wellington sheepfarmer on a depasturing license had his grievances. He asked for something better than a license. Rather than grant leases the Provincial Council preferred to sell the freehold. It wanted revenue from the land for immigration and public works, especially roads, the need of which was

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urgent. So the squatter was encouraged to buy his acres. To do so he raised money on loan, and when times became hard he was liable to be beset by the difficulties so familiar in successive generations of New Zealanders. However, he always had friends at court. On the Wellington Provincial Council pro-squatter influence predominated. Many of the members were sheep-farmers or connected with sheep-farming by ties of business or other association. It was alleged that i nnholders and speculators were allowed to pick the eyes out of land and so monopolise blocks at small cost, and that legislation was deflected in the interests of runholders. When the Wairarapa was opened up full advantage teas not taken of the authority to set aside reserves. The basis of rent assessment was changed from stock to acreage, and it teas asserted that the area of some runs was returned at considerably less than the fact. On the other hand, surveying in those days was apt to be incomplete, and it seems to have been quite possible for such inaccurate returns to be made in good faith. The property of licensees, at any rate in the Wairarapa, was excluded from the operation of roading, fencing, and impounding Acts. This meant that if an outsider bought a piece of land held on license, he had to pay the whole cost of his fencing and roading ; and if he did not fence, the neighbouring innholder could impound his stock. The runholder defended these enactments by pointing to the insecurity of his tenure. Moreover, fencing, in the earlier days of these runs, was a difficult and expensive matter. According to Bidwill of Pihautea, the record of the Bidwill family, wire was not used in the Wairarapa until the sixties.*

There was a good deal to be said for the squatter. He was a pioneer, and for some years he worked hard

* See History and Politics, Richard Wakelin. and evidence before the Provincial Committee 1858.

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[1846-76

and lived with little or no comfort. His wife was called upon to look after almost as many things as the wife in a mediaeval manor-house, without the plentiful mediaeval supply of labour. It was a life of isolation, touched by danger. The squatter and his family turned a wilderness into a farm, and besides planting roses in their gardens, established an outpost of culture. Moreover, they were economically indispensable. Wake field s theories broke down on several points of reality, and one was the inevitable development of the pastoral industry. “ While the Company’s schemes were meant for agricultural settlement,” says Mr. Marais, “ both Wellington and Nelson resolutely determined to be pastoral.”* Nature and markets were against the rapid development of agriculture that had been hoped for. Export figures showed how wool dominated the period up to the introduction of refrigeration. In 1846 the value of wool exported from the Wellington province was roughly £2500; and the item next in value was flax, £lOOO. In 1853 the value of wool exported was £47,000 —the increase due to the bringing in of Wairarapa land—and the next item, timber, £25,000, was a freak, for in most years the timber export was quite trifling. In that year butter and cheese exports were valued at £5500, but in 1858 the dairy farm was worth only £750 in exports, and in 1861 only £l2O. Flax went up to £19,000 in 1871, but here too, the fluctuations were violent. Wool exports steadily increased in value. In 1861 wool exported from Wellington ports was worth £125,000 and not another item reached the £lOOO mark. In 1871 wool was worth £208,000 and in 1876 £624,000. The province floated on a fleece.

One might gather from denunciation of Grey s land policy, even to this day, that the effects of it were

• The subject is treated at some length in Chap. VI of The Colo\ isation of New Zealand.

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wholly evil. On the contrary, it gave rise to much small settlement in the Wellington province. Though the poorer immigrants in Wellington were never able to send more than a handful of representatives to the Council or the Assembly, and never had a spokesman on executives, many of them managed to acquire land. There were 100-acre allotments at the Hutt, Karori. and Porirua, let or leased to labourers, with or without a purchasing clause. The occupiers of these were fairly successful even before the discovery of gold in Aus tralia benefited them by raising prices of produce. But these areas did not suffice. The New Zealand Company could not fulfil its obligation in land for settlers. Eyes were turned to the Wairarapa, towards which the eastern of the two main roads out of Welling ton was creeping. When the first Council met there was a bridle track over the Rimutakas and road work on the hills had begun. The Wairarapa was the only area within easy reach, for the whole of the west coast from Paekakariki to beyond the Rangitikei was still closed, and the lower part was not opened for many years. Besides, the Wairarapa was much more open than the inner forest areas of the West Coast. It was this open country that had attracted the squatter, and by 1850 the Wairarapa district was occupied by about thirty run-holders.*

The Small Farms Association, however, made a noise in the world, and it was pertinently asked what good the costly highway over the Rimutakas was going to do if the people could not get to the land in the valley. So Greytown and Masterton were founded in 1854, followed by Featherston in 1856, and by Carterton in 1857. These were primarily designed to benefit the small man. Settlers in Greytown and Masterton

• The Wairarapa was mentioned as a site for a Church of England settlement, but Canterbury was chosen.

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could take up a town section and a country section, and the idea was that the whole settlement would be a homogeneous unit based on the township. It was originally intended that the settlements should be proclaimed as “ hundreds,” which would have given the settlers a common pasturage. This idea, however, was not fully carried out, and the position of the runholders was thereby strengthened.*

Improvement in transport was ever in the minds of Featherston and his advisors. We must picture Wellington as still hemmed in. Of the two main roads the one to the west coast stopped at Paekakariki, and the one to the Wairarapa for a time at the Rimutakas. Beyond Paekakariki the traveller drove on the beach all the way to Wanganui, with one or two excursions inland to reach fords. There were supposed to be ferries, but the attendance was apt to be spasmodic and long waits were not uncommon. The Provincial Government gradually improved this river service, but for many years the beach remained the highway. When coaches came they took this route, and there is a notable description with a Chaucerian flavour, of the journey along the beach on a fine day, written by a Horowhenua resident who drew upon his own memories.

Down along the wide beach it would speed at a slashing ten miles an hour, past a heterogeneous procession of men and stock, everything giving way to Her Majesty’s mail. Here in charge of a wild-eyed mob of station steers for the Wellington butchers, would ride quite capable stockmen, with fourteen-foot stock whip coiled, and trained thoroughbred stockhorses, to chop back on the road any attempt of the jostling bullocks to stampede to the sandhills; there a mob of sheep which had left the Hokio at dawn are making for Tom Roach’s accommodation paddock at the Ohau hotel for the night; here a long line of drays carrying potatoes and corn to Welling-

• For this and many other matters, see The Colonisation of We lington under Provincial Govt., a thesis, by Margaret M. Macdonal M.A. (Mrs. A. G. Dunningham) , Turnbull Library.

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ion from ilie pas along the coast; there a drove of pigs a hundred strong, are being driven, some to be sold to the farmers on the further side of the Paekakariki Hill, and some for the butcher’s shop on “ The Beach,” as Lambton Quay, one-sided then and huddled insignificantly up against the steep ridge behind, was called. A smart buggy. I>ehind a pair of clipping trotters, belongs to one of the Rangitikei squatters ; a party of horsemen are riding down from Wanganui to Wellington, in preference to taking the boat; a settler for the Foxton Block passes with the whole of his possessions heaped on a bullock dray, on which find a place also his wife and a long string of children, whilst behind them a few cows, and perhaps a horse or two, are driven. Swaggers, drovers, peddlers, all the traffic and all the trade of a great highway before the railways were, a collection which to modern eyes would appear of the strangest, the coach rattles past.*

As far on as the late seventies, indeed until the railway was built, the Wellington coach to Foxton took to the beach at Paraparaumu and used it for some distance before striking inland. Sir Charles Luke has given the writer an account of that journey. They left Wellington at five in the morning and arrived at Foxton at eight in the evening. This, however, must have been reckoned to be progress indeed compared with the conditions with which the Provincial Government wrestled in the fifties.

Before the road reached the Wairarapa there continued to be traffic around the sea coast, and the earthquake of 1855 did travellers the service of raising the sea-washed Mukamuka Rocks in Palliser Bay. Some enterprising folk avoided the long trek round the harbour by using a boat ferry to cross the harbour entrance, and some tvent all the way to Te Kopi by sea. Alexander Sutherland of Lyall Bay took up land at Pahaua, north of Cape Palliser, to fatten his stock, and in visiting his property used this short cut across

*Te Hekenga, Reminiscences of Early Horowhenua. by Rod McDonald, edited bv E. O’Donell.

[1856

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the harbour to get to Pencarrow where he kept a horse.* The Lake Ferry accommodation house in Palliser Bay was an early foundation. It was then half whare, half labourer’s cottage, built of old boards, fencing posts, and timber from wrecks. It is still a condition of this house’s license that the licensee shall ferry travellers across the river. The road made a great difference to the Wairarapa, especially as it was pushed up the valley. Cost of cartage dropped from £3O to £l2 a ton. Beyond the valley w r as the northern watershed and the great forest system—the Forty-Mile or Seventy-Mile Bush. The intention was to push the road on towards Napier, but the separation of Hawkes Bay from the Wellington Province called a halt to this plan for some time. For a long while Masterton was the furthest outpost of civilisation in this direction.

The first few years of provincial government were a period of hope and real achievement. Roads were built. Land was settled. The discovery of gold in Australia created a demand for New Zealand produce. The year 1856 saw not only the extension of the Rimutaka road into the Wairarapa Valley, but the opening of a road from Rangitikei to Wanganui, which enabled produce to be shipped from Wanganui to the neighbouring colonies. It was about this time that work on the Ngahauranga Gorge road, to provide a main outlet from Wellington, was begun. Road building was an expensive business-£2OOO and even £3OOO a mile in some places. It was felt that labourers and settlers were urgently needed to build roads and break in land and thereby add to the wealth of the province, so organised immigration was revived. The plan was to bring in two thousand adults a year.

• Sutherland Papers

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Agents were sent to England and Australia, and at the end of 1856 ships of the famous Blackball Line began to arrive. The Oliver Lang, Indian Queen, and Alma were twice as big as the early ships of the Company, and their greater speed enabled them to cut a month off the voyage. The Oliver Lang brought 414 passengers, of whom 398 were in the steerage ; the Indian Queen 451, and the Aiwa 361. There was much excitement in Wellington when these ships arrived. Depots were established for the reception of immigrants, and lodgings requisitioned. The townspeople gave the newcomers a warm welcome and bade them be of good cheer and not listen to croakers. Many of the Oliver Lang’s immigrants were sent to found Carterton, where they were given small sections of land to develop while they worked at road-making. In ten days not one of the single men in the ship was unemployed. A good many single women came out in that short period of immigration activity, and they were engaged at once for domestic service. Though the ships were larger and the voyage shorter, death still took a toll. The Indian Queen had 22 deaths, including 20 children from measles, and in the Anne Wilson, which arrived in 1857, the conditions were so deplorable that the Provincial Government refused to pay the contractors, and a long dispute ensued. Immigrants came also from Australia, and the Wairarapa communities were strengthened by settlers who had made money on the diggings there and had been wise enough to keep it to buy land. More would have come but for the bad reputation Wellington had got from the earthquake of 1855.

The immigration boom of the fifties did not last long, and achievement was not up to expectations. Immigration was a provincial affair, and Wellington was competing against rivals who offered better terms.

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[1857

Wellington’s newcomers contracted to repay their passage money, but other provinces offered to pay half this cost or to give free passages. This was one of many rivalries that helped to bring the provincial system to an end. Moreover, the policy of charging immigrants with immigration costs proved a sad disappointment. There was a rosy dream of allocating so much money for immigration, receiving it, and spending it again. In reality it proved very difficult to recover this money from the immigrants. Repudiation was widespread, and the authorities did not like to press hard for payment. Some political candidates went so far as to bid for votes by supporting repudiation.

Then came a chain of circumstances that set back development. First there was the quarrel between Featherston and his Council; then the secession of Hawkes Bay ; then the wars in Taranaki, on the northwest frontier of the Wellington province, and in the Auckland and east coast districts. The political quarrel developed in this way. In the provincial elections of 1857 the land-reforming Opposition under Jerningham Wakefield combined with some of the squatter interest in an unholy and unstable alliance against Featherston, and won a majority of the seats. Featherston himself was re-elected Superintendent. Wakefield was asked to form a Ministry, but on the ground that it was unconstitutional, Featherston refused to accept the composition he proposed, and in consequence of this clash and other differences Featherston resigned. The Opposition fought the election, but Featherston was again returned. He then proceeded to govern with his own Executive, and a deadlock ensued in which he vetoed legislation and most of the time of the Council was spent fruitlessly. Appeals were made to the Governor without success. Featherston claimed that he represented the people. Since the general election

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at which the Opposition had gained a majority, he had appealed to the electors, and against the efforts of the Opposition he had prevailed. He pointed also to the results of by-elections for the Council and the General Assembly. The Superintendent had no power to order the dissolution which would have settled the dispute. Featherston was regarded by the “ working classes ” as their champion against the wealthy. From the strictly constitutional point of view Wakefield seems to have been in the right. The quarrel, which lasted until the elections of 1861, when Featherston defeated his opponents, had serious consequences for the province. Legislation came almost to a standstill. Money was spent without appropriation, and later on the expenditure had to be validated. The flow of money for public works was stopped. Immigrants properly pointed out that this was a breach of contract ; they had been brought to New Zealand on a promise of employment, and now there was no work. There was much distress.

The secession of Hawkes Bay was an indirect result of the quarrel, for Wellington members of the General Assembly w T ere so occupied with provincial politics that only one of them attended the session of the General Assembly at Auckland in 1858 at which legislation was passed to permit the easy creation of new provinces. Run-holding interests were among the influences behind the move ; the Marlborough landowners wished to be independent of Nelson. Secession of part of a province was easy. All that was needed was a petition by three-fifths of the electors. The existing provinces were given no voice. The Hawkes Bay people, in number about one thousand, cut off from their Provincial Council by miles of unroaded country, or a long sea journey, had petitioned Parliament for separation, and they promptly took advantage of the

[lB6O-72

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new law. Only six votes were recorded against the necessary petition. Marlborough, and later Southland, also set up house for themselves. The effect of the Hawkes Bay secession on Wellington provincial government was serious. The province lost about a tenth of its population and a third of its area, which included much good land. In two years the revenue fell from £BO,OOO to £63,000.

Then came the long period of Maori wars, which began in Taranaki in 1860 and lasted until the last shots were fired in the campaign against Te Kooti early in 1872. The only fighting in the Wellington province was in the north-western border, in the Waitotara and Patea districts, and up the Wanganui River, but the province suffered in the general set-back to settlement caused by the wars. Organised immigration came to a stand-still ; would-be immigrants were not inclined to settle anywhere in the North Island. Emissaries of the King movement and the Hau-hau religion visited Wellington tribes, and even far behind the fighting lines settlers lived in a continual state of apprehension. There were scares on the west coast and in the Wairarapa. Many men served in the Government forces, and shortage of labour on the farms became acute. Wellington units were with General Chute in his famous march round Egmont in 1866. and with Colonel McDonnell in his defeat at Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu in 1868. In the Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu action the Wellington volunteers, insufficiently trained, were unsteady, and it is interesting to read that even at this early stage there were town-bred soldiers who were not at home in the bush.* In these wars Featherston’s courage and prestige were of great value. He faced Hau-hau emissaries in the Wairarapa single-handed. So great was his mana that the friendly natives would

* James Cowan. The Maori Wars and the Pioneering Period. Vol

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not march without him, and although he was so unwell that he could hardly sit his horse, he accompanied Chute on his march from Patea to New Plymouth.* For his conduct at the Otapawa action he was awarded the New Zealand Cross. Featherston went to Australia to urge Chute to take responsibility for keeping Imperial Troops in New Zealand, and to England with Sir Francis Dillon Bell on a similar mission. Although he failed in his English mission, he persuaded the British Government to guarantee a loan of a million for reading native districts.

Nevertheless, the period of these wars saw most important progress in the purchase of land for settlement. We have seen how official interest in provincial development centred first in the Rangitikei district, and swung to the Wairarapa. As the Wairarapa became settled, interest turned again to the west coast. Masterton, Greytown, Carterton and Featherston had been founded, and the secession of Hawkes Bay put a barrier to development towards the north through the wide forest. The purchase of a great block of land between the Rangitikei and the Manawatu rivers in the years 1864-1866 in the midst of the wars, when the tribes who claimed the land were on the point of fighting each other, was a notable stroke of, good fortune tor Wellington and a proof of Featherston’s ability and his standing with the Maoris. The taking over of the Awahou block in the late fifties consolidated Foxton, and there followed the purchase of the upper Manawatu block, which contained the clearing that was to become Palmerston North. The acquisition in 1862-64 of the Waitotara block north of Wanganui gave settlers in and about that harassed town more room, and pushed the frontier out. A small block at Waikanae bought at the end of the sixties cut into the

♦ Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'

209

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[. 1870-74

Maori monopoly of the Paekakariki-Manawatu area, but several years were to pass before this foothold was widely extended. Meanwhile, however, the Provincial Government had its hands full with the acquisition of land in the Manawatu and the Rangitikei. On the east of the ranges the purchase of the Forty-Mile Bush was completed up to the Hawkes Bay territory. Also, with the double purpose of preparing for future settlement and strengthening the border, instalments were paid on back country blocks between the Wanganui and Patea rivers. An attempt made to revive immigration failed, but a new era for the whole country was at hand. In 1870 Sir Julius Vogel introduced his public works policy, which w r as to make the building of railways and main roads and the introduction of population a national responsibility.

Wellington province benefited greatly by the new policy. Some of the other provinces had begun railway building, but not Wellington. The railway from the city to the Hutt Valley was finished in 1874. But it was in immigration that Wellington reaped the greatest benefit from Vogel’s policy in the first few years. The province had the land, and the Provincial Government, working with the National Government in more peaceful times, w'as able to get people from abroad. The coming of the Scandinavians, who carved out homes for themselves at Eketahuna, Dannevirke, Norsewood and Mauriceville, and around Palmerston North, belongs to this period. They worked on roads as well as at their sections, and Masterton was connected with Palmerston North and the Rangitikei through the Manawatu Gorge. In 1874 the Feilding district was settled by immigrants from England, chiefly agricultural labourers, and what was to be one of the richest parts of the province was given a good start. At about the same time the Sanson and Car-

One of the first direct steamers to England. New Zealand Shipping Company's Kaikoura.

Union Company's Rotomahan

Shaw-Savill clipper Taranaki.

Major Kemp (Tc Rangihiwinui).

Wircmu Kingi.

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narvon special settlements in the Manawatu were occupied by New Zealand farmers. Such was, briefly, the sequence of provincial development, up to the last years of the provincial system. For the end of the provinces was now at hand. They brought their downfall on themselves as political entities by their importunities, their selfishness, their log-rolling and their lack of uniformity in legislation and administration, but other circumstances worked against them. Isolation had been the chief justification for the provincial system, and communication steadily improved. By 1865 there was a regular inter-provincial steamer service. The introduction of a telegraphic system perhaps did more than anything else to break down isolation. In 1866 Wellington received its first telegram from Christchurch. Vogel was a provincialist but he was converted to centralisation by the behaviour of the provinces, and especially their determination to hold on to their lands. They opposed two of his land projects framed on national lines, the conservation of forests, and the setting aside of land reserves to pay for railway construction. Fitzherbert, who had succeeded Featherston as Superintendent in Wellington, was one of his opponents. In August 1874 Vogel suddenly brought forward resolutions abolishing provincial government in the North Island and carried them by forty-one votes to sixteen. Five Superintendents, including Fitzherbert, voted with the minority. The following year, 1875, abolition was applied to the whole country by Act of Parliament, and on November Ist, 1876, abolition came into force. In laying down its responsibility the Provincial Council could point to a creditable record in the development of settlement. It had built or was building 835 miles of road and 371 bridges, and had established a chain of communities in the Wairarapa and along the west coast.

M

213

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[1864-65

A most important change in Wellington’s status occurred in the early sixties. As settlement developed in the South Island the location of the capital at Auckland became more and more inconvenient. In 1863 the House of Representatives decreed that the seat of Government should be transferred to “ some suitable locality in Cook Strait,” and that the choice should be made by a commission of three appointed by the Governors of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. The commissioners, who were asked to consider every aspect of the question, made a very thorough examination of the area in 1864; they worked from Wanganui in the north to Port Underwood in the south, and to Nelson and Golden Bay in the west. As had been expected, they chose Wellington. Of course Auckland protested. Before the Commission sat a petition was sent to the Queen, and after the choice had been made, the separatist movement revived. Curiously enough Auckland received support from Otago, the most distant of the provinces, for the reason that there was a separatist movement there also. The opposition, however, had no effect, and the change to Wellington was completed in 1865. The General Assembly met at first in the Provincial Council building in the Parliamentary grounds, which, with fine foresight, the Council had planned for that use as well as for its own. This building was the mother of the present Parliamentary block.

Such was the thread of political activity during the provincial period. Let us see how this growing youngster, the capital of the province and from 1865 the capital of the country, was faring in other fields. It was a time of transition, when the novelty and romance of beginning in a new land were waning, and the subsistence period, the first step in all colonisation,

JW-]

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was giving way to organised effort. The picnic had become day-to-day housekeeping, often in drab surroundings and on insufficient means. That there was disappointment was inevitable; for one thing the Company had failed to keep its promises. Even under the bright skies and in the health-giving air of Wellington, there was no easy way to wealth. It is reasonable to suppose, however, that few of the immigrants would have returned if they could. There is an illuminating series of letters from a family who came out in 1844. At first they were depressed by everything in Wellington—the accommodation, the weather, the conditions of employment, the price of land, the morals of the community. They could never make up their minds to stay in this place, writes Mrs. Emigrant, and they were determined to leave as soon as they could save enough money. In a few months, however, the tone of the letters to England changes. Mr. Emigrant, a carpenter and glazier, gets plenty of work and employs two hands. Mrs. Emigrant makes money at dressmaking. Two years after landing Mrs. Emigrant writes to a friend in England offering to pay her fare if she will come and help in the shop. She has never been so happy in her life, and her friend will find in Wellington all the comforts she has been used to at home, without the unnecessary toil and anxiety that she undergoes. In 1847 Mrs. Emigrant grieves that those dear to her should be struggling painfully to make a living at home, while they could be made so comfortable in New Zealand.* When Charlotte Godley, the wife of John Robert Godley, leader of the Canterbury settlement, was in Wellington in 1850, she was struck by “ the total absence of poverty, or anything like it, among the people.” Too much could not be said for the “ perfectly delicious

• Chambers Journal; the date is believed to he late in the forties.

215

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[ IS4O

weather between the storms,” and “ everybody seems as happy and as much pleased with it as we are. You never see anyone who does not look comfortably off.” Of course there were poverty and discontent, but these observations by a shrewd English observer seem to give a fairly accurate picture of the general tone of the community.*

The Church, which had marched ahead of the flag, consolidated itself gradually in the new territory. For the most part services were held for some time in private houses or other buildings. The first years of the Church of England in Wellington were not encouraging. The Company had helped to establish the see of New Zealand, and it expected some return from the first Bishop in support against the Government and the Maoris. George Augustus Selwyn, however, was much too strong a character to be so used. Moreover, he established himself at first in north Auckland, and not, as the Company hoped and expected, in Wellington. The first Anglican clergyman in Wellington, the Rev. J. F. Churton, was received so coldly that he went to Auckland, where he established St. Paul’s and was its first vicar. Selwyn stationed a clergyman, the Rev. R. Cole, and a student, W. Evans, in Wellington, but when he visited them he found Cole ill and Evans dying. There was “ neither school nor chapel connected with the Church ” and no provision for them. The Anglicans, indeed, were largely dependent on English money for church maintenance. Cole's nearest colleague was Octavius Hadfield at Waikanae. Gradually the position improved. The first church was St. Paul’s (1844), which stood on a site between the Parliamentary Buildings and the old Dominion Museum. When the first St. Paul’s was pulled down some of it was used to build the chapel in the Bolton Street

• Charlotte Crodlev. Letters from Early New Zealand

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cemetery. The second Anglican church was St. Peter’s in Willis Street. This was built in 1847, but activities in the district began with the foundation of St. Paul’s. The two churches were connected until 1859. It was in a curious way that the Anglican Church received the property on which St. Paul’s and Bishopscourt now stand. During their travels Grey and Selwyn were impressing on the Maoris the need for reserving land for educational purposes. In their direct and disconcerting way the Maoris, having long conferred together on this question, came late at night and roused Grey from his sleep to ask what he personally had done in such direction. As a result the two leaders presented the Church of England with sections in Mulgrave Street, and their travelling companion, the Hon. A. G. Tollemache, added a third.*

At first the Anglican Church in the Province suffered from not having a resident bishop. It was not until 1859 that the Wellington diocese was separated from Selwyn’s territory. Hadfield was invited to be bishop, but he declined, and his friend Charles John Abraham was appointed. Hadfield, however, was always the outstanding figure in the diocese. In a frame weakened by disease he carried indomitable courage and resolution. He walked up and down his district, which at first stretched from Cook Strait to Taranaki ; he risked his life at sea in small boats; and he once rode fifty-three miles to Wellington, mostly over bush track, in five and a quarter hours. He was carried into Wellington in a litter, and was an invalid for five years, racked with pain and exhaustion, but he lived to be Bishop of Wellington (1870) and Primate of New Zealand (1890), and died at the age of ninety. His value as a civiliser of the Maoris and an influence for

• Rev. H. T. Purchas, M.A.. A History of the English Church in New Zealand.

217

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[1843-

peace was incalculable. He helped to save Wellington after Wairau and countered the efforts of Hauhau emissaries. He warned the Government that it was heading for trouble in its native land policy, and when through blundering the Government drifted into the Taranaki War, like Selwyn he incurred popular obloquy through championing the cause of the Taranaki Maoris. His career has been overshadowed by that of the more brilliant Selwyn, and it is time his achievements received due recognition.*

The history of the Roman Catholic Church in Wellington dates from Christmas Day, 1840, when Bishop Pompallier celebrated the first Mass in a house lent by Michael Murphy, the magistrate. It is recorded that, besides all the Catholics, a large number of Protestants were present.** The first resident priest was Father J. J. P. O'Reily, a Franciscan (Capuchin) who arrived in 1843, and for a time officiated in secular buildings. It was Father O’Reily who built the first church, St. Mary of the Angels (1843), on the site of the present church of that name. He used to cross Cook Strait in an open boat to minister to Catholics in the South Island, but there w r ere dangers nearer home, for one night he lost his way in the swamp where Kent Terrace is to-day and received a chill which permanently affected his health. Father O’Reily was loved by the whole community ; and so teas Philip Joseph Viard, the French priest who in 1860 became the first Bishop of Wellington. Because the Marist

* A biography of Hadfield by Mr. R. G. C. McNab is about to be published in England. The author is indebted to extracts from this published in the Press, Christchurch, in 1931, and to information from Mrs. J. W. Marshall, of Marton. a daughter of the Bishop.

♦* It has been believed that the house stood at the corner of Woodward Street and Lambton Quay, but doubt has been thrown on this, and the Courthouse has been mentioned. The question is now being investigated by the Church.

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Order was so prominent in the mission field in New Zealand, the faith was largely spread in the Wellington province by French priests. Father Viard worked among the Maoris under Bishop Pompallier and helped to recover the body of Peter Chanel, who was martyred in the New Hebrides. Co-adjutor Bishop of Auckland since 1846, he came to Wellington as AdministratorApostolic in 1850 with five priests and ten brothers, and the extension of the Catholic educational system quickly followed. The land on which the Convent stands between Hill Street and Hawkestone Street, was the gift of Lord Petre, a director of the New Zealand Company. The Cathedral Church of St. Mary in Hill Street, a wooden building, was built in 1850-51 and burned down in 1898, to be replaced by the Basilica. Bishop Viard died in 1872, and was succeeded by Bishop, afterwards Archbishop Redwood, whose episcopate was to compass the amazing period of sixty-one years. It might be said of Archbishop Redwood, who was born in 1839 and died in 1935, that he himself was New Zealand’s history. But perhaps the most remarkable personality in the history of the Church in the Wellington archdiocese, or in New Zealand, was Mother Mary Joseph Aubert, who came to New Zealand in a whaling ship with Bishop Pompallier in 1860, worked at the mission station of Jerusalem on the Wanganui River (where she became known for her use of New Zealand herbs as remedies); founded the Order of Our Lady of Compassion, the only purely New Zealand Order ; and, coming to Wellington in late middleage at the end of the century, was known to all for another generation as head of the Home for Incurables. She had attended University lectures when those were closed to women ; she had nursed in the Crimea ; she had been a pupil of Lizst, who prophesied great things

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for her ; and she had known eighteen saints. “ In her little tower room at Island Bay,” wrote Miss Eileen Duggan, she died like a tree that falls slowly,” and New Zealand gave her the greatest funeral ever given to a woman.”

The Methodist Church pioneered Christianity at Port Nicholson, and one result of the visit of the missionaries Hobbs and Bumby was the erection by the Maoris of a chapel, of slabs and raupo, near the Te Aro stream, where a branch of the Commercial Bank of Australia stands to-day. This church, the first in Wellington, was used by the first resident Wesleyan clergyman to minister to Wellington, the Rev. John Aldred, who arrived at the end of 1840. Hobbs and Bumby had acquired from the Maoris a strip of land extending from the eastern end of Courtenay Place to Woodward Street. Colonel Wakefield objected to this, and the area was reduced to a piece from Cambridge Terrace to the Royal Oak. Later this was exchanged for a block on the corner of Manners and Cuba Streets. The raupo church gave place to a more substantial structure for the Maori people alone, and a weather board building for general purposes was put up in Manners Street. This was superseded by a brick building, which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1848. The second wooden church built in its place was burned down in 1879, and the present Mother Church of the Wesleyan community, which appropriately bears the name of Wesley, is in Taranaki Street.

The outstanding figure in the Methodist Church was the Rev. Samuel Ironside. The Wairau tragedy wrecked his mission at Cloudy Bay. After Wairau he faced Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, and risked drowning to go to give burial to the victims. From 1843-49 he was not only minister of the Church in Wellington but in charge of a mission territory that

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included Port Nicholson and the West Coast. Like Hadfield, he was a strong influence for peace in times when relations between the two peoples were strained. When in 1844 the Superintendent of Wesleyan Missions proposed to remove him, his congregation in Wellington and prominent citizens petitioned for his retention on this ground, and Bishop Selwyn, who spoke from personal experience, paid a tribute to his heroism.

It has been recorded that the Presbyterian Church supplied the first clergyman among emigrants, the Rev. John Macfarlane. He conducted services on Petone beach and afterwards at Thorndon and Te Aro. The Scots’ Church, as it was called, on the site of the Commercial Bank of Australia, Lambton Quay, was dedicated in January 1844, the Mother Church of Presbyterianism in New Zealand. A larger church was built in 1866 on the same spot, but the site became so valuable that it was sold and another bought on the Terrace. There the first St. Andrew’s Church was built in 1878. Macfarlane protested strongly against the proposal, which was disallowed by the Imperial Government, to set up the Anglican Communion as an Established Church. The divisions in Presbyterianism in Scotland soon showed themselves in Wellington. In 1851 a number of Wellington Presbyterians petitioned the Free Church of Scotland for the services of a minister, and the result was the arrival of the Rev. John Moir, and the erection in 1856 of St. John’s Church in Willis Street. St. Andrew’s, which belonged to the Church of Scotland, remained a church apart until the seventies. Some of these Scottish emigrants brought with them the strongest objections to innovations in their service. Alexander Sutherland, a passenger by the Oriental, whom we have seen crossing the harbour in an open boat to get to his grazing land in the Waira-

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rapa, was a pillar of St. John’s Church. A year or so before he died an organ was introduced into the church, and he and others showed their disapproval by walking out the first day it was played.*

It is curious that in founding Wellington province educated men made no provision for education. In comparison at any rate with Otago, Canterbury and Nelson, for many years Wellington remained the home of individual effort. In this it resembled the society from which it sprang. At that time responsible Englishmen were loth to entrust public education to the State ; they thought of it as “ a gift conferred by the well-to-do and by the country upon the labouring poor.”** The percentage of illiteracy in England was high—not until thirty years after the Wellington settlers sailed, did the Mother Country introduce a national and compulsory system. Only the university don and the public school master had any social status, and Ruskin drew pointed attention to the lack of respect with which governesses were treated in well-to-do households. The New Zealand national system was born only seven years after the English, and if the provinces had pulled together we might have shown England the way.

For a long time Wellington had to depend on private and church effort, and it lagged far behind the principal Southern districts. Apparently the first schools at Port Nicholson were opened by women. According to Mr. George MacMorran’s Some Schools and Schoolmasters of Early Wellington, Miss Tilke, who arrived in the Adelaide under the care of Mrs. (Dr.) Evans, opened and conducted the first regulai school. This was in Thorndon. Miss Annie Maria Smith, who arrived in the Oriental, was employed as

• Sutherland Papers.

•• J. W. A. Adamson, A Short History of Education, quoted by Mr Webb in Control of Education in New Zealand.

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a governess to the daughters of a Petone shopkeeper. Neighbours sent their daughters to her and she started a school for girls and moved to Wellington.* Then there was Charles Grace, said to be an English University graduate, who at his Wellington Academical Institution in 1840, besides the subjects of an “ ordinary English education ” offered “ Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Chemistry, Anatomy, and Natural History.” Mr. Grace, who seems to have been the first male teacher in the settlement, deserves to be remembered in a country that led the way in granting degrees to women, for he undertook to devote “ two hours each day to the improvement of young ladies” : his great object would be “ to accustom them to think, which is unfortunately too little attended to in female education.” However, Mr. Grace’s school did not flourish, and, like many another academical in early colonial society, he went farming. He returned to Wellington to offer himself as a private tutor and keep a night school. In 1842 the Mechanics’ Institute Committee opened a school which Mr. A. G. Butchers describes as the first “ public school.” The pupils were taught in an old raupo whare, and the charges were sixpence a week for the three “ R’s,” and ninepence for everything. The school did not last long, and the master, Mr. George Edwards, also took up farming. Henry Buxton, a passenger by the Adelaide, “ gardener, grave-digger, verger, and teacher,” conducted a nightschool, and after his death in 1847 his wife and daughter carried on for many years a school for small boys and girls and senior girls. In the house in Tinakore Road, the infants were taught in the kitchen and the senior girls in the parlour ; if the senior girls wanted French they went to the kitchen for it.

♦ See the Wellington section of Dr. A. G. Butchers’ history of early education in New Zealand— When We Were Young.

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Meanwhile the churches had entered the field. The Wesleyan Church started a Sunday school in 1842, where, according to custom, secular instruction was also given, and a day school in 1846. Father O’Reily, the pioneer priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Wellington, opened a school in Boulcott Street in 1847, and announced that “if any of our beloved dissentient brethren ” entrusted their children to him and wished them not to take part in religious observances, their wishes would be strictly respected. Father O Reily’s school was taken over by the Marist Order in 1876. Catholic Schools in Hill Street for boys and girls followed in 1851 and 1852. It was about this time that the Anglican Church came in with St. Paul’s school at Thorndon and St. Peter’s at Te Aro. Both schools eventually became part of the provincial, and finally the national system. Sir George Grey endowed all three churches for educational purposes.

Ihe above appear to have been what one calls primary schools. The most important and successful secondary school for some years was Edward Toomath's Wellington Commercial and Grammar School, which flourished from 1857 to 1870. Toomath was long a leading figure in the world of education. He had been trained in England, and before he established his Grammar School he had taught in Lyttelton and had been headmaster of St. Paul’s School in Wellington. As a member of the Provincial Council he was of great assistance in educational matters, and when the provincial Education Board was formed he was elected to it and acted as honorary inspector. However the school that was to prove most important in the end was one started in 1867 in Woodward Street by the Rev. H. E. Tuckey, who was a graduate of Cambridge, and W. S. Hamilton, from the Edinburgh Training College. Grey had established an endowment for a Grammar

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School and the money from it was allowed to accumulate. Looking round for an establishment suitable for their purpose the trustees were impressed by the standards of the school, and it became Wellington College. The school had been founded on the advice of the Rev. T. A. Bowden. He supervised its work and became its headmaster. The second home ol Wellington College was in the old military barracks in Thorndon (Fitzherbert Terrace), and its third in Clifton Terrace. In 1874 it was removed to its present site, an area taken from the Town Belt.

In the belated shaping of educational policy men of Toomath’s training and principles were needed, but for many years the effort of public authority was halfhearted. One of the first actions of the Provincial Council was to enquire into educational needs, and when a commission reported in 1855 and the Government adopted its findings, the battle of secular versus denominational education was joined. Wellington held a public meeting that lasted for several evenings and filled thirty-four newspaper columns. Proceedings were enlivened by what Mr. R. G. C. McNab, the biographer of Bishop Hadfield, who was prominent in the controversy, describes as “ cheers, hisses and violent personalities.” The Provincial Government stood firmly by the secular principle. The only concession was a subsequent amendment to the Act of 1855 which allowed a teacher, with the permission of the local committee, to instruct children in the Bible without comment. A clergyman was forbidden to teach in a public school or to interfere otherwise in its affairs, though he was eligible for election to a committee. The system introduced in 1855 authorised the Superintendent to proclaim school districts, in which committees were to be elected and schools supported by rates or voluntary effort, with a subsidy from thf

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Provincial Government. The response was very poor. Some districts, notably Wangauni and Rangitikei, were quick to take advantage of the Act. Others did nothing. By 1864 there were only 25 schools in the whole province. In Wellington itself no public schools proper were established until the seventies. Education was left to Church and private effort. In the sixties according to the Wellington Almanac, there were some thirty dame schools, though it is possible some of these deserved a more complimentary classification. The apathy of the country districts was understandable. Most settlers were poor, and the £1 a year required to keep up the school was a substantial item in the domestic budget. Homesteads were isolated, communication was very bad, and children were frequently needed for work in the house and about the farm. Moreover in the minds of parents there was nothing like the modern realisation of the value of schools. In 1856 there were in the Province nearly a thousand adults who could not read at all, and many more whose ability was next to nothing. At that time school teaching was looked on by many, even in older countries, as the last resort of the incapable. So in these early years the lot of the teachers in Wellington Province was hard, and so was that of the pupil. The teacher had no security of tenure, and his salary was apt to be as uncertain as the clergyman’s. There was no inspector to test his work and keep him up to the mark. Efficient teachers were very scarce, accommodation was inadequate, equipment was short, and attendance was poor. In one school twelve children of nearly the same age had each a different book ; in another, half the children were kept idle while the other half used the only books available. In another, with a roll number of 58, the average attendance was only 18. At Johnsonville in the early sixties there was a schoolroom

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only twelve feet by ten for a roll of twenty-two. It is not surprising that when the Rev. T. A. Bowden made the first inspection of the Province’s schools in 1867, he reported that only 112 children were classed as able to read a narrative of ordinary difficulty, and only 200 were competent to work a sum in the compound rules of arithmetic. Finance was the root of the trouble. The Provincial Government, like the other provinces in the North Island, was short of money. In 1870 an Auckland clergyman-teacher declared that intellectually the North Island was a desert, while the South Island was well watered and fertile.* By that time, however, the Wellington Provincial Council had begun to put the house in order, and in 1872 it divided the province into ten districts, which elected a Board of Education. The backwardness of Wellington and other provinces strengthened the movement for a national system, and when that system was introduced in 1877 the Wellington Board, like those elsewhere, was taken over as a going concern.

The Wellington community was an English societytransplanted to a very different environment; social customs were preserved, though they were speedily modified by colonial conditions. Probably we shall never know the truth about duelling in the early days of Wellington. One encounter is on record. Two lawyers, W. V. Brewer and H. Ross, quarrelled over a difference in Court and met with pistols. Brewer died of his wound. Though the names not only of the principals but one of the seconds (Major Durie), and the surgeon in attendance (Dr. Dorset) appeared in the New Zealand Journal, published in London, and one may easily believe the affair was the talk of the town, the jury at the inquest, which lasted four days, found that the evidence did not prove by whom the

♦ The Rev. VV. M. Taylor. The Education of the People.

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wound was inflicted. In his recollections of his early days John Waters told Mr. James Cowan that he saw two parties of “ aristocrats ” riding out towards Newtown early one morning and riding back, and it was reported that Colonel Wakefield and Dr. Featherston had gone to hght a duel. Some said one shot had been fired, others that peace had been made without firing.*

There were also town stocks, at the intersection of Mulgrave, Pipitea and Murphy Streets where minor offenders did their time. There was imprisonment for debt in something of the manner of the Fleet prison. Mrs. Godley was pleased to find the town had a crier of the night hours just like the “ Old Charlies ” of London. To-day those who sleep badly are troubled by other noises.

Mr. Marais writes of the social and intellectual life of New Zealand settlements in the fifties with something akin to pity. Life, he says, was dull enough in those days, and he wonders how the people passed their evenings.** One might wonder how people passed them in England at that time. It will not do to judge the provinces entirely by the standards and conditions of to-day. The Wellington community was a busy one and because much of its life was primitive and it had to make its own interests it must not be written down as stagnant and unhappy. It is true there were few public amenities or utilities in the town. The conditions of the streets were apt to be deplorable, and visiting, especially at night, was often an undertaking. The minutes of the Town Board (1863-66) and the Board of Works (1866-70) show how concerned resi-

• Auckland Star, March 25, 1939. Mr. J. VV. Marshall, of Tutu Totara, Marlon, a son-in-law of Bishop Hadfield. has told the author that Bishop Hadfield said Featherston had been wounded in a duel with Wakefield, and he (the Bishop) had reproved Featherston foi fighting the duel.

•• The Colonisation of New Zealand, p. 168

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dents were about roads, bridges, surface drainage, and nuisances. These bodies, composed of nine members representing the three wards of Thorndon, Lambton, and Te Aro, were elected by the ratepayers and received grants from the Provincial Government. They had little revenue. Residents would subscribe money for street improvements and a subsidy would be paid on their contributions. Under the Town Board ratepayers in public meeting were empowered to say what the rates should be, and at the first of these meetings the farthing beat the penny by a large majority. The Board of Works could not go beyond a penny without the ratepayers’ consent. Street work was done by gangs of prisoners, who received as a gratuity from the town funds a stick of tobacco per week and a Christmas box. Mrs. Godley mentions that there were no conveyances, and Mrs. Gold, the wife of the Colonel of the 65th, must have been envied her sedan chair. Wheelbarrows, so a visitor reported, were sometimes bespoken to take home gentlemen engaged for a long convivial evening. There was a good deal of drinking, but so there was elsewhere. Until the late sixties the only public lights seem to have been the lamps over the doors of hotels. Then the Board of Works installed kerosene lamps in the streets. It is not surprising to read that moonlight evenings were chosen for parties. The only public water supply was one brought from the Tinakore slopes to serve Government buildings, and the Board of Works felt unable to take advantage of it. Houses used streams, wells, and tanks. Sanitation was most primitive. Lambton Quay sections were dotted with cesspools, and until the middle sixties there was no nightsoil collection. Two years later it was complained that the contractors were dumping the stuff in the tide because there was no depot. A fire brigade was established in 1865, but the Town Board had to decline

N

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to assist it. The community was poor. Its material conditions were those of all colonies in their early stages, and in some respects were no worse than what could be found in many parts of Victorian Britain.

The isolation of Wellington gradually broke down. When J. R. Godley and his family travelled from Wellington to Lyttelton in 1850 they were glad to be taken in a warship ; Mrs. Godley mentions that a voyage between these places might take ten days. However, steamers soon began to appear. The Wonga Wonga, 103 tons, one of the best-known ships on the coast, and the Stormbird, which remained in service until well into the present century, were launched in 1854. The Zingari, 150 tons, arrived in 1855, and the Governor visited the provinces in her. There was great pride in the Nelson (320 tons) when she arrived in 1855 to take up coastal running under an agreement with the Government; State subsidies helped these services to develop. The cabin fare for this ship from Wellington to the Manukau was £lO, and from Wellington to New Plymouth £7/10/-. An item in the advertisements, “ bedding provided,” marked a change in shipboard conditions. One notes that when the Queen ran an excursion from Wellington to the Canterbury races in 1859, the return saloon fare was £B/8/-. Travelling must have been an adventure in those days. The little Wonga Wonga had to blow the brine out of her boilers, and this operation, which shook the whole ship, was done several times in a night, to the great discomfort of passengers. C. W. Richmond, afterwards Mr. Justice Richmond, wrote a lively account of a voyage in her on official business from Auckland to Wellington in 1857. The Colonial Secretary did not know when he would be able to go on to Canterbury, because the Wonga Wonga was sent from Wellington to the Nelson diggings.* By 1865, however, there was regular steam

* Letters in the possession of Miss Mary Richmond.

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service between the provinces, and a communication with Australia was well-established. In 1859 the Lord I Vorsley, apparently using sail as well as steam, crossed from Sydney to Wellington in four days eighteen hours. To go direct to England one still had to take a sailing ship, and one notices with a kind of awe an advertisement of 1855 in which the iron schooner Titan, of 250 tons, bound for London, offers “ splendid and airy accommodation for cabin passengers.” But steamer service right across the Pacific was now introduced. In 1866, the Panama, Australian and New

Zealand Royal Mail Company began to run ships from Sydney via Wellington to Panama, where passengers and mails were carried over the isthmus and there put on board ships for England. The Ruahine, Rakaia, Kaikoura, and Mataura, of this line, ships of about 1500 tons, were followed by others under different flags, which made San Francisco or Honolulu their terminal port. The most curious of these early ships, says Lindsay Buick in his Jubilee of the Port of Wellington were the American trio, Nebraska, Nevada, and Dakota, of 2000 tons, wooden paddle steamers built for service in the American Civil War, with “ fearful and wonderful beam engines.” The Union Steamship Company, it should be remembered, was not founded until 1875. The provincial period was one of trial and error in shipping, but the importance of Wellington as a port was more clearly established, and the community gained by better contact with the outside world.

With the continuous improvement of roads came coaches, especially the high leather-slung vehicles that were known both in Australia and New Zealand as Cobb’s. To-day a journey of ten hours to Masterton would seem dreadfully tedious, but it was a great advance on earlier progress between Wellington and the Wairarapa, and at times passengers probably got

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more thrill out of bowling along on a fine day behind a spanking team of horses, than we do from purring along at forty miles an hour in closed cars. A poet of our time, Mr. Will Lawson, has caught something of that freshness of an earlier world.

Who cares for debts unpaid, and owed

If wool be high or low?

We’re on the old Ngahauranga Road

Ho! Let the beauties go!

As a means of collecting revenue directly from road users, toll gates were introduced on roads and bridges, just as tyre and petrol taxes are levied to-day. The Kaiwarra toll gate was set up in 1863, and was not finally abolished (at the end it was moved to Ngahau ranga) until 1890. Charges at Kaiwarra ranged up to 2s for four-wheeled vehicles, and the amount of traffic may be gauged from the fact that in 1878 the gate brought in £'2525. As late as 1921 an unsuccessful application was made for a toll bar on the Day’s Bay Road.

For the most part Wellington made light of its difficulties. Social and intellectual life was livelier than might be supposed. People visited each other and enjoyed parties, dances, concerts, and picnics. Entertainment in drawing room and concert hall was not very different from what was offered in the Homeland. The dances ranged from official balls at Government House, with music from the band of the 65th, to what were called “bread and butter” affairs (tickets 2/6) because the only food for supper was bread and butter with tea and coffee for drinks.* Of course the tie with Britain was strong. There were books and papers from Home, by, at first, irregular mails, and the reading part of the settlement would be excited by a new Dickens or Thackeray. The colonists subscribed some

* Let lei's of J. C. Richmond in possession of Miss Mary Richmond

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£1,500 for the benefit of the British troops in the Crimea, a large sum for a small struggling community. The most spectacular occasion for the display of loyalty was the visit of Prince Alfred (Duke of Edinburgh). in 1869. The town was decorated and illuminated ; there were bonfires and fireworks, a regatta, and a public fete. Once a week the band of the 65th played in the open at Thorndon, and not only the town but residents of the Hutt, came for the music and the company. “ There we met everyone,” wrote Mrs. Godley, “ walking or sitting about in summer dresses, bonnets with feathers, etc., and two or three parties of natives, rolled in their blankets, and squatted just behind the big drum.” The Hutt Road was the Hyde Park of the settlement. “ After much rain ” to quote Mrs. Godley again, “ the Hutt Road is the only tolerable place, and indeed it is always the fashionable lounge, especially on a Sunday afternoon when everyone walks there, from the Governor and his wife down to all the shop people in their best clothes.” It is worth noting that the commonest of all sayings about Wellington, that you know a Wellington man by his always having his hand upon his hat, was recorded by Mrs. Godley as far back as 1850.

The settlers were busy making interests for themselves. There was a crop of societies in the early years. The Horticultural and Botanical Society was formed in 1841, and the space given for flower and vegetable gardening in the early Wellington almanacs testifies to the interest the settlers took in the subject. The New Zealand Society, founded in 1851, was a forerunner of the New Zealand Philosophical Society of 1868, and its parent body the New Zealand Institute.* Freemasonry in Wellington dates to 1842 and the first Oddfellows’ Lodge was established in 1843. The idea of a library

* Now the Royal Society of New Zealand, with branches

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and lecture hall in Wellington was formulated in Lon don before the first colonists sailed, and books and scientific apparatus were sent out. The result was the Athenaeum and Mechanics’ Institute, a combination of activities that had a good many ups and downs. It provided the first library in Wellington, and the Athenaeum building on the Quay was a centre of intellectual life for some time. In the first session in the new building (1850), there were lectures on phrenology, chemistry, banking, and magnetism—not an exciting programme, but not very different from what was offered in similar institutions in England at that time. Wellington, as well as English towns, enjoyed penny readings.

The early Wellington theatres deserve a chapter to themselves. In the forties those who wanted drama had to depend on local talent, just as of late years, owing to the competition of the screen with the commercial theatre, most of the onus of producing plays has fallen on amateur societies. At the Wellington Saloon in Manners Street, attached to the Ship Hotel, in 1843, and then at the Royal Victoria Theatre in the same street (the first building to be lit by gas) performances were given. There appears to have been a gap between 1843 and 1845, when the Britannia Saloon, attached to the Aurora Tavern in Willis Street (the site of the present Britannia Hotel) was opened. English drama was then at about its lowest ebb, and the Wellington entertainments of the forties reflected its condition. The usual bill was a melodrama and a farce, with an interlude of dancing and singing. The titles tell their story ; The Cross of Gold or Teresa’s Vow, A Ghost in Spite of Himself, The Village Lawyer. The Rover of the Seas, The Spectre Bridegroom, The Middy Ashore or a Spree upon the Land, The Phantom Bride or the Awful Injunction, Sarah the Jexcess

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or The Dream of Fate, The Tinker, the Tailor, the Soldier, and the Sailor.* Apparently these players never rose higher than London Assurance, and dra matisations of one or two of Scott's novels. These theatres of the forties were connected with public houses, and patrons were often in a boisterous mood. To make sure of a quiet evening some of the townspeople arranged subscription evenings, when they had the theatre to themselves, and finished up with a dance. The leading spirit was Mr. (. H. Marriott, who directed the first performance at the Wellington Saloon and kept the Britannia Saloon going for some years until he paid a visit to England. By trade he was an engraver, and drawings by him of local scenes appeared in the Illustrated London News. He was actor, producer, manager, singer, scene-painter, decorator for local functions, and dancing-master. He has perhaps a greater claim to fame than all these ; he was the greatgrandfather of Edgar Wallace.**

In the fifties, probably owing to Marriott’s visit to England, theatrical enterprise seemed to have declined. Nearly all the entertainment continued to be produced by local talent. Improvement in communications in the sixties brought travelling companies. In 1863 the Carandinis gave operatic concert programmes, and the Lyster Opera Company in 1864 played seven operas —II Trovatore, The Daughter of the Regiment, The Barber of Seville, Don Pasquale, Norma, Lucrezia Borgia, and Faust, a remarkable season for a town of some seven thousand inhabitants in the most remote colony. These were preludes to the much greater

♦ The author is indebted to Dr. A. C. Keys of Victoria University College for information about this early period. Dr. Keys presents evidence against the statement that Macbeth was played at the Britannia Saloon in 1846.

*• Dr. G. H. Scholefield, in the Railways Magazine. August 1939

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theatrical activity of the seventies, which will be touched upon in the next chapter.

I hen there was the excitement of politics, local and general. The capital might be distant, but politics were near, and the local newspapers saw to it that the fires of controversy were fanned. We have seen that the first newspaper, the Gazette, edited by Samuel Revans, became the New Zealand Gazette and Britannia Spectator. Later it was called the New Zealand Spectator and Cook Strait Guardian. The Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser was born in 1842 but lived for only twelve months, the first of several casualties in the Wellington newspaper world. A more important event was the appearance of the Independent in 1844. The Independent and the Spectator waged strenuous and bitter war for many years. The Spectator was for Grey, and the Independent for the supporters of speeds-self-government. Those were hard times for newspapers. In 1842 the Gazette referred to the great difficulty in collecting subscriptions, and said some subscribers had not paid a shilling since the paper was established. One imagines that staffs were small, and that an editor might have to drop his writing of an editorial and run to the beach and row out to a ship newly-arrived from England in quest of precious newspaper files. This may account partly for the poverty of local news. The papers were mostly four-page affairs, published twice a week. Politics were the chief end of their editors, and in their comments they struck without pity. In one issue of the Independent there were sixteen columns of a meeting addressed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield at the Hutt, and everything else was frankly crowded out. Several distinguished men were connected with these papers. William Fox (afterwards Sir William), edited the Gazette for a time. Domett wrote for the Spectator, and Featherston, Fitzherbert.

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Dr. Evans and E. J. Wakefield for the Independent. To-day, however, the editorials of that time, whoever wrote them, often give an impression of force without restraint or humour. Arguments were apt to be slanging matches. We find such expressions as “ the underhand manoeuvres, the fobbing, the dodges of these shallow, unscrupulous and corrupt politicians ” (the politicians are named), who felt for the editor “ the same sort of antipathy which a thief feels towards one of the detective police” ; and a reference to “ some Minister w’ho wastes the lime of the Legislature by spitting out his individual spite and animosity against somebody who has offended his immediate self-esteem.” In infant societies journalism is apt to be like this—we may recall the ideal expressed by the editor in Mark Twain’s Journalism in Tennessee, “ now that is the way to write—peppery and to the point. Mush-and-milk journalism gives me the fan-tods.” In Britain too, at this time, journalism was much more personal and savage than it is to-day. The writing in the news columns of these Wellington papers was often longwinded and pompous, “ Before ten,” runs a typical description of a ball in 1853, “ the fair and lovely devotees of Terpsichore were tripping the light fantastic toe,” and the company did not go home till “ bright Sol had beamed his morning rays.” This sort of thing, however, was the style of the time, and citizens would have been much poorer without their newspapers. There they read about struggles in national and provincial politics, and columns of clipped news from the distant world. The Spectator lived until 1865, and the Independent until 1874, when it was merged into the New Zealand Times. Between 1859 and 1868 there was the New Zealand Advertiser. In 1865 Mr. Henry Blundell, casting about for a place to set up a press that had been in commission on the Nelson goldfields,

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tried Wellington, and the Evening Post was born, with a first-day circulation of 250. In its early days, when transport was irregular and expensive, and telegraphing in its infancy, the Evening Post had a hard struggle, but it has long been an institution of Wellington. The colonists also had their out door sports. Horseracing, as one might expect, was a very early growth. A hurdle race for fifteen guineas at the back of Te Aro pa in the Anniversary Day Sports of 1841 is believed to have been the first race. The first horses were brought to Wellington from Australia in 1840, and two years later Bidwill imported brood mares, from the best blood in New South Wales. There was a Wellington Jockey Club at that time, and though it seems to have lapsed until 1865, its rules were quoted as authority. Jerningham Wakefield's account of the settlement’s first real race meeting, on Petone beach on October 20th, 1842, has a slight flavour of West of Ireland races in the stories of Somerville and Ross. Horses were put in training ; jockeys wore jackets and caps ; sportsmen made books ; Te Puni was asked to have the dogs of the village tied up and the pigs kept at home ; the grand stand was a few planks set on water butts ; and Wakefield, wearing the settlement’s only pink coat, cleared the course of whalers and basking Maoris. Burnham Water was the first course of the Wellington Jockey Club, later the Wellington Racing Club. This site was a lagoon where villas and oil tanks now stand on the Miramar flat ; the water was drained off through a tunnel into Evans Bay. Then Hutt Park, where the trotting races are held to-day, was the home of the Club, and a rough place it was at first. The track crossed a culvert covered with river shingle, and the stones used to fly up like bullets. This was the home of the Club until 1906, when the course at Trentham was opened.

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IBM I

Cricket was played in New Zealand before Waitangi, and at Wellington it seems to be about as old as the settlement itself. Though correspondence had preceded the visit of Auckland in 1860, the difficulties in the way of making arrangements from a distance were such that the team arrived unexpectedly. This, the first representative match played in Wellington, or in New Zealand, was won by Auckland by four wickets. The total for the four innings was 222.

Football dates to the late sixties. The story goes that one day in 1868 someone said : “ Let's have a game of football,” and went off to town to buy a ball. That a ball was procurable suggests that football of a kind had already been played. Rugby fanatics will be pained to read that it was a round ball, and that they had to send to Melbourne for an oval one. For a time " Melbourne Rules ” were played, but Rugby soon came in (the first game was played in 1871). the Rugby of hacking, tripping, and mauls-in-goal. The greater leisureliness of those days is illustrated by the fact that when a Nelson side came over in 1870 to play Wellington, the first inter-provincial match played there, the teams had to drive round in search of a field to plav on. The Wellington Rugby Union was founded in 1879.

The greatest games fixture of the year, however, was Anniversary Day. Then the colonists gathered to talk over old times, pat themselves on the back, and contemplate a brighter to-morrow. One day was not sufficient for the celebration ; it look two or even three. There were horse races and boat races and such diverting competitions as tipping a barrow blindfolded, catching a soaped goose, and grinning through a horsecollar. A steamer might make several trips to take crowds to a picnic across the harbour. During the American Civil War the proceeds of one such picnic went to the relief of Lancashire cotton operatives.

1 1870

CHAPTER NINE

MODERN WELLINGTON

God made Auckland, but the engineer made Wellington.

lIUMUIIU, UU L Lilt tllgllltCl UidUC »> (.11111)' lUII. —A Mayor of Wellington.

At length, at length, oh steadfast wills, Luck takes the tiller and foul tides turn ; Superb amid majestic hills The domes of Eldorado burn.

■St. John Lucas. “ The Ship of Fools.”

The year 1870 is the most suitable date lor the birth of modern Wellington. It was in that year that the town became a municipality. It was in that year, too, that Sir Julius Vogel, by bringing forward his policy of public works and immigration, gave provincial as well as national history a sharp turn. The decade that followed was marked by exceptional activity in many directions. The province built its first railway, from Wellington to the Hutt Valley, and before the ten years were out the city was linked with the Wairarapa. The province received large numbers of immigrants, and their activities nourished the business of the centre. The citv made its first important advances in the provision of public utilities. To the decade belong the beginnings of a city water supply ; the introduction of gas lighting : tlie establishment of a steam tram service ; the placing of Wellington College on its present site ; and the

* Believed to have been said by the late Sir John Luke, who wa himself an engineer, and had a great regard for the then Cil Engineer, W. H. Morton.

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legislation that set up the Wellington Harbour Board. The population of the city of Wellington in 1870 was between 7,000 and 8,000, and the increase in the five years since it became the capital was about 3,000. The city's elevation was a factor in this increment. It does not come within the scope of this history to trace the many changes in national politics of which Wellington has been the scene, but something may be said of the effect produced on the city’s character by the conditions of a capital. It has been said that civic spirit has been discouraged because citizens have got into the way of looking to the Government for improvements, and of arguing that in any case there are certain things the Government must provide. The late Sir Harold Beauchamp says in his autobiography that when Richard Seddon was Prime Minister he “ never lost an opportunity of taunting Wellington on the poor public spirit of its citizens.” * It is thirty-three years, however, since Seddon died, and if he had lived to see the benefactions of the last generation he might have retracted or modified his criticism. What can be said with confidence about Wellington is that it is the least selfcentred and most national of New Zealand cities. Its civil service population is large, and much of this is on the move. Concentration in Wellington of heads of State departments, departmental experts, and heads of commercial concerns with branches throughout the Dominion, supplies a considerable body of men above the average in ability who are accustomed to think in terms of the whole of New Zealand and not merely of the city in which they live. The general manager of a bank has to watch what is going on at Auckland, Dunedin, and Taihape ; the head of a department may find his most serious problems in Napier or Greymouth. This gives to Wellington society a refreshingly broad

• Reminiscences and Recollections, Sir Harold Beauchamp, p. 181

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character ; one is not so conscious as elsewhere of preoccupation with local problems and rivalry with other centres. Wellington, moreover, is not only the capital, but the real centre, of New Zealand. All roads lead to and through it, and if you walk up and down Lambton Quay long enough, you will meet all your friends. But one curious fact about Wellington may be mentioned ; it does not produce Prime Ministers. Since Sir William Fox in 1873, who, though he did not sit for a city or suburban seat, may be said to have been a Wellington man, only one Prime Minister has been primarily identified with Wellington, and that was Sir Francis Bell, who reigned for a fortnight in 1925.

The problem before the municipality of 1870 and succeeding years, and the Wellington Flarbour Board, was to develop a city-port on a terrain composed largely of hills sloping steeply to the sea, or narrow inland valleys. The city had to extend up and over the hills and at the same time win land from the sea. Some facts about heights and gradients will show how difficult the problem has been. A point in Wadestown is 100 feet above sea level, but only a quarter of a mile from the sea by the shortest line. Roseneath is 500 feet high and a little less in distance from the sea. Brooklyn rises to 500 feet, and Northland to 600 feet, and the elevation of the Kelburn tram terminus, from which one seems able to throw a stone on to the Quav, is 400 feet. This has meant steep grades in roads, and heavy expenditure on construction. Quite a number of fairly important roads have grades of one in twelve, and there are isolated lengths where the grades vary from one in twelve to one in four, though in all cases the steepest grades carry very little traffic. Some of the tramway grades are very steep. In places in Wadestown and Brooklyn they are one in twelve. As transport was developed it was found necessary to construct eight

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tunnels, exclusive of those on the old railway line to the West Coast and the Tawa Flat deviation. Of these eight tunnels three give access to Kelburn by way of the cable tram, four are general traffic tunnels, and one is for tramway purposes only. There are several bridges ; the largest, the Kelburn Viaduct, cost £22,000. The cutting work for roads must far exceed, in quantity and cost, that of any other New Zealand city. The Miramar cutting is about 90 feet high ; Branda Pass 60 feet ; the Sydney Street cutting 50 feet. Naturally, the cost of retaining walls has been heavy. The Carlton Gore Road work cost £7,000 ; Glasgow Street nearly £6,000 ; Northland Road, Plunket Street and Upland Road well over £3,000 apiece, ft is no wonder that a Mayor of the city said the engineer had made Wellington.

The numbers of narrow streets, lanes and rights-of-way, some only a few feet wide, are partly the result of landscape steepness, but they are also the fruit of that lack of foresight in early times from which every New Zealand city suffers. One cause of bad development was the size of the original holdings. An acre proved too large for city lots. Owners cut up their sections, and there was no authority sufficiently interested to stop the formation of narrow lanes. When Sir George Troup, as Mayor of Wellington, promoted a Bill to clear away the Te Aro slums, he found there were seventy lanes and alley-ways in that area. It was a misfortune for Wellington that it was without municipal government for so many years.

The municipal history of Wellington City in relation to its suburbs is a story of separate growth, followed, as conditions changed, by amalgamation. These developments resemble the trends in national and provincial relations. Local government of suburbs was necessary in the early days ; then, as communica-

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tions improved, and the need for unity in services became apparent, the outlying boroughs merged their interests in those of the larger community. The city originally stretched from the junction of Thorndon Quay and Tinakore Road to Wakefield Park and its neighbourhood, about a mile from Island Bay. It took in the whole of the commercial area and a large stretch between the Mount Victoria range and the Brooklyn heights. Karori, Ngaio, Wadestown, Kilbirnie, Hataitai, Melrose, Brooklyn and Miramar were outside its boundaries. From the dates when suburban boroughs were established one can get some idea of the trend of settlement. The first was Melrose (1888), a curiously shaped district, which faced the sea at Island Bay, took in Happy Valley and Brooklyn, and through Mitchelltown ran in behind the city to the Kelburn district. It also bounded the city on the east, for it took in Hataitai and Roseneath and extended right up to Point Jerningham. The borough of Onslow, carved out of the Hutt County in 1890, embraced Khandallah, Ngaio, Kaiwarra and Wadestown. It owed its existence largely to popular hatred of the Kaiwarra toll-gate, for the law said that a toll-gate could not be operated within a certain distance of a borough, and opponents of the gate took this method of getting rid of it. The Kaiwarra gate was closed in 1890, but the Hutt County Council put up a gate at Ngahauranga. This was too much for the opposition. One dark night a crowd overpowered the gate-keeper, tore up the gate, and threw it into the harbour. The gate was fished up and re-erected, and the gate-keeper given the protection of a policeman armed with a revolver. There was another attack, the constable was overpowered, and the gate burned. Again it was set up, and again it was destroyed. Clearly there were a lot of people who agreed with the Evening Post that toll-gates were

Modern Wellington from the air.

Horse Tram, Wellington, 1882-1901.

Steam Tram, Wellington, 1878-1882.

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a relic of barbarism. But to return to the future of Onslow, that borough parted with Wadestown to the city in 1907-8, and in 1919 the rest of the area was absorbed. Though Karori was settled very early, it was not made into a borough till 1891, when, like Onslow, it was taken out of the Hutt County. The long delay must be attributed to difficulty of communication. In 1907 and 1908 the borough ceded the Karori catchment area and Northland, and in 1920 joined the city. Miramar, which originally was part of the Hutt County, developed late, and did not become a borough until 1904. A photograph of 1900 shows a house-less expanse. The borough took in the whole of the Miramar peninsula from a line drawn across the middle ol the isthmus. Miramar joined the city in 1921. Melrose had been absorbed in 1903.

Communication was the root of development. Trams did not begin to run until 1878, but neither this steam service nor the horse trams that followed it went beyond the city. The steam trams, said to be the first in Australasia, consisted of an engine and trailers, and the engines were given names, such as Hibernia, Zealandia, and Scotia, a pleasant custom that has been revived for the rail-cars run by the Railways Department. These steam trams were not a success. Horses "ere frightened by the engines, and, according to the Evening Post, which perhaps wrote facetiously, by the bright red of the carriages ; maintenance costs were heavy ; and it was alleged that cab-drivers used to block the way deliberately. In the early eighties horses were introduced, and this was the power used until the electric system was instituted in 1904. There was competition by buses and a curious and, in the circumstances, a rather impudent device known as a jigger, which ran on the tramlines when they were clear and left them when a tram approached. The tram service

o

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was never extensive ; it ran from Thorndon to Newtown, with one branch, and when an English syndicate examined the system in 1898 (the syndicate that introduced electric trams to Auckland), the length was less than four miles. The syndicate’s agent, however, was much impressed with the service’s possibilities ; limited though it was, it was carrying more than three million passengers in a year. The City Council preferred to keep improvements in its own hands. It bought the service out in 1900, and in 1904 opened the first instalment of the electric system, which now covers thirtyone and a half route miles. Corporation trams and buses carry about forty-five million passengers in a year. In the horse-tram days there were buses to the suburbs, but people walked much more than they do now. They walked long distances to work and home again. Young fellows walked miles to play games on Saturday afternoons. It is recorded by one of the pilots that, after going out from the station at Worser Bay and bringing a ship into the city wharves, he learned that another ship was awaiting a pilot outside the Heads, so he walked out to the station and brought her to berth, too.

The history of Wellington transport is the history of Wellington development. Suburban extensions date from 1905 to 1929. The tram system has cost a million and a half, and more would have been spent on it had not the motor bus proved its worth as a competitor. The population of Onslow district increased from 2,200 in 1919 (in round figures )to over 5,000 in 1938; Karori from 1,750 in 1920 to 6,500; Miramar from 3,200 in 1921 to 10,400. When the tramway tunnel through Mt. Victoria was opened in 1907, the population of the eastern suburbs, served by two indifferent roads and by sea (there was a ferry to Seatoun), was about 3,000, but bv 1938 it had grown to 29,000. The

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beginning of the electric tram period coincided roughly with the coming of the motor. In the old days, the whole of the haulage of goods about the city and suburbs was done by horses, and the road surfacing was nothing like as good as it is now. In 1902 the Council began to use wood blocks for paving. In 1920 a comprehensive plan was adopted for surfacing main roads with a bituminous mixture, and this has since been extended to secondary streets. One may easily imagine what effort was required to haul heavy loads up some of the Wellington grades, and every lover of horses should rejoice that little of such labour is now required of this patient friend of man. One feature of Wellington’s trams it might be difficult to parallel anywhere. Three of the best poems written about Wellington are inscribed on the doors of cars. It is a little startling to be taken out of a reverie on the woes of the world or the prospects of the next Trentham meeting by sight of such lines as Hubert Church’s on Victoria University College. Perhaps this visible salute in poetry accounts in part for the number of gifts to the college.

The new municipality was soon busy with problems of water supply and drainage. The first public supply of water was a main laid by the Government from springs in Tinakore Road to serve its buildings and visiting warships, and though the city Board of Works could not see its way to pay for this supply, a few business men took the water. This supply is still being used. In 1871, Dr. James Hector (afterwards Sir James), after analysing town water from thirty-four sources, called attention to its bad qualities; for one thing, it was responsible for many cases of intestinal worms. This eminent scientist, who was Chancellor of the University of New Zealand for many years, also warned the community of the diminished flow from

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natural springs, “ owing to the reckless clearing of the hills which is in progress round Wellington,” a warning that was by no means fully heeded. Then began that search for an adequate water supply which is not yet finished. The Council started by tapping the Kaiwarra stream, and it was thought this would do for a long while, but a rainfall well below the estimate and a consumption far above it, upset this and later calculations. Since then, Wellington has very seldom for any length of time been able to sit back and congratulate herself upon an entirely adequate water supply. The first Wainui-o-mata development was undertaken at the end of the seventies. There was trouble both with the head works and the connections, and repairs to the head race coincided with a disastrous fire in the city. In 1900 additional storage was provided at Karori and Wainui, and in 1904 Mr. W. H. Morton, city engineer, who was to be responsible for so much improvement work during his term of more than nineteen years, called for additions to storage and reticulation estimated to cost £132,000. In that year there was a diversity of trouble that well illustrated the difficulties facing the council and its staff. Shortage of stream flow was followed by flood ; an earthquake started many of the joints in the mains ; and the casualty list in the Karori catchment area, not then in the possession of the council, was two horses, five cows, four calves, forty-eight sheep, and one dog. Six years later, Morton undertook a further extension of Wainui, and nine years after that began what is known as the Orongorongo scheme, with its two-mile tunnel. This great undertaking, the tunnel of which was pierced by a co-operative party under Mr. Robert Semple, now the Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Public Works, was completed in 1926. In 1932-33 there was another investigation, and it was decided to tap the

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artesian supply in the Hutt Valley by sinking wells near the mouth of the river. Water from this auxiliary supply was first used in 1936. The City Council, as trustee for the city and nearby districts, has now vested in it some eighty thousand acres of hill country for waterworks and forestry purposes. Some years ago a city and suburban Water Supply Board was established on which the City Council, the Eastbourne and Upper Hutt boroughs, and the Hutt County, are represented. At the present time, 1939, further major schemes are under review by the city engineer, Mr. K. E. Luke. The combined population of Wellington City and the Hutt Valley is now about 160,000, and the authorities have in mind that before the century is out it may be 300,000.

A water-borne sewerage system naturally followed the introduction of the water supply, and the first provision of the kind apparently dates to the early seventies. Sewage was discharged into open streams and probably into the harbour direct. It was not until 1890 that a comprehensive scheme for the city was adopted. This combined gravitation and pumping, and discharged the sewage into Cook Strait. The original scheme cost £175,000, and among the benefits reaped was a marked decline in typhoid fever. In recent years, however, the system has become overloaded, and in 1936 the council adopted proposals based on probable requirements for the next thirty or forty years. These necessarily brief summaries of water supply and drainage development pass over the many problems presented by so tumbled a landscape as Wellington, As one winds up some of the steep roads one may well think of the engineers who carried water to all those perched up and tucked away houses, and took off their storm water and drainage. The decline in typhoid fever draws attention to another, and of late much-

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discussed public utility, the public hospital. An exceptionally low death-rate does not mean low hospital expenditure. The acorn and the oak are not further apart in size than the original Wellington Hospital in Pipitea Street, with its eighteen beds, and the present block with its 576, and its capital value ol about half a million, yet the Royal Commission of 1938 recommended a total expenditure for Wellington’s needs, including a hospital in the Hutt Valiev, of £863,000.

Wellington was the first city in the Dominion to use electricity for public lighting, and there must have been many older lands that were less enterprising.

To-night a thousand suns resplendent shine

From Lambton’s curve to Newtown’s far confine

wrote a poet of the switching on of public light in 1889. Two years later the private company that generated the electricity supplied it to private consumers. The City Council took over the company’s business in 1907, and since then has greatly increased the plant. To-day the city is supplied partly by the Government generat ing station at Mangahao, and partly by the city's own machinery. The city’s supply of gas, which provided street lighting before the adoption of electricity, has always been in the hands of the Wellington Gas Company, which dates from 1869.

The laying-out and gradual planning of Wellington was largely conditioned by the steepness of the hills and the narrowness of the waterfront. The original intention seems to have been to make Te Aro Flat the centre of the city ; Taranaki Street, Manners Street and Courtenay Place were to be the commercial area, with industries developing along Adelaide Road. The official world, however, established itself at Thorndon, and commerce spread itself over the whole front. The canal reserve became a main thoroughfare, and the

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Basin Reserve, raised by earthquake, the city’s central sports ground. One result was that business houses were crowded on to reclaimed land. The treatment oi the real centre of the city, the area round the Post Office and the Town Hall, has been less satisfactory than long-sighted planning would have made it. Much of official and commercial Wellington has been won from the sea, but for a long while reclamation proceeded on no particular plan. There was no corporate local authority in the city between 1843 and 1863, and the Harbour Board was not established until 1880. The first steps towards improving the waterfront were to define and strengthen the beach road with breastworks. The first reclamation of any size was made in 1852 by the New Munster Government. It took in three roods off lower Willis Street; the southern corner of the block was at the point where Mercer Street now joins Willis Street. In 1857-63 the Provincial Government reclaimed seven acres adjoining this on the north : the block ran to between Grey and Panama Streets. From then onwards twenty-four separate reclamations are shown on the Harbour Board’s historical plan, and these were carried out under ten authorities. In the early years the Oddfellows and the Foresters and a private firm were allowed to reclaim land, but after these the only non-State body on the list is the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company, and that operated a public utility. All the rest of the reclamation was done by order of the National Government, the Provincial Government, the Harbour Board, and the City Council. At first reclaimed land was sold, and at £6 a foot some people must have got good bargains. The City Council was wiser. It accepted the offer of the Provincial Government in 1871 to sell all its unsold sections, and it did not part with the freehold. Later it reclaimed a large area on its own

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account; again it did not part with the freehold. What opportunities were lost in town-planning is obvious enough, but since then a good deal has been done to remedy matters. Part of Lambton Quay was widened to a hundred feet, and thirty years ago ten feet were added to Lower Willis Street. There is provision for widening Upper Willis Street and other streets. In later years, of course, there has been more planning ahead and co-operation. The reclamations have culminated in the filling in of the rest of the area between Pipitea Street and Kaiwarra, and a construction of wide waterfront roads and the ramp leading to the Hutt Road. The last instalment of reclamation, 68 acres, is the largest since the New Munster Government tipped its loads of soil into the harbour in 1852. Reclamation has proceeded from shallow to deeper water ; the greatest depth in the last filling in was over 50 feet. Most of the reclaimed land was formed out of spoil from the hill faces at the back of the waterfront, but in the recent Kaiwarra works dredgings from the Falcon shoal were used.*

If you look at Wellington from certain angles, you may wonder where citizens play games and generally disport themselves. Is toboganning the only sport ? As a matter of fact, Wellington is well provided with playing fields and parks. The New Zealand Company should always be remembered for having reserved the thousand acres of the Town Belt, a magnificent, though perhaps insufficiently appreciated, playground. The Company did little else in the provision of reserves, but municipal enterprise and private benefactions have been active. The Town Belt itself provides nearly a dozen playing areas, including the Municipal Golf Links, but outside of this the City Hand Book lists

• For a history of Wellington reclamations, see The Early Reclamn lions and Harbour Works of Wellington, by Herbert Baillie. Transar Hons New Zealand Institute. Vol. 55.

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more than fifty reserves, which range from the tiny play area of fourteen perches at Balaena Bay to the six hundred and fifty acres of Williams Park on the other side of the harbour. The Botanical Gardens, formed out of a Company reserve and land obtained from repurchase of a Wesleyan trust, is notable for its combination of native bush, imported flowering shrubs, and flower gardens. More interesting still to the student of native flora is the Otari Plant Museum, including Wilton’s Bush, at the back of the Tinakore Hills. Its 142 acres consist almost entirely of unspoiled forest, but, as its name implies, it is also a garden where New Zealand plants are cultivated and studied. This out-of-doors, living museum, which has become a national botanical garden, was the idea of the late Dr. Leonard Cockayne, C.M.G., F.R.S., F.L.S., honorary botanist to the city, and the greatest botanist New Zealand has known. It is fitting that he should be buried there. A noteworthy feature of the city parks is that the largest of them, and one of the next largest, are outside the city area. The eastern bays mean so much to Wellington that it was an act of high policy on the part of the City Council to acquire what is called Williams Park, 650 acres of land, mostly bush, at Day’s Bay. It would be interesting to know how many of the tens of thousands who use the recreation grounds in this beautiful bay are aware that these belong to the community and are managed by the City Council. The other recreation ground outside the city is the Keith George Memorial Park at Havwards, in the Hutt Valley, 138 acres of hill and bush land given to the city by Mrs. W. H. George as a memorial to her son, who was killed in the World War. Several other reserves, and equipment for public use, have been given by citizens. The Council’s policy of establishing play areas for children was greatly helped by

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a gift of £5OOO by Sir George Shirtcliffe, a prominent business man and a former member of the Council. There are now fifteen such areas under the Council’s control. Then there is Newtown Park, including the Zoo, which from the small beginnings of one young lion presented by a circus, has developed into a collection of 600 animals. The Zoo has received many gifts from citizens, and some from abroad.

All this, however, is far from the whole story. Nothing is more interesting in the history of Wellington reserves than the formation of grounds here and there out of unpromising sites. It is as if the steepness of the landscape had put engineers and beautifying societies on their mettle. Hillsides have been torn away and hollows filled in. What at first was an ugly scar has in time been clothed with grass and perhaps adorned with flowers and shrubs. Literally, out of the city’s rubbish is blossoming the beauty of sward and flower bed, for by a new method of rubbish disposal, collected refuse layered with soil is used to fill up waste spaces for future use. Victoria University College was once affectionately known as “ the old Clay Patch," and the description might well have been applied to Kelburn Park next door when it was in the making. There is nothing of a clay patch about this area to-day. The College grows more mellow every year, and Kelburn Park, which is a purely artificial playground, the making of which involved the removal of a hill, looks as if it had been there always. It is a charming park, a hanging garden, as it were, between sky and sea. It must be admitted frankly that here and there Wellington is a dingy place, especially in its older parts, but with improvements in buildings, gardens and parks, it grows more gracious every year. It is a city of surprises ; one is likely to find something interesting or beautiful round a corner. Judicious for-

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mation and planting of reserves, small and big, is responsible for much of this improvement. The City Council Parks and Reserves Department alone has planted well over a million trees in the Town Belt and city reserves. Of the great body of tree planting by municipal and private effort, the most striking feature is the acclimatisation of that glory of northern New Zealand, the pohutukawa. Forty thousand of these brave and friendly trees have been planted in and about Wellington. They flourish in the sea-moistened air, and the red of their blossoms at Christmas time rivals the splendour of the Auckland natives.

If you wish to see how municipal activity has extended in half a century, compare the responsibilities of the Wellington City Council of the early days with its departments to-day. Then the Council was mainly occupied with streets, water and drainage. To-day it controls trams, buses, electrical supply, the citizens' daily milk ration, a chain of libraries, an observatory, public baths, hundreds of acres of reserves of many kinds, a zoo, golf links, and an airport. It established the first crematorium in New Zealand. The milk problem worried the Council for years. Supply from farms was more difficult in Wellington than elsewhere, and there were endless complaints about the quality of the milk. Mr. Charles Norwood (notv Sir Charles), a member of the Council, led the reform movement, and an investigation under his chairmanship in 1918 revealed some horrifying conditions in Wellington dairies. The Council began by establishing a clearing depot, but this broke down immediately ; then it tried a system of buying in bulk and passing on to vendors ; finally, in 1922, it assumed the whole responsibility of buying, bottling, and selling. The Corporation is represented on the Victoria University College Council, the Technical Education Board, the Wellington Fire

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Board, the Free Ambulance Transport Service, the City and Suburban Water Supply Board, the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum Board of Trustees, the Wellington Show Association, and the Board of Governors of Wellington College and Wellington Girls' College and Wellington East Girls’ College. How has this corporation been chosen and what has been its composition ? The City Council has grown from nine members, including the mayor, to fifteen councillors and the mayor. First the city was divided into three wards, and in 1877 the Cook Ward was formed out of Te Aro. These four wards were retained until 1901. When the Melrose Borough was absorbed in 1903, the territory was treated as a ward, but in 1905 Wellington again became an undivided borough. There is now no outside borough in the western and southern areas of Greater Wellington. When the first City Council was elected in 1870 the system of voting was in accordance with the political ideas of the time. Only ratepayers had votes, and voting power was measured by property. A ratepayer could exercise one, two, three, four or five votes, according as his property was valued —from below £5O to above £350. It was not until the end of the century that the present residential qualification for voting at elections was introduced. For the first six years the mayor was chosen from the councillors : since then he has been chosen directly by the people.

The list of mayors and councillors of Wellington includes many men who served their generation in other fields, and especially in national politics. Among the mayors from Joe Dransfield in 1870 to T. C. A. Hislop at the present time, may be mentioned Sir Francis Bell, who took a very prominent part in politics for twenty-four consecutive years ; Sir Thomas Wilford, K.C., one of the most versatile public men in our

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history; William Sefton Moorhouse, whose courage and energy built the Lyttelton tunnel ; Alfred de Bathe Brandon, a leading lawyer, whose father was a pioneer and a member of the Provincial Council Executive ; Sir John Luke and Sir Charles Luke ; Sir Charles Norwood ; Sir George Troup ; George Fisher ; John Duthie ; J. G. W. Aitken : T. W. Hislop ; Dr. A. K. Newman; R, A. Wright; David McLaren, Wellington’s one Labour occupant of the chair. Most of these mayors were members of Parliament, several of them Ministers of the Crown. Several councillors have also served as members of Parliament.* The connection between municipal and national politics has always been close.

Firme durn Fide (“ Strong but True ”) is the motto of the Wellington Harbour Board, and it may fairly be claimed that it has lived up to it. The Harbour Board is ten years younger than the City Council. At first the General Government, and then the Provincial Government, looked after the harbour. Neither control satisfied the people of Wellington. It was left to the colonists to erect the first beacons at the Heads. The Pencarrow beacon was soon blown down, and the Government re-erected it in 1844. It is noteworthy that in the early forties a visiting naval officer recommended a beacon for the outermost rock of Barrett Reef, and that in 1854 a committee of the House of Representatives reported to the same effect, with the suggestion that a reflector be fitted to catch light from Pencarrow. The trouble was that the General Government was far away and always short of money. As so often happens, disaster stirred authority into some sort of action. In 1851 the barque Maria, from Lyttelton, was wrecked on the coast towards Terawhiti, and twentynine lives were lost. Sir George Grey agreed that a

• Among the Labour members of the Council have been the Hon P. Fraser, and the Hon. R. Semple, members of the present Ministry

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lighthouse was necessary, but for some time the only light on Pencarrow was a lamp placed in the bay window of the wretched two-room building that housed the keeper, his wife, and three children. The house was neither wind nor weather tight, and it shook so much at times that the keeper scooped out a cave in the hillside as a refuge. What was more to the point to sailors was that the light smoked so much that after a few hours its visibility was much reduced ; at best it may not have been seen more than two or three miles. After a while the Provincial Government obtained a permanent light from England at a cost of about £2500. It was a revolving type, but it became fixed, evidently because the mechanism went wrong. The first official harbour light was a red one placed at the end of Noah’s Ark in 1858, and early in 1866 a light began to shine from Somes Island. The low level light at Pencarrow was built in 1906, and the light on Baring Head in 1935.

As the years went by, the growth of the port set on foot an agitation for better control. It took some years to get the first deep-water wharf. The private wharves were not very substantially built, and began to show signs of wear. They could accommodate only small craft; larger ships had to lie off and be lightered. There was, however, this advantage in delay, that since the water close to the shore was shallow, the further reclamation advanced, the shorter the wharves needed to be. The Wellington Chamber of Commerce had a notable record in this movement for harbour improvement. Founded in 1856, the first body of its kind in New Zealand, the Chamber pressed the Government to erect a permanent wharf, and the Provincial Council agreed to build one at the foot of Grey Street. This was the Queen’s Wharf, first used in 1862, a structure 550 feet long and 35 feet wide, wdth two tees of 75

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feet, built at a cost of £16,000. The piles were of sheathed heart totara, and the decking of heart rinru. In the following fifty years several additions of iron and wood were made to the Queen’s Wharf. The Provincial Council, however, found that the wharf brought new problems of administration, and between 1868 and 1871 it was leased to private individuals. In 1871 the Provincial Council sold its interest in the wharf, and an area of reclaimed land, to the City Council, and in 1876 the City Council took over control and appointed a committee, with the Mayor as chairman, to manage it. The Mayor and other members were paid for these services, and when the Mayor opposed the proposal to set up a Harbour Board, the Evening Post roundly charged him with thinking of his honorarium. The Chamber of Commerce continued to be vigilant. The question was whether the City Council should be given the powers of a Harbour Board, or whether a Harbour Board should be created. The fact that in Auckland and Dunedin, where Harbour Boards were in control, port charges were much lower than in Wellington, seems to have been the chief factor in swaying opinion away from the City Council solution, and the Chamber of Commerce pressed for the establishment of a Board. Finding the City Council unhelpful, it approached the Government directly, and in 1879 the Wellington Harbour Board Act was passed by Parliament. This set up a board of ten members ; three were appointed by the Government, one elected by the Chamber of Commerce, two elected by the ratepayers of Wellington, one by the Hutt County Council, one by the County Councils of the Wairarapa, and one by the shipping and mercantile interests, with the Mayor of Wellington as an ex-officio member. The Board held its first meeting in February 1880, and W. H. Levin, a leading merchant, was chosen as chairman.

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The Board’s first loan was one of £2O 19s. 9d., raised from the Government to pay its own election expenses, and its establishment at first was very modest ; the secretary was paid £250 a year, and the offices were two rooms engaged at a rental of £5O. The Board was soon in its stride. It was unfortunate in being born at the beginning of the great depression of the eighties when prices fell, inflated securities burst, unemployment was rife, and thousands of men left the colony in despair. Wellington, however, seems to have felt the depression less than some other parts of New Zealand, and the Harbour Board had an assured income. Though prices fell, production increased, and ships had to use the port to take produce away. Three years after the Board was established, the first shipment of frozen meat was lifted at Wellington, and by 1886 the value of this export was more than £lOO,OOO. In 1937 it was worth £2,800,000. By 1896, when the tide of depression had turned, Wellington's inward and outward trade was more than £3,000,000, against £1,791,000 in 1881. We may appropriately note here how export and farm figures show the trend of the the province’s production. Wellington has remained a pastoral province, and though dairying had made an enormous advance, the sheep is still more profitable than the cow. In 1937 wool exported from Wellington and Wanganui was worth £6,180.000 (£579,000 from Wanganui); sheep skins were worth £665,000 ; and frozen meat, mostly lamb and mutton, was valued at £3,372,000-a total of £10,217.000. Milk products were worth £5,099,000. Or take the statistics of cultivation. The largest total area in wheat in any year was 12,500 acres—in 1916, during the war—and the maximum of oats for cutting was 25,000 acres in 1901, but in most years acreage has been far below these figures It is an interesting little economic fact that wheat was

Wanganui Collegiate School in 1874.

Wanganui Collegiate School To-day ; The Chapel

Wanganui to-day from the air. Queen’s Park, and surroundings. The Rutland Stockade stood on the hill in the middle distance.

P

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once grown in the Him Valley (and milled at Percy’s mill, which still stands), but the plains of Marlborough and Canterbury, far better adapted for the purpose, cut out this industry. This year (1939) the area of sown grasses in Wellington province, exclusive of acreage grown for cutting, is 3,670,000 acres.

The Wellington Harbour Board has had to keep pace with this enormous expansion of trade. A total trade for the port of well under two millions in 1881, grew to more than £37,000,000 in 1937, and 120,000 tons of overseas shipping increased to 1,500,000 tons. In value of goods exported, Auckland leads Wellington, but in imports, in quantity of goods handled, and in aggregate of all shipping tonnage, Wellington is the foremost New Zealand port.* The work of a Harbour Board is plainer for citizens to see than the work of a City Council, and especially is this so in Wellington, where the wharf system is so compact and so close to the heart of the city. The citizen has only to walk a few hundred yards from the Quay and he is on the edge of the “ circular wharf abreast of the town where vessels of large tonnage might discharge,” as a naval officer visualised nearly a hundred years ago. He sees the sweep of wharf and breastworks from the Clyde Quay wharf to Aotea Quay, and its varied equipment : the power cranes, mechanical gear for moving goods, and the little runabout tractors pulling loaded trucks. It does not require much inspection to satisfy the citizen that this is an up-to-date port. At night he sees from Wellington or its bays the winking harbour lights that guide ships in through the Heads and round the points

• In 1937, Auckland sent away goods valued at £22,303,000, against Wellington’s £16,012,000, and received £18,638,000, against Wellington’s £21,506,000, In the same year, Wellington handled {coastwise and overseas) 2,338,000 tons, against Auckland’s 2,264,000 tons, and the totals of shipping tonnage in both categories were: Auckland 0-200,000 Wellington 7,951,000. Other years show similar figures.

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to the wharves. If he looks at a Harbour Board plan he will see that provision is made for other wharves. He must realise that much planning, native intelligence, and special knowledge have gone to the building up of this system. A study of the Board’s history would show him that the way has not always been smooth. There was, for example, a lengthy controversy over the dock question. A contract was let for a graving dock at Te Aro, but the contractor got into difficulties and the project was abandoned. The problem was finally solved by the purchase in England of a floating dock with a lifting capacity of 17,000 tons, which was towed out by two Dutch tugs in 1931.

It is true that in some important respects Nature has been kind to Wellington. The harbour requires little dredging, the tide rise is small, and the curve of Lambton Harbour lent itself to the construction of a continuous wharf system and the creation of a deep-water basin well sheltered and not much influenced by currents. It must be said, however, that good use has been made of these opportunities. Among all the officials who have served the Board well, special mention may be made of the late William Ferguson, who, for nearly twenty-five years, 1884-1908, was secretary and engineer. An exceptionally able man, and also a masterful one, he left a wide and deep mark on Wellington. As with the City Corporation, one finds in the roll of Board members and chairmen an impressive list of prominent citizens, who have had as colleagues leading men from the provincial districts in the Board’s territory. The Board’s composition is on a similar basis to that of 1880, but the representation of the Chambers of Commerce and the City Council has been eliminated, and that of the Wellington public and payers of dues has been increased. The addition of two members representing the Manawatu was a result

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of the linking of that district with the city by rail. With one exception, the Board is now entirely elective.

“ The stately ships go by, to their haven under the hill.” This quotation, which Lindsay Buick used in his Jubilee History of the Port, is particularly appropriate, but since Tennyson wrote it there has been a change in the nature of tall ships. Sixty years ago, the sailing ship was still queen of the seas. The first trading steamer to reach New Zealand direct from England was the Stad Harlem, in 1879, followed in 1883 by the British King. It was a sailing ship, the Lady Jocelyn, famous as a carrier of emigrants, that took the first shipment of frozen meat from Wellington, and for some years later clippers were familiar sights in Wei lington harbour. There were skippers who could handle those lofty-sparred ships like yachts, and they would beat them in to the Heads and up the harbour against a northerly, and bring them to anchor with a proud flourish. And the anchor would come up for the long run Home with wool, and halliards be hauled on, to shanties that are now landsmen’s curiosities. Even when sail declined on the ocean routes, there were handy schooners that plied in and out of Wellington to ports all over New Zealand. Incidentally, while Wellington has gained many industries, from the making of matches to the assembling of motor-cars, and it can carry out big repairing jobs for shipping, it has lost shipbuilding. Lukes’ shipbuilding and engineering yard at Te Aro, on the site of the pa, used to build, lengthen and engine ships. The Maitai, a steamer of 340 tons for the coastal trade, said to be the first steel ship constructed in the southern hemisphere, was launched there, with steam up, in 1886.

What a procession of ships it is that passes down those sixty years! The Union Steamship Company began in a very modest way in 1875. One of its first

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ships was the Maori, of 174 tons. The following year it took over the Wellington-managed New Zealand Steam Navigation Company, which ran four steamers, of 1878 tons. The Union Company jumped to larger tonnage and higher speeds in a way that must have seemed rash to many. The Rotomahana, 1727 tons, was older than the Harbour Board, and she did not go to her last resting place until 1925. Clipper-bowed, and for a time yarded, the Rotomahana would probably receive the largest vote for the most beautiful model that the coastal and intercolonial trade has seen. The Mararoa, launched a few years later, was her companion “ flier.” She, too, had a very long career ; it was 1931 when she was sunk in Cook Strait. In the eighties began the direct regular steam services to and from England supplied by the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw Savill and Albion Company— Rimutaka, Kaikoura, Aorangi, Tainui, Arawa, and others. In contrast to the castellated types of to-day, these ships were long and low and rakish, with clipper bows, and sails to help the single propeller along. Into a ship of from 4000 to 5000 tons, which had to carry enough coal to take her from New Zealand to Monte Video, they packed large cargoes and some 400 passengers. The nineties and nineteen hundreds brought large additions to the Union Company’s fleet. Tonnage climbed to the 5000 mark. Twin screws became general, and the turbine arrived ; one recalls Monowai, Moana, Mokoia, Moeraki, Manuka, Maheno. The two pioneering direct companies built their second fleet, about double the size of the first ships. Other lines sent steamers to carry the increasing amount of New Zealand produce to England, and the sailing vessel became a rarity. With the arrival of the Union Company’s second Maori, the Wellington-Lyttelton ferry service, or, as it is now called, the steamer express

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service, began to be the specialised business so familiar to this generation. Until 1906 this service was dependent partly on ships employed in the Australian trade, which used also to ply up and down the coast, between Auckland and the Bluff. In 1906 the Union Company, with the Rolomahana, Mararoa, and Pateena, ran the first complete exclusive service between Wellington and Lyttelton. In 1907 the Maori arrived to carry on the service with the Rolomahana and the Mararoa, until the Wahine arrived in 1913. The effect on traffic of these improvements in regularity, speed and accommodation has been very marked. In one week in January, 1905, the Union Company carried 2,815 passengers between the two ports. In one week of January this year (1939) it carried 8000 passengers. That is to say, while the population of New Zealand has increased by less than a hundred per cent., the increase in passenger traffic between the islands has been nearly three hundred per cent. Travel has become more of a pleasure and a habit.

Then came the War. Wellington was the port of departure for nearly all the hundred thousand New Zealand soldiers who went overseas, and it witnessed what may be described as the most anxious moment in our history, when the Prime Minister, Mr. Massey, and Sir Francis Bel! objected to the transports with the Main Body sailing for Australia without adequate escort. Mr. Massey took the responsibility of recalling the ships, and finally forced the hand of the Admiralty by tendering his resignation.* After the War there was a further climb in tonnage of Home traders. Wellington received the 17,000-ton ships of the Rangi class, and in 1939 the 27,000 tons of the Dominion Monarch. Some time before this larger figure was reached, how-

• See Sir Francis Bell, his Life and Times, by the Hon. W. Downie Stewart.

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ever, Wellington had seen cruising liners of over 20,000 tons. But the most interesting changes were in power. Coal was well nigh ousted by oil fuel in furnaces and by the internal combustion engine. To-day (1939), of the ships that carry a large number of passengers in the Home trade, not one is fired by coal. Motors are now the principal order of the day for cargo carrying in this trade, and the sharp, flared bows of these ships indicate a speed that would have astounded owners of a generation ago. The use of oil fuel and motors has also increased greatly in the coastal trade. Of recent years foreign flags have been seen more frequently in Wellington harbours. The presence of German, Norwegian, American, Netherlands, Japanese, Greek, and other non-British visitors, has testified to the manysided nature of the port’s trade. Changes in the nature of power are reflected in the coming and going of tankers, these long, low, stern-engined carriers of “ white ” and “ black ” liquid cargo, and in the clusters of storage tanks at Miramar and Point Howard. Without fuss or hitch, the facilities of the port have been adapted to these new needs. There has been no congestion, and the biggest ships, up to the 43,000 tons of the Empress of Britain, have been handled easily.

To-day the ship that makes Wellington announces the time of her arrival by wireless ; she has a wireless direction station on Baring Head to guide her to the entrance; she is signalled from Beacon Hill and Mount Victoria ; and if she requires a pilot, a launch takes him out from the city wharves. It was very different in the old days. The ship hung off in the strait for a pilot, and the pilot had to put out in an open boat. The first pilot seems to have been James Heberley, a Sounds whaler, who was so much at home in the strait that he thought nothing of crossing by himself in a fourteen-foot undecked boat. It was

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Heberley who gave the name to Worser Bay, where the pilot station was for many years. His nickname was Jack Worser, evidently derived from his habit of saying that the weather was “ worser and worser At first the pilot station was at Tarakena Bay, outside Palmer Head. Then for many years, and until the nineties, it was in Worser Bay, another lonely spot. At one time ships standing in would signal to a station on Beacon Hill above Breaker Bay, and this look-out would pass on the message to Worser Bay. The boats’ crews, summoned if necessary by pull-bells in their homes, would launch the whale boat, and, if there was not a favourable wind, four men would drive her out with seventeen-foot oars—the steersman managing one of twenty-four feet—perhaps against a fresh southerly. The pull might be for some miles. The boat might miss the ship, or when the pilot boarded her he might have to stay on board for hours or even days, waiting for a fair wind. The late Captain William Shilling was once carried about in a ship for ten days. There was some keen bidding and bargaining for tows by incoming steamers. One skipper began by asking £5O to bring in a ship, and then dropped down to £25, but lost the tow to another steamer. It was a great improvement when tugs came into use in the middle nineties. Cousins of these tough pilots and their crews were the licensed watermen who plied to the sailing ships in the stream. True, they had the calmer harbour for their trade, but they worked their boats singlehanded, and very skilful they were. There was a waterman’s boat harbour in front of the Post Office, and later a little further north.

The period covered here by the term “ Modern Wellington ” includes the whole history of railways in the province. It is not surprising that the first railway out of Wellington ran to the Hutt Valley. That

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district, separated from the city by several miles of largely unsettled coast line, called for better transport, and it is significant that in the development of railway transport, as in that of the earlier settlements, attention W'as first given to the city’s north-eastern district. Begun in 1872, the line to the Hutt Valley reached the Lower Hutt in 187-1, and the Upper Hutt in 1876. By 1878 it had bridged the mountains and connected Featherston with the capital, two years before a public meeting in Wellington led to the promotion of the WellingtonManawatu Company. However, the project of a railway to the Wairarapa was much older. It was considered by the Provincial Council in 1863, and but for the Maori wars, might have been taken in hand at that time. It is particularly interesting to note that J. C. Crawford, of Miramar, who was Provincial Geologist, recommended a long tunnel through the ranges, and even suggested the use of water power (hydraulic) for piercing it and working the railway. The tunnel idea was considered by the Public Works Department in 1871, but not favoured. A route via Wainui-o-mata was also rejected. Three surveys were made on the eastern side before the present route, with its grade of one in fifteen, was chosen as the cheapest. The centrerail method was adopted to cope with the difficulty of the grade, and this section of railways is the only line in the world where such a rail, operated on other than the rack principle, is used. The original Fell engines, built in the seventies specially to take trains up and down this grade, are still in use, though they require to be reboilered periodically. The line has stood up very well to the heavy demands made on it during more than sixty years. In 1938 the Government decided to pierce the divide with a tunnel.

The further progress of the line may be briefly traced. Though construction in the Wairarapa Valley

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was much easier, eleven years passed (1878-1889) before the rails reached Eketahuna from Wellington, and another eight years (1897) before they reached Woodville, at the eastern end of the Manawatu Gorge. Meanwhile, however, Woodville had been linked with Napier (1887), and through the Gorge with Palmerston North (1891), and as Palmerston North had been connected with Wellington for some years, Hawkes Bay was reached by rail from Wellington by the western route before the route through the Wairarapa was completed.

The building of the railway up the west coast from Wellington to the Manawatu has a special interest in that it was undertaken by private enterprise when the Government was unable or unwilling to do the work. As a display of courage and confidence in commercial development, it is surpassed only by Canterbury’s construction of the Lyttelton tunnel in 1867, but that work was carried out by a provincial government. This West Coast railway was not among Vogel’s projects in 1871. After rejecting two routes by the Hutt Valley (one by the Akatarawa Gorge and one by Haywards and Pahautanui), the Grey Government sanctioned construction on the Johnsonville route in 1878-79, and £33,000 was spent on tunnels and cuttings at the Wellington end. In 1880, the Hall Government, short of money, stopped work on the line, and a Royal Commission reported against completion. It noted the amount of land in Maori occupation, and considered the line would be unprofitable. A number of Wellington citizens, led by John Plimmer, James Wallace, W. T. L. Travers, and others, were resolved that the work should proceed; the Government was sympathetic ; and though there was strong feeling against the line being in private hands. Parliament quickly passed empowering legislation, which included a grant

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of 215,000 acres of land in the Manawatu. The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company Limited was directed with vigour. It began construction in May 1882, and in November 1886 the line was completed to its terminus at Longburn, eighty-four miles from Wellington. Longburn had previously been connected with Palmerston North and Foxton, and with Wanganui and New Plymouth, so the Company’s line connected Wellington not only with the rich districts of Horowhenua and the Manawatu, but with the rest of the coastal area and Taranaki. There were great rejoicings, and with good reason. The first train from Wellington to Palmerston North, on November 29th 1886, carried five hundred excursionists, many of whom had never seen the coastal lands. The mountain barrier was down.*

It must be borne in mind that this railway was built, and built quickly, in a time of grave economic depression. The Company naturally experienced great difficulty in raising capital, but with the help of English money and the Colonial Bank, it succeeded. Its ultimate nominal capital was £1,000,000, of which £170,000 was paid-up, and £680,000 was raised in debentures. Of the paid-up capital, about half was subscribed in New Zealand ; at a time when there was little money about, Wellington business men were prepared to put their hands in their pockets to back their conviction. Among the many well-known Wellington men who did so were John Plimmer, W. H. Levin, Walter Turnbull, J. E. Nathan, J. B. Harcourt, C. B. Izard, and G. V. Shannon. Three of these gave their names to towns on the route of the line. The Company survived the hard times, and for some years paid a dividend. What the line meant to Wellington and the coastal districts may be gauged from this one

• See Lindsay Buick's Old Manawatu

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fact, mentioned at the annual meeting in 1906, that in the old days it used to cost £5 to send a ton of potatoes from Otaki to Wellington, whereas the railway freight was seven shillings. In the service it gave the Manawatu line was part of the national railway system. Express trains between Wellington and New Plymouth, which gave the quickest connection with Auckland, ran straight through. However, when the Main Trunk line to Auckland was nearing completion in 1908, the Government naturally bought out the Company. The purchase price was £915,000. The value of the line, written down from £1,047,181, stood in the company’s books at £828,376.

One result of the building of the line by the Company was the choice of Palmerston North (strictly speaking, Longburn) as the northern terminus in place of Foxton. In those days Foxton was a more important place than Palmerston, and the Government had intended to build a railway through it, but the Company was given land nearer to Palmerston, and it naturally chose the route that would tap its estate. At the Wellington end the Company’s enterprise gave further impetus to reclamation, for it was granted the right to take thirty acres from the sea. Thus, from the two railway lines there grew the railway area in the city, with its two stations, subsequently so shabby and so small for their purpose, Lambton and Thorndon. The effect of this on the Hobson Street area was to make that fashionable part of Wellington, where so many of the officials and the wealthy classes lived, less desirable as a place of residence ; noise and smoke came from the adjacent yards. But a change infinitely more important than these ultimately issued from railway development. The linking of Wellington with Auckland in 1908 was an event of national importance. The Manawatu line helped to produce the great advance

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in transportation by which travel between Wellington and Auckland was reduced to something under thirty hours. About twelve hours of this, however, was by sea in small steamers, which often met with rough weather, or as a commercial traveller put it picturesquely, “ they stood on their hind legs and barked at the scenery.” They might even be compelled to stand off port for some time. In fact, the journey was something of an undertaking, a night’s sea trip, preceded or followed by twelve hours in the train. In consequence, most travelling was done from necessity rather than from pleasure. Such conditions helped to perpetuate, though, of course, in modified form, the old hostility between the two cities. After an AucklandWellington Rugby match played in Wellington in the early nineteen hundreds, an Aucklander in a Wellington bar happened to remark to a stranger, in a most friendly fashion, that Auckland had had a good win. The reply was a blow, and the difference was settled in the yard.* It is not implied that this could not have happened in Auckland ; the incident is mentioned as an extreme manifestation of feud engendered by intercity rivalry. Because they know and understand each other much better to-day, Wellington and Auckland are much more friendly, and this is largely the result of improved communications. The opening of the Main Trunk railway in 1908—it took twenty-three years to build the last two hundred miles—cut down the journey to eighteen hours, and made it continuous. Those who grumble about spending a night in a chair in the express may learn from their fathers or mothers what it was like to be landed on the New Plymouth wharf on a cold, dark morning, after a wild night at sea, with only half the journey covered. The railway

• The incident was related to the author by the Auckland participant.

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journey now takes a little over fourteen hours. The result has been a great increase in travel. It is calculated that in a week in January 1905 some 1400 passengers were carried between New Plymouth and Onehunga (Auckland) on both runs, and to these would have to be added those who travelled on the East Coast route. But between May and November 1938 the average weekly number of passengers who left Wellington and Auckland by the through expresses was about 4600, and, in addition, large numbers travelled by road and air. The time improvement in land and sea travel was quite eclipsed by the introduction in 1935-37 of air services to north and south. The aeroplane has cut down the Wellington-Auckland journey to two and a half hours, and, more remarkable. Nelson, which otherwise is a night’s journey away, can be reached by air in less than one hour. In the year 1938-39, Rongotai airport handled more than 29,000 passengers on scheduled services. Improvement in transport has everywhere weakened that provincialism which from the beginning has been such a drag on the growth of the national spirit. It is interesting to speculate what would have been the effect on Wellington economically and socially, if gold had been discovered in large quantities close to the city. It may not be widely known that gold has been found in several parts of the province—near Cape Terawhiti, in the Kaiwarra valley, and near the Botanical Gardens, near Woodville, and at Marton—but nowhere in payable quantities. Years ago there was much activity in the Terawhiti district. In 1883 a ten-stamp battery, built in Wellington, was erected there, and its remains are still to be seen. The Mines Handbook of 1887 made a comment that would apply to many fields—that if half the amount expended on the flotation of companies during this boom had been

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laid out judiciously, it would have really tested the value of the ground.

What is virtually another city lies a few miles from Wellington. The Hutt Valley missed the distinction of housing the centre of the capital, but time has brought it much compensation. There are now some forty thousand people in the district. Closely settled urban areas give way to beautiful stretches of farmland, golf courses, the chief racecourse of the province, the centre of New Zealand’s military training, and homes set among trees and gardens. The Hutt Valley is an industrial area, a place of recreation, a highly productive farming district, and a place of residence for many whose interests centre in the city. The splendid forest has gone from the valley and from most of the hill slopes, and the period of laborious felling, sawmilling, and charcoal-burning which followed on the early settlement on hundred-acre farms is far away. Much of the timber went to build Wellington. With the destruction of the bush the river widened and shallowed. There was a time when Maori Bank was the head of canoe navigation, and loads of wheat and potatoes were taken down the river for the settlements at Petone and Wellington. Three things have made the valley the well-populated and prosperous area it is to-day—better communications, manufactures, and river conservation. The five miles of steep waterfront that separate Petone from Wellington were for long a serious barrier to the development of the valley. The railway, a single track at first, was a great advance, but the road remained bad or indifferent, a narrow mud track in winter and a dust producer in summer. Then the Railways Department, in straightening the railway track, straightened the road, and handed it over to the City Council to maintain. The upshot was the formation of a Hutt Road

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Board, subsequently the Wellington City and Suburban Highways Board (abolished 1939), a body representing the city and neighbouring districts, the bituminising of the surface by the City Engineer’s Department, and the levying of a tax of 30/- on local motorists to meet this expense. So large was the return from the tax that from the fund created the Board was able to surface permanently roads to Eastbourne, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, and round the waterfront.

Years before that, however, industry had given Petone an impetus. When the Port Nicholson settlement was moved to Thorndon and Te Aro, Petone fell into disfavour. It had a reputation for floods, and most settlers moved up the valley. In 1878, four years after the railway rescued it, the population was only 187, against 775 in the Lower Hutt. In that year, however, railway workshops were built beside the Petone station; the Gear Meat Company’s works followed, to become the largest in New Zealand, and in 1885 the Wellington Woollen Company’s mills were established. In 1886 Petone’s population was 1046, and Lower Hull’s 852. Petone kept the lead for many years ; in 1926 the figures were Petone 9220, Lower Hutt 7962. Then Lower Hutt passed its neighbour, until to-day it has 18,800 to Petone’s 11,000. Unfortunately for Petone’s advancement as a borough, which it became in 1888, after eight years of Town Board control, it is restricted in area. It may be news even to some residents of Wellington that the borough does not extend right across the valley, but stops at the pipeline bridge over the Hutt River ; the newer railway workshops and the settlement that has grown round them, also the factories between the river and the hills, are in Lower Hutt. Configuration of the mouth of the Hutt has been greatly changed by reclamation, which provides a considerable area for factory sites. The

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whole area from the Korokoro hills to Waiwhetu, irrespective of boundaries, will benefit by all this industrial expansion. Meanwhile, Petone has many industries within its boundaries, and it has provided itself with the amenities of an up-to-date community. In its beach it has one of the safest bathing places in New Zealand, and on the beach at the approximate place where the pioneer settlers landed in 1840 the Provincial Centennial Memorial has been erected.

Students of municipal development and rivalry in New Zealand find interesting material in the Hutt Valley. The two boroughs of Lower Hutt and Petone sprang from small neighbouring settlements. In those early days of slow transport the short distance that separated them meant much more than it would now ; besides, Petone began to be known as an industrial district, in contrast to the residential character of its rival. Lower Hutt became a borough in 1891, and, like its neighbour, it has made steady progress in services as well as population. In area it is the second suburban borough in New Zealand. It is not for this record to say that these two boroughs should amalgamate, but it may be pointed out that they enjoy certain essential things in common. As far back as 1898 Petone extended its municipal gas supply to the Lower Hutt and joint ownership and control followed. The Hutt Valley Power Board supplies both boroughs with light and power. Though the Hutt River Board, the third of its kind, does not control the whole of Petone, which,

with Lower Hutt, built its own stop-banks years ago, its operations benefit both boroughs. The River Board’s work has been of great value to the whole valley. As recently as the nineties there was a flood which turned a large part of the Petone-Lower Hutt area into a lake. Protection of banks and deepening of the river bed by taking out shingle for sale has

R

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tamed the stream. A great deal of new Wellington is built of Hutt river shingle. What is not so well known is that much of London’s docks has been constructed of the same material. Thousands of tons of this shingle have gone to London as ballast in overseas steamers, and the Port Authority has been glad to get such excellent stuff.

The valley between Lower Hutt and the smaller borough of Upper Hutt (incorporated 1926) is controlled by the Hutt County Council. This body governs

a large and varied territory stretching from Waikanae to Palliser Bay, and ranging in kind from suburban settlements to mountain tops. Farms, market gardens, golf courses, and miles of pleasantly set houses are features of the middle and upper valley, which seems destined to carry a much larger population. The

surrounding hills are beautifully wooded in places, but there is hardly a sadder sight of the kind in New Zealand than the stripped slopes on the line of the road and railway leading to the Wairarapa. Silverstream has attracted artists and poets. Trentham has memories of pleasure, high endeavour, and immeasurable loss. Most of the soldiers who went to the Great War passed through its camp. The name comes from a gift of the Duke of Sutherland to Richard Barton, the founder of the Barton family, prominent farmers in the Hutt Valley and the Wairarapa. Richard Barton, who came out in the Oriental, had been a coal-mine factor of the Duke’s, and when he re-visited Scotland a few years later, the Duke presented him with the 100 acres he had drawn as a shareholder in the New Zealand Company. The name Trentham was given to the block, after the Duke’s seat in Staffordshire. The English pronunciation, by the way, is not Tren-tham, but Trentam, that is, Trent-ham, the hamlet on the Trent. The Bartons owned much more than a hundred acres, and

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they retain some of the old estate. The family homestead, with its twenty-two rooms and half-a-dozen staircases, its steep gables, its shingle-filled walls and cellar for protection against the Maoris, and its large wellplanted grounds, was the most interesting in the valley.*

The history of the eastern bays tells the same story of the importance of communication. Long before people lived at Lowry Bay, Day’s Bay, and what is now Eastbourne, these places were popular as picnic and summer camping grounds. Indeed, Lowry Bay was a resort of the Tory’s party and the ship’s company, and got its name from the Tory’s mate. In later years the Governor had a country house there, at the northern end, and Sir George Grey liked the place so much that after he ceased to be Governor he built himself a cottage nearby. Sir Francis Bell lived there for many years, and reserved an area of bush behind his beautiful home. Between early times and the coming of settlement there was a little farming in the bays. Day’s Bay, originally Hawtrey Bay, was part of an original Company subdivision, but the owner left for the south to seek better land, and left the property in charge of a man named Day. In the middle period “ Okiwi Brown,” an ex-whaler, lived at Okiwi or Rona Bay. He was described as possessing “ a bad temper and a Maori wife.” He grazed a few hundred sheep, and before the hill road to the Wairarapa was built, and perhaps afterwards, his hut was a stopping place for stock drivers working around the coast. Brown’s was the first house in the Eastbourne district, and about 1880 it was the only one between the Cridlands at York Bay, and Pencarrow lighthouse. Behind the hills, however, in Gollan’s Valley, there were several settlers. The modern history of Day’s Bay and Eastbourne

* Sutherland Papers. Information from the Barton family

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began with the purchase, about 1890, of Day’s Bay by the late }. H. Williams, and of Rona Bay by Mr. Bartolo Russo and his brother and cousin. Williams was a son of Captain W. R. Williams, a ship-owner, to whose memory the Wellington Seamen’s Mission is dedicated. Williams built a wharf for his ship Mana, and holidaymakers began to desert Somes Island for this bay. As the popularity of Day’s Bay grew, the place was provided with a large boarding house and pleasure grounds, and Williams became the Wellington Steam Ferry Company Limited, with a fleet consisting of Duco, Duchess, Countess and Cobar. While these steamers plied in the period 1902-1906, the Miramar Ferry Company was serving the people of Seatoun and Miramar. The two ferry companies amalgamated about 1907. Meanwhile Eastbourne had been attracting residents, and the Hutt County Council had put a road round the bays. In 1906 Rona Bay and Eastbourne were formed into Eastbourne Borough. Since the law required that there should be a minimum population of a thousand, and the district could not muster so many, special legislation had to be passed. In 1913 the borough took over the ferry service, to which it has since added a fleet of buses.

Though Day’s Bay is just round the corner from Eastbourne and benefits by its transport service, it remains outside the borough. As has been mentioned, a large part of the bay is a city reserve. Helped by public subscription, the City Council, in 1905, bought the area, and in consideration of its connection with the Williams family—Mrs. W. R. Williams gave a large sum towards its acquisition—it was called Williams Park. There are several other bush reserves on the hills at the back of the bays from Lowry Bay to Muritai, and they form a priceless recreation ground for Wellington people. It is true there is much less

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bush than when the pathfinders in the Tory noted the beauty of the marriage between forest and sea, but large areas remain, and some are delightfully accessible. Also, recent years have brought a compensation in the return and multiplication of native birds. In 1879, forty years after his arrival in Port Nicholson, Heaphy recalled the prodigality of bird life in 1839, and said that bellbirds and riroriros were rarely seen or had entirely disappeared.* To-day residents may hear these birds not only in the bush but in their own gardens.

Socially, the history of Wellington in the last seventy years is the history of every British community. The rigours and stuffiness of Victorianism gave way to the freedom of the Edwardian and Georgian era, but lest we grow too complacent let us ask ourselves whether, in discarding those failings of the old regime, we have not lost some of its virtues. Wellington has witnessed the decline of the top hat and the chaperone, the coming of mixed bathing, the invasion of industry and commerce by women, the triumphs of the cinema and of radio, and the creeping up of road speeds until man’s servant becomes his assassin. It is curious to remember that it was once an offence to drive a horse and cart round a corner at other than a walking pace, and so it is to reflect that a generation is growing up that does not know what a bad road is, and has no knowledge of dust. The horse and buggy of our grandfathers would be as laughable to-day as the gas-lit transparencies that delighted the Wellington jubilee crowds in 1887. The city is more dignified and brighter. Though it suffers from “ bungaloids ’’ and other forms of architectural pretentiousness, the standard of architecture has greatly improved. The age of steel construction has arrived, and it is beginning to be recognised that colour is neither vulgar nor unusual.

* Transactions, N. 7.. Institute, Vol. 12.

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In one respect the city is rather less colourful than it was thirty years ago or more. The volunteer system of defence that was born in the early days of the colony and continued after the Maori wars ended, copied until its last years the dress, as well as the drill, of the British Army. One might see red tunics, busbies and bearskins on soldiers of city or provincial corps. It is no reflection on the zeal of the wearer to say that the sight of a Hussar uniform on the top of a horse that obviously had been taken from the plough, was slightly incongruous. Volunteering was a pretty thankless job, and units like the D Battery, founded in 1867, and the City Rifles (1879), deserve to be remembered. Recruiting was stimulated by the Sudan campaign and the South African war, and khaki became the wear. The whole service, however, remained little more than a skeleton one, and though the despatch of the early contingents to South Africa was a creditable effort, it was a good thing for New Zealand that only one arm, mounted men, was required. In 1909 compulsory training on a territorial basis was introduced, and Wellington’s chief unit, the Wellington Regiment (now “ The City of Wellington’s Own ”) was established.

The atmosphere of Wellington has always been highly charged with politics, and a few exceptional excitements have been added. In addition to the long and agonising period of the war, there was the maritime strike of 1890, when for a time shipping was paralysed ; the general strike of 1913, when farmers in semi-military organisation came into the city to see that their produce was shipped; and the unemployment riot of 1932. The strike of 1890 began in Australia and spread to New Zealand. It arose out of the attempt by a union of officers to affiliate with organised labour, and wharf labourers joined the seamen. In Wellington

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[1913)2

free labourers and clerks went on to the wharves and handled cargo. The employers won, but the other side resorted to political action. It was later in this year, 1890, that the Liberal-Labour forces in New Zealand won the election that was to begin their long reign of 22 years, and in the early nineties W. P. Reeves framed his plans for settling disputes by State machinery. The strike, or series of strikes, that dislocated so much of New Zealand industry in 1913, started with a stoppage by shipwrights on October 18th in Wellington. This led to a general strike declared by the Federation of Labour on November 10th, and called off by that body on December 20th. Watersiders, drivers, seamen and builders’ labourers were involved in the trouble, and inter-colonial services were almost entirely suspended for a time. Mounted farmers armed with batons were drafted into the city to help to protect free labour and generally keep order. There were clashes between these patrols and the crowds ; stones were thrown, and one or two shots fired. The riot of May 10th 1932 was a product of the depression. A crowd of unemployed went to the Parliament Buildings to interview Ministers, and, tired of waiting, emulated the recent example of Auckland by streaming along Lambton Quay, Willis Street and Manners Street and breaking shop windows. Among cultural achievements, Wellington’s modern period may be noticed for the establishment and development of schools ; the founding of a University College ; the growth of a local literature ; the production of a literary genius recognised by the world ; and the erection of a national museum and art gallery worthy of the capital and the nation. Wellington College, for a short while known as Wellington College and Grammar School because it was linked with the infant University of New Zealand, has grown in roll

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numbers, influence and fame. In Joseph Firth (known as J. P. Firth), who ruled it for nearly thirty years, it had one of the two or three great headmasters in New Zealand history. Firth stood six feet five in height and weighed fifteen stone when in training—" the most perfect physical specimen I have even seen,’’ said a doctor who passed him.* It is related that when he visited Sydney just after the Burns-Jack Johnson fight, when the community was looking for a "white hope”, a stranger stopped him in the street and asked him when he was going to take on the champion ! His personality was in keeping with his physique, and in his school he cultivated character as well as learning. The Wellington Girls’ College in Pipitea Street was opened in 1883 (its first home was in Abel Smith Street), and the Wellington East Girls’ College in 1925. The school that has been for so long a friendly rival of Wellington College in scholarship and sport was the outcome of the Roman Catholic counter movement to the secularisation of New Zealand education under the Act of 1877. Though the Catholic community in New Zealand numbered only sixty thousand, the Church decided to establish throughout New Zealand primary schools conducted according to Catholic ideals, and then the question arose what was to become of boys who wished to go on with their education. St. Patrick’s College was the most ambitious move in this second campaign. Archbishop Redwood (then Bishop) was the prime mover in this enterprise. In the Archbishop’s words, the new college was called St. Patrick’s because "the vast majority of Catholic youth in New Zealand were sons of Erin, and St. Patrick was their apostle and patron.” The College was opened on June Ist 1885, with nine day boys and ten boarders, and one of the pupils was T. O’Shea, destined to succeed Archbishop Redwood as Metropolitan of New Zealand. The site

• Sec biography b> Sir James Elliott

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p«9»

of the College was land that had hardly ceased to be used for farming, and was still currently known as “ Mrs. Blandford’s dairy farm.” It is recorded as indicative of the future athletic record of St. Patrick’s that when the boys were dismissed on the first day “ they set off down town for a football.” * The leading Catholic secondary school in New Zealand, St. Patrick’s was a boarding and day school until 1931, when a residential college bearing the same name, another creation of Archbishop Redwood, was opened at Silverstream, in the sylvan beauty of the Hutt Valley.

The zeal of Catholics should have stirred Wellington into quicker action to provide the crown of its educational system, but it was not until 1899 that the first professors appointed to Victoria University College began work, and then they had no home ; lectures were given in the Girls’ College and in the Technical School, Victoria Street. The University Commission of 1879 had recommended the establishment of a university college in the capital, and in 1887 Sir Robert Stout moved in this direction with a Bill. It was Mr. Seddon who took decisive action ; an Act of 1897 founded the college “in commemoration of the sixtieth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria.” The first professors were John Rankine Brown, classics ; Hugh Mackenzie, English ; Thomas Hill Easterfield, chemistry and physics ; and Richard Cockburn Maclaurin. mathematics. Professor Brown is still (1939) on the staff; Professor Mackenzie has retired ; Sir Thomas Easterfield (as he now is) w'ent to the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, as director, and retired in 1933; Professor Maclaurin died in Boston in 1920 as President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, just when his efforts to make this the leading establishment of the

• St. Patrick’s College, ISBS -1935 ; the Record of Fifty Years. Edited by Paul Kavanagh.

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kind in the United States were being crowned with success.* There was argument about the site for the College. Some wanted the Mt. Cook area, but six acres of a town reserve in Salamanca Road were chosen ; what the historical note in the College calendar describes as “ six acres of hill, carrying with it a magnificent view and the certainty of great expense in development.” It must have been a bleak and unpromising site at first, but “ The Old Clay Patch, the students’ phrase for it, was a term of endearment as well as a description justified by fact:

Here in the common clay,

Here in our strait demesne

Lay we the stone in trust,

Marking the fuller day.

Thus wrote Mr. Seaforth Mackenzie, whose exceptional lyrical gift is responsible for so much of the quality in The Old Clay Patch, the College’s anthology of verse. The first portion of the building was opened in 1906. Time has dealt as kindly with the building and its surrounding as with the neighbouring Kelburn Park. The grow'th of the activities of the College mas be gauged from the fact that the four original professors have become fifteen, assisted by over twenty lecturers. It is of special interest to note that Sir Robert Stout's wish expressed in 1887 that the University College of the capital should specialise in political science, was realised in 1938-39, when the Government provided money to found a Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and a professor was appointed. The Law School has had a distinguished history. Its professors have included the R. C. Maclaurin already mentioned, and that eminent jurist Sir John Salmond.

• Maclaurin is one of the few New Zealanders who have been the subject of biographies outside their own country. Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, bv Hcnrv Greenlcaf Pearson.

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Victoria University College has developed a vigorous life among staff and students. The College has led what is known as the University reform movement, the chief aim of which is the abolition of outside examinations. The students have worked hard to get money for the College, and have expressed themselves frankly in their magazine, the Spike. By their benefactions to Victoria College, citizens have made amends for their previous apathy. The list Alls three pages of close type in the Calendar. Money gifts total about £120,000, and there have been many gifts of books and apparatus. The larger gifts include £lO,OOO from the T. G. Macarthy Trustees for a school of Economics ; £lO,OOO from the late Sir Walter Buchanan for a Chair of Agriculture (diverted, together with a bequest to Auckland University College, to Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North); £lO,OOO from the late Sarah Ann Rhodes for the education of women ; and between £70,000 and £BO,OOO from the late Mr. William Weir for a hostel. Weir House (1933), a building worthy of its splendid site, stands near the College and houses eighty-eight men.

In Wellington the arts have had to struggle against the difficulties that arise in all societies occupied with pioneering. In every generation, however, there have been those who have struggled, and all honour to them. Like Christchurch, where the Dutch painter Van der Velden left a permanent mark, Wellington had the advantage of tuition and example from an overseas artist of exceptional ability, James Nairn. The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1882, kept the flag flying for many years in the little gallery in Whitmore Street, and when the time came for it to move to worthy quarters it was able to hand over to the nation a permanent collection valued at £13,619. After the War the opportunity for Art and Science took

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shape. The old Dominion Museum in Museum Street had long been out of date, and for years there had been a movement to secure the gaol site on Mt. Cook for a new museum and art gallery. The scheme was linked up with commemoration of the war. The first step in this commemoration was the erection of the Wellington Memorial at the foot of Bowen Street, which has ever since been the centre of local and national remembrance. Then, as a further memorial, the carillon bells were obtained from England by public subscription and the Carillon Tower erected, with financial help from the Government, in front of the block that was to house the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum. The total cost of land and buildings, including the Carillon Tower, and lay-out of the grounds, was approximately £234,000. The Government, besides giving a grant for the Carillon Tower, gave the land for the main block (valued at £30,000) and £lOO,OOO for the building. Thus the State and Wellington citizens contributed to the cost of this national centre of culture in about equal proportions.

Of the many who worked for these ends mention may be made of Sir Harold Beauchamp, who, besides taking an active interest in the movement, established a fund for the purchase of pictures ; and Sir George Troup, who, while he was mayor, secured the Government's co-operation in the scheme, teas for some time chairman of the National Art Gallery Committee of Management, and by his enthusiasm and driving force did much to bring this great and comprehensive plan to success. The result has been to give the capital a cidtural centre not equalled elsewhere. The National Art Gallery provides a home for permanent collections, including a national portrait gallery, for the activities of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, and for the reception of loan collections. The number and

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quality of loan exhibitions held since the building was completed testify to the value of this branch of activity. The Dominion Museum at last has an adequate home, and for one thing, is able to display properly its very fine Maori collection. The Philosophical Society, or as it is now called the Wellington branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, after keeping the lamp of science alight for seventy years, is now properly housed in the same building as the city’s museum. The building has facilities not only for exhibition but for instruction.

Wellington is well off for libraries. The General Assembly Library, which has statute right to copies of all books published in New Zealand, is the best reference library in the country. Many years passed, however, before the city itself resumed the responsibility of providing citizens with books. We have seen that the founders of Wellington provided the nucleus of its public library. The Athenaeum, which grew out of the Mechanics’ Institute, had a long and honourable career as a library and place of instruction and entertainment, but it got into financial difficulties, and became a tenant in the building on the Quay that it had owned. When the City Council established the Public Library in 1893, it took over the Athenaeum’s stock. This central library, at the corner of Mercer and Wakefield Streets, has long been inadequate for space, but it is about to give place (1939) to a new building across the road, extending from Mercer Street to Harris Street, built at a cost of £60,000. Meanwhile the modern practice of establishing branch libraries has been adopted and extended by the City Council. There are libraries at Newtown, Brooklyn, Karori, Lyall Bay, Miramar, Ngaio and Wadestown, and in addition books are circulated among over thirty schools.

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The greatest pride of Wellington in libraries, however, is the Alexander Turnbull Library in Bowen Street. To quite a number of visitors this is much the most interesting thing in the city. Alexander Turnbull was a bachelor merchant whose family settled on the waterfront at the foot of Bowen Street in the early days. He became a collector when young, and when he died in 1918 at forty-nine he had amassed one of the great private collections of the world. He bought judiciously, and largely before the competition of American millionaires had sent up prices to present high levels, so that the appreciation in the value of many of his books is startling. For example, one item bought for £l2O is now worth over £3OOO. It is safe to say that if the collection were placed on the English and American market to-day it would bring in some hundreds of thousands of pounds. Mr. Turnbull specialised in two main directions—English literature and books about New Zealand and the Pacific. His collection of English early editions and editions de luxe is splendid—all the more so because he had many works bound in sumptuous bindings—but of more direct value to New Zealand is his collection of books, pamphlets and manuscripts bearing on New Zealand. These are being put to greater use by students every year. Until the last years of his life, Mr. Turnbull housed this large unique library in an old wooden dwelling house on the Bowen Street property, but during the war of 1914-18 he built the present library building as a residence and library. He left his library to the nation and this great collection is now administered by the Department of Internal Affairs.

In Wellington literature there is one great name, Katherine Mansfield.* She was Kathleen Beauchamp,

• For a short biography and appreciation of Katherine Mansfield see the F.nglish Dirtionary of National Biography. Supplement 1922 1950.

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third daughter of Sir Harold Beauchamp, and born on October 14th 1888 at No. 11 Tinakori Road. Some of her formative years were spent at Karori, where the family lived on a large property. She received some local encouragement in her writing but it was inevitable that she should seek her fortunes in the larger world. Gifts such as hers needed the stimulus of literary communities. She died in France on January 9th 1923. Her genius as a short-story writer is recognised throughout the world, and her influence on her generation has been great. There is much of Wellington in some of her stories, and she retained a love for her native country. Wellington has received large scale treatment in the Pencarrow novels of Miss Nelle M. Scanlan, which trace the growth of the settlement and the fortunes of a family from the forties to the present time. Miss Scanlan was the first New Zealand novelist to be really popular in New Zealand. The late Miss Iris Wilkinson, “ Robin Hyde,” won distinction abroad as well as in her own country as a novelist and as a poet. Miss Eileen Duggan is in the front rank of New Zealand poets, and her work has been acclaimed in England and America.

In common with other New' Zealand cities, Wellington has been visited by a large number of celebrated musicians, but the community has always had an active musical life of its own. There have been many musical societies. The Choral Society w r as born about 1860 ;* the Orchestral Society in 1879 ; the Amateur Operatic Society in 1888 ; the Liedertafel in 1891 ; and the Musical Union in 1895. Some twenty years ago the Choral Society and the Musical Union amalgamated and became the Royal Wellington Choral Union. The performances of these and other societies, especially the Choral Union, have covered a wide range of music, and a number of visiting distinguished musicians have

♦ The Choral Society was revived in 1905

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assisted at performances. Leading figures in the musical history of Wellington include the late Mr. John Prouse, probably the finest baritone New Zealand has produced, who toured England with Kubelik and Backhaus ; Mr. Alfred Hill, New Zealand’s foremost composer ; and that astonishing veteran the late Robert Parker, who was organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral from 1878 until his death in 1936. It was under his direction that most of the great oratorios were sung for the first time in Wellington. The serious fare provided for Wellington by local talent is illustrated by the programmes of the three musical festivals that Mr. Parker conducted. At the first, in 1888, there were presented Elijah, Israel in Egypt, Sullivan’s Golden Legend, and a miscellaneous concert in which Beethoven’s Concerto in G Major was one of the items. At the third festival, in 1903, the two oratorios Messiah and Elijah were bracketed with Hiawatha, The Ancient Mariner and the Golden Legend, and there was a miscellaneous evening in which two of Elgar’s marches figured. This was probably the first time that the music of Land of Hope and Glory was heard in Wellington. Mr. Alfred Hill came to Wellington from Melbourne as a boy. He played and conducted in the city, and it was here that his cantata Hinemoa was first performed. His brother, Mr. E. j. Hill, was the leading tenor in Wellington for half a century. In the realm of light music the Wellington Operatic Society was active for some years. It presented a number of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and other favourites, such as Les Cloches de Corneville. Considering New Zealand’s distance from England, Wellington heard Gilbert and Sullivan, played by professionals and amateurs, surprisingly early. Pinafore was played in 1879 ; The Sorcerer in 1880; The Pirates in 1881 ; Patience in 1882 ; and in 1895 the Amateur Operatic Society staged Ruddigore for the first time in the colonies.

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[IHHh92

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In drama the seventies and eighties presented some striking features. In England Tom Robertson had timidly shown the way to a new school of English dramatists, but the renaissance work of Pinero, Henry Arthur Jones and Shaw was yet to come. Where Wellington scored in these days was in the presentation of Shakespeare and the classical comedies. Indeed, in those days, with only a fraction of its present population, Wellington saw more Shakespeare in a given time than it has since, unless tve except the courageous enterprise of Mr. Allan Wilkie in recent years. Those were the days of stock companies, which took root in New Zealand, and small communities supported long seasons. William Hoskins was the leading figure in that world. He had been educated for the Church, and was a scholar as well as an actor. He is said to have taught Henry Irving. A glance at old records is instructive. In 1881 Wellington had for its entertainment two Shakespearean seasons with Bandmann in the lead, and one with Louise Pomeroy in Shakespeare and Sheridan ; Grattan Riggs in Irish plays; the Simonsen Opera Company in grand opera ; Tom Pollard’s Lilliputians in Les Cloches de Corneville, The Pirates of Penzance ; and Wilhelmji, the famous violinist. The Shakespeare included Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth, plays rarely seen here since. The late Mr. H. E. Nicholls, a life-long lover of the drama and an indefatigable actor and organiser of amateur theatricals, records seeing twelve performances of Hamlet and nine different actors in the leading part, between 1875 and 1892, and seven of Macbeth between 1875 and 1883. Of other Shakespearean plays that are comparatively seldom played, there may be noted Cymbeline, King John, Julius Caesar, King Lear and Henry IV. There was also liberal provision of gland opera. Verdi’s Aida was produced in 1878 and 1880 : has it

The Square, Palmerston North, in the seventies.

The Square, Palmerston North, to-day.

Massey Agricultural College, near Palmerston North.

s

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ever been presented in more recent years save in concert form? The Barber of Seville, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Lucretia Borgia, Martha, Lohengrin, Mignon, Romeo and Juliet and Der Freischutz appeared on the bills, and among lighter works Chilperic, Giroflegirofla, La Fille du Tambour Major, and La Mascotte. Those were golden days in the theatre. “ Grand style ” of acting was still followed ; the veil of mystery that hung in front of the stage had not been thinned by publicity; and there were few counter-attractions. Wellington had two theatres, besides the old Oddfellows’ Hall. The Theatre Royal stood where Police Headquarters are to-day in Johnston Street. The Opera House, burned down in 1887, and rebuilt, was on the site of the present Regent Theatre.

In the eighties and into the nineties Wellington amateurs were very active. They were organised in 1880 and not only produced amateur dramatic farces, comedies, and dramas regularly, but took the stage with professional stars. We find them helping Hoskins and his wife (Florence Colville) in Richelieu and someone else in Henry IV. It was an age of recitation of the more full-blooded kind, and Wellington had some very capable reciters. It is significant that the programme of the public concert held in the Drill Hall to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee in 1887 included Kissing Cup’s Race and How We Beat the Favourite.

Features of the nineties included the arrival of what was called the problem play, one of the early products of the English dramatic renaissance; the strengthening of the position of “ The Firm,” as J. C. Williamson’s Australian enterprise was called ; and the increasing elaboration of the spectacular in shows. Comic opera gave place to musical comedy, and among plays there was nothing more popular than The Sign of the Cross and A Royal Divorce. There were vintage

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seasons and years. The work of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Brough and his partner in bringing modern English drama and comedy to New Zealand should not be forgotten. In one year, 1912, New Zealand was visited by H. B. Irving, Ethel Irving, and Oscar Asche. It cannot be said, however, that New Zealand was as well catered for as it might have been. Bernard Shaw, for example, was almost completely unrepresented in the repertoires of professional companies. When in the post-war years the screen, reinforced by sound, almost killed the commercial theatres, amateur societies came to the rescue. Wellington has to thank the Repertory Society and the Thespians for a long string of interesting productions ; many would not have appealed to the commercial theatre as it used to be.

There have been several newspaper casualties in the period since 1870. The Evening Post, founded in 1865 with a circulation of 250, had as its chief rival for many years the New Zealand Times, which after an unsuccessful start in the late sixties was re-established in 1874, and was published continuously until January 1927. The other newspapers that fell by the way were the Wellington Advertiser (1880-83), the New Zealand Advertiser (1870-1871), the Evening Argus (1873-1878), the Wellington Independent (18451874), the Tribune and Evening Argus (1874-1875), the Evening Chronicle (1878-1880), the New Zealander (1878-1880), and the Evening Press (18841894). From 1894 to 1907 the Evening Post and the New Zealand Times had the field to themselves. The Times supported the Liberal Governments and the Evening Post was independent, and might have been described as more anti-Seddon than anti-Liberal. Under a succession of editors, of whom the best known were E. T. Gillon and Gresley Lukin, it steadily strengthened its position. In the early years of the

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century a number of Opposition supporters, representing especially the landed interest, felt that they needed a newspaper in the capital that would definitely oppose the Liberal regime, and the result was the foundation of the Dominion in 1907, under the editorship of Mr. C. W. Earle. The new paper’s policy had a substantial effect on the general elections of 1908 and 1911. It was after the latter contest that Sir Joseph Ward resigned, and a few months later W. F. Massey began his long reign. It can be said that the strongest competitor of the New Zealand Times was the Times itself. The Times was served by able men, but it was common knowledge among journalists that there was too much interference by directors and politicians and not enough strong and steady guidance. The butcher-baker-candlestickmaker method of running a newspaper is liable to be disastrous. The Times held on to its slippery slope until 1927, when it was bought out cheaply by the Dominion.

CHAPTER TEN

THE OUT-SETTLEMENTS: WANGANUI

Without detracting from the work of Empire statesmen, it is true to say oversea dominions have been built upon the bent backs of the pioneers.— W. A. Carruthers, “ Emigration

from the British Isle,

It has made for the health and progress of the Wellington Province that the out-settlements have developed so vigorous a life of their own. They have looked to their provincial capital as their centre, but they have cultivated their own gardens assiduously. The provincial towns have established, from wellsurfaced streets and water supplies to parks and libraries, most of the public utilities that are to be found in the capital. County councils have looked after roads and bridges. We have seen that at one time Wanganui and the Rangitikei district showed a better appreciation of primary education than Wellington. Until the National Art Gallery was built in Wellington, the capital’s gallery could not be compared (at any rate architecturally) with the Serjeant Gallery in Wanganui. Secondary schools flourish in these provincial towns, and some of them draw pupils from distant parts.

It is an interesting study in economic geography to look round the provincial towns and observe reasons for their growth. Foxton, a port, promised to outstrip Palmerston North, but Palmerston North drew railways and roads to it, and Foxton was largely dependent on

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one of the most capricious of markets, that of flax. Bulls, originally a store kept by one Bull, where, after the fashion of those days, you could buy your flour at one end of the room and your rum at the other, was surpassed by Marton, which, besides being more centrally situated and in a rich district, lay on the main road and railway between Wanganui and Palmerston North. A Wanganui, prosperous and distinguished, also surrounded by rich territories, has been caught up in population by its rival, Palmerston North, because the inland city occupies a key position on main routes and is surrounded by a wide district of exceptional fertility. Eighty years ago it might have been considered an open question which of the Wairarapa towns would be the largest. To-day Master ton has several times the population of other Wairarapa towns ; here again position in relation to natural resources has been a determining factor.

Wanganui (or, so we may repeat, properly Whanganui) is almost as old as Wellington, and it is not at all surprising that it was marked out early for a European settlement. To the Maori the river was one of the most important in the country. It was a main route to the interior ; it afforded an abundant food supply ; and pas on its high cliffs were relatively safe. Jerningham Wakefield gives a vivid description of Maori life on the river shortly after European civilisation made its first contacts with it. After traders of the thirties came the missionaries, Henry Williams, Hadfield, Buller and others, but, as in the strait region, the gospel tidings had already reached the local Maoris through their countrymen. Those were difficult and dangerous days for the white pioneers of Christianity. Their parish was very wide ; travelling was arduous and risky ; and Te Heuheu, the great Taupo chief, was on the war path. Mason and Matthews did their best

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to keep the peace, and tended the wounded on both sides. In 1840 Jerningham Wakefield made his dashing but dubious purchase of Wanganui lands, and his uncle went ahead with the survey and allotment of the Wanganui block. At first everything seemed admirable. The river harbour was deemed excellent, the land fertile, and the scenery magnificent. The Maoris were friendly and there was plenty of trade. Towards the end of 1840 Europeans began to arrive, and on February 27, 1841, the first settlers came up from Wellington.

A long period of disappointment followed. There was delay over surveys, which kept back allotment. Some of the disappointed settlers walked back to Port Nicholson, while others waited for conditions to improve. Of these, some spent their money in the local grog shops. Undesirables arrived, and it was difficult to keep order. For seven years the settlers were obstructed by Maoris who openly questioned the validity of the Company’s purchase. The chief trouble came from the up-river Maoris, and had it not been for the influence of the missionaries of Putiki-wharanui, at the mouth of the river, it would have gone harder with the struggling and confined settlement. The pioneer missionary, John Mason, was drowned in the Turakina river in 1843, and his place was taken by the Rev. Richard Taylor, who remained in Wanganui until his death in 1873. The township was officially known as Petre, but the name was seldom used, and the place was commonly called Wanganui in the years before official sanction was given to the word by the Wellington Provincial Council in 1854. For a brief period before 1840 the river was called the Knowsley. Those years of the early forties were very difficult, so much so that Wanganui settlement has been described as the most unfortunate of all the colonies planted by the

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Wakefields. The settlers had paid for their land, but could not get delivery, and when they applied for land elsewhere they were told by the Company that their claims applied only to Wanganui district. The Company blamed the Government, and the Government disclaimed responsibility. In 1845 there were between two hundred and three hundred Europeans in the settlement, which stood where the city stands to-day, and round them were about four thousand Maoris, most of whom, says Mr. James Cowan, were very friendly towards the settlers, though they had no love for the Company.* In 1846 Sir George Grey arranged for the completion of the purchase of 40,000 acres, but the sale was not closed till 1848, when the area was increased to 80,000 acres, extending to the Kai-Iwi river.

Meanwhile the two races had clashed. At the end of 1846 a detachment of the 58th Regiment, with supporting details, was sent up from Wellington, and the fortification of the town began. The Rutland stockade and blockhouses, named after the 58th, or Rutlandshire Regiment, built on the hill that now houses the museum, art gallery and library and is known as Queen’s Park, were perhaps the strongest and most interesting fortified post in the colony’s early history. The enclosure measured 60 yards by 30 ; the palisading, loopholed, and consisting partly of whole trees, was formidable ; and there were two blockhouses with overhanging upper storeys. Two guns from the Calliope were mounted in the stockade. The whole work cost over £3OOO. On a smaller hill the soldiers put up another fortification, a stockade enclosing barracks, to which the name York was given. Rutland Stockade was used for many years by the Regulars and

* See The New Zealand Wars of the Pioneering Period, Vol. I for an account of the troubles in the district.

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the Armed Constabulary, and it is a great pity that so striking a relic was not preserved. In the eighties the structures were cleared away by the municipality, which apparently felt that the sooner all memories of the war were obliterated the better. They would have made a unique Centennial exhibit.

A wound accidentally inflicted on a Maori chief by a midshipman of the Calliope precipitated trouble. A small party of hotheads seeking utu attacked the family of J. A. Gilfillan, a settler in the Matarawa Valley, killing his wife and three children and wounding the father and a daughter. Five of the murderers were captured by friendly Maoris and four of them hanged. The Maoris were divided. Some regarded the executions as a proper punishment; a larger number resolved to take up arms. The execution of Whare-aitu at Paremata the previous year was remembered. Canoe parties of well-armed warriors came down the river, and began to plunder and burn settlers’ houses and kill stock. The settlers were assembled each night in fortified houses. On May 19th, 1847, the Maoris attacked the town, and several houses were sacked. The Governor landed and made a reconnaissance in force, but the situation dragged on through May, June and most of July without decisive action. The reinforced garrison, which included a company of the 65th, outnumbered the enemy, but the settlers could not move beyond the protection of the stockades, though some of them, armed, scouted out in small parties. On July 20th the hostile Maoris, weary of inaction and anxious to return to their homes up the river, made a movement from the direction of the bush known as St. John’s Wood, hoping to draw out the garrison. Lieut.Colonel McCleverty responded, and 400 soldiers were engaged in what is called the battle of St. John’s Wood. The skirmish, for it was little more, was fought

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in part on the ground now occupied by the Wanganui Collegiate School. The Regulars met the Maoris with the bayonet, but the enemy returned to his trenches and was not dislodged. Three British soldiers lost their lives. A few days later there was a general retirement up the river. Early in 1848 Grey made an agreement with the hostile chiefs and Wanganui entered upon twelve years or so of peace.

The Taranaki war, which broke out in 1860, naturally produced repercussions in Wanganui. Out of that war arose the extraordinary mixture of savagery and debased Christian ritual known as Hauhauism, and relations between the two races were further complicated by the confiscations of Maori land, which affected the West Coast from the Waitotara to north Taranaki. In 1864 the flame of Hauhauism was carried from Taranaki to the upper Wanganui, and a war party, drunk with religious frenzy, set out from Pipiriki by river to attack the town. The resident magistrate and other Europeans were allowed to leave Pipiriki. This place was then the last outpost of civilisation on the Wanganui ; beyond it only a few white men had travelled. It had a mission school and a flour mill. The attackers sent word to the Ngati-Hau tribe at Hiruharama (Jerusalem) asking them to join the enterprise, but NgatiHau would not do so, and immediately summoned the down-river tribes to their assistance. The resistance of these men of the lower river was not, says Mr. Cowan, offered so much out of regard for the whites as for the rnana of their river. The demand for the passage of a war party was regarded as insolence. There resulted on May 14th 1864 one of the most remarkable battles in New Zealand history. In quite the homeric vein the two sides decided to meet at an appointed spot, the little island of Moutoa, some fifty miles above the town, and the battle was watched from the bank

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by a crowd of Hauhau onlookers, who chanted incantations to deflect the enemy’s bullets as the parties fought it out with gun and tomahawk. At first the defenders were forced back, but Tamihana te Hewa rallied his men and killed five Hauhaus; supports dashed in; and the Hauhaus were driven into the river with a loss of about fifty killed. The survivors retired in dejection. A monument stands in the Wanganui city to the Maoris who saved the settlement that day on the “Isle of Heroes.” Some months after this, a body of colonial troops was sent to Pipiriki, where it underwent a hot siege for twelve days, and floated bottles down the river containing messages written in Latin and French.

There followed a long period of activity in the Waitotara and Patea districts. The Hauhaus had their headquarters at Waitotara and made forays to within a few miles of Wanganui. General Cameron was surprised in broad daylight (January 1865) at Nukumaru, and went on northward without reducing the strong position at Weraroa, a short distance inland. Sir George Grey thought he should have taken the place, and backed his opinion by taking the field himself and showing that it could be done. When the determined Chute succeeded Cameron, who had become sick of the war, he marched out of Wanganui (on December 30th 1865) to take the coast route to Taranaki, and make history by traversing the bush country on the eastern side of Egmont. In 1867 Titokowaru, chief of the NgaRuahine, came into action as a particularly formidable opponent, and there was more fighting in the Waitotara district. In November 1868 Whitmore had to retreat from an attack on the Moturoa position with severe loss, and for a time the position between Waitotara and Wanganui was critical. The British lines were contracted and much of the settled country was abandoned.

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Women and children took refuge by night in the Wanganui stockades. The colonial units, however, did excellent work on patrol and garrison duty at the outposts. Most of the patrolling was done by two local cavalry corps. Whitmore wrote of one that for all the duties of frontier mounted infantry “ it was absolutely perfect.” This unit was commanded by Lieutenant John Bryce, who afterwards held office in more than one Ministry and occupied Parihaka in 1881. In the other corps was a trooper named John Ballance, who founded the Wanganui Herald, served as a Minister under Grey, Stout and Vogel, and was Premier in the first years of the long Liberal-Labour reign. The most picturesque figure in these campaigns, however, was the leader of the Wanganui Maori contingent, Captain (afterwards Major) Kemp (Te Rangihiwinui). Major Kemp fought against Te Kooti on the east coast as well as in west coast campaigns ; he received the New Zealand Cross for his gallantry at Moturoa ; and his reputation as a soldier was so high that European officers and men volunteered to serve under him. This was after Titokowaru abandoned his position at Taurangaika, in the Waitotara district, early in 1869, and his force was pursued through the Taranaki bush. His power was broken, and the anxiety of the Wanganui district was at an end.

By this time the town itself was firmly founded. The purchase of 80,000 acres from the Maoris for £lOOO had settled the difficulty of title, and before the fifties had passed the population of the township was 1500. The Wesleyans, the Roman Catholics, and the Presbyterians established themselves in the period 18481853, and mission stations were planted up the river. Wanganui’s first paper, the Wanganui Record, appeared in 1853, but was short-lived. The Wanganui Chronicle dates to 1856, and the Wanganui Herald to 1867. To

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the fifties belongs the foundation of Wanganui Collegiate School, one of the great secondary schools of the overseas Commonwealth. Its early history was full of difficulties. In 1852 Grey granted to Selwyn for educational purposes 245 acres of land within the township’s boundaries, and it was stipulated that it was to be “ for the education of children of our subjects of all races and of other poor and destitute persons being inhabitants of islands in the Pacific Ocean,” and that “ religious education, industrial training and instruction in the English language shall be given to the youth educated therein.” In 1854 the Rev. C. H. S. Nicholls, who was afterwards the first vicar of Wanganui, became the headmaster of what was called the Church of England Native Industrial School. We have the pathetic diary kept by Nicholls in those early years. He took in Maori boys, and over and over again they absconded. Little progress was made, and after a fire the school was abandoned until 1865. When Godwin, the second headmaster, retired in 1878, there were only about 30 boys on the roll, but when the Rev. B. W. Harvey died in 1887, there were 150, including 84 boarders. During Harvey’s reign the school was given its present title, but before that questions were asked about the purposes to which the endowment was being put. There was a strong movement to take the trust away from the school (Vogel, Fox and Ballance were among the attackers), and but for Hadfield’s vigorous defence this might have succeeded. The reply of the trustees to charges of misuse of the trust was that they could not help themselves, and the Parliamentary Committee of 1879 was impressed by this contention, for while it found that in some respects the management of the trust had not been satisfactory, it also found that “ from causes beyond the control of the trustees the original design of the endowment has not

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been and cannot now be fulfilled.” Writing after Bishop Hadfield’s resignation of his see in 1893, a biographer said that at one time an attack on the school was backed by almost all Wanganui, but “ to attack the school now would be to attack Wanganui itself.” Nothing succeeds like success. Walter Empson, who succeeded Harvey in 1887, was carrying on the work of building the Collegiate School into a great public school in the English sense of the word. Empson and Firth were probably the two greatest headmasters New Zealand has known. Empson was a man of extraordinary personality and magnetism, and his influence may perhaps be best summed up in a tribute paid to him to the author of this history by one of his staff.

" I often went to him in difficulties, and I always felt that I came out a better and braver man.” The school, after being located for many years near the centre of the town, was moved to its present suburban position in 1911.

In 1868 a coach service twice a week with Wellington was started. Three years later the bridge was opened across the river that still carries the traffic on the city’s main highway, though the toll gates on it have long since disappeared. In 1885 Wanganui was connected by rail with Palmerston North and New Plymouth. In 1872 the Town Board, which had been set up in 1862, gave way to the Borough Council. The subsequent history of Wanganui, set in a rich district, with one of the finest of the tourist attractions at its back door, has been one of steady progress. Its population to-day (1939) is 23,000. The river itself, with its steamer services right up to Taumarunui, has been enjoyed by tens of thousands of travellers, and its town reaches are well known to oarsmen. Did not Wanganui produce a sculling champion in William Webb and fete him like a hero when he returned from his victory on the Parramatta ?

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The Borough Council absorbed three neighbouring local bodies—Wanganui East, a borough, and the Gonville and Castlecliff Town Boards—and in 1924 Wanganui became a city. It has developed an industrial side and has provided a direct outlet for the exported produce of its 2,800 square miles of territory. An expenditure of some £700,000 by the Wanganui Harbour Board has provided a harbour to take ships up to 460 ft. long, and of “suitable draught”: larger ships lie out in the roadstead and are lightered.

The people of Wanganui have good reason to be proud of their city’s enterprise, and especially the cultivation of the arts and sciences. It built the first municipal theatre in New Zealand. It possesses an observatory ; its library and museum are much to be admired ; and in the Serjeant Art Gallery it has an art centre notable both for its design and its contents. The late Hurst Seager’s plans for the Art Gallery attracted attention abroad, and in the Markham and Richards report on the museum and art galleries of Australia issued in 1933, the opinion was expressed that “ possibly Wanganui has the finest collection of pictures in New Zealand.” Wanganui has been fortunate in having not only generous-minded citizens but persons of taste. The city received £12,500 from the William Alexander Estate for the Public Library and Museum, and £30,000 from the late Henry Serjeant for the Art Gallery. The late Louis Cohen deserves much of the credit for the quality of the pictures in the Gallery. He proceeded on the principle that a little that was good was preferable to much that was second rate. A representative of the Carnegie Trust who visited the Library shortly before it was opened, said that for the size of the town it was probably the best in the British Empire.

1549-66]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE OUT SETTLEMENTS: RANGITIKEI AND MANAWATU

And the long march goes on : They come with harrow and plough : with pick and spade they come,

No music with their march, no bugle and no drum, No colours swinging high, no clapping, and no cry, No ribbons and streamers gay.

—Phillip Carrington, “ Rangiora.

In the early history of the Rangitikei-Manawatu Districts there were three great purchases of land from the Maoris : in 1864 the territory known as the Almaturanga Block, which extended along the Manawatu and Pohangina Rivers from about Longburn to beyond Apiti, and included the clearing called Papaioea, where Palmerston North was to be built; the block between Rangitikei and Turakina Rivers 1849; the block between the Rangitikei and the Manawatu in 1866. The acquisition of Ahuaturanga gave little trouble, and it was the same with the Awahou Block, at the mouth of the Manawatu, but the negotiations for the northern areas have a special interest for the student of AngloMaori relations ; in them is illustrated the value of peaceful and wise negotiation, and at the same time we see the Maori giving up his ancestral lands with a ceremonial as poignant as it was picturesque. Perhaps never afterwards was there a meeting of the kind so colourful and so significant as that in 1866 at which Dr.

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Featherston gave judgment in the inter tribal dispute over the land between the Rangitikei and the Manawatu. Donald McLean had an easier task in 1849. when by securing the land between the Rangitikei and the Turakina he carried through the first large purchase in the Province since Wakefield’s transactions. Though there were sellers and non-sellers among the Maoris, ownership was not disputed. Some four thousand people assembled at Parewanui, on the Rangitikei River, and at first non-sellers were in a large majority. McLean, who was helped by Walter Buller (afterwards Sir Walter, famous tor his book on New Zealand birds), showed the infinite patience that was to mark his dealings with the Maori. For about a week he received the chiefs, getting on good terms with them and deprecating haste. He held an almost continuous reception of chiefs, day and night, and J. D. Ormond (later the Hon. J. D. Ormond, prominent in provincial and national politics for many years), who was with him. said that whenever McLean’s companions woke at night there was McLean in conference. McLean’s patience and courtesy won over a majority, a formal deed was signed, and a great block of land, the boundaries of which had been ridden over by Ormond, Robert Park and others, was purchased for £2,500. No subsequent trouble arose over the transaction, and McLean's success paved the way for later sales.

The purchase of the Rangitikei-Manawatu Block was a different matter. Negotiations extended over years, an inter-tribal war was narrowly averted, and disputes arising out of the transaction dragged on for a long while. By the sixties the neighbouring Rangitikei district had attracted many settlers, and runholders were working some of the unpurchased land south of the Rangitikei as tenants of the Maori owners. Ngati-Raukawa claimed the land by right of conquest:

1853.

Mr. J. IV. Marshall. 1862. Evolution of a Homestead.

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1870.

Mr. J. W. Marshall. 1907. Mr. J. W. Marshall’s home at Tutu Total a. near Marlon.

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Ngati-Apa, who had been reduced to serfdom in Te Rauparaha’s day, claimed by right of occupation. The tribes took up arms, and they were actually facing each other in entrenchments when Featherston intervened in person. This, it should be borne in mind, occurred at a time when war was going on between Europeans and Maoris elsewhere. The upshot was that both sides agreed to sell the land to Featherston, and at a gathering held at Parewanui at the end of 1866 Featherston clinched the bargain and apportioned the £25,000 purchase money. This was after days of fiery oratory, dances, threats, and reconciliations. When it was all over the women sang a chant that was emblematic of all such sales:

It is a lovely day ; fair will be the children that are born to-day; but we quit our land.

In some parts there is forest; in others the ground is skimmed over by the birds in their flight.

Upon the trees there is fruit; in the streams fish ; in the fields potatoes ; fern roots in the bush : but we cpiit our land.*

It was indeed a fair land that had been bought, then and earlier. “ What grand country it would be when settled,” Park, the surveyor, kept saying as he rode round the northern Rangitikei Block. The area between Wanganui and Palmerston North and Foxton is one of those that appeal with special force to the historical sense. It is best to drive through it on a fine morning in late spring, when the patterned flats and hills dotted with white flocks flow away in never-ending green under a blue sky. There are few districts in New

* This is taken from an account of the meeting by Sir Charles Dilke in Greater Britain. Dilke was an eye-witness. The report is quoted in James Wilson’s Early Ranfritikei. For a fuller account of this involved and lengthy dispute or scries of disputes, see Lindsay Buick’s Old Manawatu. One point worth noting is that months were spent in getting the consent of members of the tribes to the purchase, in contrast with the haste of Wakefield’s purchases. There were 1,64b signatures to the deed.

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Zealand that can compare with this in sum of natural and added riches. It is said that from Mount Stewart, between Palmerston and Sanson, one can see four million sheep grazing. The imagination goes back from the cushioned car and the polished road, the trim farms and nestling homesteads, to the country as it was —the thick forest of the interior, the stretches of toetoe and flax and fern, between Marton and the sea, and the sedgy lowlands of the coastal Manawatu. “ The country was a wild waste,” writes Sir James Wilson, of the early days of settlement, “ all above Halcombe one apparently interminable bush. The Sandon country— Whakari, the Maoris called it—hills and flats covered with fern, tutu, koromiko, flax, toe-toe, and manuka scrub, with only a few well-defined horse tracks between the different settlements and homesteads.” “ The country was all flax stalks in full flower,” wrote John Stevens, afterwards member for Rangitikei and Manawatu, of the country about Marton ; “ thousands of tui and makomako sucking flowers. It was more like fairyland than any description I can give.” Mr. J. W. Marshall of Tutu Totara remembers when, in the season, you looked from Marton seawards over a great expanse of waving toe-toe. The heavily bushed Palmerston North country was different, and in consequence it had to wait.

When the first settlers came to the Rangitikei country there seems to have been only one white man there—Tom Scott the ferryman and accommodationhouse keeper at the mouth of the River—but there were a handful of Europeans in the Manawatu. In 1842 the Kebbell Bros, set up a steam sawmill on the Manawatu River, and Captain Robinson, T. U. Cook, Charles Hartley and others settled near the river mouth. The comparatively easily worked Rangitikei country attracted a number of men of means and position. Major

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Marshall and Major Trafford, both of the 65th Regiment, took up land, and so did William Fox and Captain Daniell. In its stages of growth from whare to mansion, the Marshall homestead at Tutu Totara (see pictures) illustrates the economic and social development in this and other districts. At first it was a rough life that the coast settlers lived. Cattle and sheep were giazed on cleared land or allowed to roam. There were no fences, and boundary riding and mustering called for good horses, good riding, pluck, knowledge and endurance. Sheep were driven up and down the coast and ferried across rivers in canoes. The bullock, either carrying a pack or pulling a wagon, was more useful in the mud than the horse, because he was stronger and did not struggle when he got bogged. Travel with a bullock team was slow ; at two miles an hour or so it was a long job going twenty miles and back for stores. Horses, however, were also used extensively, and speed and staying power were in demand for journeys that might be as long as all the way to Wellington. Men and women worked hard, and often with primitive equipment. Hospitality was an unbroken law. The women rarely got away from their farms, but contact with the world came to them from travellers. What Alec McDonald, a roamer and then a settler, says of these days (quoted by Sir James Wilson in his book) applies to all New Zealand pioneering. “ Any settler’s whare was a place where a stray wayfarer, or intending settler looking for a location, was as welcome as in a first-class hotel. There was always bread and meat and tea. In the whares of a year or two older there would be, in addition, butter, eggs and cheese, or bacon and vegetables. At least, the dear old ‘ damper ’ and a quart pot of tea was as sure as the sun.” According to McDonald, wages for a farm hand in the early days of the Rangitikei were £25 a year and rations ; he him-

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self got £5O a year as manager. Men saved on these wages and set up for themselves.

There were, naturally, few amusements, but these were entered into with great zest. McDonald mentions “ many a happy evening ” at the Turakina end of the settlement. “ The young fellows would come in from all round the district. In one or other of the whares a dance would be set up on the hard clay floor to the music of a comb and a piece of paper, together with a tin milk dish well beaten, tambourine fashion, till the elders drove us out, and we had to be home to our respective places in time for the morrow’s work. I have been to balls since then, some of them to be called grand, but I have never enjoyed myself or seen others enjoy themselves at such functions as we did at these Turakina dances.” It was at Turakina that many of the Blenheim’s immigrants settled—Frasers, McKenzies, Camerons, McFarlanes, Fergussons, McDonalds, and McQuarries among others. Most of the single men on board ship married Blenheim girls ; four and a half months “ was a grand time for courting.” Many of the older people could speak only Gaelic, and when a minister was appointed one was chosen who could preach in that language.

All along the coast there was anxiety during the Maori Wars. Kingite and Hauhau emissaries went as far as the Otaki district and the Wairarapa. In 1868 redoubts were thrown up in and about Marton and at Foxton. However, nothing happened to stop the steady progress of settlement. Marton emerges as a township about 1860, the centre of the Rangitikei district, a base for development of the upper valley, and the most important stopping place between the Manawatu district and Wanganui. Tutaenui it was called at first: the name Marton was taken from Captain Cook’s Yorkshire birthplace. For some years Marton was governed

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by a Town Board, but in 1879, with a population of about 500, it became a borough. Its growth was slow, for in 1906 the population was only 1306, and even the opening of the Main Trunk line in 1908, which made Marton an important junction, did not produce any spectacular increase. Its population to-day is about 3000. The country round it is rich and highly developed, and in common with other parts has been affected economically by the revolution in transport. In the old days Rangitikei was a great producer of oats and chaff; the countryside was dotted with stacks. The coming of the motor switched much of the farming over to the raising and fattening of stock, especially lambs. In the Rangitikei county there are about a million and a half sheep, more than in any other county but Southland, and the proportion per acre in Rangitikei is higher.

Foxton preceded Palmerston North. The mouth of the Manawatu River was a very early port, and this entry into the interior naturally attracted traders. The rich river lands yielded good crops, and potatoes and wheat as well as pigs were shipped to Wellington in small schooners, some of which were built on the river banks. The staple product, however, was flax, and to meet the demand for cordage for shipping, ropewalks were established. Under the New Zealand Company’s original settlement scheme, Paiaka, above Foxton, was chosen as the site of Manawatu’s town, and a township sprang up there, but it suffered so much in the earthquake of 1855—the Kebbells’ mill machinery was badly damaged—that the traders moved down river to Te Awahou, which was to be named Foxton after William Fox. In the early forties the Reformed Church of Scotland sent out two Ministers, James Duncan and John Inglis, who established their first mission station at Te Marie, near Shannon. Inglis went on to the New

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Hebrides, but Duncan laboured successfully in the Foxton district for many years. It is estimated that there were 3400 Maoris along the banks of the Manawatu. Foxton became a place of much importance in the coaching days, when it was a night-stop between Wellington and Wanganui. Its prosperity depended largely on the flax market and that, unfortunately, was, and always has been, erratic. For example, in 1889 attention was drawn to the prosperity brought by fifty mills in full work within a radius of ten miles, employing 1500 men, but within a year the market dropped to about half, and much distress was caused. Foxton became a borough in 1888, but the Foxton Harbour Board is eleven years older.

It is said that the clearing which became Palmerston North was discovered by Charles Hartley in 1846 on one of his trading expeditions, and that during the survey of the Ahuaturanga Block a chief took the head surveyor to the place, wdth the result that it was marked down as “a good site for a township.” Sections were offered to the public in the middle sixties, and a few men came in to tackle the clearing of the bush. It was a much heavier task than most of the Rangitikei pioneering. At first clearings were little islands in the forest and the wetness of the soil made transport most difficult. Lindsay Buick sets the foundation of the township of Palmerston North at the building of the first store, on what is now the Square, at the end of 1870. It is significant that a settler who arrived about this time on horseback from the Wairarapa, said that his constant companions by the way had been “ mud and misery ” and when the wife of this pioneer joined him she travelled for three days up the river in a canoe. Gradually, after the manner of New' Zealand bush settlements, the town grew. The Square seems to have been laid out in the original survey, and, looking at

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this centre of the city to-day, one may say that whoever made this provision (J. T. Stewart was the surveyor in charge) he deserved a memorial. Palmerston North was originally named Palmerston, after the English statesman, but unfortunately confusion arose with the Otago town of the same name, so “ North ” was added. In the nineties citizens were invited to suggest another name, but when they recommended “ Manawatu ” the Post Office objected on the ground that this was already borne by the county. So the place has remained Palmerston North. Of recent years the question of re naming has been revived, and perhaps the far more suitable “ Manawatu ” will yet be adopted.

The first great impetus given to settlement in the Palmerston North area was the introduction of Scandinavian settlers. This illustrates most strikingly the distance that waves of political change may travel. Because Bismarck was at war with Denmark in 1864 Bishop Monrad, Prime Minister of Denmark, an exceptionally able man of strong liberal views, was forced into exile. Monrad came to New Zealand and made the acquaintance of Featherston. There are descendants of his in New Zealand to-day. In 1868 Monrad returned to Denmark and carried with him a commission from Featherston to choose a number of families to settle in the Wellington province. Featherston had his eye on the Palmerston North district. He himself went to England in 1871 as Agent-General for the New Zealand Government, and made extensive inquiries about the prospects of emigration from Northern Europe. Monrad helped him to set the scheme going, and chose some of the first party. The New Zealand Government wanted men who would construct public works and at the same time break in new land, and they were attracted to Scandinavians because of their reputation for hard work and frugality, their kinship with the

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British, and their experience of forest life. The experiment was a great success. The first lot, mostly Norwegians, reached Wellington early in 1871, and despite a hostile reception by local labourers, celebrated their arrival by “ unpacking their fiddles and spending the night in dancing.” *. They were taken to Foxton by sea, where the men started to walk to their sections and the women were taken up in canoes. The outlook and their experiences of the first few years might have daunted the courage of the bravest. The strange land, the sombreness of the heavy forest, the swampiness of much of the ground, the frequency of floods, the isolation, the lowness of wages and the expensiveness of living (transport cost £2O a ton from Foxton) made up a formidable barrier to success. Fortunately the Maoris were friendly and hospitable, and these immigrants had great hearts. There was plenty of timber to hand and they knew how to use an axe. They cleared their fortyacre sections (the first lot were given land near Awapuni) built cottages, and gradually made themselves comfortable homes. Other parties, composed of Danes and Swedes, joined them. The experiment proved so satisfactory that Hawkes Bay arranged for the introduction of Scandinavians to settle the bush country in the south of the Province. Thus were founded Dannevirke and Norsewood, and some of the immigrants settled in the northern Wairarapa, at Eketahuna and Mauriceville. This chapter in our immigration history should some day furnish material for a fine novel. Many of these people worked on the roads as well as on their holdings, and their industry, selfreliance, and capacity for making ends meet were a priceless acquisition to the colony. “ Men and women worked like bullocks from dawn to dark and flung themselves down to sleep after a working day of from

# Old Mauaivatu. by Lindsay Bnick

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ten to fourteen hours.” * Budgets were cut so fine that when in one settlement sixpence a week per child was demanded for school fees, many parents withdrew their children. These aliens took firm root in the country and adapted themselves easily to British ways. It is no wonder Dr. G. H. Scholefield, in his New Zealand in Evolution, describes them as “ the finest recruits that a British colony ever secured from a foreign field.”

Relief from Palmerston North's isolation was now at hand. The Government improved road connection with the north, and built the Foxton-Palmerston North tram line. The Erst rails were of wood, and horses did the hauling. In 1876 the line was turned into a railway. It was high time this improvement came, for settlement had extended beyond Palmerston North. The Feilding settlers had begun to arrive in 1874. This enterprise, the settlement of what was called the iManchester Block, was to fill part of the gap between the Manawatu and Rangitikei rivers. In the seventies another economic depression affected England, and a number of people wished to improve the lot of the agricultural labourer by settling him overseas. The Emigrants’ and Colonists’ Aid Corporation, of which the Duke of Manchester was chairman, sent out in 1871 as delegate to Australia and New Zealand Colonel the Hon. H. W. A. Feilding, an agent of ability and tact. He found the New Zealand Government in a very receptive mood, for it had just launched its public works and immigration policy. He visited the Manawatu district, and though he had to ride through deep mud, was devoured by mosquitoes and sand-flies, and observed that most of the territory under consideration

* The Colonisation of Wellington under Provincial Government, by Margaret M. Macdonald, M.A. (Mrs. A. G. Dunningham). The Scandinavian settlements are also described in a thesis by E. C. Wooller. of Auckland. Foreign Settlements in New Zealand.

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was forested, he signed a contract to buy 106,000 acres for £75,000 on liberal terms. The Corporation was to place two thousand approved emigrants on the land in five years, and was to re-sell the land to them. As time went on and difficulties developed disputes naturally arose out of this contract, but throughout the years that the settlement moved to success the negotiations were conducted with reasonableness and good temper on both sides. The Corporation recruited its immigrants largely from the agricultural districts of Buckinghamshire and Middlesex, and most of them were unemployed. The first lot arrived at Foxton and were accommodated at a special depot in Palmerston North, whence they were sent on over a rough clay track to the clearing which was to bear the name of the Corporation’s representative, Feilding. First impressions were unfavourable. The site was swampy and had subsequently to be drained. Drinking water had to be brought from a distance. “ Used to the neat, domesticated little sections of rural England, the immigrants found the damp forests, the mud tracks, the bridgeless streams, comparative isolation, and crude virginity of the district to which they had come, extremely depressing.” * For some time they had to cook in the open, and the first winter was exceptionally trying. Mosquitoes plagued the settlers. Many of the colonists were unadaptable ; they lost themselves in the bush and did not know what to do with the land. Successful colonising, however, is the conquest of difficulties, and the way in which all the obstacles of this settlement were surmounted is part of the exceptional interest of Feilding’s story. The Corporation was fortunate in its agent on the spot. A. F. Halcombe brought to his task experience as a settler in Rangi-

♦ The Purchase and Settlement of the Manchester Block, by T. Gibson, M.A.

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tikei, as Provincial Secretary and Treasurer in Wellington, and as Emigration Officer for the General Government. He knew the conditions the immigrants had to face, and he was an exceptionally good organiser, with a disposition firm but kindly. Successive hatches of immigrants were looked after on their way to the settlement, and gradually order was evolved out of confusion. Men were allotted work and supervised and a co-operative spirit encouraged. By 1877 the settlement was firmly established. Halcombe as well as Feilding had been founded. It was hoped at first that Feilding would be the chief town of the Manawatu. Then, because Halcombe was considered to be better favoured by nature, this hope was transferred to the newer centre. Neither Halcombe nor Ashhurst, the Corporation’s eastern settlement from which the fertile Pohangina Valley was opened up, grew so big as Feilding. The building of the railway line northward meant much to the settlement, but here again hopes were not realised. It was intended (locally, at any rate) that Bunnythorpe should be the junction of the West Coast and East Coast lines, and sections were actually sold at Mugby Junction—as Bunnythorpe was called for a time—on that understanding. (“ Mugby Junction ” would have added a spice of humour to life). Palmerston North, however, received the honour. Feilding hoped to be the junction of the New Plymouth and Main Trunk lines, and to that end made the Kimbolton road exceptionally wide, but again it was disappointed. The subsequent history of the Manchester Block may be read on the face of the landscape. In 1889 there was an English enquiry into a number of colonisation schemes, and the report said that only Feilding was an unqualified success. * It may be added that the investment of this colonising corporation returned 5-i- per

• W. F. Carruthers, Emigration from the British Isles

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[1872-74

cent. In 1881, only seven years after the arrival of the first settlers, Feilding was made into a borough.

Meanwhile the settlements of Sandon and Carnarvon had been planted in the early seventies between the Manchester Block and the Rangitikei river. The Rangitikei-Manawatu purchase in 1866 created lively interest in small settlements among the people of Wellington, and four settlement associations were formed, members of which subscribed money for the purchase of land on deferred payment. The surviving body, the Hutt Small Farms Association, bought 5000 acres south of Bulls from the Government at £\ an acre, and distributed it in forty-acre country sections and town lots. This was the Sandon, or, as it is now called, the Sanson Settlement. The drive behind this movement was over-crowding in the Hutt Valley; fathers could not get land for their boys. Settlement on the block began in 1872, and despite hard conditions settlers soon established themselves and secured their freehold. The Carnarvon Block, near the mouth of the Rangitikei, was settled in 1874 by a syndicate that bought 22,000 acres from the Government, improved the land, and cut it up into 100-acre farms. This also was a successful venture. To-day the area between Foxton and the Rangitikei is an expanse of pleasantlooking well-cared-for grass land. Palmerston North became the centre of this ex ceptionally rich district because roads and railways led to it (and now air-lines are added), but its governors and its citizens must be given credit for making so much use of their opportunities. In 1877 the population was 880 ; in 1890, 3,800 ; in 1910, 6,400 ; in 1920, 15,000 : and to-day 23,000. Within ten miles of the city (it became a city in 1930) there are 34,000 people ; within 50 miles, 143,000. The clearing in the forest has become a city of fine streets, buildings and parks, with the well-

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laid-out square in the centre—reminiscent of Christchurch in its patterned dignity and beauty, and in the richness of its surrounding farm lands. Christchurch is notable for its trees. The present Governor-General and Lady Galway made a special journey to Palmerston North to see its avenues of flowering cherries. Two facts may be mentioned to illustrate the city’s importance. Its summer Agricultural and Pastoral Show is the queen of North Island gatherings of this kind. When it was decided to establish an agricultural college to do for the North what Lincoln College has done for the South, this was placed near Palmerston North. Massey College is in keeping with the wonderful fertility and progress of Manawatu.

The settlement of the coastal lands south of Manawatu belongs to the post-provincial period. At one time half a dozen white men leased from the Maori a coastal strip of grassed sand-hills ; inside that was the forest with a few clearings. The Maoris lived quietly and happily their old life, touched by peace and Christianity. They made first-class stockmen on the unfenced cattle runs, and every village had its race-track and annual race meeting. This Maori life and its contacts with European civilisation are described vividly and sympathetically in R. McDonald’s Te Hekenga. The old order has changed and the whole country, including the foothills of the Tararuas, has been brought into cultivation. The prosperous and spruce-looking borough of Levin, with its wide main street, and its air of being washed by wind and sun, was incorporated as late as 1906 and Shannon in 1917. Otaki, most historic of all, did not attain this rank until 1921. “Where the winds never blow harshly, and where all the land was good,” was the way James McKerrow, Surveyor-General, described Otaki in 1886, and the description stands today. Otaki is a health resort, a garden, and one of the

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starting places tor those cross-Tararua walks that have become so popular. The town has many memories—of Te Rauparaha and his son Tamihana, w T ho went to the Bay of Islands to invite a missionary to the district, of Octavius Hadfield and his successor, Samuel Williams, who went on to pioneer at Te Aute, Hawkes Bay. The Maori Church at Otaki, built in 1849-50, is said to be the oldest place of worship continuously used by a Maori community. Its most conspicuous features are the totara ridge pole, eighty feet long in one piece, and the three roof pillars of totara trees. The totara logs were felled in the Ohau forest, floated down the coast, and hauled ashore by numbers of willing Maoris. On these and other posts and planks in the interior the Ngati-Raukawa and Ngati-Toa builders used only axe and adze. And they called it “ Rangiatea ” after a famous sacred island in the Eastern Pacific (now Rai-a-tea).

As might be expected, the newest part of the Wellington province in settlement is the farthest away. The pushing of saw-milling and farming, and the railway, into the centre of the island, north of Marton and Wanganui, is a story of a long and successful struggle against nature. Perhaps if we consider the extent to which the forest has been cut down, it has been rather too successful for the good of the country as a whole. The district north of Taihape was originally so difficult of access from Lower Rangitikei that it was opened up (in the sixties) from Hawkes Bay. Now there is grass over a great area ; in places like Raetihi and Ohakune the farmer has followed the sawmiller ; and the little clusters of tents and shacks belonging to the period of railway construction that once dotted this high and broken country have disappeared or become bright, flourishing towns. Dates of municipal incorporation are instructive : Hunterville acquired a Town Board in

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1905 ; Taihape, which Mr. Janies Cowan described as once “ a typical bush township, walled in by a vast curtain of heavy timber,”* was made a borough in 1906 ; Ohakune was founded in 1900 and became a borough in 1911 : Raetihi, another town carved out of the bush, was elevated in 1921. They are largely creations of the Main Trunk railway, which able engineers and an army of forgotten navvies, working far from civilisation, pushed through this tumbled country on the edge of Tongariro National Park.

• Romance of the Rail; The North Island Main Trunk Railway

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CHAPTER TWELVE

THE OUT-SETTLEMENTS: WAIRARAPA

The paths to the house I seek to make. But leave to those to come the house itself.

—Walt Whitman

The first pioneers in the Wairarapa, as we have seen, walked round the coast with their flocks. They founded Wellington’s pastoral industry. Later the men and women who took up small sections higher up the valley, walked over the hills. These two streams, the first including the sea route into Palliser Bay, account for nearly all the early settlement east of the Tararuas. The history of the Wairarapa as a whole, including the hilly country on the east coast, has been marked by large runs, but the Wairarapa proper is noted for having been the scene of New Zealand’s earliest small settlement schemes. The nature of the country helps to explain this, for a rich valley lies between the backbone mass of the Tararuas and hundreds of thousands of acres of hill land bounded by the sea. There may be many New Zealanders who do not realise what a stretch of country lies east of Masterton.

The pioneers of the forties had a very rough time. When it was contended that they were unduly favoured by the Provincial Government, they could at least retort that they had worked hard and suffered much. Their holdings were very isolated. The Riddifords at Orongorongo, near Baring Head, where Daniel Riddiford settled in 1845, were much nearer Wellington than the

IV. Hall Rainc.

Maori Church at Otaki.

Masterton Borough Council. Queen Street, Masterton, in the early days.

H. Hope Cross. Modern Masterton from the air.

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Wairarapa folk, but it is recorded that in ten years of those early days they were only once visited by a white woman.* The first squatters began with the barest necessities, and it would have gone hard with them if they had not been able to shoot ducks and pigeons. Weld and Vavasour slept at first in a bark hut with holes for door and windows. In the rainy season they built a stone fireplace in the middle, alongside which they moored a canoe. Weld said in his diary that he could shoot ducks from his hut and then paddle after them through the windows. As in the Manawatu, mosquitoes were a pest. “ I have been in many countries renowned for mosquitoes in various parts of the world,” wrote Weld, “ but never have I known anything approaching even remotely the horror of the mosquito season in the Wharekaka valley in those days.” Hugh Morrison, who took up land soon after Bidwill, transported his wife and family of seven to Palliser Bay in a whaleboat, and struck a southerly outside. Having shot the surf successfully, the party walked through the dark and the rain, with their belongings on their backs, fourteen miles to their new home. The era of clean broad acres and comfortable homesteads lay ahead of years of heavy toil and ever-present anxiety. The Wairarapa and the eastern hills were open country only relatively. There were stretches of bush, much scrub, and swamp land. The Bidwills did a great deal of draining. At first the wheat crop was vital. One evening when the whole Morrison family was getting in the crop, which had been grown on bush land. Bishop Selwyn arrived after a full day’s walk. He insisted on going into the field, and worked with the family until eleven. The women of these households ground their own flour.

* Interview with Mrs. J. D. R. Hewitt (Thomasina Riddiford) , New Zealand Free Lance, July 26, 1939.

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baked bread in a camp oven or perhaps in a pot, and made their own soap and candles.

It should be borne in mind that these early squatters had to wait years for their titles, and until Grey bought the land from the Maoris in the fifties they had no legal security at all. That purchase, though it hung fire for a few years, was in the end, with the help of Donald McLean, achieved without much difficulty. Also, like sheepfarmers elsewhere, until the eighties they were entirely dependent on their wool, and when wool fell their position was apt to be precarious. There was not much to be got from boiling down carcases. Scab came, a deadly disease, and some flocks were decimated. After scab came rabbits, until whole hillsides seemed to be a moving mass of fur. Moreover, sheepfarmers had to learn by trial and error. In the early days fleeces were much lighter than they are now. The fine flocks of the Wairarapa and elsewhere are the result of years of breeding in adaptation to local conditions and needs of markets. Like others, Bidwill began with merinos, but found they would not do on his low-lying land.

The hill country east of the valley attracted attention early, and there was settlement there some time before pioneering encroached on the great bush area north of Masterton. As has been noted, there is reason to believe that Richard Barton, of the Hutt, selected the White Rock property, east of Cape Palliser, before Bidwill and Clifford and Weld took flocks into the lower valley. The Guthries settled at Castle Point in 1848, and as a place of call for ships between Wellington and Napier, Castle Point acquired some importance, which decreased as roads in the interior improved. Alexander Sutherland, of Lyall Bay, Wellington, not only farmed at Pahaua, but began by trying Akitio, which he first reached by walking up the west coast and through the Manawatu Gorge. The land in this eastern

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belt was held in large blocks, and fencing was a comparatively late development. The Sutherland papers record that the first long boundary fence at Pahaua was built in 1878 ; before that the boundaries were watched by men on foot or on horseback. Farmers suffered much from wild dogs ; one station lost 800 sheep in one night through a stampede. On another station 2,000 large pigs were shot one winter.* The isolation of the life may be gauged by the fact that one farmer’s wife did not get as far as the nearest township for thirteen years. The sea and the beach were the two highways of this region. At first wheat was landed on the beach and packed in to the homesteads, to be ground there. Wool was taken to the beach on horses, and later hauled by bullocks. There used to be a regular shipping service to the coast, and to this day there are stations that send out their clips by boat and ship.

The early history of the track and road over the Rimutakas is especially identified with the fortunes of the small settlers of the Wairarapa. On a much smaller scale it may be likened to the covered wagon way in American history. The first settlers of Greytown, a party of five men and one woman (Mrs. Moles), walked all the way from the Hutt. Joseph Masters, the Wellington business men who was the chief driving force in the small settlement movement in the Wairarapa, has left in his autobiography accounts of the journeys he made to spy out the land, negotiate with the Maoris, and generally prepare the way for his settlers.** Going up in 1854 with a vehicle and bullocks, it took him four days to reach the “ Golden Fleece,” a hostelry thirty miles from Wellington. On “ the summit ” of the Rimutakas he took his vehicle to pieces and packed it

* Sutherland Papers.

••The autobiography is in manuscript in the Alexander Turnbull Library.

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and his goods down to the valley, and he had to dismantle and reassemble it a second time before he reached Masterton. By the time the Chamberlains moved from Makara, near Wellington, the following year (1855) the track had been seriously damaged by earthquake. The family took a bullock dray to Mangaroa, and from there in two journeys carried goods over the range. Two of the boys then returned to Makara, sold the property there, bought a cart, a bullock, groceries, tools and seeds, and set out for the Wairarapa again. At Mangaroa they took the cart to pieces, placed the body of it on the bullock, and trundled the wheels up the track and down the other side. When Mr. R. lorns, one of the founders of Masterton, took his wife (Mrs. lorns was a daughter of Joseph Masters) and their young family to Masterton the same year, two of the smaller children crossed the range on pack bullocks, the infant was carried on its mother’s back, and the girl of seven or eight walked. And of course when these pioneers had reached the valley there was still a long way to go and several river crossings to be made, before home was reached, and the home might still have to be made.* Indeed, it was not difficult to lose oneself in that country. It is said the first vehicle to cross the Rimutakas was a wheelbarrow, containing some parcels, a hundredweight of flour, and some seedlings. When the track became a road transport was much easier, and it was considered a wonderful achievement to go to Masterton one day and return the next. Even then, however, wagons with produce spent three days on the road. Drinking was said to be a curse in those days, but is it much wonder that drivers and travellers on such long and lonely journeys sought solace in this direction ?

• Information gathered by Mrs. T. R. Barrcr. of Masterton

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Joseph Masters was a persistent man who knew what lie wanted. He did not see why the man of small means, even as little as £2O, should not get his chance on the land. The outcome of his efforts was that for £2O men did get their chance on forty-acre sections in the Wairarapa. Grey offered Masters 100,000 acres in Hawkes Bay, but Masters pressed for 25,000 in the Wairarapa, and Grey said that if Masters could induce the Maoris to sell the land, he would send McLean to purchase it. Negotiations and purchase followed ; the Small Farms Association went ahead with its plans ; and Greytown and Masterton (named after Masters, a compliment he thoroughly deserved) were laid off and founded in 1853-54. Masters chose the sites of Greytown and Masterton, and advanced money to the Lands Department for the flotation of the Masterton settlement. Greytown and Masterton originally consisted of 120 acres, and each settler was to have the right to purchase a town acre for £l, in addition to his rural holding of forty acres, provided he complied tvith residential and improvement conditions. Greytown had a rather unfortunate start, for the land chosen was poor, so poor indeed that, so it was said, the squatters had not wanted it ; and there was a misunderstanding with the Maori sellers which resulted in many of the settlers beingallocated land at Morrison’s Bush, with the alternative of a larger holding on the Taratahi Plain. Masterton was more fortunate in its birth, but it lay under the disadvantage of being sixteen miles further from its port and market, a serious matter until the road was pushed north from the dividing range.

At first, therefore, these settlers had an anxious time. As has happened in other parts of New Zealand, they kept themselves going by doing jobs about the district while they broke in their own sections. They went shearing and fencing for the runholders, or worked

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on the roads. Gradually they cleared their acres and grew wheat for their own use, planted a garden, acquired a horse and a cow, and generally developed mixed farming on a small scale. In the Greytown and Masterton settlements the full intentions of their founders were not realised ; the settlers were not provided with common pasturage, and possibly this helped to accentuate a natural division between the runholders and the small farmers. Masterton, Greytown and Featherston (1856) were settled by Wellington people with some experience on the land, but Carterton (1857) was made out of the Three Mile Bush by immigrants from England, who worked on the road from Greytown to Masterton and were given ten-acre sections. The name of the town commemorates Charles Rooking Carter, one of the committee of the Small Farms Association, and representative of Wairarapa in the Provincial Council and the General Assembly. Carter endowed the town generously, and left a bequest out of which the Carter Observatory in Wellington has been established. Masterton became a borough in 1877, Greytown in 1878, and Carterton in 1887. Featherston did not become a borough until 1917, by which time it was known all over New Zealand as a centre of training camps in the World War. All infantry reinforcements marched over the Rimutakas between Featherston and Trentham. It is curious that the more distant settlements of Pahiatua and Eketahuna, which were carved out of the great bush block in the north much later, in the seventies and eighties—Eketahuna was a Scandinavian enterprise—achieved borough status long before Featherston—in 1892 and 1907 respectively. Martinborough was originally a small village called Te Waihenga. The Hon. John Martin, who owned an estate there, laid out the town of Martinborough. and named the streets after cities he had

ISSO]

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340

visited on a world tour. It became a borough in 1928. In its Trust Lands Trust, Masterton provides an interesting example of the value of early endowment. The Trust developed out of a grant of twenty town sections to members of the Small Farms Association in consideration of that body having paid the expenses of survey. The revenue from the endowment is now about £5,000 a year, and the Trust, administered by trustees popularly elected, founded the Technical School, built the Opera House, and has subsidised nearly every institution in the town. There is a similar trust in Greytown.

The development of dairying nearly sixty years ago meant a great deal to the Wairarapa. Factory manufacture of butter and cheese gave smaller farming a permanent foundation. Two outstanding personalities in the history of the Wairarapa may be noted : Sir Walter Buchanan among the large sheepfarmers, and Coleman Phillips, a barrister, who was an ardent champion of small holdings and co-operative dairying. These two men stood for opposite policies. Sir Walter Buchanan was masterful as well as able. He did not brook opposition, and so long as he lived he was determined to be chief man in the Wairarapa. He was also a powerful influence behind the scenes in national politics. When it was said of him after his death that he had done much for the Wairarapa, someone remarked pertinently that the Wairarapa had done much for him. The firm of Gilpin and Pardon began the making of cheese in 1880. In January 1883 the Greytown Co-operative Dairy Company received its first milk for cheese-making, the pioneer co-operative factory in the province. Sir Walter Buchanan was the first chairman of directors, and it is said on excellent authority that Coleman Phillips, as a matter of policy, promoted the entry of his opponent into the direction of this new enterprise. The Taratahi Butter and Cheese Factory opened in October of the

341

The City of the Strait

same year. In 1884 A. B. Fitchett, of Brooklyn, Wellington, made history by importing what is believed to have been the first separator used in New Zealand.* From then onwards the development of the dairying industry in the Wairarapa was steady, though there was not the room for such expansion as Taranaki and Auckland witnessed. But when every allowance is made for the limited extent of land suitable for small and moder-ate-sized holdings in the Wairarapa, the question still presents itself whether the whole district east of the Tararuas is carrying a population that approaches its capacity. Statistics of population are suggestive. Of eight counties, four show a decrease since the first years of the century ; one is about stationary ; and none of the increases is large. It might be suggested that some county population has been absorbed by the towns, but in none of the boroughs, save Masterton, has there been any great growth. Joseph Masters had a vision of 60,000 people in the Wairarapa, but after nearly a hundred years of settlement (counting from the entry of the squatters), the population is not much more than half that figure.

Having taken this brief view of the history of the out-settlements, we may consider in outline the nature and distribution of land production in the Wellington Province. The plough is the most often used symbol of farming, but there is a great deal of productive land in the Wellington Province, as in other parts of New Zealand, that has never had a plough on it. The firestick rather than the plough became the real emblem of farming progress in New Zealand for many years, so said the present Director-General of Agriculture, Mr. A. H. Cockayne, in an address to visiting farmers a few years ago. On the ashes of burned timber and scrub land, grass was found to grow well. Timber, cropping, and flax have

* See A History of the Nexr Zealand Dairy Industry, by H. G. Phil pott. Dairy Division. Department of Agriculture.

Wairarapa

342

contributed to the wealth of Wellington, but its main rural occupations are sheep-farming and dairying. The association of “ Canterbury ” with sheep and especially lamb is so well established that it may surprise many to learn that the land district with the largest number of sheep in it is Wellington, and that Wellington leads in fat lamb production. In April 1938, out of 32,378,000 sheep in the Dominion, there were 6,850,000 in the Wellington Land District. In Canterbury there were 6,147,000. In the number of breeding ewes, the best test to apply, Wellington also had a 1ead—4,135,000 to 3,726,000—and no other district was near these figures. The land utilisation map issued by the Department of Agriculture shows that over the coastal district south of Patea, through Rangitikei to Palmerston North and Otaki, in a wedge extending to beyond Taihape, and right through the valley areas of the Upper and Lower Wairarapa, the land is classed as “ breeding ewes for the production of fat lambs.” Nearly all the rest of the province’s sheep country is classed as “ breeding ewes for replacement of flocks.” There are a few areas for what are known as “ dry sheep.”

Most of this lower fertile area, with its great output of fat lambs, is also dairying country. The Wellington provincial district stands second to Auckland in the production of butter (one-fifth of Auckland’s in 193435) and third in the production of cheese. The Wairarapa has leaned towards cheese rather than butter, and this district was among the first to introduce the Friesian breed. The Manawatu, on the other hand, has preferred to make butter; there was little manufacture of cheese there until 1911. At Karere, near Longburn, was established the first butter factory in the province and in New Zealand. In the nineties there was a boom in proprietary companies, and the

298

The City of the Strait

New Zealand Dairy Union, established at Palmerston North, operated at one time two factories and thirtysix skimming stations. In the last forty years the number of proprietary companies has declined in the Dominion, and the number of co-operative companies has greatly increased, until to-day they form over ninetyfive per cent. Within this period the making of casein was begun at Rapanui, near Wanganui, the first factory of the kind in the Dominion, and that of dried milk products at Bunnythorpe. Palmerston North was for many years New Zealand’s chief centre for the raising of pure bred dairy cattle, and the Dairying Research Department of Massey College is our most important institution of the kind.

Our story has now been told. We have traced the history of the Wellington province from the time of Aotearoa to the capital of to-day, where the wheels of a transplanted European civilisation move with purring smoothness, and from which spokes of material and imponderable interests radiate to town and hamlet and farm. “ The domes of Eldorado burn.” Not literally, but looking down on the city on a clear morning, when the sun catches the tall buildings in its friendly nooses of light, or on a still, cloudless evening, when lights parade with all their banners, one can imagine that in part the poet’s vision has been realised. This is the hub of the province’s effort, and away in the outsettlements linked achievement catches, in its own fashion, the glory of morning and evening. So much has been done, so very much. Yes, but to recline upon this achievement would be fatal. New problems arise. What of the kingdom of the mind ? As the years pass, the excuse that we are preoccupied with pioneering

Wairarapa

344

loses more and more force. At the end of a poem that celebrates the pioneering efforts of his nation, a young American poet, Paul Engel, says there is another land to be explored, “ the deep spirituality of man.”

O remember That in the general doom of nations, there Is but one certain immortality

and that is not the thrust

aim mai is iiui me uiium Of courage against the world, nor the bating down

Of all the barriers of a continent

However bravely—but the searching out

Of the new way that a new country makes.

From all the blind impulses of its life

A vision of the universal heart

That recreates the living form of man

In the unique and individual way

That is the shape and spirit of that land.

O let your eyes be subtle as a bird’s

To glean from the harvest fields of history

The. spilled-out grain of truth.

APPENDICES

A WELLINGTON CHRONOLOGY

November 2

Captain James Cook anchored at entrance to Wellington harbour.

1773

Captain Herd charted and named Port Nicholson.

1826

H.M.S. Warspite passed through Cook Strait.

1827

June 30

First shipment of wool arrived at Sydney from Mana Island.

1835

November 14

Brig Rodney left Port Nicholson for Chatham Islands with Maori invaders on board.

1839

June 7

Rev. J. Bumby and Rev. J. Hobbs arrived at Port Nicholson.

September 20

Arrival of Tory at Port Nicholson.

September 27

Completion of Port Nicholson purchase by Colonel William Wakefield.

November 22

Rev. Octavius Hadfield opened mission at Waikanae.

January 22

Jack Duff journeyed up Manawatu and through the gorge to Hawkes Bay.

1840

Aurora arrived at Port Nicholson with the first settlers.

April 18

First issue in New Zealand of the newspaper New Zealand Gazette.

April 29

Port Nicholson Maoris sign treaty of Waitangi.

May 24

Wanganui Maoris sign treaty of Waitangi. E. J. Wakefield negotiated purchase of land at Wanganui.

May 27

• The chronology is the work of Mr. A. G. Bagnall, M.A., AssistantLibrarian, Alexander Turnbull Library. The lists of ships and passengers were compiled by Miss E, M. Scholefield ; the political rolls by Mr. B. D. Zohrab, M.A., of the staff of the General Assembly Library : and the statistics by the Government Statistician.

Appendices

346

1840

June 20

October

Rev. John Mason arrived at Wanganui. Wm. Deans made the first journey from Wellington round the coast to the Wairarapa.

December 28

Carrington commenced Wanganui survey. First Wellington cattle sale. First party of colonists arrived in Wanganui.

January 1

1841

February 27

March 20

Wellington-Kaiwarra road completed. First herd of cattle driven overland to Wanganui.

Mav

August 19

Captain Hobson visited Wellington.

October 5

First sitting of Supreme Court.

Robert Stokes and party entered the Wairarapa after traverse of Rimutaka ranee.

November 27

May 5

— J V/l IVIIIUUUMI lailgv., Chas. H. Kettle and party left Kare-kare on exploration journey through the Manawatu gorge to Wairarapa and Wellington.

1842

Kebbell Brothers established first sawmill in Manawatu.

May

July 21

Wellington proclaimed a borough

October 3

First election of mayor and aldermen in Wellington.

October 20

Beach fire at Wellington

1843

April 30

Rev. Richard Taylor arrived at Wanganui.

December

S. C. Brees cut track from head of Pakuratahi to Wairarapa.

1844

January 26

Captain Fitzßoy, Governor, arrived at Wellington.

April-May

C. R. Bidwill drove first flock of sheep round to Wairarapa.

May 3

Foundation of Wellington Mechanics* Institute, with school and library.

1846

March 17

Charles Hartley discovered Papaioea flat, the site of Palmerston North.

Captain George Grey, Governor, visited Wanganui.

May

Fight at Boulcott’s farm, Hutt Valley.

July 23

Capture of Te Rauparaha at Taupo Pa, Plimmerton.

The City of the Strait

102

British attack on Te Rangihaeata’s position, Horokiwi Valley.

1846 August 6-10

Fight at St. John’s Wood, Wanganui.

1847 July 20

E. J. Eyre sworn in as lieutenantgovernor of New Munster.

1848 January 28

September 23

Death of Colonel Wakefield

October 16

Earthquake in Wellington.

1849 January 8

Official negotiations with Maoris begun in Wairarapa.

February I

First Government ball at Wellington.

Mav 15

Rangitikei block bought from Ngati-Apa tribe at Wanganui.

November 30

Completion of Pahautanui-Paekakariki road.

1851

Foundation of New Zealand Society, later the New Zealand Institute, now Royal Society of New Zealand.

1852

Establishment of daily mail between Wellington and the Hutt.

1853 March 18

Meeting to form Working Men’s Land Association.

June 30

Dr. Featherston elected first Superintendent of Wellington province.

September 1-19

Wairarapa land purchases negotiated.

1854 January 26

Name of Petre officially changed to Wanganui under act of Provincial Council.

March 14

Meeting of Small Farms Association. Henry Burling drove the first dray to the summit of the Rimutakas.

Foundation of Grevtown and Masterton

1855 January 23

Severe earthquake at Wellington Foundation of Featherston.

1856

Rimutaka road opened for vehicular traffic.

1857

Foundation of Carterton

1858

Purchase of Awahou block (Foxton).

1862

First Jersey cattle imported in New Zealand brought to Wanganui.

June 29

Wreck of While Swan and loss of govern mem records.

Appendices

348

First meeting Wellington Town Board.

1863 September 15

1864 May 14

Fight between Hauhaus and friendly Maoris on Moutoa Island, Wanganui River.

July 23

Te Ahuaturanga (Manawatu) block purchase completed.

1865 February

Seat of Government removed to Wellington.

1866 August 26

Cook Strait submarine telegraph cable laid.

Land sale of town and rural allotments in Palmerston North.

November 7

December 13

Purdiase of Rangitikei-Manawatu block completed.

1867 February 4

Tuckey and Hamilton founded Wellington Grammar and Commercial School, afterwards Wellington College.

1868 November 7

Colonel Whitmore’s unsuccessful attack on Moturoa, Wanganui district.

Final campaign against Titokowaru began, Wanganui district.

1869 January

April II

H.M.S. Galatea arrived with the Duke of Edinburgh on board.

1870 September 28 December

First meeting Wellington City Council. Snelson opened first store at Palmerston North.

Death of Te Puni at Petone.

December 5 1871 February 14

First Scandinavian immigrants land at F'oxton.

October 10

Completion of purchase of Forty-Mile Bush.

November 28

Traffic bridge opened across the Wanganui River.

December 23

Manchester block contract purchase signed by Colonel Feilding.

1872 February 1 April 1

Wanganui proclaimed a borough

First school opened at Palmerston North.

Completion of road through Manawatu Gorge.

1874

Hutt railway opened.

1876 June

Death of Dr. Isaac Featherston

The City of the Strait

,‘!(M

1877 July 10

Masterton proclaimed a borough.

July 12

Palmerston North proclaimed a borough.

1878 August 24

Wellington steam tramway officially opened.

October 16

KaitokeFeatherston railway opened for traffic.

December 1

Greytown proclaimed a borough. Vf r\r/W'l '» i »nozJ '■ K/vrcsimK

1879 July 19

Marton proclaimed a borough.

1880 February 20

First meeting Wellington Harbour Board.

1881 July 7

Feilding proclaimed a borough.

J 883 January 2

First dairy factory in Wairarapa opened at Greytown.

Wellington telephone exchange opened.

February 21

February 25

First cargo of frozen meat from the North Island taken by Lady Jocelyn.

First Nerv Zealand butter factory started at Karere.

188!

January 12

First ship arrived at Wellington from Japan.

1885 June 1

Opening of St. Patrick's College

August 1

Opening of industrial exhibition at Wei lington.

1886 November 3

Sir William Jervois drove the last spike in the Wellington-Manawatu railway.

First through train from Palmerston to Wellington.

November 29

1887 July 1

Carterton constituted a borough

1890

Maritime strike.

1891 February 9

Death of Sir William Fitzherbert

March 9

Traffic commenced on rail through Manawatu Gorge.

1893 April 27

Death of John Ballance

1898 July 15

Death of Sir F. D. Bell, senior

1899 April

Lectures begun at Victoria University College.

October 21

Departure of First Contingent for South African war.

1906 June 10

Death of Richard John Seddon.

1907 December II

Part of Parliamentary Buildings destroyed by fire.

1908 August 7

First through train leaves Wellington for Auckland.

Appendices

sor.

1909 February 12

Wreck of the Penguin in Cook Strait, loss of 75 lives.

Strike of shipwrights and waterside workers. General strike called. Clashes between strikers and mounted farmers.

1013 October 18Deccmber 20

I‘)20 August 25

First flight across Cook Strait, by Captain E. Dickson.

1927 July 16

Official opening of broadcasting station 2YA,

1932 May 10

Riot by unemployed in Wellington.

1935 December

Cook Strait air service begun.

1986 August 1

National Art Gallery and Dominion Mu seuni opened.

1930 November 8

New Zealand Centennial Exhibition opened.

WELLINGTON’S FIRST PASSENGER SHIPS

[Arrivals to August 1840.]

The following are the ships and their passengers that arrived in Port Nicholson from September 20th 1839 to August 30th 1840, The names of passengers by the New Zealand Company's ships and their ages are taken from the Company’s papers, and the names of passengers in the other ships from New Zealand and Australian newspapers of the day. Where more than one age is given there is conflict of evidence.

TORY

(380 tons ; n.z.c.)

Capt. E. M. Chaffers. Sailed from Plymouth. 12 May 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson, 20 Sep

Dieffenbach, Dr. E 28

T. W. Tankersley (sec. mate)

Dorset, John 32

Wakefield, E. J. 18

Heaphy, Charles 17

Wakefield, Col. W. H. 36

SUCCESS

(80 tons; n.z.c.)

Capt. Catlin. Sailed from Sydney, 15 Nov 1839 Arrived Port Nicholson, 4 Dec 1839

Crawford, J. C. 22 servant

Taylor, Dr. Henry Tod, R.

Hesketh, Henry

w.

Jenkins, Robert

ch.

Jones, Thomas

ch.

Rea, W

servant

CUBA

(270 tons : n.z.c.)

Capt J. Newcombe. Sailed from England, 2 Aug 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson, 4 Jan 1840

Allen, William .... . 25

Batten, George Bolton .... 27

Anderson, Edward ... 23

Bennett, George 25

307

Appendices

CUBA—eon tin ued

Bennett, John 29

Olds, George .... 25

Bethune, Kenneth .... 14

Park, R. 27

Carrington, W .... 25

Shannon, Michael 30

Davis, John 21

Smith, Capt. W. M 42

Grigg, Richard 30

Stichbury, Charles .... 21

Hanson, R. D. 34

Stokes, R. _

Hart, John 24

Storah, James 20

Hayward, Arthur .... 23

Stratford, John 26

Heaphy, William .... 24

Twigg, Joseph 23

Jackson, Henry 22

Webb, Charles .... .. . 20

Keys, Charles William 21

Wyeth, Robert 27

Lee, Michael 20

AURORA

(550 tons; n.z.c.)

Capt. T, Heale. Sailed from Gravesend, 22 Sep 1839

Baker, Major Richard 30

Barrow, James 40

w. Ann 40

s - .... II

s - 6

d. Ann 15

d. .... .... 2

Barrow, James, junr 23

Barrow, Thomas 19

Barry, John 29

Barry, Richard 24

Barry, William 31

w. Margaret 29

ZS s - 7

/ Boon. Robert .... 26

Brown, Andrew (wider) 41

Brown, David 16

Brown, John 19

Carter, Joseph 28

w. Ann 27

»• ■••• .... *7

d- 6

<'• 3

Arrived Port Nicholson, 22 Jan 1840

d- 8 mths.

Child, J, W _

Coppin, Job 21

w. Eliza 20

... .... .... Davis, Edward 28

w. Margaret 29

Davis, Rowland 30

w. Mary Ann .... 31

9

<1- 6

d- 5 mths.

Deans, W. 22

Deighton, R. 20

Deighton, S 17

Drake, Thomas John 26

w. Ceres Selina 27

d. Ceres j

Draper, Martha 30

Draper, Sarah 28

Edwards, James 30

w. Eliza 99

s - 7 mths.

Farrance, James 20

The City of the Strait

30K

AURORA—continued

w. Mary 18

Friend, Richard (wid’er) 33 o IO

s 12

Friend, William .... 15

Gebbie, John 26

w. Maria 24

s. 18 mths.

Glover, James 34

w. Maria 27

d. .... 11 mths.

Gratage, Daniel 22

Groorabridge, Mary 24

Hayward, William 30

Hicks, Charles .... 25

Holes, Peter 28

w. Sarah 24

s 2

s. 9 mths.

Houghton, John .... 20 n* IO

w. Charlotte .... 19

s. born at sea.

Houghton, Robert .... 42

w. Eliza .... .... 42

s 13

s I

d 12

<1 7

d 5

Hunt, Uriah .... .... 28

w. Harriett 23

ch.

Langford, John Alfred 23

w. Harriett .... 20

Lodge, John 31

w. Harriett 27

s 2

<1 5

McDermott. Deborah 20

McGirk, C -

Maxwell, C.

Maxwell, James .... 20

w. Mary 20

Maxwell, W.

Miles, John Clement 21

Morgan, Miss

Morrison, William 23

w. Agnes 23

s. .... .... 4 tilths.

Nicholls, William 21

Oxenham, Jemimah 15

Oxenham, John 29

Oxenham, Sarah 19

Palmer, G. T., junr

w.

Park, Mrs. R -

ch. ....

Parker, Samuel

w. .... -

Parker, William 23

Parkes, Elizabeth 45

s. Charles .... 20

s. Henry 18

s 13

s 9

s 8

d. Catherine 15

Petherick, George 10

Petherick, James 33

s 10

s. 8

s. 7

s 3

d. Carolina Emma 5

Prebble, James 40

w. Ann .... 36

s. Richard 16

s 12

s 10

s 8

s. born at sea. 12 days

d. Ann 15

d 13

309

A ppendices

AURORA —continued

d. 7

w. Eliza 22

Pudney, Joseph 23

Stokes, Dr. J. M.

w 21

Stokes, Mrs. R.

Wade, Mrs. 30

Read, Henry 27

w. Caroline 28

Wallace, John Howard 23

s 2

Welch, Thomas 25

Richardson, James .... 32

w. Elizabeth 28

Roper,

White, Geoige

Sawyer, John .... 24

Whitewood, William 21

w. Mary 27

Wilkinson, Johnson B. 26

d. born at sea •.. IT OI

w. Ann 22

Stafford, Edward 27

ORIENTAL

(506 tons; n.z.c.)

Capt. W. Wilson. Sailed London, 15 Sep 1839

.Arrived Port Nicholson, 31 Jan 1840

Anderson, David .... 20

Anderson, James (wid’r) 40

Anderson, James .... 22

w. Ann .... .... 23

Anderson, John 24

Baker, John 29

w. Eliza 27

s 10

Barton, Richard .... 37

Betts, Henry 20

Binns, Richard .... .... 29

w. Mary Ann .... 28

d 6

d 2

Boyton, Henry .... .... 37

Burgess, W. B 30

Catchpool, E 26

w 23

Clark, George ... .... 20

Cockbum, James .... 29

w. Jane 29

s 7

s. 2

Cormacher, Peter .... 20

Crouther, Ann .... 15

Crouther, Isaiah .... 30

w. Ann .... .... 36

d 8

d 5

Dean, Jabez 21

w. Ann 19

s. 5 mths.

Detcham, Robert 38

Downey, John 23

w. Mary 23

s. .... ... 3 mths.

Duppa, George 21

Estaugh, Samuel .... 21

w. Ann 22

Eaton, Arthur 15

Eaton, Daniel William 17

Eaton, John W 16

Eaton, Richard A. Cwdr.i 53

ixiuidiu • I IVUI.j ao s 12

s. 10

Elsdon, William .... 25

310

The City of the Strait

ORIENTAL— continued

Everett, William 20

Kettle, Charles Henry 18

F’airbrother, Richard 23

Ladd, John 25

Levy, Benjamin 21

w. Sophia Eliza 22

Fardon, William 16 (24)

Levy, Solomon .... 23

Fitzgerald, Dr. J. P. 23

-6““"' j- * —' Foulds, William 21

w. Martha 35

Garner, John 36

Lewis, John 25

VXUIU.I, is. w. Mary Ann 29

Lewis, Miss .... 23

s 8

Linfoot, Richard 27

w. Ellen 26

s 6

d 4

McKay, Alexander 26 (36)

Garrod, Henry 37

d 7

w. Mary Ann .... 23

McKay, William ... 20

Gastey, (Gatley), Charles 22

McKenzie, Thomas .... 20

w. Ann 23

McLennan, Donald 19

Mantell, W. 21

Grant, William 20

Grimm, Mary Ann 15

Meech, Henry .... 28

Hodges. Alfred 32

w. Mary Ann .... 25

Holmes, James 26

Molesworth, F. A. ... 21

Moreing, Henry 25

w. Ann ... 24

s. lOmths.

O'Brien, John 22

Hopper, E. B 40

w. Ellen 25

Hornbrook, Alexander 24

Palfrey, John 51

Hort, A 25

w. Ellen 31

Howes, Joseph 21

Payne (Pain), George 29

w. Mary Ann 20

w. Maria 22

Petre, Hon. Henry 19

d. .... 13mths.

Ingham, Samuel 16 (26)

Rodgers. Charles 29

w. Cecelia 20

Isaac, Francis .... 27

w. Mary 29

Salmon, John 20

d. 2

w. Eliza 20

Jarvis, Alexander .... 24

Saver, Richard Burgess 21

Johnson, John 30

Seed, Richard 27

w. Ann ... 32

w. Harriet 25

•». iiiimu Shand, A. W 23

d 9

w 19

d 7

d 4

Sinclair, Dudley 21

d 2

Spencer. Abel 27

d. lOmths.

w. Grace 23

Kentish, John 29

Spiers. Janies 27

'l'"-*"' | mm f w. Harriet 30

w. Eliza 29

Appendices

356

ORIENTAL— conIin tied

Walton. Ann (widow) 27

Sutherland. Alexander 54

d. 4

w. Eppa 28

d. Christina 7 mths.

Welch, William 53

w. Ann 52

d. Katherine, born at sea

Sutherland. John 25

s. William 8

w. Mary .... 25

s. Henry 0

s. James 3 mths.

d. .... 6 mths.

d. Mary 12

Taylor, William 29

d. Annie Maria 10

w. Sophia 27

Fucker, Josiah 17

d. Elizabeth 5 A 9

Walker, John 26

d. Jane 2

w. Eliza 21

Wrigley, Thomas 15

d. 8 wks.

DUKE OF ROXBURGH

(416 tons ; n.z.c.)

Capt. J. Thomson (succeeded by R. Les(s) lie). Sailed from

Plymouth, 5 Oct 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson, 7 Feb 1840

Baker. Henry 24

w. 19

d. born at sea

Bassett, William 28

w. 26

s. bom at sea

d. Emma Rooke 11 mlhs.

Bill. _

Bryant. James 27

w Mary Anne 24

Clark (e), Emma 23

Connor, Catherine 24

Gundy. Charles 23

w. Ann 23

Davis,

Farrer (Farrar), Alfred 35

Fowler, John 30

w 29

d. Priscilla 8

Gilbert, William 35

w 26

s. Phillip 6

Gomrn. William 27

w. 24

Goswell, John 20

Greenwood. James 21

Hartley. Mary 15

Hartley, Stephen 47

w. .... 45

W. .... .... tif Hartley, Stephen, junr. 16

Hawke, Elizabeth C. 15

Hawke, William 32

w. 36

s. ... .... 4

s. Born at sea.

d 12

Hawke, William Cocking 16

Healey, F. 39

w 32

s. John F 18

s. John Francis 10

a. juiiii i uiitn .... iw s. F„ junr. 8

312

The City of the Strait

DUKE OF ROXBURGH—continued

s. Michael Inf.

d. Catherine B. 9

Hebden, Mary Jane 20

Hight, R. 28

w 28

s. Charles Inf.

Hunter, Barbara 42

Hunter, George 52

w. Helen 42

s. George, junr. 18

s. David 11

s. William H. 9

s. Robert 6

d. Jessie .... 19

d. Margaret 16

d. Helen 14

d. Isabella 13

d. Frances 12

d. Catherine Mary 7

Jackson, James 30

w 25

Jeffery, Joseph 25

w. 29

d. Mary 3

Knight, William 33

w. 32

s. James 8

s. John .... 6

s. Henry 3

s. Samuel 7 mths

d. Mary Anne 12

Lloyd, Freder’k Augustus 19

Lloyd, Henry 21

Lyon, William 33

May, James .... 29

w 20

Monteith, Dr. G. D. 32

w. 29

s. Geo. D. 7

s. Jacob .... 5

d. Elizabeth 4

d, Lucy Eleanor Inf.

Parnell, S. D. 27 n- ‘>7

w. 27

Pierce (Pearce). John 38 ... 97

w. 37

Poad, Thomas 28

w 29

d. Mary Anne 3

d. Phillipa Jane 7 mths.

Prouse. Richard 42

tv. Mary .... 44

s. William 15

s. Richard .... .... 10

s. Thomas 6

d. Mary 20

d. Sarah .... 18

d. Susan Osborne 9

Reading, John Brown 26

w. .27

s. George 2

d. Ellen 8 mths.

Reynolds, Jane 22 D csKortc L' 1 ■ I d

Roberts, Elizabeth 15

Roberts, Jonathan 15

Roberts, Mary 18

Roberts, Philip 36

w. 34

s. Philip 10

d. Mary Anne 12

ch. Ixrm at sea.

Roberts, Sophia 16

Roberts, William 35

w. .... 35

s. Thomas 11

d. Priscilla 5 J It 1 „ I, n

d. Kcziah 2

ch. born at sea. D..U T cv

Rule, James 27

w. 22

s. James Oliver 11 mths.

d. born at sea.

Appendices

358

DUKE OF ROXBURGH— continued

Scott, George 30

w. 30

Smith, Daniel Thomas 25

Smith. Frederick 49

w 50

s. John 9

Smith, Mary 15

Smith, Samuel 17

Smith, Thomas 19 1 I.kn IQ

Stephens, John 19

Stephens, Wm. (wid'er) 50

Thomas, William 33

w. 28

s. William Robins 6

s. Henry Eddy 2

d. Eliza 4

d. Catherine E. 5 mths.

Tucker, Josias 36

w. 32

s. William H. 8

s. Samuel J. 3

s. Josias 1

d. Eliza Ann C

d. born at sea.

Turtley, Arthur .... .... 26

w 30 T- L O

s. Josiah 2

d. Eliza 3

d. Jane Eliza 8 mths.

Udy, Hart 31

w. Jane 29

s. Han 6

s. John 3

s. William llmths

d. Anne 4

Uren, Thomas .... 27

w 30

d. Harriet Gertrude 1

d. born at sea.

Williams, Elizabeth 15

Williams, Isabella 22

Williams, James 42

w. Katherine 40

s. William Osborne 12

s. Benjamin 2

d. Caroline 9

Williams, Mary Ann 18

Williams, Richard 20

Woodward, Samuel, junr. 27

w. Rose ... 17

BENGAL MERCHANT

(417 tons; n.z.c.)

Capt. J. Hemery. Sailed from Glasgow, 30 Oct 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson, 20 Feb 1840

Anderson, A. .... 22

Brown. Malcolm 20

Brown, Peter 27

Branks, John 31

w 21

w 27

Branks, Robert 24

d. Catherine 1

w 20

Bryce, John (wid’er) 33

Brash. William 39

s. Thomas 10

s. John 5

w 28

s. John .... 3

d. Jeanette Inf

d Inf

Buchanan, William True

Brown. Adam 23

man ....

The City of the Strait

359

BENGAL MERCHANT—continued

Burnet, Samuel 28

w 28

s. George 4

s. Inf

d. Mary 8

Campbell. James 24

Carruth, John

Carruth, Robert

Colville, John

Cook, Mathew 35

w 35

s. M. 11

s. George 6

s. A. 2

Cook, Mathew, junr 15

(kx)k, William 17

Crawford. George 27

Cullen. James 20

Dirk. David 22

w. 24

s. Robert 2

s. Ini

a. .... .... .... nil Dorrain. Peter, senr 49

w. .... 49

Dorrain, Peter, junr 24

w 19

s. Peter Inf

Dorrain, Thomas 19

w, 17

Dorsey, Dr. .... -

w. .... .... ....

s 2

d I

Drummond. Donald 28

w 22

Dugald. Elizabeth 19

Duncan, Andrew ...

w. .... .... ...

s. John 2J

s. Andrew I

E< kford, Thomas 28

Forbes, Ann 22

Galloway, David 20

w. Ann 18

s. John, born at sea.

Gilbert, James 22

w. 24

d. Isabella .... 5

d. Christina 3

d. I

Colder. William 29

uuiuci, vviiiiam . .. zu w 26

n. .... .... d. Margaret 2

d. Inf

Hay, Ebenezer 25

w. Agnes

Johnson, David ....

Johnson, James

Landsdale, James 31

w 26

d. Mary 9

Leckie, William 28

w. 24

Lockhart. Isabella 21

Logan, Dr. F. 57

w.

s. Ismths.

Mcßeth, Jane 17

Mcßeth, John 27

w 27

s. James I

MacDowall. William

w. ....

s. 1

d. 3

McEwen, Andrew 45

w. 47

McEwen. David 21

w. Mary 20

s. ... Inf

MacFarlane, Rev. J.

Appendices

315

BENGAL MERCHANT—con liu ued

McGechean (McGeachy),

John 20

w. .... ....21

McLaggan, John 29

w 25

McLatchie, George 20

Marjoribanks, Alexander

Millar, Mrs (widow) 57

Mitchell, James Joseph 23

Moore, Frederic George 25

Murray, John A. . 25

Murray, William 21

w. 19

Neilson, James 27

w 27

s. Inf

Nisbet, John .... 40

w. 36

Nisbet. Thomas 31

Pollock. Thomas .... 21

w 20

Rankin, Mary ... 22

Reid, Adam

w. .... ....

d. 9

Reid. David 39

Reid. Thomas 23

w. 20

Riddle, James 27

Rowand, Andrew .... 22

Scott. Alexander 30

Scullers (Scullen), Henry 25

w. 22

Simson, Thomas R. 21

Strang, Robert Rodger

w. ....

Strang. Miss

Tannahill, William 20

Telford, John

Todd, Archibald

Todd, Graham

Turner, Andrew 18

Turner, James 20

Turner. John 19

w. 19

Wallace. George

Webster. William 23

Wilson, James 39

w. 32

s. 10

s. 6 e S

s- 3

s. 2 niths.

d, Annie 8

Wilson, Samuel 22

Yule, Alexander 32

sv. 28

s. Robert 7

d. Grace 9

d. Mary 1

Yule, John _

Yule. Moses 24

ADELAIDE

(640 tons : n.z.c.)

Capt. W. Campbell. Sailed from London, IS Sep 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson. 7 Mar 1840

Alder, George under 9

w. Elizabeth 26

Alzdorff. Charles

»• 8

Andrews. George 24

Beckers. Eliza .... ig

Beaumont. Robert SO

Bell. Charles Fraser Bell 27

The City of the Strait

361

ADELAIDE— co n tin ued

w. Jane 30

Bennett. Charlotte 22

s. 11 wks.

Boyle, Rachel 30 u i c „ 1,1 r» ~i o a

Brad field, Robert 34

w. Sarah 31

s. under 1

d. Sarah .... 11

Brady, Emma 20

Brady, Francis 45

w 38

s. Francis 12

s. Frederick 6

d. Jane 9

d. Anne 4

Brown, William Henry 25

w. Eliza 26

d, Eliza 4

Buchanan, James .. . 55

Burcham, James Nelson 33

w. 33

Buxton, Harry Bridger 39

w. Mary Ann 33

s. John 5

s. Harry 3

d, Sophia 9

Campbell, Robert 17

Clarke. George 25

Cole, G. T. -

Cole. Henry

Constable, Edward 24

w, Jane 25

Cook, Henry ....

Cook, Thomas Uppadine

Daniell, Captain Edward 38

w. .... . ....

s. Laurence 4

Durie, Major David Stark 36

Ellerm, Edward .35

w. Louiza 34

s. Henrv 12

s. William 7

a. tn mam / s. Samuel 9 mths.

Ellerm, Edward, junr 16

Evans, Dr. G. Samuel 39

w.

Evans, Jessie 20

Evans, John 24

w. Caroline Ann .... 20

Galpin, William 24

w. Ruth 29

d. Charlotte 1

Guthrie, Thomas 26

w. Anne 2-

d. 4 mths.

Harris, John 31

w. .... 81

s. William 6

s. John 4

d. Harriett 8

d. 5 mths.

Henderson, David 28

w. Mary Ann 24

Hewett, Alfred 28

w. Eliza 26

s. .... 4 mths.

Hunt, Charles 51

w. Eliza 44

s. William 5

Hunt, Emily 20

Hunt, Fanny 17

Hunt, Maria 24

Johnson. Frank

Kembell, Robert

Kempton, Thomas 28 ... x r.. a oc

w. Mary Ann 26

s. Thomas S

s. 8 mths.

Knight. Thomas 28

Laurence (Laurance).

Joseph 21

Longmore, Thomas 20

317

Appendices

ADELAlDE —continued

Lustombe, J. H.

Luxford, William 39

w. Elizabeth 39

s. George 14

s. Charles 13

s. Javey 5

s 3

d. Fanny 11 j t?i- n

d. Elizabeth ... 9

McKenzie, Mrs. 35

McKenzie, Thomas 20

McKew, Mary Ann 15

McKew. Peter 34

w. Sarah 36

s. John .... 7

d. Margaret 8 i o 1. 9

d. Sarah .... 3

d. 12 days

McKew, Thomas 16

McNally, James 36

w. Louiza .... 35

Marshall. Sampson 24

w. Ann .... 22

Millar, Archibald ....

w. .... .... ....

s. Harry .... under 9

s. Roderick: born at sea

d. Lucy Anne under 14

d. Jessy ... under 9

Minifie, Elizbth (widow) 44

s, William .... 9

Minifie, John 24

w. Mary Elizabeth 23

Minifie, Josiah .... 17

Minifie, Matilda 15

Mini fie, Thomas .... 22

Nattrass, John

Nattrass. Luke .... ....

Oliveira, Miss Leocadia

de

Partridge. T. M. ....

Pike, Mary Elizabeth 20

Reid. James 39

I\UU, J %*** Revans. Samuel 32

ivcvaiis, oaiixucx Riddiford, Daniel 26

w. .... .... •••■

ch. born at sea

Riddiford, Miss

Ruther (Rutter), Sam. 20

St. Hill, Henry -

w.

Shannon, Mrs Florence 32

d. Sarah 1

u. .sax >iii i Simpson, Joseph 26

w. ’ 27

W. I Smith. Mrs W. M. (Lou-

Isa) .... ....

s. George under 9

s. Wallace under 9

d. Fanny under 9

Stoddard, James .... 25

w 25

Swann. James 38

w. Jane 39

s. John 9

s. 5 -i c u n

d. Sarah .... 7

d. Marianne 3|

Taine, James John ....

Thomas. Joseph ....

Thomas, William ....

Ticehurst. Edwin .... 27

w. Maria ... 27

s. William .... 4

s 2|

d. Maria , 4 mths.

Tilke. Ann 30

Turnbull, William 24

Turner, Ann 20

Ward. Edward 18

Ward, Tames 32

»» mu, jaiiK . ... otm w. Sarah 27

363

The City of the Strait

ADELAlDE— continued

Weston, Trayton 19

Wright, James 25

Whiteman, William 15

Wright, William .... 29

Yates. Francis Thomas 22

Williams, Eliza 35

GLENBERVIE

(387 tons; n.z.c.)

Capt. Black. Sailed from London, 20 Oct 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson, 7 Mar 1840

Heaver, R. -

Smith, John

Watt, -

Inglis, R.

Northwood, ....

w. .... . ....

w.

3 passengers in steerage

LADY LILFORD

(596 tons)

Capt. Kermath. Sailed from Sydney, 5 Mar 1840

Arrived Port Nicholson, 16 Mar 1840

Grace (or Gross) ....

Watt, James ....

20 passengers in steerage

Mclnnes,

Smith, Mrs. ....

NIMROD

(174 tons)

Capt. Hay. Sailed from Sydney via Bay of Islands, 5 Feb 1840

Arrived Port Nicholson. 20 Mar 1840

Roberts

Hay, Mrs.

Heather,

Roskcll

w. ... ...

Wilson

s. ~

13 passengers in steerage

McDonnell,

EARL STANHOPE

(350 tons)

Capt. Tilley. Sailed from Port Philip

v..ipi. j im. y. .j.iiii u uuui iuu i limp Arrived Port Nicholson, 21 Mar 1840

Bell, Mrs. ....

Dunsford, Frederick

Bligh, J. W.

Grenier

Coats

w. .... -

4 ppen dices

364

EARL STANHOPE—ron tintied

ch. ...

w. .... .... .... —-

ch.

ch. .... ....

ch. .... .... ....

Stone ...

ch. .... ....

w. .... .... ....

Grylls, Rev. J. C.

Talbot. R. G -

25 passengers in steerage.

Harvey ....

HANNAH

(90 tons)

Capt. Liddell. Sailed from Sydney, 13 Mar 1840

Arrived Port Nicholson, 29 Mar 1840

Machattie

INTEGRITY

(220 tons)

Capt. Pearson. Sailed from Hobart Town, 11 Mar 1840

Arrived Port Nicholson, 29 Mar 1840

Brown .... ....

Wade, John ....

McLiver, Mrs

5 passengers in steerage

Wade, George ....

BOLTON

(540 tons ; n.z.c.)

Capt. J. P. Robinson. Sailed from London. 19 Nov 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson, 20 Apr 1840

Aitkinson, Mary Ann .... 21

s. Edward 12

Avery, George 16

s. Robert 9

Avery, Harriet 18

Butler. Rev. John Garc 57

Avery, Thomas 37

w. Hannah 62

w. Elizabeth 40

d. Hannah 22

s. Charles .... 14

Castle, John 39

s. Stephen .... 2

w. Maria 37

d. Ann .... II

s. James 4

d. Mary 9 .J c u «■»

d. Ann .... 14

d. Sarah 7

d. Jane 7

d. Ellen 5

d 1

Bannister, John 15

Catley, Zachariah 31

Bannister, William 35

w. Sarah 29

s. John 7

w. Mary 34

365

The City of the Strait

BOLTON— continued

s. George IS raths.

Florance, Ellen 15

cl. Sarah 9

Florance, Jane 20

Florance, John 46

d. Clara 4

Churton, Rev. John Frdk. 41

w. Jane 48

w. Mary

Florance, Samuel 22

...... -

s. Alexander II

w. Mary 22

s. Charles Cyril Geo. Inf

Goldsworthy, John 28 i7i: i, „.i. (> *

d. Catherine 10

w. Elizabeth 24

d. Alice .... 8

s. John 2J

d. Jane .... 6

d. Elizabeth .... 4

d. Marion .... 4

d. Mary 5 mths.

d. Mary 2

Gower, John 21

Hargreaves, Eliza 17

Clarkson, William 34

w. Sarah 26

Hargreaves, Winter 11

s. George .... 5

Harris, Abraham 29

J Idlllo, i IUI dlldlll ... —, .7 w. Sophia 29 .. i....,...

s. Thomas 2

d. Elizabeth 6

s. James ... 6

d. Ann 4

s. Edward 4

d. Amelia 3 mths.

s. Walter 2

Clover, Thomas 31 ... on

s. Thomas lOwks.

w. Harriet 29 r'c\l lot t I«ikn IT/ltir'ivrl 90

d. Sophia (Mary) 8

Harrison, Henry Shafto 29

Collett. John Edward 30

w. Rachell Teresa .... 30

w. Henrietta 29

Cowdry, Susan 27

s. John Shafto 6

Craven, Thomas 30

s. Hy. Nevinson 2

Creamer, James 29

d. Louisa Adelaide 7

Cross, George 17

Harrison, Isabella 22

Cross, John 27

Harrison, Robert John 20 XJI ■ll I \ I• 1 r \ 1 -

Curry, Thomas 16

Hunt, Mary Ann 15

Hunt, William 38

Duffield, George 29

w. Martha 26

sc. Hannah 34

Edwards, James 20

s. Edward IS

Falwasser, Sarah 40

s. Stephen 10

». Richard 9

Farmer, John 41

w. Mary S3

s. Charles 7

s. John, junr 16

s. James 4

s. James II

d. Sarah 2J

s. Jesse 12

d. Jane, born at sea.

Hurst, William 42

d. Mary 4

w. Mary Ann 35

Florance, Ann 17

s. Alfred 12

Florance. Elizabeth 30

Appendices

366

BOLTON— con tin ued

s. Alexander .... 9

s. Frederick .... 6

s. Clement .... 2 mths.

d. Amelia 13

d. Selina 7

Jones, Mary .... (24) 15

Judd, William .... .... 16

Kelly (Ketley), Charles 25

King, Janies .... .... 28

w. Susannah ... 26

s. James .... .... 4 T nn/'ortar Tr\n „ Vh

Lancaster, John 25

Lockwood, Daniel .... 27

Lockwood, John .... 21

Lovelock, Isaac .... .... 31

w r . Elizabeth .... 28

d. Sarah .... .... 9

d. Harriet .... .... 7

d. Patience .... 4

d. Lucy .... .... 2

Lowe, Griffith .... .... 36

w. Ann .... .... 35

s. Edward .... .... 11

s. Joseph 9

s. John .... ... 5

s. William .... .... 2

d. Mary .... .... 7

Lowe, Richard Godfrey

M.D 29

Madden, Samuel .... 23

Maddox, Sarah 16

Midg(e)ley, Henry .... 18

Millgate, Thomas .... 18

Minet, Joseph 38

w. Amie Ann .... 31

s. John Cross .... Inf

d. Emily 4

d. Susan .... ... 2

d. Stephanie .... 1

Nankivell, Robert .... 28

w. Elizabeth .... 28

w

s. John ... ... 7

s. George .... .... 6

d. Selina .... .... 4

ch. born at s£a.

Nankivell, William .... 20

w. Ann .... .... 24

d. Mary Jane 6 wks

Nash, James Henry .... 25

w. Ann .... .... 24

s. Norman .... .... 3

s. George 14

d. Miriam .... .... 5

Packham, Mary .... 17

Packham, William .... 44

w. Mary 44

s. James .... .... 6

s. George 1(5)

d. Caroline .... 11

d. Adelaide .... 8

Packham, William, junr 15

Pilcher, George .... ... 20

Pinfold, Joseph .... .... 46

w. Mary 39

s. Joseph 11

s. Charles .... .... 7

d. Matilda .... .... 12

Relf (Ralph), Robert 38

w. Ann .... .... 35

s. James 13

s. Robert 11

s. William .... .... 4

d. Sarah 8

d. Ann .... .... 6

d. Mary 14

Rumball, James .... ... 26

w. Maria .... .... 24

s. Cornelius .... 2

d. Maria 5

St. Hill, Ashton 15

Scott, Elizabeth 16

Scott, George 34

The City of the Strait

367

BOLTON—continued

w. Mary 28

s George .... .... 13

s. Samuel 10

s. Alfred 7

d. Elvina 5

Spackman, George .... 19

w. Sarah 22

Spinner, Robert .... 22

Sykes, George .... .... 24

w. Jane .... .... 20

Sykes, William 26

w. Bessy 20

Trevarton, William .... 32

w. Elizabeth .... 30

s. Thomas 11

d. Elizabeth .... 7

d. Mary 5

Trist, Jane 29

Tyler, James 17

Wade(r)son, Samuel .... 22

Waggon, Edward (wid’r) 33

Williams, William .... 29

w 28

d. Maria .... .... 5

d. Elizabeth .... 3

Wood, George (Edward) 31

w. Elizabeth .... 29

s. Edward .... .... 5

s. George .... .... 3

Woodman, Thomas .... 29

w. Mary 29

s. John 8

s. William 6

s. G. 4

d. Elizabeth, bom at sea.

Zillwood, Joseph .... 29

w. Elizabeth .... 26 p 1 I n rttn op 111 Tit It p

s. Thomas .... lOwks

MIDDLESEX

(564 tons)

Capt. Monro. Sailed from Sydney, 17 Mar 1840

Arrived Port Nicholson, 5 Apr 1840

Hair

Shaw, Dr.

Rawson

Thompson ~

12 stockmen in steerage.

Riley

MARTHA

(121 tons)

Capt. Lancaster. Sailed from Sydney via Bay of Islands,

16 Apr 184 C

Arrived Port Nicholson, 30 May 1840

Lloyd, J. P.

Wood ....

HOPE

(400 tons)

Capt. J. S. Coombes. Sailed from Sydney, 9 May 1840.

Arrived Port Nicholson, 10 Jun 1840

Bidwill, C. R 20

children

Bradwell, Mrs ....

Taylor, Dr.

Coombes, Mrs

Coulson, Captain

Appendices

368

COROMANDEL*

(662 tons; n.z.c.)

Capt. E. French. Sailed from London, 10 Dec 1839

Arrived Port Nicholson, 29 Aug 1840

Pawson, John .... .... 29

Annear, James 25

w. Mary Ann .... 27

w. Ann .. . .... 23

s 12

d. 16 mths

S. .... .... .... 16 s 7

Bales

Beardmore, Dr. ....

s. 5

s 2

Bligh ... ....

Butler, Thomas Charles 28

d 9

Pilcher, Stephen (wid’r) 44

w. Louisa .... .... 26

s. Walter .... 17 mths

s 11 . a

d. Louisa, born at sea.

s 8

Pilcher, Susan 17

Cherry, Edwin 32

w. Ann E .... 30

Ridgway, Isaac .... ....

s. 5

Smith, James .... ....

d 7

Swallow, Edward .... 23

d 3

w. Ann .... .... 23

s. 6

Crawford

Earp, G. B.

Walker

Foster, J. R

Walsh, Edward 33

Green, Elizabeth ... 22

w. Mary Ann .... 31

Guyton, W. ... ....

s 10

uuyiuu, vv. Hook, Bennett (widow) 29

s. 10 mths

s. 5

d 12

U. .... .... .... 16 d 4

d. Rachel 12

d 8

20 passengers in steerage.

Minet(t)

• The Coromandel was not chartered by the Company, but carried Company’s passengers

POLITICAL ROLL THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD

1853-1876

SUPERINTENDENTS OF WELLINGTON

Featherston, Isaac Earl 1853-71

Fxtzherbert, William 1871-76

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL

Speakers

Clifford, Charles .... .... .... 1853-57

Ludlam, Alfred 1858-59

Hart, George 1859-61

Schultze, Charles William 1861-65

Taylor, William Waring 1865-76

MEMBERS :

MEMBER

ELECTORATE

DATE

Allen, George Wellington City 1861-65

Allen, William Wellington City 1856-61

Allison, James Wanganui and Rangitikei 1861-65

Rangitikei 1865-67

Anderson, Henry Wellington 1869-71

Andrew, John Chapman ... Wairarapa East .... ... 1867-76

Barry, Richard Wellington City 1857-61

Barton, Richard .... .... Hutt 1861-65

Beetham, George Wairarapa West .... .... 1873-76

Bell, Francis Dillon .... Wairarapa 8c Hawkcs Bay 1853*56

Bethune, Kenneth .... Wellington City .... ... 1853-54

Blyth, James Wanganui and Rangitikei 1856-57

Borlase, Charles Bonython Wairarapa 1857-58

Wellington City 1861-75

Appendices

370

MEMBER

Bowler, William Wellington City 1857-61

Bryce, John Wanganui and Rangitikei 1862-63

Burt, Richard Hutt 1865-69

Daniell, Edward .... .... Wanganui and Rangitikei 1853-55

Dorset, John Wellington City 1853-56

Dransfield, Joseph .... Wellington City 1863-67

ELECTORATE

Brandon, Alfred de Bathe Wellington Country .... 1853-65

Porirua .... .... .... 1865-76

Bromley, William Wellington Country .... 1855

Brown, Andrew Wellington Country .... 1853-54

Wanganui .... .... 1865-67

Buck, George Hutt 1861-65

Buckley, Patrick Alphonsus Karori and Makara .... 1872-73

Wellington .... .... 1873-76

Bunny, Henry Wairarapa 1864-69

Wairarapa West 1869-76

Campbell, Moses Wanganui and Rangitikei 1857-61

IfAV/dWJ .... .... It UIIU X\JsJ§ X Carpenter, Robert Holt .... Wellington City 1856-65

Carter, Charles Rooking .... Wairarapa .... .... 1857-64

Carter, Henry Wellington 1873-76

Clifford, Charles Wellington City 1853-57

Corbett, William Hutt 1857-58

Crawford, George .... Wellington City 1861-69

Cruxckshank, James .... Hutt 1873-76

Dalrymple, John Taylor Manawatu 1873-76

De Castro, Charles Daniel Wellington Country .... 1863-65

Dorset, William Wellington City 1856-57

1869-73

Duncan, Richard John .... Wairarapa 8c Hawkes Bay 1856-57

Wellington City 1861-65

Edwards, George Wellington City 1856-57

Fagan, Steven Hutt 1865-73

Fawcett, William Wellington City 1861-65

Finnimore, William .... Wanganui 1869-72

Fitzgerald, Thomas Henry Ahuriri 1857-59

Fitzherbert, William .... Wellington City 1853-57

Hutt 1859-65

Wellington City 1865-69

DATE

1872-73

1871-76

The City of the Strait

371

MEMBER

ELECTORATE

DATE

Fox, William Wellington City 1854-57

Wanganui and Rangitikei 1857-62

Galloway, David Porirua .... .... 1865-69

Gibson, John Wanganui 1855-56

Gillon, Edward Thomas Wellington City 1875-76

Gollan, Donald Wairarapa & Hawkes Bay 1853

Ahuriri .... .... 1857-59

Graham, Charles Christie Rangitikei .... .... 1873-76

Halcombe, Arthur William

Follett Rangitikei 1865-72

Handley, John Wanganui and Rangitikei 1856-61

Harrison, Henry Shafto .... Wanganui and Rangitikei 1853

1861-6S

Hart, George Hutt 1853-61

Hewitt, James Duff .... Wanganui and Rangitikei 1863-65

Hickson, William Wellington .... .... 1854-56

1865-69

Holdsworth, Jos. Godfrey Wellington City 1856-57

Hunter, George Wellington .... .... 1857-76

Hutchison, William .... Wanganui .... .... 1867-76

Iveson, Clifford .... .... Wanganui 1872-76

Johnston, John .... .... Wellington Country .... 1855-65

Karori and Makara 1865-72

Jordan, John .... .... Rangitikei .... .... 1872-73

Kelham, James Wellington City 1856

Kells, Thomas .... .... Wanganui .... .... 1865-67

King, John .... .... Wellington City .... 1857-61

Lowes, William Porirua .... .... 1873-76

Ludlam, Alfred Hutt .... .... . 1853-61

1865-76

Lyon, William Wellington City 1853-57

McDowell, William .... Hutt 1865-69

McEwen, David Hutt 1861-65

McLaggan, John Wellington City 1857-61

McManaway, Thos. Dalton Wellington Country ... 1856-58

Masters, Joseph .... .... Wairarapa & Hawkes Bay 1856-57

Wairarapa 1865-69

Wairarapa West .... .... 1869-73

Milne, Alexander Rangitikei .... .... 1865-76

Milne, William Scott ... Hutt .... 1856-57

1865-76

Appendices

372

MEMBER ELECTORATE DATE

Mitchell, James Wellington Country .... 1860-61

Moore, George Wellington City 1853-54

Morgan, John Wanganui 1867-69

Wangaehu .... .... 1869-76

Peake, John William .... Wanganui and Rangitikei 1863-65

Pearce, Edward Wellington City 1865-69

Wellington .... .... 1869-76

Peat, David .... .... Waitotara and Kai Iwi .... 1869

Pharazyn, Charles .... Wairarapa West .... .... 1873-76

Pharazyn, Robert .... Wellington .... .... 1865-69

Waitotara and Kai Iwi 1869-76

Phillips, William .... .... Hutt .... .... .... 1857-61

Plimmer, Isaac Wellington 1869-71

Plimmer, John Wellington 1856-57

Reading, John Brown .... Wellington Country .... 1856-57

Karori and Makara .... 1865-69

Renall, Alfred Hutt 1853-57

Renall, Alfred William .... Wairarapa West .... .... 1866-73

Revans, Samuel Wairarapa & Hawkes Bay 1853-57

Rhodes, William Barnard Wellington City 1861-69

Russell, Thomas Purvis .... Wairarapa fe Hiwkes Bay 1856-57

Schultze, Charles William Wellington Country .... 1854-65

Seager, Charles Wellington City 1871-7S

Skey, Samuel .... .... Wellington City .... .... 1856-57

Smith, Benjamin Rangitikei 1867-69

Smith, William Mein .... Wairarapa 1858-6

Spinks, William .... .... Wellington City .... .... 1861-64

St. Hill, Ashton .... .... Wellington Country ... 1857-61

Stokes, Robert Wellington City 1857-65

Wairarapa East 1865-67

Taylor, James Porirua 1865-7:

Taylor, William Waring .... Wellington City 1861-76

Thynne, Earnest Stephen Manawatu 1869-73

Toomath, Edward Wellington City 1857-61

Turnbull, George Wellington City 1861-63

Turnbull. Walter Wellington City 1865-69

Varnham, John Wellington City 1857-61

VVaitt, Robert Wellington Country .... 1853-54

Wakefield, Edward Gibbon Hutt 1853-55

The City of the Strait

373

MEMBER ELECTORATE DATE

Wakefield, Edward Jerning-

ham Hutt 1855-57

Wellington City .... .... 1857-61

Wallace, James Wellington Country ... 1857-60

Wallace, John Wellington City 1853-53

Wallace, John Howard .... Wellington City 1861-69

Warburton, Thomas Kem

mis Wellington City 1857-61

Watt, William Wanganui and Rangitikei 1853-65

Wanganui 1865-76

Welch, Robert Porter .... Wairarapa West .... .... 1865-66

Whitewood, William

Matson Hutt 1861-65

Wilcock, William Hutt 1857-61

Wilson, James Wanganui and Rangitikei 1856-57

Woodward, Jonas Wellington City 1855-57

Wellington Country .... 1859-65

Wright, John Fortescue

Evelyn Wellington Country .... 1861-63

Karon and Makara .... 1873-76

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Legislative Council

Aitken, John Guthrie Wood .... 1914-21

Anderson, George James 1934-35

Arkwright, Francis .... .... 1895-1906

Bell, Sir Francis Dillon 1854-55 Bell, Sir Frands Henry Dillon .... 1912-36

Brandon, Alfred de Bathe .... 1883-8G

Briggs, Mark .... 1936

Brindle, Thomas 1936

Buchanan, Sir Walter Clarke .... 1915-24

Buckley, Sir Patrick Alphonsus .... 1878-95

Carson, Gilbert 1914-21

Clark, Edward Henry 1920-32

Collins, William Edward .... .... 1907-34

Coote, Henry Joseph 1865-67

Crawford, James Courts 1859-67

Domett, Alfred 1866-74

Appendices

329

GENERAL ASSEMBLY— continued

Duthie, John 1913-15

Earnshaw, William 1913-31

Fagan, Mark 1930

Findlay, Sir John George 1906-11

Fitzherbert, Sir William 1879-91

Fraser, Francis Humphris 1899-1906

Fraser, Sir William 1919-23

Gilmer, Hamilton 1907-14

Gisborne, William .... .... 1869-71

Grace, Morgan Stanislaus 1870-1903

Guthrie, David Henry .... 1925-27

Hall-Jones, Sir William 1913-36

Hart, Robert 1872-94

Hislop, Thomas William 1921-25

Izard, Charles Hayward 1918-25

Johnston, Sir Charles John 1891-1918

Johnston, John 1857-60

Levin, Nathaniel 1869-71

Loughnan, Robert Andrew 1907-14

Luke, Sir Charles Manley 1907-14

Mac Donald, Thomas Kennedy 1903-10

Mackenzie, Sir Thomas 1921-30

Mantell, Walter Baldock Durant 1866-95

Martin, John 1878-92

Mawhete, Rangi 1936

Mills, Charles Houghton 1909-16

Newman, Alfred Kingcome ... 1923-24

Newman, Edward 1923-30

Ngatata, Wiremu Tako 1872-87

Perry, William 1934

Petre, Henry William 1853-60

Pharazyn, Charles Johnson .... 1869-85

Pharazyn, Robert 1885-96

Rhodes, William Barnard .... 1871-78

Richardson, Edward 1892-99

Ri gg. John 1892-1914

Sewell, Henry 1870-73

Simpson, Robert Kirkpatrick .... 1914-21

Statham, Sir Charles 1936

St. Hill, Henrv 1853-56

375

The City of the Strait

GENERAL ASSEMBLY—continued

Stokes, Robert 1862-79

Stout, Sir Robert 1926-30

Ward, Vincent Aubrey .... .... 1934

Waterhouse, George Marsden .... 1870-90

Weston, Thomas Shailer .... 1926-81

Wilson, David 1937

House of Representatives

Aitken, John Guthrie

Wood City of Wellington ... 1902-05

Wellington East .... 1905-08

Andrew, John Chapman Wairarapa .... .... 1871-77

Atkinson, Arthur Rich-

mond City of Wellington 1899-1902

Ballance, John Rangitikei 1875-79

Wanganui 1879-81

1884-93

Barber, William Henry

Peter Newtown 1902-08

Barton, George Elliott .... Wellington City 1878-79

Beethara, George Wairarapa 1877-81

Wairarapa North .... 1881-87

Masterton 1887-90

Bell, Sir Francis Dillon ... Hutt .... 1855-56

Bell, Sir Francis Henry

Dillon City of Wellington .... 1893-96

Bell, William Henry Dillon Wellington Suburbs and

Country Districts .... 1911-14

Borlase, Charles Bonython City of Wellington 1866-70

Brandon, Alfred de Bathe Wellington Country .... 1858-60

Porirua .... 1860-70

Wellington Country .... 1871-81

Bruce, Robert Cunningham Rangitikei .... .... 1884-90

1892-93

Bryce, John Wanganui 1866-67

1871-81

Waitotara .... ... 1881-87

Buchanan, Sir Walter Clarke Wairarapa South .... 1881-87

Wairarapa .... .... 1887-99

1902-05

1908-14

Appendices

376

GENERAL ASSEMBLY— continued

Buick, David Palmerston 1908-18

Bunny, Henry Wairarapa 1865-81

Carroll, Sir James Eastern Maori 1887-93

Carson, Gilbert Wanganui 1896-99

Carter, Charles Rooking Wairarapa .... .... 1859-65

Chapman, Charles Henry Wellington North .... 1928

Clifford, Sir Charles .... City of Wellington .... 1853-60

Cobbe, John George .... Oroua 1928-38

Manawatu 1938

Combs, Harry Ernest .... Wellington Suburbs .... 1938

Cotterill, Joseph Bernard

Frands Wanganui 1935

Duthie, John City of Wellington .... 1890-96

1898-1905

Eliott, John Gordon .... Oroua 1925-28

Escott, James Henry .... Pahiatua 1911-16

Featherston, Isaac Earl .... Wanganui and Rangitikei 1853-55

vtaugauui aiiu iujjvj City of Wellington .... 1855-70

Ferguson, James Bume .... Wairarapa & Hawkes Bay 1858-60

Field, Henry Augustus .... Otaki 1896-99

Field, William Hughes .... Otaki 1900-35

Fisher, Francis Marion

Bates .... .... .... City of Wellington .... 1905

Wellington Central .... 1905-14

Fisher, George Wellington South .... 1884-87

Wellington East 1887-90

City of Wellington 1890-1905

Fitzgerald, Thomas Henry County of Hawke .... 1860

Fitzherbert, Henry Samuel Hutt 1884-90

Fitzherbert, Sir William .... City of Wellington .... 1855-58

Hutt 1858-79

Fletcher, Robert Wellington Central .... 1914-18

, - .... *> VjV.ll LI <ll .... 1J) T1 (J Forsyth, Thomas Wellington East 1925-28

Fox, Sir William Wanganui 1855-60

Rangitikei 1861-65

1868-75

Wanganui 1876-79

Rangitikei 1880-81

Fraser, Francis Huraphris Te Aro 1887

Fraser, Peter Wellington Central .... 1918

Glenn, William Spiers .... Rangitikei 1919-28

377

The City of the Strait

GENERAL ASSEMBLY—continned

Gordon, Edward Brice

Killen Rangitikei .... .... 1938

Guthrie, David Henry .... Oroua 1908-25

Harrison, Henry Shafto .... Wanganui 1861-66

1867-70

Hart, Robert City of Wellington .... 1853-55

Hawkins, William Henry Pahiatua 1904-05

Herdman, Sir Alexander

Lawrence Wellington North .... 1908-18

Hindmarsh, Alfred Hum-

phrey Wellington South .... 1911-18

Hogan, James Thomas .... Wanganui .... 1905-11

Rangitikei 1928-SI

Hodgens, Joseph Palmerston North .... 1935

Hogg, Alexander Wilson Masterton 1890-1911

Hornsby, John Thomas

Marryat Wairarapa 1899-1902

1905-08

Hunter, Clifford Lome .... Manawatu 1935-38

Hunter, George Wellington City 1871-79

Hutcheson, John City o£ Wellington 1896-1902

Hutchison, George .... Waitotara 1887-9;

Hutchison, William .... Wellington City 1879-81

Wellington South .... 1881-84

Izard, Charles Beard .... Wellington South and

Suburbs .... .... 1887-90

Izard, Charles Hayward .... Wellington North .... 1905-08

Jackson, Henry Hutt .... 1879

jUV_ i\ .JV/1 1 , J .... .... llUtt .... .... .... AVS f Johnston, Sir Charles John Te Aro 1881-87

Johnston, Walter Woods .... Manawatu .... .... 1871*84

Joyce, James Parker .... Te Aro .... 1884-87

Kaihau, Henare Western Maori 1896-1911

Kelham, James City of Wellington .... 1853-55

Langstone, Frank .... .... Waimarino .... .... 1922-25

1928 -

Lethbridge, Frank Yates .... Rangitikei 1896-1902

Oroua 1902-08

Levin, William Hort .... Wellington City 1879-81

Thorndon .... .... 1881-84

Linklater, Joseph Manawatu 1922-35

Lowry, Leonard George .... Otaki .... 1935

Appendices

378

GENERAL ASSEMBLY—cona'nued

Ludlam, Alfred .... .... Hutt .... .... .... 1853-56

1866-70

Luke, Sir John Pearce .... Wellington Suburbs 1908-11

Wellington North .... 1918-28

Macarthur, Douglas Hast-

ings .... .... .... Manawatu .... .... 1884-90

,,lallfl " alU Rangitikei .... 1890-92

Macdonald, Thos. Kennedy City of Wellington 1890-91

McDonald, Thos. William Wairarapa 1928-31

McKeen, Robert Wellington South 1922

McLaren, David Wellington East 1908-11

McLean, William City o£ Wellington 1892-93

McLeod, Alexander Donald Wairarapa 1919-28

1931-35

McNicol, Archibald .... Pahiatua 1919-22

Mason, Thomas .... .... Hutt .... .... .... 1879-84

Menteath, Andrew Agnew

Stuart .... .... .... Te Aro .... .... .... 1887-90

Mitchell, George .... .... Wellington South ... 1919-22

Monteith, Alexander Lam

Mont Wellington East 1922-25

Nahe, Hoani .... .... Western Maori .... .... 1876-79

Nash, James Alfred .... Palmerston .... .... 1918-35

Nash, Walter Hutt 1929

Newman, Alfred Kingcome Thomdon 1884-90

Hutt 1890-93

Wellington Suburbs .... 1893-96

Wellington East .... .... 1911-22

Newman, Edward .... .... Manawatu .... ... 1908-11

Rangitikei .... .... 1911-22

Ngata, Sir Apirana Turupa Eastern Maon 1906

O’Meara, John .... .... Pahiatua 1896-1904

Ormond, John Davies .... Clive .... .... .... 1861-75

Paetahi, Mete Kingi .... Western Maori .... .... 1868-70

Parata, Wiremu Western Maori 1871-75

Pearce, Edward Wellington City 1871-77

Pere, Wiremu Eastern Maori 1884-87

1894-1905

Pharazyn, Robert Rangitikei 1865-66

Pirani, Frederick Palmerston 1893-1902

The City of the Strait

379

GENERAL ASSEMBLY—continued

Pomare, Sir Maui Western Maori 1912-30

Ransom, Sir Ethelbert

Alfred Pahiatua 1922 -

Ratana, Haami Tokouru Western Maori 1935

Remington, Arthur Edward Rangitikei 1902-09

Renall, Alfred W Hutt 1858-66

Revans, Samuel Wairarapa & Hawkes Bay 1853-55

Hutt 1856-58

Rhodes, William Barnard Wellington Country .... 1853-55

Wellington City 1858-66

Roberts, Benjamin .... Wairarapa 1935 -

Robertson, John Otaki 1911-14

Masterton 1935

Ross, Robert Beatson .... Pahiatua 1905-11

Semple, Robert Wellington South .... 1918-19

Wellington East 1928

Smith, George Harold .... Pahiatua 1916-19

Smith, John Valentine .... Wairarapa & Hawkes Bay 1855-58

Smith, Robert William .... Rangitikei 1909-11

Waimarino 1911-22

> * rtiuiaiiiiu .... .... 1925-28 Smith, William Cowper .... Woodville 1887-90

Stevens, John Rangitikei 1881-84

1893-96

Manawatu 1896-1902

1905-08

Stewart, Catherine Camp-

bell Sword .... .... Wellington West .... .... 1938

Stout, Sir Robert City of Wellington 1893-98

Stuart, Alexander Rangitikei 1931-35

Sykes, George Robert ... Masterton 1911-35

Taipua, Hoani te Puna i

Rangiriri Western Maori .... 1887-9S

Takamoana, Karaitiana .... Eastern Maori 1871-76

Taylor, William Waring .... City of Wellington 1860-70

Te Ao, Ropata Western Maori .... 1894-96

Te Ao, Te Puke Western Maori 1884-87

Te Tomo, Take Western Maori 1930-35

Te Wheoro, Wiremu .... Western Maori 1879-84

Tomoana, Henare .... Eastern Maori 1879-84

Appendices

380

GENERAL ASSEMBLY— continued

Travers, William Thomas

Locke .... .... .... City of Wellington .... 1877-78

Veitch, William Andrew .... Wanganui .... .... 1911-35

Vile, Job .... .... .... Manawatu .... .... 1902-05

Vogel, Sir Julius .... .... Wanganui .... .... 1876

Wakefield, Edward Gibbon Hutt .... .... .... 1853-55

Ward, Charles Dudley

Robert Wellington Country .... 1855-58

Watt, William Hogg .... Rangitikei 1866-68

Wanganui .... .... 1881-84

Wilford, Sir Thomas Mason Wellington Suburbs 1896-97

1899-1902

Hutt 1902-29

Willis, Archibald Duding-

ston Wanganui 1893-96

1899-1905

Willis, William Jarvis .... Rangitikei 1879-80

Wilson, Charles Wellington Suburbs .... 1897-99

Wilson, George Hamish

Ormond .... .... Rangitikei .... .... 1935-38

Wilson, James Glenny .... Foxton 1881-90

Palmerston 1890-93

Otaki 1893-96

Wood, William Thomas .... Palmerston .... .... 1902-08

Wright, Robert Alexander Wellington South .... 1908-11

Wellington Suburbs .... 1914-38

THE PROVINCE’S BOROUGHS

ROLL OF MAYORS

CARTERTON (incorporated 1887).-R. Fairbrother (1887-89), A. Booth (1889-92), G. W. Deller (1892-1901), J. Baillie (1901-04), G. A. Fairbrother (1904-05), J. Brown (1905-07), W. Moore (1907-09), A. Armstrong (1909-10), J. A. Dudson (1910-11), F. Feist (1911-14), M. D. Hornsby (1914-15), J. T. M. Hornsby (1915-16), G. Hughan (1917-19), W. H. Booth (1919-22), W. Fisher (1922-36), D. L. Taverner (1936 ).

EASTBOURNE (constituted 1906).-F. G. Bolton (1906-09), J. Barr (1909-10), F. W. Shorn (1910-12, 1924-25), W. J. Organ (1912-14), J. P. Kelly (1914-16), P. Levi (1916-18), F. H. Mather (1918-24), H. M. Jones (1925-31), S. F. Fisher (1931-33), E. W. Wise (1933-).

EKETAHUNA (incorporated 1907).-A. H. Herbert (1907-09), E. Page (1909-12), F. C. Tumor (1912-19), T. Parsons (1919-21), P. Pike (1921-23), W. Simpson (1923-27). T. M. Page (1927-29), W. Simpson (1929-).

FEATHERSTON (incorporated 1917).-J. W. Card (1917-)

FEILDING (incorporated 1881).-D. H. Macarthur (1881-82), J M. Higgin (1882), W. E. Chamberlain (1882), F. Y. Lethbridge (1882-83), H. L. Sherwill (1884-86), S. Goodbeheere (1887-88), F. A. Monckton (1889), W. G. Haybittle (1890-91), E. Goodbeheere (1892-93, 1898-1904, 1910-12), W. Carthew (1894), W. A. Sandilands (1895), W. A. L. Bailey (1896-97), F. F. Haggitt (1904-06), W. J. B. Trewin (1906-10), A. M. Ongley (1913-19), G. J. Harford (1919-21), J. S. Tingey (1921-25), W. E. Carthew (1925-27), E. Fair (1927-29), C. E. Taylor (1929-35), T. Collins (1935-38), T. L. Seddon (1938-).

FOXTON (incorporated 1888).-E. S. Thynne (1888), J. R. Gower (1888-90), T. Wilson (1891), G. Nye (1892-93, 1896), T. P. Williams (1894-95), J. R. Stansell (1897-98), A. Fraser (1899, 191516), W. B. Rhodes (1900), F. E. Jenks (1900, 1902), P. J. Hennessy (1901, 1903), G. Simpson (1904, 1906), B. G. Gower (1905, 1906-08), G. H. Stiles (1909-14), J. Chrystall (1917-24), M. E. Perreau (1925-).

Appendices;

337

GREYTOWN (incorporated 1878).—'!'. Kempton (1879), J Smith (1879-80), H. Udy (1880-81. 1884-85. 1886-88), F, H. Wood (1881-84, 1885-86, 1888-89, 1892-93. 1901-03). R. A. Wakelin (1889-92), J. D. Heagerty (1893-98, 1899-1901. 1903-04). H. S. Hard (1898-99), A. C. Bicknell (1904-06), W. Udy (1906-07), D P. Loasby (1907-19), W. A. Hutton (1919-24), H. T. Rees (1924-1935), A. W. Horton (1935 ).

LEVIN (incorporated 1906).—15. R. Gardener (1906-15), t Blenkhorn (1915-19. 1929-32), I). W. Matheson (1919-23), I Hobson (1923-29), P. W. Goldsmith (1932 ).

LOWER HUTT (incorporated 1891).— W. A. Fitzherbert (1891 98). W. C. Foster (1898 1900), E. P. Bunny (1900-01. 1909-14), O Stevens (1901-05), T. W. McDonald (1905-07), T. A. Peterkin (1907-09). H. Baldwin (1914-18), E. P. Rishworth (1918-Nov 1921), W. T. Strand (Dec 1921-May 1929, 1931-33), A. F. Roberts (1929-31), f. W. Andrews (1933 ).

MARTINBOROUGH (incorporated 1928).— W. B. Martii (1928-38), C. W. F. Skill (1938 ).

MARTON (incorporated 1879).-F. Bevan (1879-80). J. Harris (1880-81), R. E. Beckett (1881-84. 1898-1901, 1909-13), L. Jones (1884-86), E. Snellgrove (1886-89, 1891-92), S. Skerman (1889-91. 1892-93, 1903-06, 1907-08), J. McDonald (1893-96. 1901-03), D. C. Tennent (1896-97), E. H. Humphrey (1897-98). J. F. Steely (1906 07), J. McEldowney (1908-09), J. H. Miles (1913-15), F. C. Wilson (1915-19), W. C. Kensington (1919-21). F. Purnell (1921).

MASTERTON (incorporated 1877).— R. G. Williams (1877-78) D. McGregor (1878-79), E. Feist (1879-80), A. W. Renall (1880-81, 1888-89), A. Bish (1881-83), W. Lowes (1883-84), M. Caselberg (1884-87), G. Heron (1889-90. 1894-96. 1898-99), C. A. Pownall (1890-93, 1896-98, 1899-1902), P. L. Hollings (1902-03. 1908-16). J. M. Coradine (1903-04, 1907-08, 1917-18), J. A. Renall (1904 97), W. H. Jackson (1919-21), O. N. C. Pragnell (1922-25), T. Jordan (1925-).

OHAKUNE (incorporated 1911).— J. A. Butler (1911-12, 1915 17. 1923-25), T. H. Kieley (1912-14), G. J. Goldfinch, Junr. (1914 15. 1918-23), E. J. Barry (1917-18). T. Herbert (1925-26), G. ( Goldfinch (1926-33), L. W. Nation (1933-39), H. F. L. Delamat (1939-).

OTAKI (incorporated 1921 ).-f. P. Brandon (1921-29), G. F \tmore (1929-33), T. O'Rourke (1933-38), C. F. Atmore (1938 )

The City of the Strait

383

PAHIATUA (incorporated 1892).-Job Vile (1892-93, 1894-95 1896-97), G. Harold Smith (1893-94), David Crewe (1895-96 1904-10, 1912-13), James Donald Wilson (1897-1901, 1921-25, 1929 38), Joseph Burrows (1901-02), William Toswill (1902-04), Wil liam W. McCardle (1910-12), Jonas David Candy Crewe (1913-2! 1925-29), Stanley Keith Siddells (1938 ).

PALMERSTON NORTH CITY (incorporated 1877 ; city, 1930). -G. M. Snelson (1877-79, 1883-84, 1889-92, 1901), J. Linton (1879-82, 1884-85), F. Jensen (1882-83), A. Ferguson (1885-86), L. G. West (1886-87), S. Abrahams (1887-89), R. Edwards (1892-93). W. Park (1893-95), W. T. Wood (1895-1899, 1901-03), H. Haydon (1899-1901), C. Dunk (1903-04), E. O. Hurley (1904-05), M. Cohen (1905-07), R. Essex (1907-08), J. A. Nash (1908-23), F. J. Nathan (1923-27), A. 1. Graham (1927-31), A. E. Mansford (1931-).

PETONE (incorporated 1888).— S. R. Johnson (1888-89), R. C. Kirk (1889-91, 1892-1901), R. Mothes (1891-92, 1901-03), G. T. London (1903-07), J. W. McEwan (1907-27), D. McKenzie (1927 34), A. Scholefield (1934-38), G, London (1938 ).

RAETIHI (incorporated 1921).-T. A. Harris (1921-25). W. H. Sandford (1925-29), H. W. Littlewood (1929-31), W. Harris (1931-35), W. J. Feltham (1935-).

SHANNON (incorporated 1917).-W. Murdoch (1917-26), E. J Butt (1926 ).

TAIHAPE (incorporated 1906).—A. Nathan (1906-13), W. McLennan (1913-14), A. L. Arrowsmith (1914-19), A. J. Joblin (1919-28), J. R. Cunninghame (1923-24), J. P. Aldridge (192831), L. B. H. de Lautour (1931-).

UPPER HUTT (incorporated 1926) .-A. J. McCurdy (1926-27, 1931-38), P. Robertson (1927-31, 1938-39), J. Blewman (1939 ).

WANGANUI CITY (incorporated 1872 ; city 1924).-W. H. Watt (1872-73, 1875-78, 1880-81), W. Hutchison (1873-74), R. Pharazyn (Mar-Sep 1874), E. Churton (1874-75), T. Bambcr (1878-80), G. Carson (1881-84), F. M. Spurdle (1884-86), J. Laird (1886-88), A. J. Parsons (1888-90, 1891-92), H. Nathan (1890-91), F. R. Jackson (1892-96), J. L. Stevenson (1896-97), A. Hatrick (1897-1904), A, G. Bignell (1904-06), C. E. Mackay (1906-07, 1912-13, 1915-20), (. Jones (1907-12), E. N. Liffiton (Feb-Apr 1912), A. Burton (Apr-Dee 1912), T. B. Williams (1913-15, 192024), H. Gibbons (1924-27), W. J. Rogers (1927-31), N. G. Annstrong (1931-35), W. J. Rogers (1935 ).

Appendices

384

WELLINGTON CITY (incorporated 1842 ; re-incorporated as city 1870).— G. Hunter (1842), W. Guyton (1843), J. Dransfield 1870-73, 1878-79), C. B. Borlase (1874), W. S. Moorhouse (1875), W. Hutchison (1876-77, May 1879-81), G. Allen (9-29 May 1879), G. Fisher (1882-85, 1896), A. W. Brown (1886, 1891), S. Brown (1887-88), J. Duthie (1889), C. J. Johnston (1890), F. H. D. Bell (1892-93, 1897), A. de B. Brandon (1894), C. M. Luke (1895), J. R. Blair (1898-99), J. G. W. Aitken (1900-04), T. W. Hislop (1905-08), A. K. Newman (1909), T. M. Wilford (1910-11), D. McLaren (1912), J. P. Luke (1913-21), R. A. Wright (1921-25), C. J. B. Norwood (1925-27), G. A. Troup (1927-31), T. C. A. Hislop (1931).

STATISTICS

POPULATION GROWTH

Wellington Province

The following figures are exclusive of Maoris and of the Imperial military forces and their families. The figures for the first three years are early estimates. Some form of census is believed to have been taken in 1841 and subsequent figures are derived from the censuses and quasi-censuses which were frequently taken, completed in early records by official estimates made at the time.

Wellington Provincial District

New Zealand

1842

10,992

3,701

1848

17.166

4,844

1851 (census)

26,707

6.409

1861

97.904

12,566

1871

254,928

24.001

1881

487,889

61,371

1891

624.474

97.725

1901

770,312

141,354

199,094

1911

1,005.589

1921

1.214,677

248.801

1931

1,443.070

303.340

1939

1,536,264

320.000

TRADE AND SHIPPING

Year

Wellington

Wanganui

Total Impts.

Total E'ports

Total Impts.

Total K pons

1841

53.625

14,447

1848

75,764

20,902

1858

267,629

114,110

11,484

580

1871

395,491

261,179

37.302

3.707

Appendices

386

1881

1,028,148

763.487

39,986

588

1891

1.329,247

1.274,574

68,205

216,599

153,679

1901

3,046,707

1,943,963

284,162

1911

5,507,740

3,812,769

272,021

470,944

1921

13.196.788

6,045,828

461,695

3,759.494

8,586,217

1931

1937

8,670,900

222,024

952,566

21,506,698

16.012,051

357,567

1 ,546,278

LIVESTOCK—WELLINGTON PROVINCIAL DISTRICT

Year

Horses

Cattle

Sheep

Dairy

Total

5.370

184:

141

1,648

64.009

1851

788

11.407

1861

5.117

49,323

247.940

1871

11,246 oi t in

75,202

714,094

1881

1,547.167

21.149

140.951

1891

30,542

30,615

152,724

3,062,966

1901

42,364

74,838

264,571

4.082,415

1911

60,458

114,741

426,244

5,278.797

1921

45,290

154,794

619,244

5,177,801

1931

38,383

229.305

761,631

6,058.943

1939

37,255

252,085

884,324

6,770.385

-X. ro

n '■? o HrC*s s

TOWNS IN WELLINGTON PROVINCIAL DISTRICT

(1) Recorded as “ Palmerston ” in 187t.

(2) 1874 census included Petone.

(8) 1874 census included Stokes Valley and M’ingaroa.

' ■ ' * ■ 1 • 1 I Ifu • Probably entered in 187-1 census as “ Seventy-mile Rush (Scandinavian Settlement) ” population 23*1

.. "•* Ituit .jiuimmjM.m iciiiimcm) population (5) Recorded in 1878 census as " Hadficld." 11

(6) Recorded in 1896 as " Brown’s Bay ”; in 1901 “ Brown’s Bav and Rona Bay.”

SOME BOOKS ABOUT WELLINGTON

Wellington and its province have produced a number of histories and books of reminiscence. The number has been limited by two conditions—preoccupation with pioneering and smallness of population. Many of these books are out of print and have to be sought in libraries. Some have been printed for private circulation. Louis Ward’s Early Wellington is a valuable compilation, but it underwent little editing. It reminds one of what a man said who tried reading a dictionary right through, that while it was interesting, it lacked plot. Early Wellington is a quarry rather than a building. Jerningham Wakefield’s Adventure in New Zealand remains the raciest and most readable book about the early days, but one must allow for its bias. If there is another modern edition it is to be hoped it will be provided with an index and dates ; the absence of these is very irritating to the student. Edward Gibbon Wakefield's life in Wellington is dealt with at some length in the biography by his great-grand-daughter, Irma O’Connor. A detached view of the New Zealand Company’s operations in England and New Zealand will be found in The Colonisation of New Zealand, by J. S. Marais, a South African. Wellington provincial politics are considered in W. P. Morrell's The Provincial System of Government in New Zealand, and there are biographical sketches of Featherston, Fitzherbert, and others in William Gisborne’s New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen, 1840-1897.* Of Wellington social life at the beginning of the second decade there is an excellent account in Charlotte Godley’s privately issued Letters from Early New Zealand. Another private book, deal-

• There are biographical details of these in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

389

The City of the Strati

ing with the modern period, is Sir Harold Beauchamp's Reminiscences and Recollections. Memoirs provide material for the historian that does not find its way into Hansard or the daily press, but New Zealand is poorly off for this sort of record. Downie Stewart’s Sir Francis Bell: His Life and Times is a biography of one of Wellington’s most distinguished citizens. Sir James Elliott has written the Life of J. P. Firth.

Of the European campaigns against the Maori in the Wellington province there are full and very readable accounts in James Cowan’s The New Zealand Wars and the Pioneering Period. For the districts beyond Port Nicholson there are a number of histories and reminiscences. These include Lindsay Buick's biography of Te Rauparaha, An Old NewsZealander, and his Old Manawalu ; R. McDonald’s Te Hekenga, a vivid and very sympathetic picture of Anglo-Maori life in the Horowhenua district ; T. W. Downes’s Early Whanganui ; Sir James Wilson’s Early Rangilikei, which has a warm human touch ; and Bidwill of Pihaulea, the story of the founding of a well-known Wairarapa family. The Centennial should give an impetus to the writing of district histories. Some local bodies have done good work in this field. T. A. Gibson’s The Purchase and Settlement of the Manchester Block is an excellent example on a small scale.

Imaginative work should not be overlooked. The novelist can recreate a society. Some of Katherine Mansfield’s stories, such as At the Bay and The Voyage, contain Wellington scenes. Nelle Scan lan’s Pencarrow series covers the whole history of the Wellington settlement. Among poems that deal with Wellington are sonnets by Arthur Adams and Hubert Church, a poem by David McKee Wright, and lilting descriptions by Boyce Bowden. The Old Clay Patch, a collection of verses written on and around Victoria College, is a grave and gay footnote to history.

INDEX

Abbott. Nicholas. 140

Abraham. Bishop, 181.

Adams. Arthur, 344. ui. 00 ioi.

Adelaide, 86, 89, 186-7, 315, 318. AL..-t Dl I. 77 1

Ahuaturanga Block, 271. i n \xr 771

Aitken. J. G. W., 221.

Akatarawa, 97, 233.

Akitio, 290. A 1,1 T-..-I 17 rv InVin 11

Aldred. Rev. John. 184. AT 7B • W7il],->m 770

Alexandier, Sir J.. 28; William 270.

Alfred, Prince (D. of Edinburgh), 197. \ 11-n *• U....1 »’ 1 3.1

Allen, “Bugler.” 134.

Alma[ 171.

American Whaling, 33-4. Anirlirfm f'liiirrK 1510-7 IBS

Anglican Church, 180-2. 188.

Anglican Missions, 30, 36.

Anne Wilson, 171. 771

Apiti, 271.

Ashhurst, 283.

Athenaeum and Mech. Inst., 198, 252. A ..V. —llntU- 1........ I. ISJ A

Aubert. Mother Mary Joseph, 183-4. SO Si BA-Q1 OI 107 mo

Aurora. 80, 83, 86-91, 93, 307. 309.

Awahou. Te, 277; Block, 175, 271.

Awapuni. 280.

Baring. Hon. F.. 45-55, 288.

Barnett, Capt., 28-30.

Barrett. Richard, 24, 30. 62. 65-6, 69. 71, 73. 97, 122.

Barton. Richard, 120, 241-2, 290.

Beagle. H.M.S., 61.

Beauchamp, Sir H., 251, 254, 343. u-ii e;_ tr r» n;7 i7e. c:, it' un

Bell, Sir F. D.. 162, 175; Sir F. H. D.. 162, 205, 220, 229, 242, 344; Mana, 35; William, 114.

Bengal Merchant. 83. 85, 89-90, 93. 313, 315.

Bennett, G., 97.

Bcthune, K., 161; and Hunter, 145.

Bidwill. C. R.. 99. 119-20. 165. 202, 289 90; J. C.. 99. 119.

Blackball Line, 171.

Blenheim. 90. 276. Ul I-II II 701

Blundell. H.. 201.

Bolton, 81. 89. 93, 103. 319-322. Dn.,lA/itt’c Parm 1 11-7

BoulcotCs Farm, 133-7.

Bowden Boyce, 344; Rev. T. A.. 189-91.

Brandon, A. de 8.. 161, 221.

Brees, S. C., 98, 119.

Brewer. W.’V.,’ 191.

Britannia, 92, 94-5. 98. 101. . "Al,

Brown, Andrew. 161; “Okiwi.” 24; Prof. T. R.. 248. U Aft 110

Bruce, Mf.. 115

Bryce, j.. 267.

Buchanan, Sir W., 250. 295 1t,./-lit* I W AS

Buckle. J. W.. 55.

Buick, Lindsay. 344 11. .11 1-.0T..0 v,i

Bull. James, 261.

Buffer, Charles, 43, 46; Rev. 1., 93, 113, 261; Sir W., 272.

Bulls. 261, 284.

Bumby. Rev. J., 32, 35-6, 184.

Bunbury, Major, 106.

Bunnythorpe, 283, 298.

Busby, James, 48, 53.

Butler, Rev. J. G.._ 103.

Buxton, Henry, 187.

Calliope. H.M.S., 132, 137-9, 26

Cameron, Gen., 266

Carnarvon, 176, 284.

Carter, C. R., 294.

Carterton, 167, 171, 175, 294, 336. 342.

Castle Point, 73, 290. I *l, olTit ; Pant M 107 111

Chaffers, Capt., 61, 107, 111. IKamilv 797

Chamberlain Family, 29; I *l, n1.,. ii.l „ 1 .....A 17

Chetwode. Lieut., 32.

Choral Union, 254. 1 n.ilx.rt 711

Church, Hubert, 211, 344.

Church Missionary Society. 49, 50, 52. /n .. r>.... f i.' oi o l ion

Churton, Rev. J. F., 81. 93, 180.

Chute, Gen., 174-5.

City and Suburban Water Supply Board, 220. ITanrnu 7 A 1 7C

Clarke, George. 74. 125.

Clifford, Sir C.. 119, 161. 163. 290.

Coates, Danderson, 50, /'"..KV C « QA

Cobham, S. S., 94. r* _ i a u 00/;. ri— r 717

Cockayne, A. H.. 296; Dr. L.. 217. rnhm I .mil*; 270.

Cohen, Louis. 270.

Cole, Rev. R., 180.

Colonial Office. 50-1, 56. 102, 104. 109, 115, 123, 137, 144. 146-8. 162.

Compton, Capt., 131.

Cook, Capt.! 3,‘*7, 16. 26-8, 30. 59. 151, 276.

Cook Strait. 7-10. 26-37. n u T IT 77 A

Cook, T. U.. 274.

oromandel, 90, 323.

Cospatrick, 84.

Cowan, James, 344.

Crawford, j. C.. 99, 232. co 7i on oa ill

Cuba, 59, 73. 90. 94. 131, 306-7.

Cudby, John. 135-6

Daniell, Capt., 275.

Danncvirke, 176, 280. r* \\7 oc on t oj i

Deans. W.. 86, 90-1. 94, 120.

Dieffenbach, Dr., 61, 73, 95. Ilf

Doddrey, R.. 62.

Domett. Alfred, 150, 200.

Dominion, 259

Dorset. Dr., 61. 145, 161, 191. n T \\r IAA

Downes. T. W.. 344.

Dransfield, Joe, 220. f u u c in

Driver, H.M.S., 131. 137. I ) / * ..r 1 . J

Drury. Commander. 153.

Duff. Jack, 118.

The City of the Strait

544>

Duggan, Eileen, 254.

Guthrie Family, 290.

Duke of Roxburgh, 83, 89, 145, 309, 311, 313.

Guyton, W.. 145.

VJI/J wu, FT ~ IT J. Hadbcld, Rev. Octavius (Bishop), 30, 36, 113, 124, 138, 180-2, 185, 189. 192, 261, 268-9, 286.

Duncan, Rev, J.. 277-8. I liivkl rvi ll' rl ~ f 1G AO At A t. CC

Durham, Earl of, 39, 40, 43, 45-6, 55.

Durie, Major, 90, 191.

Halcombe, A. F., 282-3; town, 283.

D’Urville, Dumont, 26. ik..,k:o i.,k.. ftfti

Hall, Sir’ John, 233.

Duthie, John, 221.

ifamilton, D. of., 75.

Earle, C. W., 259.

Hamilton, W. S., 188.

Hannah, 319.

Earl Stanhope, 318-9.

Harcourt, J. 8., 234.

Earthquakes, (1848), 138, 150-4; (1855). 98-9, 138, 152-4, 171.

Harrison, H. S., 162.

Eastbourne, 213, 239, 242-3, 336, 342.

Hartley, C., 274.

Easterheld, Sir T. H., 248.

Harvey, Rev. B. W., 268-9.

Hau-haus, 142, 174, 182. 265-7. 270.

Edmonds, George, 187.

Hawexs, 28.

Eketahuna, 176, 233.

Heaphv', C.’ 61, 66. 100, 244.

Elisabeth, 25. 33, 47.

i.naovcm, oj, jj, ft/ Ellice, Russell, 55.

Hebcrfey. J., 230-1.

Hector, Sir J., 211.

Elliott, Fort, 133; Sir James. 344.

ijiuuii, run, 100, on jiiuiid. jErapson, W., 269.

Heemskerck, 59.

Herald, H.M.S., 106, 108-9.

Endeavour, 59.

j i nutu, 11..U.0., iuu, iuo-7, Herd, Capt. J., 26, 28-30.

r.nacai’our, jy. Evans, Dr. G. S., 97. 107, 145, 201; Mrs. 186; W.. 180. n i) i in i ft eo

ilcuheu, Te, 56, 261.

Hill, Alfred’ 25*5; E. J., 255.

livening Post, 201, 258.

Eyre. Edward. 149-52.

Hialop, T. t. A.,’220; T. W., 221.

Hobbs, Rev. J., 35, 184.

Hobbouse. 43. U.k r' . \\l to Ct CA. 7 7ft O1

Feathcrston. 162-4, 167, 175, 232. 294.

r camersiuii. loz-t, iu/, i/j, 000. o*-*. Featherston, Dr. 1. E., 148, 150, 162 4.

Hobson, Capt. W., 38, 53, 56-7, 70. 91, 98, 103-12, 116-8. 121. 123, 126, 148.

168, 172-7, 192, 200, 272-3, 279, 336. 342.

Hone H eke. 126, 141.

Feilding, 5. 176, 281-4, 336, 342.

Hongi, 17, 19, 20.

I CIIUIU(,, 1/ U, KUI -T, Fcilding, Col., 281-2.

Fenwick. R., 55.

Hope 322.

rcnwicK. i\., jj. Ferguson, W., 226.

Horoiriwi Valley, 140-1.

Firth, J. P.. 247. 269, 344.

Horowhcnua, 21, 23, 141, 234.

Hort, Abraham, 145.

Fisher, George, 221.

non, nnrdiiaui, iu. Hoskins, W., 256.

Fitchett, A. 8., 296. tv._i i. _... ur ici nr ftoo

Hunter. George, 90, 145. / I , k _L lift A A J r-ft 111,

Fitzherbert, Sir W., 145. 161. 177, 200. 343.

Hutt (Lower) borough, 239-40, 337, 342; (Upper), 241, 338, 342; County. 241; River Board, 240-1.

Fitzßoy, Capt.. 98, 118, 123, 126. 148. I.- . fl_ D...L A. 17ft 17A

Forty-mile Bush, 6, 170, 176.

Fox. Sir William.’ 157,’ 200,' 205, 268. 275. tj ... tfr\ i7i -Tii e ‘ter, t nnr o

Hutt River, 67-8, 92. 94. 134. 239-41.

Hutt Road.’ 98-9.’ 197, 238-9. ’

Hutt, W.. 55. ‘ T1../I tt Dnkin * / I Will-mcnn k ? . A

Foxton’, 169, 175, 234-5. 260. 273. 277-8,

280-4, 336, 342. Fraser. Duncan, 79.

“Hyde, Robin,” (Iris Wilkinson*. 254.

Inconstant. 160.

Fraser, Hon. Peter, 221.

Independent. 148, 151, 200-1. / 171

George, Mrs. W. H., 217. / •: V, T A 7/f A

Indian Queen. 171.

Inglis, Rev. j.. 277-8.

Gibson, T. A., 344.

Integrity, 106, 107. 319.

Gilfillan, I. A.. 264. /-:u k- ;i.. nu 117

intcyrii, r, iuu, . lorns, R.. 292. I ye.

Gillespie Family, 128, 137.

Gillon, E. T.. 258.

Ira, 16. Irnnei/4.' P #l' Q 1 fii.

Gisborne. W., 343.

Ironside, Rev. S.. 184-5.

Izard, C. 8.. 234

Glasgow. Earl of, 7, 75.

Glenbrrvie, 89. 318.

Glenelg, Lord, 49, 52-3, 55.

Jenkins. R.. 145.

Godlcy Charlotte, 343.

Johnson, E.. 145.

Godley, J. R.. 150. 179. 194.

Kapara-te-Hau. 128.

Gold. Mrs.. 193. /- i t tj ec

rvajKira-ic-nau. i.so. Kapiti, 17-8, 20-4. 33-6. 72-3. 124. 138.

Gordon, J. 8., 55. i ’ D„I i 7

Karere, 297.

Gourlav. Robert. 42. e- ’ r'u-, .-I.* iQ7

Kebbell Bros.. 274. 277.

Grace, Charles, 187. o:_ r- 08 iftA.O ill 1

Keenan. Btllv. 24. i.'■. u r 117

Grey, Sir George, 98. 126-9. 133, 1369. 144, 146-51, 156, 159, 161. 164. 166, 181, 188. 221, 233, 242. 263-8. 290, 293. . II tf-T 171 ftfk 1 ftftl C m

Keith. George. 217. r u. it 1 ?

Kemp. Major, 267.

Kent. Capt., 29.

Kettle, C.. 90, 119.

Greytown, 144, 167, 175. 291, 293-5. 337, 342. Tirlm 71 70 11

Kooti, Te. 174, 267.

Kopi. Te, 169 V 1 J A

Guard, John, 23, 29. 33.

Rape. 13-4.

Guide. 73.

Index

392

Lady Jocelyn. 80, 227.

Macfarlane, Rev. John, 90, 93, 185.

Mackenzie, Prof. Hugh, 248; Seaforth, 249.

Lady Lilford, 318.

Lady Nugent, 58, 76.

Lake Ferry, 170.

McKerrow. James, 285.

McKillop, hj. F., 139.

Lambton, 29.

McLaren, David, 221. U /./.ki.a-m [III I 1 A

Langlois, Capt., 49.

Levin, 20-1, 285, 337, 342; W. H., 223.

Maclaurin, Prof. R. C., 248-9. U.i fv u t.n i e.t\ ici it.

Libraries, Wellington, 252-3.

McLean, Donald, Sir, 67, 160, 164, 272, 290, 293.

Lloyds. 83.

Lord kodney, 29.

Love, John, 24.

Nairn, James, 250.

Lovell, Barrack-Sergeant Major. 152.

Nathan, J. E., 234.

Lowry, R., 61.

National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum, 220, 251. 260.

Ludlam, Alfred, 161. I ..l.n Car I*l. .-1 .... 1 /.Q 071 * Vlr I rtll

Luke, Sir Charles, 169, 221; Sir John. 204, 221; K. E., 213.

Nayti. 62.

Newman, Dr. A. K., 221. ina.Q- Mice r k

Lukin, Gresley, 258.

Nias. Capt., 108-9; Miss C., 109.

Lyall, G., 55.

Nicholls, Rev. C. H. S., 268; H. E., 256.

Lyon. W.. 145, 161.

Nicholson, Capt. J., 28-9.

Nicholson, Port, physical features, 7-8, 12- 26-7, 66; pre-Wellington history, 13- 23-4; discovery and early visitors, 26-30; naming of, 29-30; choice of 63, 66; effect of earthquakes, 153; Hobson’s opinion on, 117; shipping in, 194-5, 227, 231; reclamations, 2156; under Prov. Govt., 221-3; under tir ,n: . ti i [} i mi ii .

Mana Is., 27. 33, 35-6. vaii/; i i o nc 7

Manawatu, 116. 118, 175-7, 233-4, 271-2, 274. 277-85, 297-8.

Man tell W 1) B 94

Mantell, W. D. 8., 94. Mansfield, Katherine, 253-4, 344.

.viansnem, tvatnenne, a**. Maori Wars, (European), 129, 143, 1745, 263-7; (inter-tribal), 16-25. u. T C

Wellington Harbour Board. 222-31 ; trade, 224-5.

Marais, J. S., 343.

Nicol, John, 34. no

Maria, 221. __

Nimrod, 318.

Marie Te, 277. c c

Normanhy, Lord. 55-6.

Majoribanks, S., 55. i \ i too

iNonnanny, L.oru, aa-o. Norwood, Sir C., 219, 221.

Marriott, J. H., 199. \X U„II A 1 I VI,. T W

Nukumaru, 266. I\T 7 A —.,1 A et.- OsO.I

Marshall, Mr. and Mrs. J. W.. 182. 192. 274-5; Major, 275.

N.Z. Academy of Fine Arts. 250-1.

N.Z. Association, 28, 30. 44-55.

Martha Ridgway, 83.

N.Z. Company, 12, 14, 28, 34, 36, 38, 45-6, 49, 51, 54-5, 57-64, 69, 71. 74-5, 77-8, 80, 82-5. 92, 94. 101-2, 108-9, 112-5, 118, 120. 122, 124-5, 130, 144, 146, 154-5, 162, 164. 1667, 179-80, 183, 214, 216. 262-3, 277.

Martha, 322.

Martin, John, 294; William, 105, 147.

Martinijorough, 294-5, 337, 342.

Marton, 261. 274-7, ’337, ’ 342.

Mason, Rev. John, 114, 261-2.

Massey. W. F., 162, 229, 259; Agric. College, 250. 28S, 298.

N.Z.’ Gazette, 77,’50, 92, 100. 111, 20C

N.Z. Institute, 197, 252. \T 7 T / SC 7 f. IQI

Masters, Joseph, 291-3, 296. ai_ . ,„ i cn « nn nc in

N.Z. Journal, 55, 76, 191. 7 cu: ; -ioo

Masterton, 167, ’l7o. 175, 195, 261, 288 96, 337, 342.

N.Z. Shipping Co., 228. \r 7 . ir\i ico o

Matarawa Valley, 264.

N.Z. Times, 201, 258-9.

Vlathew. Felton, 105, 117. - L> ;„1 I 11 A Of

Ohakune, 286. 337, 342.

Matthews, Richard, 114, 261. \.i ; ;n . i7c non

Mauricevillc. 176, 280.

Oliver Lang, 171.

Middlesex , 322.

O’Reily, Father J. J. P., 182, 188.

Moir, Rev. John. 185.

Oriental, 86. 89. ioo, 185-6, 241, 309-11

Moles, Mrs.. 29L

Ormond, J. D., 159, 272. A'Cl A L •1 An

Molesworth, Sir W., 45, 55. 79; F. A.. 79, 91, 145.

O’Shea. Arch., 247.

Otaki, 20, 36, 132, 138, 285-6, 337, 342.

Monrad, Bishop. 279.

Moore, George, 161. t * 11 T C 111

Paekakariki, 21. 34, 140-1, 168-9. i) r :..... n c i 7A e

Moorhousc, W. S., 221.

Page. Lieut. G. F., 134-5.

Morrell, W. P.. J43.”

Pahautanui, 133. 137, 233.

Morrison, Hugh, 100, 289; Morrison’s Bush, 293.

Pahaua, 169, 290.

Pahiatua, 294, 338, 342.

Morton, ’w. H., 204, 212. Moturoa, 266-7.

Palmer, G. (M.P.), 55.

Palmerston North. 175-6, 233-5, 260-1, 271. 273-4, 277-85, 338, 342.

Moutoa, Is., 265.

Mukamuka Rocks. 120, 169. Vf.VVi-w.l 111 IH7

Pandora. H.M.S., 153.

Murphy, Michael, 111, 182.

Papaitonga. Lake, 20-1.

Macarthy. T. G., 250.

Paraparaumu, 169.

McQeverty, Lieut.-Col., 144, 150. 264. u At ooe a. tco ooc

Paremata, 133. 138, 141.

McDonald, Alec, 275-6; Rod., 169, 285. 344.

Parewanui, 272-3. r> i. » o*7o

Park. Robert, 272-3.

McDonnell. Col., 54. 58. 174.

Parker, Robert. 255.

393

The City of the Strait

Petotus, 32.

* Rito-one), 66 8, 71-2, 90-6. 122 127, 136, 151, 185, 202, 238-40, 335,

Petre, Hon. H. W. t 91, 93, 119, 150 Lord, 45, 55, 183. IVtr.- I ; , ... .. ,

Petre (Wanganui). 114. 262

i»uii- ' »*/HKamii i. in, J P" I *?** Coleman, 295.

Pipiriki, 265-6.

J-, 55.

glimmer John, 160, 233-4.

Pohangina, 271’, 253.

-■lBlll.l, -/ i, 0.1 . Pomare (chief), 29; Sir Maui. 22.

rompalher. Bishop, 48-9. 182-3

Ponrua, 121-2 130. 133. 136-8' £rcsbyterian Church, 93. 185-6

T) 4 . , VIIUI Ul, -r-7. i O J-O Prouse, John, 255. Puakawa. 68-9. 103.

Pnni, Te, 24, 67-9, 103, 127, 136, 202 Puoho, Te, 25.

Raetihi, 286-7, 338, 342.

Rangihaeata. Te, ’l7. 35, 72-3 121-4 HI' 8 ' ,3 °- 133 . 155, 137, ’ 139-42.’ 184.

Rangitikei. 162, 175-6, 190, 271-8 ?812, 284, 286, 297. ’

Rapanui, 298.

Rau-o-te-Rangi, Te, 22.

Kauparaha, Te. 17-25, 32-3. 35-6. 68. 72-4, 103, 123-5, 133. 136-8. 141

184,’273, 344; Tamihana, 36.' ■SOD.

Redwood. Archbishop. 183. 247-8

Reeves, W. P., 246.

Regiment. 48th, 144; 58th. 129. 134-6 TniK'’eK ,3 S- 152 - 154 - 275: SOth! 106-7; 96th, 12a; 99th. 130; Wellington, 130.

Renall. Alfred, 161.

Resolution. 27.

Revans, Samud, 90. 92. 162.

* Ca r> t W. R.,97; Sarah Anne.

Richmond!, Major. 125, 133. 148- Mr Justice. 194. 196.

Riddiford. Daniel. 90, 288

Roach, Tom. 168.

Robinson. Capt., 274; Dr. G F 6>Joe, 30.

Roman Catholic Church. 182-4. 188

Rosanna. 28.

Ross. H.. 191. KACC44

Rosso. Bartolo, 243.

Rudge. Dr.. 58, 76.

Russell. Capt. A. H., 133; General Sir 133; Lord John. 114; Sir W..

Salmon*!. Sir John. 249. Sanson. (Sandon), 176-7. 274. 284

Saunders, Alfred. 66.

Scandinavian Settlers. 176. 279-81.

Scanlan. Nelle M.. 254. 344. "

Scott. David. 30; George. 144: Tom 144. 274.

Seager’ Hurst. 270.

* ln . C °I" PS .«f this book Captain W. B. Rhodes is described as the founder of the Rhodes family. This should read “leader.”

Seddon, R. J., 205 , 248.

sd %r& 9 h - ios - 1,7 *•».

Semple, Hon. R., 212, 221.

Shannon, 277. 338, 342; G. 8., 234.

, ‘ > * , ' i jjo, j*)(s p ij. 0., 234 Slntw Savili and Albion Co,. 72, 22s

S7T," 4 “»*v« oiuiuu v-0.. /z. Shilling, Capt. W., 231. Vi 1.. _ ■ 17 ir. t . ■ . .

Shirtcliffc, Sir G., 218.

twiut, -111 VI., 10. Shortland, Lieut. W., 105-8, 123,

Sinclair, Sir J. (M.P.), 45, 55.

C ii r* , ' 4,1,1 -/» “W. .mall harms Assoc., 167. 293-5.

Smith (trader), 72; Abel. 55'; Miss Annie Maria, ]B6; John. «V; Capt. , V\. Mem, 72, 94-0.

Sobraon, 15 2.

■ M/I/f I JO, Somes Is., 15, 55, 66-7, 90. 125 222Joseph, 54-5, 59.

Spain, William, 71, 115, 121-3, 125. 127.

Spectator, 1 10/ 112, 200-1 ~

Stephen, James. 49-50.

Stevens. John, 274.

Stewart, (Elisabeth) , 25, 33. 47; Hon Dowme, 344; J. T.. 279; Mount ?74

. A \ ' -*• * c/y < -Mount, n4. Stokes, Robert, 119.

Stout. Sir Robert, 87, 248-9, 267.

——*• ■ ■■ o/, Success, 306.

Sutherland. Alexander, 100, 169 185-6 290-1; Duke of, 241.

, "'ill'an? (Attorney-General), 103, 161; \\ . Swainson. p.R.S 119 121, 127. ’ ■

Taihape, 4. 280-7 , 297, .138, 342

Tamihana. TV Hewa. 266

Tara, 14-6; land of.’ 12-3 \ Whanganu. a-

Tara, 15.

Taratahi”, 293, 295.

" , » -’J. Tannga-Kuri. 121. 127-8.

Tauno village, 137.

Taylor, Rev. Richard, 33, 128-9 ? 6

* ncv. oicnaru. aj, 128-V. 26 Thompson. W.. M.P., 55.

Three-mile Bush. 294 If:.. ....

Tilke, Miss, 186

Titokowaru. 266-7.

Toins’s Whaling Station. 138. I (invarirn P-.-1

Pongariro National Park. 6. 28i

Toomath. Edward, 188-

Torrens. Capt., 55.

Tor i‘ , 2 . 4 ' 29 •' 3 «. 36. 38. 53-6. 58-62, 64-73, 90, 93. 242. 244. 30*.

Frafford. Major. 275.

Travers. W. T.’ L.. 233.

Troup. Sir George. 207. 221. 251

I uckey. Rev. H. E.. 188.

Turakina R.. 164. 262, 272.

ui liniiia fx., lot, O*, 6/ Turnbull. Alexander, 253: Walter. 234

Victoria University College. 248-50.

Wade, John.

,'ff“. i . kanae ’ 21. 36, 124. 137. I7S >4l Vvul'Hi, D OA

VVaikawa, R.. 20. , ~ .

Wairarapa. 6, 13.' 15-7, 118-20. 132, 143, 153. 159. 162. 164-71, 174-5 19^ 288-98 23 ' 232 ' 3 ' 241, 261 * 276 ‘ 28(> -

Wairau massacre, 25. 123. 130-1. 182.

Waitrmgi. treaty of. 51-2. 104-6. 113,

Waitotara, 174-5, 265-7. VVaitt. Robert. 145. 161.

Waitt. Robert. 145. 161!

Index

Wakefield, Capt. A., 123; Daniel. 150; E. G.. 34. 38-47. 50. 55-6, 60. 62, 79, 100, 104. 155-8, 161, 166, 200. 343;* E. J.. 13. 17. 22. 32. 62, 67-9. 78, 91, 110. 113-4, 116, 118, 145, 172, 201-2, 261-2. 343; Col. W.. 24. 27, 29, 30, 32. 35, 40. 51. 56-7, 60-8. 71-5, 90-4. 97. 102-3, 105, 107-9. 116, 121-3, 127, 154-5, 184, 192.

Wanganui. (Whanganui); city and district. 3. 24, 34. 73, 113-4, 116, 122, 135, 137, 140-3, 162, 168-70, 174 6, 178, 183, 190, 224, 260-70, 273. 276, 278, 298, 338. 342; Collegiate School. 265, 268-9; Harbour Board. 270. Ward. Is.. 14; Sir Joseph, 259; Louis. 343. 11/ U A* C OA.

Warspite, H.M.S.. 26.

Waters, John, 192. Wah w:iiiom i a:

Watt. William. 162. W.4ali William 260

Webb, William, 269.

Weir, William, 250. Air 1.1 C' I.' A 111) ICO 980.

Weld, Sir Frederick, 119, 150, 289-9(

Wellington city ; comparative latitude, 2; situation, physical features and climate, 9-11; purchase of land, 6872; arrival of first emigrants, 88-90; choice of site, 93-4; original plan. 95-7; naming of, 100-1; differences with Govt., 104-18; municipal government. 143. 145-6, 206-21; earthquakes 151-4; undier Provincial Government. 146; becomes capital 178: effects of change to capital. 205-6; education 186-91. 246-Sp; churches. 180-6; sports, 202-3; social life, 178180, 191-3; reclamations 215-6, 244; duelling. 86, 191-2; theatres. 198200, 256-8; music 254-5; literature. 253-4; libraries, 252-3; art and science. 250-2; newspapers, 200-2. 258-9; mayoral roll. 339; population, 342; books about, 343.

Wellington. City Council, 204, 207-9. 211-14. 216-21, 339; Chamber of Commerce. 222-3; college. 154, 188-9, 204. 220, 246-7; Duke of, 25. 60. 100-1; Harltour Board, 206, 215-6, 221-31 ; Manawatu Rly. Co., 215, 232-3, 235; Racing Club, 203’; Rugby Union, 203.

•On page 40. E. G. Wakefields hiograj>her should read “Richard Garnett,” not “Edward.”

349

Wellington Harbour (see Port Nichol son).

Wellington Province, natural conditions, 3-8; Maori life and inter tribal wars, 12-7, 20-5; colonisation movement in England. 38-57; N.Z. Company’s op erations 58-75; selection of emigrants, 75-80; emigrant ships, 80-90; land disputes, 112-16, 120-2, 127-9; exploration, 118-20; Maori wars, 129143, 174-5, 263-7; provincial system under constitution 158-9; political boundaries, 159; elections, 160-2; land problems, 164-8; land purchases, 175-6, 271-3: production 166, 224-5, 296-8; transport, 168-70. 194-6, 227 30. 231-37; immigration. 170-2, 176, 279-84; political deadlock. 172-3; secession of Hawke’s Bay. 173-4; abolition of Provincial Govt.. 177; education 186-91, 247-50; provincial life 260-61; gold-mining 237-8; provincial centennial memorial, 240; outsettlements 260-98; chronology 300 305; passenger lists of early ships, 306-23; political roll. 323-35: popula tion statistics, 340-42; trade statistics, 340-41: livestock statistics. 341; books about, 343-4.

Weraroa, 266.

Wesleyan Church. 184-5, 188; Missions, 30. 35-6, 93. 147.

Whanganui-a-Tara, 12, 16.

Whare-aitu, 139. 140, 264. slip,; 780

Wharekaka Valley, 289. aim ; t",, oa an o no

Wharepouri. Te. 24. 67-9. 72. 103.

Whatanui, Te, 22-3.

Whatonga, 14-5. iin.:.\ k . I.’

White (missionary). 35: Ensign. 136.

Whiterock station, 120, 290.

Whitmore. Sir George. 266-7. iir:ir i c; _ -ri, c- oo(\

Wilford, Sir Thomas. 220. nr:ti: in 70 a? 47

Williams. Henry, 30, 32, 36, 45, 47, 52-3, 106, 113. 261; J. H., 243; Samuel. 286; Capt. W. K.. 243. A cc

Willis, Arthur, 55.

Wilson. Sir James, 274. 344. KltlVt 124. 1.17. 141.

Wiremu Kingi. 124, 137, 141.

Wi-Tako, 24. nr. n u.f 7AA ■ 1? A

Wright. David McKee, 344; R. A., 221.

Young, George, 30; G.FF t 55. Zechair, 59.

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