VALUABLE RECORDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 153, 10 April 1930, Page 6

VALUABLE RECORDS.

EARLY AUSTRALIA. (Special to the "Guardian.") WELLINGTON, April 9. Two valuable records of early Australia are in the possession of Mr J. B. Merrett. a New Zealander, who arrived in Wellington from England by the Tonic yesterday on his way to Melbourne. In a bookstall in London, he found a copy of Stockdale's account of the arrival of the first fleet under Governor Philip at Botany Bay. The volume was published two years after the first settlement of Sydney, and it is considered a rare treasure in Australia. The other discovery is the original letter patent appointing Dr. Perry to be the first Bishop of Melbourne. It consists of three sheets of parchment, sealed by Queen Victoria, and dated two days before Bishop Perry's consecration at Cambridge.

The document was apparently dispatched from London by coach to be in time for the ceremony. Bishon Perry apparently took the papers back to London after his 20 years in Victoria, and. they found their way to a book sale. The bookseller kept them in his cellar for years before their discovery by Mr Merrett. The relic will he presented to St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.