BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 108, 8 May 1901, Page 2

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

To-day the octogenarian pioneer of Ihe Waitemata, Dr. John Logan Campbell, took his scat as Mayor of the .City of Auckland, an honour conferred on him at a fitting season in recognition of his long residence here, his liigh character, and the prominent share he took in the great work of "nation-building in these lands. At this time, when, after a long period of retirement from public affairs, the Venerable Doctor comes before the public as the Chief Magistrate of the city, at a time, too, when he will have *he distinguished honour of welcoming ihe Duke and Duchess of York to these Shores, a sketch of his eventful career should be of deep interest.

Dr. John L. Campbell, M.D., W.E.C.S., now 83 years of age, is the only son of the late John Campbell, Esq., M.D., of Edinburgh, and grandson of the late Sir James Campbell, Baronet, of Abernchill and Kilbryde, Perthshire. The Doctor comes of an ancient and honourable Scottish line. 3le was educated in Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.D. at its University, then the first medical school of the Kingdom. Having been bitten •with the mania which prevailed in the Old Country in 1838 -39 for emigrating to Australia, where everyone was to make a fortune in a few years by wool-growing,^ he threw up a commission in the East India Company's service and sailed from Greenock, July, 1839, in the ship Palmyra, Captain Brown, bound for Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, with emigrants and cargo. He was the medical officer in charge of the ship. H'he first part of the voyage was rather an exciting one, for a collision occurred six days out, and the foremast and main-topmast were carried away, and the ship had to put back to Greenock for repairs. In due course the Palmy-j-a arrived at Sydney. After a visit to ±he Bathurst Plains (where he had an opportunity of studying the convict element of the colony), Dr. Campbell gave up the idea of sheep and cattleraising and farming in Australia, and determined to try his fortunes in the •new colony of New Zealand. Dr. Campbell's racily written book *'Poenamo," a classic in our New Zealand literature—gives a vivid account tof his early experiences in Maorilafad. He came across to Wellington 'in March, 1840, when that settlement was represented by a few raupo houses and tents at .the mouth of the Hutt. Setting out thence for the Js Torth he settled on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf long before pakaha craft had superseded the canoes of the Maoris. He landed at Waiau harbour, Coromandel, a beautiful landlopked little bay, surrounded by wooded hil.. The Maori population here was v(>y large at that time, for •white men were "rare birds" in those days, and th* Maori warriors made the rude laws of Aotearoa. The Doctor end his "chum" took up their quarters with a pakeha-Maori known as "Waipeha" (Webster) to the natives. Webster was a well known trader in those days and he lived here under the protection of the great chief Te Taniwha ("Old Hook Nose"). Soon after settling there Dr. Campbell made a boat excursion up to the Waitemata, and navigated this harbour before a white man set foot on the Auckland beach, for Auckland town was not. A few months afterwards the seat of Government was shifted here from Kororareka, Bay of Islands. On their way up to Auckland Dr. Campbell and his boating comrades called at Waiheke Island, where a large barque, the Delhi, was loading Icaun spars for England, and in his chapter "The Timber Draggers," in "Poejiamo,"' the Doctor gives a graphic description of the wild and exciting >ccene which presented itself in the forest above Waiheke Passage, where every available man of the local tribe was mustered to haul out to the beach a huge kauri log, eighty feet long, the largest spar of the Delhi's cargo, and the last required to make, her a full ship. After leaving Waiheke the. party entered the Waitemata, and sailed up to Orakei Bay. Dr. Campbell thus wrote of his first experiences of the [Waitemata on that day in 1840.— "How lovely and peaceful were Waitemata's sloping shores as we explored them on that now long long ago morning! As we rowed over her calm waters the sound of our oars was all that broke the stillness. No, there was something more—the voices of four cannie Scotchmen and one shrewd Yankee (the sum and the substance of the first invading civilisation), loud in the praise of the glorious landscape which lay before them. On that morning the open country stretched far away in vast fields of fern, and Nature reigned supreme. "We rowed up the beautiful harbour close in shore. No sign of human life that morning; the shrill cry of the curlew on the beach, and the full rich carol of the tui, or parson bird, from the brushwood skirting the shore fell faintly on the ear." The exploring party walked over the isthmus to the shores of the Manukau, ascending Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill) on the way, and next day made an expedition up the Waitemata as far as Pahi (Pine Island). They endeavoured to buy land from the Maoris, who, however, would not sell, so the party returned to Coromandel. Afterwards Dr. Campbell, shifted his quarters to Waiomo, on the Hauraki Gulf, close to the Thames,' where he and his partner, Mr Brown, lived with the Ngatitamatera tribe and the fine old chief Kanini, and flubbed out their maiden canoein the forest. The account of life in the primitive Maori village of Waiomo is one of the most interesting passages in "Poenamo."

Dr. Campbell and his partner were to impressed with the idea that on the

slopes of the Waitemata the future capital would be fixed that they purchased from the natives the little island of Motu-Korea (Brown's Island) and came up in their canoe in August and lived there. In September the Government officials arrived from the Bay of Islands and commenced the survey of the future town. In December, 1840, Dr. Campbell left the island and pitched his tent in Commercial Bay, Auckland. The tide then washed the beach • where the Post Office now stands. The doctor threw aside his profession and started the firm of Brown and Campbell. The firm purchased at the first town sale (April 1841) the allotment on which it has ever since conducted its-busi-ness. In 1848 after a nine years' absence from the Old Country, Dr. Campbell left the colony on a visit Home, going through Torres Straits to India, thence via the Red Sea to Suez ,and making the ascent of the Nile to the second Cataract in Nubia. Thereafter he toured Greece, the Bosphorous, and went through Europe, travelling continuously for 15 months before reaching Home. He returned to Auckland at the end of ISSO, and in 1851 paid a short business visit.to San Francisco.

In 1555 Dr. Campbell entered the field of politics. He contested successfully the Superintendency of Auckland with Mr Whitaker, and at tbe same time was returned at the head of the poll as a member of the nouse of Representatives for Auckland. In 1855, also, he started the rifle-shooting and volunteer movement in Auckland, thus inaugurating at the Antipodes the citizen-soldier movement long before it was begun in England, lie was a Minister without portfolio in the' Stafford-Kichniond-Sewell-Whita-ker Cabinet on the introduction of responsible Government. He resigned the superintendence and seat in the Cabinet towards the end of 185G, and again went to the Mother Country. In 1859 he once more entered the House as member for Parnell (elected unopposed). It was on this occasion that he took an active part with Mr Thos. Russell and Mr James Williamson in starting the Bank of New Zealand.

In 18G1 he again returned to Europe, with the intention of taking a long holiday, which was prolonged to nine years, spent chiefly on the Continent and notably in Italy. In 1871 he rer turned to Auckland and has resided here ever since. Amongst the public positions held by Dr. Campbell in past years was the chairmanship of the Auckland Board of Education, and he also was a prominent member of the Auckland Institute, Acclimatisation Society, and other public institutions. He has at various times been chairman of many local bodies, and has conducted a successful business ever since Auckland's inception. He is at present Chairman of Directors of the Campbell-Ehrenfried Brewery Company. The veteran doctor has watched the growth of Auckland city from a fern-clad waste with a.few scattered tents to its present proportions, and in spite of his advanced age is still strong and hearty, and seems to be of the stuff from which centenarians are made.