OLD NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 158, 4 July 1916, Page 7

OLD NEW ZEALAND.

UNEARTHING EARLY HISTORY. SOME VALUABLE FINDS. LECTURE BY DR. McNAB. An instructive and moist interesting lecture was given by the Hon. Dr. McNab at the Epsom Presbyterian Church last evening on the subject, "How the Facts of the Early History of Now Zealand were Unearthed." There was a large attendance of the public, and the lecturer was given a most attentive hearing. The Rev. W. McDonald presided. Dr. McNab. in his introductory remarks, explained how he had been led into a study of the. early history of New Zealand. Nineteen years ago he set himself the task of gathering particulars of the pioneers of Southland, and found the work most interesting. His interviews with the old people whose memories of experiences wont back as far as 1865 naturally brought him into contact with whaling and sealing stories, which have always had a fascination for most people. Those stories opened up a fascinating field of inquiry into the early history of the colony. At first ho had difficulty in getting the material he sought, but eventually hit on the idea of hunting up the newspapers, which proved to be a mine of information. In Sydney he found files from 1803 downwards, and nearly every issue had some reference to whalers or sealers that frequented the Now Zealand coast. Various newspapers were searched, and gradually tho extracts, which were all arranged chronologically, furnished a rugged, broken narrative of the motley gathering of sealers, whalers, timber men. shipbuilders, cannibals, missionaries, visitors from foreign parts, and the hundred and one kinds of individuals who visited Now Zealand "before the establishment of law and order knocked all the romance nut of colonial life."

Valuable information was. also unearthed in the records of the Sydney Supreme Court, tho judge's notes of evidence in oases connected with sealing often throwing most interesting sidelights on the wild life that went on round the coasts of Xew Zealand. While at work in Sydney Dr. MeXal) came across frequent references to the old American whalers, such names as New Rodford. Salem, Nantucket, often cropping up, and these references led him to Boston, U.P.A.. in further search of New Zealand's early history. In documents at this city Dr. .UeNab found some deeply interesting information of the early days of New Zealand, and in some instances ho came across information that he never expected to find in such a source. Such, for instance, was the finding in the log of a man on the Britannia (the first sealer to come to New Zealand) the story of the wreck of Cook's ship the Endeavour. It appeared that Conk begged an officer from the Britannia, and it was the diary of this man that gave the information, besides a host of other most valuable details. The doctor commented on the fact that all that information, over a century old. was found on tho shelves of a Boston Society. These logs varied according to the personality of the man who wrote them. These little scraps were all piecc-d together to form the narrative just as a child, with ate- blocks, makes a picture.

Crossing the Atlantic, the searcher' after New Zealand's, early history wontto the ancestral home of the British Empire, and of course was not disappointed. Many profitable days were spent nt the Record Office in Chancery Lane, London. Incidentally, the lecturer said he proved the fallacy of the statement that Cook had at Napier sailed over what was now dry land. Cook's journal proved that he did nothing of the sort. The same legend had been circulated about Wellington, Banks Peninsula, and Otago Peninsula. It might be asked, he said; why bother to go to all the trouble of looking through the originals when "Cook's Voyages" were available to everyone? The doctor pointed out that "Cook's First Voyage," for instance, was not written by Cook at all, which was put together by Hawkesworth in his best literary style. The doctor naturally drew on the records of the British Museum for information. While in London lie hunted up particulars of early visits by Russian explorers and Spanish explorers. The Hydrographic Society, the records of the East India Company, the London Customs Office were also ransacked, and then the doctor went over to Paris in trace of the French whalers who came out to New Zealand from 1836 to 1840, and the various visits of French warships. These brief details, said the lecturer in conclusion, would give some idea of what the collecting of material for a history of New Zealand meant. He considered it would take thirty years to write the history of New Zealand over the period before t,He Union Jack fluttered from the pole at Kororareka (Russell), and intimated to the world that another colony had joined the Empire. So far the doctor has issued two volumes dealing with the history of the South Island, and has dealt with that of the North Island up to ISIS. At the conclusion of the lecture a hearty vote of thanks was accorded the speaker, on the motion of Mr. S. J. Harbutt. A solo was contributed by Mr. McDougall.