The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1020. THE "AUCKLAND STAR" JUBILEE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 7, 8 January 1920, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1020. THE "AUCKLAND STAR" JUBILEE.

For the wrong that need* retUtana, For the future in the dittance. And the good that we can do.

Fifty years represent a long period in : the span of human life; and in New Zealand a retrospect of 'half a- century car- ' ries us back to the childhood of the nation. When the "Auckland Star" made its appearance on the Bth of January, 1870, the British flag had only been floating over these beautiful and fertile islands for thirty years. Many of the ■pioneer settlers were then taking an i active part in the national, commercial, , religious and social life of the city. Men who had been personally concerned in missionary work among the aboriginal inhabitants were still carrying on active ' pastoral duties in town and country. The early traders had developed into far- '■ seeing founders of great mercantile insti- j tutions which are to-day carrying on operations in far distant commercial fields. Parliamentary institutions were then only seventeen years oldj md reeponsible Government less than fourteen years. Our Jubilee, therefore, recalls not only our own youth, but it c»Ua up personal memories l of the men who were directly associated with the birth of the nation. Only seven years hs,vo elapsed since one of these splendid pioneers, the late! Sir John Logan Campbell, who pitched , his tent on the tenantless site of the ' infant capital, passed away, leaving as! a legacy to tho people of Auckland all the wealth ho had accumulated in but, long life—a noble example to the present and future generations of New Zealandors. We are justified, therefore, in asso"ciating the birth of the "Auckland Star" -with the first breathings of vigorous life in a community that has before it » great destiny, which men like the founders of the Now Zealand Company or tho passengers on the first j immigrant ships to Auckland dimly per- ] ceived, but which spread out as a> splen- , did vision in the imagination of men ' j possessing the foresight and political ] wisdom of Sir George Grey and Biehop , Selwyn. j, And in looking through the bound i volumes which encase the literary and , political ideals of this journal, we may say without egotism that- it has always ■ ( stood for principles of human advance- j : mont, for liberty and equality, for tho': protection of this young country against the evils of the Old World, for the spread of education, the cultivation of a- spirit of toleration and fraternal feel-*' ing among all. sections of the people, the repression of wrong and the upholding of right. This claim contains no suggestion of or pretension to infallibility. Every tgell balanced mind sees in ' its best effort the possibility of something better, if gifted with greater : insight and Capability. And to make ' mistakes is our common lot. Some people indeed are more lovable because * Of their mistakes, due to the impulsive-1 j ,neeg Of warm-hearted generosity and a H lack of that cold calculation which rarely, i fails to attain its end. 'But the main ' thing is a desire to do right according to one's lights, and the facts as they j present themselves at the time. And in < this endeavour W6 niay safely claim o that * the "Auckland Star" Las not been ( unfaithful to the motto which appears . t at the head of its leading columns. < Tae immigrant in these days -erf steam. 'who, after a short and comparatively ' comfortable voyage, lands in a city where , every luxury known in the older lands j hae its counterpart; will find ib difficult ' to realise the conditions under which ' the pioneer eettlera of the forties, fifties, and sixties took up tho burden of life f in a new land. They were faced not i merely by the-hardships that are insep* • arable from life in. any primitive community, but had toc'ope with a warlike \ Tit'.n, with whom, unhappily, pe&ceful i Tela-ticm* Bad bec&me ruptured. 'But • the distance front the Homeland afrl the * cost Of passages to New Zealand eXer- \ ciged a winnowing effect Upon the Jiopu* i latidn which found its way into these * islands before the portals were more J widely opened under a of free J immigration inaugurated in the seven-11

ties. The early settlers of New Zealand were, therefore, an exceptionally fine rice of men and women, conspicuous for intelligence, courage and enterprise. The newspaper press of fifty years ago affords excellent evidence of this. Even as far back as as the early sixties a monthly magazine was published that would be considered quite a creditable •production to-day; and, on the commercial side, the Bank of Xcw Zealand, ■the great insurance companies, the Auckland Savings Bank, and othfer institutions testify to the 'business capacity 'of Jirst sebblpii). In the wider sphere of national politics the decision of the J»e\v Zealand Parliament to dispense -with Imperia' troops and undertake the .entire responsibility for internal defence, manifested ■ the same spirit of sturdy self-reliance. All these qualities are displayed in the descendants of that splendid stock, as we have seen demonstrated in the great worfd war. Speaking at a jubilee reunion in il8!K, Dr. J. Logan Campbell, after describing the hardships that beset settlers when the site of Auckland was a fern-clad waste, with patches of flax swamp, said to the rising generation: "The danger that lies in your path, is, that you may too easily acquire and indulge in those comforts and luxuries which lead to enervated lives, and ultimately to deterioration of character. Be but true," he concluded, "to yourselves, and to the ancient traditions of" the land of your forefathers, and a happy future is in store for you." This message comes from one whose association with the city dates back not merely fifty years, but to its very foundation eighty years ago, and it contains the essence of a truth which has lost none of its vitality with the passing of years, but may well be taken to heart by us all. In our Jubilee Supplement to-day we give a brief outline of the progress made by Auckland and the- Dominion during the past fifty years. Its outstanding features are the amazing growth in wealth and general comfort. Topographically the entire aspect of Auckland's waterfront has been changed. | The sea has been pushed far back from its old margin along the line of Fort Street, and replaced by hundreds of acres of reclaimed land, covered with spacious warehouses and handsome public and private buildings; the old inadequate wooden wharves have been exchanged for broad concrete quays; the benefits of free elementary schools have been supplemented by technical, secondary , and university education within, the reach of every boy and girl; new industries are being continually developed; the fertile virgin lands of the country are changing into rich pasturage, under : the efforts of a capable, and industrious farming population"' /Tho ,'wbxl£ .to be done bo greatly exceeds the number of available workers that our returned eoldiers have become reabsorbed without giving rise to a single cry of lack' of employment. Surely such a> condition of material prosperity, in a land of sunshine and blue skies, should ensure to its inhabitants an abounding happiness and contentment, and produce in our minds b. glowing vision of the wonderful things which the coming fifty years have in store for the generation whose outlook Lo-day is taken from a Pisgah height, corresponding with that from which men riewed the future of Auckland when the "Star" came into existence half-a-century ■ ago. ' I