J. C. FIRTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 147, 24 June 1933, Page 9 (Supplement)

J. C. FIRTH.

A GREAT PIONEER. CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY AND EMPIRE BUILDER. ROMANCE OF MATAMATA.

(By E.A.)

In order to portray the proper background on which the subject of this article may move, please turn aside from the modern trappings of life and try to visualise Auckland as it was in 1554, 14 years after Lieutenant-Governor Hobson first proclaimed British sovereignty over these southern islands. [ Auckland was then a. village of 2000 inhabitants, the size of Northcote, Pukekohe or Cambridge, and without any of their advantages in the way of footpaths, water supply, lighting or drainage. Beyond the foot of Wakefield Street there was open country in all directions, and gorse and manuka covered the site of the present Town Hall. It wae possible to go by boat from the beach at Fort Street up the Ligar Canal to Victoria Street, and only a few scattered shanties were to be found on the western side of Queen Street. A poor setting for the advent of "a captain of commerce." Yet into those surroundingsi J. C, Firth strode as a stranger, made his mark as a man, and lived to see many of his'dreams come true. Josiah Clifton Firth was a remarkable man. He grasped the opportunities that came near to bis hand. With an inspired faith in the future of this country, with a vision that saw further and more clearly than his fellow pioneers the coming greatness of this city, with a disinterestedness that was unique he worked and planned for the noble future of its trade and commerce. He initiated vast policies of construction and development; he gavo his creative energy full scope in developing mighty schemes for transforming this virgin land into a centre of civilisation; and in his time was instrumental in founding and furthering at least four of the . great primary industries of this country—the kauri gum industry, the flourmilling industry, tho cool storage industry, and land settlement. A City Pioneer. Born in 182G, tlie scion of a Yorkshire parsonage, ho was early associated with the ironware industry, and rose to the position of manager in the iron works of his uncle. He came out to New Zealand in 1854 when 2S years of age, with £3,30 in his possession, and first of all established a brick works at the foot of Cook Street. From this venture ho gravitated into flour milling, and for over a quarter of a century he dominated the flour milling industry of the North Island. The original firm was Thornton, Smith and Firth, but it was not long before Mr. Firth was in sole control. My childhood memories recall the Old Mill in Queen Street, whero tho rumble of machinery was heard day and night. Smeeton's grocers shop afterwards occupied tho site, and part of it is now occupied by the Farmers' Trading Company.

From this site Mr. Firth, left as the sole controller of this business, was among the first business men of the city to realise the value of a site on the new waterfront created by tho reclamation work of the Auckland Harbour Board, and in 18S9 there he erected against the advice of the carping critics of the 'eighties that five-storey building which now bears the legend of tho Northern Roller Milling Company. This building represented an experiment in construction, being, I believe, the first great structure of tho kind in New Zealand to be erected in concrete.

Firth used a powerful dynamo for the generation of electrical power, and made an offer to the City authorities to light Queen Street with tho new illuminant. This offer was discounted as new-fangled and revolutionary, but finally Mr. Firth obtained permission to install eleven lights from Quay Street to Victoria Street "at hits own expense." The installation was successful, but the City Council of that day were a bit too modest about'achieving the honour of being the first city in New Zealand to be lit by electricity, and Mr. Firth was reluctantly compelled to dismantle his globes and wires. The Romance of Matamata. The romance of his life, however, revolved around his great venture in the settlement of Matamata. There he played the pioneer; in this undertaking alone he more than justified his reputation as a captain of industry and an empire builder, and the sobriquet bestowed on him by his fellow colonists— the "Lion of the North." Ho conceived this scheme of settlement as an auxiliary to his flourmilling operations, holding that if he could grow tho wheat for his own requirements, he would place his business in an impregnable position. Through friendship with Wiremu Tamehana, the Maori "Kingmaker,'' in ISOG, Mr. Firth purchased •35,000 acres of native laud right in the middle of what afterwards became hostile country. Here he proceeded to bring the fern-clad wastes under the plough, lie transported thither an army of workers, and they cleared and cultivated and fenced and built sit his dictation. It must have been an epic moment when, lifter innumerable difficulties and perils of transport up the treacherous snaginfested Waihou River, Firth stood, like Cortez, in Mcxico, surveying his new kingdom, and directing whero the first

pick should be driven into the virgin soil, where tlie first • wliare should be built, and where the boundaries of his farm should be defined. He ultimately succeeded in cultivating 2.3,000 acres of tliits territory—a colossal undertaking for that time. Unsnagging the Waihou. It is an epic of high adventure that is narrated concerning that same river Waihou which connected his estate with the sea. From time immcinorable snags had obstructed this waterway, but just as Napoleon decreed that "there should be no Alps" when planning hits invasion of Italy, so Firth resolved that there should be no snags in the Waihou, and by dint of his own endeavours lie cleared 50 miles of his river highway. This cost him over £7000 of his own money, and with a stiff-necked pride be declined anything in the nature of Government assistance. The workers on the estate had frequently to protect themselves with lilies and revolvers, and some very narrow efica'pes were recorded. On th.cse occasions all the women were sent to Cambridge, and the work of subdividing the estate had to be abandoned. Subsequently a concrete defensive tower was crected with salutary clTect, for though often.threatened, it was never attacked. This same self-reliance was shown when, liv reason of Maori resistance, the river

[was no longer available for his maI chinery and crops, and he determined I to go by road through the then hostile j Waikato. Without a by-your-leave he surveyed and made a dray road for over twenty miles, connecting the infant vil- | lage of Cambridge with his estate, and | held it against all-comers. His Parliamentary Career. His victories in tho realm of commerce were amplified by his entry into the politics of his day, in 1861, as representative for Auckland West, where his sagacity in counsel was recognised by the Stafford Ministry then in power, and he was made chairman of the first Parliamentary railway committee. It may bo taken for granted that higher Parliamentary honours would undoubtedly have been his, for he was a skilled debater, and his pithy speeches are a delight to the reader. He fought like a gentleman for the principles that sustained him, but his active spirit chafed when words Mere not sustained by deeds, and he soon relinquished the Legislature for the more congenial sphere of practical commerce. His Parliamentary career was fruitful, however, in further enhancing his reputation as New Zealand's first'captain of commerce, for while there he promoted a bill which established the first regular coastal and intercolonial steam postal service between Australia and New Zealand, and it was largely by his agency that the original charter was granted to the founders of the Bank of New Zealand.

Into liis last venture, the pumice insulating industry, Mr. Firth threw all his characteristic energy and determination and spent his declining years ill lighting a hard battle in the interests of one of the most important branches of colonial commerce, the cold storage trade. ITo was the first president of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Institute, and its transactions telling of his scientific investigations into the volcanic structure of Mount Eden and make interesting reading. He planted the pine trees which still crown Mount Eden; lie was instrumental in introducing chaffinches, goldfinches and skylarks to New Zealand; he imported the humble bee to fertilise his clovcr fields; he put salmon ova in the Thames River; he liberated the first deer in New Zealand; he tvas a personal friend of three Governors—Sir George Grey, Sir Georgo Gore Browne and Sir William Jervois; unarmed he met Te Kooti and his murderous rebels; he went into tho hostile YVaikato in 1800 to plead with Tawliiao, Tamati Ngapora, Rewi Maniapoto, that they would receive H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh when he visited New Zealand. These achievements were all by-paths of his empire-building genius, and, added to his capacity as a captain of commerce, 6tamp him as an outstanding personality' who played a notable pari in the history and development of New Zealand.