TIE EXHIBITION.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7418, 9 December 1889, Page 5

TIE EXHIBITION.

THE EABI.Y HISTORY OOUBT.

No. L [Bγ oub Special Rsportcb.} One of the most interesting of the many interesting courts of the New Zealand and South beas Exhibition is that devoted to the display of what may be c alled the materials of the early history of the colony. I say the materials because, unfortunately, the court is deficient in the I respect of an adaptation or illustration of the material which Dr. Hocken has so laboriously and so xealously collected together. To him it has been a labor of love. He has striven early and late to bring together and to arrange in chrono. logical order the various records of the olden times in New Zealand. And he has been most successful in doing it; so much 8 o that to spend a couple of hours in the court appropriated to these records of bygone days is to many of us a perfect revelation. There is pourtrayed by means of the printed documents and (pictures the history of New Zealand, even from the early missionary days, when they went with their lives in their, hands, amongst the then savage Maoris. One can contrast the few scattered huts on the site now occupied by the busy city of Danedin, with the magnificent; buildings which are erected where the sod whare and raupo hue once only existed. You can then turn to the picture of the great Canterbury plain, desolate in Its wildness, with but a handful 'of dwellings, wherenoir rises a city. Then look at the picture of Auckland in 1844, and Wellington, the Empire City, in 1841, and compare them with the magnificent displays of the various iaduseriee made by these places in their respective Courts. When one has done this and also placed in fancy side by side with the ill printed small insignificant journals of that period the broad sheets of the newspapers of to-day, then it is that we begin somewhat to realise the vast strides which the colony has made during her first fifty, years of existence. It is to the zeal, the study and the research of Dr. Hocken that we owe this, and it is a deep debt of gratitude which the colony win find it hard Co repay except in some way to aid and assist him in tue formation of a national collection with a view of preserving these most interesting records of the past, so that there shall be no fear of their dispersal. Dr. Hooken has divided the collection into five distinct groups or divisions. The first of these illustrates the early maps, charts and plana of New Zealand, extending from 15-12 to 1849. Then comes a case of documents, papers, &c, connected with the foundation andsettlementof the colony and specimens of the early New Zealand newspapers and Government Gazettes. The last division, if we except the special one referring to the Otago Church Settlement, which may be said to possess somewhat of a local element only, is that containing the pictures referring to the various parts of the colony, which enables the visitor almost at a glance to become aware of the vast change which has taken place since the period illustrated by these most interesting pictures. Now having put the scheme of the court before my readers, Itet mc give briefly some idea of the details comprised in the bays allotted to this part of the Exhibition, and though not strictly in conformity with the method of arrangement, I will just allude to the pictorial part of the display, because this is a part which will more strongly appeal to the visitors as delineating the state of things then, and enabling a contrast to be made with that which exists now. The first three pictures show Wellington In 1839 and in 1841. There are two pictures cf the settlement in the latter year—one showing the harbour, and the other 1 a part of the town with a kej plan, which, enables the curious visitor to locate the habitations of the early pioneers of the place, very small and scattered are the huts and buildings in this illustration. Then comas New Plymouth in 1841, showing where the settlement was to be placed, for at the time this was drawn no settlement existed. All that one sees Iβ green hills, backed by the hoary head of Mount Egmout standing put against the blue sky like a gigantic; watchoiaa. The city of Auckland as vie appeared on the

Ist February , , 1 1844, with a key plan, comes next in order, and it would oe diffl> cult even for one of the oldest inhabitants of what has been poetically but aptly called tne Corinth of New Zealand, to trace now where the residences delineated on the key plan formerly stood. Then follow in chronological order scenes of Auckland from various points in 1852, showing the progress made in the eight years which had elapsed since the picture referred to above was taken. To Canterbury people, more especially those who have been to the West Coast, the pictures of Hokitika, Okarito, Greymouth, and Bealey in 1803 will be of considerable interest. As illustrating the second epoch in our history, the introduction of responsible government, one side of the bay is filled with the portraits of a trio of speakers , 6f the House of Representatives. These include Sir Charles Clifford, Sir D. Monro, and Sir. M. O'Rorke. There Is also a very flue picture of Sir W. Fltzherbert atrd one of Sit J. L» 0. Richardson. Close by are portraits, of Mr Charles Kettle, the Chief Surveyor for the New Zealand Company of the OtagO block, many of whose delineations of early Otago appear on the walls of the bay; Then we nave Major Richmond and Mr W. B, D,; Mantell,' both of whom have played no inconsiderable part in the early history-of the-eelony. Passing along to the next i bay one notes three pictures specially interesting to Canterbury folk. These- are. a picture by Mr H. J. Cridknd, dated 1850, of Mr John Deans' house at Kiccarton, erected before the arrival of the first settlers, and Where many of them experienced warm and kiudiy hospitality when on & voyage of discovery to whac was to them the Promised Land. T|ns building, though in a somewhat dilapidated condition, is ncill extant, and is amongst one of the most interesting relics of Old Canterbury; Here Mi- Godley, the leader of the Canterbury pilgrims, sojourned during his early visits to the Plains to prepare the way. Then there is a view from the top of the Port Hills, looking oat on to the Canterbury Plains, taken in 1852. The two clumps of bushes—Papanui and Riccarton—are to be seen in the distance wicb the rivers gilding through the plain. She few scattered houses which occupied the site which is now Christchurch are shown lookitcg, from the distance at which they are situate, even more insignificant than they really are. There are also two views of Lytteltoa taken at the same j time, one of the harbor and one of the j town, which are well worthy close inspection by the visitor. Mr WynnWiliiams sends a view of what he colli "uld Christchurch," being a reproduction by Mr J. Peele in oil of & drawing made by the late Dr. Barker* of Christchu.%h, in 1852. The wide expanse of plain is dotted only here and there by a few houses, conspicuous amongst which are the fine-looking building occupied by the doctor himself and the old Land Oflice, afterwards the K.M. Court and City Council offices, and one or two other old' f&sliioned-iookiiig edifices which were all that composed the Town ol Chrietchurch in 1852. ' Here let me.-conclude for the present, reserving the other contents of this Dart of the Exhibition for a future article.