Peninsula charms clouded by price

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 17

Peninsula charms clouded by price

Early Sketches and Charts of Banks Peninsula, 1770-1850. By Peter Bromley Mating. Reed, 1981. Limited Edition of 500 numbered copies. 100 pp. Index, Illustrations. $595.

(Reviewed by Naylor Hillary) For a sailor on a strange coast, an accurate chart can be a priceless possession. How much is a collection of charts, of varying accuracy, worth to a reader who wants to settle down with a handsome work of local history?

Reeds have been prepared to gamble that at least 500 libraries and individuals round the world are sufficiently interested in the early days of settlement on Banks .Peninsula to pay out almost $6OO for a collection of 22 paintings and 76 drawings and charts, most of which are not readily accessible elsewhere. The collection comes carefully boxed, beautifully bound, and very well printed (in Japan). The text is entertaining and well presented. Even so, the price is absurd.

That is a great pity, for the author and compiler, Dr Peter Maling, of Christchurch, is a notable local historian who has lavished much care and scholarship on what is, undeniably, a beautiful book.

It is not a perfect book. For the first few pages especially the captions to the illustrations are sometimes awkwardly mixed with the footnotes to the text. On some of the old maps and charts, even though they are reproduced on a lavish scale, some of the place names cannot be read, even with the help of a magnifying glass. This, flaw is especially evident on Captain ipavaud's “Plan of the Bay of Akaroa,” drawn in 1841. where the caption notes: “This fine MS chart, hitherto unpublished, has a wealth of Maori locality names.” Surely it would have been possible to transcribe them round edges of the chart, or even print them

more clearly on a transparent overlay for the map. • Lavaud's map, and several others, would also be much enhanced if an overlay showing a modern, accurate map of the area was included. That would have reinforced the impression that the map makers in the French and British navies 140 years ago were amazingly able men. The plan of Akaroa Harbour produced by Captain Owen Stanlev and one of his officers, J. S. Hill, of H.M.S. Britomart, is a case in point. As a chart it would still serve today. It is said to be the results of four days of hurried soundings and observations after the Britomart reached Akaroa in August, 1840, and before the French ships, Aube and Comte de Paris, appeared. Indeed, the quality of the mapping is so good that even a land-lubber yearns to know just how it was done. What were the instruments, what skills wepe needed to use them, and how do they compare with modern methods? This might seem like carping criticism of what is, essentially, a lavish picture book. Much more detail on the navigation and chart-making of the times would have greatly improved the book as a work of historical reference. The book traces in considerable detail the mapping and settlement of Banks Peninsula from 1770, when Captain Cook added “Bank’s Island” to his map of New Zealand, up to the arrival of the main Canterbury settlers in 1850. Captain Samuel Chase, of the ship Pegasus, established in 1809 that the island of Cook’s map was joined to the mainland. The amendments took some years to appear on charts. The first chart of Akaroa Harbour was drawn by two of the crew of the French warship Heroine in 1838. Captain Cecille, of the Heroine, drew charts of Port Cooper (Lyttelton) and Port Levy. Without the work of. the French and British navies accurate charts might have been slow to appear. The author notes that whaling

captains were fine navigators but poor chart makers, and the samples in this book demonstrate the point. The paintings and sketches reproduced here are a worthwhile record of the land as the first arrivals found it, of the Maoris on the peninsula, and of the first settlements. They, are also a reminder that in those days before photography an ability to sketch or paint was part of the equipment of many educated people: for naval officers it seems to have been an almost universal skill.

An exception must be made for the work of Charles Meryon, of the French corvette Rhin, which was in the area from 1843 to 1846. Meryon went on to become perhaps the greatest etcher in France and his studies from Banks Peninsula are outstanding. Tracking them down, in France, the United States, Britain, and New Zealand, has been a splendid feat.

Odd snippets of local history emerge from the text. Quail Island, for instance, received its name from Captain Mein Smith, chief surveyor of the New Zealand Company, who landed there in 1842 and flushed several native quail. Although today the destruction of the bush that covered much of Akaroa Harbour is deplored, one early attempt at conservation is noted here: Captain William Wakefield, who visited Banks Peninsula on behalf of the New Zealand Company in 1844, described a walk by bush track from Pigeon Bay to the head of Akaroa Harbour. “A road made under the direction of Captain Lavaud and Captain Berard forms an excellent communication round the harbour. A great deal of labour has been bestowed on it, and considerable judgment and taste displayed in its execution and m the care with which the fine trees have been preserved along its side.” In all. a book which is charming to handle, to read and to browse through. But not $595 worth of charm.