A PEEP AT THE PAST

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 153, 16 March 1923, Page 4

A PEEP AT THE PAST

SOME ARRIVALS EIGHTYTHREE Y 7 EARS AGO

EARLY COLONISTS IN WELLINGTON

(By

H.F.)

..If Auckland people were asked when and, where their Grand Old Man, the late Sir John Logan Campbell, first landed in New Zealand, they would no doubt exclaim : “Before the arrival of Governor Hobson, and on tho beautiful shores of Waiau, Coromandel Harbour.” As a matter of fact, Sir John first landed in New Zealand at Port Nicholson on Mardh IG, 1840, and to-day is tho eighty-third anniversary, whilo Captain Hobson, R.N., our first Governor, had already landed at Kororareka, on January 29 of that year. Tho ship that conveyed Sir John to These shores was tho Lady Lilford, 596 tons, Captain Kermeh, leaving Sydney for Port Nicholson on March 5, and according to the Sydney “Gazette,” carried twelve cabin passengers, and sixteen and several children in the steerage. His name was advised simply as Dr. Campbell, and From this has escaped association with him. In 1888 this distinguished early colonist published a little book entitled “Poenamo,” in which he gives _ the memoirs of his early life, but it is singularly 'reticent on how and when ho came to New Zealand, the opening sentence in the first character, Book 11, being: “We are sailing into Waiou Harbour.” His arrival at Port Nicholson was before our newspaper era, and we are for a time at a loss to know ■how ho reached Coromandel Harbour from embryo Wellington. ■ Up to 'March, 1840, the harbour anchorage was between Somes Island and I’etone Beach, so wc can well assume that Logan Campbell first landed at Britannia, as Petone was then designated, i<nd wandered among its sand hummocks interspersed with tents and tarpaulin habitations. After remaining here a few days the Lady Liltord proceeded to tho north, and from another Hource we learn that in April and Mav, 1840, was at Waiheke Island, in* the best and safest harbour in the Firth of Thames, loading firewood for Valparaiso. There also was the Delhi taking on board timber for the Sydney market. Now, Bir John does toll us they found the Delhi at anchor there, loading kauri for the Australian market to t-lio order of Yankee William Webster, self-styled King of Waiau, and on the map that, accompanies liis book tlie Delhi is shown just to the south cf East or Kauri Point, at an anchorage io which Felton Mathew, 18-11, mapped the name Rangui Bav. and is now known as Man of War Bay. ft is therefore apparent sir John first set foot on the eastern mainland early in April, 1840. All this is interesting inasmuch as it completes an unsatisfactory hiatus in the book “Poenamo,”. his way of rendering Pounamu, New Zealand greenstone. Among other passengers conveyed to Port Nicholson in the Lady Lilford we find the names of Messrs. Grace, Hume. Watt, Bell (3),'and Goodfellow. Tho first two are given as Grose and Havre, while others not mentioned by me are either, mis-spelled or rendered bevong recognition. Mr. Charles Grace was the first male school-teacher in Port Nicholson, and by the end of 1819 had the Wellington Academical Institution at the bottom of what is now Woodward Street. Mr. Peter Ilumr. became the well-known Wairarapa settler. Mr. James Watt was the first farmer in Port Nicholson and user of the first plough, cultivating land at Miramar. For many years the peninsula was known as "Watt’s Peninsula nutd changed to its present name in 18/2 by Mr. j. C. Crawford, who considered the old name neither euphonious nor appropriate. One of tho Bell family was Mr. William Gordon Bell, so interestingly described at the end of Chapter XVIII, ■Wakefield’s “Adventure in New ZealaiicTV Prior to proceeding to Wanganui in 1841, ho lived at Petone, and then at Berhampore, going to Nelson subseoueiit to the. massacre of the Gdfillan family at Wanganui, 18-1., where he farmcil extensively at Hope. In the voyage from England to Adelaide, m 1839, .I)" Was a fellow-passenger of tho Hon. William Robinson, AI.L.C., of the Cheviot Estate, who was. sometime known ns Ready-money Robinson, and <Jiose daughter, bv the way, is Lady Francis Bell. Ths last passenger named in my list. Mr. William. Goodfellow, was at'Auckland in 18)0, and I believe two of his sons wore Messrs. Hugh and John Goodfellow, the wellknown stock-breeders of Te Awamutu. The I<ady Lilford was but one of some sixteen vessels which in the first six months of tho New. Zealand Company’s settlement, assisted colonisation by introducing scores of settlers and a'great deal of stock from Australia.