POINTS OF HISTORY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 73, 29 March 1910, Page 7

POINTS OF HISTORY.

MR. M'NAB'S RESEARCHES. PITFALLS AND KNOTTY POINTS. [from our own correspondent.] LONDON, 18th February. The labour* of historical research which the Hon. R. M'Nab set himself when he planned his piesent trip to England arc now coming to an end, and he is able to look back upon some really valuable discoveries which have resulted from the journey. What has still to be done is practically confined to an investigation of the available s-ources in France, wheie he is specially anxious to obtain e\erything that is extant regarding the projected French colony in New Zealand in the forties, both from the point of view of the French Navy, and from that of the whalers and merchant adventurers of the nation. The visit to France was planned for the end of last year, but the intervention of the general elections hero with their temptation to take the platform was too strong, and Mr. M'Nab postponed the more serious work. Then, since tha elections the floods in Paris have considerably upset most of the public institutions, so he is now merely waiting to be certain that things have settled down into their normal places again. THE PROGRAMME. Discussing his work with me, Mr. M'Nab said his intention had originally been merely to supplement the previous investigations which bo had made, but he con thought that what h*e had done might almost be regarded as new work from the new complex «T which it placed upon such matters as tue campaign of Te Rauparaha- at Akaroa and the celebrated ■ incident of the brig Elizabeth. There were, besides, a number ol official reports regarding the visits of British warI ships to Cook Straits in connection with i the whale fisheries which would now be available for die Colonial reader. He had hoped to obtain from the East India Company some information regarding early trading in the South Pacific, which lay exclusively within the limits of the company's charter, but had been disappointed. Their records contained nothing of interest. At the old hospital at Greenwich, of which Cook was at one time in charge, he found a few things of interest. There were portraits of tbo illustrious navigator and of some of the men after whom place names in New Zealand had been given. On the walls, were some of tho original sketches made by Hodges during the second 1 voyage of CookCook material was also discovered in the British Museum, whero the investigator obtained some interesting new light upen the records of the great navigator. Examining the original journals, Mr. M'Nab found that in the published \ersions the editor had taken the liberty of altering Cook's own rendering of thing* here and there, and adopting the versions which were given by some of his officer?. This explains at once some of the difficulties which are referred to iv the latest edition of "Muuhiku," where some Maori names, for example, are given iv a form which it was most difficult to account for. Cook's rendering of some of thete name* left no difficulty whatever. SOME OLD CHARTS. On a visit to the Hydrographic Department at the Admiralty, Mr. M'Nab was permitted to see the oiiginal sketches from which the charts are compiled. li> the early days very little i material seems tc have been furnished I to the Admiralty by sea captains ; they seem to have given it generally to private cartographers. Amongst the valuable manuscripts which were discovered were one by Captain Langdon, of the* Macnuarie Islands, about 1822, and another iy Captain Barnett of Wellington Harbour, which he visited in 1826 as captain of the Lambton, the vessel which belonged to the first New Zealand Company. Mr. M'Nab is having a photographic copy made of this and also a number of the charts prepared by Cook to illustrate his voyages 'in Xew Zealand. It was found in the British Museum that a number of the original sketches of Cook were under j their wrong headings, and the attention of the authorities was drawn to it. I SOME INTERESTING OLD LOGS. In connespondence with Mr. F. A. Anson, an old New Zealand resident who is now residing at Oxford, Mr. M'Nab ascertained that he had iv his possession a portiou of the log kept at Peraki, iv Banks Peninsula, by Captain Hempleman. the old German whaler who claimed much 6f the Peninsula as having been purchased by him. Another portion had Deen given by Mr. Anson to the Museum at Christchurch, where it actually was at the time. Considerable search was necessary to discover the document in, the Museum at Christchurch, where it had quite escaped notice. "Mr. Anson is having a copy of the log made and states that he will publish it at an early date. A CURIOUS MISTAKE. As showing the necessity for the most accurate examination of material which is used for historical purposes, Mr. M'Nab mentions the case of the brig Sophia, which was concerned in the killing of some Europeans at Otago Heads about 1817. In the last edition, of "Murihiku," Mr. M'Nab has agr cepted the version of this affair which was given in the Transactions of the ICeff Zealand Institute on what he considered the very beet of authority. A perusal of the original report in the Hobart newspaper, however, disclosed the fact that no mention was made of the battle which was stated to have heen fought on board the brig, when some fifty of the natives were reported to have been killed, nor was there any mention of the destruction of the village at the heads or of the fleet of Maori canoes. The revised version of th# narrative robs the original story of a great deal of its romance. STJLL ROOM FOR SEARCH. Questioned a« to whether the work ho had done on this trip left any giouud which could advantageously be worked by future students of New Zealand history, Mr. M'Nab said that things were so difficult to trace in a great city like London that unless some person living on the spot could prosecute the search it could scarcely be done systematically. Many of the old firms which were engaged iv the South Seas trade had long since passed away, and it was only occasionally that a reference in n daily Jiaper gave a clue to their successors, •"or instance, only the other day a member of a great catering firm in the city Stated to a reporter that his firm had records of a dinner that was given to Captain Cook on his return from New j Zealand The publication of the material he had obtained on this trip, including a good deal that he got in I America on the way across, would form a useful batis for future work. Probably at no period in this country* history has the industrial outlook been so piomising, and with tbo upleudkl scMon now in \icw, together with the high prices ruling for wool and a demand For New Zealand products, the people of the Do- ] minion irust chare to the. full in the in- , iti-ibpcl prosperity One of the good things will bo found m the storo of C. Smith, Ltd., Cuba-street. A special line imported for i\ery kind of outdoor wpar— Ladies' Tweed Hats, in all the latest popular xhape-. The new "Burberry," "Peter Pan," "Hurlingham," "Lily," and many others. Prices range from 4* lid, 5i 6d, 6s lid to lls to.— AdYt. j