RARE N.Z. BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1932, Page 8

RARE N.Z. BOOKS

MCNAB'S "MUKIHIKU"

EARLIEST RECORDS

(By Johannes C. Andersen.) There was a history of early New Zealand lying outside the pages of Blue-books; lying outside the files of official correspondence in England, or Sydney, or Wellington—a history contained in ships' logs and tho dreary columns of Sydney and Hobart-town than fiction, but to those who aro attraction for the late Eobert MeNab, who spent a.large part of his time and a largo, part of his fortune in rescuing this fragmentary history from oblivion and making it available to readers and historians. . ' McNab did not claim to bo a brilliant or even an attractive writer; but ho was something as good and perhaps rarer—a patient; collector of facts. It is a trite saying that truth is stranger than fiction; but.to those who are attracted to tho early history of New Zealand during those wild : days when whalers and sealers and'traders hung round our coasts, administering their own law from their own decks, often flouting all laws, both civil-and moral, the trite saying is'seen to be true, and for these readers MeNab'sibdoks are packed with romance. V'- / He vmade a start with ''Murihiku," and "Mnrihiku", is a luro for the collector as well as for the general reader. The '.first' volume' published was a thin royal octavo of 46 pages, bound in red or green paper covers, the title on the cover: "Murihiku. Some.Old-time Events. By Bobert McNab, M.H.B, Gore, N.Z. Printed at' the 'Southern Standard' Office. 1904." LIMITED EDITIONS* But it will bo easier to work backward from the much-enlarged edition of this book published in 1900. This is a solid volume of more than'soo pages (including the preface), and collectors may learn from tho preface that the edition was limited to 515 copies. The following facts they ' will not learn from, the volume, but it is useful information to have. Of the 515 copies, 15 were on special hand-made paper, quite different from the soft paper of the others. Thes.e. 15 volumes were also specially, bound in. calf for presentation to particular' friends and prominent people. Of the remaining 500, 30 were retained; for presentation to other people, and. 470 were offered for sale. Collectors will, be on the watch for the / copies on hand-made paper. .-> '.'■ ■,•■".. .-■.'■:. .-•;■■■ '~.-:.■ This 1909 edition is a second and much enlarged edition of a volume that appeared.two years earlier, in 1907, of which 1000 copies were published, and for which the Government ' Printing Office in May, 1907, struck off 1050 copies of tho map included in the volume. As the title, "Murihiku," implies, the book was primarily '.concerned only with the southern extremity of New Zealand—Stewart Island and Foveaiix Strait; but so much new information concerning the South Island came to his hand that ho extended the scope of the area dealt with, but reduced the-period of time he intended to include ■ . The title of tho 1907 edition is more limiting than that of the 1909 edition, the former-being "Murihiku and the Southern Islands," Murihiku now including the West Coast Sounds; the latter, "Murihiku, a'History of tho South Island of New Zealand and the Islands Adjacent and lying to tho South, from 1642 to 1835." One reason" for his being able to bring out the second edition—apart from the new information which uh.his eyes "rendered - this necessary—may be gathered from the preface to the later volume and from the two title pages; on the later title page he is simply Eobert McNab; on the earlier ho is Eobert McNab, Member of the House of Beprosentatives and Minister of Lauds and Agriculture. The informative preface to tho 1907 edition was included in the 1909, and a supplementary preface added. In the former the author writes: ■ ■"■The steps taken and still being followed up are necessarily bringing to hand from day to day fresh information relative to our history, and the book' could be added to considerably even now, if tho author were suddenly called upon to re-write it. Eighteen months ago the work was almost ready for tho public, and tho first portion of an- edition of six hundred copies was printed off when tho opportunity . ... presented' itself and the author visited America, where his researches resulted in .such an amount of new material relating to Southern New Zealand that on his return tho whole edition was destroyed and tho work rc-writton, neeessitatinsr long delay." '-- . SUPPRESSED EDITION. Here, then, is an indication of a yet earlier "Murihikn"—a book of which a part had been printed and destroyed. But some copies escaped of this volume, which had been printed to page 144 ending abruptly in the "middle of a passage dealing with tho trade in preserved heads. A copy of this nevercompleted book is in the Tnrnbull Library, and bound in with it is a letter, dated Ist April, 1908, from Eobert McNab to A. H. Turnbull:—"l forvrard herewith copy of the edition of Murihiku and the Southern Islands which was destroyed as mentioned in the introduction to the published edition. Only some dozen copies out of 600 wero retained, and six of that number have been destroyed. I. will later o:n be able to givo you. the exact number that wero reserved from destruction. This is one of them." No later letter has been seen by me, but collectors and others may know that there are at least' half a dozen copies of ,this "Maui among books—it may be called for distinction the MauiMurihiku—and who knows when ono may be chanced on? It has, of course, no title page, but the first page is headed "Murihiku , and the Southern Islands,'' and that is tho running title on the oven pages or", the twelve chapters printed. Tho pagination and text differ from tho following 1907 edition. Tho genesis of the book goes further back, however, than even tho MauiMuritiUcu. In 1905 there was published in Gore a volume of 97 pages. "Murihiku: Some Old-time Events. Being a Series of Twenty-five Articles on the Early History of the cxtremo Southern Portion of Now1 Zealand. Written for tho 'Southern Standard.' By Eobert McNab, M.A., LL.B., M.11.E." The volume 'is a royal oc-. tavo—that is to say, it is a good deal larger in size than the later volumes. It is iibout 9*in by 6in; tho later'are not quite Sim by sJhi. It is bound in red or green paper (I havo seen no other colours), and those two colours are likely to cause a little flutteriig in the hearts of collectors—for thero are two editions of this earliest "Murihiku!" THE TIRST EDITION. There was an edition the year before, 1904, containing twelve articles, and a leaf headed Addenda, being two printed pages of remarks by correspondents on the articles as they appeared in tho newspaper. The second edition includes the first 44 pages of the first edition, with 53 additional pages, the Addenda, pages 45-C, being excluded. ■ ■ ■ Both those editions are in the Turnbull Library, the one of 1904 containing tlie following letter, dated 2nd August, 1904, from Eobert McNab to Mr. Turnbull:—"l am forwarding you herewith a copy of 'Murihiku.' It consists of 12 articles on the early his-

Tory of Foveaux Straits, and a few addenda. Only three copies aro in existence. One is held byniyself, a second by Sir. Eiven, and this is the third. When the articles are completed and reprinted tho balance will, go on, after page 44." Tho first 44 pages were not reprinted when tho second edition was issued; they were simply incorporated; both editions havo tho misprint Van Dieman:s Land for Van Diemen's Land, and other typographical peculiarities. The second edition also has a leaf inserted boforo page 1, with an introduction on one side and ludex (really list of chapters) on tho other. . On the death of Mr. Ewen his copy went with his library to Angus and Robertson, of Sydney, so that copy Eas probably found a home,in. Australia; 1 do not know where the author's own copy is; so there are apparently two copies of this very rare edition (an edition of only three copies in all) to bo watched for. The Turnbull copy' is in red paper, the 1905 edition in green. I have a copy in red, but it is the 1905 edition. , The articles appeared in 1904, numbered, iv tho columns of the." Southern Standard," and the type-was evidently kept standing, or the columns -were at once rearranged for the printing in page fovm ; the only alteration being in the chapter-headings. {These were in similar, type to the test when; printed in the'"Standard," but were set in broadfaced type for the-volume, or rather pamphlet, and/ printed right across tho head of the page. The numbers of the articles were dropped. Now an author may think that he knows, but as a matter of fact he does not always know just how many copies of an edition of his own book are in existence. He has to trust' his printer, and a few extra may be struck off for safety sake, or there may be technically faulty copies thrown aside, and any or all of these may somehow escape, the faulty ones becoming rariora—fascinating things for collectors. FINDS STILL TO BE MADE. :; A visitor from the South was in the Library a week or so ago, and inquired about copies of "Murihiku." He said he had come across a copy of the one that was supposed to be suppressed, and which was very rare. When, however, he was shown the Maui-Jlurihiku and tho copy of tho 1904 triplet he was taken aback, and could not say which his copy should bo referred to. He was evidently not a collector. They differ in size and in pagination, and a collector would remember. • The Turnbull Library has two copies of the 1909 edition, marked ''Author's Copy." Both of these have many corrections scattered' through the pages, so that evidently yet another edition •was in contemplation, when the author •was gathered into the collection of The !Beappr. And now, who will say that the book "Murihiku" has not an attraction apart from its absorbing contents 1