PAGEANT OF HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 18, 22 January 1940, Page 8

PAGEANT OF HISTORY

EVENTS OF A CENTURY

LORD GALWAY'S TRIBUTE

The Governor-General (Lord Galway), prior to dedicating and-unveil-ing the memorial window, extended a welcome to the overseas visitors, and

then referred to the events, a century ago, which had laid the foundations of progress here. He paid a tribute to the pioneer-ing spirit and colonising ability of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, whose New Zealand company was the practical expression of his ideas. In ! 1839 the ship Tory had been dispatched with the preliminary expedition to investigate the country and decide where the colony should be formed. The Tory was followed by the Cuba I with surveyors to prepare the land which Colonel Wakefield was supposed to have purchased from the Natives. It was, however, the arrival of the Aurora bearing the first emigrants and the backbone of the new colony, which the present functions commemorated. "The company was very particular in the selection of its emigrants,"''Lord Galway continued. "They were a fine type of men and women: mainly from the English counties, and mostly artisans, mechanics, agricultural labourers, and domestic servants, with a due proportion of persons of capital. The age limit was, 30, and most of the people were married couples with young families, who were likely to be useful in pioneering work. They had all to be men and women of good character, and they were perfectly free emigrants. .. "The Aurora herself brought- 151 passengers, and before she arrived there were six other ships at sea with still larger numbers. These emigrants did not even know where they were to find their homes. The Aurora went first to a rendezvous in Port Hardy, where she received instructions to come to•■■ Port Nicholson. "On reaching these shores the emigrants were received by Colonel Wakefield and by the Maori chiefs Te Puni and Wharepouri, who had sold land to the company and wtfb warmly welcomed the -colonists. When the first settlers arrived, they found one white man before them. He was Joseph Robinson, who had made a home on" the bank of the Hutt River. At-the time that brave missionary Octavius Hadfield had just been established at Waikanae. v "On the Sunday following their arrival a service was held on the1 Aurora jby the Rev. J. Buller.-Remember that Captain Hobson had not yet arrived in thei-Bay of Islands to make, New Zeai land a British colony. He reached i there on January 29, that is, a week after the Aurora reached Port Nicholson; and the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on February 6. /"That, briefly, is an outline of the arrival of the first emigrants to this part of New Zealand. At that time the whole of the harbour was surrounded with heavy bush and the whole of the Hutt Valley was also forest clad. What must have been the feelings of those on board the Aurora as they sailed into this magnificent harbour. Thankfulness, surely, that the perils of the journey were safely over, and admiration, too, for the wonderful view which* spread out before them —a panorama of a beautiful harbour, wonderfully coloured by the surrounding bush-covered hills and valleys. THE CHANGE OF SITE. • *>They immediately set to work to construct their homes, and their town, called Britannia, was at first laid out by Captain Mem Smith on what is now part of Petone. N Shortly afterwards the Hutt River flooded and filled the adjacent swamps and inundated .many of the houses. This decided the leaders to select another site, and a new town. • also called 'Britannia,' was hurriedly laid out at the Lambton end of the Ijarbour. ''Most of you here probably are conversant with the history of the. development of the province—some of you since its very early days—so I will not attempt to recapitulate the first stages of its progress. Ampng you are direct descendants of those hardy pioneers who in 1840 had come to make their homes in this country-, and who shortly afterwards made their way over the ranges to the attractive Jands of the Wairarapa. and even further afield into the then unknown. "Those early settlers brought with them to the country of their adoption an Unshaken love for the Motherland and an undying loyalty to the British Crown, a loyalty which has also been a feature of their Maori brethren through the passing years. Many proofs of that loyalty have been given in the past, and more are to be demanded if British ideals are to prevail and the world is to live in peace. I am confident that the nation's calLtoday will receive that loyal response which it has always met in the past. TO THE FOUNDERS OF NEW ZEALAND. , "We have met today to commemorate those: days of early settlement, and perhaps to congratulate ourselves on the outstanding progress which has been made in the Wellington Province in the interval. The commemoration is to take the form of this splendid memorial hall and bathing pavilion which has so appropriately been erected on the spot at "which the early settlers landed. The building is indeed a very fine piece of architecture and reflects great credit on those who have been responsible for its design and construction. Its site is an admirable one, and I hope the structure will serve throughout the years as a reminder to New Zealanders of what they owe to those who paved the way- for the progressive City and Province which' bear: the name of Wellington." . r i ■ -'-■