AN OLD PEACE COMMISSION.

Evening Star, Issue 15481, 1 May 1914, Page 5

AN OLD PEACE COMMISSION.

SOME FAMOUS NAMES. An interesting old document, which came to light the other day after lying for many years in some official repository, is the first Commission of the Peace for New Zealand subsequent to the establishment of representative institutions in this country. " One or more Commissions of the Peace had been issued in the day before representative fovernment. and ono of these, dated 848, is still in the possession of the Justice Department, but the Commission of 1853 was tho first issued after the passage of the Constitution Act by the Imperial Parliament in 1853. It bears the signature of Sir Geo. Grey, I then Governor of New Zealand, and also that of Mr Alfred Domett in his capacity as Civil Secretary. The seal affixed to the upper left-hand corner is that which is still in use. It is impressed upon a wafer pasted between two pieces of paper. The Commission (says the ' Dominion ') is an imposing document, inscribed upon four sheets of parchment measuring about two feet square. It bears in all 170 names, 87 of which are given in a general list, and the others in separate list allotted to the various provinces. The fi.rst name appearing is that of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Wynyard, of the 58th R-cginient, after whom Wynyard street in Auckland was named. Another name is that of Alfred Domett, well known as a poet and writer and as a politician, who became Prime Minister in 1862. Other names in the list are those of William Swainson, who was Attorney-General from 1841 to 185G, and Speaker of the Legislative Council from 18-54 to 1855. Francis Dillon Bell (father of the present Minister of Internal Affairs), who was afterwards knighted and became Speaker of the House* of Representatives in 1871, and Agent-General for New Zealand in 1878, LieutenantColonel Daniel Bolton, of the Royal Engineers, who no doubt gave his name to • Bolton street in Wellington, and Henry St. Hill, after whom a sma'l street running off Manners street was named. The name of William Gisborne, after whom the town of Gisborne was named, appears in two places. One of the entries is scored out, evidently by Sir Geo. Grey himself, for the erasure bears his initials, and the name of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Emelius Gold (65th Regiment) is entered instead in the Governor's handwriting. The name of Edward William Stafford, who became Prime Minister in 1856, appears in the Nelson list. One of two baronets included in the list was Sir William Congreve, who was also appointed for Nelson. The Canterbury list includes the names of Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Robert Heaton Rhodes, and James Edward Fitzgerald, and in the Otago list appears the names, amongst others, of William Cargill and Jas. Maoandreiv. The Wellington list contains the following 29 names:—Major Jas. Patience (65th Regiment), Major Geo. Freeman Murray (66th Regiment), Charles Clifford, Edward Daniell, Richard Baker, Wm. Swainson, Wm, Hickson, Wm. Fitzgerald (afterwards knighted and a Speaker of the Legislative Council), Alfred Ludlam, Henry Kemp, Abraham Hort, John Raymond, John Johnston, Wm. M'Leod Bannatyne, Geo. Hunter, Geo. Moore, Sir Godfrey John Thomas (baronet), Thos. Kebble, Francis Robinson, Samuel King, Moses Campbell, George Bees, John Fitzgerald, Jas. Kelliam, William Barnard Rhodes (whose widow died recently), Henry Churton, John Edward Pattenson, Alexander Alexander, and Edward Spencer Curling. j