EARLY NEW ZEALAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 4 June 1926, Page 8

EARLY NEW ZEALAND.

CENTUBY-OLD SKETCHES. An interesting collection of watercolour sketches is to be sold at Messrs Sotheby and Company’s rooms in London, and Sir James Allen, High Commissioner, has had instructions to bicl for them on behalf of the New Zealand Government. The artist, Augustus Earle, E.8.G.5., made a tour of the world in 1827-28, in n littlo gunbo«.it commanded by his step-brother, Captain Smyth. Among the places they visited were India, Malacca, the Ladrones Group, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape of Good Hope, Tristan d’Acunha, St. Helena, Juan Eernandcz Island and Kio de Janeiro. Nine months were spent in the vicinity of the Bay of islands. . D/ring the tour Augustus Earle made about ItiO water-colour drawings, and a number of these deal with the scenery and the native life of New Zealand. The large volume containing all these sketches at present belongs to Mr Herbert Warington Smyth, 0.M.G., E K.G.S., who has spent much of Ins time in the mining industry in South Africa. Mr Smyth is the grandson of Admiral William Henry Smyth, who died in 1805. The latter was the Captain Smyth of the gunboat which visited New Zealand in 1827. The pictures arc not works of art, but they arc accurately painted, and with a good deal.of skill. Some give evidence of having been done hastily, but they are all exceedingly interesting as showing what the various places were like a century ago. They are all in a perfect state of preservation, having no doubt remained within the leaves of the large album since they were drawn. Augustus Earle was the author of “A Narrative of Nine Months’ Residence in New Zealand.” published by Longmans in 1832, and three of the sketches to be sold have been reproduced in the narrative.

Every sketch is clearly described by the artist in ink, and it is interesting to note the spelling of the place names and compare them with the subsequent standardised spoiling. There is “Ballo Pyramid, How’s Island, New Zealand, being west by south distant 30 miles New Zealand” towards Port Jackson.” “The entrance to the Bay of Islands” is one of the larger and more carefully done sketches. It shows the hills across the harbour mouth, and bush and Maoris in the foreground. A “View of the Village of Parcunagh and the entrance of the E-O-ke-angha River” is another of the full-sized sketches. It will be scon how “Hokianga” is ingeniously spelled. There are pictures of a fortified island in the river; a store house with all the detail of the carving carefully reproduced; “the residence of Shulitea, chief of Ivororadika, Bay of Islands”; a distant view of the Bay of Islands. In this last mentioned we see a group of Maoris carrying burdens and led by an Englishman in tail coat and white hat. There arc two sketches of “Parva Bay,” with a great rugged tree above the rocks, and Maoris sitting about the rocks. It would be ing to know whether this tree is still alive after a hundred years. Another sketch shows a group of women weeping over the bones of a dead chief, and another, “The Wye Matte, a waterfall near the Kiddy Kiddy.” There is a unique representation of warriors “presenting trophies of conquest to their Queen Turero, Bay of Islands.” The trophies happen to be the heads of victims on the tops of sticks, which arc fixed in the ground. The Queen sits in tlio porch of her wliare while the warriors squat around, probably telling the story of battle. “A Tabooed House belonging to Shulita Kororadica, Bay of Islands,” is another title wherein the name seems somewhat obscure. There are several groups of Maoris, one showing “King George” with three warriors. There are studies of dancers and small portraits of men of the time, some tatboed, some with unmarked faces. These are particularly Avell done. 'Plie title of one of the portraits is “A New Zealand chief from Terra Naky. ” At some later date some one has written beside the title “Taranaki.” —New Zealand Herald.