DEATH OF GOVERNOR HOBSON

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 241, 10 September 1937, Page 2

DEATH OF GOVERNOR HOBSON

NINETY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY. A Government Gazette Extraordinary, issued within a black mourning frame, announcing the death of Governor Hobson on September 10, 1842, and notifying the order to be observed in the official procession on September 13, 1842, is an interesting document in view of the approaching Centennial of events in which Hobson played so important a part. The document is all the more interesting in that it is probably the only New Zealand Government publication depicting a coffin as the central feature of a State announcement. The titles of the high colonial dignitaries of the time are grouped around the coffin in the order they were to follow the remains of New Zealand’s first Governor to the place of interment, Grafton Cemetery, Auckland. The Gazette ia as follows : “Government Gazette Extraordinary —Vol. 11, No. 37; Auckland, Saturday, September 10. 1842; Colonial Secretary’s Office, Auckland: His Excellency Governor Hobson departed this life at Government House at Auckland, this morning, at J past 12 o’clock a.m. In consequence of this lamented event, no business will be transacted this dav at public offices arid they will remain closed until the remains of His Excellency shall have been interred. The ceremony of the funeral will take place on Tuesday, the 13th instant, at 1 o’clock p.m.. when the presence of all public functionaries is required, and the attendance of all other persons who mar be desirous of testifying their respect is requested.” There followed the order to be observed in the, procession to the place of interment and the notice was signed by James Stuart Freeman, Colonial Secretary.

The names of the dignitaries were William Swainson (Attorney-General). James Coates (sheriff), William Martin (Chief Justice V George Cooper (treasurer), Felton Mathew (SurveyorGeneral), Willoughy Shortland (Colonial Secretary and Chief Mourner). A. D. Best (Acting A.D.C. and Captain of the 80th Regiment), and Edward Shortland (private secretary). In his “Captain William Hobson” Dr. Guy H. Srholefield presents an interesting description of the first Governor’s funeral, “The highest possible honours were paid to a man -whose private and official rectitude even his enemies admired. Covered with a Union Jack, the coffin was borne by sailors of the Government brig ‘Victoria.’ preceded by a firing party of the 80th Regiment. The riderless horse was led behind the coffin. . . .After the Government officials and the military walked ‘nearly all the respectable inhabitants of Auckland.’ A feature of the obsequies was the genuinely sorrowful conduct of the Maori.” The judgment of the Maori chief who wrote to Queen Victoria is wellknown: “Let not the new Governor be a bnv or one puffed up; let not a troubler come amongst us; let him be a good Tear, likt this Governor who has just died.”