A CONTRAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5491, 23 June 1879, Page 6

A CONTRAST.

Thirty-eight yeare have been numbered in the past since the first Governor of New Zealand publicly landed in Waitemata's shores ! Governor Hobson resided at the Bay ot Islands from the time of hie arrival in January, 1810, until March, IS4I, when he took np his residence at the Government House of the capital—Auckland. The Home Government, ia its magnanimity, did not deem it consistent that the Governor, swaying the destinies of the last jewel added to the British Crown, the new Great Britain of the South, should ran the risk of holding his first Court in a raupo whare —not that Downing-street knew what those two words meant, bat it had a vague idea that in a Cannibal Island some befitting shelter ought to be forthcoming for Her Majesty's representative. By the time Downing-street was conducting its correspondence with its second appointed Governor, when New Zealand's first native troubles commenced, the Under-Secretary for the Colonies got the credit, in a weak moment of irritation, for having "wished to God the cannibals had only eaten poor old Hobson, and that would have been the first and tho last of New Zealand Governors !" Bat the Under-Secretary did not know then what was before him, or he would have thought twice about it, when ho ordered a bran-new Government House at a London timber-yard, and shipped it off in the barque Planter, to be delivered at the capital of New Zealand, wherever that might eventually prove to be. So oue fine day, ia the second week of September, ISiO.thePlaaterhavingcalledatHobart Town for orders, and having been told to make for Prince Regent's Inlet, as designated in the Admiralty charts, made for it accordingly. Aud on the fine day aforesaid the Planter came groping her way into the Inlet between Motutapu and Motuihi (the Quarantine Station Island), and the skipper seeing what he thought was a fine fairway channel, let the good ship Planter bowl along before a gentle east wind, until she went bump on to a reef, and there stuck fast, —on the ' Bean Rock to wit. A small canoe, paddled by two pakehas, had pushed off from Motn Korea (Brown's Island), seeing the cuurse the ship was taking, to warn the master of the danger, but too late. The consolation offered was, that the vessel had gone on tho reef on an ebbing tide, and she would float again with the flood. This she did, and ran up aud anchored half-way between the southern and northern shores opposite the Flagstaff Hill, —then, aagstafllesa. The two occupauta of Alotu Korea were then theonly two pakoha residents on the shores of the waters of the Waitemata, and who were witnesses to the Planter's arrival. In che third week of September, carae sailing into the harbour another vessel, the Anna Watson, from the Bay of lalandn, having on board Governor Hobson's delegate, Captain Symonda, a survey staff—aud a gang of carpenters, sawyers and a blacksmith, to do the needful in tbi first governing of theinfant settlement —inthi survey of tho capital-to-be, and in the re quired erection of Government offices. Long before the Government worktnei could do the needful, old Kawau, with hii tribe from Orakei, had. come to the rescue and had housed the officials in Official Bay in comfortablo raupo whares; and anyou< who has lived in a double-lined raupo whar< knows well how great the comfort between il and a miserable unlined, weatherboard house Between September 1840 and advent o the survey staff, and March IS4I anc arrival of Governor Hobson, the infan' capital had struggled into a raupo whare tent, and break-wind hut appearance, foi all were squatters. As the survey proceeded, some founc themselves in the middle of a future street, some found the section line of an allotment cutting their primitive homo in two. Th< only house safe from disturbance was the one sent from Downing-street, and it sooi made a big show in the landscape, althougl it was only a one-story house. Oumiui out in ready-msde panels, these bad onlj to be put on end, and it went up like a pact of cards, on exactly the same spot where the present Government House stands. II went down even quicker than it went up at a later period, for it fell a victim to fire, before Insurance Companies were dreamt o: and temptations to incendiarism from over insurance at a sweet one-and-sixpence a hun dred existed. Government House grounds— that is the fern-covered land adjoining, hat been fenced in, to make everything as habii able as possible against the Governor's arriva with hie family. A knowing contractor, i gentleman commanding his own smart littli schooner, had taken the job at a penny f stick ! And a capital contract it was for him for tho Maoris found the manuka poles, anc made the "tie-up" fence, the contracted bringing the material—sticks and Maoris— from \Vaiheke in his little craft, and al interested were very happy and contented over that contract, — first issued in th( capital! It is all very fine to smile now al it, when we hear the railway whistle screech ing in our civilised ears ; but juat remember, at that date its sound was hardly knowi beyond Liverpool and Manchester, and it: fact, it is just possible that the steam whistle was not then even invented, and was of later annoyance. Government House being now ready, and the sale of the town lots of the capital coming off in a few weeks, it was needful that His Excellency should be at the ViceRegal residence—that in, the grand way now of calling Government House—before the great event took place. The sale was to have taken pLv:e on the Bth of March, but the survey was a little in arrear, and so were a number of land-sharks expected from Sydney, so the sale had been prudently postponed. Resalt : Growl the first from the pioneer bond fide settlers against the Government, meanwhile its translation from Russell to the capital was to be effected. So it was on the 9th of March, 1841, that the merchant barque Chelydra, Smales, master, sailed into the harbour with Governor Hobson, family, and suite on board. In vain are the chronicles of those days searched to discover the existence of a "Reception Committee," or a "mounted escort." No reason why the former should not have existed—nor the latter either, provided the " mounts" were on working bullocks; for of horses there were vet not any, and of bullocks but one small team. And thua it fell out that the rooeption of the first Governor of New Zealand at the capital, according to oue chronicler of that day, was after this faehion :—" 13th March (1841). To-day, Captain Flobson with his lady landed at Dommernial Bay from the Chelydra (the vessel firing a salute), and walked up to Government House with the officials, one life and one drum playing ijhe Hobson March ! ! !" Brown, Jones, and Robinson, of 1879, will jtnile at the 1841 Governor's reception. v[eriiy, we must have grown to be a pretty aig people during the passing of the years jetween above dates, when so small a colony :an owe so large a debt, and when we can jomplacently smile at the twenty millions ;ve owe the parent State, and the end not fet! Yes, if a young nation is to be gauged >y the magnitude of its debt, we are likely ;o be looked upon as a very big people indeed, so we are too, in our own estimation. i.nd is not self-respect the first true attri>ute that leads to greatness ? Undoubtedly, ind we are, aud intend ever to he " tho 3reat Britain of the Sonth." And after nany long years, say in 1941, Anckland will )o again the capital, asserting the supremacy iature has given her, —spanning the isthmus rom Waitemata shore to the Manukau vater.3, and then, a greater than the Corinth if tho ancients will flourish in the Southern lemisphere. When that day comes,—the lentenary of 1841, perhaps the sublimity >f a Governor's reception may be estimated iven according to its simplicity,—when the 'one fife and one drum" may repeat itself. iVho shall say ? But to-day we have lived In >nr own day, and with our many fifes and nany drums have cordially welcomed our last lew Governor.