THE JUBILEE OF THE COLONY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9531, 25 November 1889, Page 5

THE JUBILEE OF THE COLONY.

. ■ . __ ♦ ■''''-'■ •WELLINGTON v. Auckland. . THE RIVAL' CLAIM FOR PRIORITY. [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN OOBRESPONDBirr.] Wellington, Saturday. The Times writes upon this subject) in the following strain: "The day which has the greatest claim to the honor is that day when the first immigrants arrived at Weii lingbon under the auspices of th« New Zea- [ land 'Company. ; N one had ever preceded them in the \ country! for ; the few stray whalers and missionaries who had gone 1 before.were in no way connected with the •' conversion of New Zealand into a dependency of '■'~ Great Britain. '-j% It is true, as related'by Captain Heald,' a; copy of whose spirited letter to the Auckland Hbrald, in . 1883, is before'us, that formal possession was taken of the colony by Captain Hob- . son when he hoisted the Union Jack i at the Bay Islands. It will' very likely be contended that, formal or informal, that constituted the real primary . annexation of the Islands to the old • .country, and Ai provincial claims to the honour cannot be settled in any other way . it would be advisable to sink the several , existing differences in the day that Captain Hobson handled * the : signal halyard with such good effect. That day, we think, has 1 a very decisive claim to the honour. Then i there is the day on which the Treaty of . AVai tarigi« was ■-■ signed, %a- by ■no . ■ means , obscure ; occasion, while ■■; the Treaty has been sufficiently squabbled over about ' since to render.•.;. Ib immortal twice over. *• Bub if we are to be guided in this I mazy matter by the absolute colonising of . New Zealand, January. 22 is undoubtedly , the day that ought to be selected. Still there ure the three days to pick and choose ' from. First,, January 22nd, 1840, the day 5 on which the Aurora with the earliest old ' identities on board dropped anchor in Port i Nicholson; secondly, January 29bh, 1840, , the day on which the Union Jack was hoisted at the Bay of Islands, and thirdly, ! February 6th, 1840, when the Treaty of > Waitangi was signed. The three auspicious events occurred within the short period of sixteen days. . They trod [upon • each other's heels, and priority of claim is i with the Wellington event, which is also I accentuated; by : its particular character. . Two or three hundred British-born people i landed and took possession." J CAPTAIN" HEALED LETTER. ' The following is the letter of Captain L Heale mentioned above, and to which !• various references have been made in this ■ controversy. Ib originally appeared in the i Hkrald of-February 3, 1883. " Sir,—lf as I you seem to admit in an article in your I paper, it is fitting that an anniversary holi- • day should be kept by the whole colony, > rather than that each town should celebrate ' the day of its own foundation as at present, > then I apprehend ib only needs a little con- > side ration of the circumstances under •' which the colony was founded, to deter- ■ mine what event should be considered as > marking its true birth, and the day on ■ which that occurred ought ' surely to be ' commemorated by all its denizens. It must ; be remembered that the colonisation of i New Zealand was not determined on by • the Government of Great Britain, but was ■ forced- on 'by the New Zealand company, ' independent of, and indeed in opposition " to the Government of the day ; and that ib was only after the departure of the company's first expedition had compelled some I action, that Captain Hobson was sent out to '<■ obtain from the natives the cession of the > sovereignty over the islands. Captain I Hobeon's arrival at the Bay of Islands was 1 therefore in :no sense the 5 foundation of the • colony. 3He was unaccompanied by a single" immigrant, and he came not as Governor of a colony but as ; Consul-General, accredited ' to the sovereign chiefs of New Zealand. Klb i was not until some months later, and long ' after a strong settlement had been esbab- > lished in Poet Nicholson, that--the assent ' of the natives having been obtained to tho 1 Treaty of Waitangi—Captain Hobson read • his first commission as Lieutenant-Gover- > nor under Sir George Gipps; bub as i there was still no Government immii gration, and none followed until the Jane Gifford and Duchess of Argyle long ' after, that circumstance cannot reasonably be noted as indicating the foundation of the colony," though ib may be taken a3 the '< birthday of the rogular Government. ;.- ■ But 1 while the Government was peddling with colonisation, in this rather v pitiful fashion, 1 the New Zealand Company had pursued ibs ; task in real earnest.: Five ships sailed from ■ England in 1839, four from Gravesend on the i same ;'!■ day, j arid f one from \ Glasgow, carrying some 1500 emigrants t of the very pick or tho land, comprising men of all classes, many of ; them possessing considerable capital, and carrying with them everything needful for bush life amongst the then formidable cannibals of New Zealand. This daring band —I may fairly admire them, for though with them, I was not of them—set out, strong in hand and heart, bo ' found a colony' —the very situation of their settlement unknown when they left England— out any protection or the hope of any assistance save their own courage and selfreliance ; their only bond of union a voluntary engagement for mutual support in thoir common purpose. If it is the colonists who make the colony, it is surely the arrival of these rather " than that : of a few officials at- the Bay'of Islands—at a later date— makes the : birth of : a nation. And when ib is recollected that this first immigration included; Featherston, 8011, ' Swan, FitzKerbert, Pebre, Molesworth, Mantell, Baker, Sinclair, and many more, : some of whose names are still prominent ones in the altered colony of to-day, it is ■ bard bo dispute their pre-eminent claims to ; have been its founders. = When the Aurora, 1 after calling at Port Hardy to learn the place of ; the settlement, sailed into Port Nicholson on the 22nd of January, 1840, the only habitation visible was one raupo 1 whare, in % which X Colonel Wakefield ? was living i amongst \ his stores. One small 1 barque, the Cuba, which : had ; brought the surveyor and stores, was lying off it. S The forest i reached i the i water's edge, and no other sign 'of V human life i was i seen. tWe landed our immigrants, the flag was hoisted, 1 and we saluted it and the 'settlement: and 1 that, surely, ; was the moment when the 1 colony of New Zealand was born."