A REMINISCENCE OF EARLY DAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9028, 5 November 1892, Page 9 (Supplement)

A REMINISCENCE OF EARLY DAYS.

THE TREATY OF WAITANGI. Mb. G. Eliot Elliot, who is now resident in Dunedin, writes a letter to a Dunedin paper, giving an interesting historical reminiscence concerning the Treaty of Waitangi. He says :— This celebrated document, a sort of New Zealand Magna Charta in its importance, is nob a single documenb, bub is composed of a number of separate sheets ; and, if I remember rightly, some few are of parchment and some of paper— text is the same in all; some few were printed in Sydney, and some are in manuscript. These separate sheets were sent to the different tribes and hapus of: natives for the signatures of the different chiefs and influential men amongst them. Some of them could write, and signed their names; others affixed their marks, in the shape of what was supposed to be an imitation of the tattoo on their faces. Each of these sheets was in charge of some well-known European, generally someone in connection with the Church of England or Wesleyan Missions, who attested the signatures and remarks of the various persons on the documenb, and, on completion, returned it to the Government. There is no doubb that this treaty has a maim peculiar to itself, and thab the natives regard ib with respect. They believe that they have thereby voluntarily given up to the "pakeha" a something which is their loss and the " pakeha'sgain ; bub what that something is they are quite unable to define. I feel pretty sure thab if, from any accident in the early days, this document had been lost or destroyed, the natives would never have been induced to sign another. That it was once saved from such accident tho following will show:— In 1841 the Government; offices were held in a four-roomed wood cottage in Official Bay, Auckland. The Colonial Secretary, the Audit, the Colonial Treasurer, and the Customs each had one room. Mr. Shortland was Colonial Secretary (the Audit was also under his control), Mr. Cooper (the father of the Secretary jusb retired from the service) was Colonial Treasurer and Collector ■'f Customs. There were four clerks in the establishment —Grimstone in the Treasury, Leech in the Audit, Freeman and myself in the Colonial Secretary's. We were the Government in those pre-historie days. I was called Clerk of Records, and had charge of the various records and papersnob many then—amongst them this Treaty of Waitangi. This, with the seal of the colony, I kept in a small iron box brought from Sydney in the Westminster the year before. I was living in a raupo whare in Queen-streeb, close to Shorbland-sbreeb, ab that time ('4l), when early one morningl can't remember the precise date— observed a great body of smoke ascending from Official Bay. lab once ran up Short-land-street, and on reaching the top of the hill found that the Governmenb offices were on fire. When I got to the building ore end was in flames and the place full of smoke, I saw that nothing could save the place. I ab one tied my handkerchief over my face, gob the door open, and rushed into the room which the Colonial Secretary occupied. I could not see for the smoke, and the handkerchief both blinded and choked me. The room was small, and I knew ib so well I could put my hand on anything in it blindfold. lab once went to the iron box, unlocked ib, took out the Treaty of Waitangi and the seal of the colony, and ran cub again directly. I suppose from the time I entered the building until I left ib was nob more than a minute, bub ib seemed an hour. I carried the seal and the treaty to a house of Mr. Felton Matthew (Surveyor-General), which was close by, and gave them into his charge. When I got outside the burning offices several persons had come up, amongst them some seamen from a French man-o'-war, then in harbour. They had a porbable fire-engine, bub ib was useless, for there wa3 no water. Qf course the building and its contents wereali destroyed, amongst them the iron box from which 1 had taken the seal and the treaty. The box was made of common sheet iron. I subsequently fastened the different sheets of the treaty together, and deposited it in the Colonial Secretary's office, where I presume it has been ever since.