OLD AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9841, 8 June 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

OLD AUCKLAND.

" AFFAIRS OF HONOUR" IN THE \. OLDEN TIME. No. 11. An affair of honour appears to have risen during the celebration of St. Patrick's Day (1542) and the festivities in honour of Ireland's patron saint, for at one p.m. on that day Mr. Wm. Cormack sent a verbal challenge by Dr. Martin to Captain Best, of the 80th Regiment. Owing to certain proceedings, Captain Best, in the absence of Major Bunbury, officer commanding, called a meeting of the officers of the garrison on the following day, the ISth of March, in consequence . of, public placards signed by Mr. Wm. Cormack and Dr. Martin, posting himself and Mr. E. Shortland, his second. Captain Best explained to the meeting that Mr. Wm. Cormack had senb a verbal challenge by Dr. Martin the previous day, which he accepted, and named Mr. Ed. Shortland as his second, who in conjunction with Dr. Martin had arranged a meeting for six o'clock that morning. He (Captain Best) went to the ground and waited for an hour, till withdrawn by Mr. Shortland, without exchanging shots, and had since received a letter which he returned unread as .he observed it was signed " Wm. Cormack." Mr. E. Shortland then stated to the officers assembled that he and Dr. Martin had selected the ground, and pistols loaded. A dispute arose between himself and Dr. Martin as to the pistols, Captain Best's being regular duelling pistols, while Mr. Cormack's were not, and Dr. Martin wanted to toss as to which of the pair of weapons should be used, and then as to first choice from tho pair, so as to pub the men on an equal footing. He (Mr. Shortland) refused, as Captain Best was entitled to use his own weapons, but that he afterwards gave Dr. Martin choice of ono of Captain Best's pistols. An hour after Captain Best had left the ground Dr. Martin came and said that he had discovered that he was in error about the pistols, and desired to reopen the business, bub he (Mr. Shortland) replied that Captain Best having once been made a fool of, he declined placing him again in the same position. Dr. Martin said "he should communicate with me again," to which he (Mr. Shortland) answered, " You may communicate what you please ; good morning, sir." Aboub an hour after this Mr. Campbell, the auctioneer, brought him a letter, which he told him was from Dr. Martin. This he refused to receive. The assembled officers having examined Captain Best's pistols were unanimously of opinion that "they were correct duelling pistols, and from the statements of the facts laid before them entirely approved of the line of conduct adopted by Captain Best and Mr. Edward Shortland, and they were further of opinion thab Captain Best and Mr. E. Shortland should take no notice of any placards or observations arising oub of this transaction." This deliverance was signed by Captain R. A. Lockharb, and AssistantSurgeon P. Gammie of 80th Regiment; and the following officers of the Garrison;— Captain W. Richmond, 96th Regiment; Lieutenant G. A. Bennett, R.E. ; and Lieutenant H. D. Smart, 28th Regiment. Towards the end of 1843 a "difficulty" arose between Mr. R. C. Joplin, editor of the Auckland Chronicle, and Mr. A. Johnson. Ib appears that the former was at " a teetotal meeting "—rather a rare assembly in Auckland in those dayswhen the latter peremptorily ordered Mr. Joplin to "shut the door!" Mr. Joplin, in an advertisement, addressed an open letter to Mr. Johnson, in which he says, "I wish to know the reasons that induced you to ask me to close the door? You should really be more careful as to whom you use such uncalled-for impudence- Perhaps the result may be more serious than you imagine?" Mr. Johnson, in a note, replied that he had no intention of giving offence, and "the mistake arose through thinking he was one of the waiters in attendance !" On the following morning Mr. Shepherd, jun., waited upon Mr. Joplin to know if he were satisfied, as he (Shepherd) was Mr. Johnson's friend, and any communication would have to be through him. Mr. Joplin accepted the apology of Mr. Johnson, " though ho thought it rather misleading." He did not presume upon aristocratic airs, but he thought his appearance was scarcely so plebeian as Mr. Johnson's answer would imply, but "thab gentleman would have bo be very careful in future." So the door episode ended without blood being spilt in accordance with the '' lawa of honour. M Joplin, by the way, was our first spring poet, and wrote a poem on New Zealand, in four cantos. History is silent as to whether in 1843, he wcr> of Tom Bracken's opinion that ib was " God's Own Country." " In August, 1844,, another affair ; of honour was on the board between Mr. Lacblan MeLaeblan, or "Bendigo Mac," as he wbb familiarly termed afterwards, and Mr. Dudley Sinclair, the son of a well-known Scotch baronet, of the Sinclairs, of Caithness. Mr. ; McLaehlan had come out in the Brilliant in connection with the Mauukau Laud Company's enter-

prise, and Mr. Sinclair called him "an adventurer.!' There was .no greab harm done in using the epithet, as the early colonists' were pretty well all "adventurers" in the best sense of the word, but "Mac's" Highland blood was up, so he sent a challenge to Mr. Sinclair, and failing to get the usual satisfaction, "according to the laws of honour," and hearing that Dudley had a horsewhip in pickle, took the initiative, and cowhided thab gentleman. An old identity, who died the other day, was talking about tho incident recently, said he witnessed it. Mr. Sinclair subsequently challenged "Mac," but his second, Mr. Conroy, solicitor, held -that having had his satisfaction already with the horsewhip, "the incident was closed." Poor Dudley Sinclair committed suicide a month afterwards, some said through unsuccessful sugar speculations, others owing to worry over the " affair or honour." •, A little later on an affair of honour occurred between Lieutenant Phillpotb, of H.M.a. Hazard (who fell at the unsuccessful storming of Ohaeawai in the Northern war), and Mr. Henry Falwasser, proprietor of the Auckland Times. Tho gallant lieutenant was sitting in "Rakau" Wood's hotel reading the Times (" or The Mangle"), when something in its columns displeased him, and he denounced it as " a rag," and proceeded to dilate upon the various uses to which it could be put, which so incensed Falwasser that he called Phillpotb out. The duel took place in the vicinity of the Northern Club, which building is on the site of Wood's Hotel, bub nothing worse happened than Phillpott losing a button off his uniform, and Falwasser getting a bullet through his — coat - tail; but " honour " was satisfied !

There was a threatened duel between Mr. Willoughby Shortland, Colonial Secretary, and Mr. Chas. Terry, the author of a work on New Zealand, and the first editor of the New Zealander. Mr. Terry conceived that Mr. Shortland had insulted him, and balked the matter over with a, friend ab present resident in Auckland, with a view to calling him out, but the threatened affair of honour did not come off, matters being patched up. Mr. Terry subsequently left the colony. Some years afterwards, another duel did nob end so harmlessly. As the story runs, towards the end of "the forties," two officers of the garrison, while ab mess one night, began discoursing " over the walnuts and the wine," when one taunted the other with being " a ranker." The Scottish blood of "the ranker "'was up in an instant, and he called out the "purchase" man. It ia said that the affair came off near the Bastion, but the upshot of bhe business was that the aggressor subsequently died, it is alleged, of his wounds. A good deal of mystery enveloped the affair, and it never gob into the papers. It was given oub that "the deceased officer strained himself jumping over a mess table," while his lichen • covered tombstone (with a hand grenade sculptured on it) in the Symonds-sbreeb " Cemetery bears an inscription that he "died of fever," and that it was erected by his brother officers as a mark of esteem. The Hon. Win. Swanson, M.L.C., who was then in partnership with Mr. Jas. Johnston, in the carpentry and joinery business, made the coffin and coffined the officer, and an old identity who died the other day supervised the burial arrangements. So well was the secret kept that Mr. Swanson, who went away shortly afterwards to the Californian goldfields, never knew the details till nearly two years after his return to Auckland. Some of the old colonists who were daily associating with the military were in ignorance of the facts, so great was the reticence observed respecting the incident. At a later date a high official of the Civil Service, now living out of Auckland, is said to have been involved in an affair of honour, and was himself the challenger. Matters were patched up, and the details of the quarrel were nob suffered to leak out.