AUCKLAND'S EARLY DAYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16894, 5 July 1918, Page 6

AUCKLAND'S EARLY DAYS

BOYHOOD RECOLLECTIONS.

MR. SWAINSON AND HIS * TIME.

Some interesting recollections of Auckland's oarly days are given by Mr. A. W. Gillies in a letter addressed to Mr. C. J. Parr, M.P., president of the Auckland Town Planning League, with reference to the cottage built by the Hon. Wra. Swainson, first Attorney-General of New Zealand, in the " forties," which still stands on tho Gillies Estato, acquired by the City Council in 1913 as a park. Mr. Gillies states in the letter that the first Crown grant of the property, that then included the park, was issued in 1843, from tho Queen to Ann Hobson. "Was Ann Hobson," he asks, " the sister of tho first Governor Hobson ? All I know is that she transferred the property to Mr. Swainson, the first Attorney-General. He' transferred five acres to Dr. Campbell, and the balance to my grandfather, Mr. Street, retaining tho cottage and the waterfront and three acres for hie lifetime." Mr. Gillies also suggests that there are many people in Auckland who can give the league a wealth of information about the early days of the city. His own memory goes back only to 1880. A Formal English Garden.

Calling upon his own recollections of accounts that he heard in his boyhood of incidents of Mr. Swainson's time, Mr. Gillies says:—" I have heard that when the Galatea, with the Duke of Edinburgh, reached Auckland, Mr. Swainson gave an entertainment. Lord Charles Beresford was a ' middy ' on the vessel, and drove a four-in-hand to Mr. Swainson's. The entrance was at tho time on the westward of the main gates, and led down the stoop path through an avenue of pohutukawas to tho front of Mr. Swainson's residence. I remember this drive well, and there was hardly room to take a gig. It is just as it was, but a little overgrown. I understand that Lord Charles got down all right, but there was no room to turn, and willing hands had to lift the coach round and run it back." . The little valley between tho high Oregon pine and the house was called by Mr. Swainson The Dell, and Mr. Gillies can remember it as being kept as a formal English garden, surmounted with bush sloping down to the water. It was a protty spot, and here Mr. Swamson -delighted to gather a bevy of ladies and. entertain them there. " I remember him well," proceeds Mr. Gillies; " a dignified, courteous old gentleman, dressed in early Victorian style—the tail-coat, grey trousers, and grey tall hat. He would ceremoniously call on my grandmother, Mrs. Street, at regular intervals. In a formal, courteous manner he would make a, little speech, and call on his old Maori, Mohi, to come forward with a little present of a basket of peaches, flowers, or someth'ng in season. We boys, as wo were then, were a bit afraid of Mr. Swainson, but we were great friends' with Mohi. Mohi was a magnificently-made man, with a splendid type of face, richly tattooed. In 1880 he lived in a where some 30yds to the eastward of Mr. Swainson's house.

Picturesque Harbour Scene. "It was a pretty sight to see Mr. Swainson going up to town. ■ Mohi would have the boat all ready on the beach, and would be dressed in a sailor rig, much like boys are sometimes dressed, all in white, with blue piping. Mr. Swainson would come down spotless, and Mohi would gravely salute him, take him on his back, and gravely place, him in the stern of the boat. Then Mohi would take tho oars and row him to town and back. The harbour was more picturesque then. Leaving the pretty Judge's. Bay, they would skirt cliffs covered with pohuiukawas. round Campbell's Point. The water then run right in to Komisky's, in St. George's Bay, to a white sholl beach. The intake into Mechanics' Bay was quite a busy spot in 1880. Before that, many will remember tho water where Beach Road now is. . . . Going under the old wooden railway wharf caro' would have to be taken not to ground on tho shallow basin lying between the wharvosi l. 1 so to the steps at Queen Street." Implying to the letter, the secretary of the league, Mr. T. G. Price, has thanked Mr. Gillies, in the name of the executive, for his interesting reminiscences, and also for his gift for the provision of a commemorative tablet to do affixed to tho old building. , ■ The secretary is now obtaining an estimate of the cost of preserving the cottage in such ,a manner as to maintain its historic interest, and will shortly wait upon the Mayor of Auckland with suggestions as to what steps should bo taken in the matter.