EARLY EXPLORATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20259, 20 May 1929, Page 8

EARLY EXPLORATION.

MARSDEN AT AUCKLAND.

TRIPS ON BOTH HARBOURS,

QUOTATIONS FROM JOURNAL.

Among the pioneers of Auckland it has not been usual to count the Rev. Samuel Marsden, the pre-civilisation missionary, but a document in the Hocken Library in Dunedin, unearthed for Mr. John Barr Auckland city librarian, for the purposes of his book on "The Ports of Auckland " establishes the fact that Mr. Marsden was the first whito man to voyage on tha waters of either the Waitemata or the Manukau. It also seems pretty clear that it was Mr. y Marsdeu's observations as to the suitability of the isthmus between the twin harbours for a city that led the Rev. Henry Williams, twenty years later to recommend the Auckland site to the attention of Governor Hobson when he was seeking a position for a new capital to which to remove from his original seat at Kororareka.

These circumstances did not see print until they appeared in Mr. Barr's book. They were not given with Marsden's other narrativrs in tho Missionary Register of the Church Missionary Society, and this enabled the Franch navigator D'Urville (1827), who was seven years later than Marsden, to claim credit for the discovery of tho Manukau. Mr. Barr, however, obtained from the Hocken collection, which contains Marsden's original manuscript, his actual observations. Quest for Kauri Spars. Marsden came seven times from New South Wales to the Auckland district between 1814 and 1837, and it is in hig account- of the third visit, in 1820, that he describes his experiences in the two harbours. On account of his knowledge of tho Maoris, he had been asked by the Governor of New South Wales to accompany H.M.S. Dromedary in its quest for kauri spars for the Navy. On June 7, 1820, he left the Bay of Islands, in H.M.. store-ship Coromandel, which was tho Dromedary's consort, for Waiau (Coromandel). After a stay there and a visit to Katikati, he decided to make for Kaipara, travelling by way of what we now know as the Waitemata Harbour, which Captain Cook, in his visit to Hauraki Gulf, had missed, sailing on the eastern side of the fringe of islands, but remarking in hig journal: "It appeared very probable that these formed some good harbours." The missionarv-voy3ger left Coromandel in a launch, which was in the charge of a Mr. Anderson, and with him was also Mr. Eweis, Government timber purveyor. The entry in his journal for July 26 contains the following:—"This morning wl weighed anchor and sailed up the Wyeteeinatta with a strong fair breeze. . . " „ The Wyeteematta is a large river, in some places five or six miles wide, with a sufficient depth of water for large ships. We anchored about 5 o'clock in the evening in five fathoms of water, near the shore, tying the launch with a rope to a tree. . . . There were some fine spars, but not long enough for first-rate men-of-war." Exploration of Manukau. Next day Marsden and Ewels accepted a passage for the trip further up the harbour in the canoe of the chief, Te Kawau. After "going six or eight miles they landed, and went on -to their destination overland. Returning on the 30th, they rejoined the launch that evening at Magoea, which seems to be his name for Panmure, and eventually they regained Coromandel after 24 days* absence.

The visit to Mknukau was made in November, 1820. Marsden states that when at Magoea before he had, from the top of a high conical hill (Mount. Wellington), observed several rivers and large sheets of water, and! it was apparently these that attracted him to the western side. He learned that one river (Waiuku) ran toward Wyekotta (Waikato), and the other was called Manukou, and fell into the sea. On November 10 he notes: "As soon as the tide answered we prepared to visit, the heads of the Manukou River. This river has two branches. One runs up to Magoea, and is separated from it by a .very narrow neck of land, over which the natives take their canoes from one river to another. The other branch runs southward toward Wyekotta, and forms a very large sheet of water, beyond which the eye can reach The branch nearly joins the Wyekotta River, and is only separated by a narrow neck, over which the natives fake their canoes and pass from one settlement to another. Manukou also, about 10 or 12 miles from the heads, nearly joins tho Wyeteematta River. Features of the Harbour. "In the Manukou there are very extensive shoals and sand banks, but there appeared to be a channel of very deep water, but which we were unable to examine in the canoe from the strength of tho tide, which occasioned too great, a sea to venture into with safety. Xho entrance into the harbour is also veiy narrow, and it is possible a bar may be found on the outside, but this we coukl not ascertain, as> it would not be safe to go out to sea in a small canoe where the swell is so great." From the Manukau Marsden went to the Kaipara, travelling overland from Onehunga "over the summit of a high, round hill called Wyedakka (Mount Albert), and embarking m a canoe in the vicinity oi the Ponsonby of to-day.