OUR FIRST PRINTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR FIRST PRINTER.

WILLIAM COLENSO.

BY IIATANGA

The annual conference of the Libraries' Association sends thought back to New Zealand's first bpok and first printer. This' country had its G'axton. You may read his story in brief on a marble slab near tho north door of Napier Cathedral: "In memory of the Rev. William Colenso, F.R S., born at Penzance, England, November 17th, 1811, landed it! New Zealand December 30th, 1834, died at Napier February 10th, 1899. Ho was New Zealand's first printer, and published the New Testament in Maori in December, 1837. He came to reside in Ilawke's Bay as a missionary in 1844. ' As a scientist and philanthropist his namo will over be honourably associated with the worthies of his adopted country." That story has a preface in the fashioning of written Maori, the translating of the Scriptures,' and the printing of certain books in London and in Sydney. But our chief interest is Colenso. January 3, 1835, is a very memorable day in New Zealand annals. On that, day its first printing press was brought ashore. Off Paihia, the mission headquarters, oil tho south shoro of tho Bay of Islands) the vessel lay, in which the press and tho printer had come. The lighter packages, Including machines and tools for bookbinding, had already been got safely ashore; but the press, a large Stanhope with a very bulky and heavy staple—even some present-day printers will know what that is, and the uninitiated may be told that it is the main upright part of the press —required some ingenuity to land. Landing the Press. There was no wharf, nor any good land-ing-place; only the natural, sandy beach open to the ocean. Tho boats of the mission station wero too frail to tako tho press, and, as Mr. Colenso tells, the Maori canoes were too small and cranky. By dint of lashing two canoes together and making a deck across them) and working early in the morning before the sea breeze sprang up, the difficult task was accomplished. • Another difficulty was the landing of the boxes of type. As type-metal is composed chiefly of lead, these wero very heavy. It was intended to open them on board, and so to divide the burden. However, the vessel was such a novelty to the Maoris that they .continually crowded on board, and Air. Colenso says they were all very wild and rough, "and some of them not very friendly. To have opened these packages before their eyes would have been to court trouble: type-metal would make splendid musket-balls, and just then most Maoris were much more interested in musket-balls than in books. So, with much labpur, the boxes of type wero landed intact. The printer records: "It was a matter of very great rejoicing to us when all our precious stores were safely on shore and without loss." Alas! the rejoicing was of short duration. As the unpacking proceeded it was discovered that many necessary articles were missing. Almost all the accessories to press and typcf were wanting, and there was no paper. Someone responsible for despatching the plant from England had seriously blundered. Nor had any arrangements been made for a printing office. Tho fact is that tho arrival of the press took the mission by surprise. It is true that the missionaries had asked . for it, and that tho Missionary Society had promised to supply it; but no time was named; or could have been, and during Mr. Colenso's long and inevitable stay in Sydney on the way there had been no opportunity of sending word that he was coming with it. To house him and all his appliances was a problem. There was no room in the houses of the missionaries. But there happened to be empty when he came a largo and well-lighted room, this being a semi-detached wing of a mission-house further along the beach. It had been used as a schoolroom for the sons of the missionaries; but it was the holiday season, and most of the pupils had gone home to other parts of the Bay. Besides, it had just been decided to carry on that school for the future at Waimate. So into this room the press was put, and in spite of much discussion of its removal to other places, such as the stone store at Kerikeri and a new building to be erected for the purpose at Wairnate, there in that room at Paihia it remained for years. Pulling the First Proofs. There, by dint of courageous striving, there was produced the first book printed in New Zealand. On February 17, 1835, in the presence of an interested, not to say excited, group of spectators, the first proofs were pulled. It had been agreed that the first sheet from the press should be a portion of the New Testament, and that in the circumstances aLI that conld be attempted was a small book. Accordingly, as William Williams had just completed the translation of the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Philippians, this was tho portion. Writing paper from tho missionaries' private supplies was used. Their wives produced some pink blottingpaper from their little writing desks, and this, when pasted on stronger paper, provided covers. The leaves were stitched together. By February 21 the work was done: twenty-five copies, of sixteen small pages. Some writing paper haying been discovered in tho store at Kerikeri later two thousand copies were eventually printed. Colenso's greatest triumph over obstacles was the making of an imposingstone, literally a stone. Rowing up the Kerikeri River, he had noticed the. big basaltic boulders fantastically scattered in and near the stream. One of these was taken to Kerikeri, where a catechist, who had been .a stone-mason in England managed to cut it into halves. Defects in the sawn surfaces wero filled with cement. When at last, iu 1837, the two of them were mounted at Paihia by the joiner previously mentioned, and fitted with drawers, Mr. Colenso thought himself happy and felt he was rich! "Perhaps," he says, " this is the only instance of a pair of large imposing-stones made, out of a boulder of basalt." It was accomplished without any mechanical aid. Ingenuity and Courage. In general the story is one of ingenious makeshifts, whose cleverness only printers can appreciate. Probably many of them know the details, and have rejoiced that Colenso proved so adroit a craftsman. This first book was followed by larger ones, aiid there came other things' as well. In the same year were printed, both in English and Maori, proclamations and circulars for the British Resident respecting the arrival and claims of Baron do Thierry, also a proclamation dealing with a murderous night attack on Mr. Busby, made by a Maori. Later, there were placards and reports —and the Treaty of Waitangi. Through much of this work the printer toiled on'unaided; but, finding his progress slower than he wished it to be, lie engaged three steady Christian Maorisadult and tattooed chiefs from Kawakawa —as pressmen. They disappointed him. At first they were eager to help-—" in their own way," Mr. Colenso sadly narrates. Then they grew to dislike the work: there was constant standing involved in it, and standing in ono place! So they had to be dismissed. An experiment with youths as rollers of the formos turned out just as badly. Undaunted, ho .went on alone, till he could train more reliable helpers. Then at length came the day when his pioneering as New Zealand's first printer was finished. How afterwards he gave himself to zealous missionary foil, and became greatly beloved for his generosity and deeply respected for his rich attainments in many ways, is a matter of comparatively recent memory.