EARLIEST AUCKLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21450, 25 March 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

EARLIEST AUCKLAND

SOME VALUABLE RECORDS

BY MATANGA

The Orakci celebration of Captain Hobson's landing there has brought reminder of a March date in Auckland's earliest history. It is one of the threads to bo woven into the centenary story that ero long will have telling. Fortunately, the northern capital was so deliberately made that a high degree of certainty attaches to that story. Yet to ventilate it now is desirable, in order to promote, even by critical questioning, the production of a centennial narrative above reproach. " Sources " themselves cannot be taken always at their face value. The truth, of course, is worth more than any man's reputation for veracity, and harsh words about that will bo checked by remembering that to err is human and that the man who never made a mistake, if so remarkable a mortal ever lived, probably never had initiative enough to make anything else. So, in going over our Auckland fundamentals, those who know should speak out —and not mind closo scrutiny of the information they offer. A familiar " source" is Sir John Logan Campbell's " Poenamo "—valuable as a reminiscent recital of things known by an educated man at first hand. Whatever of defect may mar it, a good basis is furnished for the comparison of other rememberings and records. At the day of Hobson's Orakei landing there were already a few stray white folk about. Down at Motu-korea, now known as Brown's Island, at the mouth of tho Tamaki, there were this John Logan Campbell, a doctor out of practico, and his mate William Brown. They had bought the island from the natives a few weeks before the land-

buying agents of the young Government had put in to the harbour. They had designs on a fortune by buying the sloping land round what was to become known as Mount Hobson, but they got wind of the Crown's pre-emptive right under the treaty of Waitangi, and of course could not very well, under the very noses of Government officials, traffic in land as sellers, nor go on with their buying. Remuera was not to be theirs even for an hour. How they heard of the Government's purchase Campbell tells. The Mysterious Schooner

One day the two young pioneers descried a small topsail schooner coming round the North Head and steering straight for Orakei, off which she lay with unfurled sails until sunset. She must have made off again during the night, for next morning there was no sign of her. Ten days afterwards, however, the same craft put in a second time and again stood off Orakei; but on this occasion she did not even anchor, merely standing off and on while her boat made several trips ashore. Naturally Campbell and Brown were very curious, for canvas sails in those days were 'rarely seen on the waters of the Waitemata. They came to the conclusion that the strange craft had something to do with the purchase of the country from the Maoris, and putting two and two together they decided that she had come from the Bay of Islands, then the seat of Government, and that they would hear the truth of the matter in due time.

They were to hear the news sooner than they expected. A day or two after these mysterious happenings the partners made a business trip to Onehunga by way of the Tamaki, with the object of buying pigs from the Maoris with which to stock their little island. Sailing up to Otahuhu, they arranged for their little stock of " trade " to be hauled across the portage and transhipped into a canoe on the Manukau, whence they dropped down to the Maori kumara grounds on the Onehunga shore. Here they were met by the old chief Kawau, then the ruling rangatira of tho Ngatiwhatua tribe, whoso headquarters comprised the fertile lands of Onehunga and Mangere. Dollars for a Blanket. On spreading out their wares on tho Onehunga beach, the traders received a sudden shock when Kawau inquired " How many dollar for this blanket . " Dollars," thought the pakeha. Why is he talking about dollars when we want pigs? Why the mischief doesn t he bring a pig he thinks the value of the blanket?" "How many?" repeated tho old man. " How many?" replied one of the traders. "What have dollars to do with pigs?" The korero apparently leading nowhere, the old chief settled the matter by unfolding a corner of the blanket in which he was attired, when there tell into his lap a small shower of glittering sovereigns. With a broad smile on his tattooed face Kawau. again asked, " How many for the blanket? It then dawned on the young pakehas that the old chief had really meant what he had said, but where had all tho sovereigns como from ? Observing astonishment on tho white man s countenance, the chief proceeded to explain that tho gold was payment "for the land."

"What land?" " For this land and the Waitemata land," replied Kawau quietly. "We havo been to Tokorau to get the utu and sign the pukapuka, and this is some of the money." The excitement of the pakehas can be imagined. To the unutterable amazement of the natives, they indulged in a weirdly original sort of haka, shouting at the top of their voices, "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!—the isthmus is bought —the capital fixed. Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! ' This then was the explanation of the mysterious topsail schooner off _ Orakei. Getting down to business again, they concluded their deal, coming away with thirty golden sovereigns in their pockets, and sixty pigs driven on foot, 111 exchange for blankets, shirts, calico and spades. Doubtless this was the earliest private instance of a money transaction on the isthmus. " A Miserable Cup of Tea " Dr. Campbell was to see the capital grow—to add much himself to its tieasures of park and building—to become, as Sir John Logan Campbell, Mayor, what time there was a IJoyal visit, then far off; but in those days he had to i share the inconveniences and hardships that were the common lot. Soon he and his partner left their little island abode in their dug-out canoe cut by their own hands in tho bush at Waiomo, and joined the young settlement. Hero is a bit of his diary, full ot manful and whimsical recitals of events that could not daunt the stout-hearted of those days: Friday. Jan. 1, 1841.—The happy New Year came, blowing; great Runs from the North east—ruining cats and doBS— postponed breakfast to see if the day would clear up. Tried to boil some potatocs for dinner, could not succeed for the rain. Commissariat at zero, no cold meat; leftHad to dine off some of yesterday s cold potatoes, and a drink of water! In tho evening half nipped my eye out of my head with smoke trying to boil a. pannikin of water inside the tent. Only half succeeded had a miserable cup of tea. His memory-pictures had help from records thus made day by day. That was a time of diaries, and fortunately some have escaped the reckless destruction that was the fate of too many. Hiding away from all public knowledge may be great treasures of the kind. Too intimately personal for indiscriminate publication some of them may be, but it should be possible to cull from them information of public value.;