A HISTORIC ROLL OF VISITORS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

A HISTORIC ROLL OF VISITORS

How to Open the Book

By MATANCA

SELDOM, if evor, has New Zealand given we! come to so many notable visitors at one time as in the closing days of last month. Imperial business brought many of them. Others, including one lately Prime Minister of Canada and another now Premier of New South "Wales, came in the course of a casual tour. All tvere only to be "here for a' season," whatever the purpose of their stay, and had in mind, as the landrail was made, a near date of departure. No doubt their first sight of these shores gave them a sense of arrival at the Ultima Thule of the Empire, the place where could be found, if they cared to seek it, the farthest British lamp-post. Round that they did not mean to huge 1. Perhaps in their thought lias beer a recall of the way of adventure taken before them by inr.ny in clays when these isles of the south wore less easy of access, when they were really 011 the och'e of the world. Perhaps they remembered that here, in days not so long ago, others o.ime with eyes as questing as their owr, to take away, for mental storage or for telling, the things discovered. And it would not be surprising to learn tint, having written his name in some visitors' hook and looked back, as is the common habit, - to see who had passed that way before, one or other of them had a momentary vision of a list not yet between covers, a list of the distinguished guests New Zealand has briefly entertained, sometimes unaware, since its coasts were first descried by man. A Centenr.ial Duty Such a Visitors' Book, in palpable reality, would bo worth perusal. It should be compiled for the Centennial. ]ts writing would not be impossible. Difficulties would he met, of course. One of them would be the drawing of the line between names indubitably famous and names not fully entitled to a place; but, .since judgments must differ, this difficulty could be overcome -by using a wide latitude of choice, giving uncertain instances the benefit of the doubt. Headers would be free tc expunge any not to their taste, and a few blank leaves it the end could be provided for their own additions. We are always using personal discretion thus in assessing claims to honour, so why not when judging a list of this sort ? Another problem—what constitutes a visitor? —is not so hard to solve as it may seem. Quickly and surely can be sLiit out all those playing any part within the settled life of the country, and marginal cases can be included without confusing the record. It should go without saying, as a principle, that all requisite annotation with particulars of contact with this country should be guided by care for accuracy, . allowance always being made for the possible unearthing of corrective detail. The total achievement would be far less pretentious than a history of New Zealand, yet its adequate doing, if properly attempted, would be no mean contribution to that history. Above all, it could be much more than a sapjess catalogue of names and dates, being always supremely human. The Romantic Vanguard At the head of its procession would be a romantic haze, wherein a few dim figures must be permitted to move: one or two Polynesian visitors, merely visitors, and the egendary white explorers before Tasman. A hope can be cherished that theso faint records will some day be made vivid by means not yet available. Then the body of the book can begin, with Tasman himself. He was hardly a guest, for he did no more than go part-way round the house and was given reason to believe that he would not be welcome inside. So, in disgust, he went finally away, recording his implacable desire to have no further dealings with the inhabitants. There is current a notion that he landed on one of the Three Kings Islands, but his journal, which gives 1 very full account of the futile attempi to get water there, makes completely clear the fact thai no landing wa: effected. However, what he noted and left on record fully justifies his prominence in the Visitors" Book. Cook (lieutenant, not captain, when he first came) was a visitor. An important point in his story is that he established no settlement, a fact that was to bear on later questions of sovereignty. Challenged on the threshold, he soon gave proof of a wish to be friendly, , and when his third visit had been paid (really his fourth, for on the second of his three great voyages he came to New Zealand twice) the way was open for others of his kind to enter. With him came some with similar title to honour in the Visitors' Book. At the time of Cook's first arrival, another navigator paid a brief call. They almost collided, but the circumstances were so rernarkablo that they cid not see each other. Do Surville's name goes significantly close to Cook's. Skipping just now Cook's eminent companions, we see the names of certain sealers/and whalers. A few of tho latter disqualified themselves for the Visitors' Book by making New Zealand their ; home, but almost all tho re st. in each occupation, were here solely for what they could take away, and they did it—especially the sealers "-with a vim so groat that the time of their stay, strictly limited to tho state of business, was shorter than it need have been. Among them, theso v ery-commercial travellers represented several nations. Marsden in the List They were still at work, taking all the skins and oil they could lay their hands on, when Marsden appeared. A visitorr" Mdst certainly, although his heart had a dwelling-place here. In all, from LSI 4 to 18:17, ho came seven times, and 111 tho intervals he was unforgettingly diligent in what oversight he could give' from a distance. No wonder a slap-dash writer of unintended fiction called him a bishop and loca ted hi;? diocese in our North Island; but there is ioss excuse for a sober historian's loose phrase about the local missionary toil of Marsden and his .men, as if he was continuously here. To leave his vicarage at Parramatta, in New South Wales, for a journey across the Tasman, involved getting permission from the Governor of that colony, of which he was official chaplain. So his name goes into the Visitors' Hook as another proud entry. 'I wo of nis first three lay agents to settle in the Bay of Islands, at the end of 1811—Thomas Kendall and William ilall-7-were sent by Marsden on a brief visit of investigation in the middle of that year. They might have ranked as visitors only had not their report been so encouraging that they had scarcely reached Sydney again than they had to prepare for the Croat venture of Christian settlement. Ibis settlement gives a new point of departure for the Visitors' Book, as the roll of' those travellers hither not nor destined to stay.