PROVINCIAL HISTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23859, 13 July 1939, Page 8

PROVINCIAL HISTORY

FRAGMENTS FROM NELSON SHOW CASE AT MUSEUM A show case containing a wealth of interesting data concerning the history of the Nelson province has just been placed on exhibition at the Otago Museum and there is little doubt that it will attract a great deal of attention. The exhibit is on loan from the Nehon Museum under the Carnegie Corporation exchange scheme.

First to catch the eye are a number of pictures, the largest of which is one of the earliest known lithos and depicts a view of the Nelson settlement on Tasman Bay. It is taken from a drawing by Charles Heaphy, who was later awarded a V.C. One section of the case seems to be devoted to the orovince’s connection with the early history of racing in New -Zealand for it includes an early photograph of “ Old Redwood," who was a brother of the late Archbishop Redwood, and who. besides being New Zealand’s Champion shot, was known as “ Father of the New Zealand Turf.” There is also a portrait of John Kerr, who was the first importer and breeder of the American trotter, and had, moreover, considerable prowess in the art of ploughing, as the list of chompionships he annexed from time to time during his career demonstrates.

Still another picture of interest is an etching associated with the Maungatapu murders of more than threequarters of a century ago, and above it, in faded writing, is the indictment charging the four accused with causing death “ with malice aforethought ” in the still familiar phraseology. Every document in the exhibit amply repays a close scrutiny, but some of particular interest are an agreement between Henry Christian Paap and Count Kuno Zu Rantzau allowing the first-named to travel to Nelson with his wife and four children and to take up some 10 to 20 acres of land at a price of £3 pei acre; a cheque signed by Colonel Arthur Wakefield, who owed his rank to service in the Spanish Civil war of last century and who met his death at the Wairau massacre 13 months later; and a schedule of clothing necessities for men and women immigrants, a man’s outfit being estimated to cost £5 14s 7d and a woman’s £3 17s 3d, An amusing light on currency difficulties in those early days is shed by a selection of 'paper ■ notes for sums varying from Id and 2d to Is. Twenty 3d notes had to be presented before the owner could receive an equivalent sum in solid cash, and similarly 10 sixpenny and five one shilling notes had to be handed in, together before a person could see the colour of his money. It is likely that such notes would have fared even worse overseas than Dominion currency is reported to do to-day.