ROMANCE AND REALITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 66

ROMANCE AND REALITY.

o — THE STORY OF SIR, JOHN LOGAN CAMPBELL'S GIFT OF CORNWALL PAHK TO AUCKLAND.

X.ong ago, on a bleak November morning, in an old baronial castle in the Highlands of Scotland, a man child was brought

into the world. He came of a stock who had, on the side of both parents, belonged for centuries to the ruling class of the conntry ; but, better still, his father and mother had married for affection's sake, and were both hale in body, true of heart, and happy in the harmony of their culti-

va«ed minds. Other circumstances should perhaps b"e brought into the reckoning, such as the country itself, with its picturesque and momentous history ; and the season of the year, with its short days, long nights, heavy snows, and deep frosts, followed by spring and_ summer, with everything vividly fresh and beautiful in itself, and in conscious or sub-conscious contrast with the departed yet not forgotten, winter. Surely nowhere do such snowdrops appear under the hedges, such primroses on the braes, such verdant green !

inf ield and wood, such blue in the skies. -. And the waterfalls, heard in the distance, or seen near at hand ; quaint, picturesque towns here and there, and' old historic castles and manor houses ; and the moon coming out in the gloaming to add glamour to bens, glens, woods, straths, and moorlands — how these and other objects must enter into the young sympathetic nature, ( ' and give colour or bias to character. • The splendour falta on castle walls And snowy summits old in story; The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

When a boy goes forth info the ways also his own commission as Lieutenantof youth and manhood with such things, governor over whatever territory might be and the impact of tradition ancl history acquiicd in sovereignty for the Queen of and of hi? home life at work in his mind, England. To the fair and fascinating what may not be expected of him? country thus brought within the pale of In the' case of John Logan Campbell, an industrial civilisation, young Campbell whatever was expected, much came to nt once turned Ins face. Long aft eiv».ircis pass. At college he qualified for the pio- he wrote a book named "Puenamo," in fession and practice of medicine, and when which he recount's with refreshing direct-

twenty-two years and eight months old he sailed away from his native 1-ind as surgeon on board an emigrant ship bound for Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. That was, before the days of the Australian goldfields, in the month of July, in the year 1839. Colonisation was still in its morning tide, and the time was flushed with

anticipations that presaged a glorious day. Young Campbell was not the man to discredit or depreciate the glow jr the glamour of the hour ; he, with his high health, his trained intelligence, his professional position, and a bank credit of five hundred pounds. Yet he was no mere dreamer, no vain builder of inaccessible castles in the air ; for when he landed in Australia he made a ilear-eyed study of the industrial conditions, and judiciously concluded that, with his inexperience and his small capital, success did not lie immediately in front

of him ; fox he had resolved not to ptirsue the practice of his profession. It was in January, 1840. that these things came to pass, whilst the young adventurer was sojourning amongst the spacious pastoral domains )f New South Wales. It was on the 30th day of the same month that L/aptain William Hobson hoisted the Union Jack of Great Britain at the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, and read the Royal Commission which extended the boundaries of New South Wales so as to include the islands of New Zealand, and

ness much of what he saw and heard imcl thought and experienced when he reached New Zealand : and describes what the" Maori and the land of the Maori were in the first years of their contact with European people and practices. But -for the real romance and realit\ of his life, the inquirer will have to go to other sources. These are so numerous that they are, perhaps, not very easy to draw upon with the right result— a result that will show how a man widely and deeply engaged in practical affairs — a politician, a large merchant, a founder and moulder of institutions, a promoter and maintainer of agricultural and pastoral settlement and industrial enterprise — yet secretly cherished for sixty years a determination to realise a remarkable resolution formed in the morning of his life, li is the purpose which was thus cherished that gives romantic attraction and general human interest to his story, and makes it an interesting compound of romance and reality.

But what was the purpose? New Zealand is, without any nonsense, a fine country. Its soil, climate, and scenery conspire, in fact, to make it one of the finest and most beautiful countries in the world. It has, therefore, almost necessarily, innumerable places possessed of great natural beauty ; some majestically mountainous, some wildly sylvan, some a mystic mixture of seascape and landscape, where wave and islet, level shore, gradual slope and easilyreached hilltop, merge and harmonise into a rhythmic arcadia — a scenic idyl ot imforgetable loveliness. In scenes of this order Auckland abounds, but of its numerous possessions of the kind there is, perhaps, not one that excels the exquisite district of Tamaki. It was so loved, so prized by the Maoris long before tire country was discovered by Europeans that they called it Tamaki Makarau — Tamaki of a hundred lovers ; a place so lovely that all admired it ; and — after the old primitive human fashion — much blood was shed and

many fierce wars were waged' for its possession.

Well, -when young Dr Logan Campbell reached New Zealand, he — as became the son of a land of floods and mountains — roamed much hither and thither ; sometimes in quest of land for settlement, much in "sheer admiration of the virginal loveliness of untamed Nature in the wonderful country, as seen in the morning of its new era and in that of his own life. The volcanic mountain of Maungakiekie, or One Tree Hill, in the Tamaki district, close to the embryo city of Auckland, was one of the first, ascents made by the eager and observant pioneer, and became with him a favourite haunt for occasional visits, on account of the amenity, the exquisite variety, the extent and irresistible loveliness of the landscape. Keenly practical and shrewdly intelligent, the young colonist naturally -thought that to buy so beautiful a bit of country so near the infant capital of a new country would be a sensible thing in the way of business ; but what was somewhat less natural as a primary human impulse was the thought how fine it would be to buy the land and then, at some future time, restore it to the country as a place of immemorial resort. This was perhaps in the manner oi the story books ; but the charm of the story book is that, notwithstanding the obtrusive obviousness of their unworldiness, they have a native knack for being true to human nature after all. If the}* had not they would, perhaps, have little appeal as story books ; and ever and anon, though admittedly not every day, they are Justified by impulses like that which led' to a memorable resolution in the mind of Dr Logan Campbell. Very interestingly, too, the long result of tinie> and Dr Campbell's firmness of purpose conspired to firing about quite a story-book-like conclusion in this case. In due course the young colonist bought the land, and through a long tract of years, under many vicissitudes oi fortune, with many inducenieuts to sell with brilliant monetary results, it was kept with the pr.o generous purpose in view : its gift — its dedication to the citizens of Auckland as a place of fice. perpetual public lesort At a happy conjuncture of eircum%tanui this vps accomplished by the patriarch! il patriot, who, in formally presenting the beau tiful place, under the name of Cornwall Park, to his fellow citizens on Ihe 26+ 'i < f August, 1903, happily quoted the wc^cU which Plato puts into the mouth of Nc crates in a famous j>assage of "The "Re-

public"': '"Our citizens must not be allowed to grow up among images of evil, lest their tout-- assimilate the ugliness of their siurruii'dings. Rather, fiom everything that they sec ancl hear, loveliness like a br< •■ .■* <=hall puss into thuir souls and t^i.'ii i.hem without knowing it. the tiuth f win-ii loveliness, is a mamtestation.

Assuredly, m making th m a yift of Cornwall Park, Sir John Logun Ca ni'b-.il did much towards this great -->nd for the people of Auckland. It was . -..- i bt>» thing to do — a thing rtmemberable to the laica f ;igcs : but to the people of his country---and to ptople of othei countries — has. he not made another not less admirable pr-c-seni? timely he has. in 'he rei" v .-ling spectacle of blended romance and rcahiy exhibited by his, life, and in iLi e!e-\.um.r example of an unselfish pun 'So chensh'd through long years of vici.-si.. 'cle to £>n unselfish, end. This is an -t.-^t added lo our spiritual stock, and perhaps its influence will continue to pass lit 5 a hve. zs into many souls without tii-'U- knowing it, as long as Cornwall Park is t joy to jhe people of Auckland and a treasur ■ tc Xiw Zealand, and the naaie of S'.c Jol.n Logan Campbell lives in the memories ot nun. Johx < i c.