ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 86

ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

By Ed. Jerninoham Wakefield.

(Edited by Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G.) Christchurch: Messrs Whitcombe •■ ' and Tombs. This latest addition to Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs's list of valuable publications on the history and natural history * of New Zealand "is a great boon to the public. Of all things, it is essential that a people should b J e acquainted with the history oftheir own country and the lives of those whose adventures or legislation made that history. This is the very ABC of patriotism. In " Adventure in New Zealand " we have a curiously fascinating Combination of, adventure with legislation, told in bold and effective style, withjights and shades as daring as ..they are picturesque. Not to be. taken without their grain of salt, as all older colonists acquainted with the Wakefield character- ' istics know; and young students may .wisely be warned to read Rusden as a corollary to Wakefield, or vice versa. The .writer, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, was a mere lad of 19 when he accompanied his uncle, Colonial William Wakefield, to the colony in the '400-ton Tory in 1840. The diary from which the original " Adventure' in New Zealand," first published 60 years ago in two large volumes, was compiled contains Mr Wakefield's account of the interesting , transactions of the New Zealand Land Company, culminating in the Treaty of Waitangi, and the general progress of events, as seen from the Wakefield point of view, for the four yeaTS which preceded the installation of Captain as Governor of the colony. Naturally enough, the strong personal bias of a man with vivid temperament and impulsive character tnakes itself felt throughout the whole of the bulky volume into which the two • yolumes of the original edition is bound. ! iThus one is content to .enjoy the picturesque and striking series of impressions of early scenes and adiventures without permitting them- to influence Wr judgment of matters so important, for example^ as • (the transactions of the New 'Zealand Land Company. There is something delightfully frank about Mr Wakefield's account of his interview with the autocratic and' unpopular Governor TTitzroy. _• This took place at the levee. held immediately after.-, the Governor's arrival in Wellington, and is described-as follows:—' j " The arrangements for the'Tevee were Tatlier undignified, no aide-de-camp, sentries, or constables had been appointed to keep the ingress through the French jvrindow of the large room in the hotel (ree; and I got jostled in by the eager $rowd, along wiih two or three other settlers. . . . I bad made my bow ted passed on into the on the j

other side when the Governor called me back by name. I returned, and stood in front of- him, when fie used nearly the following words, with a frown on his face and the ione of the commander of a frigate reprimanding his youngest midshipman : ' When you are 20 years older you will have a great deal more prudence and discretion. Youi conduct has been most indiscreet. ... I strongly disapprove and Very much regret everything that you have written and done regarding the missionaries and Natives in New Zealand.' "

Courtesy and consideration were never strong points with Governor Fitzroy, but for sheer clumsy brutality this public reprimand at an inaugural levee stands without parallel. The book is illustrated! with" quite a number of reproductions from the Wakefiold portfolio of. sketches, and the pages abound in descriptive bits -of writing which are as effective as any pictures in conveying an idea of the primitive conditions accompanying early colonisation. As, for example, the following, quoted from the Wellington paper of March 9, 1842:— """ . " A decent building for a post office is also specially required. On Sunday last we saw Mr Mantell stuffing an old potato sack amongst the reeds of the dilapidated hut he occupies as Postmaster to prevent the wind from blowing the letters off table on which he* had assorted them for delivery^" it may be noted that though the two volumes of the original* edition have been compressed into one, and there is also the addition of a decidedly dull preface by Sir Robert Stout, tb.e technical " excellencies of the book leave nothing to be desired in style or detail; while the price is only 7s 6d. To appreciate this last, we must remember that the original edition has commanded £2. 2s .in the London book market for a number of years.