NEW CITY TREASURES

Otago Witness, Issue 3574, 12 September 1922, Page 7

NEW CITY TREASURES

THE THOMSON COLLECTION. MORNING IN THE DONALD REID WING. No. 11. Much allowance has to be made for indiidual taste in matters of art, but it would >e hard to imagine anyone disputing that rom a purely artistic point of view Mr George O'Brien’s large water colour pointngs are the chief treasures of the Thomon collection. There are about a dozen of hem in all, arid they occupy the highest evel on the wails. The artist’s grasp of >erspective and mastery of colouring, together with his exquisite accuracy in detail, nake his pictures a genuine delight to tudy. One of peculiar interest and value o Dunedin citizens depicts the town and »ay as they looked from Montecillo more han 50 years ago. The date of this paintng can be fixed with some definiteness rom the fact that at the time a central ection had been cut out of .Bell Hill, and hrough the gap the Hospital building can )e seen away behind. The Golden Age laddie steamer is seen in mid-harbour on ts way across to the popular Vauxhall gardens, while in the foreground below s seen the old cricket ground on the site >f the present Oval, looking amazingly ;reen and smooth. ‘The point of view of nother beautiful scene is away at the Jpper Junction at a spot, from which the irtist looks down the North-East Valley to lunedin, and catches sight of Saddle Hill n the distance, and further off still of a larrow deep blue strip of ocean curving iway to the outline of the Nuggets, faint md far in the horizon. The whole atmos>here and colouring are unmistakeably New Zealand, and even the most ardent patriot nust feel that here at least justice has >een done to the characteristic charm and jeauty of our landscapes. Early Port Chalners. showing the large amount of ship>ing that gathered there in 1863, is the abject of another of Mr O’Brien’s works >f art. Most of his others are done in he Rotorua district. One realistically depots the scene of desolation looking ou£ rom the ruins of the buried village of Vairoa, after the Tarawera eruption. Such rees as remain are stripped like a French orest after a barrage, and all the countryide is covered deep in grey mud. More deasiiie subjects of other paintings bv Mr VBrien are the Ohinemutu village by Lake lotorua, with the canoe posts in the foreground ; floating pumice on Lake Rotoma»ana, the same picture giving a striking dew of the Lion Rock: Mount Ngongop.ka, Rotorua: the old church at Ohine-:-tr. portrayed with great delicacy and harpness of detail: one of the Governnent baths at Rotorua; and a view of the ake showing Mokoia Island. Of closer ocal interest are his view looking south >ver St. Clair beach from Portobollo Lodge n 1865. his richlv detailed study of Dnndin in 1888. and his picture of the Dundin Gaslight and Coke Company’s exteuive works in 1865. Fortunately, the eolation boasts a very lifelike photograph >f the artist himself, recently presented to ■lt Thomson by Mr Mallard. The only example of the work of the irtist Power is a painting of Peli.-het Bay hat deserves much more than a passing ;lance. It reveals very clearly the large mount of heavy native timber that stood bout the mouth of the Leith in those days md shows how rarely beautiful once were he surroundings of Pelichet Bay. Another licture that is without a companion is a ividly coloured oil painting of Te Kooti nd his men on the warpath advancing long a track through a typical piece of sorth Island bush. The name of the artist s unknown. On the end wall of the hall facing .owe)- High street there is a wide variety >f pictures and photographs 1 0 attract ttentlon. One that might easily be overlooked is a good little painting of the old nil I at Woodhaugh. done by Perrett. A ighly-eolourrd representation of the first eaping machine in operation in Virginia n 1851 is conspicuous. Near by are everal photos of early Oishorne. Old-time ‘sports” will have their attention rivetted ly several athletic groups rf more thru rdinarv interest, one is of the individual aemhers of the first Maori football tea a hat visited the Old Land. Among (hem rill be found J. _S - . Scott, the manager f the team. J. • Warbrick. its captain, and ueh familiar names as T. R. Ellison. R. ‘ Taiaroa, Wynyards. Wa rb ricks, an ri layrtards. There i s also Stodrlart’s team, be first English football team to visit )tago, and an old Otago team, the date f which has not so tar been definitely xed. Of interest to other visitors again trill be the photographs (unnamed) of’the romoters and original staff of the Mornlg Herald, first issued in Dunedin on December 3, 1877. Along the bottom of he wall are a number of old brewery osters that will doubtless stir fragrant lemories for some.

Port Lyttelton in 1856 and the site of the city of Christchurch are the subjects of several lithographs, sketches, and photographs that will repay careful study by anyone acquainted with the locality. A striking fact about §. painting of very early Timaru by one R. S. Kelly is that it was found by the late Mr Thomson in a shop in London. Old photos of Kumara and Greymouth include one showing shipping high and dry at the latter port after a very big flood there. Of equal interest are several early coloured prints of Westport. The visitor is recalled to the neighbourhood of Dunedin again by a painting of Fox Lodge on the slopes of Saddle Hill, a residence mentioned in Hirsthouse’s New Zealand. A series of five water-colour scenes in the Taieri painted by C. Aubrey in 1877 next claim attention. They illustrate Dr Fulton's old heme near Maungatua, the Woodside Hotel and surroundings, the West Taieri bridge, North Taieri, and the West Taieri Church. On the north-east wall one of the most notable paintings is one by Robertson cf the old Aldinga, which used to trade from Bluff to Melbourne. She is at sea with all sails set and her engines evidently in use also. A good photograph of the South Dunedin flat in the early days and a panorama from above the- "Robin Hood quarry will on close examination be found to record countless details of early history. Photographs by Riemann form no inconsiderable portion oi the whole gallery, and a series by him illustrating the Taieri in the earfy days will also repay careful study. Probably, the most valuable and attractive feature of all the photos preserved of early Dunedin is a set of about a score of excellent enlargements which, placed side by side, occupy' the -full length of the wall. For the most part they deal with Dunedin in 1861, but some of them are dated 1862. Two of them have already been referred to in some detail in a previous article. The present generation can only guess at most of the prominent buildings, and discover with difficulty the original outlines of what are now our chief thoroughfares. But a hint or two from an old resident and a comparison of one view with another yields a surprising amount of information. One view from Bell Hill shows Dunedin’s first little railway station looking somewhat isolated on the site of the present Triangle. In others clear proof can be seen of the fact so hard to realise now that the harbour used to come right up to the spot where Brown’s tea-rooms stand. One view looking across the harbour shows the long Jetty street wharf in 1861, and a similar one taken a year later indicates how vastly the shipping increased when the goldfields' rush set in. Others of these enlargements faithfully record from different points the aspect of Princes street in 1861: the view from Dowling street looking toward the old Arcade and the Shakespeare Hotel; Dunedin seen from Canongate in 1861 showing Bell Hill as it stood before excavations had been commenced, with the sea lapping at its base; Dunedin looking north from Bell Hill showing the old Theatre Royal where Herbert, Haynes’s premises now stand, and in the immediate foreground part of Mr George Matthews nursery; and a somewhat similar Hew in which the scaffolding round the building of the first St. Paul’s Church in Stuart street is a conspicuous feature. There are also two 1861 photographs taken from View street, one showing the North-East Valley, and the other looking more ut> the harbour and showing the big native bush at the mouth of the Leith and bringing in clearly Mr Cut ten’s homestead in Lower Stuart street. Right at the end of the wall is to bo found a memento of “Johnny” Jones that wili certainly stir more than ordinary curiosity. It is one of his £1 notes marked “John hones” up one side and “Dunedin and Waikouaiti” down the other. It is signed by James Martin, who was Mr Jones’s manager. and dated August 18. 1850. Alongside are two £1 notes of the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, each of them specially valuable from the fact that it is a “No. 1.” They are of quite different colours, one being dated October 1, 1874, and the other October 1 1875. But the visitor is still enticed on by fresh discoveries of ever changing interest. Here is a print of Dunedin in 1864 executed by Ferguson and Mitchell (W. Hanclcock, artist) showing among multitude of other facts how all the .wharves and jetties were (lien laid out. among them being a very long one stretching away from the foot, of Albany street. Here are two water colour paintings, by W. >S. Hatton, of Dunedin in 1867. Here is a supplement to the illustrated. New Zealand of July. 1875. obviously intended for Home consumption, and showing, it has been irreverently suggested, Dunedin as it may be in the millennium. From above a fine oil portrait of John Hvile Harris looks down gravely upon the visitor. the Duke of Edinburgh lying at Port Chalmers is the subject of an informative oil painting; and one recording a sunset effect over Dunedin as seen from the Peninsula is of more than ordinary merit.

There are in the collection a number of flue portraits of the fathers and leaders of the early settlement, and also of other notable characters. These are not grouped but distributed about the different walls. One of the most successful is an oil portrait of Dr Burns. Others similarly commemorated are Mr James Macandrew, first superintendent of the province; Captain Cargill, of whom there is a good engraving; Dr Hulme, provincial surgeon; Wilson Gray, district judge and well-beloved Irish patriot; and Bishop Colenso, of South Africa. There are also two early prints of Captain Cook, dated 1800 and 1831; a sketch of George Ward—well-known by old theatre-goers—made in 1899 by W. J. Hutton; a painting of G. V. Brooke, the actor, who was lost in the wreck ot the London; and an apparently very old painting of a strong nautical face which at present is unidentified.