Romantic Days

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 88, 5 July 1927, Page 15

Romantic Days

DOMINION’S EARLY HISTORY MR. L. P. LEARY’S ADDRESS . Confessing that until recently he had been entirely ignorant of the romantic history of New Zealand, Mr. L. P. Leary told with a catching enthusiasm the story of hie early days . to the" Karangahape Road Business Promotion Society to-day. Mr. A. M. Bennett presided over the luncheon. "We little realise what the conditions were here less than a century ago," said Mr. Leary. "Then the country was not only inhabited by cannibals but was the pirates’ nest of all the scoundrels of the South Seas, including convicts. The main export trade was in dried human heads, and native women! ”

Xew Zealand was colonised, not with the assistance of a paternal Government, but in the teeth of its opposition. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, on whose head had been heaped abuse, had founded the immigration company. Mr. Leary said that he believed Mr. Busby, who was sent to Xew Zealand to keep order without a constable or a soldier tc* uphold him, had been unjustly criticised. He had acted in the crisis brought about by Baron de Thierry, in the only possible way. Mr. John Finlayson entertained the diners with a humorous sketch.