BIRTH OF A CITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 143, 7 September 1927, Page 16

BIRTH OF A CITY

CAPTAIN HOBSON’S GENIUS REV. A. B. WATSON’S LECTURE “Choosing a capital is not like choosing a picnic ground; Captain Hobson took upon himself a great responsibility and showed wonderful foresight in selecting from virgin country a site for what he visualised as the beginning of a great city.” TN an interesting and instructive lecture on “The Birth and Infancy of a City,” given at the Epsom Library last evening, the Rev. Cecil A. B. Watson sketched the early history of Auckland from its foundation in 1840, and traced its growth until 1890. Councillor S. I. Crookes presided. Mr. Watson illustrated his address with nearly 150 lantern views of Auckland from its infancy, prepared from old engravings and from the earliest photographs of the town. Referring to the vision of Captain Hobson in deciding upon the Waitemata as the site for his new capital, Mr. Watson quoted from “The Colonial Gazette,” London, September, 1841, a passage ridiculing the Governor’s choice: “The land in the neighbourhood is sterile, and the harbour indifferent. No advantages compensate for these defects; no immigrants from England think of going thither; the only settlers are persons attracted by Government expenditure.” On the other side Captain Hobson wrote to Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies:—“ln the choice that I have' made I have been influenced by a combination of circumstances. First, its central position, then the facility and safety of its port and the fertility of the soil.” The lecturer told how Samuel Marsden was the first white man to sail the Waitemata in 1820. He agreed with Dr. Hocken, the geologist, that “to this remarkable man New Zealand owes much which has never been sufficiently recognised and much that has certainly been forgotten.” Mr. Watson said he hoped that in the near future something might be done to perpetuate the name of the Rev. Samuel Marsden. There was danger of losing sight of the part played by this pioneer churchman in the early development of the colony.