Strange Story in Plate

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 726, 27 July 1929, Page 11

Strange Story in Plate

HISTORIC CHRISTENING CUP Royal Favour to Maori Child QUEEN VICTORIA AS GODMOTHER CERTAIN pieces of plate of exquisite pattern and of very singular history—a christening cup and a knife, fork and spoon—are curious and valuable articles which for nearly thirty years have reposed at Bishops court. Parnell, unknown except to a few persons. The pieces are the gift of Queen Victoria to a Maori child born in London in 1863. Returning to New Zealand, members of the family were separated by death, and the son, nurtured by the Anglican Church, went to America, to be heard of no more. At sundry times Maoris have attempted to obtain possession of the plate, but apparently sufficient proof of title has not yet been forthcoming to justify trusteeship other than that of the Church.

A representative of The Sun was permitted to inspect the plate this week, through the courtesy of Archbishop Averiil, who holds it in trust, as his three predecessors since 1900 have held it. In addition, his Grace made available documents which tell a story both sad and puzzling. In the light from his study window he read from the cup this inscription: To Albert Victor Pomare, from his godmother, Queen Victoria, November, 1863. “The mark of Royal favour bestowed on the son of a chief/’ the Archbishop said, and added: “The child was probably the first of his race born in England.” As far as can be ascertained from meagre facts, Albert Victor, who was on course named after the Prince Consort, was received as a child of four into the Church of England orphanage, Auckland, upon the death of his mother, became a sailor, reached America, and was lost to his relatives. But there is a conflict of evidence. On the one hand, it is reported that the young native settled in Canada; on the other, that he died in San Francisco.

The early chapters of Albert Victor’s biography are embodied in a letter from London in 1915 to Miss H. Johnson, then matron of the Papatoetoe Orphanage. The writer. Miss M. E. C. Howell, states: “The Pomares were staying with Mrs. Colenso (wife of the Rev. W. Colenso, a pioneer missionary), who I suppose brought them over from New Zealand and the child was born in her house. Other Maoris were in England at the time, and although I was at the christening I can’t remember whether any were there also.” (This was written 53 years after the event.) A JEALOUS HUSBAND There is a picturesque portrait of the parents, Hare and Hariata (Charles and Harriett). “We used to admire Hare Pomare greatly,” Miss Howell says. “He was 6ft 4in and really good-looking; his wife, a much stronger Maori type. I remember two things about him. He was very jealous of his wife because handsome presents were sent to her, and he sat and sulked wrapped in a fine red or blue dressing-gown —one of her presents! The other 'recollection is that having observed that fiat noses were not considered beauties in England he touched the baby’s nose with scorn, shaking his head and saying ‘No good.’ ” The writer goes on to say that the Pomares were taken to Windsor Castle, or Buckingham Palace, and while waiting for the Queen, Pomare placed the baby on the Throne, or the State chair, remarking that he could now say his child had sat on the Queen’s Throne!

‘We heard that after their return

to New' Zealand the parents became quite uncivilised,” the correspondent observes, but adds the considered qualification, “at all events some of

the natives did who came over.” Accompanying the letter was the photograph from which the illustration of the family group on this page was reproduced, and even more interesting, a copy of the Pomare baptismal certificate. The document sets forth particulars which are Albert Victor’s only title to the plate in the remote possibility of his return, aged 66, to the land of his ancestors. It is under date December 3, 1863. The church is St. Paul’s Tottenham, and the parents’ address. White Hart Lane, of that district. Under “Quality, Trade or Profession,” the father is described. “New Zealand Chief.” In a neighbouring column one reads that the ceremony was performed by the Rev. H. McSorley, and that the Queen was sponsor by proxy. A year later, 1916, in a letter to the Archbishop, Mrs. Frances M. Simcox, nee Colenso, of Otaki, clears up many points lost to Miss Johnson’s correspondent in the passing of over half a century.

“I was in England with my mother when a party of Maoris arrived in London,” she writes. “Hare and Hariata were placed by desire and command of Queen Victoria in the charge of my mother, as she knew the language well. Their baby was born at Tottenham at the same lodgings we were in.

The Queen sent Miss Dealtry (daughter of the private secretary of the Duke of Newcastle, who was then, Secretary of State for the Colonies) to stand proxy for her at the ceremony. The Queen afterward, when the child was a month old, wished my mother to escort the parents and baby to Windsor Castle. After receiving them on two separate occasions before and after lunch (which was given them in the housekeeper’s room) they were sent into the studio of the Queen’s private photographer, still in Windsor Castle. To my mother’s astonishment he turned out to be a gentleman she had known in the early days of the mission times in New Zealand. The Queen presented the baby w r ith a christening cup.” Mrs. Simcox adds that it w'as known that the plate had been in the care of Archdeacon E. B. Clarke, who was supervisor of the Maori Church in Auckland under the Primate, Bishop Cowie, and who died in 1900, but j where it was placed after his death was learned only recently. The Otaki i Maoris had often wished to have Albert Victor’s belongings in their hands.

“Mv mother wrote regularly to the then Lady-in-Waiting. the Hon. Lady Bruce, at the Queen’s wish about the boy’s schooling, and what he became. She wished him to join the navy.” Here, the first positive statement, brief and tragic, of the young native’s ■whereabouts. “He was in a sailing ship which went to San Francisco, and there the lad contracted his last illness and died.” Mrs. Simcox concludes with a request on behalf of several natives that the plate be sent to them as she could vouch for their being Albert Victor’s nearest living relatives. EARLIER REPRESENTATIONS That, in 1916, was the last made from any source. Earlier representations had been put forward by Hirini Katene, of the Bay of Islands, and Louis Davis, of Putiki, Wanganui, who conjointly approached Bishop Cowie through their solicitors in June, 1901. Utterly at variance with the story of Albert Victor’s fate given by Mrs. Sim- ! cox some years later, the version put forward by Katene and Davis asserts that the Queen's god-son lived with his ; people (this, to the Maori mind, may not, however, necessarily mean the lad's parents! at the Bay of Islands and elsewhere. “Some years ago he left this colony,” the natives said, “and when last heard of in 1892 was in ; Canada. He had not married.”

In June, 1902, the Primate having died in the meantime, Davis made further overtures to Bishop Cowie’s : executors, still on behalf of Katene and himself. Davis presented new testimony through other solicitors. He claimed that the Primate had lent him the plate on the occasion of the visit of the Duke of York (the present Xing) to Rotorua. Davis said further hat he believed young Pomare had entrusted his birthgift to the Rev. R. Borrows, the Rev. W. Pomare (his uncle) and Wiremu Katene, an uncle . oik his saertherh aid* and father ©C

Hirini. They left 4t with Bishop Cowie for safe custody and were now all dead. Davis submitted an elaborate genealogical tree in support of his request. This is of significance in that it makes clear that Hariata Pomare died shortly after the return to New Zealand. and that her husband subsequently married one Ria. In all probability, therefore, the grief-stricken father in the interval placed his motherless babe in the care of tho Church. Thirteen years have faded since Archbishop Averiil was last approached, and 2S since Davids Katene’s negotiations witSi the old Primate. Naturally reluctant to part with a treasure which he feels has been placed in Bishopscourt on trust, the Archbishop has no intention to relinquish the plate unless it is so decreed by order of a court. He is of opinion that satisfaction would be brought to all claimants if Albert Victor’s baptismal gift were deposited on loan in the Auckland Museum —in neutral territory.