The Sun SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1916. THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 764, 22 July 1916, Page 8

The Sun SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1916. THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS.

II was a wise thought, horn of ;i proper pride in those who made the beginnings of the unique Canterbury Settlement, that led to the collection of relics of the first settlers and the creation of the Old Canterbury Section which was opened at the Museum yesterday. The history of this province is small, but it is almost the beginning of history, as far as New Zealand's story is concerned, and, though the North Island's story of development begins before ours, and is a more eventful record x>f hard-fought battles with the Maoris and with the primeval bush, yet Canterbury has a uniqueness in its conception, in the ideas that went to its making, in which its history is no less memorable than that of the North. It is not so much for we who live at this day that the collection of old . portraits of early settlers, of their first dwellings, their weapons, documents, and implements is made, but for the future, when the first four ships and the Canterbury pilgrims shall have receded into the region of legend and romance, and shall mean to an older, greater New Zealand all that the "Mayflower" means to America now. Trivial and ordinary to their original possessors were many of the relics now housed in the Museum, but time and its associations have removed them from the commonplace and made of them memorials of the past. That our history extends little beyond three score years is the more reason for recording it now and preserving its symbols while its origins are yet within the memory of men who helped to make it. A future of which we can only dream in the faith that it will be great will i have gratitude for those of this day j who had the pride and forethought to preserve the durable evidences of the commencement of this province and its development. "The [iniquity of Oblivion blindly scat- ! tereth her poppy," says Sir Thomas j Browne, but it is for us to sec that i oblivion does not overtake worthy | memories which shall be an inspira- ; tion for the generations to come, j Edward Gibbon Wakefield has left his records recounting his conception of the new Stale, which was to have been the replica of an old social system revived and purified, j but others much less notable, old ! settlers who hewed and ploughed I and made their homes, have had 'simpler, more intimate records of j times past which have perished with ; theni. It is therefore opportune | that the memories of old men | and women still living should be sought out and made into a bookthat would be a complement to, and la commentary on. the documents, ; the pictures, and the relics bequeathed to the Museum. It should be a willingly-undertaken task for ; someone with private means and | some literary ability, for such a

book must be no collection of dusty minutes and bare facts, but the tales

as the elders have told them, recollections seemingly of little import-

lance, stories of incidents that made common gossip fn the days when I the people were few and the land holdings were vast and feudal in i their governance. There are so I many such memories wailing to be recorded, memories which may seem i of small interest lo us, but which the future will value as veritable i glimpses of the life of long ago. .There arc old settlers in Wellington who recall a duel fought between Jernyngham Wakefield and \ another in the early days of Port Nicholson, but there is no record | made of it, nor why it was fought, and there were others fought in ! Auckland in the days when Auckland was a military camp, hut his-

i lory does not speak of them. Epi- | sodes of the sort, and others of I much less note, would, if recorded, jbe of equal value and of the same I purpose as the more substantial rcI lies in the Old Canterbury Section, |and as we hope to see that branch I of the Museum increase in value and : interest, so it is to be hoped that i the records of old memories will be ; made, so thai posterity shall know I what manner of men its fathers I were.