MARSLAND HILL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144709, 18 June 1915, Page 2

MARSLAND HILL.

TO IRE EDITOR

Sir,—Captain Mainland's letter in tlie Herald of June 16, 1915, is not conclusive as to the origin of the name of that noted land-mark, “Marsland Hill.” Captain Marsland has, I have no douht, written in perfect sincerity and good faith, hut his letter teems with inaccuracies which indicate that his memory serves him indifferently well at the present time. For instance, Captain Marsland relies entirely on an alleged conversation between Captain Liardot, R.N., and Mr. Octavius Carrington, and it is alleged that Captain Liardet was “senior officer on the station when New Plymouth was being laid out.” Now ' Captain Liardet, though a distinguished naval officer, was not the “senior officer on the station” at the period referred to. He , was not in fact employed as a naval officer. Ho came out from England as the resident agent at New Plymouth of the New Zealand Company. He was, in short, in exactly the same position as Captain AVakeficld, 11. N., his fellowpassenger to New Zealand and the agent of the company at Nelson. Captain Marsland scorns to imply that the Marsland stockade and .barracks were built for the accommodation of a detachment of the ISth 11.1., but as every old settler knows Marsland Hill was occupier! RvS a military post by successive detachments from the sSth, 6oth and 57th .Regiments, and from other corps, rears before the ISth ILL were quartered there. Captain Marsland calls the hotel the “Marsland Arms.” The name painted on the hotel was simply “The Marsland Hotel.” We arrived in Now Plymouth on August 3, 1867, and went straight to the Marsland Hotel, leaving it for a holism at the very end of August, 1867. The hotel was burnt to the ground a few days after enr tieparture. It was never rebuilt. When wp arrived in New Plymouth no Imperial troons were quartered there, but two or three mouths later two compan-ii-o of tlie ISth ILL- under Major; Bishop, landed here. Captain Marshind did not accompany this detachment. Very .early in 1880, a fresh detachment. also of two companies, under; Captain Briggs, 13th ILL, relieved Major Bishop, and to it Captain Marxian,; belonged. It will bo noted that the Marsland Hotel had been burnt down more than a vear before Captain Marsland sot foot in New Plymouth, and not the night before ho landed; vet Captain Marsland states that a very severe earthquake, “which did not leave a chimney standing,” occurred the night before he disembarked, and lie suggests that this earthquake caused the fire at tlie Marsland Hotel. No such earthquake took nlace. but on October 19. 18GS, long' before Captain Mainland's advent, there was an extremely severe earthquake which levelled all the chimneys in tlie town, except the one at the Military Hospital. Now, the Marsland Hotel was burnt in August, 1567, fifteen months before t?iat alarming catastrophe, which those who experienced it can never forget. It would be unfair to blame Captain Marsland for the lapses of memory to which I have drawn attention above. Persons of advanced age aro liable to such errors as to events which took place tens of years before they write regarding them. At the same time, in the face of the many mistakes made in Captain Marsland’s letter, it would, be well to suspend our judgment until some corroboration of the conversation, between Captain Liardot and Mr. Octavius Car. r in" ton is forthcoming.—l am, etc., H. EYE E-KENNY.