A FILE OF OLD NEWSPAPERS.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 50, 3 September 1881, Page 598

A FILE OF OLD NEWSPAPERS.

By the courtesy of Mr Cheeseman, Curator of the Auckland Museum and Institute, Aye have had access to a miscellaneous collection of fche earliest newspapers published in Ne ay Zealand, a few extracts from which, as throAving some additional light on the primitive history of the Colony, may be of interest to our readers. Taking up the papers as fchey Ue before us, and glancing over their " get up " and contents, we light upon The Bay of Islands Observer, of April 17th 1842, about the size of two pages of this Observer, and sold at one shilling. We find that up to 1842 the inhabitants of Auckland had purchased land to the value of £25,753 lis lid. Lord Stanley had been asked to fix the price of land at 10s an acre, and to grant £80,000 from Imperial funds for immigration, with £20,000 for pubhc buildings in the city of Auckland. The editor waxes wroth on "the unjustifiable, immoral, and extravagant expenditure bf the useless, imbecile, and tottering party which noAV rules and ruins these beautiful islands." The first issue of The Bay of Islands Observer came out in Feb. 1842.

Prior to this, however, The Neto Zealand Ad' vertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette had T. een published in 1840 by J. A. Edgar and Co. at Kororareka, and one of the first numbers contained, amongst other matters, regulations for the sale of land in Auckland, and sailing directions for the port of Waiternata. The paper appears to have been strongly opposed to the Governor, for we find the editor saying " There is a Governor who passes laAvs, not to protect and maintain property declared to be such by the Ministers of the Crown, but to deny and overthroAv ifc. There is legal authority existing only in name over the Islands, with powers little more than to vex and annoy. There is a colony Avith colonists without colonization, there being property to colonise upon. There are magistrates and officers whose rules and conduct are frequently not laws but fictions and dreams. There are peace officers and conservators of decorum Avhose chief business is to act in defiance of the laAvs they are sworn to maintain and defend. In the aforesaid colony Aye may be kept in prison without any prospect of trial, since there is no court Avhose jurisdiction is competent to judge our actions. In that country tlie rains of hea. r en fall abundantly, but those poor Avretches have been kept without water for twenty-four hours, though confined in a small room 18 feet by 20. There is a principal tOAvnship Avhich has little better than a disorderly police, Avithout a magistrate, and without a regular court, Avithout appropriate mails, Avithout Custom-house protection for its trade, and without any apparent concern on the part of its government for the promotion of its commerce." If this Avas a picture of the state of the Colony in the year 1840, it must have been even worse than iioav when Aye have too much government. By a subsequent copy of the same paper we learn that a meeting Avas held afc Government House on the 1 7th April, 1841 in order to raise means for building the first church in Auckland. The prospectus is also published of the New Zealand Sperm Whaling Company with a capital £6000. The Anglo-Maori Warder of May 30fch, 1841, published by Williamson and Wilson, contains a return of the revenue and expenditure of New Plymouth for the month ending March, 1840, they amounted to £225 and £2085 respectively. Apparently that part of the Colony had begun, even at this early period, to take far more out of the Treasury than put in, a practice which ifc has religiously adhered to ever since. The leading article discusses the question whether or not municipal institutions Avould he beneficial to Auckland. The New Zealand Government Gazette of Dec, 1840, printed by the Church Missionary Society, at Pahia, Avas issued because the New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette had declined to publish any advertisements for the New Zealand GoA'ernment. Fancy a paper in these days refusing Government advertisements ! The New Zealand Colonist of Sept. 16, 1842, Avas published at Wellington. In this paper we find tliat some Avag has inserted an advertisement as folloAvs : — " Ye aa -orfchy electors of Port Nick, I would strongly recommend you to choose one of your Yorkshire-bred men who could be Avarranted to go fche everlasting pace for your welfare, sound in wind, limb and eye-sight." Amongst; the principal advertisers in this paper was Mr Maehatfcie, merchant. William Fitzherbert, now a Knight and Speaker of the Legislative Council, advertises himself as a shipping agent. The commercial column gives the following prices : — Porter, 3s 3d ; tobacco, in bond, ls ; flour, £30 a ton ; muskets, 15s each. Wages : Mechanics, £2 to £3 ; labourers, £1 10s to £1 16s. Amongst the bundle is a copy of the Auckland Times of October 18th, 1842. This is the celebrated paper with the imprint — " Printed in a mangle, and published by Henry Falwaser, sole proprietor." The leading article denounces the Government for having endeavoured to destroy the liberties of the Press by monopolising certain plant and press, thereby reducing Mr Fahvaser to the above dire extremity. In this paper we find that fresh butter was 4s per lb., mutton lOd, and pork 3d. The market has altered very much since then. The only important item in the Auckland Chronicle of 1845 is the assertion that a great many persons had left the Colony to avoid the odious tax-gatherer. If any of those men were living in these days Aye should be curious to hear what they Avould have to say of the existing taxation. In the Museum collection there are copies of the New Zealander of 1845 (fche 18th number), and 1851, all published by the late John Willamson, of Thompson's Lane, Shortland Crescent. Mr Eeader Wood advertised himself in all of the earliest numbers as an architect and a surveyor. In the issue of 1851 there is a full report of a meeting held in Auckland to promote the formation of a" Cheap Bread Association," at which, the Eev. Thomas Buddie spoke afc considerable length against the exportation of food from Auckland to California, seeing that there was every prospect of a scarcity, and in that event Canterbury would have a prior claim for any surplus supply. Allusion was made to the fact that, during a period of scarcity in the other colonies, Sir John Franklin, Governor of Van Dieman's

Land, imposed a heavy export duty on all classes ■of provisions. Mr Buddie estimated that the supply of wheat in Auckland .vas only equal to 15 weeks' consumption. In the same copy of the New Zealander there is a report of a case tried before the late Thomas Beckham, E.M., in AA-hich Gapt. T. Ginder, of the barque Stately, Avas .charged Avith gagging and otherwise illtreating a ..female immigrant named Frances Barracluff. The Auckland Independent and Operatives'" Journal, published in May 1851, near the Mechanics' Institute, contains some valuable information as to the early history of the colony. It tells us that up to 1844 no hours .vere fixed for labor, and no regular time for the payment of Tvages. Many Avorkmen received payment by instalments, or orders upon storekeepers for goods. •Grocers, butchers, and bakers issued paper money in the shape of I.O. XL's for amounts ranging from 3d to half-a-croAvn. Government debentures for £1 were worth only 18s. The only respectable vehicle was a baker's cart. Auckland was often Avithout a supply of soap, sugar, or candles. Shoemakers Avere at a stand for leather. Boxes and sea-chests Avere in general use in lieu of chairs, bottles for candle-sticks, molasses for sugar. Coats were rare, and the blue serge shirt was the prevailing fashion. People were called to church by a small boy with a hand bell, and the Wesleyan Church, one of the principal buildings of that time, Avas 40ft by 25. Amongst the papers are the Auckland ExaiiUner of 1857, Albertland Gazette, of 18G3, published by Samuel Johnson, uoav in Blenheim, Auckland Telegraph 1859, published by James Hosking, High-street. A NeAV Zealand GoA r ernment Gazette, published at the Bay of Islands in 1841, contains tlie declaration of independance of NeAV Zealand, and a notification of the appointment of Captain William Hobson, E.N. as Governor-in-Chief in and over the same. Amongst interesting M.S.S. in the Museum is a proclamation by Governor Hobson at Government House, Eussell, on May 23rd as folloAvs : — " Whereas certain persons residing at Port. Nicholson, NeAV Zealand, part of the dominions of Her : Majesty Queen Victoria, have formed themselves into an illegal association under the title of a council, and in contempt of her authority have attempted to usurp the poAvers vested in me by Her Majesty's Letters Patent for the government of the said colony, to the manifest injury and detriment of all Her Majesty's liege subjects in New- Zealand, now therefore I, William Hobson, Governor of New Zealand, command all persons acting in such illegal association immediately to .withdraw therefrom, and I call upon all persons resident at Port Nicholson or elscAvhere within the limits of this Government, ujion the allegiance they owe to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, to submit to the proper authorities in New Zealand legally appointed, and to aid and assist them in the discharge of their respective duties." This document is written in a fair round hand upon a large sheet of common paper, and finishes Avith, *' God Save the Queen," folio .ved by three notes of admiration. The first state paper ever issued in NeAV Zealand is said to be Governor Hobson's reply to the address presented to him on his landing at the Bay of Islands on February 3rd, 1840, AA-hich -eply is iioav in the Auckland Museum.