THE STORY OF AUCKLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 239, 9 October 1928, Page 6

THE STORY OF AUCKLAND.

THE TOWN EIGHTY YEARS AGO.

SOME PIONEER CITIZENS. I (By JAMES COWAN.) No. XII. A picture of the young capital of the colony in the middle 'forties is preserved for us in part in a description given me lately by a venerable halfcaste lady, whose early recollections go back to the period of Hone Heke's war and the flight of the Kororareka inhabitants to Auckland. My informant, now very nearly ninety years old, was born at Kaitaia, in the Far North; her father, who ran a small vessel on the coast, was drowned off Motu-Ivakako (Cape Brett) with his crew in 1844; and in March, 1845, her mother and herself and the rest of the family were brought from the Bay of Islands to Auckland in the Government brig Victoria. Saw Kororareka Burning. "I remember," said Heni Pore, "seeing Kororareka in flames the day we sailed out of the bay. It had been set on fire by Heke's men. I and other children had been at Mr. Williams' mission school at Paihia, but when the war began it was thought we had better go to Auckland for safety. We were landed at Waipapa (Mechanics' Bay), where there was a Maori camp of raupothatched whares. My mother presently married Thomas Russell, a mast and block maker and ship chandler, who lived in Fort Street, and there my home was for the first period of my life in Auckland, when I received an English education. I was Jane Russell in those days. At this time Queen Street was a swamp, with high manuka growing and a stream of running water flowing into Commercial Bay. Fort Street As It Was. "Our house stood at the far end (east) of Fort Street, at the foot of the hill. Next to my father's was a large space, where he built a cutter and named it the Sedulous. When it was launched a Miss Levy was invited to break a bottle of on the vessel to name it. Next to my fathers was Mr. \Y. S. Graham's large stone building. I knew Mr. Mitchelson, who was manager of that bond store. I also remember often seeing a little boy with him there—his son. That boy is now Sir Edwin Mitchelson. In front of this building was the only wharf; it was known as Graham's wharf. Next to Graham's stone store was a cottage owned by a Mr. Landers, then a row of buildings owned by Mr. Gilflllan, which Mr. Russell bought, with the premises of a sailmaker named Boyd. Next again was the Hotel Masonic (Mr. and Mrs. Mac Donald). All these buildings were on Fort Street of old, which commenced at the foot of the hill where Britomart barracks stood; they were all on the waterfront. When my step-father bought Gilfillan's store we lived there. From this place I went to school.

Queen Street and Shortland Street. In Queen Street people used to lay boards across the little creek to get over to the other side, where Mr. Gundry's chemist shoD stood at the corner of Queen Street proper and* what was then known as West Queen Street. On the opposite side, Shortland Street corner, was Somerville s shop. Next was David Graham's drapery shop. David and John were owners; their brother Robert owned Ellerslie at this time. Next to this the largest building was that of David Nathan, merchant, at the corner of High Street. On this street at the far end was the first post office. Up Shortland Street on the right side stood the Exchange Hotel, Harrington's. Up at the top of Shortland Street, near the junction with Street, on the left-hand side, stood old St. Paul's Church; the minister was the Rev Mr. Churton. Doctor Philson lived close to the chqrch. Thence on to Britomart barracks on the point where the soldiers lived. On Sabbath days they would all assemble on Princes Street, where the band would play, and they would then march, the Catholics to the Catholic Church and the others to St. Paul's Church. "The district hospital in those davs was a small building winch stood in the same place aa now, the hill called Pukekawa, then a Maori settlement. "Down in Mechanics' Bay Christmas dinners were given to all the Maoris. The dinners were provided by the Governor, Sir George Grey and were laid out at the rope works, a long bu'il'dincr Tables were laid out the length of the building and all the Maoris were invited, and there was great dancing and chanting of songs at the gathering for the feast." Sitting on His Coffin. The aged Heni has another memorv of Auckland towards the end of the 'forties, an incident that illustrates the methods of the law in those I days. I remember," she says, "seeing an old man, the murderer of a North Shore family, being taken from the gaol to the beach in a cart,'sitting Jfi. co ™ n - Jf e was ac °ompanied by the Rev. Mr. Chnrton. He was taken from Queen Street "Jl Shortland Street and over Princes Street to Official Bay (Waiariki), where a boat was awaiting to take him to the North Shore to be hanged where lie had committed the deed." This was the man Bums, who had murdered Lieut. Snow and his wife and child at the North chore. The old English stocks, for the punishment of minor offenders, were part of the machinery of justice m Auckland as well as in Wellington and Nelson in the early 'forties. Drunks were usually given so many hours clamped in the stocks, exposed to the public gaze. The "New Zealander' of this period published a letter from a correspondent protesting against the spectacle e er »F l» thi ß v„ y i.

Maritime Trade and Maori Shipowners. Shipbuilding began on a small scale on the Auckland foreshore in the young 'forties, and by 2 a A ,ar f ? ulnber of coasting craft had been built. As trade increased, vessels of considerable Vnv»iT er /+i^ au i lcl ! ed ] * he bli g Moa, the barque y /Jl? erst®rst ot the name, there was another HVnyard ( I llk) and Steamer Goveinor By the end of the first decade of British sovereignty over New Zealand the Maoris of the Hauraki and the Last Coast had become ship, owners on a quite considerable scale. The pakeha s cutter and schooner appealed to them improvement upon the rather crankv canoe for the conveyance of produce alono- the coast to the market, and so every tribe which lad tA C p«°n «! S ® SCa strained all its endeavours rn sufc c ,ent money for the purchase of a of Tiurt MIS 47 m thC " NeW Zealand Gazette" « 2 . 6 ' I ® 47 ' ?ave a return of vessels owned « "V n northern part of the colony at pe " lhe total was forty-five schooners and cutters, aggregating over 600 tons, and ranging from nine or ten to twentv-five tons pffntv the h * tle craft belonged to the Bav ~?l ent7 > an <l twelve to Auckland and the settlements on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf The owners were members of the Ngapuhi. N-ati-J! rfl a v a ' xr 08 '- Ngati * Ka ™. Ngati-Tama-InT' + gatl ~ Whakaue > Rongo-Whakaata !?*' aS , fa f as Te ****> at the eastern end of the Bay of Plenty. Pomare, the Bav of Islands chief, was the principal owner of two of W®«H- C^w a ner Alu ai L d . Rangi " pai and others of th e Ngati-Awa (VVhakatane) owned three. In addint fiVe schooners "ere being built at Whakatane. The natives sailed their craft with seamanly skill; one of the best-known m th 1 C ear,y da >' s was Hemi wit t R j I* ! ch °°° er Auckland ° f Islands> oxl tl,e West Coast the nf™% T Ded a Cutter the ambitious !n!L r ? r ' suggestive of the pakeha's ?.fPf r ® hl Pf; _^ lo ft of the Maori -owned vessels hnHH A® f Enghsh names S iven them bv their OWners > BUch as Flying Fish and JTo be continual.);