LIFE OF ADVENTURE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 57, 1 September 1939, Page 5

LIFE OF ADVENTURE

K CHARLES HEAPHY One of the most interesting of early colonists and one of the most versatile men who have "lived in New Zealand was Charles Heaphy whose life was adventurous in a generation of the date of his birth cannot be certainly fixed. The date favoured by the Dictionary of National Biography. 1821, would make* 1 him an. exhibitor at the Royal Academy' at the, age pf fifteen. In the same year that he so exhibited f 1835, his father died, a fact which may have had some effect in inducing Chafes to sail on the "Tory* in 1839. Whether he was eighteen or twenty when the Tory picked him up at Plymouth for the long voyage to New Zealand, • he was evidently mature enough to be treated as a man £-nd was apparently not thought of by those on board as competing with the nineteen year old Jerningham Wakelield to be the youngest of the ship's company. Hypnotised by J. Wakefield. Heaphy had been appointed draughtsman to the New Zealand Company. He appeared in a rather extraordinary incident on board the* Tory. To while away the tedium of . the voyage, Jerningham Wakefield* in the phrase of the day, "magnetised* Heaphy t or,' as we should say, hypnotised him. Charles Heaphy became "hysterical and finally a maniac " and. moreover, took four .hours to come roun.l. Yet the experiment was repeated with a nearly identical result.. " Travel and Exploration. Heaphy had ample opportunity to use his talents as an artist, as welT as to do the copious draughtsman's work imposed on him by the survey and laying out of a complete settlement. At that" time he executed many of the delicate: water, colours that are his most substantial title to fame and which so accurately depict the New Zealand of his time. His view of Wellington from the vantage ground of Clay Point (Stewart Dawson is well known. This is more finished than many of his freshi and charming landscapes, whicii have a naive and almost childish quality not often found in the works of a professional artist. I Though Heaphy had good pros-* pects of a career as an, artist before him in England—in those days before photography, when an artist's livelihood was reasonably secure -- lie ' seems to have definitely chosen the more strenuous but probably more rewarding role of the backwoodsmai* in a new country. He.assisted at the purchase of the Chatham made an early expedition,, up the Motueka, and travelled up the west coast of the North Island to Gape? Egmont, which no doubt formed his taste for more extended bush travels Official Appointments. In 1848 Heaphy was appointed draughtsman to the General Governand in 1852 he became Commissioner of the Coromandel goMfield. He had married a daughter of the Rev. J. .F. Churton in 1861 and had settled Auckland. Between 1854 and 18G(» he held a succession of other appointments as. a surveyor. From 1867 to IS7O he represented Parnell in Parliament; he resumed official service on his resignation. In 1878 he became Commissioner of Government Insurance and a Judge o£ the Native Land Court, but his: , failing health induced him to resign on pension in 1881. He died at Brisbane in August of The Maori War , V.G. Charles rHeaphy" wa§ tlie only coI-| onist to win the Victoria Cross fox* service,; in the Maori Wat, In 1863 Heaphy - had joined the - Auckland Rifles, a volunteer troop, taking the rank of and almost .at once of Captain. He acted as a guider to the Waikato troops. On 11th February, 18G4, a bathing paity of troQps-was ambushed at the Mangapiko River. The troops Irom the neighbouring camp came to the rescue in very fast turning the tables on the attacking Heaphy, accidentally on the spot,.

took charge of a party and lecli i'it with great vigour and spirit. He went forward to help a wounded mart * he had some knowledge of surgery* —and was fired on by a concealed party of Maoris at very short range, receiving three'wounds. But he went on his surgßTy ? '--tyitig up a severedr artery to preventthe. man bleeding to death, got the wounded mail away -ind carried on in the bhttle. The official wheels* moved slowly, arid it \?as npt till 1867 that Heaphy actually collected his V.C.: but ii* the meantime he had been m-omoted and received the present of a handsome rifle from Si*- George Grejf "11 recognition of h'"s « ,l K: