PIONEER PRINTER

Evening Star, Issue 19793, 17 February 1928, Page 6

PIONEER PRINTER

SUCCESSFUL MAKESHIFTS

COLEMSrS FIRST BBOK

In tho lengthy list of writers on New. Zealand subjects William Colenso occupies a unique position, says a writer in the Gisborne ‘ Times.’ For he worked the first printing press in this young colony, and then turned author and wrote numerous books dealing with Native history. The first press in New Zealand was the property of the Church Missionary Society, and was sent out to the station at Paihia._ At that time Colenso was a young printer in England, and hearing that the society sought a missionary printer made inquiries, was introduced to the seretaries, and was engaged to go out to New Zealand as a missionary, leaving for Sydney in 1834. Owing to fear or tho Maoris, vessels ran only at infrequent intervals, and it was not until nine weeks after landing that the young man reached the Bay of Islands. The work, of getting the heavy printing press ashore was very difficult with the inadequate discharging appliances of those days, but it was finally managed by lashing two Maori canoes together and making a platform on them, on which the press was deposited. MANY DEFICIENCIES.

“The boxes of type would have been opened on board,” writes Colenso, “ but as the little vessel was continually crowded with Maoris—all of, whom were very rough and wild—it was thought the type might be seized for making musket balls. On unpacking the goods I found many necessary articles to be absolutely wanting—there were no galleys (to put the type on), no cases (with separate compartments for each letter), no leads, no rules, no composing sticks, no potash (to wash type), no composing stone (or table), no page cord, and, worst of all, no printing Taper.' Moreover, none of these things could be procured from England in Jess than eighteen months, whilst they / might possibly have been got from 'Sydney in six or eight months.”

Colenso, however, had a stout heart. He secured the assistance of a joiner in the bay. who made cases, galleys, inking tables, etc. The missionaries supplied odd pieces of paper from their private stores, and by February 17, 1835, five weeks after landing, the proofs of the first book printed in New Zealand, the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Philippians, in Maori, w’ere pulled. Four days later twenty-five copies were printed and stitched. The missionaries’ wives supplied pieces of pink blotting paper, which, pasted on to a stronger paper, formed the covers,

and thus the first book in New Zealand was published.

THE FIRST COMPOSITORS

Thence onward the craft of Caxtou advanced slowly but surely. The first three compositors in. New Zealand-were adult tattooed chiefs from Te Kawakawa, who wore paid 3s a week, in addition to a ration of potatoes and shellfish, In December, 1837, the first edition of the New Testament in Maori, consisting of 365 pages, was completed. Colenso carried on his printing work for many years, in tho course of which he had many exciting experiences. DISCOVERY OF THE MO A.

The literary work of the missionaryprinter opened with articles to the ‘Tasmanian Journal,’ in which in the first number he contributed an article dealing with ferns lately discovered in New Zealand. This was followed in 1843 by another article which caused quite a sensation in the scientific world, for it gave an account of the first discovery of moa bones in the East Cape district in IS3B by the writer and Bishop Wi Williams. This paper was illustrated, and contained the first Native history and legend of the moa, and the information later proved invaluable to Sir Richard Owen, when he reconstructed a skeleton of the huge bird from bones sent to him by Mr Colenso and Bishop Williams. In this connection one can hardly deal with Colenso’s works without entering into detail on the discovery of the moa, for it was through the instrumentality of William Colenso and Bishop Williams that Sir Richard Owen made himself world-famous and established his reputation in the eyes of his doubting scientific confreres._ In 1839, writes James Drummond, in dealing with the moa, a man from New Zealand walked into the British Museum with a bone 6in long and 3in wide in his hand, and offered to sell it to the authorities for ten guineas. He said he had just arrived from New Zealand, and the Maoris had given it to him and told him it was the bone of a great bird. The Museum authorities, after examining it, were not impressed, and referred him to the Royal College of Surgeons. There he was referred to Sir Richard Owen, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, who, after examination, said it was merely a marrow bone “like the hones brought to a table wrapped in a napkin.” The man was palpably disappointed. Sir Richard Owen, seeing this, said ho would make further investigation next day. On the following day, therefore, he closely studied tho bone and compared it with those of all other animals, but was mystified. Under the microscope he saw obscure markings which recalled to his mind similar markings on the big bones of large birds. "Keenly excited, he made a more minute examination and finally came to the conclusion that it was the shaft of a thigh-bone of a huge bird unknown to science.

“FANTASTIC AND UNWARRANTED.”

Sir Richard Owen, keenly interested, wrote a short paper on these lines which he read at a meeting of the Zoological Society in London. Scientists, however, were not at all impressed, and it was considered his theories were fantastic and unwarranted. Some members of the society objected to the inclusion of the paper in the society’s transactions, and it was only when Sir Richard Owen staked his reputation on his paper that it was adniitted, together with one plate of illustration, but it was made clear to the winter that the entire responsibility lor the statements he had made rested with him.

For four years nothing more was heard in England of the moa. But Sir Richard Owen was no sluggard, he had hundreds of copies of his paper printed and sent out to New Zealand, with a request that inquiries should be made.

A BASKET OF BONES

One of these circulars was received by Mr Colenso, .and during his tour of the North Island in 1841-42 he visited a mission station on the east coast, and told Bishop Williams of the inquiries. Bishop Williams said he had a basketful of bones in the' next room, which had been collected on the supposition that they belonged to some strange animal. ‘There was no . one who had any knowledge of their value, but the circular supplied a hint in this direction. Mr Colenso and Bishop Williams got the bones, and on the following day sent Maoris to gather large quantities from the sand. Several boxes were filled with bones and forwarded to Sir Richard Owen, and thus the structure of the moa was built up and Sir_ Richard Chven’s reputation as a scientist was upheld throughout the world. If only for his work in this direction, Mr Cofenso occupies a prominent niche in the country’s scroll of fame. In 1844 Mr Colenso published ‘An Excursion in the Northern Island of New Zealand in 1841-42,’ in which he travelled from the Bay of Islands to Hicks Bay by sea, thence overland to Poverty Bay, Rotorua, and the Waikato. ‘For many years he was a valued contributor to scientific publications, including the ‘ Transactions of the New Zealand Philosophical Institute,’ and later retired to live in Napier, where his memory, in Colenso Hill, is commemorated to-day.