TREASURE TROVE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 465, 7 August 1909, Page 3

TREASURE TROVE.

RECORDS FROM COEONIAE OFFICE. From the Colonial Office, England, the Government has received a large quantity ot books and papers of the New Zealand Company, referring to the issue of shares in the company, its financial operations, and shipment of emigrants to the infant colony of New Zealand during the early forties. The papers had been lying in England for half a century when they were investigated by Dr. Hocken, of ' Dunedin, in the course of a visit Home, and it is due to his interest in the matter that they have come to New Zealand. The collection, which has arrived, and which is now stored in the old Parliamentary Buildings, represents those documents which are not considered necessary for the British achieves. Messrs A. Hamilton, A. H. Turnbull, and C. A. Eweu were asked to report on the consignment, and they state that the Dominion has received a valuable collection of documents relating to the foundation and growth of the company’s settlements. The records include complete lists of the company’s emigrants, with their ages and occupations, log books of some ot the ships and surgeons’ logs, papers in connection with land grants made by the company in New Zealand, and duplicate and triplicate copies of dispatches and correspondence. There are also some original letters, which should be bound and carefully preserved. The Committee of examination recommend that all the duplicates, land orders, and accounts referring to Otago should be presented to the Hocken collection in Dunedin, and that the duplicates of the papers of the other settlements should be offered to the authorities of the towns to which they relate. It is hoped that some historical student will undertake to make, under proper supervision, a detailed classification.

Tne company’s embarkation reports, containing a complete list of emigrants to Wellington, Otago, and New Plymouth by all the company’s ships from the Cuba, which sailed on August 1, 1839, to the Ursula (May 17, 1843), has been placed on exhibition in the Dominion Museum. Among the records which remain with the Colonial Office are from 8000 to 10,000 letters relating to the colony, of which it is suggested copies should be requested.