THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 58

THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

VALUABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. PRESENTED TO THE DOMINION. SD3ELIGHTS ON THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS. (Fbou Oub Ow Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 4. fhere was recently landed in Wellington two tons by measurement of old books and papers connected with the New Zealand Company. They were received through the medium of the Colonial Office. The Secretary of State for t3>? Colonies communicated with the New Zealand Government asking if it would care to have any portion of the New Zealand Company's papers tliat were not considered necessary for the British archives, and, if so, what portion it would like sent out. The Government asked for the advice of Mr M'Nab and one or two others, and, after consulting a report prepared by Dr Hocken when he was in England, decided to ask that the whole of the documents not wanted for the British archives should be sent out. On the arrival of the documents here the Minister of the Interior asked Messrs -A. Hamilton, A. H. Turnbull, and C. A. Ewen, all of whom are keenly interested in the early history of the colony, to examine and report upon the books and j documents, and they have now done so. There are books and papers connected with the issuing of the share© in the New Zealand Company and its financial operations. Of greater interest than these, however, are the books, papers, and charters, etc., connected with the ships sent out to New Zealand by the company. These are of great interest, showing "as they do the complete lists of the persons sent out, with their names, sex, and ages. There is also a further list of passengers containing additional paxticulars to tho^e given in the book in which the majority are entered up. There is also a small series of sketch plans of the berthing accommodation of the ships, in addition to the log books of some of the chips, and some of the surgeons' logs and reports. Another section of the documents is composed of books, etc., connected with the land grants made by the New Zealand Company in New Zealand. The Committee of Examination recommends that the land order books, etc., of the Otago settlement should be kept with the Otago settlement despatches and with the Otago i accounts. Finally, there are despatches and correspondence, outward and inward. These consist ma-inly of drafts of letters — duplicates and triplicates. There are, however, many original letters amongst them. In this section there are some packets of rough minutes of meetings. It is possible that in some cases these may be of interest as showing the process in which some minutes were drawn up. These despatches are arranged under the following heads: — Otago, Nelson, Wellington, New Plymouth, H.M. Government, and miscellaneous. Messrs Hamilton, Turnbull, and Ewen recommend that all the duplicates, land orders, and accounts for the Otago settlement be presented to the collection, and that the duplicates in the papers of the other settlements be offered to the authorities of the towns lo which they relate. The papers in this class represent about 70 folio volumes. It is hoped that before long there will be some student of the Victoria University College or t~ome local private students of the history of the colony who will, under proper .supervision, undertake the detailed arrangement of these paper.«. The committee, in reporting upon the collection, expresses the opinion that the Dominion ha& received a valuable collection of documents relating to the foundation and growth of its earliest organised I settlements, full of evidence of the care and patience with which thos-e concerned with the management of the company in England tarried out its many and varied duties. To-day I had an opportunity of briefly inspecting this huge ma.«.s of documents. The most interesting of the books appears to be the embarkation register, which contains a complete list of all the ships that sailed with the company's immigrants, beginning with the Cuba, which sailed on August 1, 1839, and ending with the I Ursula, which sailed on May 17, 1843. i It contains the name of every emigrant who left England for the company* Otago. Nelson, Wellington, and New Plymouth .settlements, with age at the time of staiting. The Minister of the Interior has «;iven Mr Hamilton permi^km to have this book exhibited in the Colonial Museum. Incidental^- it imu' be mentioned that there

are in the collection the Touchers supporting the whole of the payments madeby the company in England -and the colonies. Although these might be generally thought to be exceedingly dry and uninteresting ddeunientfe _ stfld scarcely worthy of preservation, some of them threw interesting sidelights -on -various matters. For instance, the company had several lithographs made of Nelson, Wellington, and other places, and the accounts for the preparation of these lithographs show the ' number printed, the number sold, and various particulars relating to the issue of the individual plates. A casual look at some of the vouchers showed that in those days there was in. some instances a curious coincidence in regard to names and trades. For instance, the ' company dealt with a man named Fat who was an oil and colour merchant, and with a man named Tarr who was a coal and coke merchant. These tradesmen were in London, and .it is perhaps a further coincidence that a family of the latter name has been for many years settled in the vicinity of Wellington. Indeed, only a, few years ago Mr Tarr was Mayor- of Karori. Glancing at the list of passengers by the ship Philip Laing, winch, went to Dunedin, I found the first name on the list to be that of James Adam. It was a strange coincidence that Adam should one© again be "the first maaj" and still more strange that it was he who was instrumental in inducing my own father and mother to come out to the colonies. At the time he sailed in the Philip Laing Mr Adam was 25 years of age. His wife was 26, and they had with them a little girl one year old. Amongst the documents that have been kept by- the Colonial Office for the British archives are between 8000 and 10,000 letters belonging to the company. Many oi these must be of extreme interest, and it is to be hoped that some day the New Zealand Government may induce the Colonial Office to let us have copies of these letters, or such of them ub are of public interest. _ It only remains to be said that the thanks of all those interested in early history of this country are due to Dr Hocken, of Dunedin, who spent much time and labour in the examination of the whole of the documents when he was in London. The papers referred to had been lying in London for over half a century, and it is through Ids interest in the matter that they are now in New Zealand.