EARLY N.Z. HISTORY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 562, 20 June 1933, Page 6

EARLY N.Z. HISTORY

link with hobson OLD CHRISTCHURCH LADY IS RELATIVE OF N.Z'S FIRST GOVERNOR. INTERESTING DOCUMENTS Christchurch, Saturday. To be a relative of Cap'tain William Hobson, the first Governor of New Zealand, is the proud cla.im of Mrs. . G. W. Kent, of 294 Hereford Street, Christchurch. Her relationship is given special interest by the fact that the members of the Waitangi National Trust Board met recently on the actual site" of the sigxxing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Senator Massy Greene, of Australia, was an honoured guest there because of his relationship to Captain Hobson. Although it has been claimed that Senator Greene .is the only person in New Zealand to-day who is a descendant of Captain Hobson, this claim is set aside by the fact of Mrs. Kent's relationship. Her father, Lieut. Alexander Grant, of the Royal Navy, was a great-nephew of Captain Hobson. Until recently she had given no thought to her relationship with Captain Hobson, for there had been no occasion to recall it. The association of his distinguished relative with the early days of New Zealand was an influence in determining Lieutenant Grant' s choice of the Dominion^ as a place in which to settle when he retired because of illhealth. In his early days he was associated with Captain Moresby in the survey of New Guinea, and on comxng to New Zealand he first settled at Auckland, where he held a post under the Defence Department. Later he was in charge of the permanent artillery at Lyttelton. Interesting records and historical documents have been preserved by Mrs. Kent's family, but these are at present locked in a sandal wood chest of which her eldest brother, who is in Singapore, has the key. Besides a photograph of Captain Hobson and a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi, Mrs. Kent believes the chest to contain documents which would be of considerable value to historians. Mrs. Kent's younger brothers, of whom one is an engineer employed by the Taku Tuig and Lighter Company of Tientsin, while the other is at Brisbane, were both educated at Canterbury College. Her eldest brother, who works with the AngloSaxon Petrol Company of Singapore, is returning to New Zealand on leave shortly, and it is likely that the chest 1 will then be opened and the old papers carefully examined.