NEW ZEALAND HISTORY

Southland Times, Issue 24243, 28 September 1940, Page 9

NEW ZEALAND HISTORY

New Centennial Publications

PIONEER LIVES*

(Reviewed by F. G. HALL-JONES) (1) SAMVEL MARSDEN By A. W. Reed. (2) GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN. By A. W. Reed. Published by A. H. and A. W. Reed, Dunedin and Wellington. Price 2/- each. Each of these two biographies comprises some 90 pages of adventurous career and high endeavour. Both, eminently suitable as a present for youth, will have a circulation far beyond this Dominion. Marsden, the “Greatheart,” received a boyhood training as farmer and blacksmith that stood him in good stead when developing his mission station. He came to Australia as chaplain to the convict station in New South Wales, and even in 1794, Britain being at war with France, sailed from Cork in a convoy of 40 vessels escorted by warships through the danger zone. His early contacts with Maori chiefs in Sydney, his seven visits to New Zealand, his travels and adventures among the Maoris will be read with enjoyment by youth and adult alike. Bishop Selwyn was another Cambridge man who as sailor-soldier-bis-hop carried on the Marsden tradition. He means more to us in the south, having visited this region on two or three occasions, penetrating to Stewart’s and Codfish Islands, not that Mr Reed’s biography touches on such detail, which is somewhat regrettable, as there are pen pictures in Selwyn’s diary of the whalers at Rakiura, and in Shortland’s diary of his meeting with Selwyn on the Canterbury beach (a Livingstone-Stanley affair), which will deserve to be more widely known. Hobson’s error, “34 ,degrees north” for the northern limit of New Zealand, was perpetuated in the boundaries of the diocese and much of Selwyn’s career was devoted to Melanesia. His connection with Lichfield is very real to the present reviewer who a quarter of a century ago whiled away an hour or two in the cathedral and was astonished to find a marble representation of a Maori mat. Beneath it Selwyn sleeps his last sleep.

ASHBURTON ASHBURTON (18S3-1939). A History by John Brown. A. H. and A. W. Reed, Dunedin and Wellington. Price 15/-. This is just about as complete and thorough a history, or rather compendium, as could be written about any district. It comprises some 750 pages of material, covering the stud-breeders and pioneers of the district, the beauty spots of the country, and the records of the road board, the county council, and the borough council. Apart from the runholders there is much about the womenfolk, the cowmen and the waggoners. The joint story of the Griggs and the Longbeach estate makes the first article, which is followed by many on similar lines. There is an interesting story about the artificial formation of Rangitata Island, and another on the loss of the Carnegie Library in 1916 because, forsooth, the lowest tender, £1758, exceeded by £8 the Carnegie grant. Naturally the publication will principally be of interest to Ashburton folk: the outsider would welcome a twopage outline. The author, John Brown, of Lowcliff, has his roots deep in the family history of the district, and writes fluently from the resources of a wide knowledge and retentive memory. EARLY OTAGO EARLY ADVENTURES IN OTAGO. By Edmund Smith. Coulls Somerville Wilkie Ltd. Price 2/6 (paper-boards), 5/- cloth. This is a slender volume of 60 small pages, but its value is based on other considerations. ,A preface by Mr Downie Stewart gives the parentage and life story of Edmund Smith and the personnel of his descendants in Otago today. The main part of the book | is Smith’s manuscript journal, written j up at an early stage in his career, covering his voyage in the John Wickliffe as a youth of 18, his hardships and adventures as shepherd-stockman-cook, and his pioneering of a small farm at Kuri Bush. Those were the days when half a hundredweight of potato seed, carried from Dunedin, was the foundation of a successful farming career. Have we missed happiness in exploring the pathways of leisure? Edmund Smith worked from early dawn to bed time and “never felt the least inclination to grumble.” In 1864 Edmund Smith, having removed to Dunedin, became the manager of the Dunedin Savings Bank, an office which he held until his death in 1895. E. J. Smith, of Dunedin, is his grandson. ’