73 YEARS AGO

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 52, 24 May 1927, Page 1

73 YEARS AGO

FIRST PARLIAMENT OF NEW ZEALAND MET IN AUCKLAND.

MAY 24, 1854 SEVENTY-THREE years ago today the first Parliament of New Zealand met in Auckland. It was one of the important milestones in the history of the Dominion, but almost all traces, except written records, have been hidden in the distance of years long gone by. The demands of a rapidly growing city have swept aside the old building where those 40 pioneers met to guide the destinies of the then young and not too happy New Zealand. It stood in Eden Street, but the wide sweep of Anzac Avenue runs over where the early history of the Dominion was made. The first House of Assembly stood near the present Supreme Court, and afterwards was used as the Auckland University College. We can imagine those pioneers on the morning of May 24, 1854, listening with the keenest interest to the opening remarks of the Administrator, Colonel R. H. Wynyard. Most of them were products of the English public schools —all of them were keen for the welfare of the young Colony. NAMES IN HISTORY Men of that first Parliament have left their names in the history of New Zealand. In almost every province there are • buildings or monuments which recall vivid memories gf those far-sighted, fearless men. Each year the story of their trials, their endurance grows dimmer in the minds of a growing generation, but always, for those who care to remember, there is a wonderful page of history to be scanned, a glowing, exciting page in a book of adventure and endeavour. There were two houses, even in those far-away days—the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives. The Council seems to have got along quite smoothly, but the House of Representatives could got make up its mind about a Speaker, or at least the procedure by which the Speaker was elected. To end the doubt the public, keenly interested in. the new Parliament, was excluded until a decision was arrived at. This was to the effect that the Administrator postpone the opening of Parliament until the following Friday Colonel Wynyard agreed to this and on the Friday, Mr. (later Sir) Charles Clifford was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Then began a discussion on a custom which lasts to this day—the opening of the House with prayers. There was considerable debate, complete with amendments; but in the end it was decided that the meeting of the House open with prayer. FIRST GOVERNOR’S SPEECH Colonel Wynyard then delivered the first “Governor’s Speech” in New Zealand, and Mr. Gibbon W’akefield moved the first Address-in-Reply. Among the Auckland representatives of the first Parliament Were Mr. William Brown, second superintendent of Ihe Province; Mesrs. James O’Neill, Loughlin O’Brien and T. H. Hartley, William Field Porter, F. W. Merriman, Hugh Carleton, J. W. Bacot and Walter Lee. They were sworn in by the Chief Justice, Sir WTlliam Martin.

But there were others —many of whom guided the later Government of the young Colony of New Dr. (afterwards Sir David) Monro, Dr. Isaac Earl Featherston, who was later Agent-General in London; Mr. J. E. Fitzgerald, superintendent of Canterbury, 1853-1857; Mr. W. *S. Moorhouse, second superintendent of Canterbury, Mr. (later Sir) Frederick Aloysius Weld, premier 1864-1865, and later Governor of Australia, Tasmania, and the Straits Settlement. A finer lot of men never met to govern any growing country. New Zealand owes them much and should cherish their memory.