Our First Governor

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 May 1927, Page 8

Our First Governor

Aucklanders Restore Grave of Captain William Hobson THE fact that the grave of Captain William Hobson, New Zealand’s first Governor, and the founder of Auckland, has remained neglected and almost forgotten since he was laid to rest in 1842, is no credit to the New Zealand Government. The fact that two Auckland pioneers who reverence the memory of a man to whom this city owes so much, have undertaken the repair of Captain Hobson’s grave, is creditable to Auckland.

'p'Oß years successive Ministries have promised that a monument should mark Captain Hobson’s resting place in Symonds Street Cemetery,- something commensurate with its historical significance. Nothing has been done. These two Aucklanders, however, have footed the bill for the repair of the tomb. It is certainly rather strange that' naval and military graves in the picturesque Auckland burial place, not a

stone’s throw from the vault of the first governor, have been placed in decent order at the instigation of the Government. Yet, the grave of Hobson, one of the greatest men of his time in New Zealand, and an administrator whose memory should be honoured by Maori and pakeba alike, has remained untouched. Captain Hobson’s association with the Treaty of Waitangi alone is quite sufficient to warrant a little more interest by the Government of the day.

The First Warning Death was not by any means unexpected on that evening of September 9, 1842, when toward midnight the suffering governor breathed his last. Two years previously when visiting the Waitemata and the Tamaki in the warship “Herald” he received his first warning of paralysis. Prior to his death enemies in the South had noted his “palsied” condition, and politely asked him to resign the governorship, Hobson, naturally, refused. But death was a happy release. Wearied and wasted by disease the dying governor welcomed it. He was buried four days later in what was then known as “the new cemetery.” Willoughby Shortland, the Colonial Secretary, who succeeded temporarily until the arrival of Captain Fitzroy. was the chief mourner.

Recording the ceremony, the “New Zealand Journal,” published in London in March of the following year, a copy of which is in the Grey collection at the AuckLibrary, said: “Forgetting all those causes of difference which during his lifetime had operated to prevent friendly and hearty cooperation, almost all the respectable inhabitants joined in the funeral procession”! The scene, remarked the same journal, must have been not less strange than imposing!

William Swainson, the historian, and New Zealand's first AttorneyGeneral, speaks well of Hcbson when he pays tribute to the “infallible sense of justice of the first governor.” Sense of Justice As for the Maoris, their feeling was expressed in this message by a prominent chief to the Queen: —“Mother Victoria, —My subject is a governor for us the Maoris and for the Pakeha

in this island. Let him be a good man. Look out for a man of judgment. Let not a trouble-maker come here. Let not a boy come here or one puffed up. Let him be a good man as the man just dead.” It was really thanks to the pirates of Jamaica that New Zealand was given Hobson as first governor. In recognition of his bravery in 1523, then a young lieutenant, they spared his life. Five years later he became a post captain. After commanding the ‘Rattlesnake,” on the East India station, the warship was detailed to New Zealand. Auckland owes everything to Hobson. His was the choice that decided the vexed question of the capital. Henry Williams had suggested Auckland as the best site, and the governor agreeing, inaugurated that era of bitter jealousy between Wellington and Auckland which continued for so many years. Even yet the veriest breath will fan it. When Captain Hobson died Auckland had been in existence just two years. Bishop Selwyn was in the country only a few months. The colony was in the melting-pot. Captain Fitzroy, the new governor, stepped into a positive hornets’ nest. "Gallantly Struggling”

And so, at the comparatively early age of 49, William Hobson, Captain in His Majesty’s Navy, still “gallantly struggling to do his duty,” fell asleep, leaving a widow and young children to mourn him. Do the thousands that daily pass over Grafton Bridge ever give a casual thought to the sailor-governor sleeping below? All honour to the decision of the two Aucklanders to venerate the memory of the man who founded their city. They have at least made his tomb discernible to the multitude. —E.R.