THE FOUNDING OF NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 104, 29 May 1909, Page 3

THE FOUNDING OF NEW ZEALAND.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A NONAGENARIAN.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SIR FREDERICK YOUNG.

London, April 8. It is not often that one has the pleasure of interviewing a man of ninetytwo years. The experience becomes unique when the veteran happens' to be u man who can remember the very first beginning of New Zealand as a colony, ■who was present at the farewell banquet in 183!) when the first batch of tlibbon Wakefield's emigrants left for New Zealand, and whose connection with schemes of emigration ,to British dominions overseas has continued throughout the long intervening period of seventy years. ' Such a man is Sir Frederick Young, .K.C.M.G., the '■father" of the Royal Colonial Institute, and the 0.0.M.'0f Greater Britain. Sir Frederick seems to have discovered the secret of perennial youth. At ninety-two his enthusiasms arc as keen as ever, his mental vigor is still considerable, and his memory wonderfully accurate. His friends 'in the Institute are accustomed to speak 01 him as the ••youngest'' member of the Council, for in vigor and enthusiasm hf excels them all. His speech at the special meeting of the Institute the other d«v, when the reform party agitated for a change iu the constitution, was easily the most spirited utterance that the occasion called forth. The meeting broke into cheers when the veteran exclaimed:

"The' Institute is not moribund! It ; s very much alive, and so am J!" l.i spirit he showed himself as progressive as the reformers; in declamatory power he overshadowed them completely. Colonisation and the fostering'of Imperial unity have been the main interests of Sir Frederick Young's long life, it was Gibbon Wakefield who first gave lus youthful mind its colonial bent, and he has never ceased, to work for the Imperial idea. In founding the Colonial Institute many years ago lie and Bis fellow-members may be said to have "discovered" the colonies, so far as tho English public are concerned, for previously people had known next to nothing about them, and eared less. No small share of the growth of sympathy and understanding between thc"Motli->r-land and the oversea dominions is due to the efforts of Sir Frederick and his' co-founders of the Institute in the ea-dv days.

Fifty or sixty years he was actively engaged in sending out specially-selected emigrants to people the virgin lands of Xew Zealand. He has watched that young and vigorous country go from strength bo strength with an almost paternal solicitude. lie remembers the hardships of the earliest settlers, most of whom have passed away; and he has lived to see and rejoice in the rich fruks of their labor, their courage, and llieir faith, lie. cam say with the poet:

'O, 1 mourn and yet exult; 1 am rant with love for all. . Pioneers:' 0 Pioneers!"

When I called on Sir Frederick Young at the Colonial Institute this week he obligingly consented to ransack his memory for my benefit, and give the present generation of Xew Zealand readers some particulars of his connection with the founding of the colony. In 1839, when Gibbon Wakefield formed his Xew Zealand Land Company with a capital of a quarter of a-million, Sir Frederick's' father was one of the directors, and Sir Frederick himself was old enough to he u shareholder, with a hundred or two of capital invested in the enterprise. It will ihe best to give in his own word* his memories of those bygone days as they cropped up in the course of our conversation. First he spoke of the starting of the Xew Zealand Land Company just seventy years ago: "Well do 1 remember the enthusiasm which the project aroused. A number of youthful scions of distinguished families were amongst the tad of pioneers— Pelres and Cliffords and llolcsworths and others. 1 was present at the banquet at Bluckwall in lfi3!). w hen a party of<a. hundred or so assembled to see the iirst settlers off to Xbw Zealand. From 183!) to 18:12 I was in more or less constant communication with Gibbon Wakefield in reference to colonising Xew Zealand. .In 1852 I was manager of the Canterbury Association's shipping department, and in that capacity I had to charter ships to take "migrants out to Xew Zealand from this country. I had an office in Cornhill. to which'thev used to come from all over the kingdom, and about one thousand of them passed through my hands en route for Xew Zealand.

ATX PIfKKD SETTLERS. "That reminds me that these early settlers were all picked men and women. If there has been any mistake in modern methods of emigration, it is in departure from tile strict methods of selection winch we adopted in the early da..Our colonists then had all to go through tests—and look at the result! Look what they have made of New Zealand! You have only to reflect upon the progress of the Dominion to see what a I splendid type of people were sent out I there originally. There never wan smv complaint about them. I don't sav that every indrvidiuri was an angel, but'at all events the people were the right sort, ■and they liaveprovefl it most completely and successfully up to the present day. The lesson for us nowadays is that we must guard agiinst the dumping of paupers and the unfit generally (m colo:ual shores. Every person who is, sent out to any one of our colonies must lie a fit person, physically and mentally. Till') AIASTKK JIfXD.

_ '(iibbon Wakclicid was the founder of N'cw Zealand. His was the master mind m the great project. The Xew Zealand Unci Company was the emanation of his in-ain. I am speaking now of seventy years ago, Jmt the enthusiasm of those early days i H clear in my memory. I was old enough even then 'to he a shareholder in tin' company, and, of course. «'Hh my father on the lioard of Director-. I heard a •rood deal about the company's affairs. <libbon Wakefield, when I first knew him. looked like a "Ood specimen of a British farmer, robunfand vigorous, lie had a wonderful power of attracting people, and ho exercised a sort of fascination over me and other young men. A great many of them iwent out to Now Zen In ml under the spell of II alfelield's niagnelisin. 1 remember I used to go down to stay with him for two or three day* at a time at Resale, where he had a little cottage, lie went for early -mowing rides on a nonv, at a footpace, and I used to w,alk along Inside him, listening to ll«. How of liis wonderful ideas. All „, v notions of colonisation and colonial matters were derived from Cibbon Wakefield I looked "lion liiui as my teacher. Under his «v----teni of land iiurcliasc all the proceeds •«>ni the sale of land to settlers were subject to a percentage that went in aid ' oi immigration. I still think Jiis system was the right one. anil should be in' force j to-day. As far an I can recollect, the |L.ity of Wellington was established on the LI an acre system. Five shilli-.i-s ' out of every po„„,l , vo „|,i , ln . ,i t , v „ t( , (l t0 immigration [,, \ P | S( ,„, ,„,,„,, , ,„,,,, 200 acres when it was founded. T paid •)0s an acre, rn Canter.burv the l.ri-o was .CI an .acre, and CI out of every p received was to he devoted to sending people out from the Old C itrv. 1 bat was Wakefield's system all tlmnMi c.vciitunlly H. was dropped, but 1 regard it to tins day as the correct method ot providing for immigration. VnUJKST UUKAAIS sntiPASSED ".Seventy years ago we were tremendously enthusiastic about New Zealand. v\" thought it was gohig t„ l„. a ]•„„. i O . cation for settler-, but „„„,. of ,„ dreamt of its ever being a Uomiuioi,. «hcn f look back over the long stretch ot years, and think how .Yew Zealand I'.«« developed. I marvel to think how s'imp eit all seemed to „s in lh„ S( . ,]„ vs . Ue had no coiicepMnii of what tile ll'civ eonntr.v was destined to become. He ""I meetings ,„ eolonkis ,-,UI. Adelpliierrace. and I ,-eiu,. ,- Wakefield used to draw what I imagi 1 ,',, those ( |„ v4 to be rathe,-(„„ ,■„.„.„ u . pictures of this yoiidertul new land of his, New Zealand. I«t I hav, lived to see his most glowing 'li'e.iius surpassed by the ri ty. What imagined o be exaggeration li,,* ~,-ovcd o be less than the truth. And all wilhi,, the space of „,y „ W7l lifetime! When gold was found in Australia in ]N.I3 or Hi-'j. I .distinctly reim'inbcr Wakeh'-ld wiyiiiß: -I hope we'll never lind gold in II 7 , r ",».'""•"'''?■*, von must r Uha,agol ( ,'rush\vo'u'",lood -New Zealainl with undesirables Wlm ejvanted to s,e,was steady.'peacef'ui Jiess by means of laud settlement, .hat was why |,e hoped no gold «<) Id be found lie little, dreamt how gu«itapa,-tg01d.,,,i I ,i,,j r »,Is(,, 1 s ( ,, phn-i, tie development of the country i, after

MKMOKIKS OK SKM\T\ . r 2"* a Wv »■'■ m.wl cli.ti„a t .isl.,.,l *■.!«.» i. "fivonl. in one of on,-,.„„•„,.„„'. 5 ;i ,.5,,,i«.t J.i l ilm inn „,„| ~|; llll„ .,| ( „ ,„;, „; lt . . yat-ht; )mt In, .-raft was dism«iitJ*il l»v

of tlte number of houses to the. aeie, and tho people that slinl] iiv'o 1/lieroin, ] the creation of air spaces, of picturesque environment, and the inspiring of mankind to a higher plane of thought mid consideration for his inhabitation, ale all one with the remarkable movement of the twentieth century. Their essentials are crystallised into the principles of the town-planning that made it possible for Port Sunlight .to arise in beaut y and scorn with loathing the hideous picture that a'tares from .across the river. Unfortunately that picture cannot always be entirely disassociated with our colonial cities. ' It is therefore a good or a wise policy that they should go on developing as they are' doing without sonic regard or some appreciation of the I knowledge and the experience that lies [beyond the seas in modern England today.