THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 48, 13 August 1881, Page 548

THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN

•' I think that history is philosophy teaching by examples." — BOLINGBROKE. [Continuing my researches among the musty records of the past, I lighted upon certain official and non-official documents relating to events that happened in the year 1542, and from these I have selected another batch, which I trust will possess some interest not only to those persons who have recently arrived in the Colony, hut to those also from whose memories many important landmarks of our history have 'been effaced by time. Didymus. It is not Generally Known That :— — The whole Revenue of the Colony in 1842 was only about £20,000. —In 1842 Mr Felton Matthews was Chief Police Magistrate of the district of Auckland. — The ships Duchess of Argyle and Jane Giftord arrived in October, 1842, with 297 and 255 immigrants respectively. — On the I3th June, 1542, Governor Hobson appointed George Augustus Selwyn to be the first Bishop of New Zealand. — On August sth, 1542, the north ward of the Auckland Gaol, on the site of \yhich the Theatre Royal now stands, was proclaimed a House of Correction, and George Mcllwain appointed the governor. — In May, 1542, auctioneers licenses were issued to David Nathan, William Mason, and J. L. Campbell. I am told that in those early days the above gentlemen were not ashamed of being publicly seen sweeping out their own business premises. — On the 30th of June, 1842, licenses were issued at the Treasury for 29 publichouses in the Auckland district, of these the following were in the " township of Auckland :" — Shamrock, Rose, and Thistle, Victoria Coffee-house, Blue Bell, Yew Tree Inn, Caledonian, Sir George Gibbs, Victoria Hotel, Belle Vue, Royal, Rising Sun, and Governor Hobson. — The Legislative Council appears to have consisted of seven members, and I find that in one division the names were as follows : — Ayes : Clendon, Earp, and Porter. Noes : The Governor, the Colonial Secretary, Attorney-General, and the Colonial Treasurer. The speeches were very short, but, of course, the Government had the best of it. — In 1542 Auckland was described in official documents as a "township," and about this time a tax of £20 a-year was imposed on all houses (within a certain radius, of which Government. House Grounds was one boundary), composed of raupo, nikau, toitoi, Aviwi, kakaho, straw, or thatch. The tax appears to have been designed to prevent the construction of houses of those inflammable materials, for at the same time anyone who erected new houses of that class was liable to a penalty of £100. — The list of persons in Auckland liable to serve as jurors in January, 1842, contained not more than 150 names. Amongst these I find the following : — James Dihvorth, clerk, Princesstreet ; William Goodfellow, baker, Queenstreet ; Thomas Henderson, innkeeper, Shortland Crescent ; William Graham, merchant, Shortland Crescent ; Joseph Newman, dealer, Queen-street ; Thomas Russell, innkeeper. Queen-street; J. Stone, carpenter, Shortland Crescent; James Williamson, merchant, Shortland Crescent. — I find the following in a Government Gazette :— " Dowing-street, Nov. 30, 1841. Sir, — It is my pleading duty to announce to you that on the morning of the 9th inst., at 12 minutes before 11 o'clock, the Queen was happily delivered of a Prince, to the great joy of the nation and of all the Royal Family. Her Majesty and the infant Prince have, through Divine mercy, continued very well iip to the present time. — Stanley." Now, in 1881, we have been anxiously looking forward to a visit by the two sons of the Prince whose birth was announced in the above despatch, and have been grieviously disappointed because that visit has not taken place. — About this time there was rather a curious discussion in the Legislative Council, in which Governor Hobson (after whom Hobson County and Hobson-street are named) presided in person, and exercised a vote. The question was the propriety of appointing an official reporter to take shorthand notes of the debates, the accounts published in the Press being regarded as inaccurate. After a discussion, it was agreed to appoint a reporter. This was the initiatory step in the formation of the existing "Hansard," which now entails an enormous expense on the •country for useless verbatim reports of all the nonsense that is uttered in both Houses of Parliament. — The Balance-sheet of the New Zealand Banking Company, whose head office Avas at Kororareka, Bay of Islands, in 1842, was as follows : — Notes in circulation, £5715 ; bills in circulation, £541 ; . deposits, £17,635 ; coined gold, silver, and other coined metals, £12,524 ; bank premises, £791 ; notes and bills of other banks, £40 ; bills clue from other banks, £486 ; debts due to bank, £16,750 ; total liabilities, £23,893 ; assets, £30,593. Dividend, 5£ per cent, per annum. A striking test of the progress of trade and commerce in the Colony in less than 40 years is afforded by comparison of these figures with the last returns of the Bank of New Zealand, whose profits have often practically amounted to 25 per cent, per annum, while its transactions have amounted to tens of millions. — In 1842 the Legislative Council passed a new Licensing Act, under which publichouses were permitted to sell liquors within certain hours on Sundays. There was a long and animated discussion on the frailties of a celebrated personage, known by the soubriquet of "Tommy the Shingler." This ingenious man was a confirmed toper, and, under some power then •xercised by the police, they had cautioned all the hotelkeepers against supplying him with drink. But the mystery that exercised the minds of the Legislative Councillors was the means by which the redoubtable " Tommy the Shingler " still contrived to appear at frequent intervals in a worse state of intoxication than ever. Whether the mystery was ever solved, the history of those times does not say.