HISTORY FROM AN ALBUM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 146, 10 April 1942, Page 6

HISTORY FROM AN ALBUM

The Hobson Collection Throws Light On New Zealand’s Past

tennial, James Thorn, M.P., chairman of the National Historical Committee, made an appeal in England for any journals, letters, photographs or pictures of the early days of New Zealand settlement that descendants or relatives of early settlers might still be ‘harbouring. Among the prizes that were sent out in response to this special appeal was the Hobson Album, sent by Lieu-tenant-Colonel R. M. Rendel, great-grandson of Captain Hobson. After Captain Hobson’s premature death in September, 1842, Mrs. Hobson left for England, and before her departure, her friends joined to make up an album as a reminder of her stay in New Zealand. All who could, con-. tributed sketches in water colour, sepia, or pen and ink, while some collected and translated Maori poems, proverbs and songs. Naturally the artistic merits of the sketches vary considerably. Very few of them are signed or even initialled. The very great interest of the album lies in the fact that it was compiled before Mrs. Hobson took her leave of the colony, so that, with the possible exception of one or two sketches that were later sent to England and added, all the pictures show New Zealand of 1840, 1841 and 1842. There are a number of sketches of early Auckland, which in 1843 became the capital city and seat of the Government, and of Russell, where Mrs. Hobson aroused the envy of other settlers with her cows. In fact, a cynical commentator suggested "that the loss of one of them falling over the steep bank down to the beach was a sufficient reason why the seat of government should be removed from Russell to Auckland." A YEAR or two before the Cen-

The picture of the first government house in Auckland (reproduced on_ this page) revives memories of the bickering and the mudslinging that accompanied the founding of Auckland as the capital of New Zealand. The house, which was especially sent out from England, weighed 250 tons, cost £2,000, and was fitted throughout with marble chimney pieces, It was, moreover, the counterpart of the house built for Napoleon at St. Helena, only it was larger and more convenient.

If Hobson failed in some ways, no one can doubt his personal integrity nor his good intentions. In particular, he strove to be on good terms with the Maori people, and the pictures and writings relating to the Maoris are of outstanding interest. There are illustrations of the swing game and of poi dances, of the Maori method of digging in a sitting posture, and of Maori canoes on Lake Rotorua. There is an

excellent sketch of the strongly fortified "pa" on Lake Okataina, this and others showing how far inland some of the travellers ventured. There is a sketch, too, of the Maori lad Maketu, who gained the distinction of being the first man in New Zealand to be tried by English Criminal Law and condemned to death and executed. Maketu, a "rangitira" of the Ngapuhi tribe, had brutally murdered a widow, her servant

and two children, and his trial aroused a good deal of alarm: it was feared that the Maoris would resent, not the punishment of the murderer, but the indignity of the imprisonment and the delays and publicity of an English trial. Maketu was allowed to escape as a way out of the difficulty, but he was brought back by his own people and duly executed. The album contains his last speech: "I say that it is true, that it is right that I should die. It is my own doing, and for my sins I am going to the place that is burning with everlasting fire." Other items are more pleasant. There is "a small word, the name of a boundary on one of the land claims, Tetutukitangaongatuuonakamarangi," which must have tickled the fancy of one of the contributors to the book. There are a number of songs in Maori with the translations alongside. There is the song of the woman bearing food: "What shall be our food? Shellfish, fern root, the aka of the dry land This is the food that will keep a man in health The tongue grows rough with licking, As it were a dog’s tongue, au." (In dry country, where no water was to be had, the thirsty Maori would cut the aka vine and drink the juice.) There are hakas and songs, and one or two proverbs such as "Once a man but twice a child," and "Deep throat, shallow sinews," which is, perhaps, the Maori equivalent of the English "Noisy brooks are sballow." Letter to the Queen A revealing indication of the esteem in which Hobson was held is the letter to Queen Victoria from Te Whero Whero, chief of the Waikato tribe. (Continued on next page)

THE HOBSON ALBUM (Continued from previous page) Good Lady Victoria, How farest thou? Great is my love to you, who are residing in your country. My subject is, a governor for us and the foreigners, of this island. Let him be a good man, a man of judgment. Let not a trouble come here. Let not a boy come here or one puffed with pride. We, the New Zealanders, shall be afraid. Let him be as good as this governor who has just died, Mother Victoria, let your instructions to the foreigner be good. Let him be kind. Let him not come here to kill us, seeing that we are peaceable. Formerly, we were a bad people, a runaway people, a killing people. Now we are sitting peaceable, we have left off the evil. It was you who appointed him this line of conduct, and therefore it is pleasing to us, Mother be kind. From your friend, Whero Whero. " Mother Kawana *" » In June, 1843, Mrs. Hobson set sail in H.M.S. Tortoise with her children, and her memento of her three crowded years in the colony in which the white element was largely derived from whalers, escaped convicts, and runaway sailors, with a welcome leavening of missionaries. Nevertheless, Mrs. Hobson had found her place in this society. "I cannot say that I have ever felt the want of society since I have been in

ce * New Zealand," she writes. The Maoris had nicknamed Hobson Kapai Kawana, the good governor, and she was greeted by them as Mother Kawana. Now, on her departure, they sent her a farewell letter: Lady Governor .... This is my love song to you, to our kind friend. You are about to be lost, and he is gone, and the departure of you both will leave us only a theme of regret.. ." We may regret that life to-day is too hurried, that we no longer have time or patience for the little gestures of sympathy and affection which | our grandfathers and grandmothers showed. We may regret that we no longer wander round equipped with paints and sketchboard and spend long _ hours without ambition recording the memory of a well-spent day. But it is doubtful whether many of us regret that we are pretty well purged of the sentiment that made possible the last stanzas of the farewell poem to Mrs. Hobson. "The broad white sails are spreading, The gallant ship moves on; The hour has come we’re dreadingFrom our straining sight thou art gone. Our grieving souls are thinking Of what we've lost in you Our saddened hearts are sinking As we wave our last adieu." And so on through many verses to the last: "Now fare thee well, dear lady, May choicest blessing dwell Around thy home and family, | Dear lady, fare thee well."