OLD INSTRUMENTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 404, 21 March 1947, Page 5

OLD INSTRUMENTS

Sir-We were interested to read in a recent issue of The Listener the article by Zillah Castle on antique musical instruments, and would like to

bring to notice that the Old Colonists’ Museum in Auckland has a collection of such = antique instruments. The Museum has not set out to assemble such a collection, but over the 30 years it has been in existence it has acquired three organs, two pianos, a seraphine, a flute and a tuning whistle, all dating back 100 years and more. All, with the exception of one organ which was built by William Webster at Hokianga in 1850, were brought overseas by the early colonists. . One of the pianos, a square one, is believed to have belonged to Governor Hobson and was bought when the effects of the Government in Auckland were sold. Of the three organs, one belonged to the Rev. S. Volkner, of Opotiki, who was killed and eaten by the Maoris in .1865, while another was brought from Christiania in Norway, only to be shipwrecked when the City of Auckland was wrecked on the Otaki Beach. However, 18 months later it was salvaged and sent to the owner in Napier. The third organ, made by William Webster, is a masterpiece of ingenuity and skilful workmanship: and

was made by him in his leisure time. The ivory on the keyboard, we are told, was laboriously cut by hand-saw from the teeth of the sperm whale, which were obtained from the whalers who spent much time at Russell, Bay of Islands. The black notes were with: the same dye as that which the Maoris used for dyeing their mats, and the bellows gauge of brass was filed from the rudder of qa rowing-boat. The outside case was made from cedar wood brought from Australia. There was not enough of this to finish the front and music rest, but Mr. Webster, nothing daunted, took a cedar board from his square sofa and so finished the work, It was tuned with the aid of a tuning fork. It can be imagined what joys these small and to-day strange-looking instruments would bring to a community where the amenities of life were at a minimum}; and how precious too, considering the isolation from the outside

world of those first colonists.-

A. M.

RYBURN

(Secretary, Old Colonists’

Museum, Auckland).