THE NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL W. H. BURNAND’S COPY

Turnbull Library Record, Volume VIII, 1 November 1951, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL W. H. BURNAND’S COPY

G. W. Hope.

Users of the volu mes of the New Zealand Journal and of certain sets of the British Parliamentary Papers in the Alexander Turnbull Library have been intrigued by the copious notes, drawings, maps and newspaper cuttings inserted by the original owner of these valuable records. The name of this original owner, W. H. Burnand, appears on the front covers and the initials sometimes appear in the margins. Who was he? The public records and ordinary biographical sources have no knowledge of him. An attempt is now made to gather together what may be known about him from his own manuscript notes in his books and the few letters be contributed to the Journal.

Whoever he was, he spent much time and presumably no small sum of money in informing himself in a most thorough way on New Zealand and the possibilities opened up by its colonization. He was probably one of a type of investor who stood behind the New Zealand Company and whose services have scarcely received recognition by the historians of this country. The absentee proprietors as a class have not com/ mended themselves to our people, yet a perusal of these volumes gives the impression that this particular proprietor made a contribution of real value to the new enterprise.

Unfortunately there is not much in these volumes which leads to any intimate knowledge of the personality of their first owner. The earliest of these meagre notices occurs in his own handwriting : ‘C. H. Kettle called on me 9th September at Sandh.’ The abbreviation apparently refers to Sandhurst which suggests some military connection. This suggestion is strengthened by a letter copied in manuscript, at the end of Volume VII, from the Undersecretary, Colonial Department, to W. H. Burnand, Esq. ...

Does this mean that Burnand had hopes of a military post in New Zealand? On the other hand he is never referred to by any military title; he is generally addressed as ‘Esquire* and often as plain ‘Mister’. Whether a military man or not, he had no lack of money to invest. His methods and his hopes are revealed in a letter to the editor written from 2 Burlington Gardens and printed in Volume IV, No. 316, on 9th December, 1843. After defending the absentee owners he goes on:

Tn 1839 my agent was appointed to select the land on any terms recognized as reasonable on the spot; but to be reasonable in treating with a useful tenant; one that would go to work and clear the land in earnest, should have the use of the land free for a number of years, and be rewarded for every acre got into approved cultivation at the rate of £4OO for every 100 acres of the first land, and assisted to build a dwelling house for his family. The country sections are, I am informed, favourably situated in the Porirua Valley distant 8 miles from Wellington, with a good road passing each of them; with all this I have the land unoccupied. The town sections have been let three years without procuring any rent. I last year changed my agents for more active persons; they have been instructed how to proceed and all necessary papers delivered over to them more than 18 months without having a single advice on the subject! I am served much in the same way at New Plymouth and Nelson! ! All my liberality has ended in disappointment, vexation and disgust at such enterprizes.’

The New Zealand Company then comes in for severe criticism for its share in the muddle. Among other references to this land there is a paragraph from a letter from Charles Heaphy to himself giving an encouraging description of the property and revealing that Heaphy was his first agent.

I have obtained your land in the Porirua Valley, one being about a mile from the harbour and the other, say, 4 miles covered with fine timber and soil of the richest description having been manured for ages by a deposit of vegetable matter.* Elsewhere the trees are described as Tawa trees which asso/ ciates the district with that now known as Tawa Flat. Among the many hand/drawn maps in the volumes there is more than one showing the position of these sections.

As each new settlement was opened Burnand was among the first of the prospective purchasers and that notwithstanding his exasperations and his complaints against the Company. The many maps and references to Nelson and New Plymouth show him to have been an earlier purchaser in those districts. Coalfields in the former settlement especially attracted his attention.

New Edinburgh in its turn appealed to him and some of the most interesting of his maps show the settlement planted in the vicinity of Banks Peninsula. A letter received by the Rev. Thomas Burns, Presbyterian minister at Port Cooper, copied by his hand is an interesting document not otherwise available to the historian. It is headed, ‘Extract of a letter received.’ The removal of the settlement to Otago does not appear to have commended itself to him and I have not been able to find a record of any purchases made there. On the other hand he took up several Canterbury properties, one of his town sections being an exceedingly valuable one in the south-western angle of the junction of Colombo and Hereford Streets. Apart from being an original purchaser in the various settlements he was always on the look/out for good properties coming back on the market through the failure of earlier proprietors.

Apart from these extensive purchases within the Company’s domain he also bought a property in Takapuna. Any reference to absentee proprietors as undesirable entities brought him to the defence of his kind and there is no doubt that he made out a good case for them. Certainly if all had taken the keen interest which he took in the country they would, as a class, have been more acceptable than they were. ‘The absentee proprietors,’ he once said, ‘have given the country a local habitation and a name.’ A characteristic caustic comment on the same question will be found pencilled in the margin alongside an article on the question at page 5 of Volume X.

Of course he had his opinions on the government’s varying policies on the New Zealand question. They were founded on the conviction that free institutions ought to be granted the settlers at the earliest possible moment. For example on page 45 of Volume X reporting the debate in the House of Commons on the New Zealand report in 1850, he notes in the margin

concerning Lord John Russell and the Colonial Office, ‘Our directors’ language to Earl Grey should be, “My Lord either give us free institutions or take the painful responsibility of conducting the colonizing of New Zealand on your own shoulders.”* He thought the New Zealand Company should have been represented on the executive Council of New Zealand. Thus on page 41 of the same volume he has a marginal note to this effect, ‘What dependence can the settlers have in the Company who have not one director’s name in the Council list The chairman was down in defiance of them.’

Throughout the earlier volumes there is a continual series of notes and comments, some of them very caustic, on the vexed subject of titles to land in New Zealand. He is naturally among those who were opposed to the champions of Maori rights. NEW ZEALAND COMPANY

His many purchases and his consuming interest in New Zealand inevitably brought Burnand into the closest association with the New Zealand Company. He wished to see the Company prosper as a great and worthy agent of colonization and he shows himself to have been a convinced upholder ofWakefield’s theories on colonization. There is no doubt also that he en/ deavoured to make the most of the opportunities afforded by the Company for investment in New Zealand land. While he stood aghast at the blunders made and spared no criticism of those he thought responsible, he was quick to defend the Company against those who were known to be hostile to its interests.

As the years passed and the difficulties multiplied, he became more and more critical of the Company. For example, by the beginning of 1850 he could make this note in the margin of the New Zealand Journal of 26th January (Volume X, p. 23): ‘The Company now a mere cloak to cover the designs of the Colonial Office. Colonization a delusion to all! A sham! ! *

He appears to have tried from time to time to persuade the Company, especially in its early days, to issue loans to intending colonists. At any rate he successfully maintained his point that the Company was legally entitled to advance such loans. But whatever the Company might legally do, he soon discovered with many others, that the Company had much greater need of borrowing money to keep itself going. It was never in a position to make advances.

His name occasionally appears and his speeches are sometimes reported at meetings of the proprietors of the Company. At page 520 of Volume XI there is a cutting inserted from The Times reporting such a meeting. From this it is learned that he opposed the surrender of the Company’s Charter.

STEAM NAVIGATION Perhaps Burnand’s most interesting connection with New Zealand is that which brought him to this country in 1852. Through all the volumes there are continual reminders of his practical interest in steam navigation. Wherever there is a reference to it, there is much underlining and more than the usual number of marginal notes.

It will be remembered that the first proposals for the founding of the Nelson settlement embodied the idea of raising the price of land from one pound to thirty shillings per acre, the extra ten shillings to provide for the endowing of church and schools and the promotion of steam navigation. When the history of New Zealand steam shipping comes to be written, his name will come in for honourable mention as one of the pioneers if not the foremost pioneer in this department. Various schemes were put forward from time to time and those interested in early steam shipping will find plans, specifications, and every possible contingency with regard to the introduction of steamers carefully gone into. In Volume IX, on page 234, there are some resolutions printed on the subject with this manuscript note in the margin: ‘These resolutions prepared by W.H.8., Esq.*

The New Zealand Steam Navigation Company was at last formed for the purpose of giving effect to these carefully considered plans. It passed with other embryo companies into the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. He came to New Zealand in 1852 in connection with this project but it does not appear that he stayed very long. In the Australian and New Zealand Gazette for 1853 (the successor after some trouble, of the New Zealand Journal ) there is a reference to the death at Puramakui, Takaka, Nelson, of John Henry Burnand on 4th March, 1854. ‘Received news 15th September 1854/ which suggests thatW.H.B. had returned to England by that date.

The question of steam navigation led naturally to the subject of coal and to a great interest in coalfields in the north/

western portion of Nelson province. There is an unusually large number of maps of this district with careful reference to the location of coal seams.

HISTORICAL VALUE Mr Alexander Turnbull in a note on one of the volumes says, ‘There are an immense number of notes, MS. matter, MS. maps, many original drawings, etc., bound up with the volumes, which makes them exceedingly valuable and interest/ mg.* On the whole I am inclined to think that they are more interesting than valuable though this is by no means to under/ estimate their value. Most of the notes are summaries in the margins of the various articles and —only comparatively rarely are the notes other than summaries. One valuable aspect is the way in which Burnand has inserted the name of the writer of a letter whose name is not given by the printer. We sometimes get this kind of note as in No. 259 (1849) alongside an editorial concerning compensation for absentee proprietors. ‘This is a garbled and impudent article, there is scarce a word of truth in it, the editor is only annoyed because the committee would not countenance a long paper he had prepared, claiming the compensation in land for all original Colonists after they had sold their .* (land orders?). The uncertainty about the last two words raises a point. Many of the footnotes were written on the bottom margin of the page and have unfortunately been cut off too sharply by the binder. A great many of them are in pencil, and some, being over a century old, have become illegible. The modern reader could wish for more forthright notes of this kind, especially with reference to contemporary characters.

MAPS Unfortunately very few of the maps are the printed results of scientific surveys. The great majority are free drawings largely based on his own reading of various reports and not even on personal acquaintance with the country. Consequently there are some rather grotesque results when compared with the modern finished map. I found the most useful part of the maps to be the assistance they give in the identification of disused place names. For example, Port Eliot is shown by the map to be New Plymouth, and Port Newton to be Picton.

NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS By far the most valuable part of Burnand’s work is his gathering together of numerous newspaper cuttings from the English dailies with respect to important debates about New Zealand and other such matter. The files from which these cuttings are taken are not often available in New Zealand. Sometimes they are pasted on the advertisement pages of the New Zealand Journal, sometimes they are loosely attached to the margins and sometimes there are whole volumes of contemporary journals inserted and bound for the obvious purpose of becoming scrapbooks.

INDEXES Burnand has made very comprehensive indexes to each volume, but unfortunately he has not followed any system and the date of any volume is no guide to what might be com tained in his index. He has sometimes gone back to an earlier volume and added references to certain matter from succeeding volumes. The student should therefore be prepared to hunt through all the volumes for references to any particular date.

LIST OF MAPS Vol. I Pref. p. 4 New Zealand. Few notes. 11l 210 Cape Palliser. to Waikanae. Rough and vague. 11l 258 Motupipi River, Nelson. Coal worked and lime burnt. (Same map repeated on a blue page.) 111 end pages New Zealand. Rough. Port Nicholson to Pari Pari. Roads marked. Pahs shown with dates of cap' ture and casualties in ’46. IV 200 New Plymouth. Roads marked, suburban sections (Waitara to Sugar Loaf Is.) and other notes. IV 210 Banks Peninsula. French and German popu' lations detailed. Map far out. IV 218 Port Nicholson, Hutt, Waira' Sections marked on Pori' rapa. (Manawatu R. to rua Road. Wairarapa R.) V 290 Otago Block. Vague as to distances. V 312 Port Nicholson to Hawke’s Bay Large, folded. VII Between VI and VII Printed and folded map. bound together, New Ply . mouth.

LIST OF MAPS continued Vol. VII 176 Van Diemen’s Land. (Be' Printed, tween VI and VII.) North Island. Fantastic. Little Wanganui and Wake > field R. Port Nicholson to Wainui. Roads, sections marked, details. Porirua R. Roads, sections marked, double page. Same, rough with Pa, military camps, College, Titahi Bay. Dates at which Pa taken and casualties. Similar to above, illus/ trates military operations, forts, etc. Others similar. New Plymouth and sur / roundings. Port Cooper. Canterbury names added later after New Edinburgh names. Banks Peninsula. Fantastic. New Edinburgh. Otago block—rough. New Edinburgh. Otago block—rough. Banks Peninsula. Whaling stations shown, also sites of French, Bri' tish and German settle' ments.

VIII No maps. IX 305 Canterbury Settlement insert Printed. A. Wells, 1849. ted. X front. 45 Sumner Streets. Wrongly placed, fr. 47 Lyttelton Streets. fr. 49 North Canterbury. fr. 51 Lyttelton to Akaroa Harbour. fr. 55 Christchurch streets. Slightly different from others, sections coloured. Vol. XII fr. 2 East Coast South Island. Shows Weld’s track, Neb son to Canterbury and back. fr. 6 and 7 Auckland town and sur Numerous notes. roundings. fr. 1 O'll Parish of Takapuna, street Purchases shown and de/ plan. tails, fr. 14 Bell block and surroundings. More carefully drawn, fr. 22 Otago block. Notes added.

LIST OF MAPS —continued Vol. XII fr. 25 Motupipi R. Small. fr. 26 and 27 Same with Massacre Bay. Geological notes, fr. 28 and 29 Cook Strain Nelson, Marl' Many notes, etc., for Mark borough. borough, fr. 38 Lower North Island. Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay southwards. fr. 50 and 51 Lyttelton Streets. Pencil, fr. 52 and 53 Banks Peninsula and North Not much detail. Canterbury. fr. 54 and 55 Banks Peninsula and North Not much detail. Canterbury. fr. 64 and 65 Hauraki Gulf. Coromandel Peninsula, Great Barrier Island. 76 Australia and New Zealand. Crude, fr. 92 and 93 Nelson and Marlborough. Little detail, fr. 94 and 95 Motunau and Cape Campbell. Crude.

Australian & New Zealand Gazette. January/June, 1853 Front pages. 1 Coromandel Peninsula. No detail. 2 Waitemata' Waikato. Minerals. 4 Banks Peninsula and North Very rough. Canterbury. 8 Nelson and Coal Bay. 12 North Island West Coast. Very rough. Wellington and district. Outline only. 22 South Otago. Crude. 24 West Australia. 26 (two) Kaipara, Manukau, Auck' Colleges and townships. land Harbour. 36 Massacre Bay. Coal basin. Massacre Bay. . Coal basin. 44 and 45 , Kawau Island with drawings of workings. 46 Massacre Bay with geological notes.

LIST OF NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS Vol. IV p. 525 i Nov., 1847 Paragraph re retirement of Sir James Stephen. V 320 21 Sept., 1847 Letter inserted. Criticism of his own letter. VI front 25 Sept., 1850 The Times. front 12 July, 1848 The Times re Society for Promotion Colonization. 14 July, 1848 The Times re Society for Promotion Colonization. front 17 March, 1851 House of Lords. Registration of Assurances Bill.

LIST OF NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS — continued Vol. VII 12 London Gazette. Summary of Lord Grey’s Instruction. VII After No. 205 Spectator for October 16, 1847, used as scrap-book. (a) Advertisement for Otago. (h) 16 Oct., 1847 Daily News. 3 cols, reporting meeting of directors of New Zealand Company. 16 Oct., 1847 The Times. 4! cols, reporting meeting of directors of New Zealand Company. 16 Oct., 1847 Reporting meeting of directors of New Zealand Company. 2I cols, editorial included.

16 Oct., 1947 Morning Chronicle. Report directors meeting. John Bull. Report directors meeting. VII 328 14 Dec., 1847 Daily News. N.Z. Government Bill debate and editorial. VII end J ? Account visit Fly to South Is. ? ; Article on Presbyterianism (incomplete). j i Obituary, Sir George Gipps. 19 Dec., 1848 Steam communication. ? ? Sir George Grey’s Waste Land Despatch.

VIII front Auctioneers printed sheets advertising land sales including New Zealand sections. VIII 130 ‘Juvenile Population of the Metropolis.’ IX 255 Blue printed sheet giving particulars of Wellington earthquake, 1848, from Journal of Hugh Ross, Barrister. X 76, 77 23 March, 1850 The Times. Report of Colonial Debate. 76, 77 30 March, 1850 Spectator. No particular New Zealand interest, probably meant for scrap-book, but not used. XI 369 Article in New Zealand Journal on first number of Lyttelton Times. Manuscript note: see The Times, 5 July, 1851, on this number. XI 408 31 July, 1851 Reports meeting of New Zealand Company. W.H.B. referred to. XI 519 20 Nov., 1851 Morning Chronicle. Meeting of intending colonists. 520 20 Nov., 1851 The Times. Meeting of proprietors of New Zealand Company. XII 686 22 May, 1852 The Times. Debate on N.Z. Govt. Bill. 698 5 June, 1852 The Times. Debate on N.Z. Govt. Bill. 700 11 June, 1852 The Times. Debate on N.Z. Govt. Bill.

LIST OF NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS —continued Vol. XII 14 June, 1852 The Times. Debate on N.Z. Govt. Bill. (Editorial on back of above giving historical resume, very critical of Company. Heavily underlined with manuscript notes ; : > apparently in defence of the Company.) 704 23 June, 1852 The Times. N.Z. Debate. 808 22 Oct., 1852 The Times. Reporting New Zealand Company meeting.

To W. H. Burnand, Esq., . In answer to your letter of the 4th inst., I am desired by Lord Stanley to acquaint you that his Lordship has no means of ascertaining whether it will or will not be in the power of the New Zealand Company to effect a Settlement at Port Cooper in New Zealand nor is his Lordship able to inform you at what place the settlement to which the name of New Edinburgh has been given will be made. It is therefore not in his Lordship’s power to enter into any correspondence respecting the future defence of it —if that settlement should be effected in the immediate vicinity of the land at present occupied by the Company, Lord Stanley can hold out no prospect whatever of any increase in the military force employed there. If the settlement should be effected at any considerable distance from the existing settlements, Lord Stanley anticipates that the difficulty of providing at all for its military defence by Her Majesty’s regular forces will be insuperable. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant,

*N.Z.J. vol. iv, p. 218.

*Vol. 2 No. 284, 7 July, 1841.