THOMAS ARNOLD AND CAPTAIN COLLINSON

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 4, Issue 2, 1 October 1971, Page 61

THOMAS ARNOLD AND CAPTAIN COLLINSON

James Bertram

Two recent manuscript acquisitions of the Library nicely complement each other, and throw light on some of the intellectual interests and aspirations of young men in the Wellington district in the first decade of colonial settlement. The first is a very characteristic letter from Thomas Arnold the Younger to Captain T. B. Collinson, re, written from Tasmania in 1851 but in part reviewing their earlier association in New Zealand. The second is General Collinson’s private account, written at the end of the century ‘for the information and satisfaction of my children’, of Seven Years Service on the borders of the Pacific Ocean, 1843-50. Collinson’s memoir is of great historical and topographical interest, and deserves much fuller description than can be given here. The chief purpose of this note is to publish the Arnold letter, and use some extracts from Collinson’s reminiscences to elucidate this rather surprising friendship.

Let the two principals introduce each other. In June 1848, twelve days after his arrival at Wellington in the John Wicklijfe, Tom Arnold began a walk up the coast to Otaki: . I set forth, having for a companion Capt Collinson of the Engineers, who was going to visit the officers at Porirua. Collinson is I suppose about 26 or 27 years old, a sincere good man, with something of a sarcastic turn ordinarily, but when there is any good work to be done active and earnest at once.’ And here is Collinson, looking back affectionately across fifty years at the young Arnold of 1848: he brings him in at the end of a shrewd and lively series of character sketches of such men as Domett, Fox, Sir Godfrey Thomas, Dillon Bell, Petre, Weld, under the heading ‘Society in Wellington, 1848-49’: There is one member of our Society, and a very prominent one, whom I have not mentioned at all yet... that is Tom Arnold : a son of the great schoolmaster, he was educated in the highest manner of the day and under the best teachers. . . . Naturally he was a studious, wide minded and large hearted man, of simple and gentle disposition; a character in short on which a strong impression would be made by the teaching of more powerful characters than his own. The result, as far as I was capable of judging, was that the multitude of doctrines tended to produce rather a vagueness in all.We all loved him; it was impossible not to love so aimiable [sic] and openhearted a young fellow, who was so full of the best learning of the day, and straight from the society of the principal men of the day, in art, science and politics. He became at once the representative with us of the advanced party in the philosophy of life.

From these two comments, the basis of a continuing friendship is already clear. The impetuous and unworldly Tom Arnold admired the

greater maturity and experience of a practical serving officer; Collinson, aware of the limitations of his narrow professional training (‘being only a soldier with some smattering of science from Woolwich Academy’), was fascinated by this young Oxford intellectual with the famous name and the endless flow of ‘Jacobinical’ ideas. In the bachelor parties at Wellington where Tom Arnold sang the ‘Shan van Vocht’ to the delight of young Irish officers of the 65th, while Domett declaimed ‘Of Nelson and the North’, Collinson must have been a relatively sober figure - cast, in his own words, for ‘the role of representative of the Church and State’. But he was far from being a stuffy or conventional Tory.

The Arnold children who had grown up at Fox How regarded themselves as northcountrymen; Collinson ‘was born and bred at Gateshead on the coaly Tyne’, and apparently kept his accent. (He tells how the cook’s daughter at the Cockatoo Hotel exclaimed, as soon as he opened his mouth, ‘Smash! mother, he’s a Geordie!’). After leaving Woolwich he had been engaged on Ordnance survey work, largely in Ireland and the north of England. In 1843 he was posted to the brandnew colony of Hong Kong, where he made the first exact survey and maps of the island, and fitted in short visits to Amoy and Canton. In 1846 he was transferred to Wellington, which he reached via Sydney and Auckland by the end of that year.

In Auckland, Collinson was quickly on intimate terms with Governor Grey (‘a slight young looking man in delicate health’ whose ‘heart was in his head’), with Bishop Selwyn (‘a model missionary bishop’), and with Alfred Domett (a disciple of T. Carlyle’s ‘heroic school’, who told the young sapper that ‘the Maories were still savages’). He stayed for a month in ‘The College at Bishop Auckland’, gained a much more favourable impression of the Maori character, and took passage for Port Nicholson in the brig Victoria in company with Tamihana, son of Te Rauparaha. Soon after his arrival there was an ‘alarm at Wanganui’ and he was ordered to take up 200 men of the 58th Regiment; they sailed in HMS Calliope, on which old Te Rauparaha was still held prisoner, and Collinson made a pencil sketch of this distinguished captive. During 1847 he was on active service in the troubles at Wanganui, and was involved in the death-sentence on five Maori rebels (for which he was sternly rebuked later in a letter from Bishop Selwyn). Early in 1848 he returned to Wellington, where he more than once shared lodgings with Domett. This, then, was the modest but experienced Captain of Engineers Tom Arnold met in his first week in Wellington. By the end of August 1848, Tom Arnold had cleared part of a ‘bush section’ on the Porirua Road, and built a small whare: he was still determined to be a settler and work with his hands in a new democratic

community. Clearly Collinson was sceptical. By his own account, it was he who took Governor Grey out to visit the hermit of Tawa Flat: in elderly reminiscence, he makes the most of the occasion: The visit of the Governor was like that of the Roman Senate to Cincinnatus, to ask him to give up his agricultural efforts, and come and help to save the state, by accepting the office of Private Secretary to himself. This was an offer that any young man might have been proud of, and which anyone in the Colony would have jumped at. But Arnold had been trained in a higher school; he did not like colonial politics, and he did not much admire what he had heard of Sir G. Grey’s policy [:] he declined it, to Sir George’s surprise, and to mine also: though Domett said indignantly, ‘of course he did’. The last full year both Arnold and Collinson spent in New Zealand was 1849: Tom Arnold was by then teaching in his little school at Nelson, but there were further contacts both in Wellington and at the Wairau. At the end of the year Arnold left for Van Diemen’s Land to take up a position as Inspector of Schools; within three months Collinson also was in Tasmania, where he spent a month on the first stage of his return journey to England, and became acquainted with the Sorell sisters (Tom Arnold was by this time engaged to Julia Sorell, whom he married in June 1850). The letter which follows is Arnold’s first direct communication with his friend since their parting in Hobart in April 1850.

THOMAS ARNOLD TO CAPTAIN COLLINSON Hobart Town Sept. sth 1851 ‘Tena-koe, Karehana’ My dear Collinson At a party at Mrs Postmaster Smith’s the day before yesterday, Clarke told me that Sir William had heard from you and that in the letter you ‘blew up’ him and me for not having written. I confess my transgressions in this respect, and throw myself on your favourable consideration. But really I expected to have heard from you on your way home; instead of which you wrote to no one but Clarke. However I suppose you thought you would wait to hear how things fared with me. They fare, my dear friend, as well as a man’s heart could wish or expect here below. I have not come to a compromise with my creditors, and am not likely to do so; although certainly, from having furnished a house on credit, I have a good many debts; but they are diminishing, not increasing; and that is the main point. Perhaps I should have done well to have taken your advice and waited a month or two so as to have saved up a little money to start upon; and yet - much might be said on the other side. But the sum of all is that I am very happy, and that Julia and I understand each other perfectly, and that we have a

little daughter who is the image of her mother, and (in the eyes of her papa) as beautiful as the morning. I received from you not long ago a number of the Gateshead Observer with a letter in it written by your father, as appeared from the name and address at the foot of it in your handwriting. I suppose you meant by this to jog my memory. I heard of your arrival in England from Mr Dobson, and of your having met Mrs Charles Stanley in a letter from her to Clarke. The last thing I heard - and it gave me great pleasure - was that you had been appointed one of the Executive Committee to the Great Exhibition.

About this same Exhibition - what think you of it? Doubts sometimes cross my mind as to the unmixed good effects which are expected to flow from it. In the first place - though this might be called the ill timed suggestion of a pessimist - the contrast between the splendour of the Crystal Palace and the appalling misery and crime which seem to be more rife than ever in the lower strata of London social life, is enough by itself to cast a cloud over the brightness of the former. Secondly, it seems calculated to give a great impulse to the production of articles of mere luxury, and to stimulate the taste for a showy style of living; a taste which, as it is, urges so many silly and vain people to live above their means, and thus brings on insolvencies, by which in the end the labourer is the greatest sufferer. You must not however think me blind to the bright side of the picture - to that wonderful activity and various intelligence, which could plan, produce, and collect together such a multitude of objects of use or ornament; in one sense it is certainly a great exhibition; but it is a very measurable computable sort of greatness, overpower as it may the dazzled imaginations of newspaper editors. After all the Crystal Palace is but the Leviathan of shops; Prince Albert a fitting hero for a nation of ‘boutiquiers’; and the Napoleonic dictum still holds good. Septr. 12th Tomorrow the ‘Auriga’ sails, and I must take every opportunity of finishing this letter that I can get. My sisters in law, Gussie and Ada, are still unmarried, and Clarke still the ‘devoue serviteur’ of the former; I have not seen very much of Clarke since you went away. He is politic - ruse - diplomatic, fond of intrigue; and all this does not suit me. Yet I really like him, and he is almost the only man here of my own age whom I can talk to. We dined at Government House last night; it was rather a pleasant party. A beautiful specimen of the Sydney gold, as it is found alternating with quartz, was produced. The Governor has recently made a tour round the other side of the island, and has been winning thereby considerable popularity. Even at Launceston he was very well received. When he was returning, a party in Hobart Town resolved upon a public demonstration to welcome him back to his

‘capital’. The thing was well got up; flags, triumphal arches, and all the rest, selon les regies; great crowds of people went to see the sight, such as had never been seen congregated in Hobart Town streets before. On the evening of the day that this took place a demonstration of the ‘Native youths’ and others took place, against Transportation. There was a great bon-fire on Knocklofty and Lord Grey was burnt in effigy. Certain parties unknown burnt Sir William in effigy also, though this had not been intended by those who got up the demonstration. Mr Knight the barrister, whom you may recollect, was present as a spectator during the affair; taking no other part in it than to join in the cheers for the Queen, Sir William Molesworth, and Mr Gregson; which perhaps he had better not have done. A few days after he was, rather needlessly I think, officially called to account for having been present at the meeting; and after a long interview with the Governor, he sent in his resignation of the two Commissioner ships which he holds, and also the commission of the peace, in a thundering letter, which will I dare say be published.

I hope you will not forget to visit Fox How when you are in the North; you know I gave you a note to my mother expressly in the hope that you would go there. I wish too you would make my eldest brother’s acquaintance, should you have an opportunity. Oddly enough he has been appointed an Inspector of schools! He was to be married at Whitsuntide to a Miss Wightman, daughter of the Judge. I think you would get on together very well. The Nelson papers are sent to me regularly, so that I have not quite lost sight of that jolly little settlement. It is in a very sound and flourishing condition, owing chiefly to the land being in so many hands; which again is owing in no small degree to the Arbitration between the Company and the land-purchasers (in which I was Company’s Arbitrator) which led to the distribution of a number of compensation awards in land scrip. This scrip being freely sold, has led to the excellent result above mentioned. I have written to Bell twice since I left Nelson, but have never heard from him. Weld has gone home; remember me to him if you see him. I heard from Dashwood the other day; he is still at ‘Taikowaike’. Do you remember the walk we took together from Budge’s along the Boulder Bank to the Bluff, and the singular grotto that we discovered?

Sept. 14th I must close this letter, for it is late on Sunday night, and the ‘Auriga’ sails tomorrow morning. May all success attend you my dear Collinson, and may God bless you, wherever you go, and whatever you do. Do not quite forget your sincere friend T. Arnold

Here (avoiding excessive annotation) one may notice the Maori salutation (‘Karihana’ was Collinson’s Maori name); the comments on Lieutenant Andrew Clarke, re, who had been best man at Tom Arnold’s wedding, and was then acting as private secretary to the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, Sir William Denison; the not misplaced pride of the young married Arnolds in their first child (who was to become the celebrated Victorian novelist, Mrs Humphry Ward); the typically idealistic reflections on the Great Exhibition, in which Collinson - again typically - was playing a modest practical part; and the amusing account of an early colonial ‘demonstration’ against the continued Transportation of convicts, which Denison stoutly supported. How Collinson might have got on with the Olympian Matthew Arnold we shall never know, though their cooler temperaments might have indeed proved congenial. The affectionate references to mutual friends in New Zealand that close the letter (Edwin Dashwood and William Budge were early Wairau settlers; ‘Budge’s island’ at the Wairau bar ceased to be practicable farmland after the severe earthquake of 1855; tli e other names are familiar) show how strong the impression of New Zealand remained.

The subsequent career of Thomas Arnold was full of reversals and surprises - that was to be expected. Thomas Bernard Collinson (18221902) made his steady rise in the service, to retire in 1873 with the rank of Major-General. He married the daughter of a Chancellor of Durham Cathedral, his brother became an admiral and was knighted: he ends up, indeed, as something of an establishment figure. But when he sat down to write his memoir in retirement (1892-4), it was the New Zealand years that came most vividly to mind - the years of independent authority as a subaltern and captain that he never knew again as colonel; the years when he was closely associated with brilliant young men who believed they were helping to found ‘an exceptional colony’.