Auckland City had now begun its career. On the 17th October, Captain Hobson again visited Auckland, but did not make an official landing until 14th March, 1841, when he was received with such honours as the small community could furnish. There was a guard of honour in attendance. A procession was formed, and the Lieutenant-Governor was escorted to the newly-erected official residence. Shortly after the Lieutenant-Governor had taken up his residence in Auckland, New Zealand was proclaimed, on 3rd May, 1841, to be independent of New South Wales, and Captain Hobson continued in office, becoming Governor instead of Lieutenant-Governor.
Captain Hobson did not long survive the foundation of Auckland. He died on September 10th, 1842. His remains were interred in the burial-ground at Symonds Street, all the officers of the Government, as well as the civilian population, being present at the funeral. In a political sense we have no interest in Captain Hobson, but the question of the choice of the Waitemata as the capital has an interest for us. We feel constrained therefore to pay tribute to the man who chose, with the instinct of a city-maker, the site upon which Auckland now stands. He discarded the Tamaki, for its obvious defects; he rejected the upper reaches of the Waitemata, and he chose the situation which has proved to be the most natural and effective for a new and constantly-increasing city. Other men, such as the late Sir John Logan Campbell, may have more substantial claims in actual work for the community and in precedence of time to the title of “Father of Auckland”; for Logan Campbell had settled in the Waitemata before Captain Hobson had fixed upon Auckland as the site of the city, but in actually making the choice, Hobson is, I claim, entitled without opposition to be called the father of Auckland.
Auckland in the early ’forties had a very different appearance from the city of to-day. Indeed, it is one of the fascinations in writing about Auckland to follow its growth from untamed natural country to a city state; it is also one of its drawbacks, for changes have been so rapid and thorough that the original condition is completely obliterated.
The boundaries of the original town (see [Land Deed of the City of Auckland], f. p. 40) were as follows:—It commenced at Cox’s Creek and followed the coast until Hobson’s Bay was reached at a point where Brighton Road now meets the waterfront, thence inland in an irregular line to Mount Eden, and from there back to Cox’s Creek. The waterfront naturally shows the greatest alteration. Commercial Bay was the principal part of the waterfront. At that time the sea came right up to the foot of Shortland Crescent. Commercial Bay then swept eastward to a headland, which was first called Flagstaff Hill, but was renamed Point Britomart, after H.M. brig Britomart. Later still, when the promontory was utilised as a military station, the “Point” was changed to “Fort.” Continuing in the same direction were Official and Mechanics Bays. On the western side the most prominent bay in proximity to the city was Freeman’s Bay. The appearance of the waterfront at this period was more picturesque than at the present time; the bays were prettier, and the vegetation covered the land right to the water’s edge.
Sir John Logan Campbell, in the interesting account[13] of his pioneer experiences, gives a graphic picture of Auckland a few weeks after the Lieutenant-Governor’s visit, when he settled the site of the capital. “The capital!” he writes—“a few boats and canoes on the beach, a few tents and break-wind huts along the margin of the bay, and then—a sea of fern stretching away as far as the eye could reach.”
The first consideration of the Government officials and mechanics was to provide housing for themselves and then to make buildings for the requirements of the young community. The eastern side of the town was the first to show growth. In 1842 (see [map] f. p. 48), there were a considerable number of houses along the waterfront as far as Mechanics Bay. Both sides of Shortland Crescent (now street) had houses built on it. Queen Street also had a number of buildings, which diminished in number as the street continued southward, and practically finished at Victoria Street, with an isolated dwelling here and there beyond. The [sketch] of Auckland in 1843 (f. p. 53), reputed to have been made by Captain D. Rough, conveys a good impression of the town at that date. It is the earliest existing picture we have of Queen Street, and depicts the condition of living in those days. The roads are unformed, the houses are all built of wood, and there is no wharf. Outside the Court House are to be seen stocks, in which wrong-doers did penance for their evil deeds.
Sir John Logan Campbell provides us with a picture of the social and economic conditions of the early days in the book[14] from which I have already quoted. “My large establishment, representing not only the firm’s business premises, but the resident partner’s place of abode, consisted as of old, of the historical tent. It had been pitched where a little trickling thread of water ran past, and I had dug a little well, which gave me a plentiful supply, and got hold of an old flour-barrel to put in the hole. I had also fenced myself off from the gaze of passengers, as the great thoroughfare from Store [Commercial] to Exclusion [nickname of Official] Bay passed in front of my tent. I had stuck up some poles and clothed them with ti-tree, so that I might have a screen behind which I could carry on all my domestic duties.... I used to get up at sunrise, often before it, and go away foraging for wood, which I brought home from a not far-distant patch of brushwood.... At the back of my fence I had rigged up a triangle, from which hung a hook on which to suspend my gipsy-pot, and the fireplace was backed round with large blocks of scoria stone, to prevent my fence from being burned down. Here I did my modest cooking to the oft-told MENU, pork and potatoes—not a sheep or herd of oxen had yet reached the capital, neither butcher nor baker had yet appeared on the scene. We all were still our own cooks and drawers of water, and jolly and well and happy every one of us looked.... Very primitive were our ways, as I have already stated. We had parsons without churches, and magistrates without courts; but we scrambled through our divinity and our law somehow or other.... For instance, here is an entry of date 15th May [1841]. ‘To-day saw Mr. —— sitting in front of his whare administering justice under the canopy of heaven.’”
Another interesting description of Auckland in its cradle days is given in the Diary of Mr. Robert Graham, one of the immigrants by the Jane Gifford, which arrived in Auckland on October 9th, 1842. Under the date October 12th, he records:—