Heritage et AL

34 sketches in New Zealand for Mr Charles Abraham. Ref: Caroline Abraham, Sketchbook, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 3-111. Mrs Caroline Harriet Abraham is chiefly remembered as a recorder of the early colonial New Zealand landscape. Her cousin was the wife of Bishop Selwyn and she herself married Selwyn’s good friend Mr Charles Abraham. During the first half of their New Zealand residence, the Abrahams lived mainly at St John’s College where Charles was Principal. They moved south in 1859 when he was made inaugural bishop of Wellington. Ref:  Carolin e Abraham, Sketchbook, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 3-111.

With the cricket season in full swing it’s timely to look at three of the earliest books about cricket in New Zealand. On the tented fields of the south, 1882 along with Pavilion echoes from the south, 1884-5 and the less poetically titled The Auckland cricketers’ trip to the south [1873], are early accounts of the Auckland cricket team’s tours of the country that helped popularise the sport in the province. Ref: Henry Winkelmann, Showing a group of schoolboys playing cricket in Auckland Domain..., 9 December 1901, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W152.

Ref: Vincent O'Malley. The great war for New Zealand, Waikato 1800-2000,  Bridget Williams Books, 2016, Auckland Libraries, 993.3 OMAL. On 12 July 1863 British Imperial Army troops crossed the Mangatāwhiri River which marked the boundary between British occupied territory and land under the authority of the Kingitanga (the Māori King movement). The crossing of this boundary by military troops, just south of the city of Auckland, was a declaration of war. The invasion of the Waikato had begun. Ref: Sketch map of the North Island of New Zealand, shewing approximately the loyal and rebel districts, 1869, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Map 2563a.   Vincent O’Malley’s latest work The great war for New Zealand: Waikato 1800-2000 provides a vast repository of research to support his view that the Waikato war, the epicentre of the New Zealand land wars, was the defining conflict in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. He believes that the war had a greater imp...

Background After the signing of  Te Tiriti o Waitangi – The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 the European population of Aotearoa New Zealand began to increase rapidly. Settlers wanted land. From early on, the area around Mt Taranaki had been identified as ideal land for British settlement. The New Zealand Company , an organisation which focused on colonisation and land sales, was involved in the settlement of New Plymouth and several extremely dubious land purchases in Taranaki in the late 1830s and early 1840s. New Zealand Company artist Charles Heaphy produced an enticing, idealised painting of Mt Egmont / Mt Taranaki to attract potential migrants. However, there was nothing to indicate that this was the ancestral tribal land of Te Ātiawa and other Taranaki Māori. When the new Colonial government was established, land purchase officers were officially appointed to purchase Māori land for the Crown, as outlined in the Treaty. Ref:  Heaphy, Charles, 1820-...

The outcome of the flag referendum on 30 March 2016 shows that many New Zealanders, by choosing to keep the current flag, are still happy to have the Union Jack on it. The voter turnout of 67.8 % may indicate that the third of the population who did not vote didn’t mind whether or not the Union Jack stayed or went. Ref: Auckland Weekly News, A guard of honour for the Governor at the hoisting of the flag, Devonport, May 30 1900,Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19000608-1-2. This was not the case a century ago when the ceremony of “unfurling the flag” became a popular event at schools across New Zealand during the late 1800’s and early twentieth century. These ceremonies were designed to instil national identity and pride in children, as well as make them appreciate the honour of the Union Jack, and by association, the country’s role in the British Empire. Ref: Flying the flag, Otahuhu, 11 August 1900, photograph reproduced courtesy of Otah...

This week is E Faahi Tapu he Vagahau Niue 2015 , Niuean Language Week for 2015. As a result of Sir George Grey’s collecting of Pacific Islands language materials , Auckland Libraries has a collection of Niuean language Bibles. Today we’re going to look at three of our earliest publications in the Niuean language. The following descriptions are taken from the Historical catalogue of the printed editions of holy scripture in the library of theBritish and Foreign Bible Society compiled by T.H. Darlow and H.F. Moule. In the introduction to the catalogue T.H. Darlow writes that The British and Foreign Bible Society specifically exists to promote missionary versions of the scriptures. St Mark’s Gospel, published in 1861. Ref: Ko e evagelia ne tohi e Mareko, p.1, 1861, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 226.3 KOEE.

This week marks Ni vosa Vaka-ITaukei ni vanua o Viti or Fiji Language Week for 2015. This is timely as we can happily share the news about some nineteenth century Fijian language items in Sir George Grey Special Collections that have recently been individually catalogued.  These Fijian language items were part of a larger collection of nineteenth century pamphlets in English, Polynesian and Melanesian languages collected by Sir George Grey . They include grammars, primers, vocabularies, and religious texts. The pamphlet shown below is an arithmetic textbook published in Levuka in 1865. Ref:  A vu ni vika vakaviti, p.1, 1865?, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 372.72 AVUN.