Wednesday, February 3, 2016

ENTERPRISING , DARING JOURNALIST CAPTURED ROMANTIC ERA OF SAIL IN SOUTH PACIFIC

While exploring an Auckland cemetery  in 1998 , the grave  of  the prominent New Zealand reporter,  author, publisher , and singing  newspaper owner , Sir Henry Brett , who wrote  the magnificent  two volume set , White Wings , the first covering   Fifty Years of Sail in the New  Zealand Trade  1850 to 1900  , above ,  in  the  Little Darwin  Collection  , was  unexpectedly  discovered .
 
At the age of  19 , Brett ,  born  February 15, 1842,  who learned the printing  trade  at his  uncle's newspaper, the Hastings and St Leonards Gazette, Sussex,  had arranged to  sail to the Albertland Special Settlement , north of Auckland , take up 40 acres of  land and work  three days a week on  the settlement  newspaper .
 
He had  been a member of a  church choir since  10 and was a  strong rower for which he had won a  medal .   Arriving  in  Auckland aboard the Hanover in 1862 , he was approached  by representatives  of a  newspaper, Southern Cross , who came aboard desperately   seeking   compositors  and  offered  him  the  mighty sum of  one  pound a day.
 
Apart from working as a printer , he became a shipping reporter for the New Zealand Herald  and,  using his skill as an oarsman , joined the  rush, in all kinds of  weather,  to row out to  vessels coming into port to learn the latest news , obtain overseas newspapers , pick up   the mail  and gain other useful information, twice nearly  drowning .
 
Covering the Thames goldrush on the Coromandel Peninsula , he pioneered  using  carrier pigeons to  send back reports to  Auckland , where he bought a third  share  in the Auckland Star ,  later  its  eventual  owner. Over the years he became mayor of Auckland , wrote  and published  important books,   sang in church  and  choirs  spanning  70 years, maintained a wonderful garden , donated an organ and an organist  to the new  Auckland Town Hall , founded the New Zealand  Farmer , became  a director  of the United Press Association .
 
Late in  life he wrote White Wings , the second volume published  in 1928, a year after he  died  in  Rotorua ,aged 84.The  copies pictured here  are  l976  Capper Press , Christchurch, reprints . The second volume dealt with the  founding of  the provinces  and old  time  shipping  from  1840  to  1885.