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.
