Hocken. — Early New Zealand Literature. 99 



Art. VI. — The Beginnings of Literature in New Zealand : 

 Part II., the English Section — Neivspapers. 



By Dr. T. M. Hocken, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 9th July, 1901.] 



Last year I had the pleasure of placing before this Institute a 

 sketch of the first, or Maori, section of New Zealand literature.* 

 This had the interesting feature of being one introduced by 

 ourselves and presented in their own language to a race 

 whom we, as the superior intrusive people, are destined to 

 supersede. On this occasion I propose to give some account 

 of the purely English section of the subject as it struggled into 

 life during the early period of this colony's existence. 



The definitions of literature have been very various. Some 

 would include under the term only the worthiest utterances or 

 creations of the human mind made known to mankind through 

 the art of writing. But for our purpose we must have some- 

 thing much more comprehensive, and must consider literature 

 to mean the collective term for all writings. When our pre- 

 decessors, the heroic colonisers, first came to these shores, 

 and for many years after, life was beset with daily difficulty 

 and danger, a condition which left little opportunity for 

 cultivating the Muses ; yet they brought with them provision 

 for the production of a newspaper — that inseparable require 

 ment of an Englishman — and it is in this adjunct that almost 

 the first germs of New Zealand literature are contained. It 

 cannot be pretended that much literary excellence is to be 

 found in these early newspapers, but some account of them 

 and of their writers — for editors in the present meaning of the 

 word did not exist — must be interesting, and has an historical 

 value. 



On the 18th April, 1840, the first New Zealand paper saw 

 the light. It was issued by Mr. Samuel Revans, who was 

 thus the father of the Press in this colony. Its birthplace was 

 in a raupo whare on the banks of the Eiver Hutt, which falls 

 into Port Nicholson. It was in this vicinity that the chief sur- 

 veyor of the New Zealand Company was engaged in planting its 

 earliest township, which was first called "Britannia," but 

 afterwards by its present name of Wellington. Mr. Eevans's 

 previous history was sufficiently stirring, and marked him as 

 one well suited to participate in the foundation of the young 

 settlement. Born in 1808, and connected with the printing 

 business, he emigrated to Canada in 1833, where he joined his 

 friend Mr. H. S. Chapman, so well known to us as Mr. Jus- 



Trans. N.Z. Insfc., xxxiii., p. 472. 



