108 Transactions. — Miscellaneozis. 



land and editor of the Neiv-Zcalander, Mr. Wilson, of the 

 New Zealand Herald, and others. The whole was the property 

 of a company called the " Auckland Printing Company," under 

 the management of another well-known name, J. C. Moore. 

 The newspaper, however, with which we are concerned was a 

 branch or part of the business, and its affairs were intrusted 

 to four gentlemen, also well known — Major Richmond, 

 Dr. Johnson, Mr. Montefiore, and Mr. William Mason, the 

 latter of whom is well known to us as the first Mayor of 

 Dunedin and member of the firm of Mason and Wales, archi- 

 tects. These gentlemen assisted the editor, Mr. Corbett, Mr. 

 Montefiore, however, doing by far the most of the writing ; 

 but they knew nothing of newspapers, and failed to recognise 

 how largely their success depended on advertisements. More- 

 over, the paper rather represented the views and desires of a 

 Government clique than, the needs of the public, and thus, 

 receiving no sympathy, it soon showed signs of failure. 



They then procured from Sydney the services of Dr. 

 Martin, a medical man of considerable literary ability, forcible 

 utterance, and powerful frame. Prior to colonisation he had 

 been in New Zealand on a land-hunting quest, but, like so 

 many others, had returned to New South Wales in high dis- 

 gust when it became evident that the Government treated all 

 so-called land-claims with a high hand and no favour. It will 

 thus be conceived that, though the paper increased in literary 

 abilitv, the chances of its survival were diminished. And so 

 it speedily proved. Dr. Martin wrote with an iron pen, and 

 laid about him with such flail-like agility that before two 

 months had elapsed he was threatened with two or three 

 actions for libel. Matters culminated when one day Mr. Fitz- 

 gerald, a Government official, Registrar of Lands and the 

 Supreme Court, entered the office and seized from the printer, 

 under threat of pains and penalties, some of the editors' 

 manuscripts. Dr. Martin was furious, and, failing to secure 

 the return of his property, challenged Mr. Fitzgerald to fight a 

 duel. This the latter refused, and Dr. Martin thereupon 

 posted him in various parts of the town as a blackguard and 

 coward. The further details of this sanguinary business I do 

 not here pursue, but before its termination it became a very 

 pretty quarrel indeed, involving not only the officers of the 

 garrison, but also such peaceable citizens as the late Dr. 

 Shortland, so well known as the author of various works con- 

 nected with old New Zealand history, and the present Dr. 

 John Logan Campbell, now Mayor of Auckland. 



The trustees of the paper grew penitent, finding too late 

 that they had indeed replaced King Log by King Stork. 

 Whilst they insisted that the paper should in the meantime 

 be reduced to a mere advertisement sheet, supplemented with 



