Cabinet 16
In this pamphlet volume titled ‘Trade and Capital’ Hocken has included John L. Kelly’s The South Seas Islands (1885), Michael Andrews’s Instruction for the Culture and Preparation of Flax in Ireland (1869), and Thomas Chalmers Reid’s A Banker, A Manual of Banking (1874). In this last, Hocken has noted: ‘Reid was convicted in 1879 of fraudulent appropriation of funds and sentenced to 8 years’. Hocken and his wife Bessie had shares and investments in numerous mining companies in New Zealand and Australia: Criffel Led Sluicing Co; Old Jubilee Gold Mine Co; The Sulphide Corp, Melbourne. It does not seem that they were tempted with this prospectus for the Kaitangata Railway and Coal Company.
The Kaitangata Railway & Coal Company Limited, Prospectus. Dunedin, [1888]. Vol. 66, no. 18. Hocken Pamphlet Collection.
John Dickson Wickham’s anonymously written Casual Ramblings in Gumland and Squatterdom and works such as Reminiscences of Early Days (1890) and More Reminiscences of Early Days (1897) by ‘An Old Hand’ (aka Auckland town-clerk Philip Aaron Philips) certainly fall within Hocken’s collecting net. He liked such narratives, especially when based on personal experience. However, his pamphlet collection was not a comprehensive one and there were definite gaps. Casual Ramblings – priced at one shilling (10 cents) – came into his library later and yet was classified as his. The cover reveals a rare use of colour.
[John Dickson Wickham], Casual Ramblings in Gumland and Squatterdom. Auckland: Wilson and Horton, 1897. Vol. 190, no. 1. Hocken Pamphlet Collection.
Frederick Maning (1811-1883) was one of the first early settlers in the Hokianga area. His A History of the War in the North of New Zealand appeared in 1862 and the first edition of Old New Zealand appeared in 1863. In 1865, he was a Native Land Court judge and developed a reputation as a witty, unorthodox arbiter. By 1880, he was in Auckland, and in November 1882, he had left for England to have an operation on his jaw. He died there on 25 July 1883. Hocken met ‘Judge’ Maning in Auckland in 1881 and was given, among other works, this copy of History of the War in the North of New Zealand. In 1907, Hocken’s edited version of Maning’s Old New Zealand and A History of the North of New Zealand appeared. The information on display no doubt assisted him in some small way.
[F. E. Maning], History of the War in the North of New Zealand. Auckland: Robert J. Creighton, 1864. Vol. 115, no.1. Hocken Pamphlet Collection.
‘We shall never get our supplies of bread and meat raised here without protection.’ So wrote a member of the Colonists’ Protection Society in the Daily Southern Cross, 8 September 1872, who also railed against the importation of goods from overseas and tariff imbalances. A major aim of the Society was to encourage local production and manufacturing, thereby improving the local economy. Like the preceding pamphlet in this volume, distribution to as many readers as possible was desired. The old colonist – actually James May – made sure. His A Bone to Pick for Freetraders carries the directive: ‘Circulate this Pamphlet as much as possible’.
[James May], A Bone to Pick for Freetraders. A Dialogue. Auckland: Reed and Brett, 1872. Vol. 21, no. 5. Hocken Pamphlet Collection.