Canny Scotsman became the ‘ Father of Auckland'
Sir John Logan Campbell was a canny character who successfully predicted where New Zealand's newborn government would want to plant its capital.
Although the seat of power is now Wellington, it was at first, briefly, at Kororareka/ Russell in the Bay of Islands, before shifting to the beach that became the City of Auckland.
Campbell, the Scottish immigrant, doctor and apprentice businessman who in later life would be dubbed a founding father of Auckland, had landed at the Coromandel Harbour and began to scout for opportunities.
It was 1840, soon after William Hobson had signed the Treaty of Waitangi, and only his Government was permitted to buy Maori- owned land.
This didn't deter Campbell and his associates.
Their Coromandel host, William Webster, told them of the “charmed” Waitemata Harbour some 60km to the west, according to a new and richly- illustrated book of Campbell's story, told mainly in his own words, Reminiscences of a Long Life.
“Then, out of this prospect grew the grand and very wild idea of what a splendid speculation it would be — given that fine harbour Webster had spoken about — to purchase the land on its shore, lay off a township there and then sell its allotments,” Campbell wrote.
“Admittedly, there was Hobson's proclamation staring us in the face.
“But subsequently we talked ourselves around into the belief that if that could be got over somehow or other and if our town lots sold well, out of the multitude of claimants there might come safety.”
Their bid to buy the Orakei area from the Ngati Whatua chief Te Kawau was rejected. Campbell and Scottish lawyer William Brown bought Motukorea ( Browns Island) from another tribal group, where they bided their time.
After the declaration of Auckland as the capital, Campbell took up land as a squatter in the new town until he and Brown could buy a section in Shortland St, at the first Crown auction, on which they established a trading business.
Campbell became a merchant, farm owner, timber mill owner and brewer, establishing a Newmarket beer business that was a predecessor of the Lion empire.
He served as Auckland provincial superintendent, briefly as a government minister, and for an even shorter term as temporary mayor of the city during a royal visit, despite generally eschewing politics.
But it was mainly through a long life, his many roles on boards and trusts, and especially his gift of Cornwall Park to the people of New Zealand that he came to be seen as the patriarch of Auckland.
“He had a finger in every pie, so to speak. He was a prominent person at the age of 23 and by the time he was 83 he was still prominent,” says historian, Campbell scholar and the book’s editor Professor Russell Stone. “There was a sense he was always about. He was just as much a stable feature of the landscape as Mt Eden.”
Campbell died in 1912, aged 94.
Reminiscences of a Long Life, launched next Friday, comprising Campbell's memoirs and other writings, is billed as the first complete account of his life in his own words. RRP $ 89.99.