THE FIRST NEWSPAPER AND FIRST BANK IN NEW ZEALAND.

Inangahua Times, Issue 19, 2 October 1878, Page 2

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER AND FIRST BANK IN NEW ZEALAND.

Tho Maori newspaper,, tho Wauanga, ' 1

imblisboa tbo following histories of tbo first bank nnd first notfspapor ia Vow Zealand :•—' In tbo time when somo of tbo visitors to Now Zetland vainly imagined that Now Zonlind wus ruled by club law, viz, ' that might was right ; in tbo dnys Jwbon tbo namos of King, Governmont and bovoroign woro not hoard in oar thon ao'cillod * onnnihul land,' wo could boast of a British resident. We could thon speak of our ' oonfodoration of ohiofs/ who assumed lha right to hold Now Zealand ns intuot against tlio intormoddling of mushroom politioians. In thoso dnys (.1835) wo coulJ boast of a bank. At tlio timo of whioh wo spoako tho throo moneyed raon, nnd tho only mnn in Now Zoaland thon who had any cash, formed thoinsolvos into a firm, and undor their auspicos thoy oponod a bank in tho Hay of Islnnd*. For sofuo timo tho bank carried on business for all tho thon world of Now Zealand— that is, for a small villogo called Kororueki (tho sweet pengiun). Tho m wager wa^ a subject of I ho tiinrs nnd Stripes, who with ono clork, woro tho only member* of tho sooallod » Hunk of Now Znalnnd. 1 At that time tho Buy of Islands wns tho resort cf tho wbalorß which pliod for oil for tho Amori(Jim pooplo in theso Bons. Ono flno morninp; Iho doors of. tho bunk woro not opened it tho usual hour, nnd on inquiry it was | found llml th» mnnnger, only clerk, nnd tho oash-book, with all the otooterns of tjm ' oank, hud tiikan a trip unnuthoriscd, in ai whaler, to tho North Pole, in ordur, as somo of tho non-sharoholdors siirniiHo.fi, to opon a branch with tbo Esquimaux. Ab.mt tbo samo time, somo of our literary mon of thnt day put n few ihillincs to^olber and bought a prinMng proNH, and issuod a pnpor callod tho Buy of Inlands Obfiorvor, which for a loiir timo wai» tho only newspaper in theso islands. As wo wcro a young poople nt that time, — oacb knew tho other, and all woro known to cvorybody,~our locnl scril)bler.i nmiiHod tliomsolves with puns nnd wit on tboir friends, to tho intenso amusement of tbo wbolo public of tho smnll villngo ; but, in JLB4O strnnuers camo into our midst. A captain of one of our English mon^of^war wn* appointed Governor of Now Zealand Our only newspnpor of courso could' not at onco pot out of the urooro of fun nnd wiN nnd it immediately published a notioo of mi)o of broken down jjorses, whioh wns to tnko place at Okinto (iho sont of Government in tho Bay of Islandi*). Somo of Iho— to us strnnijo bointjs— Gorornmont offluiuls imißino I they wero lampooned by this notice, and out of their wrath oumo throats of notions nt law, n subject which we, thu nncients of Now Zonlund, had, in our almonco of oivilisntioo, for gotten* Ttioso ominous words Jflont a thrill of horror info nil of thoso who woro eoncorned in tbo little nowspupor, nnd from this came n disease which sunk tho soul, b»dy nnd nnmo of our bantling into oblivion, Thus the first bnnk doped, and thus perished tbo first newipnpor in NcwZonlaml, 1