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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. Albert James Allom

Mr. Albert James Allom, Old Colonist, was born in London on the 20th of December, 1825. His father, the late Mr. Thomas Allom, was an eminent London artist and architect, and one of the founders of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In the early forties, the original sketches sent Home by the New Zealand Company's draughtsman (Mr. Heaphy), Captain Smith, R.E., then Surveyor-General, and others, were handed over to Mr. T. Allom, who, selecting the most suitable, made beautiful lithographic views of the new settlements, and these views published for the company by Messrs Smith, Elder and Co., of page 424 Cornhill, London, largely contributed to make New Zealand popular as a field for immigration. Mrs Thomas Allom was also an enthusiastic ally in the cause of colonisation, and many of the poorer class of colonists had reason to remember her kindly and energetic efforts on their behalf. In 1842, she sent out in the ship “Clifford,” to Nelson, a hive of honey bees, which arrived there safely. With such parents, and through the close personal intimacy between them and Edward Gibbon Wakerfield, the founder of South Australia and New Zealand, it was natural that Mr. A. J. Adom should embark upon a colonising career. Accordingly, when barely sixteen years of age, he joined the New Zealand Company's surveying staff as a cadet, and, sailing from Cowes, Isle of Wight, in the barque “Brougham,” on the 26th of October, 1841, arrived at Wellington on the 9th of February, 1842. At first he was employed on the survey of the Manawatn district. In 1843 and part of 1844, he was in charge of large parties of road men on the Karori end Porirua roads, and in the valley of the Hutt, near Wellington. In the winter of 1844 he was sent with a brother cadet, and a party of survey men to Otago, in the little schooner “Carbon,” 16 tons register. Captain Joyce. They were more than thirty days on the voyage, during which they touched at the newly established French settlement of Akaroa, and encountered many hardships and thrilling perils of the sea. The party was employed for the remainder of the year 1844 in laying out in ten-acre blocks the land now occupied by the city of Dunedin. Being ordered back to headquarters, Mr. Allom arrived at Wellington in the brig “Bee,” Captain Un-thank, in the begnning of the year 1845. In February of that year the whole staff, owing to the financial and other difficulties of the company, was disbanded. Mr. Allom then settled in the Wairarapa Valley with a brother cadet, Mr. John Tully, as partners in a cattle run, named Tauanui, leased from the natives at £10 a year, and thus, with Captain Smith, Messrs Bidwell, Clifford, Weld, Russell, Tiffen, and a few others, assisted to found the sheep and cattle industries of the Colony. Private affairs called him to England in 1848. Mr. Allom was shortly after his arrival invited to join Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield at Boulogne-sur-Mer, and up to the end of the year he was busily engaged as Mr. Wakefield's amanuensis in preparing “A View of the Art of Colonisation” for the press. During the ensuing three years Mr. Allom resided for the most part with Mr. Wakefield at Reigate, Surrey, and acted as his private secretary in making preparations for the projected Canterbury settlement. He was also associated with Mr. Frederick (afterwards Sir Frederick) Young, now one of the Vice-Presidents of the Royal Colonial Institute, in carrying out the shipping arrangements for the first body of Canterbury settlers, in the ships “Charlotte Jane,” “Randolph,” “Cressy,” and “Sir George Seymour,” and was present with his mother at the farewell breakfast given by the Canterbury Association at Blackwall, to celebrate their departure on the 30th of July, 1850. In December, 1851, Mr. Allom left England as Private Secretary to Mr. Dominick (afterwards Sir Dominick) Daly, the newly-appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Tobago, in the West Indies. In the following May Mr. Allom was appointed to act as Colonial Secretary during the absence of the holder of that office on leave, and the office soon becoming vacant, he was confirmed in the appointment by her Majesty. In 1853 he witnessed the evacuation of the forts in many of the Windward and Leeward Islands, and the concentration of their garrisons in Barbadoes and Antigua in preparation for the Crimean war; and at the Danish Island of St. Thomas, in 1855, when on his passage to England on leave, he first heard the news of the fall of Sebastopol. A few weeks later, he was present in Hyde Park and at Primrose Hill, to witness the grand displayes of fireworks on the occasion of the public rejoicings on the termination of the war. In July, 1856, Mr. Allom was married at Hartley Wintney, Hants, to Miss Eliza Horn, third daughter of Mr. George W. Horn, of Great George Street, Westminster, and Winchfield, Hants, and returned with his wife to Tobago in October. During a short tour in the Virgin Islands in November, 1858, he gained information which enabled him to be instrumental in preventing a serious insurrection of the negroes in the Island of Tortola, and he received the thanks of the President and Council of that Island for his action. In consequence of repeated attacks of low fever, Mr. Allom was again compelled to proceed to England, on leave, in 1859, and in June, 1860, he unwillingly resigned a promising career under the Colonial Office. Mr. Allom then accepted the appointment of general manager and agent of a London company with property in New Zealand, the Great Barrier Land, Harbour, and Mining Company, Limited, and, with his wife and three children, landed at Auckland, from the ship “Mermaid,” on the 16th of December, 1861. The affairs of the company were conducted successfully, till 1867, when the financial crisis of that time compelled the company to go into liquidation. Mr. Allom was subsequently connected with the Thames goldfields, officially and otherwise, from the date of its proclamation and Hunt's discovery in 1867 up to the year 1886. He held, from time to time, most of the appointments at the Thames, under the Provincial and General Governments, in the Departments of Mines and Justice, and always maintained the reputation of being an able, zealous, and energetic officer. However, when, in 1886, he had reached the age limit which involved compulsory retirement, he left the Colonial civil service without the slightest regret. Mr. Allom resided from 1889 till 1896 in Tasmania, where his son-in-law, Mr. Alexander Montgomery, M.A., was Government Geologist. Mr. Allom was honorary secretary in Auckland to the Hawke's Bay Floods Relief Committee in 1897, and very actively interested himself in the work of obtaining and erecting the Queen's statue for Albert Park, Auckland; in the preparation of the Jubilee address to the Queen, signed by 25,445 school children of the Auckland educational district; and in the establishment of the Auckland Scenery Conservation Society in 1899. He contributed considerably to Dr. Garnett s biography of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, published in London towards the close of 1898.