The Jubilee of the Printing Press in New Zealand.

At the regular meeting of the Hawke's Bay branch of the New Zealand Philosophical Institute, on 17th October, 1887, Mr W. Colenso, f.r.s., read a long and very interesting paper on the Jubilee of the Printing Press in New Zealand, taking for his motto a passage from Sir John Lubbock.^* His object was to commemorate certain epochs in the history of printing in New Zealand—chiefly, in 1837, the completion of the New Testament in Maori, an event, though now in part forgotten, which caused a great sensation at that time both in New Zealand and at home, and which was productive of incalculable benefit to the Maori race. In 1833, the Church Missionary Society, having determined to send out a printing press, type, and material, were seeking a missionary printer, and finally engaged him for the work; and he left in June, 1834, for Sydney, on his way to New Zealand. The types, &c., were supplied by Watts & Son, near Temple Bar; and all directions were given by the Under-Secretaries of the Mission House without reference to him. When he mentioned page-cord and imposing-stone as among the requisites, he was silenced with the reply: « What! page-cord—in a country where the flax grows wild, and is made into such fine cordage by the natives! and an imposing-stone—where the handsome greenstone abounds! » The voyage to Sydney occupied seventeen weeks, and he had to wait there eight or nine weeks, as no vessel would take him to New Zealand, owing to fear of the Maoris. At last, on the 10th December, he left in a schooner of 67 tons, arriving at Paihia, Bay of Islands, on the 30th December. On the 3rd January, the heavy Stanhope press and packages of type were landed—not without a good deal of difficulty—and he and his new friends, the missionaries, rejoiced accordingly. « But our rejoicing was of short duration, for on unpacking the goods and stores I found many necessary articles to be absolutely wanting. There was no wooden furniture of any kind (cast metal furniture, so common now, not being then in use), nor quoins; no galleys, no cases, no leads of any size, no brass rules, no composing sticks (save one of my own that I had bought two years before in London—a most fortunate circumstance), no ink-table, no potash, no lye-brushes, no mallet or shooter, no roller-iron and stock, though there was a massy cast-iron mould, no imposing-stone nor page-cord; worst of all, actually no printing-paper! Moreover, in those days none of those missing articles could be obtained from England in less time than eighteen months, while they might possibly be got from Sydney in six or eight months. Fortunately I found a handy joiner in the the Bay, who soon made me two or three pairs of type cases, after a plan of my own, for as the Maori language contained only thirteen letters, I contrived to have both roman and italic characters in one pair of cases. This arrangement proved very good till I had some English to compose, when, having no extra cases, I was obliged to place the letters required in little lots on tables and on the floor! My joiner also made me a few galleys and a small wooden inking-table, some furniture and quoins. Those last, however, were wretched things (partly owing to the want of proper and seasoned wood), and gave me an enormous amount of labor, vexation, and trouble. » The printing plant was set up in a large well-lighted room, in a wing of the house of one of the missionaries residing at Paihia; where it remained some years. The removal of the plant to other quarters was often discussed, one of the reasons being to get it into a stronger building where it would be less exposed to pillage, the type-metal, and especially the heavy quads, being very tempting to Maoris on the look-out for material for bullets. As all parties, both missionaries and Maoris, were anxious to see something printed, the first work taken in hand was a small work, the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Philippians, translated by the Rev. W. Williams (the late Bishop of Waiapu). The missionaries contributed writing-paper from their private stores, and on the 17th February, 1835, Mr Colenso pulled proofs of the first book printed in New Zealand, the printing office being filled with spectators to witness the performance. On the 21st, twenty-five correct copies were printed, and stitched and cut round for the missionaries, their wives kindly furnishing a few sheets of pink blotting-paper for covers. This little book was in post 8vo., long primer, 16 pages, of double columns. « For leads I was driven to the miserable substitute of pasting paper together, drying, and cutting it up, not being able to obtain any card-board. My good joiner, always willing to assist, tried his hand at making reglet, but was obliged to give it up. Not being able to manufacture a roller from want of the proper materials, I was obliged to do my best with a small make-shift ball of my own contriving. I may add that of this little first pamphlet 2000 copies were ultimately printed. » In 1835, 1000 copies of the Gospel of Luke (67pp. 8vo.) were printed and bound; also, some official printing in English. All this time he had used the iron table of the press as an imposing surface; but, noticing some black basaltic boulders on the Kerikeri river, he had a suitable one cut in halves by Mr. Edmonds, formerly a stonemason. The stone was so hard, and the appliances at hand so defective, that it took a long while to cut, and then was found to contain several vesicular cells, which had to be filled with cement. In 1837 he had the pair mounted on a stand with drawers, and felt rich! He mentioned this, as perhaps the only instance of an imposing-stone cut from a boulder of basalt. Altogether, the pair of stones cost the Society over £20. The first English book printed was a report of the New Zealand Temperance Society, and the first placard was to call its first meeting. In 1836, single-handed, he commenced setting up the New Testament, demy 8vo., small pica. Four thousand copies were required; but on the earnest application of the Wesleyan missionaries, an extra thousand was printed for their use. Finding the work very heavy, he engaged three steady Christian Maoris— tattooed chiefs from Kawakawa, named Andrew, Joseph, and Hemo—to help at the press. They were willing at first; but could not put up with work requiring so much standing, so he had to dispense with them. Their wages were 3s a week and provisions. There were many hindrances to the work, Mr. Colenso having his full share of mission duties, besides acting as surgeon and dispenser. The translator, the Rev. W. Williams, lived some distance away, causing delay with proofs and copy, and occasional intertribal feuds also interfered with the work. In the middle of November he was fortunate enough to engage two trained helpers, young American pressmen named Henry Mann and John Bevan, whom he found on an American whaler. They were quiet and industrious men, but the isolation of the station was too much for them, and they stayed only nine weeks. Their wages were 5s a day, and they worked 5½ days a week. After another month of working alone, he found two more pressmen on an American whaler—James Powell and Charles Upham—and engaged them. The former remained five months only; the latter until the work was completed in December, 1837. Their wages at first were 5s a day, but, at their own request, they were put on piece, at 25 cents or 1s per token (10 quires) for press work. They would never do anything in the way of distributing type, and even if a letter should be drawn out, or be broken in working off the forms, they would not or could not replace it. Spoiled paper they had to pay for, but that did not amount to much. The man who remained to the end, Upham, worked the press alone for six months, and was paid 2s per token. He was a very good and trustworthy pressman, and kept the color well up, and his rollers, &c., in nice working order. The printing of the New Testament, consisting of 356 pages, was completed by the middle of December, 1837, and, by hard and persevering labor, Mr. Colenso succeeded in binding a few copies in calf by the 30th, as a New Year's gift to the missionaries. The demand being very great, lots of five hundred each were sent over to Sydney to be bound in cloth, but these were not so well bound as some he turned out himself in the same style of binding. On the completion of the New Testament, the editor and printer were granted a well-earned holiday. Mr. Colenso's salary for several years was £30 per annum, with rations, and a whare to live in.—As illustrative of his subject, he exhibited a number of very interesting sketches, one being a view of the settlement of Paihia, with the house where the first book was printed; and also shewed copies of all the books referred to. We may add that the printing was excellent and the binding neat and substantial, comparing very favorably with most of the New Zealand work of the year of grace 1887. A cordial vote of thanks to Mr. Colenso for his interesting paper was unanimously passed.