With News From Australia.

There were in the early sixties during the years of the Maori War what were then considered some noted vessels trading from Australia to Auckland, such as the Claud Hamilton, the Auckland, the Otago, and the Prince Alfred, a craft of 700 tons, the last-mentioned being very little bigger than the Northern Company's steamer Clansman. These steamers were subsidised for a few years to bring over from Sydney the English mails, and return with the outward mail and passengers to connect with the steamers leaving Australia for England. The Phoebe, in command of Captain Worsp, who in later years settled with his family in Auckland, also traded between Sydney and Auckland in 1864. These steamers were engaged in bringing over from Australia troops and provisions. Auckland being the first port of call, the young town was for three or four years more regularly supplied with mails and news from the outside world, but when the war in the Waikato ceased, we had again to rely mainly upon sailing vessels for Australian papers, which from time to time would contain summaries of English, Continental and American news brought to Albany, and sent on the wire to Melbourne and Sydney.

Walking To Onehunga.

When the gold rush started at Hokitika, on the West Coast, steamers, including the Aldinga, Gothenburg, and Albion, used to bring over thousands of miners from Melbourne to Hokitika. These boats invariably brought a mail and late papers from Australia. The boats running between Nelson and Manukau would then bring Australian papers on to Auckland. That was why the steamers coming up the West Coast had to be watched by the shipping reporters as keenly as the boats from overseas, and when the signal was hoisted at the Manukau Heads for a steamer arriving the reporters made their way to Onehunga.

In those days there were no motor cars or motor bikes, the only communication being by bus, which ran twice or thrice a day from Hardington's stables, situated near the fine building now occupied by John Court, Ltd. Reporters frequently had to walk either to or from Onehunga, and on more than one occasion when steamers arrived late I walked to Onehunga and back again. In those days, however, we thought nothing of a fourteen-mile walk. A marine reporter had to be always alert and the only safe plan to follow was to board everything and leave nothing to chance.

The Cattle And Coal Boats.

Many an important bit of news was brought to Auckland by the "white wings" of the Circular Saw line, but as they were the regular traders they generally brought complete files of the Australian newspapers for the Auckland daily newspapers. It was the unexpected arrivals that used to lead to the "scoops." There were for instance the boats that came from Australian ports,page 9 such as Newcastle, Gippsland, Gladstone, Port Curtis, Two Fold Bay, Port Albert, and others, with fat cattle, coal and produce for the young colony of New Zealand, which was not of course so self-supporting as it is to-day. Perhaps only one newspaper, and perhaps only half a newspaper, would be found on board these craft by the enterprising shipping reporter, so that naturally the keen man used to watch these stray arrivals with double vigilance. Five o'clock in the morning, during the summer months, would find me aboard such an unexpected boat making a search for anything in the shape of a newspaper. There was always the chance of a choice column or two of cable or important Australian news for the Auckland reporter who first got his hands on the journal.

The Kate Waters, Island City, and other barques made regular trips from Australia, and they were especially fitted up for the carrying of fat cattle. The steward of the Island City, having on previous occasions observed the keenness of the reporters for newspapers, took advantage of this knowledge. On one trip, when the vessel anchored off the Tamaki river, where the cattle were generally landed, I was on board about six in the morning. Not a scrap of any newspaper was available, either from the captain, mate or crew, and I was about to leave the vessel when the steward came to the side of the ship and stated he had a copy of the "Sydney Morning Herald" containing important English and Australian news for which he wanted payment. I immediately offered him a shilling, but this was indignantly refused. The steward all the time had his eye up the harbour to see if other reporters were coming down. There were two, and before they reached the side of the ship my offer for the paper had risen to 5/-. The steward would not "part," and when the other reporters arrived on the scene the paper was put up to auction and was eventually handed to me for 10/6. When I opened the paper and found it had over a page containing the summary of a month's news from England, which had been telegraphed from Albany to Sydney; also important Australian news, I was well satisfied with my bargain; but when I told my employer, Mr. W. C. Wilson, of the "Herald," the money I had paid for the paper, he did not appear over pleased, but on the following day, after being congratulated upon the "scoop" by several merchants, he with a smile, said the paper was cheap and I had done well in securing it.

The cargo of these boats—fat cattle—gives us an admirable picture of early Auckland, which to-day ships its thousands of carcases of frozen meat to the London market. Although these sailing craft were specially fitted up to carry cattle, the loss when bad weather was encountered in the Tasman Sea was very severe, the vessel arriving occasionally with only one-third to one-half the number of cattle shipped. Other barques brought coal from Newcastle and wheat from Adelaide. The wheat was ground at Firth's and Partington's mills, the former being a steam-mill on the Queen Street site now occupied by Smeeton's, and the latter a windmill, which oddly enough, has survived all the innovations of this busy age, and its whirling sails are still one of the landmarks of the city.

Happy Days.

It was these spasmodic cattle and coal boats that the active reporter marked for his own, and many a scoop was brought off by the early bird. The Auckland merchants, particularly those closely connected with shipping, such as Thomas Henderson, J. S. Macfarlane, S. J. Edmonds, Coombes and Daldy, and others would often, after a "scoop" had been made, slap the young reporter on the back as he went down the east side of Queen Street between ten and eleven in the morning (when most of them were standing on the side walk smoking their pipes) and say to him: "Well done!" There was a distinct personal pleasure about the work of a newspaper reporter in those days, and when recalling my experiences I say, without any reservation, "The best time of my life was the eight years that I was marine reporter in Auckland's early days." There was ample scope in those days for enterprise in securing "scoops," but ever since the United Press Association was started over forty years ago, and now that the Journalists' Union (recently formed) has a time limit of eight hours work only, and other arbitrary conditions, everything is brought down to a dead level and it is seldom any paper makes a real "scoop." The Journalists' Union, however, has had one good effect—reporters are now paid an adequate salary for their labour. When I was reporting on the "Southern Cross" and "Herald," I was for several days at work from five in the morning until two or three the next morning, and never on any occasion, with the exception of Saturday, left the office before 1 a.m. For this I received less than the salary of a present day junior reporter.