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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. R. C. Barstow

Mr. R. C. Barstow, Old Colonist and sometime Resident Magistrate of Auckland, was born in 1820, at Skipton Bridge, York-shire, and was a member of a family which has been established in the neighbourhood of York for four centuries. The Barstow Hospital at York for indigent old men, was established in 1660 by Dame Alice Barstow, one of his progenitors. His great-grandfather, Sir Michael Barstow, was thrice elected Lord Mayor of York, an honour never conferred on any other man, save the Earl of Zetland Mr. Barstow received his early education at St. Peter's, York, and witnessed the burning down of York Minster, in January, 1829, by the incendiary, Jonathan Martin. In 1838 he went to Cambridge to Jesus College, of which he was a foundation scholar. After the usual college course and a year spent in travelling in Scotland, Ireland, and on the Continent, Mr. Barstow left London for Auckland by the ship “Bangalore,” on the 25th of June, 1843, taking with him three servants. The “Bangalore” called at Bahia, the Cape, and Sydney, and finally arrived at Auckland in December, 1843. Among the passengers for New Zealand were Governor and Mrs Fitzroy, General O'Brien (Mrs Fitzroy's father), Judge Chapman, and Mr. C. A. Harris. Mr. Barstow took up a section of land at Tamaki, and after establishing his servants upon it, he made sundry tours throughout the province of Auckland. Being interested in a cargo of sawn timber and spars shipped on board the “Bangalore” at Waiheke, he went on with the vessel to Valparaiso, and called, en route, at the Bay of Islands. On the passage the “Bangalore” lost all her topmasts by a tidal wave, which she encountered near the island of San Juan de Fernandez. After disposing of the cargo at Valparaiso, Mr. Barstow, intending to return to New Zealand, went up as far as Payta, hoping there to find a whaleship bound for the Colony, but failing in the attempt, he returned to Valparaiso, and sailed thence to Tahiti, where he arrived at Papeete in August, 1844. He shortly afterwards visited the Marquesas and Sandwich Island, and returned turned to New Zealand in 1845, immediately before the arrival of Sir George Grey, on his first governorship. Having again a strong desire to revisit and cruise among the islands of the South Pacific, Mr. Barstow had a schooner built at Auckland, by Messrs H. Niccol and Sharpe. This was the well-known “Undine, which was subsequently bought by Bishop Selwyn for work in connection with the Melanesian Mission. In August, 1846, Mr. Barstow married the eldest daughter of Colonel Hulme, of her Majesty's 96th Regiment, formerly officer commanding the troops in New Zealand, and whose gallantry in the Heke war is still remembered by old colonists. Prior to the passing of the Constitution Act Mr. Barstow was a member of the Legislative Council, to which he was called by Sir George Grey on the 9th of December, 1848. Owing to the exodus of working men in 1850 to the Californian goldfields, Mr. Barstow sold his farm at Tamaki, partly to St. John's College and partly to private persons, and left Auckland to reside at the Great Barrier Island, where for yours previously he had a cattle station. In January, 1859, he accepted the post of Resident Magistrate at the Bay of Islands, and held the office until May, 1872, when he became Resident Magistrate for the districts of Onehunga, Papakura, and Waiuku, in succession to Mr. Melsopp, who had died. On the death of Captain Beckham, in 1877, Mr. Barstow was appointed Resident Magistrate at Auckland, and held the position until 1881, when he retired on a pension. He died at Auckland in September, 1890, aged seventy years. Mr. Barstow took a special interest in the establishment of a reformatory for youthful criminals, and was for many years a member of the committee of the Howe Street Industrial Home, in connection with which his experience as a magistrate was of much service
The Late Mr. R. C. Barstonw.

The Late Mr. R. C. Barstonw.

page 426 He had for fifty years made a special study of mumismatics, and his collection of coins constituted in itself an almost complete history dating back to 600 years before the beginning of the Christian Era.