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The Life and Times of Sir George Grey, K.C.B.

Chapter LVIII. — The Public Jibrary At Auckland

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Chapter LVIII.
The Public Jibrary At Auckland.

"Dreams, books, are each a world; and books we know
Are a substantial world, both pure and good.
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow."

Twenty-Five years had passed since Sir G. Grey presented his magnificent library to the people of South Africa. During those years, by purchase, by bequest, by gifts, and by his own untiring researches and participation in active affairs, ho had once more accumulated a priceless collection of literary treasures. His love of books was as keen as ever, his knowledge of what was of real interest and value only enlarged by experience. For the second time in his life he found himself the possessor of the most valuable private library in the Southern Hemisphere.

The thought that after his death this collection might be broken up, dispersed, and its component parts lost or destroyed, distressed him. To prevent such a misfortune, and also from love to Auckland, be determined to present his treasures to the city, and enrich the public of New Zealand as he had already enriched that of South Africa.

He communicated his intentions to the destined recipients of his bounty. The munificent bequest of £12,000 under the will of Edward Costley strengthened the determination of the municipal bodies to erect a suitable building, and when it was completed Sir George Grey sent his books to make their permanent home on the shelves.

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The Free Public Library at Auckland was opened by Sir G. Grey on the 26th of March, 1887.

In his address he alluded to Sir Everard Home as being the first donor of valuable books to the Auckland Library. When Home lay dying in Sydney he made his will, leaving all his books to Sir G. Grey. Only a few hours before his death he sent for his will, and to it he added a wish that if Sir George ever parted with the books he would give them to the city of Auckland. Sir Everard was most anxious to see a public library established in that place, and had fully and constantly discussed the matter with his friend.

Sir George was deeply moved by the importance and interest of the opening scene, and affected by the irrepressible enthusiasm and excitement in the vast crowd which filled every chair and occupied every inch of standing room in the Art Gallery of the new Library buildings. Not only the. body of the hall, but the platform, the doorway, and the steps were filled, and the outer passages blocked. The veteran scholar spoke in simple but eloquent language of the high aims which should animate the youth of the rising generation. He said the task which lay before them, though apparently different to that which had been accomplished in hig life-time, was in reality only a more advanced stage of the same work.

"I. believe," he said, "that the world is now entering upon an entirely new epoch. In my youth—that is, early in the nineteenth century—the state of things was this:—For a long period of time man had been endeavouring to acquaint himself with the world. But really, comparatively speaking, little was then known regarding the surface or the inhabitants of this earth, and that arose naturally from the difficulty of communication from place to place, the slowness with which persons could travel, the difficulty of collecting information, and other impediments of that kind. We knew nothing of Africa. The sources of the Nile were unknown. The continent had been found so unhealthy that its interior had never been traversed by persons who could leave any useful account of what they saw. Little indeed was known of its capabilities, or of the populations which inhabited it. Little was known of China; little was known of a great part of America, and but very little was known of. Australia. It was imagined that a great inland sea existed there, and regarding what an exploration of the interior page 457
Auckland Public Library.

Auckland Public Library.

page 458might unfold nothing was known. Little was known of New Zealand, nothing but the accounts of Captain Cook. Little was known of the islands of the Pacific. In fact, a great portion of the earth lay hidden from man. The duty, therefore, of the nineteenth century was to clear up all these points, to make man acquainted with the planet which he inhabited, to let him know what its resources were, what kind of people it contained, and what were the limits of the available territory within which mankind were to be confined, and within which alone their efforts for their support could he exerted. Therefore, the duty of the nineteenth century was to see that countries were explored and examined, that their contents were ascertained, that unknown tongues were mastered, and that all dialects should be compared by comparative philology so that we might be able to get some idea of the way in which human beings had distributed themselves over the earth."

After pointing out how thoroughly and completely these objects had been attained, Sir George continued, "And now, what is the work that remains to he done? To comprehend that we must consider how small a spot the earth has proved to be. Think how many times in a single year any one individual here could encompass the world now, and go round and round it. How little an orb, and yet countless millions will be compelled to find their existence upon it. And on the youth of the generation coming rests an immense task, and a most difficult one—the ascertaining and deciding exactly in what manner it is best that the waste parts of the earth should henceforth be peopled. Of this rest assured, and it is a point never enough valued and fairly considered, that whilst the Creator has laid down certain natural laws, regulating the winds, the seas, the earthquakes, regulating all things which interest man in that way, He has left to human beings the governance in all other respects. You are either His ministers to give effect to His desires for the welfare of His creatures, or are turning traitors to that duty, to prevent His wishes for the welfare of all being carried out. You may say, 'Oh, no design is necessary to determine how the world is to be hereafter peopled, and by what races different portions of the globe are to be occupied.' But I say that if you take that view you neglect your duty, and bring untold or untellable miseries upon the generations who are now coming into the world."

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After instancing the case of the West Indies, in which the injustice and cruelty of the slave trade had borne fruit in the atrocities of the negro descendants of the slaves, who have become the dominant race in many islands of the group, he pointed out the dangers and difficulties which had attended the occupation of New Zealand, but which having been surmounted, were thought of no more.

"In most of these islands Christianity is now established. But what shall I tell you in regard to that—that soon after Christianity is established in these islands a total forgetfulness takes place of the evils, which were removed by the early pioneers of Christianity. How many of you sitting here now ever realize to yourselves what was the state of New Zealand in former years? Which of you can imagine human sacrifices continually taking place, human victims habitually being slain for the purpose of being consumed by their fellow-men, all the scenes of bloodshed and atrocity which went on, and the numbers that were annually sacrificed to habits of that kind? All that we have forgotten. We take New Zealand as it is. And so it will be with each of those other islands. And then when the question of how they are to be peopled arises, as it is rising now, I say, if you leave all to chance, all to hap-hazard, if you forget your duties which will fall upon you in the next few years, you will repeat in some other form, or cause to be repeated, not exactly the same evils which took place in the West indies, but evils equally great, and which will produce proportionate unhappy results. Not only that, but if you allow the world to be widely peopled in the few parts still remaining open to us, if no care is taken for the regulation of such things, you will fail in your duty, and you will, as I say, not have shown yourselves worthy ministers of your Creator, but you will simply become men, who, in pursuit of their own objects, forget the most sacred and the greatest of duties."

After several other speeches had been made, Sir George performed the ceremony of placing a few valuable books on the shelves, and declared the Library formally open.

Grey's munificent gift to the people of Auckland and the Colony of New Zealand is a fitting measure of the love which he has ever borne towards that "Corinth of the South," that beautiful city page 460between two seas, upon whose strand he first trod New Zealand soil. It is fitly shrined in a handsome and commodious building. To the Library and Art Gallery Sir George Grey is not the only donor. Mr. S. T. Mackelvie, during his life-time, and afterwards by his will, contributed large numbers of valuable pictures and works of art, as well as a very largo sum of money; while other citizens and friends of Auckland gave with no niggard hand.

But without deducting from the worth and value of other benefactions, it is certain that the chief glory of the Auckland Library and Gallery lies in the "Grey collection."

Gods are there, idols of wood and stone from many lands, worshipped amid strange shrines for centuries; weapons uncouth and fearsome, wielded by savage hands in deadly fight; implements of agriculture and the chase—wonderful stone axes, and fishhooks made of bone; spears and assegais, war hatchets and poisoned arrows; shells which had formed the currency of savage tribes; pictures, models and specimens—all are there; medals of gold, silver, and bronze, gathered from every part of the earth. Older than the occupation of New Zealand by the Maoris is the matuatonga, a stone image now in the Art Gallery. It was brought by the first party of that race who, launching their frail canoes from the shores of the contested Hawaiki, crossed the broad ocean in safety and landed on the coast of these islands, to multiply and live in undisturbed possession for many hundred years.

There are the fragments of that marble cross which Bartholomew Diaz built at the Cape of Good Hope four centuries ago, to commemorate the doubling of the stormy headland, the extension of the dominions of the King of Portugal, and the mercy of God. Before that symbol of salvation the storm-tost manners of Spain and Portugal once knelt in prayer. Little did they dream of a future day when the Cape of Good Hope would be subject to the Crown of England, and the fragments of that cross before which they worshipped would be borne two thousand leagues still further over the stormy seas, to be wondered at as a relic of the past in the remotest parts of the earth, in a land where the red cross of Britain also floated. The residue has been taken as a memento of her palmy days to the capital of Portugal. By their side is the silver spade which turned the first sod for the first railway in South page 461Africa. There, too, is a bronze cast of the head of Napoleon, modelled after death. Ft is curious to note how the features had reverted to their appearance in his youth. The likeness to portraits taken in later life is not nearly so strong as to those of Napoleon in early manhood.

In the Library the treasures are still greater. The-most complete collection of the Scriptures in all the world is there deposited. The drafts are there of some of Cromwell's last despatches, in the handwriting of Mr. Secretary Thurloe, scored in many places by the stern writing of England's great Protector—in one place he having altered the too gentle sentences of his courteous secretary to his own iron words, one written when the shadows of death were already creeping over his undaunted heart.

These despatches are of considerable national importance. With them is the treaty concluded in the time of Richard Cromwell with the Hanscatic towns, and signed by most of the members of the Council oi State as well as the foreign ambassadors. There are allusions in the last letters written to Cromwell by the British Ambassador at Sweden, Sir Philip Meadowes, to the suggestions made to the Protector to assume the title of King of England. The Swedish king is represented as expressing great surprise at Cromwell's persistent refusal to assume the dignity of the Crown, and as stating his belief that such a step would tend to strengthen Cromwell's Government, and ensure the peace and the prosperity of England. One such passage runs thus: "The king told me he wondered His Highness, my master, so prudent and experienced a prince, took no more effectual care to extricate himself out of those necessities, and that he who had achieved so many brave actions, though accompanied with manifold dangers, should now at last scruple that which would be his best and most visible security. This he spoke in reference to assuming the title of king."

The "necessities" alluded to in this paragraph are those which arose from "the "non-payment of those moneys (subsidies), from the dissolution of Parliament before provision was made for the supply of my master's treasury." It is curious to note how little the real lesson of Charles the First's deposition and death was understood at the time. The Swedish king evidently implied that if Cromwell page 462were to assume the title of king, he would be independent of his Parliament in the matter of supplies.

On the 16th of August, 1658, Sir Philip Meadowes alludes to the death of the Protector's favourite daughter in these words: "Yesternight 1 received your Honor's of the 6th instant, from Hampton Court, advising me of the sad breach, which it hath. pleased Clod to make upon the family of His Highness by the death of the Lady Elizabeth."

The authorities of the British Museum have endeavoured to induce Sir George Grey to send these documents to that national institution. But Sir George, anxious to bestow such precious relics upon the Library at Auckland, declined, thinking that a new colony ought to possess such valuable historic records. He believed that the possession of such treasures would stimulate among the youth in a new community a passion for learning and research. And he thought that the manuscripts at the Cape and in Auckland would afford the means by which in after years new authors would build up great names.

Sir George did, however, offer these letters to Carlyle some time before his death, to add to a new edition of his "Life and Letters of Cromwell." But the Sage of Chelsea declared that he was too old to undertake a fresh task, and said that it ought to be given to some younger man.

There, also, is a wonderful and priceless collection of ancient missals and illuminated manuscripts. There is the first Butch Bible, printed at Delft in the year 1477. In a magnificent Latin manuscript of the Bible, in two volumes, folio, there was found, in altering the binding, a note containing the self-complacent boast that by the wonderful process of printing men were m the year 1477 able to produce as much in a day as they had been to accomplish by the old process of writing in a year. Little did the old fathers in the school of wooden block type and black-letter printing dream of the perfection to which their art would come, and the revolutions it would effect in human society.

The mere perusal of the catalogue of the Grey collection in the Auckland Public Libraiy carries the reader back into the distant past, and into the most remote parts of the earth. There are fifty-three well authenticated manuscripts in Greek, Latin, Coptic and page 463Arabic, some of them within a few years of their millennium. Twenty-four editions bear the date of the fifteenth century, and sixty of the succeeding one.

It is not the size of the Grey collection which renders it so valuable, but the rarity and interest of most of the works. It comprises about 12,000 volumes, and is particularly complete in the philological and theological sections. In the latter there are 374 Bible?, or portions of Holy Scripture, in 160 languages, for the most part belonging to modern times, but including many ancient tongues.

Not the least interesting department in the Library is that of the autograph letters, numbering two or three thousand, and including communications from Her Majesty Queen Victoria, from explorers like Livingstone, Speke, and Sturt, from missionaries and philanthropists, from statesmen and men of letters, from scientists and philosophers, from rulers and poets, from emissaries of peace and men of action. The mere enumeration of such names as Carlyle, Florence Nightingale, Selwyn, Lyell, Moftatt, Colenso, Whately, Froude, Huxley, Sir -John and Lady Franklin, Gladstone, Herschell, Speke, Sturt, Patteson, Hnmboldt, Darwin, Bunsen, Lubbock, and Henry George calls up a bewildering variety of ideas, and the perusal of their letters will give future generations many interesting glimpses at the inner history of this century.

But the charm of the treasured relics of many ages and many lands gathered in the Library at Auckland is greatest when Sir George Grey himself acts as guide. The gorgeous and enduring colours and thick gold on the pages of the illuminated missals draw forth the wonder and admiration of all visitors, but Sir George finds a deeper interest in reading between the lines the life history of the patient monks whose work is so faithful and so beautiful. Here and there an almost imperceptible blemish will catch his keen eye, and he will paint in a few words the picture which is presented to his mind, of the remorse of the devoted toiler, of midnight penance in the lonely cell. Any little touch of human feeling is dear to him.

At the end of one of the most beautifully illuminated of these volumes there is such a message from the dead. It takes the form of a most humbly-implied hope that the dark sins of the unworthy scribe may be in some slight measure atoned for by the fulfilment of his self-imposed task. Unexpressed, but quite as page 464evident as the sincere penitence and humility, are the satisfaction and delight the writer felt in his accomplished work, and his conviction that such a worthy offering must be accepted by heaven.

With such keys to the feelings with which they were wrought, the pictured pages are found doubly eloquent. The hope of eternity, and the desire of offering a perfect tribute to the glory of God, inspired these holy recluses. In such service no care was too great, no detail insignificant. In the complicated tracery round the sacred pages: in the beautiful miniature designs which adorn the initial letters of chapter and verse; in the lavish embellishments with crimson, gold and purple, whose brilliancy the centuries have not been able to dim, are read—beyond the pride of the artists in the beauty of their work —the agony of human souls striving to achieve their own salvation.

To walk through the Library with Sir George Grey is to enter a magnificent picture gallery. Taking down a book at random from the shelves, with a few words he will eonjure up the forms of the mighty departed, not as spectres, but as breathing, living personalities. The "heroes of a hundred fights" reveal some softer aspect of their natures, the barbaric tongues of naked savages utter words of heaven-taught wisdom and eternal truth. The vices, the follies, the trivialities of past ages may pass unnoticed, but the attention of Sir George's listeners is continually drawn to deeds and words of heroism and virtue, for these are what "his mind best loves to dwell upon.

But it is in the little recess which contains translations, vocabularies, and works in many languages, written with infinite labour and research by the missionaries, that the most thrilling pictures of noble self-devotion are drawn by him. There exist and live that noble band of whom the world was not worthy. From the solitary heroic figure upon the bleak Patagonian coast, to the lonely exile in the coral-circled islets of the South Pacific, surrounded by the utmost beauty and luxuriance of vegetation; from Father Damien, giving his life for the lepers, to Livingstone, the emissary of peace in Central Africa, struggling wearily against the languor and weakness of deadly fever, which had thinned the ranks of his libtle band, undergoing privation, sickness, and all that most men consider makes life worth living. All are there, and when interpreted by him who was their friend and correspondent, still live and speak.

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It was in this building that Sir George Grey showed Stanley, the eminent African explorer, a volume which he had heard was in existence but had never seen, containing a map drawn nearly three hundred years ago, on which the course of the Congo was correctly traced. On one of its shelves also is treasured a copy of the "Early Life of the Prince Consort," doubly precious from the autograph inscription by Her Majesty to Sir George Grey, dated March 6th, 1869.

In many features the Library at Auckland is not equal to that presented by Sir George to the Cape of Good Hope, but in some respects it is superior. It was his desire to aid in making Auckland a seat of learning, He hoped not merely to inspire the youth of his favourite city with an eager appetite for knowledge, but to draw from distant places to Auckland students and those who, in the pursuit of literature, would deem it wise to consult portions of the vast mass of authorities which his unrivalled industry had enabled him to bestow upon the people of Auckland. He was pleased to think that in the days to come, future generations would resort to this mine of wealth and spread its riches far and wide in the literary world.

The vast extent of the literary, scientific, and artistic treasures which fell into the hands of Sir George Grey, and were divided by him between Cape Town and Auckland, represented not merely the result of great industry, knowledge, and the expenditure of money in purchasing. It proceeded partly from the widely-scattered gifts and contributions which during so many years he bestowed upon different races and repositories of learning. The natural consequence of his own boundless liberality was the return to him of many curiosities of a like nature. Thus, from all quarters and from all classes, from savage chiefs and men of letters, from scientific discoverers and kings of the earth, he continually received acknowledgments reciprocal to his own generosity. It was thus that from innumerable sources these collections accumulated, which now excite, and will for ever continue to excite the astonishment and delight of visitors.

Since the opening of the Library, Sir George Grey has continually added to it choice and valuable gifts. Under skilful management, the great mass of valuable correspondence is being steadily and surely reduced into system and order.

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