Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 112

Transcript

No man did more towards organizing Provincial Institutions, than the present Sir John Hall. Then a man I suppose barely thirty, he at once took a leading part, and displayed in those days the same passion for order and regularity that distinguish him now. He admonished the Speaker of the young Parliament for his want of punctuality. He objected to the Governor’s or Superintendent’s “veto”, “one man more liable to err than many”. He was the first Chairman (not then called Mayor) of the first Christchurch Council. He it was, who organized the Westland County.

I rank Sir John Hall as one of the very best settlers New Zealand has seen. He, and men like John Grigg, who came in the sixties, G.H. Moore of Glenmark, William Robinson of Cheviot, Gould and Cameron, William Boag, Cracroft Wilson.

All that class of men, real settlers, have been the back bone of Canterbury. Not the wind bags of politicians, and birds of passage.