Terry Charles
Charles Terry
The first Pakeha resident of Auckland, before the Crown purchase, was Charles Terry. He was running a flax mill here when the Hobson's officials first arrived from the Bay of Islands to negotiate the purchase of the site of Auckland. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries. Later he was the founding editor of Auckland's first newspaper - the New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette.
In 1842 Terry published New Zealand: its Advantages and Prospects as a British Colony T. & W. Boone, London. The book is available on-line here.
His antiquarian interests come out in only a few places.
p32: To the southward of Auckland, within two miles, is Mount Eden, native name Maunga Wao, five hundred feet above the level of the sea. Under this mountain are the remains, the existence of which is still remembered by some of the Nga-te-Whatuas, of extensive native fortifications and of large Pas, or native villages, with entrenchments thrown up of the scoria with flanking enclosures, up the sides of the mountain. The great space occupied, proves there must have been congregated here great numbers of natives in the different villages, at some distant period, which is corroborated by those signs so well known to travellers in New Zealand; such as remains of their Maori, ovens of stones, vast quantities of Pepe shells, &c. These fortified villages or Pas, are to be found in the present day, and are numerous in the interior, on the Waikato Waipa, and the hills near the Lake Taupo, and the east coast.
p38: Everywhere the country bears strong evidence of much greater native population than at present exists, and in the interior these evidences and remains of warlike feuds, with always the sacred (tapu) burial spot adjacent, remind the traveller, that in all countries, either of classic renown or of the untutored savage, human passions are the same, and that time deals equally with all.
Terry however seems to have left little more of a contribution to New Zealand archaeology.
