Jump to content

Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/211

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
THE FOUNDING OF AUCKLAND.
187

oughfare, to the hotel they had selected for a resting-place during their sojourn in Auckland. They were favorably impressed with the activity that prevailed on the streets, and the general evidences of business prosperity. "A Missourian would call it 'a right smart place,'" said Frank, as they were alighting from the carriage at the end of their drive.

"Yes," responded Fred, "and even a New Yorker would treat its beautiful bay with respect after seeing it as we did."

"Where did the city get its name?" one of the youths asked Doctor Bronson.

AUCKLAND IN 1840.

"It was named after Lord Auckland, First Lord of the Admiralty, and afterwards Governor-general of India, by Captain Hobson, who founded the city. Captain Hobson was sent here, in 1838, to organize a colony. He saw this was a good site for a city, and accordingly he established the capital here. It remained the capital until 1865, when a royal commission moved the seat of government to Wellington, the latter place being more centrally located. Of course the Aucklanders were not at all pleased at the change, but their city is so well established commercially that there is no danger of their being ruined by it."

From various sources Frank and Fred found that Auckland had a