DEATH OF MR. DAVID NATHAN.
Mr. David Nathan, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Auckland, died at his house, Waterloo Quadrant, at six o'clock last evening. Everyone of our older citizens will feel Mr. Nathan's death as a deep personal loss, for to many of them he had been a true friend when they needed friendly counsel and help. Of all these things the younger generation have heard. All of us knew him as one who had spent his life in Auckland, in the full view of its citizens, and who for 46 years had maintained a high reputation for all that gives dignity and esteem to a man.
Mr. Nathan was born in London in 1816, and left England in 1839, like many other adventurous young men, for the purpose of bettering his position and carving out a competence for himself in the Australasian colonies, where the avenues to social advancement were not surrounded with active competitors as in the old country. Mr. Nathan arrived in Sydney in December of the same year, en route for Adelaide, South Australia, but owing to the financial condition of the latter colony at that particular juncture, was dissuaded from going thence, and was advised by his friends to try New Zealand. He accordingly turned his face thitherwards, and embarked at Sydney on board the barque Achilles, Captain Veale, for Kororareka, the then seat of Government, arriving at that port early in 1840. Here Mr. Nathan commenced the work of colonisation by getting married early in October, 184I. Two of the officers of Her Majesty's ship then in port were present as guests, to whom, as well as to the residents generally, the impressive ceremonies associated with a Hebrew marriage were novel it being the first Jewish marriage celebrated in the settlement.
Early in 1840 Governor Hobson left the Bay of Islands in a man-of-war, owing to the receipt of instructions from the Home Government, to look out for a more central site for the seat of Government. He was accompanied by Captain Symonds (afterwards drowned at Cornwallis, in the Manukau) and other officials, and they proceeded up the Hauraki Gulf and the waters of the Waitemata, where Captain Hobson, with excellent judgment, selected Auckland as the new capital of the colony.
A few months after he had taken up his abode at the Bay of Islands, a party of settlers (of whom Mr. Nathan was one) sailed from the Bay for the Thames in the Mary, schooner, Captain Faulkner, and ultimately reached Coromandel, which the captain stated was the Thames. The captain stated that he was going to discharge his cargo at Fairburn's station, Waiheke. Some of the party started in a canoe from Coromandel to seek out the now capital selected by Governor Hobson. The natives hired as guides brought them up as far as Tamaki Heads, and landed the voyageurs at a native settlement, where they obtained refreshments. The natives stated that the man-of-war was a long way up the river, and refused to proceed any further, and there was no help for it but for the party to return to Coromandel. In the meantime Mr. Nathan proceeded up the Firth of Thames to see Mr. Webster, whose station was up the river, and on the way he landed at Taraia's settlement, where he was hospitably entertained by that old cannibal in native fashion — fish and potatoes, &c., being furnished in abundance from a native hangi, or "copper Maori." On returning to Coromandel, he fell in with three other young men, whose names have been subsequently prominently associated with the political history of the province and of the colony — namely, Dr. John Logan Campbell, Mr. William Brown (subsequently the principals of the well-known Auckland firm of Brown and Campbell), and Mr. (afterwards Sir Donald) McLean. Mr. Nathan returned to the Bay, arranged his affairs, and proceeded in November, 1841, to Auckland, which he finally made his home, purchasing the second allotment — a half-acre section— sold at the first Government land sale — namely, that on which the business premises of the firm of Messrs. L. D. Nathan and Co., Shortland-street, now stand. Here he commenced business in partnership with Mr. Joseph (brother of Mr. Joseph, the wellknown Wellington merchant), under the style of Nathan and Joseph, as auctioneers and commission agents, their first sphere of operations being a tent, their warehouses being the second business premises erected in Auckland, and Brown and Campbell's the first. Messrs. Nathan and Joseph, during their partnership, imported a number of artisans, of various trades, for the infant settlement — the want of these having been greatly felt. In 1843, the firm dissolved partnership, and Mr. Nathan commenced business on his own account, retiring after a long, honourable, and successful career in 1867, with a well-earned competency, in favour of his two sons — L. D. Nathan and N. A. Nathan — who have fully sustained the reputation of the old firm for straightforward dealing and business integrity.
The close of Mr. Nathan's commercial earner did not end his usefulness as a citizen. As a member of the Chamber of Commerce his wide and varied mercantile experience was brought to bear beneficially on the various questions which were brought up for discussion, or subjected to its consideration, while as a vice-president of the Auckland Savings Bank he took a lively interest in the social condition of the working classes, and in encouraging habits of thrift and providence. Mr. Nathan was a liberal patron and supporter of every institution and society in the province which was calculated to promote the general intellectual, moral, and social progress of the community in which his lot was cast, and as a proof of his genuine catholicity of spirit, it may be mentioned that while maintaining an unshaken loyalty to the faith of his fathers, his purse was ever open to the claims of other creeds, and that from old St. Paul's and old St. Patrick's Cathedral downwards, there is scarcely a place of worship in which he had not "a brick." As in matters of faith so in those of business, while a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and ever ready to lend a helping hand to the distressed of his own faith, he did not permit his benevolence to end there, and there is more than one business firm in Auckland, as well as persons in private life, who have been indebted for their start in life to the kindly, generous aid extended by him who has been termed "the Christian Jew" — David Nathan.
Mr. Nathan has been in failing health for over a twelvemonth. Many will recollect his last appearance in public, at the opening of the new Synagogue in Princes-street in last October. He has been suffering from acute pulmonary apoplexy, the result of heart disease, and may be said to have been dying for the last three days. He leaves a widow, two eons, and two daughters. The sons, Mr. Laurence and Mr. Alfred Nathan, are in the business founded by the deceased the daughters are Mrs. Harris and Mrs. E. Benjamin, the latter being a widow. The funeral will take place on Wednesday, at three p.m., at the Jewish Cemetery, Symonds-street. -NZ Herald, 24/8/1886.
Symonds Street Cemetery, Auckland.
No comments:
Post a Comment