Campbell was aged just 22 and could see what lay ahead for those willing to turn their hand at anything, work hard, and grab opportunity as it came.

He and his partner, fellow Scot William Brown pitched their tent at Commercial Bay (PIC) and founded their company 'The Firm of Brown & Campbell'. Over the years he was to become the most prominent member of Auckland society. He was involved with the first export of cargo from Auckland, he set up banks, insurance companies, shipping, and a newspaper. He even served terms in Parliament.

Auckland in 1852 featuring Commercial Bay and Shortland Street *

The geography of the early town is difficult to reconcile with the modern Auckland foreshore and skyline, but traces of it can be seen and its legacy lies in many place names of today. The main trading area of early Auckland was known as Commercial Bay and was situated between Point Britomart and the ridge which forms today's Swanson Street. Modern day Queen Street was a gully through which the Waihorotiu stream flowed and emptied into the sea. The shoreline at that time ran along modern Fort Street (Foreshore Street originally), along Jean Batten Place to the junction of Queen and Shortland Streets.

Very early on, there was a separation between the government officials and other settlers. The officials located their houses on a ridge overlooking the bay to the immediate west of Commercial Bay which was, perhaps a bit obviously, named 'Official Bay'. The fact that it was colloquially referred to as 'Exclusion Bay' gives something away about the regard in which government officials were held. The next bay along was called Mechanics Bay, in reference to the many carpenters and other tradesmen that had set up their workshops and residences. Of these, Mechanics still retains its name even though very little evidence remains of its original morphology.

John Logan Campbell. Auckland has a very early history of prime real estate prices. Soon after founding the town, the government got to work subdividing land for sale. This attracted land jobbers (some might say 'sharks') from all over New Zealand and Australia. Demand outstripped supply and record prices in the British Empire were reached for land in Auckland. Some estimates are of an average of £600/acre, outstripping governor Sir William Hobson's ambitious aim of £100/acre. The price of land in this fledgling colony equalled that of land just outside of London or Liverpool. By some accounts there were up to 800 buyers for only 119 allotments. Some buyers bought, subdivided, and resold for profit within the same day.

* Image courtesy of Grantham House Publishing from the book Auckland Before the Harbour Bridge by Graham Stewart.