Child’s Diary Of Her Voyage To N.Z.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31784, 14 September 1968, Page 5

Child’s Diary Of Her Voyage To N.Z.

MUSEUM OF ’ NATURE

(Contributed by the Canterbury Museum) Pioneer shipboard diaries are a.rewarding source of information and usually a pleasure to read. Of the many held at the Canterbury Museum only one was written by a child, 15-year-old Ivy Lindsay. The Lindsay family settled in Christchurch and Ivy’s two brothers were both associated with the Canterbury Museum. Stuart’s work as an entomologist is commemorated by a case of New Zealand moths and butterflies in the Canterbury Museum’s Button Hall, dedicated to the memory of “Stuart Lindsay, Honorary Entomologist 1927-1945, indefatigable collector and student of New Zealand entomology who established the museum’s collections on a firm basis and added much to our knowledge of New Zealand insects.” Charles was a taxidermist first at Canterbury and later at the Dominion Museum, Wellington, where he worked until his death there on February 15, 1966. His widow, Mrs Kelsey Lindsay recently presented to Canterbury Museum Ivy’s neatly written little note-book diary. The first entry on September 18, 1907, records the family’s departure from their home in Shillingstone in the south of England. Migrants were no longer “pioneers” but the voyage was no luxury cruise for steerage passengers and the destination —New Zealand—must have seemed a new world for the Lindsay family: mother, father, Ivy and her brothers, Stuart (probably about 17) and Charles (5). Cheerful Acceptance Ivy’s cheerful acceptance of the discomforts of the voyage reveals a calm, mature personality also apparent in the photograph accompanying this article. She is shown at the age of 12 with her baby brother, Charles (then two). One feels that she did not need the advice of the minister on October 27 “really telling the people that it would be a happier voyage for everyone if ire did not think too much of ourselves but more of the other people.” After staying with relatives and making a number of farewell visits the family made their way to Fenchurch Street station by foot and cab; to

The photograph shows Charles and Ivy, two yean before their departure for New Zealand.

Tilbury by train and thence lo the lonic by small steamer, arriving on board about 5 p.m. On Friday, October 18, the voyage really begining when the lonic started down the river at 9 p.m. For a few days Ivy felt sick but by October 21, she was able to write: “The evening was rqally enjoyable. I felt much better and we had a nice place for our chairs. The moon shone brightly and the sea looked lovely. There was plenty of singing to keep us alive so we had a nice evening.” First port of call was Teneriffe on Friday, October 25. “All I could see were tall rocks, black and jagged quite close to the sea. Such a pretty sight I have never seen before. On our left lay the chief town. The houses were very picturesque, low and seeming without chimneys at all. Most were white but many were pink and red. Windows were small and some of the houses under the hills looked too tiny to live in. The town looked a neat, clean little place while behind, as far as you could see towered magnificent hills with rocky points and scarce vegetation. The highest peak of all looked lovely as the rising sun behind the clouds covered it with a rosy light. The sea at Teneriffe is very blue containing heaps of fish and as calm as a mill pond.” Silk Shawls

After breakfast, Ivy continues: “A great many Spaniards, most of them rough looking fellows, brought goods of all kinds on board to sell ... the things whjch interested mother and' me were the shawls and fancy work, lovely silk shawls of pure white and cream, pinks and blues: lace scarves and head wraps; drawn thread work comprising tea cloths, bed spreads, blouse and skirt length . . . quite a market. Over the side of the vessel men were selling fruit in boats and sending the fruit up in a tin by a string and receiving the money in the same way. Stuart watched a coal barge coaling our ship. The dust made anyone who went near it black.”. The diary describes the sights as the ship sailed along the west coast of Africa until . . . “Bye and bye all gradually faded and we were out on the high seas again with a fortnight’s sailing before us and the heat of the tropics to boil us.”

At Cape Town only Mr Lindsay and Stuart went ashore. The family must have been envious as they described the lovely meal they hi," at a restaurant where,

because it was Sunday, they were not permitted to buy anything. However the proprietors must have relented because they agreed to let them have some biscuits, oranges, lemons, sweets, tea and sugar to take back as a treat to those who had remained aboard the lonic. Ivy records her father's impressions of Cape Town ...

“There were hothouse plants of all kinds growing in open borders, daisies, roses and many other flowers all flowering at the same time and streets very broad with trains running through them as the trams do in London.” Frequent references to sore throats, headaches and “feeling poorly” make one thankful for modem drugs and comfortable travel. The daily round of embroidery; knitting; sports; games; concerts and “crayoning with Charlie” was sometimes relieved by such delights as a passing sailing ship or a close view of a whale and at 4.20 a m. on Friday, November 29, Ivy once again saw land. Hobart looked very pretty. The sun was just rising and it shone on the houses. We could see a clock tower, a large house like a castle, churches, factory chimneys and high above the town rocky hills and mountains covered in bush, mostly bluegums and eucalyptus.” This time Ivy was able to go ashore and enjoy the feel of the earth, and the smell of roses, before returning for the last stage of the voyage. Arriving in Wellington Harbour at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, December 4, she writes: “The houses on the rocks were mostly red and built bungalow fashion." The inter-island steamer Maori, which the family boarded in the evening for the voyage to Lyttelton was a pleasant surprise. As there was no third class they travelled second. “It is fitted up splendidly—carpet on the floor—not at all like the lonic. The berths are just like proper little beds. Our cabin was a little palace with every convenience.”

On Sunday, December 8, 1907, after a long walk round Christchurch, and some minor excitement caused by a chimney fire in the family’s temporary home, the Lindsays spent a quiet evening looking at postcards and Ivy concludes: “I read my dairy aloud from the begining till now." This promising young diarist died at the early age of 29, in childbirth, a circumstance happily rare today. She Is buried in the Sydenham Cemetery, Christchurch. “Ivy Elizabeth, beloved wife of Chares Brown, died Anril 23, 19213'—M.J.D. JpK,.