It was all work, not much time for Christmas, among N.Z.’s early settlers

Press, 19 December 1981, Page 17

It was all work, not much time for Christmas, among N.Z.’s early settlers

By

MARGARET CULLEN,

Canterbury Museum

For most of us Christmas is a time for relaxing and making merry, with all kinds of holiday festivities and celebrations. In the company of family and friends, we enjoy the’ traditional customs of Christmas dinner. Christmas trees, and the exchanging of presents. How strange, then. Christmas must have seemed for the first Canterbury settlers of over a hundred years ago, who found themselves in a new country with a different climate and customs, and far from all those dear to them.

A glance through some of the diaries of early immigrants now held in the Canterbury Museum archives gives us some idea of how Christmas was first celebrated in the Antipodes.

For those who came out to Canterbury in the Waimate in 1874. Christmas was spent at sea. Jason Harmer. . a bricklayer from Sussex, and his wife, Louisa, were among them. Jason records in his diary of the voyage the special activities that took place on Christmas day: “The women our end have decorated the ship very pretty with paper chain flags and mottoes till it looks more like a palace than a ship ... We had an imitation mistletoe bough hung up just by our port and it was a rare spree with the married people and girls and chaps under the bough.

"The Christmas dinner aroused some peculiar thoughts of home, how they were getting on, etc. The dinner passed off very well and there was dancing on deck all afternoon after tea. Promenade fill eight and then a concert below till twelve ..."

Matthew Moriarty from Ireland, who was on board the Piako in 1878. admits to feelings of homesickness in

his diarj' entry for Christmas day:

“Christmas day and a strange one for all but the sailors, many of whom have not been at home for one for years . . . Service at twelve in the cabin. Our dinner was very excellent thanks to our good and never failing friend. Bill, as follows, ham and turkey, plum pudding, and instead of wines, tea and as good a fruit cake as ever I ate . . . Bill and his brother, Steeve came down at tea and we talked of old Ireland and Bill produced a wee drop of John Jemison."

Many of the early settlers, particularly those farming on. the country stations, make little mention of any special celebrations for Christmas Day in their diaries. The entry for Christmas Day. 1871, in the Journal of Four Peaks station. South Canterbury, reads:

“Christmas day very warm. Thermometer in the shade at 10 a.m. showed 89 degrees. Wind changed and afternoon much cooler." Kate Sheath, of Aston station on the Opawa river, records, the usual routine happenings and makes only a passing reference to Christmas Day in her entry for December 25. 1865:

“Christmas day. Fine morning, very hot. Jim went out after the horses. Mr Groom came about half past eleven having been with Mr J. MacDonald who had fallen from his horse and hurt himself very badly . . . News of English mail . . . had our first peas today." The Journal of Rockwood station on the Rakaia river, for Christmas, 1856, indicates 'that work went ’on -much as usual:

“John cutting peasticks in

the morning. In the afternoon all hands playing quoits."

Mrs Caverhill of Hawkswood station, north of Waiau. spent Christmas day of 1864 making raspberry jam! However. she goes on to say that: "All the people on the station had plum pudding and some grog. The men had all sorts of games this evening. jumping in sacks, etc. Had prayers." The impression is gained that only minimal significance was attached to Christmas. This can partly be explained by the fact that Christmas coincided with the shearing season on the high country stations. There w/i.uld have been little time to spare to prepare for any elaborate festivities.

Nevertheless, most station owners seem to have given their workers the day off to participate in impromptu sports and games. One exception to this was Lady Barker, who went to the trouble of organising a Christmas party for the shepherds and shearers on Bromielaw in 1866. In her book. “Station Life in New Zealand." she admits:

“One great object I have in view is to prevent the shearers from going over to the nearest accommodation house and getting tipsy as thev otherwise would."

A Christmas service was held at the homestead: "... As the notes of the Christmas anthem' swelled up. I found the tears trembling in my eyes. My overwhelming thought was that it actually was’ the very first time those words had ever been sung or said in that valley — you in England can hardly realise the immensity of such a thought ..."

The oartv must have been

a success for she goes on to say that: "They ate incessantly for two hours and I hope’ they enjoyed themselves."

It must have seemed incongruous to many of the settlers to be celebrating Christmas in the summer time — such a contrast to the white Christmases they had known at home in England. Frederick Neave, who came to Canterbury in 1864 and took up Rakaia Forks station, wrote to his mother in 1866:

“I thought of you all and how much nicer it would be sitting over the fire after dinner with you all. than lying on the lawn kicking up mv heels as I was doing ...” He then gives a rather amusing description of how a Christmas service was held in a neighbouring woolshed: “The district clergyman officiated. The reading desk was a barrel with a cloth over it and a cushion on top. The part that we had service in was hung around with dray tarpaulins and looked very decent indeed and almost churchlike ..." The difficulties of travelling long distances in the more remote country areas must have heightened the sense of isolation, and perhaps homesickness, felt by those living there at times such as Christmas.

Settlers on the plains had more opportunity of celebrating Christmas along traditional English lines. John Godley, one of the founders of’the Canterbury Association, and his wife, Charlotte, who were well known for their hospitality, had several visitors on Christmas Day. 1850. Charles Toflesse. an early surveyor with the Associa-

tion. was among them. He notes in his diary for Christmas Day. 1850: “Went to Church at the Association's store at 11 a.m. Chanted the services. To dinner at Mr Godley's at 2 p.m.” Edward Ward also spent Christmas. 1850. with the Godleys. He had arrived in the Charlotte Jane a few days earlier, on December 16. His diary gives us more details of the gathering:

"Spent a quiet morning on board and thought a good deal of home. At two o’clock, I dined by invitation with Mr Godley. Roast turkey and potatoes, green peas, roast beef and plum pudding — all so much of the best and so different from what I have been accustomed to for the last three months. We went after dinner to Quail Island — the island in- the harbour ... Back to tea with Mr Godley and the piano was put in requisition by Mrs Fitzgerald. A pleasant: civilised evening dinner party."

That was to be Edward Ward's first and only Christmas in Canterbury. He and his brothers had planned to farm on Quail Island but Edward and his brother. Henry, were drowned in a boating accident there in June, 1851.

No matter where they were, be it on a high country station, the port or the plains, there is no doubt that Christmas for those early

pioneers would have been very different from any they t had previously known. Thoughts of “home" were uppermost in their minds and the realisation that the life style in their new country would be a striking contrast to the one they had left behind was very apparent.