Captain Joseph Thomas

Press, 12 November 1982, Page 16

Captain Joseph Thomas

Sir.—Several . statements made by P. B. Maling about the pioneer Canterbury surveyor, Captain Joseph Thomas (“The Press,” October 16), merit comment. Reference is made to assistant surveyor, Thomas Cass, “known for his reminiscences.” Surely this should be Edward Jollie whose reminiscences exist in manuscript form at the Canterbury Public Library and elsewhere. There is brief reference to Captain Thomas after 1853, the year Dr Maling says he vanished from history. In 1856 there appeared Robert Waitt's pamphlet, “The progress of Canterbury, New Zealand... a letter addressed to Joseph Thomas Esq.” The fact that the Alexander Turnbull Library has an etching entitled “Captain Thomas” is no evidence

that the man portrayed was Captain Joseph Thomas. Dr Maling believes the title of the etching to be in Joseph Thomas's handwriting but fails to back his opinion with evidence. Joseph Thomas’s story was researched by Owen z Eatwell in a 1968 M.A. thesis.—

Yours, etc., RICHARD L. N. GREENAWAY. October 28, 1982.

[Dr Maling comments: "My thanks to Richard Greenaway for his interest in my article on Captain Thomas. My reference was to Cass, not Edward Jollie who was not employed by Thomas until after the site of the Canterbury settlement was chosen. Cass’s reminiscences were printed in The Canterbury Times, of May 26, 1892. Certainly references to Thomas after 1853 do exist but the fact remains that nothing, so far as I am aware, is known about his life after that date. I agree that there is an element of doubt in the identification of the portrait. I compared the name beneath the portrait with a number of copies of Joseph Thomas’s signature and convinced myself that they were by the same hand. It is to be hoped that some descendant of the Thomas clan may come to light to verify the identification. When Thomas returned to England in 1852 he stayed with relatives at Clevedon, Somersetshire, and with his married brother at Eastbourne."]