Colony’s Canty toilers named

Press, 31 August 1989, Page 13

Colony’s Canty toilers named

Whalers like Joseph Price and George Hempieman, farmers like the Deans, Mansons, Gebbies, Hays, Sinclairs, Rhodes and the Greenwoods, and the 60 or so French and Germans who settled at Akaroa in 1840 made up part of the Canterbury population before the arrival of the First Four Ships in December, 1850. In addition, from July, 1849, there were several hundred people working at Lyttelton under Captain Joseph Thomas getting the site ready for the Canterbury Association settlers. Thomas, who had served in the British Army in India, arrived in Wellington in 1840 to work as a surveyor for the New Zealand Company. He was employed in 1848 to choose and prepare a site for the Canterbury Association settlement. The names of more than 900 people who lived in Canterbury before December, 1850, were extracted from a variety of sources in 1978 and have been recorded in the Pre-Adamite File at the Canterbury Museum.

Recently a further 201 names of men came to light among some vouchers and paysheets in the museum archives. Of the 201, almost a third were road labourers working on the formation of Lyttelton streets, the road to Sumner or the Bridle Path to Heathcote.

Another third were listed as labourers on public works; almost certainly most of these were also road labourers, but others would have been engaged in excavating sites for the immigration barracks, stores, offices, stables and the boatshed at Lyttelton.

Others again would have been helping to build the Lyttelton jetty or the sea wall in front of Norwich Quay. Over on the Canterbury Plains several survey parties were operating. Each party usually consisted of a surveyor, a cook and

several labourers who each received £1 a week.

Other occupations among the additional 201 names were; sawyers, seven; bricklayers, two; carters, three; storekeeper, one; blacksmiths, two; quarrymen, four; shipwright, one; and boatmen, eight. Buildings required both timber and carpenters. Some of the timber was obtained from Banks Peninsula, but a great deal of it was imported from Tasmania in the form of planks, shingles and scantling. It arrived at the beginning of January, 1850, aboard the Rebecca and the Camilla. A Wellington firm had been asked to recruit carpenters from Van Dieman’s Land and had been promised £7 for every carpenter who arrived at Lyttelton. Foreman of these carpenters was James Johnston who was responsible for building many houses, churches and schools in early Canterbury. Under him were 15 carpenters and a cook. He received 63 shillings a week, the carpenters between 30 and 42 shillings a week, and the cook, Mrs Ellen Birmingham, who was the wife of one of the carpenters, was paid five shillings per day.

Most roadmen were Maoris who had been recruited in the North Island. The first party arrived on September 2, 1849, and after a few days spent in unloading the ship and building whares, they started work with pick and shovel on the road to Sumner.

European labourers were paid between 3s 4d and 3s 7d per day, and Maori workers 2s 6d per day; boys received between Is 3d and Is 6d per day. Overseers were paid 30s a week, foremen 38s 6d a week, and the wage of the superintendent of roads was 57s 9d a week. It would appear only a few Maoris from the small Rapaki settlement were employed on road work. North Island Maoris were probably engaged in preference because they had experience of road building, and being so far from home they had no opportunity to leave work to attend to family matters.

A strike over wages by European labourers early in December, 1850, was soon solved. They were told they had a day in which to make up their minds if they wanted to continue under the same conditions, or be replaced by more Maori workmen from the North Island. Names in the Pre-Adamite Index are those of Europeans, their Maori wives and their children. Names in the recent new index are of Europeans only. Soon, from the Canterbury Museum archives, an index of .Maori workmen will be compiled to complete the record of those who toiled to make, Canterbury ready for the Canterbury pilgrims.

By

RON CHAPMAN