“New Chum” Surveyors

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 19

“New Chum” Surveyors

Edward Jerningham Wakefield wrote an amusing description of the surveying cadets sent out with Mr. Brees, the New Zealand Company’s chief surveyor, in 1842. ‘‘Everything about them was so evidently new; their guns just .out of 1 their cases, fastened across tightfitting shotting jackets by patent-leather belts; their forage caps of superfine cloth; and their white collars relieved by new black silk neckkerchiefs. Some positively walked with gloves and dandy-cut trousers; and to crown all, their faces shone with soap. I sat down on the stump of a tree and vastly enjoyed the cockney procession, wondering how long the neatness of their appearance and the fastidiousness of their walk as they stepped over the muddy places (caused by a shower of rain the night before), would last. They considered me as one of the curiosities of the interior, turning up their noses with evident contempt at my rough red woollen smock, belted over a coarse cotton check shirt, without'neck-cloth, and stout duck trousers, and gaping with horror at my long hair,, unshaven beard, and short blck pipe, half-hidden under a broad-brimmed and rather dirty Manilla hat. They appeared, too, to view with some distrust a sheath knife, about eighteen inches long in the blade, which I had made my constant companion, and with which ! was cutting up negro head tobacco.”— D.W. (Christchurch).