THE BIRTH OF A COLONY

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 14310, 2 March 1907, Page 4

THE BIRTH OF A COLONY

VOYAGE AND ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST FOUR SHIPS. XVII. (By JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN.) The Cressy left Gravesend on September 4, 1850, arriving at Plymouth in time to leave that port, together with the Charlotte Jane, at midnight on September 7. The Randolph followed in a few hours, and the Sir George Seymour at 8 a.in. on Sunday, September 8, both from Plymouth. Ihe voyages seem to have been comparatively uneventful, and pleasant, except in the case of the Cressy, which ©xpen©need bad weather, and was 110 days on the voyage; one of the passengers, too, the bank agent, became mentally deranged, so that, on October 9, he had to bo secured and watched for several weeks. The Randolph spoke many vessels, among them the Sir George Seymour. This was fortunate for one of the colonists, a Mr Cyrus Davie, who, though ho had taken his passage in the Randolph, left England in the Sir George Seymour. It appears that he put his outfit on board his vessel, and then went into the country to take leave of hie lady love. Hurrying back to Plymouth, he found his ship gone, with all” his goods. With some difficulty he obtained a berth in the Sir George Seymour, and about three weeks later 'the Randolph, being sighted in midocean, she was spoken, and sent a boat for Sir Davie, wild was thus enabled to complete the voyage in his own cabin, earning the distinction of being the only colonist who made the one voyage in two ships. By a coincidence, the last vessel to leave, the Sir George Seymour, was the first to sight land, at Stewart Island. This was seen at four o’clock on Wednesday morning of December 11, and later in the same day by the Charlotte •Jane. This vessel, outsailing the Sir George Seymour, was the first to oast anchor in Lyttelton Harbour, which she did at ten o’clock, some say eight, on Monday morning, December 16, having made tne voyage in ninety-nine days from port to port. The Randolph arrived in the evening, the Sir George Seymour the next day, and the Cressy on December 28. It was remarkable that three of the ships should reach, Lyttelton so closely one after the othei, for though they left Plymouth almost at ’the same time, excepting for the meeting ■ ol* tlie Randolph and fen* George Seymour in mid-ocean on October 4j they did not catch sight of ono another during the whole voyage. All seem to have been driven rather tar south, experiencing colder weather than was anticipated, though the Cressy suffered more severely from the inclement weather, her voyage being by it lengthened twelve days. During the voyage there was one marriage one birth and three deaths on boaref the Charlotte Jane; nm© births'and five deaths on the Randolph ; two deaths on the Sir G<*>ige Seymour. The deaths were all of in--111b ° Charlotte Jan© may be told V one of her passenger, the Surgeon-Superintendent Dr Barker;-,” After nearly a week s bating up the coast of Now Zealand h wrote'in a letter dated June Mb lasl, “we saw the first of our adopted country on Sunday, at midday. This turned out to be part of Banks Peninsula, near to Lake Blesmere, between that and Akaroa Harbour. Owing to the wind being adverse, and our having hugged the oousb too closely after leaving Cape Saunders, we were unable to pass the Peninsula all day. but were forced to tack, off and on, each tack approaching close to the magnificently stern coast. The entrance to Akaroa Harbour is difficult to discern, looking more like a mere cleft in the mighty mountains which, form its sides, some higher than Snowdon. It is, how'ever, a place of surpassing lovellnws, hut too far separated from .the plains to be of much use to the sheep-farmers who will shortly over-run this fair land. Early in the morning, when I came on deck, I saw to my delight that the direction of the bowsprit was such as to ensure our passing on the tack we were then making. The exciting beauty of the scene brought all the passengers up, on deck. As wo passed close to the land we had a fine view of the numerous liar bo lute with which it is indented, most of them clothed with forest to the water’s edge. ' As soon as w© were fairly round the Peninsula w© saw, far on our right, the snowy ranges of the Southern Alps, terminated in the extreme distance by the Kaikouras, a range of mountains between 900 and HOOft high, and 180 miles distant. In front wo readily distinguished Mount Pleasant, as w© approached the mouth of the harbour. We were now not a little annoyed to see the masts of two large vessels lying at anchor, but our fears were shortly dispelled, for one was the man-of-war Fly, with Governor Grey on board, the other the Barbara Gideon, that had sailed two months before us.

“ The entrance to Port Cooper ia very grand. Tiro wood.- that had clothed the hills on the Peninsula here in a great part leaves us, and the mountains that wall the harbour on three sides have an air oT almost savage grandeur. As wo sailed slowly up it we saw high up the cliffs to our right the workmen making the road to the plains, an undertaking. alas, far too groat for our infant colony. After we had passed the Fly the captain gave orders to let go the anchor, just at the moment we passed a little headland, and there at the bottom of a shallow hay lay, snugly ensconced, the pretty town of Lyttelton. You can scarcely imagine a more picturesque spot for a- town. Its beauty caused an involuntary shout of delight from all our passengers. We had. not long swung to our anchor when wo perceived a. boat putting off from the handsome jetty: All eyes and'glasses were immediately directed to it. We .saw in the stern sheets an odd-looking fish, who was the Customhouse officer, who informed ns we- should have to pay duty on everything, oven our outfit and cooking ware. Wo appealed, to the (Governor, who ordered all our goods to be landed duty free. On the afternoon- of the day we arrived the Randolph swept into harbour, and next day the Sir George Seymour arrived. “Erskinc Bay is a shallow indentation of the north side of Port Cooper, and on the hillside, at the bottom of the hay, the town is built, two streets running straight up the bill from the beach, which are crossed by several others at right angles. The jetty is considered the best in New Zealand, and would do credit to any English* watering place. On the right- surroundted by palings, arc a number of neat-looking buildings, which are the immigration barracks, and close by is Mr vjodley’s house. All these are roofed with shingles of split wood, about the size of slates. When we arrived we found several shops ready, but no houses that we could hire . .”

Then follows a description pf a climb of Mount Pleasant amt' a trip to the plains, to which Dr Barker soon removed. Ho omits mention of the actual landing of the first; colonists. There was a friendly rivalry as to who should first tread Canterbury soil. As the boat’s prow grated on the beach inside Officer’s Point, Dr Barker, scrambling over the bows, was unceremoniously sent back on tho thwarts by “that fellow Fitzgerald,” as ho called him, who had taken a fly, leap-frog fashion, from his friend’s shoulders, and alighted with hia nose in the sand, clasping the earth as William the Conqueror; did on landing in England. Appropriately, too, Fitzgerald became the first superintendent. of the new province. Other well-known passengers in the

“Charlotte Jane” were the Rev Q. B. Kingdon and his wife; E. R. ana Henry, t Ward, afterwards drowned in Lyttelton; Hamilton Ward, original founder of Ward’s Brewery; Thomas and Charles Cholmoudeley; Sir and Mrs Benjamin Mountfort, of architectural fame; Miss Mountfort; Mr and Mrs Charles Mountfort; Mr, Mrs and Mies Bowen—Mr Bowen was late Speaker of the Provincial Council; Mr C. C. Bowen, now Speaker of the Legislative Council, and in the early days Srivate secretary to J. R. Godley; Mr roasdaile Bowen; Mr Shnmpton—J. Shrimpton was the first printer of the “Lyttelton Times”; the Bishop family, of whom is Mr, R. C. Bishop, of the Christchurch Gas Company; Mr and Mrs James Fisher; Mr Stephen Fisher, of Sydenham; Miss Hooper; Mr Smith Howard and-five children; Mr Pure glove, schoolmaster, and his wife: Mr Coster, of Ha rewood Road, and family; and the Hon Stuart Wortley, a young man who enlivened the voyage by the continual playing of practical jokes, and who wished the captain to set him ashore at the first part of New Zealand approached, being convinced that he could find his way to Christchurch. Twenty pheasants and partridges had been taken on the Charlotte Jane, but on arrival only one pair of pheasants and one partridge had survived.

Among other amusements, ■ new*papers were circulated during the voyage; the Cressy had the “Cressy'"" Times,” and the Charlotte Jane hud two, the “Cockroach” and the “SeaPie.” These were in manuscript: are they still in existence, aud_ where P At least one, literary production of tha voyage had acquired immortality, tha “ Night-watch Song of the Charlotte Jane,” written on mid-ocean. November 2, by James Edward Fitzgerald. As noted, its writer was the first to set foot on Canterbury soil. He has been described as a man of about sft llin, with shoulders rather inclining'forward, giving his chest an indrawn _ appear ance: he usually carried a stick, and . ■wore a billy-cock hat, with clothes that - seemed to hang loosely about him; his hair was straight and rather long; his , features long and intellectual. He was a splendid writer and speaker, everready with wit or sarcasm. He had. a run at the “Springs” (Springston),, from which he might often he seen ui the old days driving to Christchurch in a vehicle of his own design—long and low-bodied, on huge broad-tyred wheels : in this he would stand holding a long whip, driving tandem. His vehicle was known as the Circulating Medium, which recalls one of his jokes: What is the difference between a Circulating Medium and a Medium Circulation? Answer —None whatever; thev are both wanted in the little tin times (“Lyttelton Times.”) There Is an old view extant (see on© in the Exhibition) giving a good idea of portion of the deck of an emigration ship. The one referred to shows part of the Randolph, and is a sketch made during the voyage. It is very different from the deck of a modern passenger boat. There is a clear space, broken only by the mast, from bulwark to bulwark, each bulwark being about eight feet high, and closed in for protection; an awning could also be, spread owhead. The dresses were as different as the boat; the men wore and tall hats, the women mantl« and • poke bonnets of early Victorian days.