NEW ZEALAND IN 1841

Taranaki Daily News, 25 June 1931, Page 12

NEW ZEALAND IN 1841

AGED WOMAN SETTLER. EARLY EARTHQUAKES. Still living in Christchurch is a woman who arrived in New Zealand 90 years ago, and who came to Canterbury two years before the arrival of the first four ships (says the Christchurch Sun). She is Mrs. Emma Wadman, of 41 Fitzgerald Avenue, who arrived in 1841 at the age of two, and with her .parents, sisters and brothers (one of whom was pilot Day, of Sumner, who was then three weeks old), settled at Day’s Bay, Wellington. The frequency and severity of the earthquakes, and especially the shake in October, 1848, prompted the Day family to move to Canterbury, and they had been settled at Lyttelton nearly two years before the first four ships arrived. “My grandfather had a farm in Kent,” said Mrs. Wadman, “where he bred prize cattle. But pleural pneumonia broke out among them and ruined him. That was nearly a century ago, and he died a poor and broken man. My father was consequently left penniless, and, gathering up a few goods, he brought us out to New Zealand in a brig called The Arab. We settled at Day’s Bay, which was named after my father, and we lived in a mud house on the beach. “‘When we retired at night two things worried us—earthquakes and the Maoris. Our home was only 12 miles from the seat of war, and awful tales of the cruelty of tho Maoris reached our ears. Even though I was a very small child at the time, I shall never forget the earthquakes, especially "the one that lifted the Wellington harbour three feet. It brought down the best part of our house. I can remember the morning that a vessel came into the harbour and Shelled the coastline by the Hutt; that successfully ended the fighting in that quarter.” The Day family left Wellington at the end of 1848 and went to Lyttelton in a brig called The Sisters. Mr. Day, however, took the household goods and a cow down in his own small boat. He erected a hut at the foot of the old zigzag on the Lyttelton side. “My father superintended the construction of the zig-zig,” continued Mrs. Wadman, “and he had both Maoris and prisoners working for him. He also built the seawall at the foot of Scarborough and not one stone has ever shifted. Two of my sisters were called Canterbury’s Grace Darlings, as they went to the assistance of some men stranded on the Spit in the Estuary when the whalers stooci back and would have let the men drown. “Lyttelton was a dreadful place in which to procure fresh water in those days—there was only one pump and it would often take half a day to raise sufficient water for our meals. The arrival of the first four ships created little excitement in the port—everyone was too busy hewing out a new home ror niinself. “One tragic incident, however, attended the arrival. A man named Williams had brought out his wife and family, and as they reached the top of the Bridle Path Mr. Williams dropped dead of heart failure. His wife later opened the first draper’s shop in Christchurch, and it stood in the old Market Square. “Later we moved over the hill to Sumner, which contained only one building—the association store, which procured wood brought from Wellington by whaleboat. My father bought the store and later added an accommodation house, which was the first one in Sumner.” Mrs. Wadmans first husband, who was a first cousin to Earl Jellicoe, arrived in the Charlotte Jane, and after his marriage went to live in Colombo Street, Christchurch, opposite the site now Occupied by E. Reece Ltd. A big gully extended' from that part of Colombo Street toward the river. “The Moorhouse’s lived next door to us” said Mrs. Wadman, “but when we first landed the only other people in Canterbury were the Deans, and we often visited them. Goods in those days were brought up the Heathcote River to a place called The Quay or. Ferry Road; in fact, everything for Christchurch was landed there.”