THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT SHORTRIED ANDERSON

Turnbull Library Record, Volume I, Issue 4, 1 November 1968, Page 4

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT SHORTRIED ANDERSON

It is well known that the autobiographies and journals of persons who occupied positions of little social or political significance often throw more light on the character of their society than those of the noteworthy. A recent most interesting and valuable donation in this category by Miss M. Digges Smith of Wellington, is the autobiography of Robert Shortried Anderson (1833-1874). These reminiscences of a draughtsman-clerk-labourer in two small volumes were probably written with publication in mind for there are several references to the “reader”. The text appears to have been based on diaries kept at the time, for the narrative is arranged in chronological form in dated paragraphs which in sections are little more than diary entries. The first section covers Anderson’s early life in Edinburgh but from his departure in July 1851 for Melbourne until the diary concludes in January 1859 the record is detailed. From the indirect evidence of a list of dates in the end-paper of the New Zealand volume the narrative could have been assembled in 1861 when Anderson was 28 years old and possibly more settled than before.

The son of an Edinburgh piano maker he attended Deans Street School and Wm. Cairns’s Academy. After trying various occupations including a term with a druggist he was for a comparatively brief spell in his real element in the drawing room of an architect where his talent for sketching was encouraged. However he decided to emigrate to Australia and sailed on the Northumberland from the Thames on 22 July 1851, landfall in Port Phillip being made over three months later on 2 November.

Some two months earlier the first payable goldfield at Ballarat had been found and Melbourne was already showing the features of a gold rush town. Jobs in the architectural field which Anderson sought were not to be had in the prevailing unsettled conditions. However within a few days he had obtained a position as an assistant in a chemist’s shop to be opened on the new Mount Alexander field. The small party of three left Melbourne on 19 November with a dray of stores and six days later arrived at Forest Creek, where they pitched tent. Anderson’s immediate duties were as diverse as might be expected but seemed chiefly to sell not beer or spirits but ginger beer, lemonade, raspberry vinegar at 6d or a shilling per glass. His talents as a sketcher found immediate reward for on 29 November he made several drawings which he sold the same day for -£3.i0.0d and received numerous orders for more from the diggers. Miners’ grievances were quickly ventilated but not as quickly settled. Anderson happened coincidentally to be on the field when the diggers

protested against the considerable increase in the licence fee. 1 He records “. . . Monster diggers Meeting advertised today in placards pasted and nailed to the trees calling the population to assemble at the Commissioners Camp to protest against the Government raising the licence fee, which is at present 30s. per month. The evening was a general festival apparently by all the mining population - tents and stores decorated with flags of all nations and patterns - guns and pistols were firing in every direction, skyrockets and various fireworks enlivening the scene, Music in the evening, we had some splendid illuminations - a memorable night - this in the Australian forests. - the diggers had received intelligence that the licence fee would remain as formerly.” 2 emid • rb > liu?

Not yet strong enough to become a miner himself he returned to Melbourne after a few weeks and was lucky enough to obtain a clerical position in the Post Office. Here his drafting ability was soon recognised and he was given an opportunity of preparing plans for an extension to the main Post Office building. “In course of time I had the satisfaction of seeing my designs carried out to a great extent.-” 3 Three months later his salary was raised to -£l5O and he was asked by the PostmasterGeneral “to work out a design for a new office”. Anderson claimed that his plans received the special approbation of Governor C. J. La Trobe. “The designs of the Colonial Architect did not meet the views of the Postmaster General and were pronounced by the Government far too expensive -” 4 His comments on the expansion of Melbourne and the cost of living at the height of the fever are of interest: “Melbourne is extending in size for miles in all directions - and houses

are scarcely to be had at any rent to accommodate the thousands pouring into Melbourne every week from all parts of the globe. A two roomed house is readily ; seized upon at £6 per week provisions and everything enormously dear, washing io to 12/-: per dozen [sic] water 10/- a load [;] wood -£3.10/- to -£5. Hundreds of people newly arrived; emigrants sleep in the streets, and about the wharves .-h . thousands of people have taken up their quarters in tents and huts on the southern side of the Yarra over Prince’s Bridge . . . this place is . . . designated by the name of‘Canvass Town’ . . . The people are finding great . fault with the Government the management of the various Government Offices being shameful the post Office in particular; hundreds of people complaining of missing letters, one man posted a letter directed to himself every day regularly for two weeks . . . out of twelve letters he only received two!! ...” 1 .H'; k Anderson for a brief period prospered* his salary being raised to -£6OO per annum. He married after a trying and naively described courtship but trouble loomed. Sir Charles Hotham’s efforts to cut down expenditure 5 were fairly drastic and “nearly half the number of Government

officers of all ranks were dismissed the service at little more than a day’s notice. Unfortunately for myself in this manner I lost my appointment ...” The subsequent receipt of -£l5O compensation Anderson considered small recompense and his fortunes steadily declined. He unsuccessfully tried storekeeping in Melbourne and went hopefully to the Mount Blackwood diggings for merely an unrewarding return journey. His wife and child left him; there was a temporary reconciliation but for economic reasons Mrs Anderson returned to her mother after which she receives only passing mention as a distant memory. He decided that he had to leave Victoria - anywhere else, even New Zealand would be better, with assets down to and a reasonable suit of clothes. The captain of the schooner Ariel gave him a passage in the dunnage and on 8 March 1856 the vessel berthed in Wellington Harbour. 6

In Wellington he worked at Karori for a farmer Barnes 7 and later for a baker Peter Christison before obtaining a more congenial appointment as a draughtsman in the Provincial Survey Office. His brother, J. G. Anderson, who had followed him to Australia, 8 early in 1857 encouraged him to return to Melbourne in the slender expectation of a more attractive job and very foolishly Robert heeded him. He sailed in April 1857 but the position in Melbourne did not materialize. J. G. Anderson then decided to accompany his brother back to New Zealand and in July 1857 they arrived in Auckland on the Martha. 9 Early in 1858 we find Robert Anderson helping to establish his brother on a Northland bush farm at Otaki inland from Whangarei. In January 1859 he was back in the city and was fortunate enough to obtain a position as a clerk-draughtsman and in this presumably more permanent and happy environment the record ceases a month later. Nothing more has so far been found regarding Robert until his death at the age of 41 in the Provincial Hospital, Parnell, on 14 March 1874. 10 The death certificate gives his occupation as draughtsman which would indicate that he was at least successful in retaining his interests and possibly his position for the remaining fifteen years of his life. We know from a directory entry in 1866 that he was a clerk in the General Post Office, Parnell. 11

The autobiography itself deals only with the few persons and the events within the immediate experience of its writer. There is no compacted staccato name-dropping of the great and the not so good as in the Jerningham Wakefield diary noted elsewhere in this issue; the paragraphs rather reflect the awkward labours of an unfortunate, not very strong willed and at times rather priggish young man. But if one trims away or ignores the assumed literary gloss a crude, roughly drawn but clear and unique picture emerges from the fog of words to show what life was like for a section of the community in early New Zealand.

Anderson’s account of the Tasman crossing in the Ariel, omitted from these extracts, his impressions of the Barnes family in Karori, Peter Christison, the Wellington baker, and the storekeeper, John Sutherland and his wife, Robert Park, surveyor, and the arrival of the emigrant “hell-ship” the Ann Wilson, give us something of Wellington which no other known letters and journals quite do in this period. In Auckland and Whangarei he is again more unsettled, and spends less time in recording personalities and occurrences. However for the local historian the Maungatapere visit of 1858 has possible interest, while the two brothers’ photographic studio in Auckland in September 1857 must be very nearly a “first”.

Two features of the narrative call for comment. The references to Maoris are very few. Urban Wellington, even in 1856, had already asserted its European character and the newcomer, unless temperamentally or occupationally drawn to the Maori, seems to have ignored his as far as possible, certainly in the circle of Andersons’ associates. The other aspect is the relatively frequent migration between Australia and New Zealand which would appear to have been greater in proportion to the population than now. Robert Anderson’s medium was the pencil not the pen and somewhat lengthy extracts with minimal editing are necessary to achieve their modest effect. In the selections which it is proposed to publish in the next two or three numbers of the Record all textual omissions are indicated. As far as possible his unusual, almost irrelevant punctuation has been followed, except where it has been necessary to change commas to full-stops. Capitals have been provided for place-names and at the commencement of sentences. The subdivision into chapters in the original has been ignored.

The first extract begins after he has described Wellington and its harbour and is about to disembark. .. It was Saturday morning. I arranged and tied up my bundle and with infinite satisfaction bade adieu to my lodgings with a faint hope that I might never have occasion to go to sea again - But at the first offset in New Zealand my troubles appeared to commence. I had no cash to pay the boatman to ‘row me over the water’ and found it necessary to sell my cherished Tobacco box for which I received two shillings - I paid the waterman i/- and with the other I had some refreshment when I landed - After doing ample justice to coffee milk, new bread and fresh butter, I lit my pipe and walked leisurely along with my ‘swag’. The place appeared novel enough to me. I wandered about a good while, and while smoking I got lost in a train of reflections, the whole of my previous life at home, scenes and life at Australia - My wife, my dismissal from employment all rose up in order. I started up suddenly and thought of my situation at present, and being dinner time, I considered the best way of providing

myself with a meal. I felt rather encumbered with my blankets & bedding and turned them into twelve shillings with little difficulty. Just as I was going into a Cook shop I met some of my shipmates who said they were delighted with the place. They employed me to make a sketch of the harbour which I did in about two hours, and after paying for paper and drawing pencils I cleared with this job and other one for Mr. Lindsay about seventeen shillings - My stock of funds were now in all twenty nine shillings, and I began to think myself pretty independant [sic] - Having had a ‘nobler’ and a dinner on the strength of it, I began to think of making enquiries for employment - I first entered a baker’s shop, Peter Christison’s, 12 on the beach, ‘Weel my man are ye just come ashore?’ ‘Just landed out of the “Ariel”’ I replied. ‘What part of Scotland are you frae?’ ‘Edinburgh’ I replied - Come inside old man, what duy they “caw ye” ’ & so on he went, and a long conversation ensued between us. The good baker insisted on me having some dinner, but I declined, accepting his invitation to tea instead - I explained my present situation to him and my wishes for the future.

He gave me plenty of encouragement more beer and gin and concluded with a graphic description of New Zealand, ‘Aye Mawn’ says he ‘This is a moun-tayn-eous country, but “aye Mawn” its a fine country’ - I found this thirty five year baker a broad Scotsman, and to use a colonial phrase, a queer old fiddle; his wife a fat plump and hearty dame was very kind hearted. I drank tea with this pair in the evening, and I obtained comfortable lodgings for the night at Kenedy’s Hotel, 13 which in my opinion is the best place of the kind in the settlement. Sunday morning. Had a most refreshing sleep and comfortable breakfast for once, after which I took a stroll through the town and met some of my ship mates. We took a long walk out by Kai Ware Ware and proceeded along the Porirua road for several miles. It would be a fruitless effort on my part to convey a just idea of the fine scenery we witnessed. We reached Wellington about two o’clock. I dined at Miller’s Freemason’s Hotel and after that had another walk through the town. I called at a store out of curiosity to make enquiries for employment.

The store was kept by Mr. George Hogan a native of Jamaica. This darkie asked me if I wanted work, and if I would go to the bush. I told him of course I wanted employment. He told me his father in law and his son would be in town in about an hour and in the meantime invited me in to have tea. I learned that Mr. Hogan had a considerable property and had rapidly made himself wealthy commencing farming a few years ago his wife keeping a store, and selling the proceeds of her father’s farm consisting chiefly of Butter cheese eggs milk etc. I found them very intelligent and civil, they had been married several years, Mrs Hogan being Mrs Barnes eldest daughter - There being two Barnes’s, for the sake of distinction I shall call one Old Barnes, and his

son Bill Barnes. The old woman, old Barnes’s wife; and Sally, young Barnes’ wife these characters I now introduce to the readers acquaintance. After making an end of tea, Tramp, tramp, comes in two jovial looking fellows into the small back chamber where I was sitting and pop goes two ginger beer bottles, the cork of one hitting Harriet, Hogan’s wife on the cheek. ‘I say Harriet, who have you got here, says the old man - ‘A new comer wanting a job in the bush’ roared out the Black-man’s wife, loud enough to be heard a quarter of a mile down the beach - The old man was deaf as a doornail - Some conversation followed and it was unanimously carried that my application for work was accepted ... Old Barnes was apparently about fifty, 14 stout, strong, of great muscular strength, his deportment was quiet, grave and extremely reserved. When under the influence of grog he was full of all sorts of mischief, fond of songs and took delight in relating an assortment of anecdotes, generally not of a very moral character. He is said

to be very industrious, a hard and good workman ... he left England without a farthing in his pocket, earned seven pounds on the passage making boots. Occasionally this superannuated shoemaker of Romney Marsh wore spectacles. He had some hard struggles in this Colony, and has been settled on his farm at Park Vale about nine miles from Wellington for the last fifteen years. His industrious habits reflect great credit on him being never idle a minute from rising till bed time. However I found this denizen of the bush at times very unreasonable and many an oath he has discharged at me and all alike. He never tasted grog throughout the week till Saturday when we all came into town and invariably had a jolification [sic] returning home after drinking sundry tumblers of strong waters . . . The Sundays were employed by him making boots, repairs about the place, shooting. Sunday and Week day were both alike to old Barnes. Bill a good looking fellow of about twenty was different in many respects from his father but like him he was fond of grog, although of much more sober habits . . . The old woman, fat and

plump, enormous grey eyes and round face reminded me of old Mother Wilkinson in Melbourne. Her huge proportions astonished me. But people fa ten [sic] in the country especially when there is plenty of milk and pork. She had been fifteen years in the Bush and had only been in Wellington during that period eight or nine times to see ‘Harriet’ - She was remarkably obliging kind good tempered and a little deaf. She sometimes lent her assistance in milking the cows, and made all the butter, cheese, etc. Unlike her husband she had some pretentions to religion and i good manners, could chat away for hours and laugh occasionally playing sometimes on f the clarionette. Sally was -the daughter of a Wesleyan minister in Sydney whom Bill had persuaded to unite her fate with his. She was apparently about twenty four years of age, very sharp features and slender proportions. Her manners were

those of a lady. To return to Wellington beach. Behold the old man Bill and I each mounted on a horse and plying a cigar ready to start. I got on pretty fair, we had nine miles to go over a rugged country of dense bush and it was past six o.c. in the evening of Sunday when we started. A brisk gallop soon brought us to the bush the old man leading the way . . . The road for about four or five miles was macadamised . . . after leaving the high road we entered the forests ... The narrow track wound about many a steep and precipitous hill, descending into deep and dark ravines, the right side being flanked by overhanging precipices and the left by fathomless chasms all darkened by dense forest and luxuriant vegetation . . . Some parts of the road are perpetually excluded from the rays of the sun and it soon became so dark that I had to hold on by a rope from the old man’s horse to guide me ... At last we halted at Bills farm, and the old man and I proceeded to the main

station about a mile further on . . . we suddenly emerged from the forest and reached the clearing, and looking down into a valley a thousand feet below us I perceived the lights of his hut. 15 Down we went by a circuitous track, and several dogs began to give warning of our approach . . . Of course I was not expected by the old woman, but she gave me a hearty and real bush reception - I beg to introduce my reader to a new hand in the person of ‘Holder’ alias Flick alias ‘tight’ alias James, the Cook, and Son in law of old Barnes. James Holder a young man who had seen better days, the son of a nobleman, of an excellent extraction. He had by extravagance and drink reduced himself to his present position. Behold this denizen of the bush crouched up in a corner of the hut, with a red nightcap on, a pair of trousers. . . the ends of which were just a little below his knees. A more careworn sooty wretch, with a beard ... I never saw among the sons of white men ... We had a most prodigious supper consisting of hot mutton turnips carrots cabbage, pork potatoes, ham, Tea Coffee damper apple pudding, a rich Cape gooseberry pie and loads of everything backed by copious draughts of Cape wine ...”

As cowman, prentice bush-feller and pig-hunter Anderson found his days were well occupied and he gives a detailed summary of each of these activities. However he found the social and intellectual level of his companions limited. “Society in the Bush is in general extremely low. The females appear to know no better than the men, and laugh and join in the vulgar conversation. The ignorance of the Bush settlers in most cases is lamentable, Bill Barnes ... to use his own words, ‘Bob, I am no schollard’ - I had not been long on the farm but what I was looked upon as a curiosity - Farmers came miles to gossip & conjecture who I was, a ‘schollard’ in the bush being something rare . . . [After one pig-hunt] The good old man advised me to keep the tail I had shattered and send it in a letter as trophy of my exploits to my wife!

Many a joke on this subject they had at my expense after that. What would the townsmen of St. Monance Fifeshire think ... if they witnessed our sport. . . “. . . for the last two weeks I was on the farm we were employed making a cart road through the bush, and hard work it is, cutting through the rocks, and at last after much work with the pick mattock, shovel tearing up trees, making bridges, we completed nearly two miles of a good passable road - Sometimes we were employed for days burning the forest the most disagreeable job I think in the bush, returning home worse than so many chimney sweeps. Such is the short outline of my first experience in the New Zealand Bush. I here give a sketch of my first employers, who are enjoying themselves in Kenedy’s Nelson Hotel, on Saturday. The darkie represents Hogan, the old man’s son in law and the one with the jug of beer, Bill Barnes. In conclusion I could not get very fat on five shillings a week! and as the winter was about commencing I left Barnes’ and after seeing Peter Christison, I managed to work for him as a baker for a change

“Peter Christison was a very tall and stout man. He had been in America, London, and Australia, and had made a considerable amount of money. He was considered one of the best bakers in the settlement, But a most eccentric old fiddle and stupid ass was he. Like old Barnes he appeared to know nothing about anything else in the world except

his own trade and that I must say he knew well, so far as to make the sale of his bread pay better than any other similar establishment . . . I could see his strong propensities for drinking would be his sure ruin. He seldom attended to more than half of his orders ... his ; wife, a fat lady, very good natured was as ignorant as himself, and might class with the rank of washerwoman, fond of gin, gossip, and good living - This pair . . . had a most enormous family, and what is rather amusing all girls but one ... To hear the chattering, of these she tigers, would astonish the gravest... Their parents swearing at them from morning till night - The extravagance in this family knew no limits . . . Mr. Christison let part of his premises to a gentleman . . .John Henry Warren, a Bookbinder, the only one of that business in Wellington. Warren was a gentleman who had seen better days and who Peter had led on to drink till at last they went hand in hand with their ‘bouts’ and seemed [but to live for one ( another - Warren boarded with Christison, who took every advantage iof the excessive good nature and kindness of his tenant and boarder ... To commence however with my own history in the ‘Baking line’ -

‘Wee!’ Roeburt, my boooey. I’ll gie, ye mair nor that man guid ye,’ and he kept his word by first offering me six, but made it seven shillings per week - with an excellent living plenty of beer and gin! and a bed in the bake house that ... far surpasses in nastiness, filth, vermin, rags and darkness the tween decks of the ‘Ariel’ My days work was in general much the same one day will suffice. I am snoozing in my bed in the Bakehouse where the Seabreezes, and Spray of the Sea is dashing over me at full tide - Christison enters the bakehouse about three o’clock in the morning, and I turn out of bed - We commence to make the dough for the bread and light the fires which job takes half an hour - The oven being full of wood and so dry that a spark of fire sets it soon in flames. Christison then turns into bed again and I could have done the same, but I never liked to do so. I generally lit my pipe and lay down on the Baking dressers enjoying the heat of the oven and yarning with a fellow baker in Christison’s employ. The mornings at. Wellington are 'frequently most bitterly cold and frosty. At 6 o.c. We called Christison ... . and then we proceed to weigh the dough of for about

two hundred loaves . . . and by nine o.c. they are all shaped and put in the oven. We then went into the Parlour and had breakfast after which I cleaned myself and got the wheelbarrow, loaded with loaves and delivered bread to our customers for a mile or so in one direction - returned home and had dinner - and took out a load in another direction and lastly went up with a-basket of bread to Wellington Terrace for a mile and a half. I purchased, the yeast daily at the; Wellington Brewery .-. Underneath is a sketch taken by a friend of mine as I delivered bread in the streets of Wellington; observe the yeast can

hanging alongside the barrow. [Unfortunately the sketch was omitted] Sometimes I had to take a journey to Kai Ware, a good distance from town, the work I found very hard but Peter C. coaxed me up, and invariably produced the gin bottle when I spoke of too much work - In the afternoon we made all sorts of small wares and confectionery .. . On Monday mornings I made out all the accounts, posted up his Books. Every evening after six o.c. I used to enjoy myself the best way I could, I could find no peace at home . . . for the squabbling of such a herd of female tigers ...”

Conditions improved a little when he received a rise in wages to fifteen shillings a week but he appeared to be as susceptible to his employer’s weaknesses as the boarder whom he had earlier criticised. A lengthy story centres round an alcoholic afternoon at Calder’s Hotel Kaiwharawhara, which culminated in Anderson’s being carried back some two miles in a bread basket on Christison’s back. However this incident and new friends from ‘better society’ encouraged him to collect something of his self respect and to make some effort to improve his prospects. “About this time the Government advertised premiums for the best Designs for the House of Assembly and Provincial Government Offices. I determined to make one bold effort to better my condition and competed . . . The amount voted for the works was My plans were estimated at .£3500 by my friend John Maclaggan. For a long time many of the best judges in Wellington considered I should have received one of the prizes, but I was disappointed. My plans were, however, blazed about through the town; they were made honorable mention of in the Government Gazette, 16 and also in the public Newspapers. The Superintendent sent for me and the person who estimated my plans, and informed me he had no power to accept my designs not being one of the judges, but. .. told me he liked my designs better than any of the rest, and requested me to make out two more complete sets ... in two styles he named as he would not adopt any of the designs sent in by the Competitors... I completed them, got them estimated at about £6OOO each, & the Superintendent was highly pleased . . .

Some alteration of the proposed site became necessary, which greatly affected my last designs. The Superintendent at last got the Colonial Architect to make a plan, taking ideas from my designs as well as several others. The design adopted is a miserable specimen of architecture, and the details are outrageous 17 - The Superintendent in consideration of my services could only give me an appointment in the Provincial Service, and asked me which Department I should like to be employed in. I told Him the Survey Office ... I was appointed as Draughtsman . . . The hours are ten to three, and ten to twelve on Saturdays -1 spent all my spare time nearly in study - Architecture, etc. I had now made a large circle of friends in the Colony and had my

hands full of private jobs. . . among my adopted designs in Wellington is the store of Messrs Stewart Kinross & Co., the largest in the Province, Mr. Barraud’s shop front and several other shops, and villas in the country - In addition to these jobs I had regular indoor pupils . . .” “On the thirteenth of January 1857 I was solemnly initiated and made a member of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Odd Fellows. We held a meeting every Monday at the Nelson Hotel . . . Before my appointment a few of our musical friends got up an instrumental and vocal company in connextion with the Wellington Philharmonic Society & I was requested to join the Company . . . Our branch was chiefly confined to choruses and serenading pieces. Eight of us used to meet twice a week on the stage of one of the theatres for rehersal with our banjos, tambourines, violins guitars, bones, concertina, and the flutina which was my instrument. I was always fond of music and many a night I have passed very agreeably at the rehersals and meetings. . . The first concert was not intended to be given for several months and was advertised about the time I left Wellington - ... I was

very comfortable with Mr. Sutherland. But I had no very great opinion of his wife who proved to be one of the most unruly, nasty, vulgar, offensive, repulsive, insulting and ill bred females I ever came in contact with - She never could keep the same female servants in her house more than a fortnight being constantly in a grumble. Mr Sutherland I found most excessively kind and good natured, poor man he has had many a ‘shindy \ with his wife ... Mr. Sutherland conducts one of the most extensive grocery concerns 18 in New Zealand and keeps a number of hands employed in his premises. He is well educated but woefully credulous; his system of credit surpasses everything I ever heard tell of. The good natured man never sends his bills out unless he requires money at the time. The store is never empty of customers and filled nightly ...” “About the month of April 1857 I received letters from my brother in Melbourne, advising me to return to Australia, John telling me my prospects were much better there and that he had sufficient influence to obtain a situation for me- I was extremely sorry to leave N.Z. I really loved the settlement and my prospects were most flattering here, but in an evil hour, and to my infinite sorrow and regret ever afterwards I was mad enough and fool hardy to resign my appointment. I wrote a letter to Mr. Park telling him my reasons for resignation, and thanked him for all the kind services I had received at his hands ...”

“Gold has been discovered in several parts of New Zealand, and especially near Nelson where numbers are daily preparing to proceed. I have seen large quantities of Nelson gold, where hundreds of people are at work and all doing very well - When I left Peter Christison he got a man in my place the baker of the Oliver Lang ship who deserted

the vessel. He remained a short time with Peter and proceeded to Nelson where he was very successful, and returned to Wellington where he had brass enough to open a large baking business three doors from his late employer, and canvas for numbers of Peter’s customers, - . . .” 19

“The people of Wellington are extremely sociable and obliging in their manners especially to new comers. They seem to vie with each other who can render a new settler most assistance. - The people dress generally very plainly, and even the aristocracy, would excite the amazement of our Melbourne friends by the manner they dress. Here is Robert Park, Surveyor General, who smokes a pipe in the street, dressed in a blue shirt, or a silk crimson jacket, and a ‘triangular’ head piece or sort of nightcap with a tassel hanging down to his elbows 20 - And our Chief Commissioner of crown lands [William Fox] drives into town every morning in a Donkey Cart. The Members of the Provincial Council are not over particular either in the streets, for Mr. Sutherland and I assisted that huge ‘three decker’ Mr. Macmannaway 21 M.P.C. home one evening in a state of great rejoicing - Land is cheap enough here, ten shillings per acre, and plenty at five. A few miles from town a hundred acres could easily be purchased for -£25 with advantage. The Town of Wellington, the scenery in its vicinity, and all over the Province is picturesque in the extreme. Every variety of scenery is met with. The rich alpine scenery, and snow capped mountains of the Wairarapa is indeed sublime - The police are all Maoris or natives - and no great favourites with the white man. The principal exports from Wellington are potatoes, Butter, cheese, pork, timber etc etc. The harbour and rivers abound with fish ...”

“Immigrants land at Wellington, where they are told immediate employment can be had. They are sent to work on the roads at from four to six shillings per day, one third of which sum the Government retain to pay their passage money . . . They are provided with lodging wood water etc. The Barracks at Mackara, Wairarapa and other places may be seen to bear the following signs - The Victims Boarding shop, The Martyr’s Hall, The Dupes Club and starving Society. The fact is the men think they are ill used and are not satisfied with their pay although they only work eight hours per day receiving ninepence for every additional hour they choose to work ...” “One Sunday morning I was enjoying a pipe after breakfast in the garden at the back of Mr. Sutherland’s house, and saw a sail coming round Port Halsewell. I watched it with the glass and made her out to be a barque, (The Anne Wilson chartered by the Black Ball line to convey Government Emigrants to Wellington) this vessel had been long expected - I was rather surprised to see how crowded her decks were, and good [sic] not help remarking how eagerly the passengers

and crew were crowding foreword. It immediately struck me forcibly something was wrong. I called the attention of Mr. Sutherland and we proceeded to the jetty and got a boat and put off to the vessel now anchored, where we witnessed such a scene I can never eradicate from my memory and heard frightful tales of suffering. The vessel had left Liverpool with two months supply of provisions and water and had been more than five months on the passage. Before they had been a month at sea the provisions were found to be short. From some mismanagement the Captain sailed several thousand miles out of his course. Several men women and children died on the passage from starvation - and a pint of water among three men was the daily allowance for a long time. One poor man offered the Captain ten pounds for a bottle of port wine which was refused him, his wife and children were dying - A squall came on and smashed two dozen of wine immediately afterwards - For the last eight days it is said the passengers had nothing to eat or drink: The whole inhabitants of Wellington hastened down to the

beach and vied with each [other] in rendering assistance for the unfortunates ...” “The Emigration barracks were close adjoining Mr. Sutherland’s house, and from the windows we witnessed the poor wretches who could hardly stand on their feet, being carried and conveyed in Carts and Vans to the barracks. The second mate was supported by two others. Mr. Sutherland, and his men with myself employed all this day day in relieving the sick and attending to them, some were bewailing the loss of husbands, others their wives and children. In fact, the mass of the people were living skeletons, and their bones might be counted - The Captain’s Conduct had been most outrageous . . .”

“The Superintendent was one of the first to go on board after the vessel came to an anchor. A supply of apples was given to the Captain to distribute among the sick, who commenced scattering them about the decks. The Superintendent thundered out to the Captain, ‘Thats not the way to distribute apples to sick men.’ ‘Who the devil are you?” the Captain said, ‘and what have you got to do with it.’ ‘lve got nothing to do with the apples certainly, but as Supdt. of this province I’ll quickly let you know I’ve got something to do with you.’ The Captain was tried in Court. I had not heard the result up to the time I left Wellington. . . .” 21 At last the ‘Marchioness’ has arrived from Melbourne and we sail at midnight on Good Friday, or early on Saturday morning. With great regret I made preparations for leaving this romantic place where I have met with so many strange adventures. I bade farewell to my kind friends, John McLagan the Sutherlands, Christison, Warren, and numerous others. On Friday morning I got a boat and proceeded out to the vessel where I heard the black cook carolling the following lines

in a doleful strain, accompanied by a chorus from the seamen, They were evidently making merry on Good Friday.” “Oh! would I were a cook again 22 In the Ahuriri where one can please Where all I ever heard of pain Was indigestion caused by cheese, - Was indigestion etc. etc. When every plate I dished up then Was sure to gain enconiums warm Oh would that I could know again The happy days of the Reform, Oh, oh, would I were etc. etc. etc. T’is vain to mourn I should have flown To Wairarapa there to stay Or murmur that mine hands have known The burden of ten meals per day! - The burden etc. etc. But still my heart doth fondly cling To scenes no longer prized as truth And memory still delights to bring The happy visions of my youth. Oh Would I were a Cook again! etc. etc. etc. [To be continued]

NOTES ■ ‘ io . ■: ifonuiM lit *.o iontvoiSi oth toi vrc> 1 Serle, G. The golden age, 1 966, pp 25-6 and frontispiece drawing. 2 Anderson, R. S. Autobiography, 16 December 1851. 3 Ibid, 30 June 1852. 4 Ibid. 5 See Serle, op. cit, pp 157-60 for the background to the crisis and the resulting measures. 6 The New Zealand Spectator and Cooks Strait Guardian, 8 March 1856 records the arrival of the schooner Ariel, 150 tons, from Melbourne but as is frequently the case, there is no passenger list. 7 The electoral roll for Wellington Country Districts 1856-7 in Wellington Provincial Gazette 15 July 1856 (p 83) records both William Barnes and William Barnes junr, farmers of Park Vale, Karori. 8 The diary kept by J. G. Anderson during his voyage to Australia in 1853 forms part of the collection but the entries were not maintained after his arrival. 9 The Martha, schooner, 99 tons, arrived on 8 July 1857 (Daily Southern Cross 8 September 1857). The listed passengers include both Messrs ‘J. Anderson [and] G. Anderson’. 10 Death Certificate, Registrar-General’s Office. 11 Stevens & Bartholomew’s New Zealand Directory, 1866-7.

12 Peter Christison, baker, was a passenger on the Clifton, a New Zealand Company emigrant ship which arrived in Wellington on 18 February 1842. According to the New Zealand Company Embarkation Register he was aged 32 and his wife Lydia 25 (p 117). 13 Anderson lists the Wellington hotels at the time of his visit as ‘Rottermunds at Te Aro, White Nag, Barry’s Ship Inn, Te Aro Hotel, The Aurora, Crown and Anchor, Kenedy’s Nelson Hotel, The Royal Hotel, Gawith’s Family Hotel, Swinbournes Commercial Hotel’. 14 ‘Old Barnes’ William Barnes, by trade a blacksmith, arrived in Wellington on the Gertrude in November 1841 with his wife Harriet and family of four, among whom William Junr then a boy of 14 is not shown. William junr or William Robert Barnes (b 1827) died in Wellington in 1922 at the age of 95. 15 Anderson’s apparent exaggeration of the extent of the drop into the Karori valley, unless the farm was then approached via Johnston’s Hill, is in keeping with his description of the character of the track. 16 Not so far located.

17 A sketch of the building is in C. R. Carter’s Life and recollections of a New Zealand colonist, vol 2, facing p 126. Carter was the builder of the offending design and incidentally gives in his Chapter vii a good summary of the economic and political background to the year 1857 in Wellington. 18 The 1856-7 electoral roll ( op . cit. p 80, Wellington Town) lists John Sutherland, storekeeper, Molesworth St. Anderson’s frankness in enlarging upon the failings of his landladies - Mrs Sutherland’s weaknesses take up several pages of the text - has a famous precedent. Edward Gibbon wrote of Madame Pavillard, the wife of the Lausanne teacher to whose household he had been banished after his near con-

version to Roman Catholicism: ‘The Minister’s wife governed our domestic oeconomy: I now speak of her without resentment, but in sober truth, she was ugly, dirty, proud, ill-tempered and covetous.’ (Gibbon, Memoirs of my life, ed. Georges A. Bonnard, 1966, p 69.) 19 The cook from the Oliver Lang must have been one of the few lucky prospectors in the 1856 Motueka rush. Although as many as 300 were on the field at its peak ‘the gold was obtained in such small quantities as to render the occupation unremunerative.’ Broad, The jubilee history of Nelson, 1892, p 122. 20 Robert Park one of the Company’s foundation surveyors was appointed Chief Surveyor for the Province of Wellington in March 1857. The issue of the Wellington Provincial Gazette listing his appointment (WPG, 20 March 1857) has on the same page (p 57) the appointment of R. S. Anderson as ‘Assistant Draughtsman’. 21 T. D. McManaway, surveyor and settler (1810-1894) represented Wellington Country Districts in the Provincial Council from 1856 to 1858. 22 The notorious case of the Ann Wilson was the subject both of a Provincial enquiry and a Court case. The Captain was convicted of breaches of the Passengers’ Act, 1855 and fined £1,860 plus costs. See ‘Correspondence relative to the complaints of the “Ann Wilson” and proceedings connected therewith’ in Wellington Provincial Council Acts and proceedings, 1857.