MORE DILLON LETTERS

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 2, Issue 1, 1 April 1969, Page 29

MORE DILLON LETTERS

Andrew Sharp

In anticipation of the centenary in 1940 of the establishment of British sovereignty over New Zealand, the New Zealand High Commissioner in London made an inquiry through the press for possible family papers relating to New Zealand’s early history. One result was the loan by Miss Kathleen Dillon of Oxfordshire of letters from and to her grandfather the Hon. Constantine Augustus Dillon and his wife Fanny Dillon. They were early colonists in Nelson until in 1848 they removed to Auckland following on Dillon’s appointment by Sir George Grey as Civil and Military Secretary. I had the considerable pleasure of editing these letters, which were published under the title The Dillon Letters in 1954. Miss Dillon kindly presented the original letters to the Alexander Turnbull Library. Subsequently she found some more of the Dillons’s papers and sent them to me with permission to publish them as I thought fit; they were also presented to the Alexander Turnbull Library. Among them were three letters written by Dillon from overseas to a younger sister in London. I think these are of interest for the historical sidelights they give, and also for the light they throw on the personality and attitudes of the author, a rather unusual colonist; the son of an Irish peer, Dillon called himself a radical.

The first letter, addressed to Dillon’s sister Louisa, then unmarried, was written in Quebec on 28 September 1838. Dillon was 25, a professional soldier, aide-de-camp to the Governor-General, Lord Durham, who, following a rebellion in Lower Canada, had been appointed with extraordinary powers. Durham quickly became popular with the people of Quebec for his liberal policies. He earned the displeasure of the British Government (in which Lord Brougham was Chancellor) by a decision to transport some of the rebels without due process of law, and returned to England. His famous ‘Durham Report’, presented to the British Parliament in 1839, gave a model for the grant in due course of responsible government to a succession of British colonies, including New Zealand. Dillon’s letter to Louisa from Quebec follows: “I have to thank you my dearest Louisa for two very nice letters that you have sent me amongst others the account of Mrs Hamilton’s wedding which you may imagine interested me very much Not very long after you receive this you will have the pleasure of seeing me at Gore House or elsewhere in England as we shall go away from here in a month As you are not yet a politician I cannot explain the reasons to you but all I can tell you is that it is expected that there will be a rebellion here ten times worse than last years if Ld. Durham goes home You would have been very much amused if you had seen Lord Brougham burnt in effigy the other night they made a straw Ld. B with fire works inside and a rope round his neck it was a very fair likeness of him carved

in wood with chancellors wig and gown on after drawing him round the town for two hours with a mob of about 1500 people after them they burnt it in the public square For my part tho it may sound very ungracious to you I must say I am very sorry to go home I am very curious to see the country & particularly a winter in Canada I was just beginning to be acquainted with some people after having been very stupid all summer when all of a sudden here we are ordered home You must not think this is very ungracious because of course I am very glad to see you and all at home but it is tiresome after having had all the trouble of coming here to go back directly without seeing anything The Great Western which was to have been in at New York three days ago has not yet arrived so that I cannot give you any answer to your letters which I suppose will come by her You can have no idea of the beauty of the country now as I am now writing I look out of my window upon the finest hills covered with red & green forests for all the leaves are beginning to turn red which with a bright hot sun shining upon them has a beautiful effect particularly at Sunset I have the best room in the house we live in I think for tho it is the highest yet I have such fine views there is a large valley quite green at the foot of the rock on which Quebec is built with the river St. Charles winding in it quite like a rams horn which I can see for many miles and at the back of that the mountains with the forests for this country is covered with wood & water You will no doubt find this a most stupid letter but I am so out of sorts that I cannot write so give my love to all at home & Believe me Dearest Lou your aff broth Constantine.”

The next of the three letters to Louisa, commenced on 7 June 1847 and continued on the 28th, was written by Dillon from Nelson, where he was comfortably established as a farmer and grazier, with a growing family. Some parts of the letter are concerned with trivial matters; their omission in the following reproduction is indicated by dots: “My Dearest Louisa I do not believe that I have written to you for an immense age. ... We have had a fright from the Maoris they committed a most horrible murder 1 at a place called Wanganui on the other side of Cooks Straits I send you a paper to give you an idea of it It is the first time that they have killed women & children They threatened to come here & pay us a visit as they knew there was a great deal of powder in the magazine but they have not done so & I do not think they will I am not the least afraid of them coming here myself but it creates a feeling of insecurity which is very prejudicial to the prosperity of the country However there is now going to be a large force in N.Z. &it will keep these lawless fellows in order Our Maoris are very nice fellows most of them wear European clothing & cultivate land To give you an idea of their civilization I need only tell you that one had the coolness to come a few days ago to me and ask me to lend him a horse

to ride about 40 miles & what was more he talked me over till he got it Ido not think we have anything to fear from them.... The N.Z. Co. 2 with whom we have been at war for some time has at last offered us terms which I think are fair enough & so I think all will again prosper now I am more than ever persuaded of the good it would do a number of idle young men who hang about at home doing nothing to emigrate It is a capital school if nothing else & when Harry 3 grows up to be a young man I shall never try to dissuade him from such a step if he should fancy it At the same time I would never take the responsibility of advising any particular individual to do so as I have seen several who were totally unfit for such a life & who were very miserable & useless members of a small community where everyone ought to be more or less of some utility In your last letter you mention your going to Ireland with Charles and Lydia 4 We are anxious to hear from you after your experience of the state of the country All I see in the papers & hear from other people is perfectly awful I hope the distress is exaggerated— June 28 I resume my pen to finish this letter as a vessel is expected every hour on her way to Sidney. ... & now my dear Lou I have a commission for you if you will undertake it. . . which is as Ido not know for certain how soon I may be home & that I have read almost every book in the settlement & also some I have borrowed from Wellington I wish to have sent out to me every year -£5 worth of books but send good standard works that will do to keep for years I dare say that many will be cheap that have been published some years. I have seen Guizot’s history of the Revolution It is books of that kind I want I am now going through a course of Bentham which I have borrowed from Mr.

Chapman the judge of the Supreme Court so you see we even send to Wellington for food for the mind I cannot conceive people staying in England when they can get on so splendidly as working people can here a labourer who has been with me four years has just left me to set up for himself he landed here litterally without any property but his clothes not one copper he worked with a person for six months who cheated him & only got his victuals for that time he then staid with us four years during a short period he had week from me but most of time only 12/ & latterly I found him such a good servant that I gave him 15/ yet upon these wages this man has managed to save mony to buy cows & he now has a herd of 15 head of cattle of all ages he keeps a small dairy also some land under tillage about 10 acres a good house a wife & 2 children carts ploughs && in fact he is a farmer he can neither read nor write but is steady sober & industrious there is the secret He can be taken as one of a large class for there are many such in the same position as he is My Shepherd to whom I give £4O a year & his rent has about 15 cows of his own his wife makes cheese & upon the produce of that alone they can live comfortably & have almost all their

wages but he also is a very superior man I could name fifty in the same position if I wished On the other hand I must say that there are a lot who do nothing but growl & curse at the country all day wish themselves back in England & cant understand how any one can live in such a country these hang on for a time they then scrape together as much as will take them to Wellington or Auckland soon get tired of that & go to Sidney that is no better they try Adelaide & generally go the rounds of the Australian colonies having begun to tramp they cannot leave off some have returned but are no better for their experience They are half starved & in rags & yet will not work unless they get exorbitant wages & live a sort of vegetable idle life in a hut ... in which they have squatted & yet they are ten times better than the unfortunate overworked underpaid English labourer with nothing but the workhouse to look to If these half starved English or Irish labourers could see the way in which even the poorest & idlest thrive here they would come in flocks I am quite sure. ... I tell you all this my dear Lou that you going amongst the country people as I dare say & hope you do may be able to combat many of their foolish prejudices against emigration & make themselves & especially their children so much better off You should see the little full fat fellows proud & upright independant From old prejudices I sometimes feel a little that I am not talking to an English labourer he is not so bowing & scraping perhaps our people are a little too brusque from feeling themselves so suddenly elevated but I cannot say that I regret to see it so after giving it a moments consideration. . . . Give my love to all the dear folks at home & believe ever Dearest Louisa Your very aff brother C A Dillon.” The third letter, dated 27 to 30 January 1851, was also written from Nelson, but Dillon was merely visiting it, having removed to Auckland in 1848 when appointed Civil and Military Secretary by Sir George Grey, the Governor. Louisa, now Mrs Spencer Ponsonby, was still living in London.

“My dearest Lou. ... You are quite right the Canterbury settlement is not all in my line it is far too high church to suit my taste The population is already one quarter composed of priests of different denominations who are going to fight for the poor souls of the emigrants to give them not to God but to their respective churches. ... Sir George Grey wrote to me from Wellington a day or two since that he had heard through private letters that he would very soon be relieved I expect this will make very considerable changes in my movements as my office being one in which there is a great deal of personal intercourse with the Governor would be to any one very unpleasant to me unbearable where there did not exist the most perfect understanding with him I doubt very much if I shall meet a person again with whom I shall be able to get on as well as I have done with Sir George He is a person in whose

honour and integrity I have the most full confidence as well as in his ability He is perhaps a little too conservative to suit me entirely but then you know I am a great democrat from conviction We have however managed to live on the best terms both in our public & private relations for these last three years As a private friend I have every reason to speak highly of him and I shall always look back to the time I have known him as one in which I have received a great deal of instruction I hope when he goes home you will call on Lady Grey and make their acquaintance She is in all essentials a very nice person rather clever and has been very kind to both Fanny &me ... Believe me ever your affte brother C A Dillon”

NOTES 1 The Gilfillan murders. 2 The New Zealand Company which colonized Nelson. 3 Dillon’s eldest child. 4 A brother and another sister of Dillon.