Open Writing

We left our emigrants boarding their ships, the John Wickliffe and the Philip Laing, heading for a new life on the other side of the globe. This would not be the thirty six hour trip on a modern jumbo jet, this would be four months on a tiny boat with cramped facilities and at journey’s end they would have experienced a new way of life, survived many hardships and made new friends, groups who would support each other as the new colony was established.

But before we head aboard let’s find out how the settlement came about. There had been a great deal of dissension in the Scottish church and a break away group planned to set up a new community in New Zealand. They came to an agreement with Edward Gibbon Wakefield and the New Zealand Company to purchase 144,000 acres of land. This was to be divided into 2,400 properties consisting of quarter acre sections of town land, 10 acre blocks of allotments and 50 acre blocks of rural land. The land was to be sold at £2 per acre, 2,000 properties were to be sold off and 100 reserved for church and education, 100 for commercial use and the remaining 200 for purchase by the New Zealand Company.

Fine but where was the land and who did it really belong to? Fredrick Tuckett was the surveyor and explorer for the New Zealand Company, having worked in North Island and the top of South Island; he now turned his attention to the Deep South, to the Otago harbour.

Since 1817 there had been various white folk, sealers and whalers, living in small pockets around the coast of Otago, as there had been tribes of Maoris and some of the whalers had taken Maori wives. Jonny Jones had gathered a community at Waikouiti just north of the harbour, there his men worked hard for five months of the year and generally played havoc with riotous living for the other seven months. The Weller brothers had a settlement on the harbour until they were driven out by the Maoris and the island at the mouth of the Taieri River had a thriving sealing and whaling factory. So the area was not unknown to the white man but the population was virtually nil and the land was untamed bush, flax and dense undergrowth.

It was to this area that Tuckett headed. The harbour was second to none, surrounded by hills, and beyond the hills lay vast areas of flax swamp which could be cleared and drained. Climbing the Maungatuas, beyond Dunedin, he looked out over the Taieri Plain and towards the mountains and flat lands of Central Otago. He had found his Eldarado, a fantastic place to establish a new colony.

The land was surveyed and on 31st July, 1844 and a block of land stretching south from Otakou on the Dunedin harbour to Port Molyneux on the edge of the Catlins was purchased from the Maoris for a sum of £2,400. Wakefield had his land.

Plans were needed for the new Edinburgh, or Dunedin as it was to be known, so a chap named Kettle drew them up for the new city, back in Edinburgh, giving the streets such names as Princess Street, Moray Place and George Street, but paid no heed to the steepness of the land, the steepest street in the world is in Dunedin, Baldwin Street.

As far as Gibbon Wakefield and the leaders of what was to be the new colony were concerned everything was arranged and orders were sent to the settlers further north to head south and prepare things for the newcomers, only they never appeared.

So let’s go back to our little ships, the first two of many which would bring settlers to this area. The John Wickliffe set sail from Gravesend on the 26th November,1847, three days before the Philip Laing, with 97 passengers, the supplies and tools which would be needed to establish a new colony and cash to pay itinerant labourers. It was underway and encountered similar conditions to the Phillip Laing, but let us stay with the Laing which carried the bulk of the passengers. There were 297 of them and the steerage passengers paid 16 guineas each for passage, while those luckier ones who could afford cabins on deck paid 35 guineas and upwards. Some of the passengers had already paid for their land in the new colony whilst others travelled with the hope of earning enough to buy land at a later date.

The steerage passengers were crowded below deck in an area 50 yards by 12 yards. They were allowed to keep one month’s supply of clothing, a blanket, cooking pot and plate and mug, the rest of their belongs were stored in the hold. Their beds and quarters were benches running on either side and they had buckets for slops. How they must have wanted to emigrate!

We will travel with them on their journey and see what it was like. The route was via the Cape of Good Hope, then across to Australia, down the west coast and south across the Australian Bight, then to the south coast of New Zealand and finally north to the Otago Harbour.

As they left Greenock they hit high winds, storms and lashing rain for it was November in the Irish Sea. Wet, cold and suffering from sea sickness, no sort of order could be established, they survived amongst filthy conditions but survive they did for they were hardy Scots who had paid for the privilege of travelling to their new home. Included in their passage was a fixed amount of weekly provisions, flour, water, tea, meat, etc, the basic food to survive but the doctor withheld a good proportion of these from them, probably hoping to make a profit for the ships owners. Our hardy Scots were not pleased. The children needed porridge and porridge they would have. Arguments and disagreements took place until the doctor was brought to heel and the provisions handed out, they were having none of that sort of thing.

The bad weather over, some sort of order was set up; remember these were strict Free Church Scotsmen. Hygiene became paramount as vermin established itself. Each day before breakfast the decks were washed down with lime, baths were taken and clothes washed in sea water. Imagine the number of washing lines strung across the decks. After 10.00am breakfast morning service took place, then all the children under fourteen were divided into classes and a school was set up, education was important. Meanwhile the men and women got on with whatever needed to be done. Dinnertime came and went and tea at 5.30pm, followed by evening prayers, ended the structured part of the day. But what of the rest?

Perhaps the man to be considered most on this ship was the Reverend Thomas Burns, nephew of the famous Robbie Burns. He was to be the pastoral leader of the new colony and was also a good farmer who, in later years, was always willing to help out new immigrants with produce from his land. It is from his diary that most of these tales of life on board have come. Apart from the regular services he also buried the babies who died during the journey and baptised those who were born and, (what have we here?) he discovered a so-called married couple who were not actually joined in holy matrimony, they were living ‘over the brush’ or ‘in sin,’ this had to be rectified so a wedding service took place. Fights broke out and disagreements had to be resolved. In the evenings they got together to sing, play games and generally amuse themselves, lasting friendships were made and couples paired off.

And so they speeded south, picking up the Trade Winds with dolphins riding their bow waves, into warmer climes. Pieces of meat were hung over the ship’s side and fresh fish was caught, what a bonus. The equator loomed up and Neptune did his bit to harass the folk as they crossed the bar. There was plenty going on to keep folk amused as well as busy. The ship was becalmed and water was in short supply. The cow started to dry up, yes there was livestock on board, cows, hens and horses. She was fed with bran mixed with her own milk, ginger beer and porter, what a happy cow. The rains came and every barrel and container was filled to overflowing and the cow downed a full barrel and continued to produce milk. Water was precious, too precious to wash in or to waste.

Passing ships dropped anchor and boats travelled between the two; news and goods were exchanged. What sights these folk would have seen. They spotted albatross and nearer land they encountered penguins, creatures they had never seen before, bobbing about in the sea like little ducks. South of Australia icebergs appeared, huge mountains of ice floating in the sea. They battled through the mighty seas which ran across the Great Australian Bight, then across the equally rough Tasman until they finally hit the coast of New Zealand. How high those mountains, snow capped and rising straight from the sea, must have seemed, how green the land with its dense bush.

Slowly they made their way along the south coast seeing different bird life, seals and penguins and maybe the odd whale or two. They turned north and finally dropped anchor outside the Otago Heads, the entrance to the harbour and the land which would become their new home. How relieved they must have felt, how elated and yet no doubt very tired and probably a little afraid.

We will leave them there for now.