The New Zealand Company having, in 1841, projected a settlement in New Zealand, on improved principles, to be called “Nelson,” my eldest brother Francis bought a land order and determined to try his fate as a colonist. About the same time my mother's relations were debating the question as to what should be my future occupation, and it was nearly fixed that I should be apprenticed to an engineer in the North of England, when a letter arrived from Frank, saying that he thought I might get an appointment under the New Zealand Company as a cadet attached to the Survey Staff about to proceed to Wellington, if I wished it.

We were sitting at tea when the letter was read, and when I was asked whether I would go, I said at once that I would, upon which my mother, who was sitting opposite to me, burst out crying and left the room. It then struck me that I had acted very thoughtlessly in hurting the feelings of my mother who was always so kind and patient with me.

This happened about the first week in September, 1841, a few days after completing my sixteenth year, and on the 2nd of the next month I was on board the barque Brougham at Gravesend, being one of ten cadets attached to a survey staff of a chief surveyor and six assistants, with three ladies and some children, all of whom sailed for New Zealand in the Brougham, a small vessel of about 230 tons, on the 2nd October, 1841.

We reached Wellington, New Zealand, on the morning of February 9th, 1842, when I found the Fifeshire, the ship in which my brother Frank had sailed for New Zealand a few days before I left England, had arrived a fortnight or three weeks before us, and had gone on to the place pitched upon for the colony of Nelson, situated in Blind Bay.

The town of Wellington at the time I landed had been occupied by colonists for nearly two years, and consisted chiefly of a row of raupo houses fronting the harbour, along Lambton Quay, between Pipitea Point and Te Aro Flat, the hills at the back being covered with dense forest. It did not appear a very promising site for a settlement, nor did I think that in the whole of the districts round the port, there were more than 100 acres of land in cultivation at the time I landed, and a short time previously many of the leading settlers had seriously discussed the necessity of abandoning the place, and seeking out a new home in North America, and this they probably would have done had shipping been obtainable.

We were not long in getting settled on shore; the weather was very fine, and the accommodation we got was superior to that of our small ship. I, with two other cadets, took a house and “did for ourselves,” with the assistance of a woman who came in the morning and went home at night.

Our food was chiefly pork and potatoes, with bread, sometimes salt beef, or fish; other things, such as mutton, fresh beef, butter, eggs, etc., were far too expensive for our limited pay of 8/- a day, and only appeared on rich men's tables when they wished to do honour to invited guests. Butter, I remember, was 4/- a lb., eggs 3d. each, and mutton I don't know what, as I never recollect during the three years I was at Wellington ever tasting it, except once when I dined out.

My work in connection with the survey staff was generally in the office, our hours of attendance there being from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and no time allowed for lunch. I soon became rather expert in office work, so that for a year or more I had little outdoor work except for a day or two occasionally in the immediate neighbourhood of Wellington.

Our chief surveyor was a Mr. S. C. Brees. Nearly all the surveying in the districts around Wellington was in dense forest, and everything required by the survey parties had to be carried on men's backs. A party consisted generally of an assistant-surveyor and cadet, with six men, and each man had a load to carry of about 70 pounds, which included rations for a week, blankets, cooking things, gun, and surveying implements. The assistant and cadet carried nothing, not even the gun. At the end of the week the party, having eaten their provisions, had to return to Wellington for more, so that two days in the week were generally employed page 35 in going to and from the district which was being surveyed.

My first trip into the bush was about the beginning of April, 1842. I and another cadet, T. H. Smith by name, were ordered to accompany Captain Mein Smith on a journey of inspection into the Ohariu district, a valley six or seven miles from Wellington.

We started a party of nine, having six men with us to carry our food, blankets, etc., and after a hard day's work walking over high hills all thickly wooded, we descended into Ohariu Valley, where we camped out for the first time in my experience. A hut, open in front, was soon built, the long fronds of the tree fern forming the roof, and the leaves, stripped from the frond, served for bedding. While this hut was being built one of the men appointed cook soon had a large fire lighted, and the kettle ready for tea to be made for our supper, upon which we all sat down round the fire and enjoyed a hearty meal of salt beef and bread, washed down with tea.

Our supper finished, Captain Smith kept us amused for an hour or so by telling us stories of his military life, and then we turned into our blankets, all side by side, under the hut, with our feet to the fire.

Before daylight we were awakened by cries of “morepork,” “morepork” from the owl, varied with harsh shrieks from the same bird, and as soon as daylight broke the moka moka and other birds made the whole bush lively. We were soon out of our blankets, had a wash in the stream, breakfasted, packed up, and on the march again.

This kind of life continued for five or six days, when we returned to Wellington.