Introduction

The Centenary of Canterbury has aroused a keen interest in its past and created a demand for more authentic and detailed information on the ideas and the actions of its founders and early colonists. Amongst the publications of the last few years none are more valuable than those written by the pioneers themselves, revealing their personalities and their relation to the enterprise that drew them overseas. There are too few of such documents compared with secondary and general accounts of the origin and inception of the Settlement.

The Journal of Edward Ward, now published for the first time, is particularly welcome as such a document. It is concerned not so much with the theory of colonization but is an exceedingly readable description of the practical aspect of creating a new colony. The author begins with a day-to-day report of the voyage of the Charlotte Jane, the first of the Canterbury Association's ships to arrive at the proposed site of the colony, and then proceeds to give a vivid and detailed account of his activities in Canterbury during the six months before his death.

Though he himself says the Journal is 'for facts and not for thoughts', his feelings, thoughts and ideals do find expression, especially in the latter part of the Journal, in his meditations as well as in his selection and presentation of facts. This makes it a more effective key to the interpretation of those characteristics which contributed most to the foundations of Canterbury. He dismisses lightly 'the theory that a country runs to greatness over the bones of its pioneers' but the phrase has special significance to us as we read the Journal today. In his work we catch more than glimpses of the mind, intellect, spirit and character of the best type of colonist.

The first part of the Journal gives, I believe, the most detailed account from the point of view of a passenger of life aboard the Charlotte Jane—the weather; distance covered each day; the forms of ocean life observed; ships met and overtaken; characterization of fellow passengers (among whom were several who became leaders in provincial and national life), in whose welfare he showed throughout the long voyage an active and very helpful interest and who live again for us in his clear and candid narrative.

In the Settlement he set to work at once in exploring part of the region, in organizing his plan of life, directing the construction of temporary and permanent homes, obtaining stock, establishing a business, as well as discharging the duties of certain official posts for which he was well fitted by his training in law and his reputation for public spirit. His description of the life of the settlers is particularly revealing. He brings the reader into intimate contact with them in facing and overcoming their difficulties in adjusting themselves to the new physical and human environment. His sympathetic consideration for all found practical expression in many ways. Mrs Godley's letter shows how sorely his loss was felt by the whole community.

No one can read his Journal without feeling that his work as a colonist was for him a source of intense pleasure; He obviously had firm faith in the prosperous development of his adopted land and its people—'when the tide of life runs full over what has lain unoccupied for so long.' The pity of it that so valorous a pilgrim did not live to see more than the first ripples of that tide!