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Letters from Early New Zealand

Lyttelton. February 5th, 1851

page 158
Lyttelton. February 5th, 1851.

My Dear Mother,

I begin a new epistle in honour of Tom's birthday, and with a thousand good wishes to him and his, all which must be repeated for to-morrow! We sent off letters, a few days ago, to Wellington, in hopes of meeting the Lord W. Bentinck, to sail from there for England direct on the 7th; with a box of oddments directed to Sara in Hereford Street. It is so tiresome never to know whether anything will arrive in a tolerably short time, even when you know it has had a fair start; and also to remember how often letters arrive quite out of their order. The last, I must tell you, had been in hand ever since the 26th November, and was so ponderous that I was very glad to think that it was to go in a box! I also wrote, about a week ago, by the overland mail, to Sara; as an opportunity offered by the Cressy, when she had at last discharged her cargo, and caught some of her runaway sailors. We are afraid that Captains will quite object to come to these parts; it is impossible to keep the men from running off, and no vessel has yet come in here without some trouble about it.

Last night (the 4th) came off the grand ball, with great effect. We had one of the barrack buildings for it, composed of four rooms, each about 30 feet long, and 14 wide; of which the two dancing rooms communicated by a door between, and to the others we proceeded outside by the verandah. One was a cloak-room, ornamented with pink and muslin dressing tables, and forms to put the cloaks on, and in this room Mrs. W. Russell's maid "took charge"; while Powles, in severe grandeur, presided in the other, over our table with a very large amount of tea, coffee, and cakes; and William (each with assistants) over another, with some huge joints of meat, ham, chicken, pie, etc., and sherry; and it was only a few people besides ourselves who knew that it was only by the most unremitted and extensive page 159exertion in washing of cups and spoons, that the requisite number of clean ones could be obtained. For tea, here, is a very serious consideration; everyone (except Mr. and Mrs. Russell) dining early; and with dancing, and sitting up, they were all hungry, and a good many spent all the time between each dance in the tea-room. Powles' account of them was very funny. One lady got quite tipsy, and called on me, two or three days afterwards, to tell me how dancing, after so long a pause in gaieties, had made her have hysterics, for the first time in her life. Her husband is a very young Mr. Walker, with very good connections, and a widowed Mother, who engaged a very good cabin for him on board the Sir George Seymour, and then would do nothing more, on finding that he had married very badly; a barmaid or dressmaker. So they got out here so poor that she has had to take to the latter profession. But after many consultations as to whether they must be asked it was decided, yes, because he ought to be, and she is a very smart sort of dark "Becky Sharp". She was, I think, our only lady "in that style"; but it was very difficult settling what gentlemen were to be asked, so two or three of them met, and wrote all the invitations at the office; I only got the answers, which were some of them very funny. Mr. Gale terrified me, the day before it took place. I am supposing you have received my last letter, and to know that Mr. Gale is the Manager of the Union Bank of Australia, as established at Lyttelton; who went mad soon after they sailed, and has been gradually recovering here, and is now, on most points, quite sane always. But they are afraid of his losing the appointment, on the strength of which only he was able to marry; and they (Mr. and Mrs. Gale) insist on everyone else thinking him as well as they do themselves. She went with him to the Bank at last, and demanded that the trustees, who to their great inconvenience have had to do all the work, should forthwith give him up the keys and entire charge; and on their refusal, she proceeded to cry, and accuse them of bad motives, in a very unseemly way. So we said we would not send them an invitation to our festivities, lest he should come; but I wrote her a note begging her, for one night, to make an exception, and page 160leave Mr. Gale for an hour or two, and come. Upon which, as I had half dreaded, she came herself, to tell me that he was quite well, if people would only think so, and that he would be glad to come too, or "words to that effect". It was so disagreeable, but at last I slipped out, and got my husband to go in to her; and he, who has no idea of being bullied into anything of the kind, just told her very civilly, no; for indeed, it would not have been fair on the other visitors. Was it not wonderfully bad taste, instead of keeping him quiet till people could see that he was quite safe? All the six Miss Townsends came except Sara's friend the eldest and were in fact, except three or four, all our stcok of young ladies. We had also two magnificent ladies of a certain age,—Miss Bishops, and dressed accordingly. It was impossible to help fancying that some jeu de mots was intended. For their stately figures were robed in black satin to the very throat; but, as lawn sleeves might have been too strong a measure, they had only very short white ones, looped up with black ribbon, so as to look slashed, and covering only a few inches below the shoulder. It will shew you how far behindhand I am now in fashions when I tell you that I thought this dress very funny; but another lady appeared in a blue ditto, and I was told that it is quite the fashion, but not perhaps the most prevalent one for evening parties. Mrs. Macfarlane and Mrs. Russell were both beautifully dressed, and altogether I assure you we looked very well. I am going to send you the account of it, in our paper, and in it you will see a rather questionable compliment to the effect that although this statement is quite true here, at home our beauty would have passed unregarded. I can't find out who wrote it. All went on very successfully until about three, when the wind rose suddenly, and in half-an-hour it was a violent gale, and the rooms, which are of single weather-board, unlined, became so full of dust that we could hardly open our eyes or draw a long breath, and all the remaining parties beat a quick retreat. We too went home, but not to sleep; at least as far as I was concerned. The wind was really terrific, making the house shake and creak, almost like a ship at sea. It was quite hot too, and I don't know how to describe to you the discomfort page 161of it. I was sorry to reflect on our being in an upper storey, and tried to convince John that we had better move down with Arthur; but though he owned to the uncompromising violence of the wind, still, sleepiness was stronger, and at 7.0 I got up again, in such a room! The floor was more dusty than I ever saw the Holyhead road, and the gown I had worn the night before was hung up, with every crease and fold filled with spoonfuls of dust. Everything in the house was dirty. One cupboard at the top of the stairs, against the outside wall, we had carefully lined with paper, along the cracks of the wooden lining, and this paper was literally blown off in some places, and thick dust lying over all the things inside. The skylight close by, which was closed, but not bolted, was blown bodily away, hinges and all; but except a tent or two nearly blown down, and frightening their inmates, pretty tired with their dancing, we heard of no mischief. Mr. W. Deans, the elder brother, who came to tea with us a night or two afterwards, says they have such a wind about twice or three times in a summer, and I leave you to imagine the dirt and discomfort it causes in a house. I am sorry to own that about five days in seven are dusty, but not so bad as that. It is a great nuisance, and disturbs the newcomers very much, and cannot be got rid of until English grass seeds have been sown in some abundance. The grass on the hills about Lyttelton and indeed over the greater part of the plains is not a bit like our "velvet sward", but grows in large tufts, perhaps two feet high, looking just like hay, and leaving between the tufts a space of bare ground; not, indeed, visible, from the length of the stems hanging over; but very sensibly felt from its becoming, in such dry weather as there is here, as dry as the road and almost as dusty. The Bishop tells us that they were almost equally tormented with dust, about Auckland, until he tried planting English grass extensively; which, with cultivations of other kinds has now removed it entirely.

I must now enter on the melancholy subject of our Bishop, or rather, as I much prefer calling him, Mr. Jackson. (He says he is not Dr.). The Castle Eden, which had been sometime due, according to advertisements for her sailing, page 162arrived on Friday, February 7th, and on shore came instantly in spite of a good blow, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson and two boys, twelve and nine, I had heard enough of him to alarm me beforehand, and when I saw and heard him, not even the idea, the hope, of letters on board his ship could make me tolerably happy to see him. So much of the tone and feeling of this colony must depend on the Bishop; being, as he will be, so completely the first person here in every way, besides his own peculiar vocation, that anyone who feels a real interest in it, must look to him as a sort of key to the whole affair. And then judge of our mortification and sorrow on seeing Mr. Jackson, a little fussy upstanding man, whose very bow and style of greeting, tone, manner, words, all have on them the very stamp of humbug (if I may make free with this gentlemanlike expression) and forbid the idea of considering him what I have been used to call a gentleman. An outside of easy-going good-nature, not for an instant concealing a most careful watch over his own interest; and selfishness, even about armchairs, and the things he likes to eat; and a complete want of reverence in his use of sacred words and expressions. I asked him which of our four clergymen was to be incumbent of Lyttelton, and his answer was that I might choose. "If you have a fancy (incumbent) for either of them, I'll put him here." Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were forthwith established in my husband's dressing-room, "the spare room" of Lyttelton, and though we could not hold the boys, one of them lived with us. We tried with all our might to be very civil, for we knew it to be so necessary, and so difficult, and I do hope and think we succeeded; only, at the same time, I quite believe that Mr. Jackson knows that my husband does not love him, or agree with him as he would have him, and thoroughly reciprocates the dislike; although I, who know him, could appreciate his almost superhuman control over his words and looks, during a fortnight of such close contact. John really cannot bear him, and finds him as unsatisfactory as possible to do business with; always selfseeking and inaccurate. It is a deep disappointment to him, having such a man come out as Bishop, though he owns, and appreciates, his great cleverness and excellence as a landsale commissioner page 163and the remarkable eloquence of his sermons. His manners are most unpleasant; for instance, with his wife, he sometimes is so short and unfeeling to her that she has the tears in her eyes; and then it is "Libby", "Toto", "love", and "precious wife"; and Charles will appreciate the delight with which John stood by, the first night, to see him go up and kiss his wife, and in affected tones, say that she was "welcome to his little diocese". We like Mrs. Jackson very much, she is I think thoroughly good-natured and straightforward. Not very refined certainly, she calls people "Wortley", "Montagu", is a little playful about her h's, and has a mouth rather like Miss le Loup; but we have quite got over this, in favour of all her good qualities, and she is in some ways very good-looking. Better than her husband, and with, I should think, at a more favourable moment, a very good figure, and beautiful hands and arms; so that she looks and moves like a lady in spite of herself. The boy, too, though rather what other boys call priggish, is very nice and good. I don't think Mr. Jackson much admires the present state of the colony, as to accommodation, etc., and Mrs. Jackson is of course dying to get back to the four little girls she left in England; so that they were very anxious to have their business here done, (which consisted chiefly in an interview with the Bishop; besides settling the Clergy and schoolmasters, etc., that he has brought out, and choosing his own and the College land, which is to be done on the 1st of March) and to be off home by the first opportunity, and have more begging sermons and meetings, and be consecrated, if the terms of the arrangement can be agreed upon between all parties. The Undine sailed in at night, just eight days after the Castle Eden, and next morning, the Bishop was on shore for the early Service, and home with us to breakfast at eight, and then, there was a grand talk all morning in our sitting-room which lasted till dinner time; and then another, allowing only a walk, for which my husband joined them, before tea, and so we went on for many days. I was ready to cry with shame at having to show Dr. Selwyn such a man as the Bishop whom we are desiring in his stead; and he could not, and did not, conceal his page 164contempt and even dislike. It was almost unpleasant to have them so much brought into contact; our "intended" did get so much and so deservedly snubbed. There he was, talking about the house he is going to build, which is to be a small Alhambra, with a fountain, a French cook, and innumerable pictures and works of art, to the "sea Bishop" (as they call him) whose home for about four months of the year, is the Undine's cabin, about six feet square, and always shared with some of his college boys; and when he is really at home he is not much better off, in, I think he said, a four roomed house, two stories high, the largest room twelve feet square, to contain himself, Mrs. Selwyn, a boy of six, and a baby (girl) of a few months, and three other married couples; besides their servants, who are nearly all Maori, and require so constant supervision that Mrs. S., he says, declares that life in New Zealand is to be described by the words "dumb drudgery". I suppose you know that he lives at the College near Auckland and takes the lead in all its concerns down to the smallest matters, and what is more, persuades Mrs. Selwyn to do the same, and to live, as it were, in public (Oh! how I should dislike it) and, what is still more, to say (he told us) that she never wishes, and wishes never, to go back to England. I think his disposition is to take a certain kind of pride in "roughing it" and "doing without" things, so that he took great pleasure in assuring Mrs. Jackson that she would find realities very different from these charming dreams, and Mr. Jackson was almost angered, at last, at the contemptuous way in which the Bishop received his little affected jokes and notions about the people and ways of going on here. He stayed just a week; living, of course, with us, but sleeping on board, and has arranged matters with Dr. Jackson. You will heat of it in more official ways, but the pith of it is that he will not give his consent to a division of the diocese if the Government persist in making the new one consist of the whole Middle Island; the Northern part of it, including Nelson, should be joined with Wellington, and the country about it, and have a Bishop of its own. A College is now about to be built at Porirua, twenty miles from Wellington, with page 165this view, if possible; if not, he will spend his time between there and Auckland, I suppose.

March 1st. Near Ricarton. I have often thought that our letters from New Zealand described life in very different forms from the imaginings of our friends at home; no roughing, you will say, but balls, band-playings, morning visits, and tea-parties!! But I think you would say that we were tolerably colonial if you, could see us all now, as I write; for the present located on the plains, close to Mr. Deans'. The writing, by the by, has gone on very irregularly of late, as you may imagine; with company in so small a house, evenings always devoted to society, and moreover, I am sorry to say, Arthur ill; he has had the complaint that is going about amongst everyone here, a regular influenza, turning in some cases to dysentery. He had not had such a cold since he was at Stokesley when he was seven months old. There is a maternal reminiscence for you. However, he has been very unwell, and is not quite recovered yet, though much better, and even fatter, since he came out here, already. So that I have not yet told you of our move, which was brought about by a combination of circumstances. Lyttelton, as you know, is not quite the most agreeable place of residence; owing to which fact, added to the natural perversity of man (it being a complete hole and very difficult to get out of), everyone is always very anxious to go. I am personally already a little fond of it and always hate moving; but my husband began to feel imprisoned, and long for change, as he always does, everywhere, and was besides getting a little tired of having people at him all day, and it is so dry and dusty, etc. At last we had got to say, "Well, before the bad weather begins, we must try to get on to the plains for a short time". But the idea had neither form nor shape till Mr. and Mrs. Jackson arrived; the first instant that I saw my husband alone, after that, he had decided that we must be off immediately, and leave them in the house if necessary; but go we must, directly. However, business, and the Bishop's arrival, detained us; and indeed Arthur could hardly have moved (in our way of moving) till he did, and it was on the 22nd February that our flitting was made. Mrs. Jackson left in possession of the lower part of the page 166house, with Elisabeth to look after our interests, and the chickens; and all the rest of the establishment, bedding, a chair or two, pots and pans, groceries, cups and saucers, pieces of carpet, by degrees surmounted all obstacles, and were found here. The accommodation consisted of an old raupo (all thatch) house, of one room, that was built for Mr. Cass (the chief surveyor here, now that Mr. Thomas is gone, rather under a cloud), and was standing empty, and put at our disposal; and two V huts, one with a chimney and window, meant for our state apartment, and about twenty feet long, and another smaller, and without these luxuries, for Powles and Arthur; but as they are built merely of planks laid one over the other, you can imagine that, for air at least, a window is not required (ours doesn't open), and of light, too, for ordinary purposes, there is abundance. I am going to enclose an attempt I made at them, for it is very correct, my husband says, just like them, and you must imagine yourself seeing them from the bush, out of which we gather our firewood, which is our background, and which, having been partly burnt lately, by an unfortunate accident, has an autumnal look that is very unnatural here. We are close to the fence of Mr. Deans' paddock, and within a stone's throw of his house; and close to that most beautiful of rivers, almost as cold as ice, and clearer than crystal; the water is one of our great luxuries here, it is so good and so soft. At Lyttelton, though we began well, it is often very bad, and quite thick; being disturbed all day long by the emigrants from the barracks, who come in numbers to our well; and so hard, that washing is much more of a duty than pleasure, and the clothes never look clean. We had two pack-horses started off first, for our flitting, and then one of the riding-horses, laden with a few supplementary goods, to his very great disgust; he tried all ways, kicking, etc., to get them off, whenever we went down hill, and delayed us a good deal; and then the other, with my noble self, and Arthur on my knee. Powles walked, and got on so much faster than we did, that instead of dividing the distance, and letting me walk for two or three miles, she had half the things unpacked before we arrived. The day was beautiful, a blow of course we had, in cross-page 167ing the hill, but it was very pleasant afterwards, and Arthur delighted to come and live in the bush, in a little V hut.

The first evening was very cold, when it came to sitting up with wind blowing between every board, but we managed to make the beds pretty warm and comfortable; and the next day, Sunday, was quite warm, and we went off to church at Christchurch. The service is performed in the unfinished rooms of the Survey Office, the largest in the place, at present; but a real church of stone is to be begun forthwith, and a parsonage house for Mr. Kingdon, who is, like everyone else, living just now in a V-hut, but his has two rooms in it. It was very curious to me to see the plains actually dotted over with small houses, all round the site for the town, it is almost like Rosllan, only not, of course, so extensive, or such good houses; and when I was there two months and a half ago, there was just one built by Mr. Pollard, about a month before! Such funny buildings, or rather screens, some people have put up; just large enough to contain them at night, and all household operations, cooking, etc., are carried on outside, to the great edification of passers-by. It is two miles and a half at least, to the office, and so I was to ride, and we were to bring home the potatoes for our dinner from a shop close by it in a basket which we hung over the crutch. We unsaddled the horse, and left him tied to a paling near the door, but he managed to slip the bridle over his head and had disappeared, when we came out, and we had to walk, and to carry the potatoes too. The next day we spent in making ourselves comfortable, while my husband was from nine till five in his office at Lyttelton, which he has to be three days a week. We got a handy carpenter, and some boards, and he soon put together two tables and a bench, and put up some shelves, and by nailing our pieces of carpet some three or four feet high inside, against the boards, we managed to get a place for our beds upon which the wind did not blow; and with some bits of old chintz from the cabin furniture we made ourselves quite comfortable and tidy. Then we had some days of very pleasant weather, and visits, and invitations to tea, politely refused, from our friends about, and enjoyed our life exceedingly till this 1st of March. The raupo house page 168was warm and weather-tight, but dusty and so full of fleas! so William and Jack slept in a corner of it, and it was our kitchen, and dining-room, and breakfast-room, which saved carrying the things about (and we forgot a tray) and then the hut could be put tidy while we breakfasted. St. David's Day rose with a heavy mist, as I discovered by a drop which fell on my nose just as I woke; but the dust was not even laid, and it became beautiful, though not much sun, and rather windy. My husband was off early to Christchurch, as it was the day for the selection of land for the second lot of purchasers. William was sent to Lyttelton with a message, Jack for eatables to Christchurch, and I was sitting quietly in our V hut (it ought to be A hut, oughtn't it?) thinking of former St. David's days (up to the first that I can remember, when I have a distinct vision of old Mrs. Taylor at Voelas, helping you to pin an artificial leek on to the left shoulder of each of us, with which we were to go and wish our papa good morning), and looking on and making dots, as he calls it, for Arthur's drawing, when just about noon, I heard a great scream from Powles, and when I ran out she showed me a little bit, on fire, in the wall, as it seemed, of the kitchen chimney, but so close to the raupo walls that my hair was all set on ends in an instant; Powles ran off for water, about twenty yards, and I burned my hands in trying to get the spout of the kettle into the fiery hole, which was between the outer and the inner thatching, and must have caught fire from some spark lodging in a hole of the sod chimney, and gradually getting through that to the very inflammable stuff about, when it made quick work. As Powles came back, the flames burst out outside, most fortunately beginning to leeward, and then we began to carry the things out, knowing that anything else was hopeless. Most fortunately again, someone at Deans' saw our first puff of smoke, and in a minute we had Mr. William Deans himself, and six or seven men, handing out things; by which means everything was saved that was of any consequence. It was frightful to see the blaze, and hear the roar, as it spread along the roof; in five minutes it was all down, and only bare poles left standing, which burnt for some time, and then left us nothing but a heap of black ashes. The next thing was to page 169get some shelter up in its stead, and we sent for some Maoris to build us another raupo house; in which, however, we had quite determined to have no chimney; but as they are much warmer than our huts, it is to be Arthur's sleeping-place, and the fireplace for cooking to be put to his wooden house, as being several shades less inflammable. The chimney was begun, but although it was Saturday, it could not be finished before dark, and ditto the raupo house. Unluckily, as it became dark, the mist that had been gathering became rain, and the rain a storm of wind, and we found ourselves without any water-tight house. We put our clothes and valuables under our tables and tubs, to keep them dry, and carefully erected an umbrella over the head of the bed. Powles' hut, having a higher pitch, kept out the rain much better than ours, and had besides an inner covering of shawls, etc., that kept at least their beds dry, and free from drops; but our umbrella was a sad failure, and the bed was positively soaked. It was not a regular mattress, only a old cover of one which we brought out here to save carrying such a big thing as ours were, and we slept on fern the first two nights, and then got this filled with the wiry grass that grows about; and though it is rather hard, and smells a little like a hay stack, still that doesn't matter much for people who sleep as well as we do, after so much open air, and no more did the rain, for though I woke once in the night, and found a great deal of wet, it was hopeless to do anything in the dark. So I just went to sleep again, and it was not till after six that we discovered how completely soaked we had been. The getting up was wretched enough, especially for a Sunday morning, and it went on pouring all day. But we went over and begged for shelter at Mr. Deans', where we were as usual most hospitably received, and had breakfast, dinner and tea, and sat all day in his room, where we also found an Australian stock-keeper, come to Lyttelton with a cargo of stock, and spending Sunday out of town with Deans, as you would go to Brighton; and one of the surveyors who had been washed out of his hut. It was not a pleasant way of spending the day, but we were obliged, in pity, to let the servants take possession of our hut with a fire to cook their dinner, page 170etc.; and now Monday, March 3rd it is quite fine, though we had a very "juicy" morning, and all our things are out in the air to dry, and we are getting quite jolly again; and the houses are beginning to dry, too. We got on much better last night, by spreading our carpet over the boards outside and so nearly covering the windward sides of both huts, which kept out actual drops, though everything was as damp as possible. Our fire, too, smokes; but the door is so close by that the smoke is nearly all drawn out again, and it answers very well, except for cooking, when it all comes in your face.

I have just got a message from Christchurch to tell me that my husband will not be back to-night, as the Isabella Hercus is come in. I always prefer having him at home, but here more than ever, for à dire vrai I am a little afraid of being alone, for there are a number of somewhat disreputable people among our neighbours in the bush, some thirty or forty men, I should think, living in it, for the present, to cut timber, and whose songs and jollifications, at their evening tea-parties, we can hear till late at night; and there have been a few thefts lately of eatables and clothes from the houses about Christchurch, and William and Jack sleep very sound. Oh! how glad I shall be when he comes out to-morrow, perhaps with letters. I was still more than ever pleased with my Castle Eden news (the October ship), and such a good account of you, and a very jolly letter from Sara, and from Louisa, and from Frances; and such a good journal from Laura, with an account of their stay at Voelas that made me quite see it all, and in such good colours too! I saw Mr. Hanmer, too, which was as good as a letter from you, better than one written at bed-time, only I can't understand how he saw "no one but Mrs. Wynne" when he called at Voelas. The only letter I had from you was one that Sara very kindly forwarded, addressed to Charles, and giving the account of your most fortunate escape at the Eistedfodd (I forget the spelling, and the letter is left in Lyttelton). Oh! how I do pity the poor Lloyds. They had much better come out to N.Z., only that they are so very unlucky about everything that they try; but one or two ought really to come, with Eliza. There is an absence page 171of care here that is I think the great charm of the place, in which I include of course the absence of anything like poverty, or rather "want". Not but what I am just as anxious as ever to get home. I wonder so much when it will be, if indeed it is not too pleasant to be possible without some great and sad drawback; but it is not my way to croak. I believe you will get this letter by the Robert Sayers, direct from Wellington to England, and by it will, I hope, also arrive the box with letters that was to have gone by the Ld. William Bentinck. I must explain over again, that we had a box partly packed before we left Wellington, and to go home by that opportunity, and we were to send up the rest of the contents, and letters written up to the last moment, by her, added and despatched under Mr. Fox's care, who went home in her. Unluckily, the Captain of the ship that was going up there to meet her, fell ill at Lyttelton, and at last died; so that she was detained a long time, and the next chance got a foul wind, and made so long a passage that it did not get into Wellington for ten days, three days after the Ld. W. sailed, which was February 10th. So our box was left behind, but it will, I hope, go now, and may be, like the Cornelia last year, first in the race; but you may suppose how much vexed I was to find that we had missed what seemed to be such a good opportunity.

There was no word of explanation about a most acceptable parcel of books which we received by Mr. Hamner, and which is, I hope, in answer to my husband's commission to Charles, begging him to send out any new books worth having, regardless of expense; they are worth twice as much out here. Pendennis is quite an acquisition in the Colony, and the other, R. Gordon Cumming's, is a particularly fortunate selection, as my husband cares so much for the subject, and knew the writer a little. The other books will be very valuable, I expect, and I shall dole them to those whom I think worthy, after trying some of the directions "Cheap dishes," etc., on myself. They must be a little modified here, where a cabbage, for instance, costs a good deal more than a pound of the best beef or mutton; sixpence or even ninepence. The gardening directions will be most useful. If we could only have our house and garden where we are now page 172living, we could very soon make it lovely. It is quite tantalizing to see how everything grows here; and then, on a sunny or a windy day, you have only to penetrate a few yards into the bush, and you find complete shelter, and birds singing, and robins (black and white ones) hopping about within reach of your hand, and coming nearer if you chirp in answer to them, and then a fire out of doors for our cooking; on fine days it is like the most convenient and charming of picnics. It was so lovely this morning (March 4th. I wish you both many many happy returns), and so calm, that Arthur and I had breakfast outside, under the shade of our V hut, and Powles and the men under the other. Our new raupo house is all but finished, and is a most solid little affair, and I think (D.V.) I shall remain here during a threatened visit of my husband's to Wellington, to see the Governor on business, which is a great bore to look forward to. It is true, the distance is short, but it sometimes entails ten days or more in a wretched little coaster, each way. besides sea-sickness. Will you give the two scribbles to Frances from me? with a great many thanks for her letter and for the black likenesses which I was very glad to get, though I don't think them either very like, or very flattering; and for her sketch at Old Voelas, which is very like and nice, too, and Louisa the same. That bit of ending to her letter at Bryn Asaph was worth all the rest, and nurse's message too. I could imagine so well all about it, but I am going to write to her, and now good-bye and God bless you all, for my letter must go. Best love to everyone, and to Stokesley. Arthur's message is a petition that I will tell you all about what has happened to us, especially how that the horse broke away from Jack. He is so much better and fatter.

Yours always,

Charlotte.

Kind remembrances to Miss Sigel.