Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Letters from Early New Zealand

[Letter from J. R. Godley]

page 370
Sydney. January 26th, 1853.

My Dear Father,

We arrived here, thank God, all well on Sunday last, the 23rd, having left Lyttelton. In the Hashemy on the 22nd. December. We stopped for a fortnight at Wellington en route, so we had the great pleasure of seeing our friends there before we left New Zealand. You may imagine that we have had most trying scenes to go through, in parting with so many whom we had come to regard almost as of our family. But as I hope, please God, to see you within a period which now appears short in comparison, I will not attempt to tell you all that has happened since I last wrote. I will only say that the people of New Zealand have testified in every possible way their regard for me; it is most gratifying to think that after two years and a half of active political life among them, I have hardly made an enemy, and that I have not the smallest doubt but that if the office of Governor were elective, I should be, if I pleased, almost unanimously chosen. I would only indulge in all this vanity to you; but so it is. We have almost made up our minds to take our passage to England by the Anglesey, which is to sail for London about the 1st March. If we do so, and have a good passage, we may hope to arrive some time in June at London. I have not, however, actually taken the cabins yet, as I am making inquiries as to whether there is any vessel for Valparaiso or Callao. If we could, we would return that way, by the Isthmus of Panama. In the meantime, we shall be engaged in seeing Sydney and the neighbourhood. We know a great number of people already, and have met with much civility. We have got, after infinite trouble, very nice lodgings, but you can have no idea of the state of society here. The town is full to overflowing, and society completely dislocated. No servants to be had for love or money page 371—consequently no entertainments or hospitality of any kind; and in a great many cases merchants and others are sending their families home, to escape the immense domestic discomfort which prevails. I hope you will get this about the 1st May, and I wish you would, in the early part of June, write a line to the P.O.'s at Plymouth and Portsmouth, just to say how things are, in case we should land at either of those places in a pilot boat. I dread receiving a whole year's news at once, so many things may have happened. Recollect, our last English letters are dated June, '52. We have not had a line since. Powles and William are still with us. The latter would like to go home with us after all, but I don't think it would be right or wise to take him, as he has been spoiled, for London life at least, by his colonial career. I am going up to the diggings next week—not to dig, but to look on, bien entendu. I am greatly puzzled by the Leitrim election, delighted, of course, at Montgomery's success, but who is Dr. John Brady? I never heard of such a "party". He must be an imported foreigner, and yet the name smacks of the soil, too. I think you were probably not grieved at Clements' defeat, were you? I have no feeling of regret at not being in Parliament myself, as I am pretty nearly sure my health would not stand one session. A man must cut his work by his strength, and mine, I fear, will not leave a large margin for cabbaging. We are delighted with Sydney. The harbour is magnificent, the scenery beautiful, and there is a wonderful air of civilization and progress about the place; at least, so it appears to us, who have been living so long, as it were, in the bush. I look upon gaslights, and carriages—above all, at a real bona fide crowd,—with the most rustic wonderment. I hope you will have been able to pay my annuity regularly at Cocks', for all my pecuniary arrangements are founded on that assumption. For the last three months of my stay in New Zealand I did not take any salary, knowing the unsatisfactory position of the Association's finances, and this, combined with the expense of my return voyage and a little investment which I made in sheep before starting will leave my purse rather bare by the time I land. I had wished very much to see William O'Brien before leaving these colonies, page 372but now, for a thousand reasons, a trip to Van Diemen's Land is out of the question.

Believe me, my dear father,

Ever your most affectionate,

J. R. Godley.

P.S.—Arthur and Rose are devoured alive with mosquitoes; otherwise flourishing. The latter cut her first tooth to-day.