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Letters from Early New Zealand

Wellington, May 7th, 1850

page 37
Wellington, May 7th, 1850.

(This is the fourth letter I have sent home in all.)

My Dear Mother,

To-day the Lady Nugent left the harbour on her way to Nelson, and I could not have believed, five months ago (for it is so long, within five days, since our first week of horrors on board), that I could ever have felt anything but intense joy at leaving her. Nevertheless, so it was, that when the time came for saying good-bye, I felt really sad. We went on board yesterday for a farewell dinner; the Captain's turkey from Mr. Drummond (Mr. MacRae's nephew) and Mr. Lee's pig's face from Taranaki, provided in honour of us, and water-melon. We contributed a Stokesley tongue which Aunt Charlotte had sent us long ago, but which being uneaten at the time we left, we packed with other stores, and now out it came, as good as ever. We had many good-byes to say, MacRaes, O'Loughlins, etc. Then came dinner, with a new passenger, a French Roman Catholic priest; an oldish, thin, angular man, but quite like a French gentleman, just come from Auckland. He said he had been nine years in New Zealand, and looked patient and meek enough to stay as many more as Monsr. de Pompallier, his Bishop here, might desire him. He was much pleased, poor man, at my husband volunteering to talk French to him. At last, dinner and all was over, and we had taken leave of everybody including Arthur's friends as well as ours, and then, as it was getting quite dark, we must go, the Captain sending us on shore in his gig; we had "tremendous cheering" as we came round the stern of the vessel. The Captain almost cried as he wished Arthur good-bye, and shewed him our empty cabins. We had the Captain and Mr. Lee come to tea with us at eight, and little Kate MacRae spent the day here, and went on board at night with them. We were page 38very sorry, too, to take leave of her, as she is a very nice child, and thoroughly well brought up. They would have, I hope, a capital sail to Nelson; Mr. and Mrs. Fox went in her, and I hope they are there by this time, as the south-east wind still holds to-day, May 8th, and has made it pretty cold; how funny it seems here, wishing for a warm North wind. North-East is the good weather point here. Another curious thing here is the almost total absence of old people. To be sure, old women are to be found almost everywhere, and I had seen a very few of them, I supposed widowed mothers, who had come out with the colonists; but I never saw an old man here till yesterday, and even he was a very verdant one, coming home apparently from work; but his hair was very white, and he was really an old man anywhere. Our excitement to-day has consisted in calling at Government House, on our way to hear the band play, and seeing the bride and Mr. Eyre, We had sent up our letter of introduction yesterday, and thought it correct to leave cards to-day; but unwarily stumbling into the office door by mistake, we there found Mr. Ormonde, the brother-in-law and secretary, and he insisted on handing us in. It was worth while going up only to see the inside of the house, for it would be really a pretty drawing-room in England; and there we found our deputy Queen sitting up in all the honour of reception, bride-cake, and a gorgeous dress, but trés bien choisie; I must say she is a very favourable representative, and is very pretty and agreeable in her manner; rather tall and fair, with good features, and very much more pretention about her in every way than anyone else out here. Mr. Eyre is a good deal like Captain William Drake, only younger and better looking. He was very civil.

I forgot to mention, yesterday, an earthquake, which we had quite early in the morning. I only, in the house, was awake, and heard and felt it; but plenty of people in the town had felt it, and even on board Lady Nugent it woke the second mate. It began like a low peal of thunder which rumbled on for a second or two, and then something seemed to strike the corner of the house behind our bed, which shook very perceptibly, and enough to make me giddy if I had been up, I think. As it was, I just went to sleep again, and page 39we heard in the morning that it was considered a moderate shock but rather a noisy one. Nothing was thrown down in any of the rooms, or anything of that kind, but we are told that being in a wooden house we need be under no apprehension, as there has been no instance known of one falling, even in the great shocks eighteen months ago. Almost all the brick edifices went then, including the Hospital, and as almost all the chimneys are of brick, they too nearly all either came down or cracked. But then it is only fair to say that hardly any mortar has been used until lately, and sand and water is not very sticky.

Thursday, 9th. Ascension Day and little Charlotte Pollen's birthday. There was no service to go to, but we had another lovely day, and a beautiful walk, home by the hill road or path through the manuca bushes, to Arthur's great delight. This is certainly a very pretty place, and the lines and shapes of the mountains are very fine, and I am afraid the atmosphere is prettier than at home; but then you know we are about the latitude of Florence. In the evening, Mr. Nicholson came to tea, and then Mr. Bulkeley came in for half an hour, as he was going his rounds on duty. He had spent the morning, he said, in sewing the crape on to his uniform for mourning for the Queen Dowager, which was put on to-day, 10th, just five months after the event!!

Friday 10th.—This was the day last year on which we crossed the Channel going to Paris, and where may we not be by this time next year? It is some comfort to think that at all events we can never go so far by sea again as we have been; as the voyage home is shorter, even going by Cape Horn. Our excitement has been two invites to dinner, from Colonel Gold, and the Lieut-Governor; both refused on the score of cold water, and early hours. My husband has fairly engaged in it now, under Dr. Fitzgerald, and had his first packing on May 4th. He now gets up, at an unmitigated 6 a.m., into a wet sheet, and then lies packed, mummy fashion, till 6.45, when he has a wet sheet rubbing, in a great bath of cold water, and then tossing on a few clothes walks off to a renowned spring, from which he brings a can of superfine water for home consumption, page 40and then comes dressing, etc., and breakfast at eight, if not before; at twelve another wet sheet rubbing, another walk or ride, and dinner at two; then another walk which lasts till dark, and then tea at 6.45; and about ten, or sooner, a warm hip bath for thirty minutes, and then bed. All our repasts are eaten patriarchal fashion, all together; as of course Powles is almost always in the kitchen, and Arthur must be with us, or there.

May 11th.—Another lovely day, and still, which was a great matter for our drive of nine miles to Aglionby village, in the Hutt Valley, to have dinner with Mr. Daniel Wakefield; who is at present occupying an empty house there, and rides into town every day to attend to his duties as Attorney-General, such as they are. The Hutt is the great sight to be seen from Wellington, and is really a pretty valley; but its beauty here is supposed to consist in the great amount of clearing, etc., besides a number of comfortable little cottages, which are rapidly increasing since the conclusion of the Maori War about 1846; many people were killed and frightened away, but no one seems now to feel any fear of another outbreak. Those disturbances had at least one good effect of causing a road to be made, for military purposes, which has made the place accessible; it is a very good one for a great part of the way. Wellington is on a hill, and completely surrounded by hills, and the two roads which have been made backwards into the country are bad, and very steep, and lead only to very small villages; so that the Hutt Road is quite the show thing. It runs along the level beach for more than six miles, round perhaps one-third of the harbour, and then where the river Hutt falls into the sea turns up into the valley, and from that part for some miles is excellent. indeed, though some parts are very rough, and rutty, we were much surprised after seeing it to find that there are so few carriages kept. Mrs. Petre has a little pony carriage in which she drives herself about, but it is almost the only one. There is, indeed, too, a van on springs which comes into town from the Hutt every morning, and returns at night, but as that manoeuvre did not suit us, we had to charter a shandrydan for our own use; a kind of car, as we should call it, nearly as good as page 41our Pentre Voelas one, only it has rather more the air of a light cart, with green rails all round, and no No. 1 on the door. We elders found it very rough, to tell the truth, but Arthur (who had been specially invited) told us "he thought it was a very nice, pleasant carriage", The last time he was on wheels was just five months ago, the fly that took us, on that wretched 12th of December, from Antonie to the water's edge! However, what is more to the point (as my husband would say), the German driver (and proprietor) took us there in rather more than two hours, and we came home still quicker. Mr. D. Wakefield is living in a good-looking house, with very civilized looking rooms, but quite unfinished; it is not his own, but belongs to a man who is gone to Sydney to get married, and means to have everything very smart for his bride, even marble chimney pieces, the first I believe in the Colony. Conservatories, you see to almost all the good houses, but he has a very nice lawn too, in front, with plenty of geraniums in bushes, and other flowers. We walked from there to call on Mrs. Petre; a much larger house, but with less pretension than the other, and a very nice green lawn, Mr. Petre is Treasurer, which office is supposed, just now, to be accompanied by very light duty. Still, if he has nothing to do, he rides in nine miles every day to do it, and that is something. He went home about six or seven years ago to fetch a wife, and his present one was fetched home from school to marry him, and come out here! She bears her fate with great equanimity, even to the having of five children, the eldest five years old. She seems a sort of pet in the society here, and is very lively and good natured, and like Miss Sullivan, only with very good eyes, and not so lady-like looking, Mrs. Petre was to have met us at our luncheon dinner, but was engaged at home entertaining their Bishop, M. Viard (R.C.), who has just been established here, in addition to the one at Auckland, and who was thinking of taking their old house in the Hutt for his own residence. They have only been a few months in this new one. At four we started again home and got in before six, thanks to our encountering the Resident Magistrate, Mr. St. Hill, a very good-natured little man, who rode after us for a long time, making remarks page 42on poor Wilhelm's steed, and equipage altogether, that induced him to put forth all his strength and skill. We admired the valley on the whole very much, and the look of comfort and activity in the village, or town, was very homelike and satisfactory. It is wonderful how completely the look of anything at all like home and its ways carries it here (and with nearly everyone) above novelty and even actual beauty. In one of our first walks about Wellington we almost shed tears of sentimental admiration at coming suddenly in sight of bits of flat, well-macadamized road!— one of the short ones I mentioned. We passed three native villages on our way to the Hutt; one, just where the road turns from the sea, up the valley and along the river Hutt, is quite a large one, with a very strong high paling, almost like a fortification, round it. Further up, too, we saw some very wild looking natives; two ran after us for some way, for the fun of talking to us. One of them had a long wooden spear in his hands, tapering to a fine point, and about eight feet long, of smooth, hard wood. He gave it to us to look at, and, with the driver's interpretation, we made out that it was meant to catch birds, etc., by spearing them from underneath as they sit in the trees! I thought he looked with a longing eye at Arthur, having apparently no results from his chasse of that day, and to touch him if possible in a soft place I asked if he had any piccaninnies. He answered very cheerily, "Oh yes, but in the ground"; pointing significantly down as he trotted after us. The natives are, on the whole, both better and worse than I expected. That is, some are quite good looking, civilized-looking people; among the men, very well dressed, and more like ourselves in colour, size and bearing, than the Lascars, for instance, or any coloured people that I have seen. Most of the large "stores" have them as servants, and the Police are mostly Maoris and are a very efficient and well-drilled body, in a blue and red uniform. But when you see them in their wild state and dress, squatting about in their pahs (villages), they are really disgusting-looking creatures, with something very inhuman in their movements, and even features. At least, I am sure it is a much prettier sight to see that polite little Ourang-outang eating his egg with a spoon, and drinking page 43tea, in the Zoological at five o'clock regularly, than to watch the dirty-looking set, pigs, cats and humans, whom we saw in the nearest pah to-day, all scrambling together for potatoes and Indian corn, in some wood ashes on the open ground. At the same time, you hear many stories of them proving that they have a strong sense of religion, and other good feelings; but they have no word for thank-you in their language, and people are to be found who add, no sense of gratitude in their heart; of course, though, there are some very good exceptions.

May 13th. We had an inspection of the troops by the Commander-in-Chief, Colonel McCleverty. It ought to have been a very pretty sight, but we had a Scotch mist all the morning which spoilt it all and dimmed the beauty of the new uniforms. Mrs. Daniell and Mrs. Petre each came in from the Hutt, with a troop of children, satin pelisses, blue bonnets and feathers, etc. Last night, the 12th, was the night of the grand ball at the Mess Room, given by the "Bachelors of the 65th", but alas! alas! this deponent can say nothing of its spirit, success, and brilliancy, but from hearsay. Our minds had been fully made up to go. Mr. Bulkeley's room in a little cottage, close to the Mess House, had been promised and prepared to refit such portions of my dress as might not stand a two-mile of muddy walk, and then pour surcroît de bonheur, Mr. St. Hill had offered to drive us there in his own cart. We had a beautiful afternoon, and all looked well till dusk, when a storm began which lasted till nearly eleven, when, with cold water hours, my husband was safe in bed, and still then it was so bad that no one stirred out. After all, they had a very good ball, we heard, and the dancing kept up with great spirit till nearly six. The Meander (H.M.S.), forty-six guns, came into the harbour in time for some of her officers to join in the festivities, although well drenched in getting on shore. You may remember the name at Borneo, and Captain Keppel's book thereupon, and therefore guess at our excitement about her. She is supposed to be a very fine ship, and I was pretty well able to appreciate the excellence of her appointments, well-squared yards, and tall tapering masts, etc., after four or five months in the merchant service. page 44Arthur and I ran out to look at her before eight next morning, and heard her band performing "God Save the Queen" in great style, to salute the Union Jack which was just rising on the flagstaff at Government House. The Monarch, too, had come in after her repairs at Akaroa, where she had been for nearly a month. She started just a fortnight before us from the London docks, but was three weeks longer on the passage, lost her rudder off Cape Saunders (Otago) and was, I fancy, in great danger. She is an old Boulogne steamboat, cut down into a barque for coasting work here, and her owner came out in her, with a party of passengers who fought most desperately the whole way; and in short we are very thankful that we reserved ourselves for Lady Nugent and Captain Parsons. She is very pretty to look at, though, long and low in the water, and, with the Meander, makes the harbour look very gay. It was a lovely morning, too, after the storm, every vessel showing double in the water, as is usually the case here after a storm; in short, I wish you could have seen it. The next day we went on board the Meander, which I wanted very much to see, having never been in a man-of-war before. My husband was unluckily out riding when the ship's boat came for us, so I had to go only with Arthur, but under the care of the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Domett, quite a gentleman, and clever), the Auditor-General (Mrs. Ormes Biddulph's brother, Mr. Thomas), the Attorney General, Mr. Wakefield, and Captain Richards, Commander of the Acheron, steam frigate, stationed here. We were received on board by one of the lieutenants, Mr. Murray, and some of the other officers, and found the difference in accommodation, cleanliness, etc., from poor Lady Nugent still greater than I had imagined. Captain Keppel is a great conchologist and has made a very large collection of shells, which he is always increasing by dredging wherever he can get soundings, and Mrs. Keppel helps him. I thought captains might not have their wives on board; but there she is, and it was on the occasion of her having gone dredging, a long way up the bay, that (we found out) the hour had been settled for us to go on board, for she is odd, some say cracky, and never sees anyone, so that we must have kept out of her way if page 45she had been there. As it was, we sat in the captain's cabin, looking at some beautiful sketches by Mr. Briarely, an artist whom they have on board, and who has been making drawings at Norfolk Island, New Guinea, Hobart Town, and other New places; and had the band to play for our edification, and then walked about and saw it all, including a little nephew of the Captain's, about eight, I suppose, but small, and dressed sailor fashion. The same boat with a very jolly little middy, the Honble. —. Egerton, took us on shore and we met Captain Keppel as we landed, a very good-natured, dandy little man. We heard very little about Borneo, which seemed almost forgotten; they were more full of the last place they had been at.

Friday the 24th, and the Queen's birthday, was a very gay day, and luckily quite fine. The ships all dressed with flags, innumerable "God Save the Queens" on the different bands, a review of the troops on Thornden Flat at our end of the town, and actually at noon a Royal salute; twenty-one guns from the Meander, and then a flourish of trumpets, and discharge of small arms, or as the soldiers here write it and call it a "few de joy" on the Flat. Then, at one, a Levée, band playing and guard of honour; at two, the Maori feast to about five hundred natives which we went to see. It was, we thought, very badly managed; as they sat round in circles on the ground, composed each of a separate tribe, and ate their pork, bread and rice, without any attempt at tables, chairs, spoons, forks or any other sign of civilization, except waiting most carefully till grace had been said, to begin. The chief people in each tribe served round the food (pork and bread and butter) and sweetened tea, to their people before they sat down themselves. When the Governor and his wife appeared they all rose, and yelled most horribly by way of cheering, and then some of them danced a kind of mock wardance; the performers chiefly women, who laughed and looked half ashamed of themselves, as if they thought we were laughing at them. The dresses were of all kinds and very amusing, several women wore large straw hats with ribbons and flowers, and one had an imitation-knitted shawl thrown over all as a veil. Several leaders in the last hostilities were there, shaking hands and very page 46friendly with Colonel McCleverty, who told me that he had in those days seen a wardance that shook the very ground where he was standing, although at a safe distance. They seem to have been very formidable enemies. One old chief, still very wild looking, we talked to, and made him show us his green stone weapon. I don't know what to call it. It is more like one of those mermaid looking-glasses with a handle, in shape, than anything else, and made of the semi-transparent green stone which you see amongst Chinese curiosities; about a foot long or more, and with very sharp edges. These things are very heavy, and beautifully polished and smooth, and are formidable weapons enough, but they set a wonderful value on them when made in the aforesaid stone, and keep them as heirlooms in a chief's family for generations. The one we saw he assured us in Maori had killed many Maoris and pakehas (white people) and he ate them like pork, "as you would cow". The women had all sorts of finery added to their usual dress, and a good many had straw hats, with broad brims and bright coloured ribbons on them, and veils over that; one, a chief's wife, had a red cloak with a hood to it, but there were plenty still in only blankets. Some chiefs there are who have been educated amongst the whites, and who were much too grand to join in the feast, but stood and looked on, and then appeared in the evening at the ball at Government House. The evening before, we met two Maori ladies riding in elaborate riding habits, caps and veils, and even gloves. A native was following one of them, with her ball dress wrapped in a red blanket. These ladies at the feast only stood and looked on as we did, but I hope without feeling as we did as to the arrangements for the entertainment; for it was really like feeding pigs, or animals in the Zoological, and it seems very contradictory when we are by way of teaching them civilization by every possible means, to invite them to a repast conducted just on their own principles. At Auckland, tables, benches, etc., are always provided for the birthday feast, and everyone seemed to think that this, which was the first grand one here, was rather a failure. We had a most lovely night for the ball, and had only about as far to go as from Voelas hall door to the white gate. Mr. Bulkeley page 47came to tea and to go with us; we were asked for "Dancing at nine" ona magnificent printed card, and presented ourselves soon after 9.30, when we found everyone arrived and in superb ball-dresses, apparently just unpacked from London, specially Mrs. Eyre. We were, I think, all surprised at the general effect of the ball, it was so very good. The dancing was in three rooms, communicating with folding doors, the verandah outside, which is very large, enclosed as a relief to the room for walking about and flirtation when possible; but, as the Brigade-Major's wife, Mrs. O'Connell, told me the other day, "there are only six young ladies here and two of them are old", and the married ladies all dance, and as far as I could judge, don't flirt. Beyond the verandah, a space was enclosed for the band of the 65th, and that from the Meander, which relieved each other, and played capitally. I hear that there was a very good supper, but cannot speak to it, as we came home just as everyone else was squeezing into it. It was a sit down supper, at least for all the ladies; some of the gentlemen had to wait till the first detachment had done, But that is not surprising, as there were 180 people there. The Meander's flags assisted not a little in decorating the rooms, which were really quite pretty, with flowers artistically twined round the pillars of the verandah. At the top of the room was a sofa on which Mrs. Eyre sat, without rising to receive anyone, bowing to some, and shaking hands with the more illustrious (such as ourselves!). There were about three Maori ladies (in what we should call morning dresses) there, and twice as many gentlemen, but they did not dance. Not so the officers of the Meander, who were all heart and soul in it from Captain Keppel, who seems the most good-natured of men, down to his little nephew, the incipient middy. The next morning they were all off, and the harbour looking quite dull without them.

On Thursday, May 30th, the Government brig returned from Nelson, bringing back the Judge, Mr. Chapman, Mr. and Mrs. Fox, and Mr. Wodehouse and a smart young "settler" whom they have staying with them for the present. They had a passage of six days, a severe storm, which met them when they were within three hours of this page 48place, and drove them twice back through the straits; and apparently such a supply of "creature comforts" as was by no means calculated to make them forget their other troubles, besides the knowledge that the brig was so badly found in sails, etc., as to be hardly safe. The whole of which has been humorously described in an anonymous letter (though everyone knows who wrote it) from Mr. Fox to the Opposition newspaper here. It is very well written, but rather severe, and the other party is rather angry about it, though they cannot deny its truth. There was only one candle on board, and that was tallow, and other things in proportion. Friday evening, we felt a little shock just enough to shake us both in our chairs, but without any noise, after a day of almost unceasing down-pouring. The word rain gives you no adequate idea of the kind of thing. Saturday the "Glorious 1st June" was much such another day, and another shock at night which, however, we none of us felt, being one and all fast asleep. I believe they are generally felt after severe rain. I ought not to omit the mention of the 29th, "Royal Oak Day" and my husband's birthday. It was so satisfactory that we had a real English oak tree in a corner of the garden from which we each had a sprig. The difficulty was, not, to find it well out, but still green, it is now (June 3rd) completely brown from the great rain and south-east gale, which we had very strong and cold, so as to give us ice, but only enough to swear by; scarcely would it have cooled the butter for breakfast. When these winds come from the south it is really quite cold, for though we have a fire in the sitting-room, the draughts under the doors, and through all the boards, keep the room always within a few degrees of the outward air, and to say the least of it thoroughly ventilated. My husband all encased in wet linen and all his flannel taken off, is however always warmer than I am!! though sorely puzzled as to the means of getting a sufficiency of exercise for his reactions, without having all his exterior to correspond in wetness. One or two complete shower baths are enough, in the day, and the other times for exercise are spent in hopping and jumping about his room, at the imminent peril of breaking his head against the ceiling. All done with the greatest earnestness page 49to obtain an end, as he would write an article, and eat his dinner. Arthur is in one corner, imitating as nearly as possible, and looking more absurd than enough, and almost tumbling over in his endeavours to clap his arms very hard round himself (like a cold cab-man), and jump at the same time. He also enacts to the very life the packing in blankets and the rubbing sheet after it, and catches up every new word he hears, to reproduce as occasion may require. I am sure he would make you laugh excessively just now, especially in the little sailor dress, which looks quite natural upon him. He got so very thin at first in the ship, and though he is now, thank God, quite stout and fat again, and looks better than he ever did, he has remained of a slim growing sort of shape.

On June 2nd, Sunday, I am proud to say that I walked more than seven miles! first to morning church, at the other end of the town, and back in time for Powles to go to the one near us; then after dinner a walk, and at 6.30, of course in the dark, to the same Church again, which we found then crowded; in the morning there were very few people. Mr. Cole, our clergyman, one of the party who came out with the Bishop, has five services every Sunday, but sometimes gets some assistance. In the morning at 9 he has a service for the soldiers, and as they go out, we go in, about 10, for the prayers are cut short, though there is always a full-grown sermon; then at 11.45 the Church near us, then he rides up the Hutt to Porirua, some miles, and returns again to the far-off Church, which is the parish one, for 6.30. They have begun at once here not burying in the churchyards; but close behind our house is the "Cemetery Hill" with some tombs sprinkled over it, with neat white palings. Amongst them we found that of "Charles Cator, Solicitor, son of C.C., Rector of Stokesley". I never heard before where he had gone. We have, as an officer in the Customs, a son of Taylor, the waiter, but grown such a fine gentleman that when William carried him a letter from his father, and began to tell him that he had seen him just before starting, he would not take any notice of him, and merely said his letters would give him all the news. Mr. Nicholson, after living here, ever since we came, page 50an idle life half with the officers of the 65th, and half doing nothing, is at last on the point of going up the country to a station, to spend a little time in stock-keeping, and seeing how those matters are carried on. He is going to a Mr. Scroggs, brother to some very pretty Miss Scroggs, whom Laura and the Pollens know, and who sent him a letter by us, which was duly despatched by a safe hand. A great part of Monday, 3rd, we spent listening to a case of murder tried at the Assize Court, then sitting. There were I think, five or four cases in all, but this was the only serious one. There is a ship now laid up, as they call it here, waiting for orders from home, and in it was left a boy of nineteen as caretaker. He was found murdered, and packed in a cask, about a month before we came into the harbour, and some days after we came we met in the road three prisoners, taken up on suspicion nearly three hundred miles up the country, which I think speaks rather well for the police; it was a private from Wellington who took them. I need not give you the details, but after a trial which lasted two whole days, and late into the second night, one was found guilty and the others acquitted, who seem to have been only his dupes. This man Good is supposed to be an escaped convict, transported for a military offence, from India. He is young, and very good looking, with a clever, bad, expression, and the most wonderful nerve I ever heard of. The day after the boy was murdered, the friends whom he had invited came to dine with him, and found Good there, who made excuses for the boy having gone "up the country", and entertained and feasted with them all day, within a few yards of the murdered body. On his trial, too, he was, throughout, as calm as any spectator, taking notes and smiling at some of the evidence given, and this I hear continued even when sentence was passed. I only stayed in Court during a short part of the trial; being a case of life and death made it very disagreeable to me to be there, though I wanted to hear a case tried, which I never had before. Besides, the place allotted to me here was unpleasantly conspicuous, as instead of going to the ordinary gallery, where you cannot see, a chair was put for me close by the Judge, in his little box, en face de tout le monde. The execution will, I hear, be next week.

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June 3rd (this same day). We met Mr. Bulkeley very much elated at having received letters and newspapers from home, via Sydney, with which place there is constant communication here; the passage is only from a fortnight to three weeks. The Manager of the Bank, a Mr. Raymond, came here, from there, not nine months ago, and he knew Alfred Denison very well, used constantly to see him at parties there, when he came up for a month or two of mingled gaiety and business in his metropolis. It sounded so different to me from our idea of him sleeping over water holes, etc., but there, and even in New Zealand, which is so much newer, we find everything so much more civilized and like home, than we had expected, as to society and those matters. We are now, June 7th, at our third day of one of our bitterly cold south-east gales; I never saw such weather as we have had to-day, the water is coming in at our doors and windows, and at two or three soft places in the roof, and the wind everywhere; it is blowing up the face of the harbour, sheltered as it is, in clouds of spray, and part of our fence (a paling) is blown flat down, and in short even the people here say they never saw a worse gale. The whole house shakes with it, and we shiver, for fires cannot warm us, but then, it is so much pleasanter than on board ship, as to be delightful by comparison. Indeed, I think, whenever I am disposed to be uncomfortable now, the recollection that I am on shore will lighten every annoyance.

June 11th. We hear more and more accounts of the mischief done by the last gale, which everyone agrees is the worst they have had here, since the colony was established in 1840. Up the Hutt Valley large trees were broken and blown down, and the road there has been in places actually washed away by the violence of the waves, so that the communication is stopped for the present, as regards wheels. Mr. Wakefield told me he tried to ride in on the worst day (it lasted four), but could not. He got on some miles, and then, at a pass in the road where the spray was flying quite over the hills, he thought he would wait behind a fence (paling, they all are here of thin boards placed close together) till the gust was over. However, the next puff sent over the fence, and his horse, and himself, and they were blown page 52thirty or forty feet up the gully, the horse down on his side, so he thought it wisest to go home. We saw to-day a house where half the verandah had been blown bodily over the house, and other accidents, too long to relate. Last night we made a grand exertion and went out to tea to meet Mr. Hadfield at Mr. St. Hill's. As to our tea-party, I shall merely say that we ate plentifully of Sally Lunns!! and drank tea in proportion, but of our walk there I may say that it was diversified with an earthquake. Strange to say, walking we hardly felt it, though there was a noise like very distant thunder, and a little vibration, but Powles told me that in the house (where, from want of shelf accommodation, our cups hang on nails, as if at sea) the crockery all rattled. We have made a beginning of a poultry-yard in the shape of a lame cock, which came from we don't know where, and would not be driven away; and Arthur came home from his walk in a deep state of excitement, hardly able to say the words, but imploring me to come and see a hen which he and Powles had bought with a shilling's worth of Indian corn, for half a crown. You must not take this as the price of hens in general, but they had encountered a party Who had got it in a present, and did not aspire to the glory of a hen of her own.

June 12th. We have had another visit from Mr. Hadfield, who goes to-morrow. Only conceive what his life must have been at first, landing amongst perfect heathen and all fighting, killing, and eating one another. Now, in his part of the Island, a case of cannibalism is quite unknown, and the fighting, too, amongst the tribes seems at an end. He has baptized himself 1200 or 1300 people, and in the first year he has here taught about two thousand to read and write!! He gives the Maoris a very good character, as a moral population, and says they seem most anxious to do the right thing, as soon as they know. I have spent a great part of to-day at Colonel Gold's with a view to Arthur's making acquaintance with the children. It is a good thing for him to be amongst others, and he is generally very shy with them; however, to-day he soon got over it, rode on a donkey with a soldier to hold him on, to his great delight, and then ran and kicked about as merrily as any of them. page 53Mrs. Gold was a Canadian, Miss Geddie, and is very pretty, about twenty-six, I believe, has had eight children, and another expected in August, the eldest boy is nine, and there are seven alive. They seem nice children, and obedient to a word or look, but rather in the rough as to dress and so on, as may be imagined from their having, at present, only one nursery girl to wait on them all, and poor Mrs. Gold, though she seemed rather overpowered with them all, said she had been so unfortunate in her last nurse (one of these very self-sufficient and independent colonial young ladies) that she would rather wait a long time, on the chance of finding something good, than take another in a hurry. You hear the same from everyone here, and I should think the whole subject of maid-servants one of the great miseries of human life in N.Z. Every tolerably respectable woman has a husband and children, and does not wish to leave home. The men are not quite so rare or so troublesome, as far as I hear; they seem to do all the work in every house. For instance, our little maid insists that William ought to light the kitchen fires, and thinks she does wonders by getting up, when we call her at seven, and doing the sitting-room (twelve feet square) before breakfast. I am obliged to turn a deaf ear to Powles' remarks as to her saucy answers, and general imperfections, as there is literally no one else to be had; except a deaf and dumb girl, who came out in the ship with us, and who knows nothing of service. There is not much smartness, as you may suppose, and our ring at the door, anywhere, is usually answered by a figure in the overall blue-serge shirt, the common labourers and seamen's dress here. I have only seen one piece of inexpressible plush in the colony, and that was blue, and at Colonel Gold's; and I don't believe that appears every day, as I saw nothing of it yesterday. The Governor's (single) house servant, is in the white waistcoat and dress-coat style when he meets you at the door, and royally invites you to write your name; but even he is to be seen, in very demi-semi-toilette, before breakfast, helping in the stable, etc. My husband's horse, of which William has charge, seems to have turned out very well. His paces are pleasant, and he is quite quiet enough at all events for a man; the only thing against him is that page 54he is too small for anything like hard work, but that is not of any consequence at present. I am sorry to say that I have grown such a coward about riding that it is quite misery to me to be on a horse's back. But I must make an effort, as it is, you may say, the only way of getting about, and the two best and quietest ladies' horses are put at my service whenever I will send for them, as their riders are at present hors de combat. Mrs. Gold's is one.

June 16th. We have now lovely weather again, nothing can be more perfect, when the sun is out; when it is gone, and before it comes, it is very fresh indeed. The worst of it for me is that my husband's "cold water" gives him such a perpetual glow, that he is always wanting window and door open. It is only six weeks since he began to try it, and no good was to be expected for two or three months at least; but he is certainly looking very much better already, and has owned to me that he has not felt so really well in all respects (but throat) for ten years and more. The throat, too, is rather better, but that is to be the last improvement, as it is acted on through the constitution, and no local application except constant wet linen. I believe I shall have an opportunity of sending this via Sydney in a day or two, so I mean to let it go as it is. I believe this continual writing of little bits is, on the whole, the best way of keeping up such a correspondence as this, but it is not wholly satisfactory, as it seems so entirely of ourselves and our doings, and nothing but that, and yet what else have I to write? unless it were numberless questions about home, and everything going on there, to the smallest particulars. It is not for want of thinking of you all that I don't say more of that, Arthur is so much improved in looks I think you would hardly know him. He has another letter on the stocks to you. He makes me think so much of Charlie and says just the same sort of old things that he did, such as the other morning, when Powles was brushing my hair, he turned round and said, "Why, what work there is to dress a lady"; and innumerable other remarks which I spare you. His birthday is to be to-morrow, poor child, three years old; and Mrs. Gold's three little children are invited to spend the afternoon with him and drink tea, to page 55his immense delight, as though they are much older than him, five, six, and seven, they are very gentle, and they played together very well, and he is in extraordinary admiration of their dancing. He had never seen two people going together before, and couldn't understand it.

June 17th. Another gale, with rain which has put off the tea party, and given me another day, as the Louis and Miriam, which takes this (D.V.) to Sydney, cannot get out with this wind. We had two lovely days and shall now, I suppose, have three bad ones; so it is usually with this cold wind, the south-east. It looks ill for the "Settlers' Ball" to the Lieutenant-Governor and Mrs. Eyre, to which we are invited for to-morrow. It is to be given in a building on the beach, about half a mile from us, and a pretty clean walk. Are you not astonished at our gaiety? How wonderful it seems to think that the London season is nearly over, with all its different excitements, and we don't even know yet how you spent Christmas! If I let myself think too long together of the time it is since we have heard, and that when we do hear, how long it must be after its date, and how much must have happened to all but two of the people I care most about, I am much tempted to wish that N.Z. had gone comfortably under the sea, before I was born or thought of; but there is a bright side to everything, and there are plenty here, specially when there is no south-east gale going on. This is not nearly so bad as the last, but bad enough to keep me in the house all day, and my husband has had only two short walks, and one ride, in the rain. Please to tell John the Pedometer is constantly in his pocket, and is highly appreciated; it is quite an object to him, now, to know how far he walks. The Aneroid, too, is doing its work well, and the results are written down every morning at nine. Only, we ought to have thermometers on purpose for wind here, as it is quite provoking, when you are shivering with cold, to find it marking it exactly the same as if there was not a breath of air. It is in this way three degrees warmer to-day than yesterday (forty-six instead of forty-three), while our sensations would lead us to an exactly opposite result. The Poictiers which was the next N.Z. Co.'s ship coming out, is due now at Taranaki; but page 56had not arrived last Friday, when there came a mail post from there by land, and even after it gets there it must go to Nelson next, and be there a fortnight, or more, before it comes here with our news. Besides the two passages, and probable bad weather. I think I have not told you that I am in a most robust state of health, and either grown fat or else just going to begin. I have twice, on Sunday, walked to the far Church, a mile and a quarter each way, morning and evening, and taken a still longer walk in the afternoon. The evening service is at 6.30, and of course it is dark, but though we are so near Midwinter, it is light here long before seven. I know you will admire our early hours for being up then, and knowing all about it. Breakfast at eight, or as soon after it as Caroline (our young lady) will allow it, for which we have bread, potatoes and porridge, but no meat, and my husband no tea, but milk or cream and water, then at two dinner, and a good deal of it, but only one joint of meat and some pudding, and then tea at seven, with bread and butter, and then bed, in time for lots of beauty sleep. Our one ball is the only piece of irregularity we have yet committed, and then we were home at 12.30. Dinner-parties are refused, as they might come too often, but I suppose if we go to this ball to-morrow it will be the last, and so we make an exception in favour of such great festivities; especially as in a place like this people really care about our going. I must stop sometime or other, and may as well do it now, to be ready in time. I hope you will have heard, about a fortnight before getting this, of us from Killegar; my husband wrote, by an opportunity like this, and begged them to write to you, and he now implores you to forward this small note to his Mother, as he does not write this time au long. Best love from us to one and all, and Arthur sends "My love to Grandmamma, and to Aunt Frances, and to Aunt Louisa, and I think nothing else". God bless you all.

One more addio and believe me always your very affectionate

Charlotte.

P.S. from Arthur: "I send my love to Uncle Charles".