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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Pioneers and The Plymouth Company

Pioneers and The Plymouth Company.

But for the present these terrible results were still in the distant future, and the settlers went on their way rejoicing, making the best of their opportunities, and in many cases urging their friends and relations to come out from “Home” and join them in the land of plenty, where they had found so comfortable a refuge from the hardships that the industrial classes then had to face in England. The following extract from a letter written by a settler to a friend in Cornwall shows how strongly the advantages of colonial life appealed to many of the settlers: “The land is of excellent quality, and wood of all kinds is to be obtained here. The trees are green all the year round, and there are some of the finest shrubs you ever saw in your life. Some of the ferns here would fetch £100 if you could get them home to England. The climate here is good and healthy. I am working at my trade, shoemaking, which is one of the best in the colony. They pay 17s a pair for low shoes; £1 for high shoes; 10s for women's shoes; and £2 5s for Wellington boots for men. I also do the butchering as well, and intend to keep to it. I would be glad to see you out here, or any of my old friends from home. There is no scarcity of money or meat here. I have a house and garden of my own, and I never intend to be an English slave any more; but if I come home I hope to have enough to live on without working to maintain masters. Here is the place for farmers to live. No taxes, no tithes, no rates of any sort or any arbitrary taxation of money. The bush land is the best land; the fern land is not quite so good, but when the fern is burned it makes the land better. Some of the ferns are from fifteen to twenty feet high, and the fern tree grows here; the roots of which we eat just the same as you would an apple at home; and it is very good. The natives here are very harmless and quiet, and not at all as they are spoken of elsewhere. If any labouring man of the place were here, he would do well. Wages are here 30s a week.”

But satisfactory as the prospects seemed to the more sanguine of the colonists, the outlook for the promoters of the settlement was by no means bright. The funds of the Plymouth Company were exhausted, and the New Zealand Company was neither willing nor able to advance more money for the purchase of land. In January, 1843, the “Essex” (392 tons, Captain Oakley) arrived from Plymouth, carrying 141 immigrants; and this was the last vessel the Company despatched in its effort at colonisation. All-round retrenchment now became necessary. The issue of stores and rations was stopped; and as there was now more than enough land surveyed to meet all immediate demands, the Chief Surveyor, Mr. F. A. Carrington, was informed that his services would cease in March, 1844.