Letter from John Wycherly, former waterman , late of Tavistock and Saltash, to his wife’s cousins.
Taranaki, April 22nd, 1856. Dear Peter and Martha, Phyllis insists that I am the one who must write this letter although it is she who is cousin to the two of you. She has this strange idea that, because of my present employment,I might be the more persuasive correspondent. This in spite of the fact that we have never met and that you know of me and my brother Ralph only from her letters. We hope to persuade you Peter, and you Martha, that you could hope for a much better future in this country and to offer you an inducement to come out. With this letter you will have found a legal document deeding to you Peter a share of our country holdings provisional on you and Martha landing in this settlement.
As you know, I come from the vicinity of Tavistock and that my father is, like his father and grandfather before him, a tenant farmer. You will understand what persuaded my brother Ralph and me to come to the other side of the earth a little more than ten years ago. It was of course the opportunity to own some land of our own, something that we could never hope for in Devon. Like so many others, we were driven by the bright dreams drummed up by the Plymouth Company and expected far too much. At that time, I was already away from the home farm and helping to operate the Tamar ferry at Saltash but farming had remained in my blood.
You will be aware of the scandal that involved the Plymouth Company, that it did not have title to much of the land it was claiming, of the financial problems that forced it to merge with its parent, the New Zealand Company, and that its planning left a great deal to be desired. You will also probably know of the primitive conditions that obtained here at first. But having said that, we must tell you that the colony of New Zealand, if not exactly thriving, is at least showing signs of looking up as is this small part of it. We have every reason to expect a bright future.
We really do hope that you might join us here. Ralph and I have come to have here what we could never hope to have at home. We each have parcels of land at Mangorei which is some miles
PLYMOUTH’S CHILDREN Page 2 from the town. Land that was originally allocated to us and and some that we have since purchased from some who failed to wait out the lean times. The colony is hard on slackers but at the same time is the making of anyone willing to make the extra effort. We also own town plots, both now built on though with admittedly modest timber houses. Although coal, iron sands, and a number of mineral ores have been discovered, thus far very little suitable building stone has been found but good timber is abundant here, red and white pine, and the trees are truly massive. Phyllis and I occupy our own house in town while Ralph’s is rented out. Ralph lives out at Mangorei in what, for the moment, can only be described as a hut. He remains a bachelor and, he says, content with his squalor and prefers to put any money gained into developing the land.
It is good land, rich, the soil is volcanic, the present mountain, fortunately dormant, is the latest of a succession of volcanoes that have blessed this land with their ash. We have been fortunate in our entitlements. The land nearest the coast was covered with fern and easier to develop but has quickly proved proved to be of lesser quality though not by that much. Our land is forest land, here we call it bush, and it is as yet only partially cleared. Others on similar land who have cleared ahead of us have produced some outstanding wheat yields which give promise of future prosperity. There are any number of streams able to support mills. The land is well watered.
The Mangorei district was at first remote and unroaded and it seemed better to labour for the Company which represented at the time almost the only source of ready money. We certainly had none of our own. When there was road work available, we took it. Even now when we are developing the land it has been necessary to do other work. It will be some years yet before the land can support anyone. We have worked for others a little better off than ourselves and have cut and threshed cocksfoot seed which is in some demand as it is one of the better grasses for reseeding burnt-over areas. Ralph still takes any road work that he can get. We are trying to avoid the common method of land clearance here which is to fell the trees and burn them where they fall and then seed the burnt-over area. It is a waste of good timber although, at the moment, the supply
PLYMOUTH’S CHILDREN Page 3 seems inexhaustable and prices are low. This will not always be the case. We have built our own saw pit and will at least produce timber for our own needs. An arrangement with a neighbour allows him to use our pit while we can borrow his oxen to draw our logs there.
Our only stock at this moment is a milk cow, fortunately in calf, and a few sheep but we have gradually scraped a little capital together to increase our stock as the area to support them comes under grass. Apart from the one encouraging crop of rye that threshed out more plentifully than any that I can remember at home, our only produce thus far has been vegetables which go for our own use with the surplus sold in town. We have established an orchard and are continuing to add to it. All the familiar home varieties are represented as well as some that just do not thrive at home.
The reason why it is possible to offer you part of the holdings without too much pain is that for three years now I have had increasing employment with the town’s newspaper, the Taranaki Herald. It is a four page weekly and you will be surprised at the reason I gained this employment. It was because of my ability to handle a skiff. The town is on an exposed coast subject to heavy seas and has no harbour. Carrington, the Plymouth Company surveyor, decided on this spot rather than the Waitera River some 14 miles to the north which would have provided a port with reasonable shelter and entry except in the worst weather. It in no way compares with the Tamar though. Perhaps, when the roads improve, it will be our port. The 14 miles has quite a few streams that will need to be bridged and the money is just not available.
Ships arriving here usually have to stand off several miles. Lists of new arrivals, information about them, and news of the outside world is the life-blood of the newspaper which is the reason for the skiff. After the Harbour Master, and yes we have a Harbour Master, I am usually the first one on board. Any information that I can garner before it becomes common property is of value along with any home print that has survived the journey. In our isolation, every piece of outside information is a nugget and the fledgling newspapers here quote from each other in an incestuous manner. I have become a compositor as well and have come to handle the type
PLYMOUTH’S CHILDREN Page 4 with at least a little skill. A man here must be able to turn his hand to many things.
And you may guess how I first came to set eyes on Phyllis. It was, of course, on board ship. Of particular interest for the Herald that week was the expected arrival of the Plymouth Company’s new civil engineer but when I saw his beautiful daughter my own interest shifted entirely. I interviewed both of her parents and took advantage of my employment to interview her as well. The problem then seemed to be how to get to know this lovely young lady. It was not to be as hard as I might have expected since her father is, like myself, a Primitive Methodist lay-preacher. We have three shades of Methodism in this small town. Wesleyan, Primitive, and Free Methodists. Previously there was a fourth but the Bible Christian Church amalgamated with us, that is with the Primitive Church in 1844. I was fortunate to be in the right one of the three remaining. I think that Phyllis’s father would have prefered her to marry a professional man, preferably someone strong in The Lord, but in the event just someone strong in The Lord had to do.
Now that her father’s term of contract has ended and her parents have returned home to Devon- port, Phyllis is particularly feeling loss of family. We would have you come out for our own selfish reasons but we do honestly think that you would do much better here. You would have an ample piece of good land. True, it still needs a lot of work, and money, but there is employment here in plenty and you are unlikely to ever be in want. This land is crying out for young people.
And to you Martha. I understand that you are at present in service. Out here, a young woman in service can ask for and get twenty pounds a year which I think would be more than you can ever hope to get at home. She can ask this because she is a scarce commodity. Young women all too readily become wives.
We are called New Plymouth but you must put any thought of comparison with our mother city out of your mind. We may never be as large or as important. In population we would be nearer that of Saltash and again it would be unwise to make comparison. One cannot compare a town mentioned in the Doomsday Book and like-others that we know with one scarcely out of swaddling
PLYMOUTH’S CHILDREN Page 5 clothes. It can be something of a shock at first and yet one quickly comes to feel at home.
Please think our offer over carefully and let us know what you decide although that cannot be soon. We could possibly give some assistance with the passage money although that would have to be in the nature of a loan.
We remain affectionately yours,
John and Phyllis Wycherly.