APPENDICES
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APPENDICES
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APPENDIX ONE
THE JOURNAL OF BLANCHE LUSH
1882
Mrs Lecky's Lodgings, Auckland.
15 June 1882. I think the best thing I can do to give an idea of our life here and the way in which my dear invalid is going will be to try and keep a small journal, which had better be forwarded to England, 1 if not this mail the next.
Thursday morning broke wet and cold and we were doubtful about our journey here; however our kind friend Miss Hunt brought her little easy carriage for dear Vi, and he and Annette drove in it to the Railway station. He told me afterwards that the first sign he had of his encreased weakness was that he felt he could scarcely raise his legs from the ground to get into the carriage. Blanche [Blannie] and I went in the shaky omnibus with the luggage.
When I got to the station of course I looked out for him and a boy came up to me saying he had fallen down, which I found he had from his weakness and the slippery ground. Most fortunately he had not hurt himself but it was a bad beginning for such a long journey and frightened our poor girls. We got him into the railway carriage and made him a nice soft bed with the pillows and railway rug we had brought, and he accomplished the journey better than I thought he would. A man in the carriage that at first I did not recognise was so very kind. This man was Syms, one of our old Thames folk - he said he was only too glad to do anything to help him. I don't know what I should have done but for him.
When we got to Newmarket where we were to stop we found Martin and Carrie waiting, also the Bishop and Mrs Cowie and Dr Maunsell - I think they were all greatly shocked at the altered look of my dear Husband. They were all as kind as they possibly could be - Martin and Carrie came to the lodgings with us. When they left we had a meat tea and then I got my patient to bed, and when I knew he could spare me I walked up to Dr Goldsboro's. Of his own accord he said we must have a second opinion. He wishes Dr Philson and I don't know that we can do better.
16. A visit from Dr Goldsboro', who I am sorry to say finds him much worse. He had a tolerable night but at six this morning was eager for something to allay his thirst and weakness, so I got up
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and used dear B.'s Etna 2 for the first time and made him a cup of cocoa. The Bishop and Mrs Cowie came to enquire - they seem as kind as they can be.
I have just sent the first sheets to Hamilton for the girls to see and then post to England. Mrs Lecky keeps quite a good table for a New Zealand lodging house - leg of mutton roast, mashed potatoes and cabbage, baked batter pudding and orange marmalade for dinner, and I got some stout for dear Vi. He made a tolerable dinner and then went and lay down on his bed, and sent me to town for a few things he wanted.
Just as I was waiting for the omnibus I espied Mrs Macdonald, Miss Newby, and Flora. I offered to stay but they said they would meet me in town. So I got into the car and found Miss Roskruge and her niece there. Met Mrs Mac and sister at Aickin's - saw Mrs Eden - she says dear Sophy Kenny is getting thinner and weaker. Poor Mrs Kenny! I did my errands as quickly as I could and then drove back in the car.
Found dear Vi rather oppressed by Mr and Mrs Nelson who unfortunately caught him coming downstairs. I soon got rid of the Nelsons - dear Vi so soon gets tired. I don't want him to be troubled with company. Martin has been in twice today and I expect him this evening. He has just bought Charles Kingsley's Life, and has lent it to us to read. Vi is lying on the sofa by my side - quietly asleep. We have a nice sitting-room, a square table in the center for meals - an oval spider ditto in the corner - a nice sideboard in which I can put any little dainties for the invalid -an easy-chair and large ottoman - three common chairs and a fireplace with a basket grate.
17. Martin came in after breakfast as he always does -had a message from the Doctor to say he and Dr Philson would come at 2 o'clock to see Vi and consult over his case. Martin ran in and wanted me to go out with him, which I agreed to do if I could, but I had to stay for the Doctors - they have come and gone, and promised I shall know tomorrow their opinion. Carrie White, my future daughter, 3 came today. Mrs Lecky has just brought in a kind sympathising note from Mrs Burrows. Martin came in to supper.
18. The Doctor came in this morning, but I could not get his opinion, he said he had to see Dr Philson again. Vi made me go to Church with Martin, who came for me. I left V. in Mrs Lecky's care and went to St Paul's - the new organist, Angelo Forrest, plays so well - it's quite a treat to hear an organ after our raspy
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THE JOURNAL OF BLANCHE LUSH
Harmonium. Mrs Macdonald came this evening and saw my invalid - she is quite distressed at his appearance - he does not appear worse today. The Bishop called to enquire, also Mr Baber. Martin came at about 9 o'clock and had a little supper with us.
19. Passed a tolerable night but the cough troublesome. Dr Goldsboro' says the hacking cough is from the heart. Vi is very weak this morning - had to give him some wine before he could finish dressing. He sleeps a great deal, more than I like, but maybe it is Nature asserting herself. We have had many callers today - first Louisa White who brought dear Vi some stewed pears, which I am very glad of, as he seems to have a longing for fruit. Mrs Ireland brought me some Essence of Beef which she had had made for the invalid. After that the Bishop sent Katie and Arthur to "enquire for his Archdeacon".
When they were all gone Vi just crept out on the verandah to take a little walk with me, and our old friend Colonel Haultain ran up the steps and walked up and down with us. When we went in I thought our visitors had ceased but no! Colonel Rookes and Walter Hill, the lawyer, came.
You must not suppose I let Vi see all these folks - on the contrary, they are always asked into our landlady's parlour and I see them there. If Vi wishes and feels well enough I take them into our sitting-room. Martin came in about 5 o'clock and brought Carrie; 'tis her birthday and she wanted to thank me for a present I and Martin had made her. I am rather afraid this illness of his father's will interfere with Martin's wedding; he is of course very anxious.
20. Went to post letters at Vaughan's - did a few errands. I hoped the Doctor would call soon. Then came the Doctor - and how shall I write it? His opinion and Dr Philson's is very bad of my dear, dear Vi. Oh! how shall I bring my mind to face the coming trouble I see hanging over me? I dare not give way or I shall be unfitted for my work as nurse. I hardly know how to arrange my thoughts. Perhaps 'tis happy for me that my husband looks so completely to me for everything. I have no time to fret. I know constant employment is the only thing for me just now. I am thinking much of my two poor girls in Hamilton.
22. We are as comfortable here as one can be in lodgings. We have a good bedroom with fireplace.
24. Such a lovely morning, it quite cheers me up. Martin has just come in before going to his office - told him to telegraph the dear girls that their father is slightly better. My journals are full of mistakes and sadly scribbled but I cannot help it or rewrite them.
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Such as they are they must go to England and I know my sisters-in-law will enter too much into my anxieties to be very critical.
After dinner (which I am glad to say our dear invalid enjoyed) Martin came to take me out; we called for Carrie and went to call on old Mrs Hogg, our old Thames friend - found Maggie Hume and Beatrice Mackay there - Beatrice I had not seen since she was a small child: she is now grown up and very dour looking. Vi seems weak and low this evening - he worries so much.
The weather has changed again and is bitterly cold. Mr Hesketh, lawyer, has sent dear Vi some beautiful hothouse grapes. He has been longing for grapes for some time, but we have been unable to get them as the season is over. We do not know the Heskeths but our friend Mrs Macdonald met him and asked if he had any and if he would give them to her sick friend. This I call true kindness. Martin is going to call and thank him.
25. Martin came in after dinner and seemed poorly. In about an hour he came back and said: "Mother, I wish you to see if I have got measles." I looked and sure enough the complaint was visible. I sent him home to his lodgings and then wrote to Dr Goldsboro' to go and see him. The Doctor says he has a light attack and it will soon be over.
26. Vi seems better today. I have been to Martin's lodgings twice today; he is going on very well but had a restless night. I got some lemons to make lemonade for him.
30. Dear Vi, for a wonder, made a good dinner (for him). I had one chicken boiled with oyster sauce. I sent some to Martin, with a small bottle of his father's Stout - I should think he enjoyed it, as he has been kept on slops since Sunday last. The Doctor said today that dear Vi is better but I can't see it - indeed he seems to me weaker. I hope I may be wrong but he does seem so very ill.
1 July. Dear Vi a better night. If I could but see him enjoy his food I should be better satisfied, but he eats next to nothing - one or two raw oysters are what he likes best and some stout. Mrs Joll and her daughter called (one of our Thames miners' wives) to enquire. Vi did not see them. I went to see Martin who is fast recovering. I do hope tomorrow (Sunday) will be fine as he is coming to have dinner with us. I have not been for a walk all this week - my cold has been bad - the weather dreadful, dull, cold and damp, and also 'tis so dull for poor dear Vi - so I have stayed at home and read to him and done what I could to help pass the time.
2. Went to Martin this morning, found him up and on the
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THE JOURNAL OF BLANCHE LUSH
verandah in the sunshine. He walked over with me and seemed pretty well again - saw his father, says he thinks he is brighter but with me thinks he is weaker. God knows how this illness will terminate but it is a fearful trial.
Martin came for me after dinner and walked with me to our old house on Parnell. I had the keys, as it is vacant and I believe we shall have to live in it. I don't think Vi will ever be fit for clerical work again even if he should get well. The house looks very small - there is a large nice drawing-room with two French windows - a tiny dining-room, 3 bedrooms and dressing-room downstairs and 3 or 4 attics upstairs - a good-sized kitchen and pantry - a shed outside and a fair piece of garden grounds - it is well planted but very much overgrown - wants the axe. The house is in fairish repair and a little paper and paint inside would do much. The outside was painted a few months ago.
4. Mr Hill, the lawyer, called on Vi and saw him in his bedroom, and Mr Ruddock came from Hamilton where he has been for a clergyman's break and has taken the services for two Sundays; he brought me a packet from Blanche - said he enjoyed his stay at Hamilton.
6. Dear Vi is very weak and poorly. The morning was bright and fine. Mr Ruddock of the Melanesian Mission, who has been taking Vi's duty at Hamilton, called - he is going on to Napier. Vi made a rather better dinner; our landlady, who seems concerned at his bad appetite, surprised him with a nice roast pheasant and bread sauce, and I had the pleasure of seeing him eat a small piece.
The Howick Macleans (our old parishioners) sent their grandson with enquiries and a pheasant for the invalid. Dr Goldsboro' came - he thinks very badly of the case: said it was completely hopeless, the action of the heart was so very weak - he gets thinner and weaker daily - it is most distressing and 'tis a hard struggle for me to try to be calm.
The Bishop came to enquire. I spoke to him about my dear Husband's state and asked him to tell Vi that he could never get well. The Bishop did so and said that our dear invalid was fully aware without being told. He then advised our sending for the two dear girls and said they would be welcome at Bishopscourt. So 'tis settled and they are to stay at the Bishop's. I should have sent sooner for them but I wished to spare them and their father was happy in thinking they were doing some of his work in his parish - and also I fear the sight of their grief will upset me, and my poor Husband still retains his old dislike to tears, &c. He is perfectly calm and composed, which is a great blessing.
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9. Martin is with me today. We telegraphed last night for Blanche and Annette to come at once, so they will be here tomorrow - there are no Sunday trains.
10. Dear Vi slept pretty well but mind not clear - wandering. This morning though he is clear and as sensible as ever. Dr Goldsboro' called - thinks very badly of him; he is sinking fast I am afraid.
I do hope the girls will be here today - 'tis wet and stormy but I wish them to see him alive once again, and I cannot conceal from myself the knowledge that his life hangs on a thread. I have been able to do all for him to this time - may God please to Support me to minister to his wants to the end.
Here Blanche Lush's journal ends. Her daughter, Blannie, finishes the page with a short entry.
12 July. I must write now for Mother - she is too sad and ill. Dear, dear Father died last night. The end was so peaceful, like falling asleep. We were all with him - the Bishop had just been, and prayed with him, and in less than half an hour he had gone. He was in no pain and was, we think, conscious, but unable to speak.
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APPENDIX TWO
NOTES
I, Macleans of Bleak House
The brothers Robert and Every Maclean, younger sons of a Cornish squire, came to New Zealand in the ship Constantinople in 1850 and, liking the prospect of Auckland, eventually bought a property at Howick which they called Bleak House. It is not known if the name had an association with Charles Dickens's novel of that name or whether it was chosen simply (as seems likely considering that Mrs Maclean started to plant trees round her new home soon after her arrival there) as a comment on its exposed situation.
Surgeon J. T. W. Bacot was the owner of the original land title. His wife was a daughter of Captain Macdonald, stationed at Howick in charge of a Company of Pensioners. The Macdonald house (1847), now occupied by Mr Rex Mason, and Bleak House (c. 1848) are believed to have been built on the same general plan.
An advertisement in the Southern Cross during July 1857 gives a clear picture: "Bleakhouse [sic]: To be sold with immediate possession, the above delightful residence, situated on an eminence commanding a view of the Tamaki River and the cluster of islands in the Gulf of Hauraki, presenting a panorama which cannot be excelled. The house, which is replete with every convenience, comprises an Entrance Hall, Dining Room (16x16), Drawing Room (21x16), Breakfast Room, two excellent Kitchens, Store Room, Larder, Dairy, Closet and other necessary offices and five excellent Bedrooms. The outer offices comprise Two Stables, Coach-house, Cow house, enclosed yards, &c., 2 acres of pleasure ground, orchard, kitchen and flower gardens and 135 acres of excellent pasture land. Price £3000."
But the Maclean brothers did not sell Bleak House. Ellen, only daughter of Mr and Mrs Robert Maclean, was married from there in All Saints' Church, Howick, on 23 November 1864. The Southern Cross for 25 November reports: "This day the little village of Howick was roused from its usual quiet dullness in anticipation of the Marriage of Miss Maclean, daughter of Robert Maclean Esq, Bleak House, to Mr Deputy Assistant Commissary Bailey, director of the Land Transport Corps. At about eleven in the forenoon groups of villagers, gaily and prettily dressed, might be seen wending their way to the Church. At half past eleven the bride and bridegroom, accompanied by a select party of friends, arrived at
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the Church. The Rev. V. Lush officiated on the occasion. After the service the wedding party consisting of General Galloway, Colonel de Quincey, several officers of the Transport Corps and a few intimate friends of the family, returned to Bleak House where a sumptuous breakfast awaited them. Mr Bailey is to be congratulated on the step he has taken; and the province of Auckland on having acquired a most valuable settler. Mr Bailey has now become one of the people of Auckland."
Robert Maclean died in 1888 and his brother in 1901. Bleak House became part of the trust estate of Mrs Robert Maclean and was eventually inherited by Mrs Bailey and her three children. In 1911 the old house, which had been enlarged until it contained twenty rooms, was burnt down. The newspaper Graphic reported that the glare of the fire was seen in Auckland.
2, Hales of Nocton Hall
Robert James Hale was born in England on 20 June 1817. He qualified as a Doctor of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons at London University and attended the University of Edinburgh in 1841.
In 1859, with his wife Ann (nee Warren) and a large young family, he landed at Auckland to become one of those welcome and useful settlers - a farmer who was also an experienced and well-qualified medical practitioner. His professional help was always freely given to Maori and colonist alike; during the Waikato War this did not add to his popularity with the authorities in Auckland, then the capital of New Zealand.
The exact date of the family's arrival in Wairoa South is not known. One child was born at St George's Bay, Auckland, soon after their landing and the next at "Nocton Hall, Wairoa South, 1861" according to family records. Nocton Hall was a large house near the coast at Umupuia and was surrounded by a fine garden and plantations. Here the tenth and youngest child was baptized by Vicesimus Lush and given the name of Decimus Augustus. A great-grandson still farms the Nocton acres.
3, McNicols of Glenalbyn
Marion and John McNicol came to Auckland from the Island of Arran. There does not appear to have been any authentic record of the arrival of these first Scots settlers at Wairoa South; to some extent the diaries of Joshua Thorp, William Hampton Thorp and James Sangster Wilson provide proof that they were well established in 1853 or possibly a year earlier. They and George Hoy, who joined them, bought their land from Maori owners. Calling
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their new farm Glenalbyn after their home in Scotland, they settled there with the usual Scots determination to make their venture a success.
More is known of Marion McNicol than of her husband. She was the first housewife to set up her camp-oven and wash-boiler beside the Wairoa River at what is now Clevedon. The family came to Auckland in 1852 with three young daughters, Annie, Kate and Mary; five more children were born at Glenalbyn, and their mother carried her eldest son, Archie, sixteen miles to Papakura for his baptism, fording rivers and walking rough bush tracks. A woman of firm character, in spite of persuasion and orders from the military and civil authorities she stayed at her post all through the Waikato War and kept her family with her. The fact that the Settlers' Stockade was near her home gave her some confidence, but at the beginning of her life in Wairoa South her nearest neighbours were at Howick and Papakura and the link between them and her was a frequently flooded bush-track. Gentle Reader, if you would assess the contribution made by women to the colonisation of New Zealand, look long at the face of Marion McNicol. There were many like her.
4, Miss Maria Rye of Peckham Rye
The eldest child of a London lawyer, Maria Rye and her associate, Jane Lewin, introduced the Female Middle Class Emigration Society in 1863, with the blessing of the great social reformer of the Victorian era, Lord Shaftesbury. It met both the needs of Britain, where there was a high proportion of "Capable Unmarried but Impoverished Gentlewomen" (to quote Miss Rye), and those of the Colonies by exporting potential governesses, nurses and needlewomen to places that welcomed them warmly.
Miss Rye seems to have felt uneasy about sending her young emigrants to countries of which she knew so little. She sailed for New Zealand with the first contingent and for more than a year toured Australasia, settling her protegees where she hoped they would be happy and useful, while Jane Lewin on the other side of the world showed considerable discretion in her choice of candidates for the free passages offered.
Vicesimus Lush records in his journal "dining with Miss Rye of emigration fame" while she was being entertained by the Bishop of New Zealand and Mrs Selwyn at Bishopscourt in Parnell. Unfortunately there is no more than a brief mention of the occasion, but some months earlier the Southern Cross (21 September 1864) gives a distressingly dull account of a meeting of the Auckland City Mission School Committee, at which Miss Rye was the principal speaker, where she was greeted with "Rapturous applause". Refer-
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ence is made to the unavoidable absence of the Hon. William Fox, Colonial Secretary, who apologised for his inability to attend but turned up in time for supper. "The arrival of the English mail and other pressing business had prevented him". More applause.
Maria Rye's reception in other parts of New Zealand varied. It seems to have been generally agreed that her schemes were both workable and beneficial to employer and employed, but they were restricted in New Zealand by the absence of public funds in the 1860s.
5, Captain William Steele
William Steele, born in Shropshire, settled in Wairoa South at the age of thirty. He considered war inevitable in 1863. The outlying settlers decided to take any steps they saw necessary to protect themselves against governmental apathy as well as the danger of Maori attack, which a proportion of settlers regarded as the less likely evil. This led to a bluntly expressed letter from William Steele to Thomas Russell, then Minister for Defence, reporting that firing had been heard in the surrounding bush and informing him that the community of Wairoa South would feel happier if they also were armed. His letter produced results with a speed unusual from politicians; Steele was commissioned and found himself in command of the Wairoa Rifle Volunteers, a force of some twenty men.
A few months later, in the New Year of 1864, he was ordered to Australia on a recruiting mission that was, in terms of numbers, notably successful. By 3 February no less than seven ships had sailed for New Zealand and the newly gazetted Captain Steele (4th Waikato Militia Regiment) was receiving government approval for acquiring a "superior body of men for military service" - though the New Zealand Militia did not appear to support this view, judging from a report from the Wairoa men on their efforts to find a party of Imperial soldiers lost in the bush while returning from leave.
Eventually it was William Steele who led the first contingent of settlers up the Waikato River to the wilderness that was to become the city of Hamilton, and there he settled on his own land near to what is now called Hillcrest.
6, Wiremu Tamehana, the Kingmaker
Forty years after the death of Wiremu Tamehana - who died at Matamata more than a century ago - Sir John Gorst in New Zealand Revisited paid a sincere and deserved tribute to the founder of the Maori King movement: "I have met many statesmen in the
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course of my long life, but none superior in character or intellect to this Maori Chief whom most people would look upon as a savage."
A son of Te Waharoa, one of the most feared chiefs of his day, Tamehana was a highly respected member of his race for other reasons besides rank. Born at Tamahere near Hamilton about 1820, he was taught to read and write by the missionaries and eventually built up a voluminous correspondence that would not have disgraced any pakeha Victorian statesman. Another of his practical achievements was the "Pa for Christ" which he named Tapiri, laid out in streets and planted with fruit trees. It had neither stockade nor fence as it was not built for war. A feature was the large church of Maori workmanship.
When war came to the Waikato, Tamehana had little enthusiasm for it; not without reason was he also called the Peacemaker. V.L.'s reference to him as a "blood thirsty savage who would spare no one" was based on a letter from Tamehana to Archdeacon Brown at Tauranga, to warn him of possible consequences if war came, and which was understood to say he would spare neither unarmed civilians nor property. This was, in fact, no more than a reminder that the old customs of Maori warfare would inevitably be followed by at least some of his warriors.
On 13 August 1866 the superintendents of Wellington and Auckland provinces gave a dinner in his honour at Osgood's Hotel, Wellington. During the evening Tamehana offered to play draughts with the Waikato as the stake. His opponents declined the stake but were all three defeated. Four days later he arrived at Tauranga, to the relief of some of his Waikato people who had heard a lurid story that he had been poisoned in Wellington by the Governor's butler!
By the end of the year Wiremu Tamehana was dying. He lay in the shade of a patch of bush at Peria at sunset, hundreds of his mourning people around him, while his old friend, the Auckland and Matamata pioneer, Josiah Clifton Firth, knelt beside him. Two days after Christmas, as he himself had foretold, Tamehana was dead.
7, Letter from Lady (Mary Ann) Martin to Miss Marriott
Tauranga Auckland
30 March 1865
Dear Friends,
I almost shrink from writing by this Mail and yet you must not hear only from the Newspapers the dismal tale of bloodshed. Just
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as our 50 years' Jubilee 4 is passed, for the first time the blood of a Martyr been shed in this Christian land....
The news came on Wednesday that he [Carl Sylvanus Volkner] was killed and that [the Revd] Mr [T. S.] Grace was a prisoner in the hands of the fanatics and that they were in full march to Turanga, Bishop Williams' Mission station. The wind freshened that night to a furious gale which blew for the next two days; no vessel could go out and we all could but wait and pray. Dear Bishop Selwyn and Mrs S. went off at once to break the news to the poor widow, and to tell Mrs Grace of her husband's peril; she is just expecting her 10th living child.... On Friday evening there seemed a gleam of hope when our dear Bishop steamed out in H. M. Ship Eclipse, Capn Freemantle, in very heavy weather. But day after day passed without news till Saturday week when an "Extra" was printed that the Bishop of Waiapu was a prisoner! We did not quite believe it for the story was at third hand - but it did not enliven us. However by ten o'clock that night the Eclipse was back with the Primate and Mr Grace on board, and with good news of the determined rallying of all Turanga natives round their Bishop; 400 armed men were ready to defend him and his - and at Hick's Bay were literally all up in arms to stop the Pai Marire fanatics and to rescue Mr Grace. So we kept our thanksgiving on Sunday though mingled with deep humiliation....
[Here Miss Marriot, who edited these letters more than a century ago, quotes from a letter written by Mrs Selwyn:] "The Pai Marire began a year ago at Taranaki. It would never have gained strength but for the despair and bitterness of the people. Hunger, sickness and the sword have driven men into mad fanaticism before now.... Opotiki was a Xtian village some 16 years ago with a friendly population. Their missionary [the Revd J. A. Wilson] left them when his wife died leaving him with four young sons. Years passed without the station being re-occupied, to the Bishop's great sorrow. Good Mr Volkner was long anxious to go as a missionary thither, and about 3 or 4 years since did go with his wife.... Growing irritation was alienating the people. It was thought wise that Mrs V. should leave Opotiki, which she did. Then fever broke out from want of food. The people were too broken and dispirited to work, and 150 at least died last winter. Dear Mr V. was there, ministering to them with an aching heart, but many looked with jealous eyes on Pakeha medicine. Then he came to Auckland and was warned by one or two not to return. But he had no fear.... "
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8, Speedys of The Grange
When the ship Oriental docked at Auckland in February 1856 a retired Bengal Army officer, Major James Speedy, stepped ashore with his wife Sarah, followed by an impressively large and lively family.
Having bought land at Mauku near Pukekohe, they occupied a house of suitable size - known as The Grange - and settled down as enthusiastic colonists, hospitable and very socially inclined. One of the earliest visitors to The Grange was the Austrian geologist, Ferdinand von Hochstetter, on a world survey expedition, who writes in his daily journal for 27 January 1858: "Found hospitable quarters at Major Speedy's, a late officer of the Bengal Army who has now settled down as a farmer in New Zealand.... Let him who intends writing novels about the farmer life of the colony of New Zealand take up his quarters here; let him make himself at home in the farm houses of the Mauku, so abundantly blessed with rosy daughters.... There live the Speedys, the Vickers, the Crispes, and whatever the names are of all the amiable families in that District." And in the Speedy garden he planted a native tree to mark his visit.
Until war came in the early 1860s the Speedy family enjoyed colonial life. There was shooting and fishing for the men, a chess club that met weekly, concerts featuring locally written plays, and a weekly dance held in turn at three of the largest houses, followed by a walk home of two or three miles through the bush by the light of a "colonial lantern", a bottle with the bottom knocked out and carried upside-down with a candle in its neck.
About four years after his arrival in New Zealand Major Speedy was appointed Magistrate for the Mauku district and (in common with many other settlers) ran considerable risk from ambushes, in spite of his popularity with local Maoris. Escorts as he went about his official business were not often available but Helena, his second daughter - described as a "brave and intrepid girl" 5 - generally rode with her father on his bush travels.
James Speedy (1805-68) died after a fall from his horse and was buried beside his young son, Essex Speedy, where the Mauku stream falls into salt water.
9, The First Panic at Mauku 6
Towards the end of 1860 the quiet little village of Mauku was thrown into a state of excitement by the news that a Maori named Eriata was found shot in the bush near Patumahoe.
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The first intimation we had of the man's death was from a very friendly native named Jacob, who arrived at Major Speedy's house the day after the man was shot, while the family was at breakfast. Instead of as usual being chatty, Jacob sat down mute, resting his head on his hand. The late Captain Johnstone who was present and familiar with the ways of the Maoris whispered: "Leave him alone, he has something on his mind and will speak presently." This the native did. He told the family of Eriata's mysterious death, that the Patumahoe Maoris declared one of the settlers had shot him, and that they were going to take utu [payment] by killing the settlers. The people were alarmed, especially when they found that Jacob had sent his daughter with the same tale to the settlers of Upper Mauku.... The news was quickly carried to Auckland and the Government, realising the critical state the settlers were in, sent a cutter up the Mauku creek to convey the settlers to Onehunga.
The despatch arrived in the night at Major Speedy's. At daylight messengers were sent to all the houses, telling them to leave their homes and proceed on board the Raven that afternoon. The boat was lying near the Bluff, being unable to get any higher up the creek. Hastily some hid their valuables in the ground, digging holes to bury them. Others took what they could, putting the things in their pockets and packing any cooked eatables they had in kits. They simply left the breakfast things on the table and walked to the rendezvous, which was The Range.
One of the party brought a bullock dray in which a few blankets from the nearest houses were put, the various kits of eatables, the children that could not walk, and one poor hysterical little woman with two wee children. Some Maori women from Patumahoe came to see the party off, but no man. The women shook hands with many, and one woman seeing a little girl crying asked her what was the matter. "Ma won't let me take my cat and her four kittens whose eyes are not open. They'll be starved." The child had the lot in a kit. "Never mind," said the woman. "You leave - I feed them." So she gave her kit of pets to her dark friend and when the settlers returned two days later the cat and her family had a saucer of food beside them. Though the houses were all left open nothing of the smallest value was missed on the return of the party. Two calves from Mr Mellsopp's herd, born during the two days of absence were called "Panic" and "Peace".
[In the meantime the Government had sent the Revd Robert Maunsell and Native Minister Donald Maclean to attend Eriata's inquest. At first the Maoris would not allow Dr Giles (a local setter) to examine the body but later gave permission. The wounds were peculiar - a bullet had pierced the fingers of both hands and then entered the chest. The Maoris declared it could not have been
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accidental. Mr Maunsell, speaker of fluent Maori, assessed the situation and proved to the Maoris that Eriata had shot himself while resting on his gun in the scrub; he pointed to one man who was holding his gun in such a position that had it gone off he would have been wounded in the same way. The man was leaning with clasped hands on the muzzle of his gun. A verdict of accidental death was given.]
The above account was given by "Betsy" Crispe (1846-1924), youngest daughter of John Mellsop and his wife Maria, who came to Auckland in the ship Carnatic on 27 December 1856. The family lived at The Grange for some years with Major and Mrs James Speedy - Major Speedy, Mrs Mellsop's nephew, had been appointed Magistrate to that locality, but by the end of the war the Mellsop family had settled on their own land which they called Knockmaroon, and Betsy had married a neighbour, Heywood Crispe, son of Joseph Crispe and Jane Heywood.
10, Warrior Extraordinary
Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy, talented linguist, diplomat, farmer, and freelance soldier, belonged to that colourful breed, the English eccentric. Bom in India on 26 November 1836, the eldest son of Major James Speedy and his wife Sarah, he came to New Zealand in 1864 during the Waikato War, was commissioned captain in the Auckland Militia and appointed to the 2nd Waikato Regiment.
Having served for some time in the British and Indian armies, he had visited Abyssinia in 1860, on his way to New Zealand where he intended to settle. He was known as the New Zealand Giant, his height usually assessed at six feet seven inches, and his massive beard was the envy and admiration of a hirsute age. Although he had made plans to farm, and a grant of three hundred acres at Kihikihi is recorded as having been made to him, in 1867 he received a request to join Sir Robert Napier, who was in command of the British army expedition into Abyssinia, as its Chief Intelligence Officer. He leapt at the chance.
The slight records of his time in New Zealand depict a cheerful, sociable young man who as an entertainer was a great favourite with the colonists. Dressed in Abyssinian robes and singing Abyssinian songs he lectured on his adventures abroad, in Auckland and the outlying settlements. George Munro's barn was the scene of a highly successful entertainment held at Wairoa South, where an astonishingly large sum of money for that time was raised to pay for a house needed by the schoolmistress at Ardmore.
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According to a BBC feature 7 his "last known mission was to escort [the Abyssinian Emperor] Theodore's Queen and her son out of the blazing fortress [of Magdala]. Then in a fitting end to his colourful unconventional career, he vanished from recorded history. His fate has never been discovered." It is something of an anticlimax to report that according to family records he died in England on 11 August 1910, having married Cornelia Mary Cotton of the Isle of Wight in 1868.
11, Maraetai Mission Station (Port Waikato)
"16 December 1835. At daylight sailed with a large party on Board, amongst which were Mr and Mrs Maunsell and some Ngapuhi chiefs. Evening breeze fresh, S.S.W.3." Henry Williams was on his way to the Waikato for the second time since his exploratory visit in 1833.
Maraetai, which appears to have taken its name from the stream flowing beside the mission-house, had no more than a small group of Maori residents when the Maunsells settled there in 1839, but there was a large floating population. "In June we removed from Moeatoa on the Manukau to Maraetai, Waikato Heads. I arrived on the 13th of June and the Rev. R. Maunsell on the 20." - Benjamin Ashwell, Maunsell's assistant, writes conclusively on what has been a somewhat controversial date.
It was a supremely uncomfortable station. Shelter provided for Mrs Maunsell and her children was quite inadequate. Like Bishop Selwyn, Robert Maunsell had little regard for his own comfort; however he did admit to finding a hole in the wall beside the table where he sat translating the Old Testament into Maori somewhat inconvenient when rain drove through it on to his papers. He was obliged to block it with a laundry bag - and then to leave his work through the lack of light.
Robert Maunsell's report to the C. M. S, for 1845 mentions an important event, the building of the first of the wooden churches that have become Auckland's pride. This is described as a "neat and comfortable place of worship 26 x 24 feet", to which Bishop Selwyn contributed £10 and his Chaplain, William Cotton, £20, to be devoted to a porch; Maori converts gave £23 and "Gratuitous labour". The "little Gothic building" was opened before the Chapel at St John's College but there appears to be no date or record of the event.
Within less than twenty years the mission station had changed its character completely. As a military outpost and a naval dock-
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yard, Port Waikato played its part in the war of the 1860s and the hammers of men engaged in rivetting the paddle-steamer Koheroa rang through the hills; what was to have been the first Militia town was laid out.
Apart from the heap of bricks that once was the chimney of the mission-house, the only mark of early occupation left today that can be indicated with certainty is the stone in memory of Susan Maunsell on the site of the forgotten church, blown down in a gale many years earlier.
12, Kohanga Mission Station
In his letter of 7 August 1854 Robert Maunsell was able to tell the C. M. S, in London that the last of the buildings had been salvaged from Maraetai and that the mission was in residence at Kohanga; his hope of "seeing our party gathered together in our kohanga (nest)" was realised.
The new site was some nine miles up the Waikato River. It had certain advantages but the terms under which the missionaries could hold the land were very complicated. Waata Kukutai had been the moving spirit behind the gift of 750 acres by the Ngati-tipa to the Church of England in New Zealand. By 1857 the monitorial system had been introduced in the schools, which were prospering. Monitresses, usually elderly Maori women, made the girls engaged in domestic work sing English glees and rounds as a substitute for Maori songs less suited to the moral tone of a mission school.
It was inevitable as unrest spread through the Waikato that the missions should become involved in the politics of the day. Maunsell's knowledge of both Maori matters and current affairs was considerable in spite of his isolation. His answer to a suggestion that he should send in daily reports of his district was blunt: "This is impossible; neither would I allow myself to be employed as a spy by anyone." Instead he outlined the steps he advised. First he would take the Maori King by the hand and help him with legal advice. Then he would support the mana of the chiefs - the "Mana of Waikato" - give them help and ask for their help in return, acknowledging especially those chiefs "who are now, carefully and judiciously, doing all they can to maintain peace". It appears that he, living at his station under the protection of Waata Kukutai, a "Queen's Maori", could see no threat to the government in the King Movement, or in such plans for law and order as that body chose to attempt. Rather he saw it as a force in favour of law and order, stemming from a sensible effort by the Maori people to evolve a disciplinary system from within.
From the time of leaving Kohanga in 1863 until the fall of Orakau, Robert Maunsell served as a chaplain to the British Army.
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This was resented and misunderstood by the Maoris; to have placed his missionary clergy in such a position does not appear on the surface to have been a wise policy on the part of Bishop Selwyn until it is realised that war brought an influx of ten thousand troops into New Zealand without one chaplain.
13, Urquharts Of The Ghur
George Urquhart of The Ghur, Karaka, was the fourth son of Walter Urquhart of Essex and an officer of the 56th Native Bengal Infantry. He married Cecelia Torrance and came to New Zealand in the 1850s with his wife and their daughter - also Cecelia. They lived in St George's Bay Road, Auckland, while the homestead at Karaka was being built by two younger sons, Alexander and Arthur, using handmade bricks and kauri timber. When The Ghur (known for a time as Quhart House) was ready for occupation, orchards were planted as well as many English shade trees.
After the tragic death of the eldest son and his bride in the wreck of the ship London (11 January 1865)), two older members of the family, Henry and Eleanour, who had stayed in India, joined the family at Karaka, where they grew fruit and ran sheep, mainly for meat as most of the wool was rubbed off by the manuka scrub. Bishop Selwyn and his wife were close friends of the household, especially of "Cecy" whom they greatly admired. It is believed that Cecelia would have married Bishop Patteson had it not been for his work in Melanesia. She died soon after his murder in 1857.
14, Harsants of Waitetuna, Raglan
Walter Harsant, M.D., M.R.C.S., (1811-97), was born in Norfolk and arrived in New Zealand with his wife and nine children on 30 November 1853 in the ship Hamilla Mitchell. He brought with him a letter of introduction to Sir George Grey who offered him an appointment as Resident Magistrate and Colonial Surgeon "for the District of Waikato" at a salary of £175 yearly and the sum of £250 "for the building of a house at Otawhao for your accommodation". Otawhao (now Te Awamutu) was a long way from Auckland; Mrs Harsant and the three youngest children were carried by litter while the rest of the party walked until they came to the banks of the Waikato River where they and their baggage were transferred to canoes.
About a year later Dr Harsant was appointed Registrar of Marriages for the district of Rangiaowahia and Deputy Postmaster when the Colonial Government instituted a fortnightly mail service; in 1858 he was transferred to Raglan and he remained in that comparatively neutral area through the land wars of the 1860s. As
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before, Mrs Harsant and her young children were carried over the rugged hills and the rest of the family walked with Maori friends who carried the baggage. The journey took them twelve days. Over the next twenty years Dr Harsant collected such widely different appointments as Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Collector of Customs (or "Coast-waiter") and Emigration Officer for the Port of Raglan, in addition to a flourishing medical practice. In all these activities he had the great benefit and help of Lucy, a daughter who spoke the Maori language fluently; the Doctor himself had not the "gift of tongues" as he often remarked. Eventually he and his wife retired to Onehunga. Both were buried in the Methodist cemetery at Mangere.
15, Waata Kukutai of Taupari (Kohanga)
This chief had the distinction of being a dedicated "Queen's Maori" all through the wars of the 'sixties. His tribe, Ngatitipa, occupied that part of the west coast from Kawhia to Waikato Heads, on both sides of the Waikato River from Maraetai to Onewhero, some miles above Kohanga.
A description by "one who has known him" 8 is impressive: "Waata Kukutai was almost my first acquaintance with a Rangitira. He had a fine figure, was closely tattooed and walked with rather a stiff gait. He was characterised by dignity, courtesy and a high regard for his personal honour.... I first met him as a young boy when he called at our home on his way to meet the newly appointed Governor. He carried a handsome mere and twenty times at least he rehearsed the song and dance which were to accompany this valuable gift. Outwardly he wore a plain tweed suit, but this was merely the chrysalis enclosing the gorgeous butterfly within. Unbuttoning his waistcoat he disclosed to view his service uniform, for he was the holder of the Queen's Commission with the rank of Major of Volunteers. But this was not all. Unhooking the tunic he showed us the scarlet and blue and the gold lace on his dress uniform. The tweeds were to be discarded on his arrival in Auckland, an Auckland whose citizens were to be gladdened by the sight of his service uniform. The inner glory was reserved to dazzle the eyes of the Governor and his guests."
Waata Kukutai was one of those people whose mana was sufficiently strong to sustain a course of action that may have made him unpopular with neighbouring tribes. His personal integrity was such that he was able to help and protect Robert Maunsell and his missionaries during the Waikato War without interference from compatriots who did not share his views.
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16, A Bush Ride
John Richardson Selwyn, second son of Bishop and Mrs Selwyn and later to succeed John Coleridge Patterson as Bishop of Melanesia, had been educated in England and consequently been given little opportunity of admiring his father's skill in bush travelling. The Church Gazette of January 1898 published his lively account of a new experience:
"It was towards the end of the war that I joined him in 1866. Shortly after I reached Auckland we started on a tour of about six weeks to visit the Waikato country that had just been annexed and was still held by an English regiment. We carried everything on our horses - tent, food, clothing, bedding - and were perfectly ready to encamp at a moment's notice, at any place where there was grass for the horses, water for ourselves and a couple of trees to hang our tent between. I was cook and bedmaker, and it was my duty after the horses were cared for to hoist the tent by the line which formed its ridgepole, stake it out, fill it with clean fern and then fry rashers of bacon on slips of fern with the biscuit 9 below as a dripping pan.
"It was splendid training. I well remember the first stream we came to on our first day's march; it was deep. We had to ride thirty miles before night and I looked at my boots and trousers and thought they were more comfortable dry than sopping. While I looked my father was half-way across, all standing, and I never looked again. And at night when, with our bit of candle tied to a stick between us, we had read our Bible and prayers, each sitting up gravely in our blanket beds for the purpose, my father would wriggle down into his and as he laid his head on his saddle would always turn over with the mysterious word 'Long's'. It meant supreme content with his surroundings, mingled with a feeling of satisfaction that he would not have to pay a pound a night for the accommodation, as he would have done at that famous hostelry in Bond Street. And be it remembered that he was living this life constantly and on duty. He was not merely roughing it now and then as a pastime, but he deliberately went about this fashion to avoid expense and to be able to reach all the scattered farms and farmsteads which lay outside the beaten track.
"I well remember the blank astonishment with which he asked what I was laughing at as I made the gloomy interior of the old blockhouse on the spurs of Pirongia ring again, as I saw him sitting up on a mass of soft creepers which formed our beds, mending, with a pair of spectacles on his nose, his one pair of nether garments which had been grievously torn in the bush ride that day. I was
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thinking how little the figure agreed with the common notion of a Bishop. And yet he was a Bishop all over, and we were in the dingy abode simply because he did not like to burden any of the villagers below with the expense and trouble of entertaining us.... Again and again he would say, 'John, I think I will leave you to encamp here, and go on and so end it. They will have only one room and I know they will turn out for us. So get all ready here, and then I can make that an excuse to come back to you.'"
17, William and Kiliwehi Hoapili
Queen Emma of Hawaii sailed from Honolulu on 6 May 1865 in Her British Majesty's ship Clio. With her suite, which included the Reverend William Hoapili and his wife Kiliwehi, she landed in England on 13 July. Her hostess, Lady Franklin, wife of the Polar explorer, describes Kiliwehi as a "very tall stout woman, probably under thirty, with a very pleasant open countenance, which would be really handsome were it not for something like a very black moustache... on her upper lip". Mr Lush, on meeting the couple at Waikato Heads in 1866, was impressed with their height and looks, also with Kiliwhei's progress in the Maori language - and her husband's anxiety to meet the Maori King and to "give him some good advice". Unfortunately there is no further information except that William set out for Raglan with Robert Stewart, Magistrate at Waikato Heads, to meet the King, with this in mind.
After a spectacular "difference of opinion" between husband and wife, staged in France, Queen Emma arranged for the couple to return by themselves to Hawaii "without any unseemly publicity. The Queen assumed, naturally, that the Hoapilis would make the return trip to the Islands by way of the United States. Consequently she was not at all pleased when she discovered later that her former chaplain and his wife had proceeded in the opposite direction, making a long stopover in New Zealand. In fact they did not arrive back in Hawaii until late in 1867, a full year after the Queen's own return to Honolulu." 10
18, Castledine's Inn, Drury
The Southern Cross reports that at the annual Licensing meeting held at Drury, William Baker, holding a license for the Great South Road Hotel, in Drury, made application for the transfer of the same to Benjamin Castledine. The application was granted. Castledine, to whom a transfer of Baker's license had been ordered, then applied for a license for the Great South Road Hotel, Drury, for the ensuing year. The certificate was granted.
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This hotel was not that known as the Jolly Fanner today but its predecessor, the Farmers' Inn, which received the first licence in 1856.
19, Riding and Tying
This was an economical practice that broke the monotony of bush travel quite effectively when only one horse was available for two travellers. The mounted man set out on an agreed stage and when he had covered it tied the horse to a convenient tree or fence and continued on foot. The original pedestrian having caught up with his mount, then rode the agreed distance, both travellers repeating the performance until the journey's end.
20, Hobson Bay Railway
Young Charles Lush recorded his first encounter with the proposed Auckland-to-Drury railway in his school diary for July 1864: "I saw four or five men in Mr Ashwell's field examining the ground for a railway." To the Lush children, newly arrived from rural Howick, this was a promising sign of novel entertainment, as Ewelme Cottage was within easy walking distance, even though the first sod was turned at Newmarket, opposite the Junction Hotel, in a field belonging to James Dilworth.
Defective drainage was but one of the difficulties that for years attended the early stages of Auckland's first railway. Thomas Cheeseman, when Chairman of the Railway Commissioners, reported in 1866: "The culvert under the embankment has already been built. The tunnel having been built at the top of the gradient and excavated only a portion of its length, water fills it and a man is employed pumping it out at 8/- to 10/- a day. It might as well be left full of water.... [But] it was necessary to find something for the very efficient Secretary to do, so this officer now works the pump handle at the tunnel."
Later the former chairman imported from England a number of clocks intended for all stations on the line. "Which of the Commissioners has a friend a clockmaker at home?" asked a plaintive ratepayer. "£2000 or £3000 should be voted to bury the railway out of sight; if we could bury the Commissioners, Engineers and Contractors in some cutting, so much the better."
In spite of a hundred and twenty quarts of free beer, "a trumpeter to blow a bugle in Queen Street", and the prolonged sounding of locomotive whistles, the Auckland public was not impressed, even when two officials, in order to test the safety of the culvert, stripped off on the slopes of the railway, one winter's day, in full view of a scandalised Parnell.
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APPENDIX THREE
THE LUSH FAMILY IN NEW ZEALAND
Most of this information about Vicesimus and Blanche Lush and their nine children was compiled by Canon William Edward Lush (1862-1951), their youngest child.
Vicesimus Lush was born at Charles Square, London, on 27 August 1817, the son of Charles Lush and his wife Charlotte; his name marked the fact that he was his father's twentieth child. He took his B.A. degree at Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, in 1842 and his M.A. in 1847. He was ordained deacon in 1842 and priest in 1843. His first curacy was at Over Darwen, Lancashire, where he received a stipend of £100 a year. His second was at Farringdon where he was long remembered with affection by his parishioners; and his third, before leaving for New Zealand, was at St John's, Hoxton, London, from 1849 to May 1850.
Vicesimus and his family left England on 14 May 1850 in the ship Barbara Gordon, arriving at Auckland on 11 October. They lived in a raupo cottage at St John's College, Tamaki (then called Bishop's Auckland) until he was appointed vicar to the parish of Howick on 4 December 1850. He was incumbent of All Saints' Church until 3 July 1865, and from that time until November 1868 he was known as "Minister to the Inner Waikato" which then ran from Papakura to Raglan. On 24 November 1868 he was appointed first vicar to the Thames Goldfield; this was the last appointment made by Bishop Selwyn. On 22 November 1881 he was transferred to Hamilton and some weeks later became Archdeacon of Waikato. He died at Parnell on 11 July 1882 and was buried in the historic churchyard of St Stephen's Chapel on the green slopes above Judges Bay.
His journal was kept for the benefit of his family in England. It was sent back to New Zealand and is an exceptionally valuable - and reliable - record of colonial life. Unfortunately it is not continuous, because of a shipwreck and unknown circumstances.
On 5 May 1842 at Ewelme Church, Oxfordshire, Vicesimus was married to -
Blanche Hawkins, born 25 May 1819, who spent her girlhood with her father's sister, Lady Taunton, at Ewelme. She was a woman of many talents who became a notable pioneer, always with a touch of elegance for even the most mundane tasks. When her husband died in 1882 the house called Ewelme Cottage that he had built in Ayr
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Street happened to be vacant after having been let for some ten years during the family's absence in Thames and the Waikato. It was there that she lived for the next thirty years until her death on 4 September 1912.
Blanche Hawkins Lush, born 1 June 1843 at Over Darwen, England, was referred to affectionately by her father as his curate; at quite an early age she appears to have had a flair for music, teaching and parish work generally. As a young girl she "came out" at Government House and shared in the social and cultural life of Auckland in the 1850s; a good horsewoman, she coped well with the primitive roads between Howick and the young capital city. As the eldest of nine children she found there was plenty of scope for her talents within the walls of the Parsonage and the extent of her influence is acknowledged by a simple inscription on the tombstone she shares with other members of her family, in All Saints' churchyard, Howick: "The Eldest Sister". In her later years she nursed her invalid mother devotedly, and died at Ewelme Cottage on 9 December 1922.
Through V.L.'s journals she is usually called Blanney (the spelling in time becomes Blannie) to distinguish her from her mother.
Charlotte Sarah Lush, born 17 September 1844 at Farringdon, England, died on 25 September 1854 at Howick, New Zealand. This was a time of anxiety and great sorrow for Blanche and Vicesimus Lush. While Mrs Lush was still weak after the birth of her third son, Martin, an epidemic of scarlet fever raged in Howick and three of her six children died within ten days; her eldest son, Charles, recovered but the effects of the illness remained for the rest of his life.
Mary Eliza Lush, born 7 February 1847, at Farringdon, died of scarlet fever 23 September 1854 at Howick.
Charles Hawkins Lush, born at Farringdon, 17 April 1849. He was an intellectual and capable boy, at one time a pupil at the Church of England Grammar School, but his health deteriorated as he grew older. He died on 16 September 1883 and is buried with three of his sisters and a brother in All Saints' churchyard, Howick.
Henry Alfred Lush, born at Howick, 23 February 1852, died of scarlet fever on 15 September 1854.
John Martin Hawkins Lush, born 9 September 1854, at Howick, was educated at the Church of England Grammar School and later held a scholarship there; he was an ensign in the first generation of New Zealand school cadets. After four years with the Bank of
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New Zealand he qualified as a lawyer and practised for a time at Thames. He married Caroline Ellen White, daughter of an early magistrate, W. B. White, and died on 4 June 1893.
Anne Lush, born 15 September 1857 at Howick. She was not quite eight when the family moved to Parnell. Her education was partly by governesses, partly from Blanney, and from her father; her love of reading was another factor. As soon as she was old enough she taught in the parish schools and appears to have been a very popular parish visitor. Later she passed the First Grade Examination of the Board of Theological Studies when it was first founded. In 1880 she went to Norfolk Island with her father for the opening of the Patteson Memorial Chapel, where she met her future husband, the Rev. David Ruddock (later Archdeacon). They were married in the chapel at Bishopscourt by Bishop Cowie on 8 April 1885.
Margaret Edith Lush, born 5 July 1859 at Howick. A happy thoughtful girl, she was good at composing stories of adventure for the entertainment of her brothers and sisters. Eager to learn and to extend her knowledge, she had the same education as her sister Anne and was beginning to devote herself to the same interests in her father's parish. She died of scarlet fever at Thames and was buried in Totara cemetery on 24 April 1876.
William Edward Lush, born 3 February 1862 at Howick. He shared his early education with his sisters, but began school with Miss Kinder of Parnell at the age of seven. At Thames he attended the parish school for a time, reading Greek and Latin with his father and another clergyman who was there for a time. At the age of fifteen he returned to the Grammar School, where he had been in 1873 after leaving Miss Kinder's school, and in 1879 he attended St John's College, Tamaki, then in charge of the Rev. John Kinder. From there he sailed for England in the ship Waikato, entering Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1880 and taking his B.A. in 1883.
After some time in Australia he returned to New Zealand where he held various clerical appointments. In 1930 he became Vicar of St Augustine's Church, Stanley Bay, and retired in 1948. He was appointed an honorary canon of St Mary's Cathedral in 1939 and died on 7 February 1951, aged eighty-nine.
