The Founding of Dunedin
A short history of the
settlement by of Dunedin by Brian Nicholls, with thanks to the
"Hocken Library" for the use of the historic photos and to www.visit-dunedin.co.nz/historyscots.html
The 'John Wickliffe' and the 'Philip Laing'
landed with the first settlers in 'Dunedin' in 1848 at the end of a
period of intense activity at 'Home' and in New Zealand. But not
entirely the end - the people working in Dunedin learnt only at the
last minute that the settler ships would soon be there, so there
was nothing much for the new arrivals to live in when they
arrived.
The first organised European
settlements of New Zealand had been organised by the New Zealand
Company, under E.G. Wakefield, in 1839-1840, at Wellington, and
around that Central area. It was Wakefield's idea of the 'class
settlement' (transposing a cross-section of the Old Country to NZ,
from the labouring peasant to the capitalist) which inspired
further settler movements in Britain, including in Scotland, where
it at first centred around George Rennie, MP who, in 1842, first
proposed the establishment of a Scottish settlement:
"We shall found a New Edinburgh at the Antipodes that shall one
day rival the old", he predicted. It would be a 'class
settlement' all right, but one founded upon the 'Free Church'.
Which is where Rennie eventually bowed out. The reins were
enthusiastically taken over by the future 'leader' of the new town,
Captain William Cargill, who had fought in the Peninsula War, and
who was now in his sixties. His 'Free Church' religious organiser
was to be the Rev Thomas Burns, nephew of the bard, who had
forsaken the Established Church after the 1843 Disruption. Although
the problems were mighty, there were also favourable circumstances
- it was 'the hungry forties', landlordism was stripping the
Highlands, the people needed fresh beginnings and NZ was one of the
chosen lands.
A Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland for the NZ
settlement was established, and they entered upon an arrangement
with the NZ Company in which the Company would make available
144,600 acres of land, divided into 2,400 properties.
* Town allotment 1/4 acre
* Suburban allotment 10 acres
* Rural allotment 50 acres
The cost would be £2 (2 pounds) per acre which was intended to
make people town-dwellers, and give them a start as
farmers. A priority had been to find a place for people to settle
in the South Island and the NZ Company surveyors inspected many
areas. Edward Shortland, the government's Protector of
Aborigines, entered the Harbour with local Maori guides and
proceeded to the upper reaches, then, over a period of days, walked
what was to become the "Otago Block". It's probable that the word
'Otago' came from the Southern Maori pronunciation of the village
at the Heads, 'Otakou', which was an abandoned whaling station.
The party arrived at the hills overlooking a heavily-wooded
harbour - this was the area that Frederick Tuckett, commissioned by
Wakefield, came to consider in 1844. He had been told to find a
site for settlement, initially Banks Peninsula, in what was to
become Canterbury. The site was to be called 'New
Edinburgh' and Tuckett surveyed the South Island's east coast
on land and from the chartered ship Deborah. He was
looking for useful harbours and explored with, or without, local
guides. He tried Port Cooper (Lyttelton), didn't like it, went to
Otago, walking the last miles overland - at that time, a very rough
trip. He found the 'Deborah' waiting for him in the bay
which, ever since, has been called after the little vessel. He and
his team of surveyors (Barnicoat and Davidson) walked the territory
and came back, minds made up. On such trips is history set
up.
The local Maori were now involved: the land had to be bought and
the locals wanted a high price. Wakefield came down from Wellington
with Government officials, and distributed 2,400 pounds in cash to
the chiefs for disbursement, and four-penny pieces into out-thrust
hands. It was a very large block of land, from North of the
Harbour, right down to the Molyneux (now Clutha) River, and inland
by several miles. Surveying began, and the movement to gather
financial backers, capitalists, and other settlers, began in
Scotland. The plan suffered setbacks however, amongst which was the
, the NZ Company experiencing financial difficulties. Everything
slowed down, Tuckett returned to England, those NZ settlers who
came to the future city site to help with preparations (including
setting up an hotel!) languished in hope.
Finally, led by 25-year-old Charles Kettle, the surveyors came back
in 1846 to lay out the site. He brought with him a new wife, 11
surveyors and 25 labourers and having spent time in Edinburgh was
able to reproduce some of its characteristics and names in the new
Edinburgh of the South. By the end of 1846 the pegs were being
established. At that time, the sea covered much of the level
ground, the swamps were fed from descending streams, and what was
to be the principal street (Princes St through the Octagon to
George St) was cut in two by a steep hill. Of course, it wasn't
Kettle's task to make the streets, just lay them out! Rennie's plan
had been to have builders and labourers follow behind, but he was
no longer a member of Lay Association in Scotland. To add to the
difficulties of preparation, communications were so slow between
the UK and NZ, and Wellington and Otago, that Wakefield found out
the departure date of the two first ships only just before they
left, and the boat he sent to Otago with stores and building
materials arrived not long before the settlers. The name
Dunedin had been chosen instead of New Edinburgh:
It was the Celtic form of 'Edinburgh', and was part of the movement
against establishing 'new' cities which had been current, e.g. New
York.
The two ships had sailed separately, the John
Wickliffe leaving Gravesend on the 24th November, 1847, and
the Philip Laing leaving Greenock three days later. The
former carried Captain Cargill, 97 emigrants and a large quantity
of stores. A majority of her passengers were not Free Kirkers, but
Church of England, showing how difficult it had been to sell the
idea to enough Scots of leaving everything for a foreign country.
The Philip Laing was only a little boat (450 tons),
carrying 247 passengers. In charge was the Rev Thomas Burns. It
would be a voyage of 117 days, during which there was no land in
sight! She finally arrived on the 15th April, 1848, three weeks
after the John Wickliffe.
The John Wickliffe had arrived off the coast opposite
Saddle Hill on the 21st March, and finally entered the harbour on
23rd accompanied by Kettle and Richard Henry Driver, the pilot. The
women and children stayed for a time on board while the men made
their way to the town site to hastily erect barracks on the beach,
a jetty, a store (although a lot of the cargo had to stay covered
in tarpaulins on the beach for a time). While building went on, the
men lived in the bush, or in tents. Thankfully the weather was
settled. One labourer wrote: "If I had been in Scotland, I
would have been dead. I lived several nights in the bush, but found
no ill effects from it." Two sets of barracks were eventually
built, one for the Scottish, the other for the English colonists.
The Philip Laing barracks were much larger, and divided
into three: married couples in the middle, unmarried men and women
at separate ends. Partly prefabricated cottages had been brought
out for the leaders, and these were erected.
The first note for the new settlement was struck by Captain
Cargill, the 'father' and leader, when he addressed a united
meeting of his pioneers: "My friends, it is a fact that the
eyes of the British Empire, and I may say of Europe and America,
are upon us. The rulers of our great country have struck out a
system of colonisation on liberal and enlightened principles. And
small as we now are, we are the precursors of the first settlement
which is to put that settlement to the test."