Among Friends: middle-class Tasmanians who moved to New Zealand, 1855-1875 Jean (Jai) Paterson BA (Auckland) MA (Sydney) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Tasmania May 2015 i DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I confirm that this thesis is entirely my own work and contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of my knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes copyright. Jean (Jai) Paterson May 2015 ii AUTHORITY OF ACCESS This thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying and communication in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Jean (Jai) Paterson May 2015 iii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the movement of middle-class Tasmanians to New Zealand during the mid-nineteenth century. This group of people consisted primarily of entrepreneurs who were already crossing the Tasman Sea during the 1850s, and young professional men who left Tasmania in the wake of the Otago gold rush of the early 1860s. Neither ex-convicts nor gold seekers (nor whalers, soldiers, et al) are included in this research group – precisely those people who are currently found at the forefront of any discussion about the wider Australian movement into New Zealand during this period. This thesis takes a qualitative approach; it is the motivations and actions of the individuals concerned that are explored and analysed. Wherever possible first- hand accounts are utilised and it is from these that the thesis is generated. To this end a group of New Zealand-related letters was sourced from the Weston Collection at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. The Tasmanians referred to in these letters formed the core sample group for this research. An extended ‘family history’ was prepared for these people which included their interconnections with one another and their experiences both in Tasmania and in New Zealand. The experiences of this group of Tasmanians were then used to test the late nineteenth century Australia-New Zealand migration hypotheses of Rollo Arnold. Arnold’s framework for defining the movements of Australians to New Zealand (and vice versa) included the concepts ‘among friends’, ‘invisibility’ and the ‘perennial interchange’, as well as the belief that a high proportion of Australians travelling to New Zealand during the nineteenth century were attempting to escape from their past. The stories of these middle-class Tasmanians provide a new lens through which to question perceptions of nineteenth century Australian people movement to New Zealand. The ‘family history’ approach followed during this research, with its accent on studying individual behaviour, has allowed this iv thesis to extend the discussion of Tasmanian movement to include return migration and multiple migration – a new approach within the Australia-New Zealand lexicon. While Arnold’s concepts remain valid, future discussion must also now include the hitherto unrecognised predominance of native-born colonials, at least among middle-class migrants, as well as the important role played by their unmarried sisters. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would especially like to thank my Supervisory Team. Professor Philippa Mein Smith and Dr Tom Dunning of the History and Classics Program, and Dr Roger Kellaway of the School of Geography and Environmental Studies, have all provided valuable insights during the process of creating this thesis. The History and Classics Program also provided significant support through funding, discussions with my peers, and attendance at and participation in conferences. I would also like to thank my professional colleagues at the various collecting institutions consulted during this research, most especially the History and Library staff at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. A range of other organisations were also accessed for information both in Tasmania and New Zealand, far too numerous to list here. In particular, I received family history insights as well as data from librarians at the Launceston Library (part of the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office network) and the Hocken Library in Dunedin as well as from all the small museums and family history rooms which I have visited during the course of this research. I am grateful to those people who went beyond the expected and who provided special access to additional information. This list is by no means comprehensive, but includes among its number: Lloyd Carpenter, Nicholas Clements, Marion Dowsett, David Dudfield, Maureen Martin Ferris, Jenny Gill, Angela and Gus Prosser Green, Kevin Green, Andrew Groom, Kristyn Harman, Alice Hodgson, Anne Jackman, Genice MacAvoy, Angela McCarthy, Lachlan Paterson, Maureen and Guy Powles, Marion Sargent, Peter Sims, Kay Switzer, Harriet Taylor, Angela Wanhalla, and Deborah Wilson. Very special thanks are due to my partner, Nicholas Moore, and to my Paterson family in New Zealand who provided valuable accommodation and transport and much relevant conversation during my various trips across ‘The Ditch’. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations viii Preface ix Chapter 1: Literature Review and Methodology 1 Literature review: Australians to New Zealand 1 Literature review: Tasmanians to New Zealand 6 Methodology: issues 11 Methodology: process 18 Chapter 2: No Barrier to Cross: a background to cross- 25 Tasman people movement Sealers and whalers 28 And always there were convicts 34 Entrepreneurs 36 An overlay of official movements 42 A burst of soldiery 46 And so into the 1850s 53 Chapter 3: The Correspondents: Kate CLERKE, Eliza 60 ADAMS and their families The Tasmanian middle class 60 Built on good foundations: the CLERKE story 66 Born of necessity: the ADAMS experience 81 Chapter 4: Among Friends 97 A congregation of Tasmanians? 99 Why Southland? 103 vii Interconnectedness 109 Interconnectedness and the BUTTON family 112 Necessary connections? 126 Chapter 5: The Dynamics of the Invisible 136 New Zealand attitudes to Tasmanians 138 The native-born 145 Defining oneself: British, Tasmanian, or ‘colonial’? 150 Tasmanian attitudes to New Zealand 153 Fitting in: the everyday reality of invisibility 158 Chapter 6: To Break Old Associations 167 Known to the police 168 Failures at home and abroad 172 Peccadillos and worse 176 To break the ‘association’ of spinsterhood 183 Chapter 7: The Perennial Interchange 195 Defining the ‘perennial interchange’ 195 Migrating or shifting 200 The peripatetic Thomas Francis GROOM 205 The three-way interchange 211 Chapter 8: Conclusion 225 The nature of those middle-class Tasmanians who went to New 226 Zealand Motivations for crossing the Tasman Sea 230 Interpretations relating to Tasmania-New Zealand ‘migration’ 235 The Arnold legacy 240 Family history sources and methodology 241 Bibliography 245 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Map: Tasmania and New Zealand, and the eastern xii seaboard of the Australian mainland. Figure 2: Photograph: The first group of 37 letters written by Eliza 19 Adams c.1858-1866 (CHS47 2/42, QVMAG). Figure 3: Photograph: Scrimshaw depicting a Māori man and 33 woman with their dog and musket (QVM1985.H.0069, QVMAG). Figure 4: Photograph: Banner of the Australasian League, 1851, 56 with its extra star for New Zealand (QVM.1994.H.0744, QVMAG). Figure 5: Photograph: Mountford, the Longford home of the Clerke 62 family, 2011 (J Paterson, 2011). Figure 6: Chart: An indication of the interconnectedness of the 113 middle-class Tasmanians who went to New Zealand. Figure 7: Chart: Illustrating the bewildering number of 113 interconnections that exist between people in the reality of their everyday lives. Figure 8: Photograph: View of post-1906 Wellington showing the 135 Old Government Buildings (2003.4800.202, Wellington Museums). Figure 9: Photograph: Eliza Adams, Swan & Wrigglesworth carte 145 de visit, Wellington, 1866 (QVM.1991.P.1832, QVMAG). Figure 10: Photograph: Eliza Powles (née Adams), Wellington, c. 145 1905 (F – 46803, Alexander Turnbull Library). Figure 11: Photograph: The headstones of the Adams sisters, 189 Fingal, 2011 (J Paterson, 2011). Figure 12: Photograph: Water colour, Emma von Stieglitz, Interior 212 of a Squatter’s Hut at Port Phillip, 1841 (QVM.2003.FD.0008, QVMAG). ix PREFACE Devices and definitions Any thesis which claims to use family history methodology will require some explanation of the various devices used in the text. In addition, between the nineteenth century and the present day there have also been many place name changes in both colonies. This preface will address such possible sources of confusion. For example, the name ‘Tasmania’ will be applied to the island and its inhabitants when referring to 1856 and the years that followed. ‘Tasmania’ was in use from the earliest days of the colony but it was not until 1 January 1856 that the name became fully effective with the Designation of the Colony Act of December 1855.1 Prior to January 1856 the colony will be referred to as ‘Van Diemen’s Land’. However ‘Tasmania’ will be used when speaking generally of the colony or Tasmanians when the reference might include both the earlier and later period. For the purposes of this thesis the names of towns will be rendered in their modern form. To do otherwise could prove problematic for readers unfamiliar with the vagaries of place-naming in the other country. Hobart, for example, was variously ‘Hobart Town’ and ‘Hobarton’ before it became ‘Hobart’. Place names become even more confusing when it is noted that Gore in New Zealand was once called ‘Longford’,2 and that the township of Longford in Tasmania was originally laid out as ‘Latour’.3 Modern usage also means that names such as St Marys will be rendered in their modern form, without an apostrophe.4 1 T Newman, ‘Tasmania, the Name’ in A Alexander (ed.), The Companion to Tasmanian History, (Hobart, University of Tasmania, 2005), p.