Sarah Ann Walker
Letters from New Zealand. August 1859 – 1 November 1883: A spread of 24 years.
Ann Hobbs presents the story of her Great Great Grandmother, an amazing lady who had a very hard life as a pioneering woman in early Canterbury New Zealand.
My family are very fortunate to have these letters and I always wondered how we got hold of them. I remember my Mother typing them from hand written copies that she had. I asked her how she got them, “from a relation” she said.
In 1961 we had a Walker Family Reunion in Temuka. There was a Church Service, we planted a tree and had a picnic. All the young cousins had a great time. As a teenager I was busy doing my thing. Looking back I wished I had asked my Grand Mother Minnie about her life and family. She was the eldest surviving descendant at the reunion.
Late 2024, last year, my sister gave me some papers that belonged to our Mother. Wow! My question was answered. A relative from England brought copies of the letters to the reunion in Temuka. They tell of floods, fires, earthquakes, hunger, poverty, disease and extreme homesickness and loneliness. I have read the letters several times over the years and each time picked up different information and also a greater understanding of Sarah Ann.
Sarah Ann was born in Manchester in 1831 to Thomas and Sarah Turner.
They had 11 children and only 3 survived childhood. Thomas was an Engineer and helped design and develop railway locomotives – constructed the first engine for the Liverpool Manchester Railway. He spent quite a time on and off in Freiburg & Heidelberg helping develop the German railway and teaching mechanics to drive them. Sarah spent some time in Germany and could read, write and speak German quite well.
The family returned to Manchester. She met and married William Walker in 1853. He was an Engineer also, which was very useful in New Zealand. He came from Gawsworth in Cheshire. They left England for a better life as conditions in the cities in the mid eighteen hundreds was awful. Overcrowding, disease and poverty.
29 August 1859, they boarded the Regina, with 3 small boys: William Thomas (b.1854- d.1879) 5yrs, John Henry (b.1857- d.1935) 2yrs, James Cheshire, (b.1859 -) 3months. Sarah Ann says they had plenty of space and provisions.
They hit big storms on the second day which “blew them back 20 miles and the ship tossed side to side and down in the deep and straight up in the air.” There were fights over food, they had 8 people in each mess, and William was in charge of their group and distributed the food fairly. “After the equator they had cold weather. The children cried from the cold. The drinking water was polluted with worms and smelt. They drank Porter with lemonade.” They didn’t stop in Capetown so couldn’t pick up provisions. They made the quickest passage arriving 3 weeks early. Sarah Ann said “she would rather be in a poor house in Manchester.” They arrived on the 5th December 1859 and “slept on the floor all together like a pack of pigs” Sarah and William were in Papanui in the 1860’s she said “the houses here are so far apart that I can’t go and see a neighbour. I am so lonely” this theme goes throughout all her letters. “We have a wooden house which William has to finish so it is rent free for 3 months.” “Wages were 20/- a day last year, and are now 5/-.”
“the houses here are so far apart that I can’t go and see a neighbour. I am so lonely”
She had a camp oven, an iron pot on three legs that has a lid. They burn wood under it to make bread; the fire is on the floor. A washing pan costs 20/- I mix my bread in it as there are no mugs. “The climate is not like England, so one day is roasting hot the next day is like winter. The hot winds here turn the milk bad.”
1860’s – William hasn’t any work, Government workers were let go so they could do the harvest many miles away. “He goes visiting, walking 12 miles each way’, so she is all alone with the children ‘in this dismal place. If I light a candle it blows out. If I have a fire it burns too much wood. I can’t go visiting with my 3 littlies. The lady who lost a child at sea was sunstruck coming over the mountains from the Port to Christchurch. We came by steamer to Ferrymead. The hedges are made of roses and gooseberries. The children have no friends to play with”.
They are expecting a disturbance with the natives and every man could go as a Soldier.
A cousin of Williams has them given some land to build a good sod house and a few acres to cultivate. “Our floor is bare ground and when it rains the floor is mud, the Nor’wester blows dust through the cracks in the roof. We have been here 11 weeks and William has had 4 weeks work. He has work but no money for wages. Sorry about my bad news, a shame that people write home and say how wonderful life is here – a pack of lies”
Sarah Ann writes about how unwell she is but she makes sure William and the 3 children get fed and she just has the crumbs. There is no school for 6 miles and the eldest should be at school.
Sarah Ann’s husband beats her up and the eldest son told someone about this, as a result life improved for a while. A neighbour about ½ mile away saw her crying the field, so she visited her 3 times a week to help.
She talks about the bad water, it has to be boiled, but they still get cholera, whooping cough, measles, and diphtheria every winter. Many children die.
Sarah Ann writes about “New Zealand being ‘down under’. Indeed everything was topsy turvy. Christmas mid-summer, hailstorms in summer, thunder in winter, Owls make noise in the day, bright silver clouds heralds signs of a storm, heavy black ones a hot day. Nor’wester burns everything up, the Sou’wester and the easterlies freezes you. I have my things in a box because earthquakes knock everything over.”
Most of her letters between 1860 and 1864 all say she wants to go home.
1862 – They moved to Heathcote for a short time and things improved. The two eldest boys go to school, which costs 5/- per week each, however they had to stop going as it was too expensive. They had chickens but the Hawks killed them, although they still had pigs. Sarah Ann does sewing for a neighbour who comes each morning because Sarah Ann is pregnant and has a daughter Susanah (b.1862-)
To help with the budget Sarah Ann worked planting potatoes, 9am to 5pm, she is paid 6/- per day, plus milk for the children and fresh bread and butter. When she got home each day she cooked a hot dinner, feed the pigs and fowls. William was working harvesting finishing long after dark.
1877 – They moved to Waitohi, and the letters record more prosperous times. They called their land Longsight Farm after a suburb in Manchester. They bought 220 acres at £13 per acre. They worked a threshing machine. William paid £80 for 3 threshing machines. £85 for an 8 horse wagon, £45 for 3 drays plus lots of other equipment. He did the harvesting around the district so he earned good money, which got spent on more equipment and more land. Sarah Ann didn’t see much of the money but they did have good food and plenty of household goods. They also had ‘200 hens, 100 ducks and geese, 400 sheep, and 100 rabbits.’ At Christmas they had 14 visitors who stayed for 3 weeks. ‘They killed 2 geese, 4 turkeys, pigeons and rabbits and lambs. All were cooked the in the copper, taking 2 whole days. Also Plum puddings and fresh fruit’.
Sarah Ann become a proficient horsewoman and driver and got know the dangerous rivers well. Writing:“I wish you could see the beautiful birds, our lads shoot them a dozen or 2 per day, as they eat the fruit.”
1878 – Their eldest son William Thomas runs away from home, because his Dad, William, was still handy with his fists. William Thomas worked for a smithy in Timaru and does well. He dies of a fever in 1879, three days before his wedding. All the preparations were all done and ready for the day.
1883 – Harvest time. “We need a good harvest’ as ‘he needs to pay off what he owes on his equipment’ along with ‘£600 rent for the extra 1000 acres.’ Sarah Ann thinks ‘he owes about £5000’ altogether. Sarah Ann thinks they owe too much and rely on a good harvest, “we had heavy losses this year in rain and floods.”
“Anyone comes from England to see us will think we are shabby, the gentry have stone and brick houses which split in two in an earthquake. Wooden ones swing to and fro”
The letters finish in 1883 but we do not know why. Sarah Ann died in 1910 at the age of 79yrs. She is buried in Temuka cemetery.
Note: These letters have copyright on them so these are my memories and thoughts, along with some of Sarah Ann’s excerpts from her letters that I have copies of. These letters in their entirety have been published and are available to the public through the National Library.
Information provided by Ann Hobbs
Book
Letters from New Zealand, 1859-1883 / by Sarah Ann Walker ; with an introduction by Margaret Brown.
Walker, Sarah Ann, 1831-1910
St. Albans England : Ian Pidgeon, 2002
Available at the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand