1850: Pilgrims Landing

December 16, 2021

By AHNZ

Today in New Zealand history on the morning of 16 December, 1850, the Charlotte Jane arrived at Lyttleton. The first of the 4 New Zealand Company immigrant ships for Canterbury had arrived and would be followed by Sir George Seymour, Randolph, and Cressy. Lyttleton was no more than a little village of some 60 houses and 300 inhabitants which was not up to schedule for providing for the new Pilgrims and their needs. Over the hills in the Christchurch-to-be there was nothing to speak of at all. The Pilgrims would have to manage their own boot-up sequence in the promised land this Christmas.

The Charlotte Jane flag was flying as she won the race to be the first ship of The First Four to arrive in New Zealand. It has since been adopted as the flag of the Canterbury Pilgrim’s Society, the Pilgrim’s Flag. The prior history of the flag is due to New Zealand Company patron and administrator Joseph Somes who put his own money where his mouth was by supplying one of his own ships to the project in the Charlotte Jane. The Somes House Flag once represented Somes’ shipping but now survives thanks to being honored by its most lasting application: The Canterbury Pilgrims.

This flag (image, left) has the St George’s English cross which fittingly represents the Canterbury Pilgrims as a very English, autonomously Anglican, project. The anchor on blue represents Englishmen going to sea, colonists. But it is a fouled anchor as shown by the stray line twisted and tangled which symbolises the trials and tribulations those on this quest must endure. Very fitting choice for our Canterbury Pilgrims who quickly discovered that difficulty was ahead of them upon arrival.

“Joseph Somes was Deputy Governor of the New Zealand Company and owner of the sailing vessel, Charlotte Jane. As she sailed into Port Cooper (Lyttelton) on December 16th 1850 she carried aboard the Somes House Flag which has gained even more symbolic meaning over the years. For several days the residents of the area had been on the lookout for the first signs of four immigrant ships to arrive.When the Charlotte Jane with flag flying high was spotted entering the head of the harbour, locals and dignitaries scrambled to assemble a welcome for the new arrivals.” – The Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Society Inc.

They gave the breeze that fann’d the foam
Sweet farewell sighs to carry Home:-
But though old Albion was dear,
They saw a fairer England here
Awaiting them, the dauntless few,
‘Neath speckless skies of sunny blue.

Behold their work! Revere their names!
Green pastures set in golden frames.
Around the City of the Stream.
Fulfil the Pilgrim’s brightest dream:
With them a fairer England grew
‘Neath speckless skies of sunny blue.
– from The Canterbury Pilgrims, Thomas Bracken (1884); Ref. The Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Society Inc.

“..the fouled anchor symbolizes the trials and tribulations that every Chief Petty Officer must endure on a daily basis.” – Military Metal Art

“Godley and the Canterbury Pilgrims loved Britain and their flag. They had no interest in colonising anything if it involved ever being separated from their Mother Country….Godley compares the crisis facing the British Empire at this time to the decline of Rome and the estrangement of America from the Empire. He foresaw a future Empire, or Commonwealth, of independent states united by fraternity and consent rather than force. He also rightly foresaw that citizens of a Colonial Empire once free would be more loyal and patriotic than ever..” – 1849: On The Government of Colonies, AHNZ

Despite little infrastructure and the life-and-death need to be self-reliant on the resources brought along with them who do you think happened to be waiting with his hand out as the Pilgrims arrived?

None other than The State itself, in the person of Governor George Gray and his taxman! Grey, on the Fly, happened to be passing through on his way to Wellington from a visit to the Auckland Islands and demanded the new Colonists pay him Customs duty!  Or did he? There was no clear formal rule at all, only the idea formed by the enforcer which might as well turn on his mood or if he liked you or if his coffers were low…

“Considerable alarm was occasioned by the fact that high import duties were payable upon the goods brought out for the purpose of settlement. It was indeed ascertained, that what was denominated personal baggage was to be admitted free ; but that it was wholly at this discretion of an official, who had hitherto super-intended the Customs of this place, to decide what should be called personal baggage, and what should pay duties.” – Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle (1851); Papers Past

Grey apparently magnanimously acquired the gratitude of the Colonists by not taking from them what was theirs in the first place. Why threaten the population with uncertainty over their means of survival at all then? Easy for an Anarchist to understand. By the process of putting the wind up the Pilgrims this way and then ‘saving’ them from it, Grey had established his hegemony over New Zealand’s latest colony from day 1.  The Pilgrims thought they had crossed the world’s oceans to colonise but directly learned that someone was already here in New Zealand waiting to colonise them!

—
Image ref. Pilgrims Flag, digital copy created by AHNZ (2021) inspired by the real thing

Image ref. First Four Ships assorted chocolatees, Aulsebrook & Co. Ltd (c.1950); Museum of New Zealand

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