Parawai Feb 28th 1879 My dear Percy. I received your letter of Feb 13 in answer to mine about a letter received from Mr Wise. I am glad to hear from you that you did not dislike your business, and from what you say it would be very imprudent for you to have your indentures cancelled before the time expires. Having begun and got through the first steps it would be foolish for […]
Thomas and Elizabeth Spencer (née Berridge) were born in England and married there (in Warmington Northhamptonshire). They lived in Knossington, Leicestershire, and came out to New Zealand on 11 June 1861. Their ship, the Mersey (812 tons, Capt Duncan Smith) had left London 105 days earlier. They had five children in tow – Charles, Lucy, Kate (Kitty), George and Percy. This is their story. Arrival Thomas and Elizabeth Spencer, temporarily settled in a small cottage in […]
The first part below was written as a continuous entry in a separate book. Getting a visa to enter the United States was one thing and it seems the most difficult. There loomed another question. Just how, physically does one get several assorted knapsacks? Of personal effects from New Zealand to Philadelphia. The first two ships sailing went respectively to the West Coast and to England, touching at Miami. Why not see some of the […]
There was a certain amount of anticipation in the press about the stuttering date 9/9/99, and one could have even included the century 9/9/999, or made it a German denial to an offer of any date “Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein!” As far as I am concerned it all started with 3/3/33. At that time, Hitler had been in power for a bit over a month. Goering was sweeping out the last vestiges of democracy […]
This picture shows the notice of Auction for the first subdivision in 1927. According to someone whose family bought lots 12-14 (Richard Morgan, who now still owns lot 11), Buying at the auction was a great investment for the future at 27 pounds ten shillings for a section, but I guess in those days few people had cars, or even went on holidays. I know that Tommy Thomson, the auctioneer asked my family to please […]
Reminiscence by Donald Lang I think I knew the name RMS Niagara before she went out of circulation. June 19th 1940, just before the winter solstice, was a day that I remember as clear and sparkling. Don’t ask me about the weather on any other day in 1940. At the other end of the world the then current Republic of France was dying. Until I looked up the dates recently I did not connect the […]
Reminiscence about Kitty McLennan and Doreen McKenzie by Donald Lang My mother when she married came to live in a bungalow near the beach. It was some time before she got rid of a reflex at dusk to reach out and switch on the lights. I don’t know if the fairy penguins knew that house then. Certainly years later they used to come in under it and squabble during the night. A year or two […]
Written by his cousin Donald Lang My first cousin Donald McKenzie scrambled his name a bit while learning to talk. He was known as “Dollar” for some of his youth. After a decade or so, when people were about ready to become more formal, two new “first cousin Donald”s arrived for him. My father and his mother were siblings. I was given the first name Donald. Not much later. on the other side of his […]
Every year in Waipu, on New Years Day, there is a Highland Games. More Scottish than the Scots, the descendants of the big migrations celebrate their scottishness with a festival of bagpipes, highland dancing, tossing the caber, throwing the wheatsheaf, etc. etc. It’s also often a family reunion, as the family who have left come back for summer at the Beach, and to see each other. In 1933, on New Year’s Day, one such […]
William Robert (Bill) Lang was born in 1890, and left school at 12, when his father died, to run the family farm. When war broke out, in 1914, he was already a member of a volunteer unit of the NZ army. Lots of people made the transition to expeditionary soldier swiftly. He ran into resistance when he tried to organise the farm for his absence. Several relatives tried to talk him out of it. It […]