Pioneer women rose through hardship to win equality

TOembarkonalong voyage into the unknownsouthern seas wasamomentous step forany womanto takeinthe mid-19thcentury.Yet when the John Wickliffe andthe Philip Laing anchoredinOtago Harbourearly in 1848 there was, amongthe menliningthe decks, aconsiderablesprinkling of women, conspicuousintheir crinolines, bonnets andshawls. TheyarrivedinOtago at the beginningofaverysevere winter.For almost twomonthsit rained incessantly,sotheywere forced to remain on boardwhile themen builtbarracks on shore Whenever thecloudslifted,they wouldwearily pace thedecks andgazeatthe raupohuts(their newhomes) dotted alongthe foreshore.Their discomfortwas, however, insignificantcompared with that of thosewomen who had alreadymade their homes in Otago.

Eight yearsearlier,Mrs James Watkin had landed with her husbandatWaikouaiti. No whitewoman wasthere to greet her as she stepped ashore; no comfortable house awaited her coming

Instead she found a halffinished whare in the midst of a Māori village of ramshackle huts From the huge whalebones which lay scattered about, a nauseating odour rose, penetrating everywhere There was no school her seven children could attend and not a single one of the amenities which were quickly provided for the pioneers of 1848

In this less-than-congenial spot, Mrs Watkin, despite continual ill-health, for four years assisted her husband in his work Upon herdeparture in 1844, shewas replacedbyMrs Charles Creed, whose ‘‘ open countenance beamingwithkindness, and frank, kindly conversation made her at once popular and useful’’

In the same year that the Creeds arrived at the Waikouaiti mission station, Mrs John Anderson and Mrs Alexander Mackay, the first white women to live by Otago Harbour, had made their homes in the vicinity of Dunedin After exploring the harbour thoroughly, the Andersons pitched their tent near the bay, later named after them There, on the rising foreshore, they built a house of rushes and rough timber Until 1846, when Mrs Kettle and Mrs Park arrived with the survey party, they did not see another white woman.

Forthese people whohad establishedtheir homesinOtago in theearly 1840s, thecomingof the John Wickliffe andthe Philip Laing meant the beginning of a new life Gone now were the days when time hung heavily on their hands All their interests were centred upon the founding of a new settlement

Most of the women pioneers of 1848 had not been long ashore before they discovered that the gypsy life they were forced to lead was not altogether preferable to the cramped quarters on board

A number set out with their husbands and families for country districts By bullock dray or unsprung wagon, on horseback or on foot, through dense bush and tangled undergrowth, over creeks wherealog wasthe only bridge, acrossrough tussocky wastes, they journeyedtotheir newhomes, leavingbehindall that was familiar

As a rule, houses built for them had none of the amenities they had long taken for granted Where timber was available, they were rough slab huts with unglazed calico windows, floors of beaten clay, and open fireplaces

Furtherinland, in Central Otago,where timber wasscarce, they were builtofcob or of sods which, as time went by,were inclined to become rather dusty.

CatherineOrbell, whocame to Otagoin1849, described the home shewas taken to as an unlined two-roomedcottage builtofweatherboards, with a shingleroof. Therewas no ceiling andthe rain frequentlypoured notonlythrough theroof, but also throughthe weatherboards. The cottagestood upon a lineofsandhills andwhen asouthwesterlyblew, as it frequentlydid,the sand was blowninthrough theroof. Once thenew homehad been reached, therewas thetaskof learninghow to cook in acamp oven. The kettles, pots andpans of thetimewereofiron,heavy to liftand difficulttoclean.Until she had acquired theknackof shiftingthe utensilsabout on their bars andhooks, many ahousewifewas ashamed to presentthe resultsofher cooking.

In theevenings, when thehard day’swork—carryingwater, baking bread and washing had been done, these pioneer women sat down by the light of a slush lamp (a piece of rag wound round a stick and set upright in a pannikin of fat) to repair clothes, which wore out with disastrous rapidity

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Otago Firsts

The first women’s union in NewZealand wasformed in Dunedin on July 11,1889, by Dunedin tailoresses.

NewZealand’s national anthem, God Defend New Zealand,written by Thomas Bracken, wasfirst performed on Christmas Day, 1876, in the Queens Theatre, aroom to the rear of the Queen’s Buildings, Princes St, Dunedin. Exactly 100 yearslater,aplaque to commemoratethis event was placed by theHistoric Places Trust and unveiled by the then deputy mayor, T. K. S. Sidey.

In 1871, the first woollen mill in NewZealand was established by Mr Arthur Burns in Mosgiel, Dunedin. Weaversand machinerywere transported from Scotland for use in the factory

The first Normal School, or teacher-training school, in the countrywas openedin Dunedin on February15, 1876, on the site wherethe Dunedin Public Librarynow stands. The opening roll listed300 pupils and by June 1876the number hadswelledto700. The teacher-training department originally established within the school is todaythe Dunedin College of Education, and the Normal School itself eventually became GeorgeSt Normal School.

The first place in NewZealand to have gasstreetlighting wasDunedin, onMay 9, 1863. It wasafurther twoyears until Auckland hadgas lights. Wellingtondid not have gas lights until April 22, 1871.

Theworld’sfirst female Anglican diocesan bishop was Bishop Penny Jamieson (pictured), who was episcopally ordained Bishop of Dunedin on Friday

June 29, 1990 The ordination ceremony took place in St Paul’s Cathedral, Dunedin