Overview
Most of our nineteenth-century European settlers worked hard to build their new lives, but there was still time for a little leisure. The New Zealand climate encouraged outdoor activities, so the new settlers developed sports from the things they had to do in order to survive. Shooting and woodchopping competitions were popular, and, making the most of two important forms of colonial transport, boat races and horse races became common forms of entertainment.
However, indoor activities relied more on things the settlers had done back in Britain. Playing and listening to music was a favourite pastime, and the settlers who could afford it brought their musical instruments to the new colony.
This is believed to be the first piano to grace New Zealand shores. It belonged to George Hunter who immigrated in 1840, and lived in the Petone settlement known as Britannia.
For many, playing or listening to music brought back memories of home. John Saxton, an Englishman who immigrated to New Zealand in 1842, wrote in one of his journals that he was overjoyed when his piano finally arrived here from England.
The types of music played were influenced by overseas trends – especially British. Often one or two people would play and sing for their family and friends, or sometimes everyone would gather round the piano for a sing-song. ‘In the evening we all had a grand concert, tin dishes of all sizes, flutes, jews’ harp, cornopean, and the voices of those who performed on dishes and harps, the least that can be said is that we made a stunning noise!’ (1)
As well as lively informal gatherings, there were organised events. Amateur choral societies put on concerts. In the latter part of the nineteenth century settlers looked forward to tours from travelling opera companies. Theatre – or vaudeville – was less respectable than opera, but very popular.
For the middle and upper-class colonists, the highlights of their social calendars were balls. However, these were not always conducted in the dignified manner that they had been in England. Edward Chudleigh, who settled in Christchurch, was disappointed with the first one he went to here: ‘The room was fuller than anything I ever saw. Many of the ladies were miserable specimens of the sex and did the most extraordinary things; many of the gentlemen were drunk at the end of the evening.’ (2)
Parties at home could get pretty raucous too, as this description of a New Year’s Eve party shows: ‘we danced and sang untill 10 minutes to 12 Johen a young Chap and my self whent out & got our guns and we fire the old year out and the new one in then returned to the Ball roome you may term it such as thear is Plenty of Musich and Dancing and kept it up untill Day light ...’ (3)
Of course, some preferred to spend their leisure time indulging in quieter pursuits. Sunday in particular was a day for this. Taranaki settler George Jupp wrote, ‘For that day of rest, the Sabbath, I have always tried to improve my mind.’(4) And Arthur S. Atkinson describes his Sunday activities in his journal: ‘Copied music (Im Thal and Im Frūhling) while Maria read to us. In the evg. Domett came and read Paradise Lost for about 3 hours but the lamp went out at 1/4 to 11 & he went away.’ (5)
For reading material, the settlers depended on overseas magazines and books, and all sorts of libraries sprang up. Although non-fiction accounts of colonial experience found British publishers, New Zealanders were not much interested in reading about themselves. As Sarah Selwyn commented: ‘We had enough of the real thing, and wished for a different atmosphere from travels in the bush and settling, and sheepruns and squatting etc. etc. ....’ (6) Literature, like many of the early settlers’ leisure activities, needed to be relaxing and escapist.
References
(1) Whitmore, Alison. (1972). Pioneer Diaries. New Zealand’s Heritage: the making of a nation 3:31. p 862.
(2) Whitmore. (1972). pp 862–3.
(3) Whitmore. (1972). p 862.
(4) Whitmore. (1972). p 862.
(5) Whitmore. (1972). p 862.
(6) Rice, Geoffrey W. (1992). The Oxford History of New Zealand. Auckland: Oxford University Press. 2nd edition. p 130.
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (1998).