Family arrived Sydney abt 1836 OSM
PPA
DOMINION ITEMS.
Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1929, Page 5
OLD SETTLER PASSES. DUNEDIN, October 21, Obituary.?Mrs Woolsey, aged 93 years, the last of the settlers who arrived in the brig Magnet in -1840, eight years prior to the actual settlement
PPA Evening Star, Issue 15445, 19 March 1914, Page 2
WAIKOUAITI EARLY SETTLERS
REUNION YESTERDAY. Strangers , passing through Waikouaiti yesterday and catching a fleeting glimpse of the gathering in the Domain may have thought it a-school.picnic. Youngish persons and children outnumbered the seniors. This is a good sign at an early settlers' picnic, indicating that such functions are likely to last, and thus keep green the memory of the 'pioneers who are fast crossing to the great majority. The younger of the real old identities are now well up in years. Yet they last Hard work and simple fare toughened them, ' Some of the old mwi who took Dart in the picnic yesterday confessed to being a bit shaky in their legs, but all seemed alert in thought and speech. None of those present can actually remember the Magnet, the brig that Captain Bruce brought from Sydney in 1840. In point of fact, only three of the passengers on that trip are now alive.?namely, Mrs Mary Wolsey (nee Colman), of Port Chalmers; Mrs EJiza Burns (neeKennard), of Castle street, Dunedin; and Mrs E. W. Durden (nee Beal), of Invercargill;: and Mrs Wolsey -was tha sole representative of the trio at the picnic. A search round the ground for Mrs Wolsey failed to discover her by appearances. Naturally one would look for an iufirhi and carefully-tended old lady. No one of that sort could be seen. A question therefore became necessary, and friends at once pointed out Mrs Wolsey in the act of preparing luncheon for her party. She seemed to want to do everything herself joven to the carrying of the hot water- " I'm 77, but I can get about all right," was her answer to one who proffered help. A fine type of the well-preserved and self-reliant early settler. The meal, over, Mrs Wolsey insisted on washing up and repacking the crockery. Then, and not till then, would she consent to enjoy a sit down and a yarn. What she had to tell is not .in any sense a story, but it constitutes an outline upon which one can easily fill in a tale of duty done- From what Mrs Wolsey said it appears that she was two years of age when her father and mother came over with her in the Magnet. The passengers were farm hands hired jn Sydney by Mr Johnny Jones to work liis land at Mat&naka and attend to the other businesses of which he, then the benevolent despot of the settlement, had control. The terms of engagement were £3O a year and single rations. One could also buy goods from his store. To do this, however, in the very early days was in a sense a privilege. The would-be purchaser had to be in the good graces of Mrs Johnny Jones, otherwise she would be "out" of the particular goods asked for. On one occasion Mrs Jones declared that she had.' no tea, and a little meeting was in coti± j i sequence about to fail when a whaler brought forth his stock and enabled the function to go on. " Oh, yes," added Mrs Wolsey, "w-e had plenty of food?plenty of necessaries. We could always get wheat, even if we had to grind it ourselves, and we had lots of fish and cabbage, and wild pigs could be got in the bush, but we sometimes wanted a change and couldn't always get it. I've heard my father and mother talk about these matters, and I remember something about them myself. My father was Benjamin Colman. His brother, William Colman, came with us in the Magnet; also David Carey (my mother's brother) and his wife. The Careys had one child. Lucy Harriet. She was drowned soon after we landed. It was the first death of a white person in the settlement. She was about two years old. She fell into a water-hole. This hole had been made by digging out the earth to make the whares with. It was not far from our house, which was hear the beach at the foot of Matanaka. .There were altogether nine children in our family. My sister Phcebe and myself were the ones that father and mother brought in the Magnet. Phcebe married John Shanks, of Port Chalmers. I married Charles Wolsey. He died, many years ago. The whares thai we lived in have all disappeared, but for years after we left Waikouaiti a strip of ground over there was known as Colman's Gully. My father and my uncle were the first to put a spade into it. My father was drowned at Black Jack Point, in Dunedin Harbor, when I was 11 years old; and Wm. Colman, my uncle, was drowned at Otago Heads 10 years later. My mother lived till about eight years, ago. I can't tell you much about the early experiences of the Magnet's people, for I was too young to know much, but I always have the feeling that though we had plenty of hard work and sometimes hot too much vaiiety in food, we were quite as happy as the young folk of today, who have only to ask and have. Mary Coleman immigrated to arrived Waikouaiti mar 1840 on the Magnet in 1840.
1