Dent family connections
Source: NZ Herald, 25 July 1964
"ON Saturday afternoon Capt. Steele, with his company of the 4th Waikato Militia, about 100 strong, marched through Drury with fife and drum en-route to their land at Kirikiriroa. They were a fine set of men and were in high spirits."
Thus the Drury correspondent of the New Zealander described the departure, on August 20, 1864, of the first section of military settlers who were to be the founders of the City of Hamilton.
But, while the story of these "Armed Settlers" - as H. C. M. Norris so aptly calls them in his history of the beginnings of Hamilton - has been told in detail, less has been recorded about how the militia wives and children reached their future homes.
From the files of contemporary newspapers - the New Zealand Herald, the Daily Southern Cross and the Zealander - it is possible piece together something of their story.
On their arrival from Australia the women and children whose menfolk had preceded them across the Tasman, were quartered at Onehunga, at first, in tents but, later in barracks.
At the time of the departure of Capt. William Steele's company there were about 900 of them belonging to the three militia regiments which were to be settled in the Waikato, and all were anxious to be reunited with their soldier husbands and fathers.
On August 24, while the Drury correspondent's report was being read in Auckland, Capt. Steele and his men were scrambling ashore from the river steamer Rangiriri, which had brought them up the Waikato from the Bluff, near Pokeno.
When they landed at the future site of Hamilton their first concern was to build a redoubt to protect the settlement. Then they had to make a road from the landing place to the plain above, where their individual allotments of land had been laid out and where their future homes would eventually he built.
After seven or eight weeks spent in establishing themselves, and making a start on preparing the land to grow food, the men began to look forward eagerly to the coming of their families.
With so many wives and children to transport, together with their baggage and household effects, it was necessary for the paddle steamer Prince Alfred to make at least 10 trips between Onehunga and Port Waikato, from where the passengers would complete their journey in barges towed by the river steamers Pioneer, Rangiriri and others.
The first draft left Onehunga on October 31, 1864. It included families belonging to the 2nd Waikato Regiment for the Te Awamutu district, the 3rd Regiment for Cambridge and several for Hamilton - 25 families in all.
Personal possessions were many and varied. They included beds and bedding, tables and chairs and other furniture, pots and pans and camp ovens. Some brought trees and plants, others fowls, and some even carried pet canaries in cages.
Most of the new arrivals had made the long voyage from England and had crossed the Tasman under sail; to travel by steamer was a novel experience.
But, whatever the method of propulsion, the waves which rolled across the stormy Tasman and broke like thunder on the west coast beaches were powerful enough to make any ship roll heavily. The crossing of two harbour bars and the short but usually rough coastal voyage between must have been far from comfortable.
Port Waikato, where they transferred to barges for the three to four-day trip up the Waikato River, was in those days a busy place. It had been, and was still, a commissariat depot for General Cameron's troops, and a busy shipyard as well.
One river steamer used during the war was being dismantled, another was under repair, and a new steamer was being built. There were several large stores, barracks and officers' quarters, and some men of the 14th Regiment, as a garrison. In former years it had been a trading post and more recently a mission station.
Beyond the announcement of their arrival at Ngaruawahia in barges towed by the Gundagai, the newspapers of the day record no details of the river journeys made by the new settlers.
Ngaruawahia then was a thriving commercial centre. As the main Army base in the Waikato, it had grown rapidly, and the militia families must have stared in wonder at the buildings. including an hotel, going up in all directions.
Hamilton as yet was only a collection of tents, clustered around a flagstaff, from which the Union Jack proclaimed British conquest.
Other drafts of Militia families were not far behind. On November 19 the Prince Alfred again dropped anchor at Port Waikato with 44 women and 116 children. Like those who had gone before them they were transferred in barges, which were taken in tow by the Sturt, commanded by Capt. Parnell.
On this occasion the discomfort of the trip in a barge exposed to the elements proved too much for one unfortunate wife who did not survive a premature confinement.
One party of wives and children made the trip from Onehunga in the gunboat Sandfly, commanded by Capt. Hannibal Marks. Two others made it under sail, an experience they were long to remember.
The brig. Highlander, in April, 1865, with 53 men, 50 women and 120 children on board, took seven days to reach Port Waikato. She struck very heavy weather off the coast, and those on board suffered accordingly. To add to their troubles, the ship had been provisioned for only five days and they were forced to go hungry for two.
Late in May the brig. Reliance brought seven men, 16 women and nine children, but they, too, experienced a very stormy passage before reaching the calm waters of the river.
The despatch of the militia families to Hamilton kept pace with the arrival of various detachments of the regiment which had been scattered around a number of posts on Cameron's lines of communication south of Auckland.
But 12 months after Steele and his men landed at Hamilton all the families of the 4th Waikatos had been reunited. By this time about 300 women and 900 children had made the river journey and had swelled the population of the future city to about 1500.