“Have you not heard of the birth of the latest colonial baby? Bishops and Bigwigs in at the accouchment – [Edward]Gibbon Wakefield (owner of the New Zealand Company) the monthly nurse – the new Canterbury Pilgrimage born with a flourish of trumpets and laying on of hands”.
Edward Merson Templar (now remembered in the naming of Templeton) informing his friend Mark Pringle Stoddart (now remembered in the naming of Diamond Harbour) about the new colony of Canterbury.
The pair left the droughts of Australia with 2000 sheep, aboard a German vessel named the ‘Australia’ and arrived at Lyttelton, March 1851.
For a more in depth look at Mark Pringle Stoddart and Edward Merson Templar, check out the following links: http://www.peelingbackhistory.co.nz/diamond-harbour-mark-pringle-stoddard-1819-1885/ and http://www.peelingbackhistory.co.nz/templeton-weedons-e-m-temple-william-weeden/
*image of Templar family courtesy of http://www.cleghornfamily.com*
