24 WELLINGTON

By the third week of November 1902, they boarded the White Star Lines, RMS Corinthic, for its maiden voyage from London to Wellington.

Two days later, on the twentieth of November, England once again faded from view as they left Plymouth for the Canary Islands for a brief stay at Tenerife one week later. They then went further south to Capetown on December 13. Finally, they made the long journey across the Indian Ocean, stopping in Hobart, Tasmania, and then to Wellington, disembarking on the second day of the new year.

The experience of the Devi in these lands was limited in scope. Since Abel Tasman ‘discovered’ islands for Europeans in 1642, fewer than two dozen Devi had travelled here. Most had been sailors aboard southern whaling ships.

Four Devi had travelled to the islands in the 1850s and 1860s but had disappeared, and four more arrived in the late 1880s and divided with two on the North Island and two on the southern one.

Jonathan brought letters of introduction to establish a mineral assaying office in Christchurch. He was to represent three English firms looking at the potential of opening new mines in the Hokitika and Greymouth areas. Although this was on the western shore and lay directly across the island from Christchurch, access was made easier by the use of the Arthur Pass.

The climate and temperament of the people agreed with both Jonathan and Evelyn. Although Christchurch was one of the larger towns, with a population of less than 25,000, it hosted all the required amenities.

Their home was in the northern part of the Linwood District. It featured a limestone façade over a heavy timber frame and was centred in a large garden near a forested area. It was large enough to have four bedrooms, sitting rooms, a conservatory, a parlour for entertaining, and an extensive dining area that could easily accommodate a dozen or more people. There were two kitchens and a glass-panelled room facing north full of plants, of which Evelyn had no idea what to call them. Next to the main building was a guest cottage, servant quarters, and a large stable.

It was comfortable in its size and very well appointed, but Evelyn could not fully understand why the house was all on one level. She had been told that it was due to the damage that earthquakes could cause. But Lisbon was also prone to earthquakes, and their home there was three stories. She was then told that it was all about land. Lisbon was a crowded city with narrow streets and hills. Christchurch was vast and expansive, and homes could be built without concerns about the amount of land.

From their home, it was just an easy walk of less than a mile to the shores of the Avon River.

The dresses Evelyn brought were society's rage, as fashion in Australia was a year or two behind London and fashion in New Zealand a year behind that. She immersed herself in the Christchurch Botanical Garden Society. And also became active in politics, supporting and promoting the Liberal Party and its leader, Richard John Setton. She told Jonathan that he reminded him of her father in both stature and temperament.

But what amazed them both was that women in New Zealand were considered cognizant and mature enough to have the right to vote. Promoting that as a cause was still an act of rebellion in England and America. Even more uncommon was that the dark-skinned Natives, the Māori, had representation. In America, most non-whites were rarely considered to be persons, and in Westminster, the Irish were barely tolerated.

She found it novel and exciting that she could carry on discourse about politics with men and women in public and not be summarily dismissed as a dreamer or a radical. 

“Oh, Jonathan, Father would have quite a fit if he knew that I could vote. And perhaps more so that a woman's vote is equal to that of a man and that a wife is free to choose the candidate of her choice.”

“Times, my love, are changing. I am sure the progressives in Westminster are watching to see if this was a wise choice.”

“Of course, it is a wise choice. Women can think for themselves. Most of the problems of the world are started by men.”

“Yes, yes, my dear, I know that. It may take a little longer back in Mother England, and its opposition is quite vocal.”

Jonathan’s office was set up in the city’s center near Oxford Terrace. However, it had been thirty to forty years since the early gold rushes in the Otago, West Coast and Thames gold rushes from the years 1861 to 1872. Placer gold deposits had been found all across the South Island. Placer gold, is tiny flakes of gold that had broken free of the central vein and was found in rivers and stream beds. There may not have been any areas that could support a significant commercial venture, but the possibility always existed for another large-scale find.

There were enough small gold, silver, and copper claims established that St Croix was able to establish a good reputation as a fair agent. If a sample looked positive enough, he would offer the miner or miners a ‘grubstake,’ Forwarding or loaning them enough money to work their claim in exchange for a percentage.

In 1903, Charles Mullens and his partner Jack Ramsey made a notable strike with a high-valued ore in the Kaniere region. It was in an area overlooked during the West Coast Hokitika rush of the 1860s. Seeing the claim's potential just south of Hokitika, St Croix offered the men 25 pounds each to develop the site.

“But Governor, that is a small fortune. What stops us from just running off the drink ourselves blind?”

“Do you like the drink, Mr Ramsey?”

“Yes, I have been known to find myself on the wrong end of a chair at close.”

“And you Mullens? What is your opinion of the drink?’

“I hold it in high regard, but I would rather hold it in my gut.”

“Gentleman. I pose this to you. I will loan you this money as agreed. You cross the Arthur in five months, come back here, and I pay you a fair and honest price for the spoils of your labour. I will invest your monies, and next season, you hire men to assist you and bring back more gold. After another season or two, you cash out and have a bag of sovereigns the size of your head.

You could take a steamer back to Yorkshire, marry who you may and live the life of a squire. Or stay here and buy serious acreage north of Canterbury and dream of whatever you want.

Or, as you suggested, rob me and drink yourself blind and awake in a room at His Majesties Service and break worthless rock under a whip and a gun.”

“I think we will take the former and refine ourselves as gentry and landowners.”

“A deal it is then.” St Croix produced the documents, and the details were enacted,

Within two years, he was able to diversify into a woollen manufacturing company and a meat-packing business. Soon thereafter, he was invited to join the Canterbury Club, a gentlemen's business club.

Over the next three years, their business grew. Because of their connections with the upper elements of society, they put money towards a memorial and crematory service which catered to the more well-to-do gentry.  As morbid as it seemed to Evelyn, she assumed the role of organizer for bereavements and burials. The city, the region and the nation itself were too calm and quiet for many causes of unnatural or untimely deaths. They could notice slight physiological changes without any semblance of emotional outcry, grief, or celebration.

Evelyn grew weary of the limited adventures in the city, so she and Jonathan started taking the almost 3,000-mile round trip to Australia every year or so and spending a week or ten days in Wellington on the outward voyage and up to a month in Sydney.

In August 1908, they were in Sydney to visit the American Great White Fleet, a collection of 16 mainline battleships and various escorts. The fleet's name was because all the ships' hulls were painted white.

They returned home for Christmas 1908; business was good on all fronts. Jonathan had decided to grow a moustache for the new year, and Evelyn had decided to buck convention and not go with the popular Edwardian hairstyle for women, the pompadour. Where the hair flipped around on itself like a bun, often with a top-notch smaller bun on top, she cut her hair into a shorter bob style and artificially curled the hair. Occasionally, she wore trousers specifically designed for women when not attending social functions or business duties.

In 1909, Jonathan limited his enterprises' workload to four days a week; he was using his time off from his affairs to write a study on minerals and assaying. In those days, Evelyn used the opportunity to travel to their businesses to oversee things with a woman’s eye. 

In early September, she rushed home and burst into Jonathan’s study. “News, my dear, wonderful news. From the goldfields.”

“What is it, my dear? What has you all excited and flushed?”

“Gold, they found gold.”

“Who found gold? That is what I would expect from a gold field. What are you talking about, and who are you talking about?”

“Two miners, a John Scott and an Arthur Sharpe, found a nugget, and an actual nugget, said to be larger than a man's fist.”

“Nonsense, my dear, there is no gold nugget that size anywhere in this country.”

“Seriously, Jonathan, how can you be so intransigent? Just because you have not seen it does not mean it does not exist.

The papers are running a special edition, and, oh my God, how could I have forgotten this? People are rushing to your office, hoping to buy any claims you have or shares. This Scott nugget was found not far from some of your holdings.”

By the end of the year, Jonathan had sold off most of his mineral holdings and the assaying office for a staggering sum of almost 56,000 pounds. After dispersions to claim owners, he was left with 30,000. This was an astounding sum as a House member in Westminster only drew a salary of 400 for a year.

It had taken a year to settle all the transactions and balance all the books, “We should move on, Darling; Christchurch is no longer large enough to hide in open sight.”

“I know, we have only been here 10 years, but I was thinking the same thing, Jonathan; it seems everyone wants to see us, meet with us. Inviting us to all their parties and outings. Not only will they soon notice our enduring good looks, but I haven’t enough clothes to wear.”

“Where to then? If we stay far from Europe, the Authentic will give us her belated blessings. So perhaps Australia, then?”

“Sydney or Melbourne? Both offer good opportunities and are much more bustling than here.”