Family History 4.29

Robinson story

Joshua Caleb's account continues

Time went on and our family shifted to a house on some ground that sloped towards the harbour, somewhere between Shortland and Fort Streets, which was then the waterfront. (It stood close by Sir John Logan Campbell's cottage).

Joshua and his brother worked on the Queen Street wharf in the foreground. At one or two stages they lived in houses in this area, between Shortland and Fore Streets. Auckland Public Library picture.

[This move could have been anytime from 1846 to 1850. The Robinsons do not show up on the Police census of 1842, but the census may have been taken before they arrived.

In 1843 they are shown to be living in Mechanics Bay, both families being recorded as living together in two wooden houses and in 1845 they are recorded separately in St Georges Bay. The property they owned was the same, but the name of the area changed and in 1845 the same area was denoted as Parnell. Joshua and family in this 1845 census were shown to be still living on their property, but Caleb had moved and was renting a wooden house from the colonial government in Mechanics Bay.

He leased his property in Parnell to John Flatt, a gardener. It was quite common at this time to lease one's own property out and rent a cheaper property from someone else. In this way many settlers moved from house to house every year. Many absentee landlords, mainly living in Australia, gave power of attorney to Aucklanders to lease their land.

It is difficult to understand why they would later have moved to this area around Acacia Cottage, (John Logan Campbell's house) as the west side of Queen Street, O'Connell Street, High Street, Thompsons Lane (now Cruise Lane) and Fields Lane was the most densely populated area around Auckland. the area became a slum in the 1850s because of the overcrowding and poor drainage and sanitation. The family may have moved here to be closer to Joshua's work on the Auckland wharf.]

To the shore of the little bay came the Maoris in their canoes bringing loads of fish, potatoes and pork, and in the summer luscious peaches. On the different occasions on which Captain Cook visited these shores, he had presented the Maoris with some seeds and a litter or two, and with their primitive cultivating the natives had made them most prolific. The missionaries too had planted orchards for the various tribes, so that the settlers were able to obtain familiar fruits fairly cheaply.