The story behind our banner photo which is typical of many of the early settlers from whom the Founders Society members are descended.
Taken at Hamua c1904, it shows James Farrelly b. c1851 Co.Cavan, Ireland and arr. NZ 1865 on "GANGES", seated with his wife Susan (nee Swan b. in NZ 1865).
Their eleven children are:
(standing from left) James b. 1881, Lawrence b. 1892, Herbert b. 1893, Annie b. 1888, Edward b. 1883, Minnie b.1880, Patrick b. 1890, Francis b.1896 (blind boy in dark glasses d.1951 at the Parnell Blind Institute).
(seated from left) : Ada b.1885, Arthur b. 1899, Jessie b.1897.
James Farrelly was the oldest of the ten children of Laurence and Mary Farrelly who emigrated to NZ under the false promises of the Waikato Settlement Scheme. Trying to make this voyage profitable, the NZ Government loaded the "GANGES" hold with a trial shipment of canned meat. With little knowledge of the science involved in preserving meat in this manner, it was unsuccessful, and when the vessel reached the tropics the cans of meat burst contaminating everything in the hold, and the putrid smells and juices soon spread throughout the vessel.
The childhood diseases of whooping cough, bronchitis and diptheria were rampant, and the ship lacked medical supplies and adequate food. James lost two small sisters on this disastrous voyage, during which over 10% of the passengers died. A Court of Enquiry was held, and Lawrence Farrelly gave his evidence in the Supreme Court in Auckland. Nobody mentioned the effect of the rotting meat on the health of the passengers, and the trial cargo was never divulged publicly.
Arriving in Auckland berefit of their two litte girls, the family was sent to the old Onehunga MIlitary Barracks. Their promised farm and house had not even been bought from the Maoris, who were extremely unwilling vendors! Indeed, the Waikato Wars were pending! An embarrassed Government then despatched the family to a special land grant (The Hutt Valley Scheme), and at Waiwhetu they market gardened for the next thirty years. Ten years after their arrival the parents had their eleventh child, and then their twins Margaret and Philip (who had been left in Ireland as five-year-olds) arrived, and the family was complete.
After almost thirty years of protests and much litigation, the settlers who had been unjustly denied their Waikato Settlement opportunities, were given chances to purchase land in the Pahiatua area at what were described as "attractive" prices, and the entire family of Lawrence and Mary Farrelly, now all adults, took up the opportunity and moved north.
James Farrelly was a farmer, with (at various times) a country store, teams of heavy horses, and a carrying business. The family moved to the outskirts of Hamilton about 1908, and then to a
farm at Mill Road, Paeroa, before WW1. Their son Lawrence Bertram was killed at Gallipolli. James and Susan, both renowned for their very hard physical work, retired to Tauranga in the 1920s, and
James died there in 1929. Susan died in 1930, and they are buried together in the Old Catholic cemetery in 17th Avenue.
Lawrence and Mary Farrelly were the great great grandparents of a current member of NZ Founders.