Tales from the passed
According to family lore the Farrell family was feared lost at sea when their ship the Rob Roy, which had left Gibraltar for New Zealand in 1860, took six months to make the trip.
In reality the Rob Roy left from London and made a ‘fair average’ passage of 106 days at a time when a sea voyage from Europe to New Zealand typically took 75 to 120 days. With the voyage being on the longer side there was likely some apprehension and the story changed in the telling through the generations.
James Farrell, who had at one time been stationed at a military post in Malta, immigrated with his wife Bridget and their three children Ann, Edward and Mary. He was given a land grant at Awhitu (Waiuku). The family later moved to Mercer where unrest over land confiscations from Māori prompted them to return to Auckland.
James Jnr – ‘Jim’ – was born in 1862 and around this time the family moved to Alexander (Pirongia), journeying by paddle steamer via the Waipā River. With the outbreak of the Waikato War in 1863 James Snr joined the Third Waikato Militia and was stationed at Kihikihi. The Waikato campaign ended the next year. That year also James and Bridget have a daughter, Elizabeth, who survived only four months. James Snr became the first chairman of the Kihikihi Town Board and filled other public offices. Mary was for a time Kihikihi’s popular postmistress and young Jim became a farmer.
In 1899 the South African War or the Second Anglo-Boer War, began.
This was the first overseas conflict to involve New Zealand and Prime Minister Seddon was keen to demonstrate the country’s commitment to the British Empire, offering to send troops two weeks before fighting began. Hundreds of men signed up, among them six or seven volunteers from the Waikato Mounted Rifles, including Jim Farrell. He embarked on the SS Waimate which transported 268 men and 233 horses from Port Chalmers on March 31 1900. He was seriously wounded about the beginning of November and admitted to the civilian hospital and sanatorium camp at Kimberley.
A cable message was sent to Prime Minister Seddon from the British High Commissioner of British South Africa stating that Jim was seriously ill. Seddon then wired the news to Jim’s family adding “As I have heard nothing since I trust that by now he will be making good progress towards convalescence”.
For several weeks nothing further was heard until the news came that Jim had been invalided home, and had left South Africa on board the troop transport ship Chicago in February 1901. Near the end of February there was a knock at the Farrell’s door. The Rev Father Croke, in the kindest manner possible, broke the news that Jim had died of pneumonia and had been buried at sea with full military honours.
“Mrs Farrell is greatly advanced in years” noted the Waikato Argus, “and the shock must be a serious one to her.”
At two concerts later given in honour of returned troopers toasts were drunk in silence to the memory of Jim. At one, the New Zealand Boer war cry was performed.
The sea, which at one time was thought to have claimed the Farrells, now really was the last resting place of one of the family.
