A Tint of Normanism

Joan Tatersfield, Auckland

The Rev. Norman MacLeod, at the age of seventy-one years, led his people from St. Ann’s Cape Breton Island, forth again into the wilderness. Perhaps he did not think of it as “the wilderness” having learnt much about Australia from the letters of his son Donald who had written good accounts of the availability of land and the opportunities there. Donald was at Adelaide and this destination was Norman MacLeod’s first intention.

The reasons for leaving Nova Scotia were a shortage of suitable farming land for growing generations; American fisherman were competing for the harvest of the sea in the waters where St. Ann’s men fished, and, 1848 was a disastrous season with ruined wheat and blackended potato crops.

So, with much prayer and deliberation, Norman made the fateful decision that it was better for his people to go forth together, than scatter and lose their identity. Once the decision was made energetic preparations began — extremely self–sufficient and self–reliant preparations. Over the next two years ships were built in one of their own shipyards, provisions were obtained from their own fields and fisheries, experienced captains and crew chosen from among themselves, and among the intending emigrants most essential trades were represented. Because of their successful thirty years in Nova Scotia there was no desperate shortage of money either.

In 1851 Norman MacLeod, at the age of 71 decided to lead his people from St. Ann’s, Cape Breton, to a new homeland.

“Margaret” Sails

On 28th October, 1851, the pioneer barque, Margaret, with one hundred and thirty passengers, including the Rev. Norman and his family, left St. Ann’s, Nova Scotia, for Australia. The Margaret arrived in the Spencer Gulf of South Australia on Saturday, 10th April, 1852. It looked a rather uninviting land being in drought conditions at that time. The capital, Adelaide, was some miles away up the Torrens River. Sunday was spent on board and a service of Thanksgiving for their safe arrival was held. Donald had left word that he had gone to Melbourne, and by the beginning of June they were at Melbourne too. Gold had been discovered and to the settlers, the way of life in this struggling town seemed bewildering and distasteful. Some of the men tried their luck on the goldfields, or tried for work at carpentering or other trades. Insanitary conditions prevailed and a scourge of typhoid fever broke out; three of Norman’s sons died within a short period. It must have been a severe blow and caused him perhaps to question his wisdom in bringing his people away from Nova Scotia. The result was that he determined to leave the evils of the town. His people were really looking for timbered coastal lands suitable for farming development. While in Adelaide the Minister and his friends had heard reports of the Colony of New Zealand, and Sir George Grey had left from there to become Governor of the Colony. Norman wrote to him early in 1853 asking if he would make a special settlement for them in New Zealand.

In the meantime the brig Highland Lass had left Bras d’Or on 17th May, 1852 with 188 people and had arrived at Adelaide on 23rd October 1852, under Capt. M. McKenzie, and, before being sold, had made some profitable voyages on the coast, and had established contact with their friends at Melbourne. They agreed wholeheartedly that Australia was not the land they were seeking.

New Zealand

Norman received a favourable reply from Governor Grey, so Gazelle, a sturdy schooner already in the trade across the Tasman Sea, was bought by the McKenzies and the first party sailed on 2nd September, 1853, from Adelaide and arrived at Auckland, New Zealand, fifteen days later. In the issue of the newspaper ‘New Zealander’, in the shipping notes, it was reported that “the schooner Gazelle has brought a number of immigrants who, we trust, will prove a valuable addition to the population.” The Gazelle went back and forth across the Tasman bringing more and more of the Nova Scotian settlers each time and before long Norman was preaching at St. Andrews, being established in 1847, is known as the “First” Church.

On the first trip with the Nova Scotians, Gazelle sailed down the east coast north of Auckland and all eyes were on the land. They saw a beautiful coast–line with forest in the valleys, and on the hills, deep bays with rising land, not too steep, sunshine and mild weather. Immediately they decided not to look further.

It took a year’s negotiations, first with Governor Grey, and then with Governor Wynyard who was not co–operative, and it was not until February, 1854, that they became first applicants for the land, still to be bought from the Maoris. The new settlers were willing to pay ten shillings an acre, the recognized price, but they did not have enough capital for an adjacent block for later arrivals. A Scot, who had been settled at Auckland since before 1840, having come at the age of twenty–three, and succeeded in making a fortune, proved a staunch friend, lending the money without security. He was a qualified physician, and a business man, became Mayor of Auckland, was a benefactor to the City which he loved, and is historically known as the “Father of Auckland”. He was Sir John Logan Campbell.

Settlement At Waipu

It was not until 1858 that the land situation clarified. There had been lengthy court proceedings brought by the British Resident, Bay of Islands, who claimed he had bought the land from the Maoris, and he sued Duncan McKenzie for trespass. He could not prove this, so his claim failed. In the meantime, more and more ships were arriving with the remainder of those Scottish Nova Scotian people who wished to settle in a new land under the guidance of their esteemed leader, the Rev. Norman MacLeod. By 1860 when he was nearing eighty years of age and the migration was completed, the total number who came was eight hundred and seventy–six men, women and children. All ships except Highland Lass had one or more MacLeod families on board.

The blocks of land selected were in Northland, about one hundred miles north of Auckland. The main settlement was at Waipu (pronounced why—po) which one authority says means “reddened water”. This block was 66,000 acres, and there were others, mainly family blocks, at Leigh, Mangawhai–Kaiwaka, Whangarei Heads, Kauri–Hikurangi, and by 1864 Okaihau. They were all pioneered by these colonists.

In this, their last home, they found the two elements on which their initial efforts were concentrated — the forest and the sea — and they were vital to their survival. From the forest came the timber for coastal ships, and fishing smacks, which they built, also their houses, barns, and sheds, fencing and winter fuel, and a prosperous trade in surplus timber. By prodigious labours they cleared the flat land for cropping, turning the earth with spades. Their energy and self–reliance turned “the wilderness” into “the promised land”. Norman MacLeod’s precept and his example had shaped this community, and their everyday Christianity gained the love and respect of all who met them or had dealings with them.

Church and School

The first community project of the Waipu settlement was the building of their Church, to be followed by a school — the heart and the lungs of the community. On a ten acre site, the Church was a forty–foot by thirty–foot building of pit–sawn timber, all materials being donated or met by subscription. It was erected by voluntary labour, and opened debt–free. Norman ministered here until his death in 1866, and, as long as he lived, the people of Waipu were content to follow the lead and remain independent in their worship. He was sometimes stern and forbidding in the pulpit, and would publicly rebuke those among his flock whom he considered deserving of it, even his best friend, but he bore no malice and could, among his people afterwards, be kindly and generous with simple words for the children. A lady remembered him when he was over eighty and still preaching. She was a small girl, and recalls that “he gave us a dressing down,” but, she added, “he was most friendly afterwards.” The Minister expected that the women of the community should be simply and modestly dressed, especially for Church and was known to publicly rebuke any who appeared in a fancy new bonnet or a fashionable dress.

He had also been appointed a Magistrate and after his death the Magistrate from Whangarei visited Waipu when necessary, but so lawabiding were the settlers that his presence was rarely required there.

Norman realised the strength of the cultural bond of the language and saw to it that the Gaelic tongue did not die out. As far as possible, he insisted that it be spoken at social occasions, and at Church, where he conducted two services every Sunday, one in Gaelic and one in English. He was fluent in both languages. He never lost the respect of his people and his standards of honesty and fearlessness were to leave their mark on the generations following.

One hundred and twenty years and several generations later, the descendants of the Waipu Highlanders, as they became known, have spread to areas all over New Zealand, from North Cape to Bluff, and one is liable to meet, at any time, a New Zealander who says with pride, “My ancestors were Waipu Scots.”

A Masterful Man

What kind of a man was Norman MacLeod? He is still remembered over one hundred and twenty years later, in Scotland, where he was born, in Nova Scotia, where he spent the years of his maturity, and in New Zealand, his final resting–place. A contemporary of his years in Scotland wrote “Norman MacLeod had all the necessary characteristics of a Highland Chief — a fine personal appearance — was tall, stout and strong — and was kind, generous, patronising and paternal to his friends, but, at the same time, he was stern, haughty, autocratic and implacable to his enemies. In short, a masterful man of the stamp that a Celt is ready to admire, adore, obey, and follow at almost any sacrifice. In those days before the migration to Nova Scotia in 1817 he was monarch of all he surveyed, his personality overshadowed everything. His will was law to his people, and he was responsible to no–one but God and his own enlighted Christian conscience. All his influence he devoted, not to his own personal welfare, comfort, or aggrandissement, but to the intellectual, social and religeous welfare of his people. He was more than esteemed and loved, in a sense he was adored and idolised.”

Both the people of Assynt and of Nova Scotia afterwards put their trust in a remarkable and versatile man, an accomplished and versatile speaker, a prolific writer, an excellent scholar, yet an able farmer, and a born leader. For nearly thirty years in Nova Scotia, Norman was the acknowledged leader of a hard–working community of lumbermen, shipbuilders, fishermen, farmers and traders, with freedom to own land and choose the Minister under whom they worshipped. He was not only their religious leader, but was also school–master and Justice of the Peace.

“Prophet, priest and King of Northland” is one description from Nova Scotia. Pictures of Norman in New Zealand show a stern, powerfully built man of arrogant eye and hard mouth. There are many stories about him, too, some idolising him, some critical; it seems he could arouse fanatical devotion or positive dislike. But these do not show the power of this man, who, by his own example and compelling argument, fostered simple Christian virtues. Even one of his critics had said that he was “a big man of leonine countenance; a giant mentally and physically.”

He was laid to rest on 14th March, 1866, in a spot twelve thousand miles from his birth–place, in a quiet country Churchyard with a vast panorama of sea and open country.

It can be truly said that Norman accomplished what the newspaper ‘New Zealander’ had hoped — he led to our country “a number of immigrants” who proved to be “a valuable addition to the population.”

Sources: Eric Arcus and Donald McKay, One Hundred Years, 1871–1971; G. L. Pearce, The Scots of New Zealand; Neil Robinson, Lion of Scotland; The Scottish–Nova Scotian Centennial Magazine; the Waipu Caledonian Society; James Torrance, History’s Longest Migration.

A Tint of Normanism —

Reverend Norman MacLeod in New Zealand

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Saturday, 08-Sep-2018 11:41:55 MDT © Copyright 2000-2003 Stephen Daniel McLeod