The Not-So-Dead Charles Wood

83/681 – 20/10/83

Kaiapoi Woollen Coy have repaid £6 for the passage of Chas Wood.  Nom 236.

The Kaiapoi Woollen Company was established in 1878 and became one of the biggest producers of woollen products in NZ .  The company recruited staff from the north of England, especially those with experience in spinning and weaving.

For more information on the Kaiapoi Woollen Company try the links below:

• http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc03Cycl-t1-body1-d3-d49-d8.html
• http://libraries.waimakariri.govt.nz/Libraries/Local_History_-_Places_-_KAI/History_of_Kaiapoi_Mill.sflb.ashx 

One of the people the Kaiapoi Woollen Company nominated for passage to NZ was Charles Wood, for which they paid £6 to cover passage and outfit. 

The ship Crusader sailed from Gravesend on 13^th December 1882.  Onboard was Richard Wood, a weaver from York, his wife Esther and their children, Anne, Charles, Henrietta, Edith and Alice.  The nomination reference written beside the names is “Canterbury 236, Kaiapoi Woollen Company”.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11543-16336-49?cc=1609792&wc=M9WV-DL2:n1193657536

On 2^nd January 1883, a memo was sent to the Under Secretary for Immigration, asking if he would please “request the Agent-General to cancel the following nominations”:

Nom.        28              John Weir & family

                   196            W Collier & family

                   254            Chas Coward & family

                   259            W Jones & family

                   262            Isabella Sayers

                   274            John Wood & family

                   306            H Limb & family

                   343            Mary Folen

                   391            Jas & I Doig

                   401            Mary Ford

                   236            Chas Wood

                   238            Chas Shaw & family

                   241            A B Tyas

                   242            W Parker & wife

                   244            John Heppleston

                   245            B C Blakeley & family

There was a note on the memo, stating “Nomination 236 is to be cancelled so far as it relates to Chas Wood who is dead”.  This seems to indicate that Charles was not the only person listed on Nomination 236, which ties up with him coming out with his family.

There is a lot of back and forth between the various Immigration Offices and the Under Secretary for Immigration as they attempted to work out how this error had occurred and what can be done to prevent it from recurring.  It is also noted that no one seems to have realised when Charles arrived in Lyttelton on 22^nd March 1883 that he was no longer officially a nominated immigrant, his nomination having been cancelled.

The Kaiapoi Woollen Company repaid the £6 they were refunded and the Wood family settled in Kaiapoi initially, then moved to Christchurch and later Timaru.  Eventually Richard & Esther moved to Lower Hutt where Richard worked as a music teacher.  I tried tracing Charles, but he proved a bit more elusive.  However I did find a Charles Wood on the 1911 electoral roll, living in Wellington and working as a musician - given his father's occupation in later life, a good possibility I would think!