M.W. Standish

2 July 1958

Dear Mr. Metcalfe,

I have found a little information about some of your ancestors. William Thomas Green who married in 1862 was the son of William Thomas Green who came to Akaroa in 1839 from Sydney. The latter arrived in charge of the first shipment of cattle landed in Canterbury, and was employed by W.B. Rhodes. He remained in charge of these cattle (about six or eight head) belonging to Rhodes for a couple of years. He then lived at Green Point, close to where the first British Magistrate, Robinson, hoisted the British flag when the French settlers arrived in 1840. As there was then no hotel in Akaroa he was able to supplement his income by buying liquor from visiting whale ships and selling it to the local inhabitants. The standing joke at that time in Akaroa was to say that one was going up to Green’s for a glass of milk.

After he left Rhode’s employment he opened a hotel at Green Point, the first hotel in Akaroa. Jacobson in his ‘Tales of Banks Peninsula’ describes it as commodious, forty by thirty feet in area, one storey high, and very well patronised. Later on Green found it too far from the new centre of the town, sold it, bought land at the corner of the Esplanade and Church Street, and built a new hotel.

He also had shares in an early whale fishery establishment at Island Bay, near Akaroa.

His son, also William Thomas Green, married Amelia Ann Willett. At the time of the birth of their son (William Henry Green) W.T. Green jnr was described as a sawyer, not a lawyer, living at German Bay. W.T. Green jnr arrived with his father in 1839. He died at Palmerston North, aged 70, on 5 July 1908, and was buried by the Congregational Church. His occupation was then labourer.

Amelia Ann Willett was born about 1842 in London, and arrived in New Zealand about 1858. Her father’s name was Henry Willett, and her mother’s maiden name was Mary Ann Forman. Her father is described as ‘artist’. She also died in Palmerston North, aged 77 years, on 11 October 1919. She had seven children whose ages at the time of her death were: men, 56, 55 and 40 years, women, 54, 52, 45 and 41 years.

Yours faithfully,

M.W. Standish

Acting Chief Archivist (National Archives NZ)