Alfred Ludlam - Life in New Zealand

Life in New Zealand

Alfred Ludlam was aged 30 when he arrived at Wellington on New Zealand's North Island on 12 December 1840 from Gravesend in England. He is listed as a "cabin passenger" aboard the 700-ton emigrant vessel London, which sailed under the auspices of the New Zealand Company. (The company had been formed in London the previous year with the purpose of promoting the orderly colonisation of New Zealand by British settlers.) He prospered in his new homeland, proving to be an energetic, intelligent and highly capable settler who proceeded to play an active role in the Wellington region's civic and cultural life. He also assisted the Lower Hutt militia during the New Zealand land wars, which pitted the British colonists against the indigenous Māori tribes. He served in the militia as Captain Ludlam from July 1860 onwards.

In 1853 voters chose Ludlam and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the former director of the New Zealand Company, to represent the electorate of Hutt in New Zealand's 1st Parliament, which opened in Wellington on 24 May the following year. Ludlam would also be elected as a member of the 2nd Parliament and the 4th Parliament, representing Hutt in 1853–55 (resigned 9 July), 1855–56 (resigned 16 August) and 1866–70 (retired). He resigned his seat before the conclusion of both the 1st and 2nd Parliaments.

In addition, Ludlam represented the Hutt area on the Wellington Provincial Council in 1853–56 and again in 1866–70. Throughout his career in politics, Ludlam was renowned for his frankness, honesty and hard work. His propensity for straight-talking inhibited his ability to be a deft political operator but it did earn him the respect of his parliamentary colleagues and his constituents. He was nicknamed "Old Bricks" because of his solid, reliable character and stern appearance. Taller than average in height, he sported mutton-chop whiskers and a monocle during his time in public life.

During the 1850s and 60s, Ludlam's political and social activities brought him into occasional contact with the uncle of his wife—the English-born baronet and former Barbados sugar planter Sir Samuel Osborne-Gibbes. Sir Samuel (1803–1874) was a prominent Freemason and a landed proprietor at Whangarei, on the upper extremity of New Zealand's North Island. He was a Legislative Councillor from 1855 to 1863, impressing Ludlam with the strength of his belief in noblesse oblige community service and his advocacy of high ethical standards.

Ludlam was a notable landed proprietor. His holdings included real estate in Ghuznee Street, Wellington (town sections 169 and 171), and he owned a substantial riverside farm at Waiwhetū, Lower Hutt, where he ran flocks of sheep and developed a reputation as an expert in horticulture. He had purchased the Waiwhetū farm from fellow pioneer Francis Molesworth in the mid-1840s, calling it Newry after his home town in Ireland. Ludlam built a large house at Newry in 1848, replacing the farm's first homestead. The farm also boasted an orchard, a spacious barn often used for public functions (such as an official dinner held there for the governor, Sir George Grey, in 1851) and a stone windmill that had been erected by Molesworth in 1845.

In 1860, Ludlam imported the first Romney Marsh sheep from England into New Zealand, instituting a successful ovine breeding program at a purpose-built stud at Newry. (His brother-in-law, Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes, conducted a similar Romney Marsh breeding program at his Australian sheep property, Yarralumla (now the site of Australia's Government House in Canberra), during this same period). Ludlam also opened a beautiful landscaped garden at Newry in 1868. He called it The Gums as a tribute to Australia's native eucalyptus trees, which he had studied. (After Ludlam's death the area was renamed McNabb's Gardens and later converted into the Bellevue Pleasure Gardens.)

Ludlam supported the Wellington Colonial Museum and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Wellington Botanic Garden in 1869, having introduced into the New Zealand Parliament legislation to "establish and regulate" the garden. He also introduced an act of parliament which entrusted management of the Botanic Garden to the New Zealand Institute (forerunner of the Royal Society of New Zealand). His contribution to the garden's establishment is commemorated on the 77-acre (310,000 m2) site by the pedestrian thoroughfare known as Ludlam Way.

A year after the Botanic Garden was established by means of a Crown Grant (dated 22 November 1869), Ludlam acted as a pallbearer at the funeral in Wellington of the Māori chief Honiana Te Puni, after whom the Lower Hutt suburb of Epuni is named.