64
Another difficulty was the mail service. If a letter was sent to Great Britain, and an answer received within a year, the event was regarded as a sort of record. It was customary to wait double that time for a reply. The reason was simple enough. In the first instance the letters were sent to Wellington, where they often lay for months before an opportunity presented itself to send them on to Sydney. At Sydney they had to wait probably for months again before being despatched in a ship sailing for London. The early ships coming to Wellington went to Sydney for a cargo for the return voyage. Failing there, they would sail for China or some Eastern port, where they would load for London. It may readily be conceived that relatives in the Old Country, as well as pioneers in the young, had many anxious months to wait in suspense for news.
In the middle of the “forties” the Greenwoods of Purau kept a whale boat expressly to go to Akaroa (which was at that time the principal postal town for Canterbury) to ascertain if any letters lay there for themselves or their neighbours. In the event of the weather being too rough for the boat, one of the Greenwoods would walk, a task
