Person:James Holland (37)

Emigrated on the same ship, The Persia, as his friend John Snaith, also from Leicester.

Worked as a bricklayer while living in immigrant barracks, 1860-1861.

In 1861 sailed to Dunedin and walked to the Tuapeka goldfields, nearly dying en route. James didn't find enough gold to compensate for the hardships of Central Otago, and was soon back in Auckland.

Conscripted for training in the colonial militia 6 June 1863.

In 1863 he and John Snaith each obtained land orders for adjoining plots of 40 acres at Awhitu, near Manukau Heads. Received Crown grants confirming their ownership in 1864. The Hollands never lived at Awhitu, nor probably did the Snaiths; and in 1866 both sold their Awhitu land for £21 each.

James fought in the Waikato War until 1865. In the 2nd Waikato Regiment he rose to the rank of Sergeant, then with No. 6 Company at Otahuhu and Drury he was made Orderly Sergeant and frequently sent to excort prisoners to Otahuhu. That he was never awarded the New Zealand Medal suggests that either he never came under fire, or he never applied for the medal, though his brother John received it.

James and John Holland and John Snaith easily found work after their military service, following an 1863 great fire in Queen Street, Auckland (John Holland was a decorator, John Snaith a carpenter).

James was a member of the Auckland Mechanics' Institute in 1863.

On Thursday 24 November 1864, in a triple marriage, James married Agnes Melvin McKenzie, daughter of Dr. Duncan McKenzie from Minerva Place, Glasgow; John Snaith married Isabella, Agnes' youngest sister; and John Holland married Annie Goode, youngest daughter of John Goode of Archdeacon Lane, Leicester.

By 1867 had managed to finance the purchase of premises for his builders trade, in Wellington St overlooking Freemans Bay — estimated worth £280. Perhaps the family lived above the office, because this address was given when Agnes Helen McKenzie was born in Oct 1865, and John Edward McKenzie in April 1867.

Elected Mayor of Auckland 1893, and held the office for three years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Dr. Patricia Whitmore. Four Founding Families: Holland, Lusher, McKenzie, Woodward. (Privately published 1996).