The Immigrants, onboard ‘Mataura’ abeam of the Snares on passage from England to New Zealand, 1879

The year is 1879 and the ‘Mataura’ is rounding the Snares, 87 days after departing Gravesend, London, with an-other cargo of hopeful immigrants. She’s a full-rigged ship of 853 tons and the first NZ Shipping Co ship to be fitted with Harkin’s dry-air refrigerator.

Mataura will arrive in Port Chalmers on the 22nd September 1879. She is running before a strong South Westerly and shaping a course up the East coast of the South Island to Port Chalmers.

Snares Islands/Tini Heke, also known as The Snares, is a small group of uninhabited islands lying about 200 km south of New Zealand’s South Island and to the south-southwest of Stewart Island/Rakiura.