Writing and organising life at Te Waimate
1838–1917
Author
Church benefactor
Effie Studholme left something many nineteenth-century South Canterbury women did not: an account written in her own words.
She was born Ephgenia Maria Louisa Channon in London on 28 March 1838 and was known throughout her life as Effie. She came to New Zealand as a young woman and married Michael Studholme in April 1860. Soon afterwards, the couple travelled south to Te Waimate. (I have found various spellings of her name, including Ephgenia, Effegenia, Effiegenia and Iphigenia).
The surviving Cuddy had been constructed in 1854, before Effie arrived. Heritage New Zealand records that Michael built a larger timber homestead to coincide with their marriage. Effie therefore did not begin married life as the permanent resident of the Cuddy, although the building remained part of the station environment around her.
Effie and Michael had ten children. Their household also included relatives, a governess, three maids and frequent visitors. Her son Edgar later recalled that 17 family members and a governess could sit down to meals while three women worked in the kitchen. At major gatherings, the household might cater for 50 people. His account credits Effie’s hospitality, but it also makes clear that this work was collective and depended upon paid women whose names have not yet been recovered.
Contemporary evidence shows Effie participating beyond the household. At a Waimate community gathering in January 1869, the Timaru Herald reported that Mrs Studholme, assisted by other women and men, had taken considerable trouble to organise amusements and help make the day successful. This is modest but direct evidence of practical community organising.
Michael and Effie gave land for St Augustine’s Church, and in 1902 she presented its lychgate in memory of her husband and two sons.
Effie also recorded her experiences. Her privately circulated Reminiscences of 1860 described her marriage and journey south. Large portions were later incorporated into her son Edgar’s 1940 book, Te Waimate: Early Station Life in New Zealand. The National Library believes the digitised book has no known copyright.
After Michael’s death in 1886, Effie remained associated with Te Waimate during difficult financial years. Around 1910 she moved to Timaru, where she continued writing and made her home a gathering place for her family. She died in 1917. These details come principally through her son’s affectionate family history and should be compared with probate, property and contemporary records.
Effie’s story must also be placed within a longer history. Te Waimatemate was not empty country awaiting settlement. Te Huruhuru and other Waitaki Māori lived there, and Te Huruhuru led a community established beside the Waimate River before Michael Studholme selected land for a sheep run. Any fuller account of the station requires mana whenua perspectives and should not present pastoral occupation as the beginning of the place’s history.
Effie’s most securely demonstrated contribution lies in the household and community work she helped organise and in the memories she preserved. Her writing gives later readers a woman’s viewpoint on travel, marriage, domestic life and place, while also reminding us to look for the governesses, maids, relatives and Māori communities whom family histories often left at the edges.
Read the existing WuHoo story: The Cuddy. The Women. The Gifted Rose
Sources
Papers Past: Te Waimate: Early Station Life in New Zealand
Contains Edgar Studholme’s family history and substantial passages from Effie’s own Reminiscences of 1860. It supports her name, birth date, household, writing and later move to Timaru, while retaining the limitations of a son’s commemorative account.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga: The Cuddy
Supports the building chronology, Effie’s arrival as Michael’s wife, their ten children and the heritage status of the Cuddy.
Timaru Herald, 16 January 1869: Waimate
Provides contemporary evidence of Effie working with others to organise community amusements.
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: Te Huruhuru
Establishes the Māori community at Te Waimatemate and Te Huruhuru’s leadership before the Studholme station was established.