The Hon. William Mouat Bolt , M.L.C., was born in 1838 at Lerwick, in the Shetland Isles, and was educated at the parish school of Sandness. During his early years he assisted his father, the village blacksmith, in the smithy, and in the management of a small croft..
In 1855 Mr. Bolt - then seventeen years of age - went to Liverpool, where he shipped on a vessel chartered by the English Government for carrying troops to the Crimea. Mr. Bolt made two trips to Balaclava in this service, and subsequently passed about six years in voyages to New York, Melbourne, La Plata, Uruguay, Arkhangelsk, Russia and the Faroe Isle, coming to New Zealand in the ship “Nelson” in 1863.
Soon after settling in Dunedin, he was engaged by Messrs. Bing, Harris and Co. as a storeman, and continued in the firm's service for nearly thirty years, when he was called by the Ballance Government to a seat in the Legislative Council.
Shortly after his arrival in the colony he allied himself with the Democratic Party. He took a prominent part in the Free thought movement, acting as secretary of the first association. For years he held this position, alternately with that of vice president. Mr. Bolt was a member of the Dunedin Schools Committee for four years, part of which time he was chairman, and was at the same time actively engaged in connection with the first trade’s council, of which he became
vice-president.
In 1855 Mr. Bolt - then seventeen years of age - went to Liverpool, where he shipped on a vessel chartered by the English Government for carrying troops to the Crimea. Mr. Bolt made two trips to Balaclava in this service, and subsequently passed about six years in voyages to New York, Melbourne, La Plata, Uruguay, Arkhangelsk, Russia and the Faroe Isle, coming to New Zealand in the ship “Nelson” in 1863.
Soon after settling in Dunedin, he was engaged by Messrs. Bing, Harris and Co. as a storeman, and continued in the firm's service for nearly thirty years, when he was called by the Ballance Government to a seat in the Legislative Council.
Shortly after his arrival in the colony he allied himself with the Democratic Party. He took a prominent part in the Free thought movement, acting as secretary of the first association. For years he held this position, alternately with that of vice president. Mr. Bolt was a member of the Dunedin Schools Committee for four years, part of which time he was chairman, and was at the same time actively engaged in connection with the first trade’s council, of which he became
vice-president.
In 1880 Mr. Bolt propounded a scheme of co-operative settlement—on which he has lectured in various parts of the Colony; and in his place in the Legislative Council, to which he was called in 1892, he introduced a series of resolution dealing with the subject, and these were endorsed by most of the labour associations in the Colony. Mr. Bolt has published essays on “The Social and Religious conditions of Europe a century ago,” “Land and Labour,” “Industrial Settlements,” and other subjects. His political ideal is the gradual advance of the people in their collective capacity; that is, by means of general industrial co-operation. Mr. Bolt's father, Francis Bolt died in New Zealand at the advanced age of ninety-three. Mr. Bolt was married in 1861 to a daughter of Captain F. Lawson, of Lerwick, and has, surviving, five sons and three daughters.
Below is a copy of a letter my 3x great grandfather received from his nephew William M Bolt
Lower York Place
DUNEDIN.
20th March 1891.
DUNEDIN.
20th March 1891.
Dear Cousin Archie, As you may suppose I was both surprised and pleased to receive a letter from you. It is not often that men who have travelled as you and I have done have an opportunity to communicate after 38 years of separation. It is true I got a little intelligence of you now and again. Father told me of your visit to Shetland and for this last 6 or 7 years we have been corresponding with your sister Ann - now Mrs. Bray - in Australia. Reports like these however cannot take the place of a letter and I was indeed glad to receive a note from you.
I see by your note you are in Constantinople and that you are on your way home from the Black Sea. If you remember it was up the Black Sea I made my first trip after leaving Sandness and after drifting about the World for some years I at length stranded on the coast of New Zealand in the year I think of 1863. About 3 months after arrival I got a situation in a Wholesale Drapery House I have stuck in that place ever since. The 'House' consisted of two small rooms it is now one of the largest in the Colony - I have seen the Colony pass from the stage bordering on its infancy when it was comparatively a small body of Europeans barely able to hold their homes against a fierce and warlock savage race until now it has magnificent cities and Harbours along its coast and over 700 miles of State railways running through the land. Dunedin is changed from being an insignificant village to a beautiful and substantially built city, and my family - I bet you - have grown from one to nine - I am not counting Grandchildren. Do you know the reason why? because I have not got any.
Not with standing all these changes my life has rather been a monotonous one and I would give anything to take a six month trip with you just to see something once more outside of Dunedin - I assure you I am quite able for it. I am still in a stage of excellent preservation. A splendid climate and a super abundance of the products of the Colony so far as eating and drinking are concerned have kept me in good form. The same causes have no doubt assisted to keep my father in wonderful good health and strength considering his advanced age - He married, as perhaps you may have heard, for the third time - some years after he came to the colony and is now living about 20 miles from here with his wife's son by a former marriage who happens at the same time to be my wife's brother in law - no I am wrong as I always am when speaking of relationships, he is not her brother in law but half-brother both from the same father but not from the same mother - the mother of George Lawson my wife's half-brother is now married to my father. As I have no wish to grow a headache or give you one I shall now leave this complicated web of relationships alone - The names of my own children are Fred (this is a child of about 30 years of age) Helen, Frank, John, Willie, Issabella, Herbert Spencer Bruce and Roberta Stout - A little girl named after Sir Robert Stout an old Lerwick boy who has been a close friend and neighbour of mine during the whole of my stay in Dunedin. EMPLOYMENT Fred is in the Drapery, Helen at home, Frank in the Government Life Assurance Department, John in the Corporation offices Dunedin, Willie in the Drapery, Isabella just started dressmaking, the others at school.
I have nothing further to add at the present time. Along with this I send you a couple of papers - I need hardly say if the bow of your vessel should happens to come near to a New Zealand rock I shall gladly jump aboard I hope in any case you will not omit writing.
With kind regards to yourself, your wife and family.
I see by your note you are in Constantinople and that you are on your way home from the Black Sea. If you remember it was up the Black Sea I made my first trip after leaving Sandness and after drifting about the World for some years I at length stranded on the coast of New Zealand in the year I think of 1863. About 3 months after arrival I got a situation in a Wholesale Drapery House I have stuck in that place ever since. The 'House' consisted of two small rooms it is now one of the largest in the Colony - I have seen the Colony pass from the stage bordering on its infancy when it was comparatively a small body of Europeans barely able to hold their homes against a fierce and warlock savage race until now it has magnificent cities and Harbours along its coast and over 700 miles of State railways running through the land. Dunedin is changed from being an insignificant village to a beautiful and substantially built city, and my family - I bet you - have grown from one to nine - I am not counting Grandchildren. Do you know the reason why? because I have not got any.
Not with standing all these changes my life has rather been a monotonous one and I would give anything to take a six month trip with you just to see something once more outside of Dunedin - I assure you I am quite able for it. I am still in a stage of excellent preservation. A splendid climate and a super abundance of the products of the Colony so far as eating and drinking are concerned have kept me in good form. The same causes have no doubt assisted to keep my father in wonderful good health and strength considering his advanced age - He married, as perhaps you may have heard, for the third time - some years after he came to the colony and is now living about 20 miles from here with his wife's son by a former marriage who happens at the same time to be my wife's brother in law - no I am wrong as I always am when speaking of relationships, he is not her brother in law but half-brother both from the same father but not from the same mother - the mother of George Lawson my wife's half-brother is now married to my father. As I have no wish to grow a headache or give you one I shall now leave this complicated web of relationships alone - The names of my own children are Fred (this is a child of about 30 years of age) Helen, Frank, John, Willie, Issabella, Herbert Spencer Bruce and Roberta Stout - A little girl named after Sir Robert Stout an old Lerwick boy who has been a close friend and neighbour of mine during the whole of my stay in Dunedin. EMPLOYMENT Fred is in the Drapery, Helen at home, Frank in the Government Life Assurance Department, John in the Corporation offices Dunedin, Willie in the Drapery, Isabella just started dressmaking, the others at school.
I have nothing further to add at the present time. Along with this I send you a couple of papers - I need hardly say if the bow of your vessel should happens to come near to a New Zealand rock I shall gladly jump aboard I hope in any case you will not omit writing.
With kind regards to yourself, your wife and family.
W M Bolt