MOSLEY, WILLIAM ALFRED (1817-1889), one of the earliest permanent settlers at the mouth of the Molyneux River in Otago, was born at Radford, the son of a Nottingham silk-lace manufacturer. He received his early education in Nottingham, but owing to the death of his father had to start early to earn a living. He married (1842) Mary, daughter of the Rev John Housley, a Wesleyan minister, and shortly afterwards they went to the United States. Returning to England, Mosley with his wife and daughters sailed for Otago in the John Wickliffe (Nov 1847). He at once took up a section on the beach at Kaka Point, Port Molyneux, but resided first at Halfway Bush in a house of slabs and saplings thatched with rough grass. The section had to be dug over with the spade. In 1852 Mosley chartered the schooner Endeavour (Captain Sinclair) to take his possessions to the Molyneux. The weather was so rough that the captain stood off the shore for 28 days. Mosley was then taken off by Maori boatmen and the Endeavour returned to Dunedin. Mosley returned on foot to Dunedin, and sledged his family to their new home. Heavy rain compelled him to halt and erect his tent on the slopes of a hill overlooking Tokomairiro, which he named Mount Misery. For the first year at the Molyneux they were largely dependent on the hospitality of the Maori, who provided them with pigeons, kakas, and potatoes. Mosley planted half an acre with wheat at Kaka Point, preparing the ground with spade and hoe. He engaged some natives to help bring the Endeavour from Dunedin. When they brought her into Willsher Bay, the first to swim out to her was the chieftainess Makaredie, who years earlier had saved the life of Willsher by throwing her mat over him.

Though the year 1852-53 was spent at Kaka Point, Mosley had already decided to make his permanent home on Inch Clutha, where he took up one 50-acre block of land at once, and others from time to time. He engaged a Maori to help him to clear a site and build the new house, to which they paddled up the river in a canoe. The house was built with totara slabs split with an axe and thatched with rushes. The first patch of wheat (of the Golden Drop variety) yielded 60 bushels to the acre. It threshed easily with the flail, and brought 12s per bushel. Mosley ground what he needed in a steel mill. Next year the ground was turned over with a single-furrow plough obtained from James Macandrew and drawn by two bullocks. In the early years Mosley made a practice of breaking in bullocks to harness, and he had a ready market for them at £75 to £95 per pair. The first cattle he purchased from John Jones, and the first horses were acquired in 1862.

Mosley took an early part in public life, but his remoteness from settlement when he went to the Molyneux prevented him from continuing. Before going south, he helped promote the counter-petition objecting to the prayer of the Presbyterian settlers that one-tenth of the lands should be set aside as an endowment for the Presbyterian church. The failure of the original petition left the petitioners in ill-humour, but Mosley lived to see the unpopularity of the 'Little Enemy' die out, and one of their number become Superintendent. In 1867 he was elected to represent Matau in the Provincial Council, in which he sat for three years. He was chairman in later years of the Inch Clutha river board, and was instrumental in inaugurating the first drainage scheme on the island.

Mosley's first wife died at Inch Clutha (1865). He married again (1868) Adelaide (d. 1927), daughter of George Jones, solicitor, of Croydon, Surrey. He died at Ravensbourne on 23 Oct 1889.

Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Otago Daily Times, 24 Oct 1889, 10 Oct 1930 (p).

Reference: Volume 2, page 55

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