The Hovding and the Ballarat

Two ships are responsible for the settling of Norsewood in central Hawke’s Bay, the Ballarat and the Hovding.
But the man behind the settlers was Bror Eric Friberg.
Friberg was born in Kristianstad in Sweden on July 6, 1839, to Else Lundgren and Nils Erik Friberg.
He studied forestry and worked as a forestry officer in Scandinavia. He married Cäcilie Elisabeth (Cecilia Elizabeth) Böhme on January 31,1866 before they decided to come to New Zealand which was opening up forested areas for settlement.
They sailed from Hamburg in 1866 and arrived in Auckland where they had their first child. Friberg transferred to Napier where he managed the Hawke’s Bay Steam Boiling Down Company.
The Government wanted to make sections available and thought immigrants should be brought in to work the land.
Friberg offered his services to the Immigration and Public Works department as a recruiting officer.
Given that he spoke Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German and English, he was appointed and was sent to Europe. The recruitment of Norwegian settlers had already been arranged and he was prevented from recruiting settlers in Sweden
He eventually sailed for New Zealand from Christiana - now called Oslo - Norway on the three masted sailing ship Hovding with 292 adult immigrants- mostly from Norway. It arrived in Napier on September 15, 1872.
A few hours earlier Ballarat, with Danish immigrants, had arrived.
It was not as simple however as travelling to their new homes. It was a long hard slog to where Dannevirke and Norsewood would be - taking days.
And when the men arrived they found there was little in the way of sections cleared and they would have to do it themselves. They were given an area and some tools.
So they set to work. The women and children arrived 12 days later but there were no shelters and many slept and cooked outside.
While their homes were being built - the men also had to work for the government - clearing land for roads - for three or four days a week.
They also found they had to pay £5 for their passage to their new country, £40 for 40 acres of land and £1 for their trip to the newly forming town.
They were disillusioned and bitter about it, but worked hard. Of those that arrived 63 families settled in the Norsewood area. Friberg took several to what was to be Dannevirke.
A year after they arrived the Hovding returned with another bunch of immigrants.
He supported a petition for an extension of time for repaying their passage money.
Friberg himself had applied for three sections in the Makotuku settlement and later bought four more.
He was a hard worker, travelling on horseback across the area in all weather and it affected his health.
Friberg was naturalised on February 1, 1876, and made a justice of the peace.
But in 1877 his salary was reduced as part of a reduction in the immigration service. The next year he requested a leave of absence due to ill health but the reply to that came too late, he had died on February 3, 1878, in Norsewood aged only 38.
He is buried in the Norsewood Cemetery.
Norsewood, of course, has a Hovding St and gallery, named for the ship that started it all.​