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selection - 'Jl Balding on north and B Piffero on the south' - and covered about 65 acres.
The form was witnessed in Echuca by a JP, Walter Moore, at 12 noon on 16 October 1875.
The survey was not carried out, however, until 15 January 1876, when the Authorised
Surveyor, Robert Nankivell junior, as he certified on the neat plan he penned, 'used a
Theodolite and a Chain in accurate adjustment.' The plan was based on his field notes and
carefully drawn and signed on 8 February. It described William's new selection as 'Open Plain -
Clay Soil' and now quantified it as being 51 acres 1 rood 39 perches.
The application was considered and approved by the Local Land Board on 23 February, and
on 23 March William's original form was returned to him, the acreage duly emended, with a
request from the Melbourne office (Occupation Branch) that he reapply.
A disapproving note was added in the margin of this letter - 'You have crossed out (why?) his
answers, one of which was that he used his other 228 acres for 'cultivation & grazing &
residing.' In answer to Question 4, he said he had '12 acres under cultivation' and that he had
'built a house' and had 'all the land fenced in.'
What is odd, apart from the evident deterioration of William's handwriting and sense of
purpose, is the fact that although the form was witnessed again by Walter Moore, JP, on 3 April
76, the bottom section, dealing with the actual size and description of the applied-for acreage
was not completed. Nonetheless, the 'authority to occupy' was approved on 1 May and the
license issued on 3 June 1876.
But this was now of no concern to William. He died the following day.
He had been ill for a fortnight. Probably a winter cold, or a feverish chill brought on by wet
clothes soaked in a rainstorm, developed into the pneumonia that caused his death. He was 79.
His death certificate says he was a farmer and died 'near Wharparilla, Shire of Echuca, County
Gunbower.' He was last seen by the local doctor, Henry O'Hara, on 29 May. The informant on
the death certificate is given as his son-in-law, 'LC Mountjoy', who was apparently unaware of
the names of William's parents, for that section of the certificate says 'Not Known'. This strongly
suggests that Jane was in Geelong when her father died. For she would have known her
grandparents' names. Not to mention that of her mother. Again 'Not Known, Not Known, Not
Known' is written in the column concerning the deceased's marriage - where, at what age, and
to whom.
127
Jane would also have had a better idea of the ages of her brothers and sisters. They are all listed
(apart from Mary Ann) - Elizabeth, dead; Jane 50 years; William 48; Richard 40; Elizabeth 36;
Henry, dead; Martha 30; John 28. The first two ages are correct. But Richard was really 47,
Elizabeth was 38, Martha 36, and John 34 that month. Lawrence remembered, however, that
William was born in "Calstock, Cornwall, England,' and that his father-in-law had been 25 years
in Victoria.
A Wesleyan minister, the Rev Dodgson, conducted the funeral service, and William
Honeycombe was buried in the general cemetery at Echuca on 6 June 1876, far from the graves
of his ancestors. In time a modest stone, with a triangular carved top like the pediment of a pew,
was erected over his resting-place and was boxed in by an iron railing. The motto on it says: His
End Was Peace.
The stone tilts now, as if William lay uneasily beneath, not wanting to lie in Echuca, wishing
instead to be at rest in his native land.
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