Joseph W. Mellor to Emma Bakes

6 March, 1898

Mellor Papers, Box 10, folder 9

Unpublished

Both Joseph Mellor and Emma Bakes were part of the Mornington Wesleyan congregation, in Dunedin: Joseph, secretary of the Bible Class; Emma organist. Mellor was appointed to teach ‘natural sciences’ at Lincoln Agricultural College in 1898 and this caused the two to correspond regularly. In this letter of March 1898, Mellor reports to his ‘lassie’ his attendance at Bible classes, his current reading, and his strolls to a nearby orchard. He also hints at the unruly nature of classes: ‘Strict discipline can never be maintained in the lecture room where it is not enforced in the intervals’ and ‘There is a code of rules openly violated by everyone…’. Emma and Joseph married the following year.