New Zealand
The Simeon family with five children, a housekeeper, a governess, a lady's maid, a housemaid, a nurse, a cook and a footman left England from the East India Docks on 18 June 1851 on the ship Canterbury and arrived on 21 October in Lyttelton. Lyttelton inhabitants were amazed about the size of the party. The children and servants were put up at the Mitre in Lyttelton at a cost of £4 10s per day until he had found a town house to rent on the Bridle Path. He bought town section 102 in Lyttelton's Coleridge Street (today Coleridge Terrace), not far from the rented house, and built a substantial house with eight rooms near where the Bridle Path goes over the hill to Christchurch. This latter house is still standing and is registered as a Category II historic place by Heritage New Zealand.
Within weeks of his arrival, Godley resigned as resident magistrate and the role was conferred to Simeon by the Governor of New Zealand, George Grey, with whom he met. In this role, he commissioned a lock-up in Christchurch, which was built by Isaac Luck in the Market Place. On behalf of the Canterbury Association, he brought 1,500 books to Canterbury, which were to be given to the colony's college.
Simeon also took on the role of representative of the Canterbury Association from Godley. He resigned from that position in July 1853, when some functions of the Association were transferred to Guise Brittan as the region's land agent, and other functions to Henry Sewell, who had arrived from England.
Late in December 1851, Simeon put his name forward to be elected onto the Council of the Society of Land Purchasers, but Guise Brittan, the council's chairman, announced that the role was incompatible with that of a Resident Magistrate, and Simeon therefore withdrew his name. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Visiting Justice of the Gaol at Lyttelton.
Simeon chose 500 acres (2.0 km2) of land and had frontages with the road leading to the Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River and the road leading from Christchurch to Halswell. The land was numbered in the order of it having been chosen, and his land was thus known as Rural Section 154. He also owned town properties in Armagh, Gloucester, Manchester and Madras Streets.
Like other wealthy colonists, Simeon participated in horse races, which were held in Hagley Park. He also played cricket.
He joined the church building committee for Lyttelton's first church, the Holy Trinity Church that was to be the disastrous start to Benjamin Mountfort's career in New Zealand. He is one of the four original Church Property Trustees of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch; the others were Henry Jacobs, Octavius Mathias (the first vicar of the Church of St Michael and All Angels), and Conway L. Rose. The Anglican Church Property Trustees still exist today and are regulated by the Anglican (Diocese of Christchurch) Church Property Trust Act 2003.
Together with Godley, he was on the Road Committee that was to progress the Sumner Road (the road from Lyttelton to Christchurch via Evans Pass and Sumner).
Simeon was the returning officer for many of the early elections held in Canterbury. When it came to the election of the first Superintendent for the Canterbury Province, Simeon made the controversial decision of allowing Colonel James Campbell to stand for election, but declaring that should he be elected, he would not allow the election as Campbell was not on the Akaroa roll. In November 1852, Simeon announced his intention to stand in the first election for the New Zealand Parliament. In June 1853, he advertised that he had changed his mind, as his role as Resident Magistrate kept him too busy that he could leave the region for long periods attending Parliament in Auckland, and that he would stand for election in the Christchurch Country electorate for the Canterbury Provincial Council instead. He received the power from the Governor to appoint a deputy returning officer in case he wanted to stand in one of the elections himself. Five candidates stood for the four positions, and Simeon was at the top of the poll with 158 votes; the other successful candidates were Henry Tancred (154 votes), John Hall (151 votes), and Charles Bowen (132 votes). Simeon was the first Speaker of the Provincial Council from September 1853 to April 1855; he was succeeded in that role by Charles Bowen. He was a member of the Canterbury Executive Council from October 1853 to October 1854 and was the first Provincial Treasurer. During a day of low attendance in October 1854, Richard Packer secured a suspension of the council's standing orders, which allowed him to have the first two readings of a bill to enlarge the council's membership by 12 additional members passed. Whilst there was justification for such a measure due to the long session lengths, the Executive Council consisting of Henry Tancred, Henry Godfrey Gouland, Simeon, and William John Warburton Hamilton regarded the matter as a vote of no confidence and resigned. Simeon was a provincial councillor until his resignation on 5 September 1855 in preparation for returning to England. The resulting by-election was contested by three candidates and won by James Henry Moore.
Simeon chaired a large number of meetings in early colonial Christchurch and Lyttelton. He was a good, forceful speaker and could be entertaining.
Simeon was a Freemason. When Christchurch's St Augustine Lodge was inaugurated in October 1853, he acted as the secretary for the lodge. He entered various home grown vegetables to the December 1853 Horticultural Exhibition and received first prize for his broad beans, and came second with peas, potatoes, and lettuces.
The Simeons left Lyttelton on the Maori on 8 December 1855. There were no plans to return; their furniture was sold by auction a week later. Their departure was much regretted by Henry and Elizabeth Sewell, as the Simeons were the only people with whom they had engaged socially.
