my family arrived in wellington new zealand on the "bengal merchant" on the 20th febuary 1840 , from lanark near glasgow , they were MATHEW COOK, and WILLAM COOK , they were brothers and came with there wives and children . they first settled in petone and lower hutt area , later purchasing land in the pauatahanui ,judgeford area , a son of MATHEW COOK, THOMAS COOK owned a timber and packing case factory in petone , supplying the gear meat company with casks and boxes , he taught his brother WILLIAM COOK , about the business, and WILLIAM moved to palmerston north and started a large timber company , supplying butter boxes ,caskes and timber to the famers and brewery in the area .

HARRIET MCLELLAN COOK , daughter of MATHEW COOK , married JAMES CHARLES KELLY , a manager and buyer for the gear meat company petone ,JAMES KELLY purchased a large piece of land at tokomaru near palmerston north ,harriett and james moved to tokomaru and settled there , as their children married , james divided a section of his land off and gave it to them as a farm , as a wedding presant .

so far as i have found , most of my family settled in the greater wellington area .