Ever thought about where sparrows came from?
Those little birds are quite literally everywhere, but they are not native to New Zealand. In fact, they were deliberately introduced by one very determined man who thought they would be the answer to New Zealand’s burgeoning pest control problem. As New Zealand land was converted into crops, farmers struck problems. There were too many bugs and not enough birds to eat them. A lot of native birds eat seeds rather than concentrating on bugs and crops were being lost. Politician Walter Brodie thought that because sparrows ate bugs overseas, why wouldn’t they do that here? It seemed a bit short sighted. While newspapers here were reporting on Brodie’s efforts, papers in places like England were saying there was a bounty on sparrows (and their eggs) to rid themselves of the pest. Brodie however, opted to organise an importation of sparrows. In 1859, 300 of them were put aboard the Swordfish bound for New Zealand. Brodie said they were from the “finest hedge rows.” But none of them survived the journey. Brodie was not deterred. After all he was already the man who had successfully introduced English pheasants into the country. In 1862, newspapers reported 43 of the little birds had arrived. Their fate is not known It was a misguided idea - naturalist Thomas Kirk had calculated that one pair of sparrows could become over 300,000 in five years. That means over six million in five years! Then Captain Alfred Stevens of the Matoaka brought out English song birds for the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. On January 10, 1867 he arrived with a large number of starlings, larks, blackbirds, thrushes, pheasants, and partridges. He followed this in 1868 with twelve pairs of thrushes, 77 pairs of blackbirds, 22 house sparrows, 7 redpoles, 1 yellow-hammer, 1 pair bramble finches, and 1 robin. His third and final shipment was in 1869. (no we don’t know why anyone would bring in one of a species). By 1879, the house sparrows were being described as a pest and shortly after there there were sparrow shooting clubs. The Matoaka made eight trips to New Zealand. With her first arrival in 1859 she was the largest ship ever to make the trip. Her cargo - along with birds - were passengers and often gold. On her final trip between London and Lyttelton suffragist Kate Shepherd and her family were among the passengers. In May1869, the ship began the return run. On board were 44 passengers and £50,000 in gold. A few days later the ship went missing and was never heard from again. Captain Stevens - along with his crew and passengers - were lost at sea. Photo by Saad Chaudhry.
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Ever been parched for a cuppa?
Well it was a Kiwi that invented a device that took off so much that it became standard Army equipment and is even still used today. The thermette is a cone-shaped chimney surrounded by a water jacket. At the bottom is open for a small fire, causing the air flow to make the fire burn more fiercely and heat the water quickly. It is so efficient it could boil enough water for 12 cups of coffee in only a few minutes. And the fire could be fueled by anything including old rubbish - which made it a very attractive prospect for anyone wanting hot water outdoors. It was designed and patented by John Ahsley Hart in Palmerston North. Hart was born on June 25, 1887 in London to John and Florence who brought their family to New Zealand in 1902 where John Snr worked as an electrical engineer John Jnr followed in his footsteps. In 1914, he enlisted with the Auckland sixth company infantry regiment. He was pensioned home after being injured in Gallipoli and France. After the war he worked around Manawatu as an electrical goods salesman before going to Auckland where he started his own company and married Martha Pieterson. It was in 1929 Hart invented the thermette, sometimes called a picnic kettle. So efficient is it that the design has never needed to be improved upon. He first sold them in blue, green and orange tin or in tinned copper in 1931 and they were popular with people working outside, on roads and with postal workers far from an office. At the start of World War Two he was approached by the Army who asked him to waive the patent to allow them to include it as standard kit for their men. He agreed and the clever little device began its international journey. The thermette left little round scorch marks on the ground - confusing German troops all over North Africa - but became a sure sign that Kiwi troops had been there. It became so popular that it was used everywhere by United Nations forces. At home, the thermette was a part of a recommended emergency kit during the war in case of power cuts, blackouts and possible evacuation. You can still buy them today from camping stores. It was by no means the only invention Hart made. He registered 32 others but none have the legacy the thermette does. John Hart died on November 12, 1964 and the family legend saying he passed having a cup of tea at the dining room table after helping to paint the garage door, still thinking. He is buried at Purewa Cemetery. William Travers had quite a life, soldier, politician, naturalist but it was as a lawyer that one of the weirdest cases he dealt with came to court.
It all began with a headless sheep. Michael Shannon and James Whiting were charged with stealing a sheep and both pleaded not guilty. They went to trial in the Supreme Court in Nelson in January 1860. Butcher Alexander Scott had gone to Shannon’s home to see Whiting standing over a headless sheep with a knife in his hand. He commented on it and Whiting told him if he could prove it was his, they would pay him for it. Both men were drunk. Later the same day he was shown a sheep’s head with the facebrand and earmark the same as one he had recently bought from a man called Fearon. Another witness said she had seen the same sheep in a river earlier with two dogs that belonged to Whiting and Shannon, barking at the sheep. Later the head was found in the water. Constable Edward Mytton said he found the head and took it into custody. Shannon and Whiting claimed they had come upon the sheep and that it did not have a head when they did. The problem was there was no evidence that the two men had actually stolen it and seeing as it could not be identified as the exactly same sheep, the two men were found not guilty. What happened to the sheep is not recorded. William Thomas Locke Travers was born in January 1819 in Limerick, Ireland. He was brought up in France and joined the British Foreign Legion. After the Spanish revolution he went to London to study law. He married Jane Oldham in 1843, then in 1849 they and their two children headed for New Zealand. Travers began practising law and became a resident magistrate and tried his hand at a political career as a member of the House of Representatives. It never amounted to much and it was in naturalism that he made a mark, exploring the Nelson region. He found the source of the Waiau River and named several others along with Mt Travers and the Travers range. He collected as he went, and plant specimens are held in the national museum. Travers drafted the legislation establishing the Botanic Gardens in Wellington and was a member of the board for 22 years. His first wife Jane died in 1888, and on 9 April 1891 Travers married Theodosia Leslie Barclay at St Peter's Church, Wellington. Travers was one of the first shareholders of the Wellington Gas Company, the Wellington City Steam Tramways Company and the Wellington and Manawatū Railway Company. It turned out to be a horrible irony. On April 27, 1903 he was getting off a train at the Hutt railway station when he fell, ending up between the platform and the train. He suffered serious head injuries and with a badly broken leg that had to be amputated. He died shortly after aged 84. Travers is buried in the Bolton Street Cemetery. William Smith stood in the untamed bush of the Tararua ranges and looked up. He could hear birds. It was three huia - the last confirmed sighting of the now extinct bird.
Huia - a gorgeous native with beautiful beaks - were already extremely rare. Considered sacred to Maori, their white tipped feathers were only worn by those of the highest status. By the time Europeans arrived in New Zealand, the bird was already in decline. Their habitat was destroyed, introduced species were taking their tolls and they were also hunted. Introduced rats plundered them, reducing their range to the southern end of the North Island. Massive deforestation was taking place as land was cleared and huia could only like where there was old forest resulting in rotted trees which they used to hunt wood grubs. Huia were particularly vulnerable because it spent so much time on the ground. It’s beauty meant it was also sought after by collectors - and not alive. There are a great many in natural history museums overseas. In 1892, the Wild Birds Protection Act was put into place to protect native species but little enforcement took place. It was December 1907 when Smith saw the huia. A few unconfirmed sightings have been made since then. William Walter Smith was born on September 14, 1852, in Scotland, the son of Ellen and Thomas Smith. He started work at 13 as an apprentice to a gardener and worked his way up through a succession of English country homes. In 1975 he came to New Zealand and was employed at Mt Peel station in Canterbury, marrying Mary Foreman in 1880. Smith was often employed as a gardener but it was not the most stable of livings. It was his rambling about that saw him pick up a habit of picking up and collecting native plants, birds, ants and earthworms along with moa bones. While working at the Albury estate near Timaru he discovered the last few specimens of the rare laughing owl or whēkau named for its mischievous sounding call. He began sending notes on natural history to journals. Smith became resident custodian of the Ashburton Domain, laying out the gardens and became prominent in horticultural societies. It was during this time he challenged the generally held belief that colonialism would drive native species extinct. He thought the native birds and bush were worth preserving. It was this that led him to being appointed to a commission for preservation, travelling to scenic and historic sites and making recommendations for their preservation However their expenses led to unfavourable comments and the commission was replaced wholesale by people who would do what they were told. By now he was living separately from his wife and became curator of reserves for the Palmerston North Borough Council but resigned after an argument with the mayor going on to be curator of Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. It was here he even successfully bred kiwi. He resigned in 1920 but was unable to get another position and applied for the old age pension. It just covered his board at a lodging house. Smith died on March 3, 1942 and is buried at Te Henui Cemetery. Picture from Te Papa’s collection. Was one of the most prominent New Zealanders of his time killed by a shark in Manukau Harbour?
William Cornwallis Symonds was a British army captain who became instrumental in the founding in Auckland and whose family name lives on across our biggest city. But there is a bit of a mystery about his death in 1841 during a boating accident in Manukau Harbour while he and four others were on a mercy mission. Symonds was born in Hampshire, England on August 1, 1810, to William and Elizabeth Symonds. His father was Surveyor of the Navy and a prominent member of the New Zealand Association, formed to promote the colonisation of the new country. Symonds joined the army and rose to the rank of captain. He came to New Zealand in the 1830’s, helped found Auckland and was at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. One of William Hobson, the first governor of New Zealand’s closest officers, he was one of the first six police magistrates of the country. It was Symonds who convinced Hobson that Auckland should be the capital of the country. He became the Chief Magistrate as well as deputy Surveyor-General and helped set the layout of Auckland. After a failed attempt to develop a section of coast along the Waitakere Ranges he and naturalist Ernst Dieffenbach began a survey of the North Island in early 1841. Dieffenbach - whose tendencies to argue with the New Zealand Company which employed him eventually saw him kicked out of the country - spent a great deal of time with Symonds exploring the central portion of the North Island. On his return, Symonds was appointed to the original governing body, the Legislative Council. In November Symonds and four other men headed across the Manukau Harbour to the Āwhitu Peninsula to take supplies to James Hamlin - a pioneering missionary whose wife was unwell. Symonds had heard of the illness and set out on the Brilliant to take medicines to her. Along with the others he took the ship’s longboat to head to shore but a sudden squall swamped the boat about a mile from shore. Symonds was considered a strong swimmer and he immediately struck out for the shore. He swam for over an hour, but encumbered by a heavy coat and boots, he went under. At no point was there a mention of a shark. But in a letter Dieffenbach wrote that Symonds was near the shore when a shark grabbed him and dragged him under. It’s hard to know if this is correct. There was no one nearby and of the men on the boat, two seamen, a Scottish settler called Adams and a Māori man, only the Māori survived who may have seen what actually happened. Dieffenbach was well regarded by the Māoriand he may have heard more than was in the scant official records. Symonds, of course does not have a grave although ironically Symonds Street Cemetery and Symonds St itself are named after him. Symonds Street in Onehunga is named after his brother. Picture by Francesco Califano. Ada and Will met on the Runic, a White Star liner going from Sydney to Europe in 1903.
Ada was a 29-year-old school teacher from New Zealand, beautiful, lively and Will was a second officer - handsome with a distinguished moustache. They began corresponding - love letters - that spanned several years and thousands of miles - and ended up marrying on September 7, 1907 in Southampton, living in Portswood. He was 34 and she was 33, late in life for people to marry back then. They had five years together before Will’s death. Ada Florence Banks had been born on December 28, 1873, in Christchurch to James Banks and Mary Ann Cook. Ada grew up in a politically progressive family, and she, along with her mother and sisters, signed the petition for women’s suffrage. William - usually called Will - McMaster Murdoch had been born in Scotland on February 28, 1873 to Samuel Murdoch and Jeannie McMaster. Like his father and grandfather before him he went to sea. He was apprenticed but was so competent after only four years that he gained his second mate’s certificate on the first go. A member of the Royal Naval Reserve, he became employed by the White Star line in 1900. He had quite a number of ships under his belt, the Medic, the Runic, the Arabic, the Celtic, the Germanic, Oceanic, the Cedric, the Adriatic and the Olympic. Like many seamen he had been in his share of incidents, a near miss with another ship on the Adriatic and a collision between the Olympic and a navy cruiser. On April 8, 1912 Ada visited Murdoch on his latest ship, marvelling at the size and magnificence. Murdoch had been appointed a first officer on the Titanic. Murdoch was on the bridge of the ship as it hit the iceberg. His body has never been recovered. Although pictures of him show his moustache, he had very recently shaved it off, apparently at Ada’s request. Devastated by his loss, Ada went to stay in Brittany while their Southampton home was sold. She was forced back to London by the start of the first World war where she lived until 1918 when she returned to Christchurch. Ada never remarried and remained bitter toward the White Star line who treated her badly, continually questioning if she should continue to receive a small stipend from the Titanic disaster relief fund, which was stopped in 1929. Ada went to live with her father and unmarried sisters then in 1939 she moved to a nursing home in poor health. Ada died on April 21, 1941 aged 65 and is buried in Linwood Cemetery in a family plot. Fred Plummer had been married less than a month when he was shot by police.
Despite numerous attempts to go straight after spending more than a third of his life in jail, he was back to his old tricks. Nevertheless, Mary Matilda Hirst married him on June 21, 1892, but was a widow by August 19 that year. Plummer had been born in Bedfordshire, England in 1844 and by 1860 had made his way to New Zealand. By 1870, he was already being called the notorious Fred Plummer by newspapers. Well figured and handsome, he had initially worked on the farm of his uncle in Port Albert. He was considered something of a hero after apparently capturing a local thief but after the thefts continued suspicions turned to him. But there was no evidence and Plummer left and headed to Auckland where there were much richer pickings. He rented a large house on Great North Road which he used as a storehouse for his booty. He was, of course, caught, and among the stuff stolen was found to be wigs and gown from lawyers and judges of the Supreme Court - who he would end up in front of. He was jailed for four years and often sent letters giving his address as Safety Villas, Parnell. Plummer escaped from prison, deciding to try his luck on the high seas but it proved no more lucky than land and he was arrested again, earning another four year stretch. This time he was imprisoned in Dunedin. But it was no more secure than Auckland and he again escaped. When he was recaptured, it earned him another two years on top of the sentence he still had to serve. On his release a well meaning friend in England paid for him to go there, but he couldn’t help himself and ended up in prison there for theft. Back in New Zealand he was working on the Auckland to Helensville railway but the work was not for him. He returned to Auckland and police found his new stash house in Brown St. This time his sentence was 10 years and he was sent to Wellington to serve it. He began a campaign to convince others he was reformed, eventually having his sentence commuted for good conduct. Plummer seemed to have tried to convince even himself, calling a police officer he knew to say he was going straight. He was told to leave the country and start again somewhere else but Plummer thought he needed to prove himself, especially to the people of Auckland. So he set out to give lectures entitled Crime and Criminals. And it was noticed by those in temperance circles in Auckland who decided to champion him. It wasn’t the greatest success and Plummer went back to his uncle’s farm, perhaps to avoid temptation. That didn’t last and he returned to Auckland where he got married. Perhaps he was trying, but shortly after marrying he left his new bride at the Blue Post dining rooms and just never returned. He was quickly wanted by police in Papakura and the next time he was seen was in Hunua where his uncle had a house. The tenant spotted him on August 15 lighting a fire near his uncle’s farm then realised his house had been burgled and a gun and ammunition had been stolen. Police began hunting and a couple of days later found him near an empty house. They fired on him and were fired on in return. Plummer hid in a drain but when the police got there he was dead with a shot through the brain. He was buried in the Papakura Cemetery. Mary went on to marry John Reid later that same year and was buried in the same cemetery with her second husband. There have been 42 New Zealand Prime Ministers and a great number have names we would remember.
Seddon, Muldoon, Vogel, Grey, Stout, Ward, Savage, Holyoake and Kirk would all be names that most of us could call to mind. But there are a few whose names mean nothing to us even though they led the country and there are a bunch of odd stats to go with it. There were no political parties before 1890 and before 1899 they were called the Premier rather than Prime Minister. Nine have served more than one term, the youngest was Edward Stafford and the oldest was Watker Nash who was 78 when he left office. Richard Seddon was the longest serving prime minister and the shortest was Henry Sewell with 14 days (although Harry Atkinson had seven days although in fairness he was really considered acting prime minister.) The first New Zealand-born Prime Minister was Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell in 1925. One would be hard pressed to remember the name of Daniel Pollen who first got a government position in 1952 and rose through the ranks. He was born in Ringsend, Dublin on June 2, 1813 to his dockmaster father Hugh and wife Elizabeth. He claimed to have a doctor’s degree although where it came from no one knew. He travelled first to New South Wales then came to Auckland by 1840. Pollen was a witness to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and established himself as a doctor and coroner in Auckland. In May 1846 he married Jane Henderson and they moved to Kawau Island. In 1861 after dabbling in politics he was appointed to the Legislative Council (our Parliament now) where he served, on and off for several years. He also held four positions – Receiver of Land Revenue, Commissioner of Confiscated Lands, Commissioner under the Native Land Act of 1870, and Immigration Officer. When Juluis Vogel’s government recalled him to the Legislative Council in 1873 and he held several roles before becoming Premier in 1875 where he served for nearly a year. Pollen was considered a cultured, genial, outspoken and vigorous man. He worked for the enfranchisement of women, a champion of Maori and was known to have a biting sarcasm. He died on May 18, 1896 and is buried in the George Maxwell Memorial Cemetery in Avondale, Auckland. We take some things for granted now - like vaccines, medical help and advice and treatment.
But it was not unusual for past newspapers to report deaths from things now that are readily treatable. Twenty year old George Seymour had been herding stock at Mangawai using a whip in October 1872. He flicked the whip out and managed to catch himself just over his left eye. A hardy chap, he did not think much about it. But more than 10 days later, not only had it not healed, but he was now unwell. Feeling increasingly sick, he finally sought medical help days after the little incident. But by the time he saw the doctor, it was too late, his jaw had set firm and he was confirmed to have tetanus. He died a day or so later. A death by tetanus was a horrible way to die, with often the associated muscle spasms wracking the body, sometimes with enough strength to break bones, troubling swallowing, fever, headaches and breathing issues. Often called lockjaw, it’s a bacterial infection usually from infection through an open wound. At one point the treatment recommended before the vaccine was to apply chloroform. The first passive vaccine was not introduced until 1890 and it wasn’t until 1938 that an effective vaccine was available - tested widely during World War Two. These days the treatment for tetanus comes from the vaccine we all know but also from medication to control the muscle spasms. The last death from tetanus in New Zealand was recorded n 2007. George had been the son of well known sea captain Robert Seymour - who along with his wife Mary and family came to New Zealand in 1860 on the Phoenix. Captain Seymour entered the coastal shipping trade and was often mentioned in newspapers. He travelled between Mangawai and Auckland owning the cutters Three Brothers and Alarm which he also sailed in regattas. He died on February 12,1893 aged 78 and his wife Mary Ann died aged 92 in 1908. They are buried - along with George in the Symonds St Cemetery. Picture of a painting by Sir Charles Bell of a tetanus sufferer. |
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