 How much do New Zealanders love their pies? And coffee? And chocolate fish?
Well, while Richard Hudson did not invent any of those things, he is the one the men behind these things being as popular as they are. Richard Hudson was born Daniel Richard Bullock in 1841 in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England to John and Susan Bullock. By the age of nine he had been orphaned. He originally worked in a locomotive and carriage building business before going to sea as a cabin boy. He came to New Zealand in 1865, landing in Lyttelton where he learned to bake under the eye of John Griffin. After a short stint trying his hand in the gold fields he ended up in Dunedin in 1868, where he worked as a pastry cook. He would take his biscuits down to the docks to sell and his reputation spread. He married Mary Ann Riley in 1868 and they had eight children. Several of the children had the surname Hudson-Bullock but in 1874 Bullock was dropped altogether along with his first name. In 1884, he opened the first chocolate manufacturer in Moray Place. After a trip to Europe in 1885, where he saw the technical advances, he brought them back to New Zealand. He launched a biscuit, cake and confectionary bakehouse. He is believed to be the first trader to sell a pie and a cup of coffee for sixpence. Hudson was one of the richest men in Dunedin and Hudson’s had become a household name. Remember Cookie Bear - well that was Hudson’s. The factory was on a block of land bounded by Cumberland and Castle Streets. Hudson was an innovator and a firm advocate of the eight-hour working day. He also banned working on Saturday afternoons. In 1930, Hudson’s merged with Cadbury’s. While it can’t be said definitively that Hudson was behind the chocolate fish - excavation of the old factory unearthed a chocolate fish mould. The first mention of chocolate fish was in the Feilding Star in 1926 when a sweet shop in Whanganui was burgled. Tooth marks were found in the chocolate fish. The little marks seemed to be from children. Hudson died April 10, 1903, aged 61, and was buried in Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery. He had said he wanted no memorial - so there is no headstone on his grave, however it is surrounded by a beautiful cast iron fence.
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 When Pipi Katene brutally bludgeoned a man to death in 1941, he was eligible for the death penalty.
But he wasn’t hanged as his conviction came just one month after capital punishment was repealed. Katene was the first man to benefit from a change in Government and social policy when the first Labour government was elected in 1935. The election had already been delayed for a year because of the Great Depression. Disillusioned voters wanted something new. Nothing the old Government had done was shifting the economy forward. It helped that Michael Joseph Savage took over as leader before the election. Capital punishment was abolished in 1941 (with the exceptions being treason and piracy) and by the time Katene was convicted in October 1941 - the new law was a month old. Arthur Harding Parkinson was a shopkeeper in Waitotara, in South Taranaki. In the early hours of August 5, 1941 he was found badly injured with a mallet and an axe lying nearby. He was 78. The store’s safe was open and the money gone. Katene knew Parkinson, knew when he was going to be in the shop alone and knew he kept money in the safe. He lay in wait outside the store that night then went in and asked for cigarettes. When Parkinson turned his back, Katene hit him on the head with a piece of wood. After Parkinson fell to the floor, he hit him several more times. He dragged him into the back then used an axe to make sure he was dead. Katene took the keys from Parkinson’s body and opened the safe. He was arrested in Patea a day later with a lot of money. He told the police he had not worked for several months and had been getting a social security benefit. It took the jury 43 minutes to find him guilty and instead of the hangman’s noose, he was sentenced to 10 years hard labour. Parkinson was born in 1862 in Rangitikei to Charles and Jane Eleanor who had come from England. His first wife Maria Margaret Dunn - who he married in 1884 - died 1886, not long after the birth of their daughter. In 1901 he remarried to Mary Laing with whom he had a son. Parkinson was buried in the Hawera Cemetery with his first wife. |
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