Ice Cream Charlie

What flavours of ice cream do you miss?
The world’s favourite flavour is vanilla - but in New Zealand hokey pokey takes second place.
Some of the ones we loved are long gone now. Think Goody Goody Gum Drops with its lollies and half banana half chocolate Monkey Business.
Ice cream has been one of our favourite treats almost since the beginning.
And one of the characters was a chap called Ice-Cream Charlie who sold his icy goodies from a cart in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square.
But his name wasn’t Charlie at all. It was Sali Mahomet.
He had said on legal documents that he was born in Ceylon and to others that he was Punjabi but it’s uncertain what is true.
He and his father had come to New Zealand via Australia, arriving in 1894.
They sold things - using Dunedin as a base and travelling, usually on horseback - they offered various household items around the bottom of the South Island.
But a riding accident left Sali with a limp and might have been the start of him thinking of a less demanding job.
Which led him to making and selling ice cream in Christchurch. He had a cart built and painted it red and white and rented a shop where he made ice cream from a recipe he had bought.
It was in Christchurch he met 19-year-old domestic servant Florence Henrietta Johnstone and they married at a registry office.
It was a daring thing - to marry a man who was so different - interracial marriages would have been viewed with suspicion.
They had four daughters - all of whom were considered great beauties.
In business Sali became more and more successful. He was able to leave the rented shop he used and buy his own premises in Caledonian Road, building a shop and home of kauri with a bay window and engraved roses on the ceiling.
HIs diary was set up in an outhouse structure where he ran a lead to get electricity.
To make it, he had to bring in massive blocks of ice - each one 45kgs - from the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company. He would break them up himself with a mallet, breaking them down so the ice cream could be kept cold.
For 10 months of the year he sold ice-cream and could be said that his appearance was the start of summer.
The flavours he made came from the syrups made by wholesale druggist H F Stevens - pineapple, strawberry, raspberry and orange and the vanilla Sali imported himself.
He was popular - with many people turning up at his cart with billys or preserving jars to buy it.
But he was also subject of attacks, labelled a Turk during World War One when people were frightened by anything exotic.
It wasn’t until the 1930’s that he took on a helper, a lad who worked until he went off and was killed during the second World War.
In 1940 he retired - selling off his business and chattels including his iconic cart and asked the council to consider granting a licence to whoever took over the business.
He suffered a stroke in 1943 and then next year entered the Old Men’s Home in Ashburton before having a second stroke.
He is buried in the Linwood Cemetery.
With thanks to Christchurch City Library. Photo by Dovile Ramoskaite.​