Maggie McIntrye was found in the back room of widow Martha Reid’s home scratched up and thin, dressed only in a nightgown on May 16,1877.
It was a far cry from the plump girl who had gone to work for her only a few months before.
When detective Thomas Neil checked her it was obvious she was dead. There were only a couple of mattresses in the room and one window had no glass in it and she wore only a thin nightdress.
How and why she had died - aged only 17 - was a mystery and it went to an inquest - which in those days had a jury.
Maggie - Margaret - had gone to work for Martha Mary Harris Gill Reid as a servant on February 16, 1877 - and the last time her parents /Daniel and Ann had seen her she was healthy and plump
Several people told the jury having seen Maggie, spotting her looking thin, silent and cold looking. And never properly dressed for a Dunedin heading into a full winter.
John Blakeley who lived nearby saw her out on the street one winter’s evening picking up stones. She told him Mrs Reid had told her to do it. He told her to go inside but she continued picking up stones.
At least one mentioned that in February Maggie had looked healthy.
A week before her death a Sunday school teacher had seen her and worried she had been hit but satisfied himself it seemed to be ill-health. Another teacher was told Maggie was made to work without any shoes.
There was also circumstantial evidence that Maggie was being beaten.
Another girl Kate Telfer who had previously worked for Reid for a short time said she had never had enough to eat and had ended up sleeping on the floor. But her evidence was controversial - with Reid’s lawyer complaining that the treatment of other staff did not mean anything about Maggie.
Another witness had seen Reid hit Maggie.
Doctors disagreed on why Maggie had died. One has considered starvation while another thought meningitis was a possibility.
Reid for her part said Maggie had been ill and had been thin since she came to work for her.
The coroner said the jury had to consider why Maggie had made no attempt to escape the situation but the jury wasn’t having it and found that Mrs Reid would be guilty of manslaughter by neglect.
Reid was sent for trial in the Supreme Court and by then one of the doctors told of a brain bleed likely to have been caused by a blow to the head and that the cause of death was starvation.
Hundreds tried to get into the trial at the Supreme Court in Dunedin in July 1877.
Despite what seems like a great deal of evidence, the jury found her not guilty - the judge himself had said that Reid would not be guilty of manslaughter simply because she did not provide enough food and shelter, as the victim could have removed herself from the situation.
Reid, who had been born in England, promptly returned there soon after the trial and never came back to New Zealand.
Maggie is buried in the Southern Cemetery in Dunedin.​

New Zealand is known for its sheep. We’ve all heard the statistics that there is more
sheep than people.
We are also known for our lamb exports.
Thursday was National Lamb Day. But the frozen meat trade was nearly over
before it had begun and was rescued by one quick thinking man.
We’ve told the story of the Dunedin before, the ship that carried the first lot of frozen meat to Britain. Weirdly, the Dunedin and its sister ship the Marlborough, disappeared during their sailings never to be seen again.
But that first voyage was on February 15, 1882 the Dunedin sailed with 4331 mutton, 598 lamb and 22 pig carcasses, 250 kegs of butter, hare, pheasant, turkey, chicken and 2226 sheep tongues.
It was under the command of Captain John Whitson. He had captained the Dunedin since it was an immigrant ship and had also overseen its conversion to carry frozen meat.
The journey started well enough but once in the tropics the ship was becalmed, delaying its progress.
It was then the crew noticed that the freezing air, necessary to keep the meat at a cold enough temperature, was not circulating properly.
Like many at the time, Whitson was a jack of all trades. Immediately he rolled up his sleeves and went to work. He went into the freezing hold and began drilling holes to allow the air to move more freely.
He nearly froze to death to keep his historic cargo from spoiling. He had to be pulled out by the crew and resuscitated.
The Dunedin arrived in London 98 days after leaving New Zealand with it’s cargo intact, kicking off the frozen meat trade.
Whitson had been born in Perthshire, Scotland to John and Charlottee and become a master mariner. He had married Elizabeth Hall Illingworth who died in 1877 leaving him with two daughters.
Whitson captained the ship during several other voyages but before its last one he was taken ill and when the ship arrived at Port Chalmers on March 1, 1886, he was so ill he had to relinquish command and seek medical aid. Yet he was at the Oamaru wharf in May to wave farewell to his former command but he died within 24 hours of her leaving port, on 4 May, 1886 at age 45. His body was sent by train to Dunedin and his burial on 8 May was attended by some 200 mourners.
He is buried in Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery.
Picture by Judith Prins​

Today is Valentine’s Day - the day for love, when if you listen very carefully you may hear the twang of Cupid’s arrow, but more likely the sound of an empty wallet and the rustle of florist paper wrapped around an over-priced rose.
But while you’re (hopefully) snuggling up to your nearest and dearest, spare a thought for poor Alfred Webb, whose quest for love failed - dismally.
His is almost the time-honoured story; boy meets girl, boy falls in love, boy fails to meet girl’s mother’s standard, boy loses girl, boy is branded a lunatic and dies alone in an asylum. We did say almost!
Alfred was born sometime around 1844, where is not known, nor are the names of his parents. He landed up in Whanganui where he served in the Armed Constabulary, a police force which operated in Taranaki between 1846 and 1867 and aimed to protect settlers.
Alfred also worked as a messenger for the Post Office, was active in his church Sunday School and by all accounts was a well-respected, honest young man.
Early in 1869, Alfred contracted Rheumatic Fever. Remarkably he survived, but the illness left him with memory problems and made him appear quite simple-minded.
It is not known when Alfred met Emily Soulby, the girl who stole his heart, but it was at Sunday School.
Emily was born in Whanganui in 1852, the only child of Joseph Soulby, a wealthy mill owner and his wife Mary Jane (nee Shield). Joseph died in 1868, leaving Mary, then aged 53, a widow with a 14-year-old daughter.
Alfred’s (perhaps one-sided) romance with Emily saw him bring her gifts of cakes and he often called on her at her home – despite the protests of her mother.
On September 15, 1869, things took a turn for the worse when Alfred was found in the Soulby’s garden trying to see Emily. Mary finally had enough. She had him arrested.
Alfred appeared in court the next day and was sentenced to a week in prison. While there, he was assessed as being insane (no doubt his memory problems aided the diagnosis) and he was shipped off to the notorious Karori Lunatic Asylum in Wellington.
Many in the Whanganui community who knew Alfred protested that he was quite sane and was being harshly punished, while others thought the treatment might help him recover from his memory problems.
But Alfred’s fate was sealed. He spent around six months in the asylum before being released. He returned to Whanganui but found that being labelled a lunatic left him unemployable. Alfred refused to take charity and was arrested for vagrancy in June 1870, then again in July for which he was imprisoned for a month with hard labour. In October he was again charged with vagrancy and was sent back to Karori.
The Karori asylum closed in 1873 due to its horrendous conditions and lack of actual treatment and Alfred became one of the first patients at the new Mount View Lunatic Asylum near the Basin Reserve (where the Governor General’s residence is now).
He never left. Alfred died from tuberculosis on March 20, 1885, aged 41. He is buried in Bolton Street Cemetery.
But, as it is nearing Valentine’s Day, we will end on a happier note. Emily did meet someone who passed her mother’s scratch test. In 1872 she married William Lingard, a former trooper in the Colonial Forces and the first recipient of the New Zealand Cross (the equivalent of the Victoria Cross). William was also a founder of Whanganui’s Bell Brewery. Probably much to his mother-in-law’s disappointment, however, William became bankrupt in 1883 owing £13,300.
William found work as an insurance agent and in about 1889 the couple and, most likely, Emily’s mother, moved to Wellington. They bought a large house on Wesley Road, Kelburn. Ironically the house was just a few hundred metres from Bolton Street Cemetery, where Alfred was buried.
Mary died in January 1905, William in June 1922 and Emily two years later in 1924. All three are buried in Karori Cemetery. William and Emily had five daughters, four of whom lived into adulthood.
Picture by Kelly Sekkema.​

Who loves a good crime novel?
New Zealand was the birthplace and home of one of the “Queens of Crime.” Ngaio Marsh whose novels about Detective Roderick Alleyn are still enjoyed all over the world
She was born in Christchurch to bank clerk Henry Marsh and his wife Rose probably on April 23 1895 - there is some uncertainty about it since her father did not register her birth until 1900.
When she was 7 her family moved to Cashmere where, her father built a house in Valley road. It was to be her home for the rest of her life.
During her school years, Ngaio was much involved in literary and dramatic arts before going to the Canterbury College School of Art and doing some private tutoring.
She shared a studio with other artists on Cashel Street, making friends she would keep throughout her life.
She wrote articles, poems and stories many of which were published in the Christchurch Sun.
Despite joining a Shakespeare company and then a comedy company, Ngaio thought of herself as a painter. Despite exhibiting she never managed great success.
In 1928 she went to England returning in 1932. She had completed a novel A man lay dead sending it to Agatha Christie’s agent who sent it to a publishing house.
Between 1934 and 1982 she wrote 32 detective novels.
Ngaio quickly became a star in the detective novel literary world. Four of the books are set in New Zealand and many contain references to New Zealand.
She was unofficially engaged to Edward Bristed who died in action in 1917 in the First World War. After that she never married or had any children.
She gained many honours including becoming an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1948 and a Dame in 1966.
Her home has been preserved as a museum and the University of Canterbury has a theatre named after her as is a retirement home in Christchurch.
Ngaio also wrote her own biography - called Black beech and honey dew in 1966 -
and revised it in 1981 just before her death.
Before her death she systematically destroyed many of her papers, letters, manuscripts and documents.
Nevertheless - a book she had started during the Second World War called Money in the Morgue was released after it was finished by Stella Duffy in 2018.
A number of her books have been adapted for television and radio dramas.
Ngaio died in Christchurch on February 18, 1982 and was buried at the Church of
the Holy Innocents in Mount Peel.
Photo from Te Papa’s collection.​

It has been years since the 74 bells of the Wellington carillon bells rang out over the city.
The whole project of a memorial with the bells was a huge commitment - one taken by the Wellington War Memorial Carillon Society who ordered the first 49 bells without having land or money to build the necessary bell tower for them.
So they offered the bells for sale to the citizens of Wellington from as little as £30 to £1440.
And despite what was then a huge cost - they were snapped up. So much so that they had too many applications to buy them.
Preference was given to the families of the fallen and New Zealand Expeditionary force members along with several military bodies. Each bell has a name and an inscription (with the exception of a bell dedicated to veterans of the South African war.)
The bells were given to the government who used them in the building of the National War Memorial Carillon which stood 50 metres high.
It was dedicated and opened on Anzac Day 1932 and the first recital of the bells was made - by English carillonist Clifford Ball and Wellingtonain Gladys Watkins.
Gladys Elinor Watkins was born on October 20, 1884 in Akaroa, to Elizabeth and Stephen.
After schooling in Wellington she started her own business as a music teacher. During World War One she belonged to a group that performed at the Trentham camp and was a singer in a couple of choirs.
She heard about the possibility of a carillon and wanted to learn how to play one - so with the backing of Carillon society she travelled to Belgium to study.
Gladys went on recital tours and got to try the newly cast bells destined for Wellington while they were still in London.
She was one of the very few women carillonists and composed original music for the huge instruments.
At the formal opening for the Wellington she played along with Ball then went on to play a further 307 recitals from the clavier in the bell tower, which she could only get to by climbing a long steep set of stairs and ladders.
Gladys retired in 1936 and married Evening Post chief reporter Ernest Edward Muir.
She died on October 20, 1939 and is buried in the Karori Cemetery.​

The horrific death of 35-year-old Rebecca Grigg shocked all who read of it.
And it was her husband Frank who bore the brunt of the court’s ire.
She was found so emaciated that doctors thought she would have needed to be found two weeks before her death to survive.
It caused a series of sensational headlines in 1905 after she died on July 13.
In the end, it was the breaking down of her lungs from an abscess killed Rebecca but it was hastened police believed by the wilful neglect of her bottle gatherer husband Francis George Grigg who ended up charged with manslaughter.
No food was found in the house, which was filthy and she was not even lying on any bed clothes. Lice were on her neck and face and in her hair.
Neighbours worried about Rebecca in the days before her death had been told a variety of things by Francis and he gave yet another at the inquest into her death.
Neighbour Prudence Weaver had been asked by Francis to help his wife - she had done so before and knew Rebecca was a frail thing who did not have good health.
She found her covered in old rugs, jackets and coats and ice cold. Rebecca was alive, but only just.
Rebecca was barely able to talk, asking for a stout - but when it was brought to her she could not drink it.
A doctor was sent for but he never arrived and after a few hours another was sought but Rebecca died a couple of hours after he arrived.
Prudence said Rebecca could not have been in any state to cook anything even if there had been more than a piece of bread and a bit of rice in the house.
She also said she had spoken to Francis a few days before who had told her Rebecca was unwell.
At the inquest Francis - called Frank - said his wife had woken the night before her death complaining about her chest. He had given her a little brandy.
She had had always been a bit unwell and they had thought it was her heart.
The jury at the inquest thought he had hastened her death with neglect and Frank was sent to trial.
But it was from one of the police witnesses that the possible answer came.
One of the police witnesses said several times Rebecca had been arrested for public drunkeness around Auckland.
Given that she had asked for stout even as she was dying, it was likely she had a severe alcohol problem.
The Supreme Court did not believe a charge against Frank given the circumstances would hold up and threw it out before any trial.
Frank had been born in 1865 in the Channel Islands to George and Ann and the family came to New Zealand in 1874. He married Rebecca in Dunedin in 1899.
After his release he never remarried and died in July 1915.
Both Rebecca and Frank are buried at Waikumete Cemetery.​

In a corner of Hastings cemetery is a grave at the start of a row with a simple memoriam. Douglas William Barr - accidentally killed Bluff Hill.
It doesn’t tell even a fraction of the tragic story.
Douglas had a new car - a Chevrolet sedan and he had gone to pick up Mina Clare Kauter from an evening out on Bluff Hill.
About 8pm Douglas was driving slowly - going according to witnesses about 15mph - along the breakwater road heading toward the port on May 12, 1930 when the cliff above them gave way.
Two men on the breakwater crayfishing and the Harbour Board’s watchman were having a chat facing the cliff face when they heard a crack then a huge portion of the mostly limestone rock face fell - straight on to the car just coming round a bend.
The watchman immediately went to call for help while the other two men rushed to the rock fall.
An inquest was told the car could barely been seen but they managed to get Douglas out, although it was clear he was already dead.
But reaching Clare was more difficult, her side of the car was almost completely covered. Arriving police began to help, with everyone having to dodge more falling rocks.
Finally a doctor arrived and found Clare was still alive - but she passed away before she could be moved to an ambulance.
The inquest found Douglas had his skull fractured while Clare had nearly every bone in her body broken.
There had been concern about the cliff face for a while - it had been cracked for some time - but it had been thought it would need bad weather for it to be a problem rather than a long dry hot spell.
As workmen began clearing it was estimated that 1660 tonnes of rock had fallen.
The inquest jury gave a verdict of accidental death but recommended that the local council appoint someone to keep an eye on the condition of the cliff face, since there was a heavy traffic road just below.
Less than a year later, the 1931 7.8 earthquake would result in the same cliff face giving way.
While Douglas is buried in Hastings Cemetery, Clare is buried in Park Island under the name Nita Clare Kauter.​

Of all the pioneers in Hawke’s Bay, William Nelson is probably the least known now, but his legacy is literally everywhere.
From the founding of one of the biggest meatworks, to education and even the geography of the province, William Nelson had a hand in so many things that there is barely a piece of Hawke’s Bay untouched by him.
Born on February 15, 1843, in Warwickshire, England to chemist George Nelson and his wife Sarah. George worked with gelatine and other meat extracts so it was likely this influenced William who got a good education then worked at a tannery, a cement works and the family factory.
In 1863, William and his brother Fred came to New Zealand. After a bit of a tramping holiday they worked on a sheep run then worked for the local militia then a shearing gang.
The brothers bought Poporangi and began developing the land. William took the opportunity to head back to England - where he married his sweetheart Sarah Newcombe Bicknell in Wales before bringing her back with him to Hawke’s Bay.
After a failure in farming William moved his whole family to Mangateretere East where he built a house called The Lawn which ended up flooded then he lost a small fortune with a failed flax crop.
So William took his family back to England for 10 years where he learnt about meat preservation.
On their return in 1880 he, along with brother Fred, established a tallow and canned meat factory at Tomoana. He wanted to try refrigeration but his former business dealing had taught him caution and he let others experiment with the process first.
After the success of the first ship to make a successful run to England with refrigerated goods, he and his partners moved quickly to bring the process to Hawke’s Bay.
The first load of frozen meat from Tomoana left from Port Ahuriri in the Turakina in 1884. The next decade saw the Nelson brother become the biggest thing in frozen meat with William at the helm.
Branches opened in Waipukurau, Gisborne, Woodville and Spring Creek.
William meanwhile began farming again, in part to improve the meat quality of exports. He helped train young men in farm work.
He was a shrewd judge of men, one of his young stockmen was a William Richmond who would later set up his own meat export firm.
William’s first wife died in 1883 and he remarried to Emma Caroline Williams. When she died in 1921 he remarried again a year later to Katharine Maud Orford.
Along with his business works William helped establish Heretaunga School which was later moved to Havelock North and called Hereworth. William then helped build Woodford House.
He was a member of the Hawke’s Bay club, patron of the Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association and the Hastings Horticultural Society and chairman of the Clive River Board
He also sold land to the Hawke’s Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society which became the Hastings showgrounds.
There are many memorials to and from William - Caroline Rd is named after his second wife - Nelson Street in Hawke’s Bay and in a Nelson Park in both Hastings and Napier. In the park in Hastings stands the statue of William along with his faithful dog Tiddles.
William died on November 16, 1932 and is buried in Havelock North Cemetery.​

Grass is everywhere, right? We don’t think much about it because it is just there.
New Zealand is dotted with rolling hills of beautiful green grass wherever you go.
Then there are the immaculate greens of golf courses, bowling clubs and cricket pitches.
And the man we have to thank is Bruce Levy.
HIs research into grass changed farming and sports clubs all over the country and earned him a knighthood.
Enoch Bruce Levy was born 19 February, 1892, the sixth out of eight children of William Levy and his wife Esther Ann Bruce.
William was a nurseryman and dairy farmer so Bruce grew up with plants.
He left school at 14 but later passed the junior civil service examination and became a clerical cadet at the Department of Agriculture, Commerce and tourists in Wellington.
His interests in plants brought him to the attention of Alfred Hyde Cockayne - son of one of New Zealand’s greatest botanists - and Bruce moved to the biological laboratory where he began his life's work.
His recognition came from work to improve the pastures of New Zealand - urging farmers to top-dress and how to grow the most productive grasses and clovers.
He married Phyllis Rosa Kate Mason, a school friend of his sisters, in December 1925 and they lived in Wellington where Bruce was completing a bachelor of science at Victoria University.
Bruce founded the grasslands division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in 1937 and was its director until his retirement in 1951. He travelled the country to talk to farmers to help improve their pastureland - often based on techniques he learned in Europe.
He and another scientist William Davies identified superior strains of white clover and ryegrass to plant. They became the standard varieties to plant leading to improvements in pastureland for better yield.
For years, his book Grasslands of New Zealand was considered the farmers bible.
In retirement Levy continued work on improving turf for golf courses and bowling greens. He played bowls himself, and also indulged his passion for gardening. The gardens of Aroha, the Levy home in Palmerston North, became a showpiece.
He was also chairman of the New Zealand Institute of Turf Culture.
While he and his wife never had children but in 1940 when children were being evacuated from British cities, they took in two.
In the 1950 King’s Birthday honours he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and in 1953 a knight.
He died on October 16, 1985 and was cremated in Pyes Pa - leaving behind the green fields of New Zealand for us all.​

Parliament’s watchman Amos Wilby had just done his rounds at 2am and was about to make himself a cup of cocoa.
Up til then nothing had alarmed him. And as he reached his office he heard a noise that sounded a bit like rain. In fact, it was the sound of a huge fire breaking out.
He rushed to sound the alarm, threw open the gates for the fire trucks and tried to fight the fire himself with a hose.
It was December 11, 1907.
With most of the building made of wood, the fire spread rapidly, through the lobby and Bellamys restaurant.
Bellamys was soon lost and the battle was on to save the library.
Chains of people began ferrying out the precious books to the lawn of Parliament, desperate to save irreplaceable books, paintings, documents and even furniture.
The library however stood up to the fire, behind iron fire proof walls and an iron fire proof door.
Attention then turned to the Government buildings which were next to be threatened but hosing down its walls saved it.
The fire was large enough that it lit up the night sky, bringing people from all over Wellington to watch.
Bellamy’s was largely destroyed and the cellar filled with wine and cigars was flooded.
It was believed an electric fault in the wiring that started the fire.
Once the fire was out and the damage, attention turned to where Parliament would be sitting while rebuilding was done.
Governor General William Plunket offered the Government House for Parliament use until the current Edwardian neo-classical Parliament Buildings could be designed and built in later years.
In turn, they decided to rebuild Government House in a spot that would provide more privacy, which gave way to the current Mount Cook location adjacent to Wellington College.
Wilby had been born in Leicestershire, England in 1836 to Amos and Mary Ann.
He married Mary Ann Clark in 1867 in New Zealand.
He died in Wellington on December 19, 1921 and is buried in Karori Cemetery.​