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.​

It’s a plain grey gravestone with a simple little memoriam to Lydia Tilbury which doesn’t begin to describe the drama and horror of her death.
Lydia and her sister Susan were enjoying a holiday in Nelson on February 1, 1908. Lydia had come to the region from the Hutt Valley on holiday and they were both taking the Motueka to Nelson coach.
The coach ran regularly and the coachman Charles Brickland, a careful and conscientious worker, was guiding the coach over the train lines near the station.
Other than Lydia and Susan, the only other person in the coach was nine-year-old Margaret Fittall.
They were at the crossing at Appleby when Margaret called out that she could see a train.
Charles did not hear her, but it was already too late. By the time anyone saw the train, it was nearly on top of the coach.
The train hit the front of the coach, crushing it and the horses bolted.
Margaret and Susan were thrown clear, but Lydia - who was only 25 - was dragged under the train and killed immediately. Charles was found in the wreckage of the coach with serious injuries.
Within a couple of months a Coroner’s inquest was held to consider whether Charles had committed negligent manslaughter.
What Charles did not know was that the train timetable had been changed just the day before. He regularly drove that coach route and was used to the train going through about 1pm. He was not expecting a train about 12.30pm - when he was taking the coach over the crossing.
Railway officials gave evidence at the inquest that the timetable had been changed for the holiday - it was Nelson’s anniversary weekend.
There was also some dispute over whether a whistle had been heard from the train as it approached the crossing. Witnesses were divided - some had heard the whistle, some had not.
Charles himself told the inquest he had not seen the train
The jury at the inquest decided Charles should face charges and he was committed for trial at the Supreme Court.
But the jury there did not agree and he was freed after they tossed out the bill or charge.
Meanwhile, Lydia’s husband Albert John Tilbury, a market gardener from Lower Hutt, took her body home, where she is buried in the Old Taita Cemetery.​

​Welcome to the New Year and another round of stories.
We love to start the New Year with a new idea. It’s a time to look at things and decide if you can do them better, or not do them at all.
As you can imagine we see a lot of cemeteries, both for work and for our stories.
At every cemetery there are graves that clearly get no love. Even if they are well maintained - and a lot are not - there is no one to remember who they are.
It is one of those commonly held philosophical beliefs that within two generations, we are forgotten. Stories and family memories are not passed on, and before long, there is no one who remembers your name.
So we are going to pick one forgotten grave a month, place a flower and, even though we never knew them, remember that was a person someone loved.
What about you? Are there family stories that should be told? Did someone in your family do something first? Went on a great adventure? Pioneered part of New Zealand? Or was infamous?
Is there someone from your family we should be writing a story about? Let us know in the comments.