Monday, April 2, 2012
Fragment of news
Taking down the big 'ships at sea' painting from the wall to create a screen for the showing of the Lorax...this tiny fragment of an old newspaper fluttered to the floor.
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13 comments:
I love a mystery! Just searched for any reference to "Mrs Bothin" in the National Library's Papers Past website and on 25 October 1898 the Otago Daily Times reported on a case in San Francisco that involved a poisoned box of candy.
Although on further investigation that particular fragment came from the Otago Witness (3 Nov 1898).
Good work, gumshoe kaukapakapa!
The painting is old and I'll lift it down now to see if there is any further information to be gleaned.
I'm mightily impressed by your resourcefulness!
If only there were a way to make a living from doing this!
Papers Past is a fabulous resource. Through it we discovered that my husband's Great-grandfather had utilised wave power generation in Timaru Harbour way back in 1900.
My mother is notoriously difficult to find a gift for but she loved an album I put together of Papers Past articles mentioning her Great-grandfather (who arrived in Nelson in 1853) and his descendants.
Was he aboard the Fifeshire?
I had a Nelson childhood and the rock featured largish. I wonder if his was an 'established' Nelson name?
I already knew we had a Nelson childhood in common :-)
No, my GGGF was a few years behind Wakefield and the earliest European settlers. Although his obituary does mention he was among the first white men to travel through the Takaka Valley, and he started the first flax mill in Nelson. Like your good self he also "took a prominent part in political and municipal affairs"!
James Johnson, of Mary Ann Street, Nelson, New Zealand?
James Rutherford, Ernest's father
( His father, James Rutherford, came from Scotland with his grandfather and the rest of his family at the age of four. In New Zealand, James learnt how to become a wheelwright, engineer and flax-miller.)?
George Rutherford, brother of James (Flax mills were built on the north-west side of the Takaka Hill, producing fibre used for rope, sacks,
upholstery stuffing and linen. Many small wharves were built for the scows which collected the products of the mills.
Flax mill, Lower Parihaka Road, run by James, and later by George Rutherford,
father and brother of Ernest Rutherford)?
After further investigation it's clear whoever wrote my relative's (William Rout) obituary was unaware flax mills had been operating in Nelson since 1842. In the 1850s my GGGF took over what appears to be one of the very first - Ryder's Mill in Tahuna. Our family is lucky enough to have an autobiography he wrote in 1888 but I can't recall any mention of a flax mill. I think he had much bigger fish to fry!
How many generations of Guytons have lived in Nelson/Tasman? I seem to recall you still have family in Riwaka.
Our branch arrived with my mother (Year-one teacher, Tahunanui Primary School_, and my father,(wool-classer, in Riwaka to pick tobacco), so we're newbies. I spent my firt two years in the up-stairs flat of a beach-front house beside the beach at Tahuna. In that way, my history mirrors that of Waitaha :-)
My Grandfather on my Dad's side managed the salt-water pools at St Clair in Dunedin and was masseur for the early All Blacks. My Mum's dad worked in an iron-foundry in Pahiatua after his emmigration from Orkney during which he met my nana, fresh from Shetland and heading for New Zealand. I've no brother-in-law at Atawhai, unless I'm very mistaken. Adam's in Dunedin now and planning to spend a year in Ireland to take his music to another level, though I think it's in a high place already :-)
My brother Stuart (Mr Stew D'Appples) lives in Riwaka.
Um, this is freaky. I went to Tahunanui primary school (73-79) AND we lived in an upstairs flat in Beach Rd, Tahuna. Small world.....
Yikes!
Beach Road, that's the one. Was there an outside stair/steps that lead up to the flat? I'm betting it was the same house, for certain. I have a photo of my mum posing in her bathing suit at the top of the stairs. I'll try to search it out. You'll know in an instant. I went to this flat, purely by chance, as an adult and though I wasn't told, and wasn't expecting to be there, found myself right back in the very place I began my life. It was a very good experience. Happy days for me, in the Tahunanui flat. It was painted pale yellow back then.
And, oh! You mean Joe Pari!
Didn't know he was at Atawhai Drive.
(Kia ngaawari, Joe!)
Yep, stairs on the outside. Was it 9 Beach Rd? I can't recall more than a couple of two storeyed houses along Beach Rd - the other being at the motorcamp end of the road (coincidentally owned by a great Aunt for some years).
I remember three wonderful plum trees in the garden at no.9, and the old lady Mrs Jamieson who lived next door who made me a stuffed corduroy rabbit which I still have. The property was owned by our family for donkeys years and there used to be an old railway carriage at the back of the section. Sadly it got too much for my elderly grandmother to look after and the property was sold to KFC in the 80s who promptly bowled it and put in a drive thru and carpark! I've always regretted that I don't have a photo of what it looked like from the outside.
Would love to see the photo of your Mum - if it's the same house, I have a photo of guests at my 6th birthday party sitting at the top of the same set of stairs. We would have lived there from about 1969? to 1981. Hopefully you still have my email address if you'd rather continue the nostalgia trip in private ;-) I'm sure I'm boring anyone else who's reading this.
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