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Wellington Boots, Wellington (2026)

18/10/2026

Jemima Oxenham | Married Four Times

Jemima Oxenham was the sixth woman to be married at Petone in the early days of the settlement. She emigrated with her brother John and older sister Sarah, on the ship Aurora, the first of the New Zealand Company ships to arrive at Port Nicholson. John was married but his wife and children remained behind in England. It appeared that his purpose in coming to New Zealand was to marry off his sisters. During the long voyage, Sarah and Jemima sewed their wedding dresses.

John was soon free of his responsibilities towards his sisters. Sarah Oxenham married George Batten on 21st April 1840. They were the fourth couple to be married at Petone. Jemima was not long behind. She married George Hamilton Coglan on 4th June 1840. The Aurora passenger list stated her age was 15 but she was born on 3rd October 1826, and so her age at the time of her marriage was 13 years and 8 months. Coglan was 28 years old. He was a merchant from Sydney and ran the Waterloo Stores at Britannia, the unsuccessful New Zealand Company settlement at Petone.

By February 1841, Coglan had moved his business to the east end of Petone beach and was offering accommodation in his ‘Australian Tavern and Coffee Rooms.’ According to family stories, ‘he was a brute and a drunkard and Jemima despised him.’

In August 1841, John dissolved his boat building business with Henry Meech, and returned to England. He never returned to New Zealand. His younger brother Nicholas Oxenham emigrated to Wellington later in the 1840’s.

Jemima’s marriage to Coglan did not last long. He drowned in an accident while crossing the harbour in a boat heavily laden with timber in December 1841. His body was never recovered. It was the responsibility of the Chief Constable of Wellington, Richard Burgess Sayer, to row across the harbour and tell Jemima that her husband had perished. According to family stories, on being told of the death of her husband she went upstairs to be alone. Sayer could hear strange noises and saw the chandelier swaying. On going to investigate he found Jemima dancing for joy. Sayer is said to have joined in the dance. Six months later they were married at the Wesleyan chapel in Wellington.

Sayers fortunes declined after being sacked from his job as Chief Constable in 1846. He then became a butcher, a barman and finally a labourer. He died in the colonial hospital in 1854 suffering from delirium tremens, leaving Jemima with four children.

In 1855, aged only 28, Jemima married for a third time. Her husband was John Ashmore who was another early Wellington settler. They first resided in Molesworth Street and then moved to the Wairarapa by the late 1850’s where they lived on a few cleared acres. John died in Carterton in 1864 of natural causes. This marriage produced four more children.

One year after Ashmore’s death, Jemima married for a fourth time to Benjamin Stinson. Stinson was a few years younger than Jemima and a widower who came with a family of his own. Their little boy Arthur was born in 1867 and sadly Stinson died the same year. He was buried at Clareville cemetery.

Jemima survived him by barely two years. She died on 13th August 1869, aged 42 years. Her death was the subject of a series of hoax letters written by a ‘correspondent’ for the Wellington Independent, which printed:

‘On the night of her decease she called her little boy to her bed side, the only other living person near, to go for some neighbor, but he said “I cannot go, it is so very dark.” She then took him by the hand and squeezed it so that he could not release it from her affectionate, passionate, and dying grasp. In the morning she was found dead. The wretched whare in which she lived has since been levelled to the ground.’

The Wairarapa Standard published two articles in response, the first one refuted the facts in the Wellington Independent article:

‘In the same letter he alludes to the death of Mrs Stinson, the details of which would, he says have formed matter for a sensational column had it occurred in London. He also attributes her death to a noxious drug administered by herself. We are authorized to contradict this flatly. Inquiries made both by the Coroner and the constable which entirely proved that her death although sudden, had taken place from natural causes. The account of the boy’s hand clasped in the death struggle of his mother is also incorrect.’

The second article referred to the hoax letter and then highlighted the need for free medical assistance for those in need:

‘We believe they arose from the fact that she was known to have been ill for some time without receiving any medical attendance whatever. Although her death took place somewhat suddenly the Coroner, after making due inquiries, decided on not holding an inquest. We regret that there should be anyone in this district too poor to pay for medical attendance, though at the same time we are quite certain that neither of our medical men would refuse attending a person unable to pay, but some provision should be made to prevent their being called too often in this manner.’

Jemima was buried at Clareville cemetery.

This image has been claimed to be Jemima Oxenham, but is not verified.

References:
Francis, H. (2001, May/June). The emerging story of Jemima Oxenham. The New Zealand Genealogist, (32) 269, 170-173.
Papers Past website
Ancestry website

11/10/2026

House Relocation | Karaka Bays c.1910

There is no record of where this house came from or where it was moving to in Karaka Bays. Houses for relocation were advertised frequently in the Wellington newspapers. This image is dated around 1910. These are some of the houses sold for relocation in Wellington between 1900 and 1910:

1903 – 1 cottage in Cuba Street, next Star & Garter Hotel, without reserve
1903 – Macdonald, Wilson and Co. house for removal, on the premises. Ingestre street, at 2:30
1905 – House for removal, being No. 51a Rixon-grove off Austin street. This comprises a quantity of galvanised iron fire grates, 20gal copper, and out-houses. To be offered in one lot on the premises. Sake 2.30 sharp.
1905 – For removal, on the Premises, 65, Sydney-street. An 8-roomed house , for removal. The house, though old, is in good condition.
1905 – Sale of six-roomed house, for removal. 58 Austin-street – Six-roomed house, to be removed within 10 days from day of sale.
1906 – W.F. Shortt, house for removal, 9 Levy Street.
1906 – Auction Sale of a Nine-Roomed House For Removal, at Park-terrace, off Molesworth-street. To be removed within two weeks from date of sale.
1908 – Wanted to Sell, cheap, old 5-roomed House, for removal. Apply Foreman, on job, 120 Wallace-street.
1909 – Wanted to Sell, 4-roomed House, for removal, now standing above Abbattoirs, Ngauranga. Apply M. Williams, Antico-street, Melrose.
1910 – On Wednesday 6th October, the same firm will sell on the ground, Sussex-square, three houses, for removal, as the ground is required for the new residence of the Governor.
1910 – Tenders are invited for Purchase and Removal of 6-roomed House, corner Queen and Brougham streets. Apply H. Langdon, Baker, Brougham-street.

This house appears to be part of a four-roomed house with lean-to for the scullery and wash house. The verandah was decorated with scrolled fretwork and daggerboards enclose its roof. The roof was patched where the chimney flue would have stood between the front and back rooms. The window in the lean-to was removed for bracing. The downpipes were left at awkward angles, waiting to be reconnected to a water tank. Each corner of the roof was decorated with an acroterion – a detail copied from Greek temples - and which looks slightly incongruous on an Edwardian villa.

Image:
Traction engine moving a house, Karaka Bay, Wellington. Ref: 1/2-084769-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22817462

04/10/2026

‘A Brilliant Spectacle’ | Ball at Government House 1898

600 invitations were sent out across New Zealand for a ball at Government House held on 27th October 1898. The governor and his wife, the Earl and Countess of Ranfurly, decided that it would be a fancy dress ball. Lord Ranfurly was the 11th Governor of New Zealand. He is remembered for his donation of the Ranfurly shield and the town of Ranfurly in Otago is named after him. In Wellington, the suburb of Northland was named after his son, then Viscount Northland.

The ball became the topic of conversation in Wellington. Costumes were ordered from England and Australia, Several Wellington women clubbed together and paid for a specialist hairdresser to come from Sydney for the occasion.

Lord Ranfurly and his family dressed as the family of their ancestor, Hon. Thomas Penn, the Governor and proprietor of Pennsylvania. Their costumes were copied from family portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The rooms at government house were decorated by Mrs Louisa Lockhart of the art florist company Gibbons & Co.. Trails of flowers formed garlands that fell from the arched divisions between the rooms. Great masses of lilies filled the fireplaces. There was no other colour, Lady Ranfurly believing that would come with the guests’ costumes. They had planned to take a photo of the decorated ballroom using a flashlight, but there was an accident on the test run a few nights earlier which caused the operator to burn his hands, and the ballroom floor was scorched.

At 9:30pm, the national anthem was played and the Vice-Regal party made their entry. They passed through the rooms and arranged themselves as a group at one end, to artistic effect. The first of the 22 dances began. It was a quadrille. Minifie’s band supplied the music.

Supper was served in the crimson dining room and a further 50 tables were provided in a marquee outside which was also lit with electricity. The tables were ‘laden with the daintiest and most delicious of dishes’.

‘To those who have never been out to the colonies it was a revelation, and to sit like little Jack Horner in one of the many cosy corners and gaze at the moving throng of grotesque or lovely figures that passed by was an enchanting occupation.’ (Evening Post, 28 October 1898)

‘Everyone was charmed with the success of the function, and though crooks, rapiers, ruffles and brocades are now put aside for walking sticks and umbrellas, tweeds and tailor-made gowns, we are all richer in the delightful memories of what is probably the most brilliant function of the kind ever held in New Zealand.’ (Press, 29 October 1898)

Among the other costumes was Cleopatra (Miss Donnelly), Marie Antoinette (Mrs Grace), Polish skater (Miss C. Smith), a wasp (Miss Barron), King & Queen of Clubs (Mr & Mrs A. Pearce), and Beatrice and Benedick (Mr and Mrs Castle Vaughan). In the days following the ball, many guests went to the Kinsey photography studio on Lambton Quay to have a photo taken in their costumes. These are available on DigitalNZ: https://digitalnz.org/records?text=government%20house%20ball%201898&i%5Bsubject%5D=Costume&page=1&tab=Images

The Vice Regal Party were photographed at Hermann studios the day after the ball. Lady Ranfurly did not attend. The governor’s staff were dressed as the staff of the Governor of Pennsylvania.

The Hon. Charles Hill Trevor (1863-1950)
Hill Trevor served as private secretary to Lord Ranfurly. Served in the First World War as a driver. Succeeded as 3rd Baron Trevor in 1923. In 1927 at the age of 63, he married Phyllis Sims.

His Excellency the Governor, Uchter John Mark Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly (1856-1933)
Lord Ranfurly succeeded in the earldom when his older brother died on a shooting expedition. He married Hon. Constance Caulfeild in 1880. He was governor of New Zealand between 1897 and 1904. In 1927, Lord Ranfurly sold the family seat, Northland House in Dungannon due to heavy post war taxation.

His costume as Hon. Thomas Penn consisted of pale blue and white brocade, with Limerick lace riffles, cut steel buttons and curled white powdered wig tied with a black ribbon.

Viscount Northland (1882-1915)
The only son of Lord and Lady Ranfurly. Lord Northland became Aide de Camp to his father from 1903 to 1904. Lord Northland was party to a public divorce in 1909 when John Stirling filed for divorce from his wife Clara Taylor, citing Lord Northland as co-respondent. Stirling won the case. Lord Northland married Hilda Copper in 1912. He was killed in 1915 in the First World War. His son became the 6th Earl of Ranfurly.

Lord Northland’s is dressed in costume as James, Earl of Charlemont. The outfit was entirely white, with no colour. The white brocade was patterned with a design of meadowsweet.

Captain Wellesley (1876-1941)
Arthur Wellesley was the eldest son of the 4th Duke of Wellington. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 4th battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment in July 1897 and from 1898 was then Aide de Camp to Lord Ranfurly. In 1900 he joined the regular army as a second lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards and was part of a detachment sent to South Africa in March 1900. He served there until 1902. He married Lilian Coats in 1909 and succeeded to the Dukedom in 1934.

Captain Dudley Alexander (1863 -1931)
Son of a barrister, Captain Dudley was commissioned in the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1884. Captain Alexander was also a cousin of Lord Ranfurly and served as Aide de Camp for the full duration of the governor’s term. He remained with the family on their return to Ireland.

Lady Constance Knox (1885-1964)
The eldest surviving daughter of Lord and Lady Ranfurly. In 1904, at the last Court of the season, Lady Ranfurly presented Lady Constance to Queen Alexandra. This was the same Court at which Mrs George Donnelly (born Airini Karauria, a Ngāti Kahungunu woman of mana) was presented by Hon. Mrs Lyttelton. Mrs Donnelly also attended the 1898 costume ball at Government House. Lady Constance married Major Evelyn Gaskell in 1905.

Lady Constance and her sister were dressed as the daughter’s of Hon. Thomas Penn. Their dresses were made of white silk with tiny frills at the foot of the skirt. They wore turquoise sashes which fell to the foot of the skirt. Lady Constance also wore a frilled muslin cap.

Lady Eileen Knox (1891-1972)
Married Charles Clarke in 1914. Divorced in 1935 and married Peter Chappell in 1935.

Image:
The recent fancy dress ball at Government House, Wellington- the vice regal group. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-18981118-04-02

27/09/2026

Whale Stranding | Te Aro 1884

In January 1884, fishermen in Wellington harbour noticed a depletion of stock at their favourite fishing grounds and suspected that there were whales in the harbour. A few days later, four bottle-nosed ‘blackfish’ became stranded on the Te Aro foreshore. It is not clear what the exact species is, and the newspaper refers to them as whales. Locals inferred that it was the arrival of the Union Steam Ship Company’s ‘Takapuna’ in the harbour that frightened the whales, causing them to swim into shallow water. The receding tide left three orca stranded while the fourth managed to escape.

An employee at the gasworks could see the whales splashing about in the water just inside the trestle bridge built for the Te Aro reclamation. With several of his colleagues, he waded out to the whales ‘armed with the rudest of implements’ and ‘proceeded to inflict injuries upon them, which they no doubt considered were bound to prove fatal.’ Their efforts continued with ‘extraordinary vigor’ from 3:15pm until 7pm and ‘several acres of water were dyed red with blood.’ (New Zealand Times, 1 February 1884, page 4).

Word soon spread of the stranding and thousands flocked to the shore during the afternoon and evening. About 400 people climbed on to the trestle bridge for a better view. The crowd cheered each effort the whales made to elude their captors.

By 11pm, the crowd had dispersed and an attempt was made to haul one of the dead whales nearer the high tide mark. The whales were measured, the largest was 31ft in length, the second 25ft and the third 23ft. William Travers, who was a local politician and naturalist, paid a deposit to secure one or more of the skeletons. It was presumed he intended them to go to the Colonial Museum’s collection. Alfred Tyer, tanner and fellmonger at Ngauranga purchased the oil from the whales for £31 per tun and the yield was 2 ¼ tuns.

Image:
Stranded blackfish whales underneath Te Aro reclamation trestling at the foot of Taranaki Street, Wellington. Williams, Edgar Richard, 1891-1983: Photographs and papers. Ref: 1/1-025538-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22759759

20/09/2026

Te Aro Reclamation | 1882-6

Contractor Peter McGrath’s original plan to move fill for the Te Aro reclamation was to build a train line from Polhill Gully to the shore. The city councillors were concerned about the risk and inconvenience of train rails running along Abel Smith and Taranaki Streets. The parties agreed that McGrath would instead reclaim a portion of the shore along Clyde Quay, to allow a train line to move fill from a hill behind the Quay. This work would add a further £3,500 to his £23,000 contract.

A trestle causeway with rails was built out from Clyde Quay and a locomotive purchased from the Wainuiomata tramway. By February 1883, twelve of the 110 spans of the trestle were finished. But by June, the project was in crisis. McGrath became bankrupt and the work stopped. By September, his debt was discharged and he took over the licence of the Star Hotel. A few months later he ran off to Sydney (allegedly with one of his barmaids), leaving an additional £900 in debt behind him.

Pepperell & O’Malley were contracted to complete the project. To make up time, the contractors placed sixty men at the fill excavation site and the replacement locomotive named ‘Pio Pio’ made 35 trips across the trestle each day. In March 1884, a meeting of creditors in the estate of O’Malley and Pepperell was held in the grand jury room of the Supreme Court. They too had failed.

Tendering the contract for a third time, the council only received one valid tender. The tendered price was £62,000. This was rejected and there were numerous debates in council as to how best to proceed. The sea began taking back the little of the land that had been reclaimed, the trestle structure began to fail and stagnant pools would form emitting an unpleasant odour.

In February 1885, tenders were called for a fourth time, albeit with a reduced scheme. Joseph Saunders was the lower of the two tenders received. The trestle was repaired and put back in to use to move the fill. Local children flocked to it as a place to play.

‘They swarm about it in scores, from little toddlers, scare able to walk a dozen steps, to girls of 12 or 14, and promising specimens of the male larrikin species.’ (Evening Post, 15th June 1885).

The play extended to dares and several children would lie with their necks on the rail and only jump off as the engine approached. The newspaper chastised Wellington parents for not keeping their children away from such a dangerous area. No accidents were reported.

Saunders used material from the cliff fronting James FitzGerald’s property behind Te Aro baths (the site is now St Gerard’s Monastery). The area he was contracted to finish was completed in February 1886. The reclamation was expanded in 1889, and then again in 1901. The last reclamation in this area was 1965-66. See the map on the WCC website:

https://wellington.govt.nz/wellington-city/about-wellington-city/history/history-of-wellington-waterfront/waterfront-reclamation

Image:
Te Aro, Wellington, New Zealand. Williams, Edgar Richard, 1891-1983: Photographs and papers. Ref: 1/1-025883-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22883810

13/09/2026

Harriot Riddiford | Ōrongorongo Station

As their only daughter, it was no wonder Richard and Mary Stone were alarmed when Harriot’s betrothed started talking about emigrating to New Zealand in 1838. Harriot and Daniel Riddiford had been engaged for 3 years. The Stone’s risked losing Harriot to an unknown country at the other end of the world, and so they withdrew their consent to the marriage.

Daniel’s mother, Harriet Evans, helped the pair ‘elope’ (Harriot was 23 years old and so there was no legal impediment to her marrying). The couple were married on 18th January 1839 at the Holy Trinity Church in Brompton, London. Resigned to the marriage, her parents gave her a generous dowry which included ‘a twelve-piece canteen of silver, articles of linen and furniture, and a large and well-stocked medicine chest.’

In 1839, the New Zealand Company’s plans for their first settlement started to see action. The ship Tory departed for New Zealand in May to survey and conduct land acquisitions. The first emigrant ships departed later in the year. The Company appointed Daniel Riddiford as emigration agent for their first settlement. The Riddiford’s joined the ship Adelaide. Harriot was now expecting her first child and so her parents employed a nurse to accompany her on the long voyage.

The Adelaide was not a harmonious ship and various factions formed with dislike focussed on Dr Samuel Evans, Daniel’s stepfather, who had been appointed judge for the settlement. Yet amongst the friction, Harriot gave birth to a daughter named Ellen on 29th November. The ship arrived at Port Nicholson in March 1840. Here Daniel immediately took up his agent duties.

In 1845, the Riddiford’s moved to land he leased at Ōrongorongo. Daniel built a pit-sawn totara hut for the family and cleared land for grazing sheep. The location was so isolated that Harriot was only visited by one European woman during her time there.

For the births of her children, Harriot went to Wellington. She was rowed there in a canoe, navigating the waters of Cook Strait and Baring Head. In total, she was the mother of twelve children who all lived to adulthood. Her family grew up alongside children from the neighbouring pā and they learnt to speak fluently in Te Reo.

Daniel was away from Ōrongorongo when the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake struck. The event destroyed their homestead and raised the coastline by about 5 feet. Harriot managed the evacuation of her children from the station. They put as many of their possessions as would fit into a Māori canoe and made the journey by sea to a new home ‘Woburn’ in the Hutt Valley.

Daniel died in 1875 and left Harriot all of the land he controlled at Te Awaiti, Ōrongorongo and Woburn, as well as a half share in profits of Ōrongorongo station run by their son. Harriot moved to Wellington and lived in a house on Tinakori Road named ‘Lindfield’ after the Sussex parish she was born in. She died on 6th September 1891 and was buried in in St James’ churchyard in Lower Hutt where Daniel is also interred.

Image:
Mrs Riddiford. Masterton District Libraries. Ref 3754623.

References:
Holy Trinity Brompton marriages (Ancestry)
Riddiford, H. (2014). A Blighted Fame George S. Evans 1802-1868, A Life.
Victoria University Press.
https://wainuiomata.net/history/riddiford-family-of-wainuiomata/ by David Johnson

06/09/2026

Charles Pressman | Hermit of Pipitea Point

Charlie’s father was a shipowner and so it seemed that Charlie too was destined for a life working at the sea. Charles Pressman (or Old Charlie as he became known) came to Wellington in 1862. Born in London about 1820, he first went to Australia to try his luck at the gold diggings and then came to Wellington where he was reunited with his sister Sarah, now Mrs Tandy.

In Wellington, Charlie went into partnership with his brother-in-law, George Tandy, as lightermen in Wellington Harbour. Lightermen typically moved goods from larger ships to the shore in flat-bottomed barges. Over time as improvements were made to Wellington’s shipping facilities, the demand for lightermen waned.

To replace his lost earnings, Charlie purchased a boat he named the ‘Maori’ which he traded for 17 years to Picton, White Rock and other places around the New Zealand coast. He acted as his own carpenter, rigger, sail-maker and navigator. In 1888, the ‘Maori’ broke from her moorings in Wellington harbour, drifted, and then hit a submerged punt which caused the boat to sink. The loss of the ‘Maori’ ended Charlie’s sea going career. He did seek compensation from the Harbour Board but he was unsuccessful in winning his claim.

The ‘Maori’ was towed ashore at Pipitea Point. Once high and dry on the sand, the hulk became Charlie’s home.

‘The parched and weather-beaten timbers of the old craft suggest that a long interval has elapsed since she ploughed the briny, but the thin curls of smoke which issue from a rudely-improvised funnel, and occasionally the flutter of some modest articles of wearing apparel in the breeze, indicate that her sphere of usefulness is not altogether ended.’

Children would to gather around the hulk to play and gamble - and no doubt hear Charlie’s tales of his seafaring adventures. The hulk became an attraction for those who enjoyed a constitutional walk along Thorndon Esplanade. It was a picturesque scene for artists who frequently came down to the beach to paint her. Because of its rustic and characterful nature, the hulk was nicknamed Peggotty’s by a ‘local crony of the Hermit’s’ who thought it resembled Mrs Peggotty’s boat from Charles Dicken’s novel ‘David Copperfield.’ To this Charlie replied:

‘Um yes but there ain’t no Little Em’ly and there ain’t no Mrs Gummidge – glory be to God!’

Charlie retained his sharpness of mind into old age, although he suffered from a series of unlucky accidents in his working life. Twice he fell into the holds of ships from a height of 40ft. In 1901, aged 80, he was knocked down by a passing train while going to fetch water for his home. After a five month hospital stay, he had fully recovered. For the next few years he could still be seen ‘regularly bringing home necessaries for his frugal board with an alertness that is surprising.’ (NZ Times, 11 November 1903).

When interviewed by the newspaper in 1903, Charlie said he felt lonely. Although he shared the hulk with a young companion, his sister Sarah had recently died and he had few relatives in New Zealand. Charlie awaited ‘the end of his long “watch” with cheerfulness and resignation.’

But the hulk needed to make way for progress. With a planned extension to the reclamation in 1905, Charlie was served notice to quit the shore once and for all. Before the scheme could be carried out, he was found dead in his bunk on the hulk. Death was certified the result of ‘old age’. He was 85 years old. Charlie was buried at Karori Cemetery in the same plot as his sister Sarah Tandy (plot Ch Eng/M/12).

Image:
A New Zealand Diogenes: Mr Charles Pressman. 1901. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19010726-12-05

30/08/2026

Joseph Pawelka | On the Run 1911

Arsonist, burglar and three times gaol escapee, Joseph Pawelka was born in West Oxford, Canterbury in 1887. His parents, Jozef and Louisa (born König) were both born in Moravia. The family moved to Kimbolton in the Manawatū in the 1890s.

In 1909 at Ashhurst, Pawelka married Hannah Elizabeth Wilson. The marriage was unsettled and Hannah requested a separation order. In February 1910, the couple appeared at Palmerston North Police Station following a disagreement and Hannah asked for police protection as Pawelka had a fire arm which he then surrendered. During a search of his house, the police found several stolen items. Pawelka was arrested and charged with theft. He was remanded in custody but escaped the gaol using two upturned buckets to scale the wall of the yard, and fled on a stolen bicycle.

Pawelka was recaptured two days later at Awahuri and sent to Wellington’s Terrace Gaol. Two days later on 23rd March, he was transferred to police cells on Lambton Quay. The gaoler, Constable John Gallagher, removed Pawelka’s cell mate but failed to lock the cell door behind him. Pawelka took advantage of the opportunity and escaped again.

Over following few weeks, a trail of crimes marked his journey north. On 2nd April, a couple disturbed a masked burglary in their Palmerston North home. This began a fortnight of further burglaries and arson. On 5th April, Palmerston North High School and a shop were burnt down through arson. Local Sergeant John McGuire was shot during one struggle with Pawelka on 10th April, and died four days later. A £100 reward was offered and military volunteers and armed civilians patrolled the streets of Palmerston North.

The chase came to an end when Pawelka was surprised by Constables Jim Thompson and John Gallagher in a cowshed at Ashhurst on 20th April. This was the same Constable Gallagher who left the cell unlocked in Wellington. After a series of trials in the Supreme Court, on 8th June 1910, Justice Theophilus Cooper sentenced Pawelka to 21 years imprisonment.

Throughout the court trials, Pawelka was held at the Terrace Gaol. In early August 1911, he made his first attempt to escape, followed by a second failed attempt on 14th August. On 17th August, his third attempt was successful and he was ‘at large’ for over an hour before being recaptured under a house in Woolcombe Street. On 27th August he finally succeeded. Pawelka removed the grille from his cell window (the screws having previously been replaced with wood shavings and soap). The last recorded sighting of Pawelka was as he ran from the gaol towards the Botanic Garden. He was never recaptured.

His wife Hannah gave birth to a little girl named Iris on 24th July 1910. Pawelka never saw his daughter. Hannah obtained a divorce from Pawelka and died in 1963, aged 82.

And what happened to Pawelka? Family lore says he was assisted to Canada, via Suva and that his mother’s prayer book was annotated with the date of his departure (16th February 1912). The NZ Truth newspaper published a different account in 1913:

‘Up to now, the police authorities are in profoundest ignorance of what became of him after he stepped over the clay bank outside the prison walls. Here two Russians came in. On a secret diplomatic mission themselves, they determined to aid their compatriot in his break for liberty. A cab was waiting in Woolcombe-street into which Joe jumped, and orders were given to drive to the Thorndon railway station. On the way a change of clothes was effected. Arrived at the station, three men got out of the cab, paid the driver and disappeared. They then wended their way backwards towards the wharf, where they were joined by, what were in appearance, a laboring man and woman, who saw them aboard a boat due to sail for Lyttelton.’ (NZ Truth, 23 August 1913, p5)

The article continued that they joined a coal boat at Greymouth and sailed to Newcastle, travelled overland to Queensland and got to Thursday Island. From there they separated and Pawelka went to Mexico where he had remained ever since.

Image:
At Large Again. Portrait of Joseph John Pawelka, who has escaped from the Terrace Gaol in Wellington. The New Zealand Graphic and Ladies Journal, 30 August 1911, p.29. Courtesy of Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections NZG-19110830-0029-03.

References:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3p17/pawelka-joseph-john-thomas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Pawelka
(1913, August 23). Joe Pawelka Placed. NZ Truth, 5.
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