Auckland

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Some alarm has been caused m Auckland by a report submitted to the Newton Borough Council by Inspector Hickson, who stated that the constable at Surrey Hills, m making inquiries amongst Chinamen, had come across one (whose name he could not find out) washing his vegetables m a creek which separates the districts of Eden terrace and Archill, and which contained the sewerage of both these districts, and also the drainage from the Symonds street cemetery. From the appearance of the place, the constable stated he should say that the hole had been generally used for the same purpose. Mr J. Currie, sanitary inspector, said he had visited the place indicated, and had found a number of bunches of carrots, parsnips, turnips, and spring onions lying soaking m what was practically a sewer, through which passed the drainage of Karangahape Ward, Eden terrace and Archill. Some Chinamen m the neighbourhood were supplied with the city water. In this particular instance it had been cut off, and the only water available was the foul sewage mentioned, the smell from which was simply abominable. This appeared to be a very serious menace to public health, as the poisonous germs m the water must be carried into the houses vhere the vegetables were used. Several nembers spoke strongly on the subject, mt as it appeared that the creek mentioned was not within the jurisdiction of the Newton Council the report was sent to the Archhill Board.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1766, 29 May 1895, Page 2

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THD18950529.2.10&srpos=98&e=-------100--1----0Karangahape+Road+vegetables-all

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COMPETITION AT AUCKLAND CHINESE STRIKES. [BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] AUCKLAND, This Day. Enquiries were made by a reporter yesterday morning with the object of ascertaining how far the Chinese engaged in the vegetable trade regulate the market in Auckland. At the Waitemata Co-operative Auction Rooms it was learned that the sales there were usually attended by fifteen or sixteen Celestials, who take active part in bidding for the purpose of supplying their retail customers. The men of the Orient appear to be held in kindly regard in this direction, having obtained a reputation for scrupulous honesty, readiness to oblige, and keenness of bargaining. A Chinese view of marketing conditions in Auckland was obtained from Mr. Willie Ah Chee, whose firm has a large interest in the market-gardening business. He said that their prices were always regulated by those ruling at auction, and, therefore, any increases were the result of the general market fluctuating. Mr. Ah Chee remarked that, although the public did not hear of it, they had their labour troubles just as did the people in the outer industrial world. When the Chinese workmen felt that they should be getting higher wages they appointed deputations to wait on the employers, and if their requests were not met in a satisfactory manner they went out on strike. "Our men have struck two or three times during the past year,' remarked tte speaker. He added, however, that they usually managed to settle their troubles before they went very far, as the result of conferences between the parties concerned. "I could show you from our wages book," said Mr. An Chee, "that some of the Chinese in our gardens are getting as much as £3 and £4 per week ; also, that the usual wage for shop hands is from £2 to £2 10s per week." In further explanation, he said that the former were the third or fourth rate overseers. In addition to the wages quoted the employers had to provide keep for their employees, so that their business had to be run on careful line to secure satisfactory results. In all, there were about 250 Chinese market gardeners in Auckland.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 119, 21 May 1913, Page 3

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=EP19130521.2.17&cl=search&srpos=7&e=-------100--1----0chinese+fruit+auckland-all&st=1

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Exactly when the Chinese market gardens started up at Chinaman's Hill isn't known -- but they were in full operation by at least the mid 1880s. They became a cause of concern for letter writers to the NZ Herald when questions were raised as the the purity of the Western Springs water supply:

"I think the general public will be surprised to learn that -- barring a very low estimate from the number of loads that pass through Newton -- ten tons daily, or over three thousand tons yearly, of stable manure, besides a great quantity of urine, is deposited in the Chinese gardens, within a quarter of a mile of and in the direct line of drainage to the springs from which our water is pumped ..."


("Aqua Pura", NZ Herald 26 February 1887)


Thomas Wong Doo, the patriarch of the successful Wong Doo family, is said to have joined older brothers on the market gardens at Chinaman's Hill, sometime during the 1880s. (Information from his obituary, NZ Herald, 21 November 1858) Kaaren Hiyama identified some more names:

"Tranliteration and the reversal of Chinese name order makes connections difficult. In the 1890s valuation rolls show a Fong Chaw living in one of Thomas Faulder's houses on the southern side of Surrey Crescent opposite Billington's block, and possibly working that land. Thomas Billington's property, between Stanmore and Old Mill Roads and Francis Street, was leased from 1884 to four Fong brothers and in 1890 a Quong Fong Ming, gardener, is listed as the occupier of the house and land belonging to Billington ... Memories of elderly local people of the market gardeners hawking their produce in horse and cart are the only remaining evidence of large-scale cultivation which continued for decades, supplementing home-grown vegetables." (pp. 28-29)

timespanner.blogspot.com/2009/09/chinamans-hill-grey-lynn.html

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FRAUD BY A CHINESE

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, !This Day. A young 'married Chinese, Low Mee Wah aged 29, was sent to gaol for a month for incurring four debts totalling £11 3s by fraud. He represented to grocers that he possessed a market garden and a truck. Another Chinese offered to make restitution and give the accused work, but the Magistrate, Mr., P., K. Hunt, S.M., took a serious view of the frauds. .

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 76, 26 September 1930, Page 10

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UNEMPLOYED CHINESE POSITION IN AUCKLAND

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This, Day. Attention was, drawn to-day by one of the leaders of the Chinese community in Auckland, :Mr. Andrew Chong, to the plight of unemployed Chinese. He said, that' throughout New Zealand .Chinese had paid thousands of pounds to the unemployment fund, yet, as far as he could ascertain, not one Chinese had been given relief work or relief nations. The . situation became acute last April, when owing to the low returns from the market garden business many men had been thrown on their own resources. They were unable to obtain employment with Europeans, and they had been informed-by the Labour Department that they were ineligible for work or sustenance. Yet Chinese in work continued to pay both the levy and the tax. He estimated that there were about 150 Chinese in Auckland practically destitute.

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 7, 10 January 1933, Page 9

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UNEMPLOYED CHINESE

AN AUCKLAND SCHEME

POSITION IN WELLINGTON

. A community garden scheme is proposed as a means of providing work for tho unemployed Chinese of Auckland, states an Auckland message. An assurance has been given by the Unemployment Board that the necessary wages will be found, although the basis of payment has not yet been fixed. The Rev. W. W. Chan, who has gono to Auokland ■ from Wellington, is taking the initial steps of organising the workless Chinese in Auckland, who are ostimated to^number more than 200, and ho is hopeful of the scheme being proceeded with as soon as possible. He said that there were 400 unemployed Chinese in Wellington, and in dealing with the problem there they had the co-operation of the Unemployment Board and .the Mayor of Wellington. "There are. two tongs in Auckland," said Mr. Chan, "and my object is to try to bring thorn together. In any case, when a man is hungry he forgets all about tongs." . On inquiry being made at the Unemployment Board's office in Wellington today it was stated that no information was at present available as to the possibility of a garden scheme similar to that proposed for Auckland being introduced locally. . Mr. Yjie H. Jackson, Vice-Consul for China, told a "Post" ropbrter that the number of unemployed Chineso in Wellington is betweon 150 and 200. The Chinese community here numbers about 500, including women and children, and in --normal times employment is provided in laundries, fruit, silk-, and fancy-goods shops, market gardens, and Chinese rostaurants and provision shops. At present practically all of those out of work are living with friends or relatives in shops or laundi'ips, giving thoir services in return for their keep. Naturally thoy are anxious to securo regular employment, but during the winter months work is scarce in the occupations suited to them. In the summer time there is work for them, in the market gardens, and trado in the shops is brisker. Chinese are eligible for relief work on the same basis as Europeans. In a number of cases of hardship the Chineso Consiilato has successfully applied to tho Commissioner of Unemployment for exemption;from payment of the unemployment levy. The Mayor of Wellington has given the use of two shops in Taranaki Street belonging to the City Council to Chineso who have no place of abode, and those premises are being used as shelters. "Tho Chinese community in Wellington lives very happily together," Mr. Jackson added. "The more fortunate ones are doing their best to help those who have been hard hit. There are district associations in the community but no tongs." Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1934, Page 7

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SMUGGLED CHINESE ALLEGED TO BE IN AUCKLAND POLICE INVESTIGATIONS.

Tlie Auckland police are making inquiries which they believe will unearth a conspiracy to smuggle Chinese labourers into New Zealand from Fiji, and have taken into custody two Chinese whom they allege have been already smuggled into Auckland from the s.s. Atua on the oocasion of that ship's visit on 13th March.

For some time past the Customs officers in Auckland have had suspicions of this class of smuggling, states the Star, and the Customs boarding-officer, Mr. W. D Grant, made special inquiries, in the course of which he dropped across circumstances which appear to him to merit definite action. He communicated his suspicions to Plain Clothes Constable Gourley, who keeps a special eye on waterfront activities, and Detective- Sergeant Issel, whose intimate knowledge of the finger-print system was likely to prove valuable in a matter involving identification of Chinese' coolies. The three officers paid a surprise visit to the market gardens at and beyond Mangere, where they required the Celestial labourers to produce evidence of registration. Eventually, iii a market garden at Mangere belonging to the Ah Chee Bros., they dropped on two Chinese of the coolie -class who could not make good with papers their, protestations that they had paid the £100 poll tax required of every Chinese immigrant, or that they had passed the education test. They were brought by motor to town, and produced to Mr. William Ah Chee, who disclaimed any knowledge of them, and they were then asked to tell their story through the medium of an interpreter judged to be more reliable than the interpreter available at the market garden. One of the men told a circumstantial story of having been in ' New Zealand about ten months, and having worked for eight months or so at the counter of a local fruit shop, but when he was invited to explain how he managed to do business for that time at the' counter without any knowledge at all of the English language he subsided into the "no savvy" defence of the Chinese. He could not manage to explain further how, with such a very extensive "no savvy," he managed to get past the reading and writing test demanded of the incoming Chinese immigrant.

The other prisoner then confessed that they had been smuggled into the country. He explained arrangements that he said had been made at Suva by the payment of £90 to an agent, detailed how they had been.smuggled aboard the ship to a secret room, and kept provided with food and conveniences, smuggled out again after the ship had berthed at Chelsea, brought over to Auckland by ferry boat, and sent on to the market garden. The police are inclined to accept this story, and inquiries are afoot to have it substantiated, with a view, if it bo found t_ be correct, to having the persons concerned in the conspiracy brought to book. The prisoners were brought before Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., at the Auckland Court on Saturday, and charged with having landed in New Zealand without having paid the poll, tax of £100 apiece, and without having passed the education test. On the application of Chief- Detective McMahon, they were remanded till next Friday. Bail, which was applied for'on their behalf by Mr. Sexton (instructed by Mr. thingyson), was refused, the Chief Detective opposing the granting of bail on the ground that if the men were at liberty the success of important inquiries now being made might be jeopardised. Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 100, 30 April 1919, Page 10

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ASSAULT AND ROBBERY ALLEGED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, This Day.

When Fong Foo Ying, aged 52, Chinese market gardener, left his house at Panmure last night to bring in his horses he was allegedly assaulted by two men, one throwing a sack over his head a^d the other striking him on the head with a stone. His injuries, though painful, are not serious. Ying subsequently informed the police that he had been robbed of £195 10s.

Shortly after midnight the police arrested two young Maoris at a market garden. All the missing money is said to have been recovered.

Today the two Maoris, Charles Harris, aged 19, and Kere Thompson, aged 18, both gardeners, were charged with robbing Ying and using personal violence. They were remanded till January 18. Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 8, 10 January 1940, Page 9

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A sum of £40in silver, a portion ot the hoard of a Chinese market gardener named Quong Sing, living im Rugby road. Three Kings Auckland was stolen recently in a somewhat peculiar manner. The Chinaman, fearing that his money might be stolen if he kept it in the house, placed it among various bundles of sacks in a shed in the garden. Apparently the thieves brought a cart and loaded one bundle off about 500 sacks, among which was stored the £40. Sums of £100 in silver, and £70 in notes, which were stored in other bundles, fortunately, were not touched.' A Chinese laborer was sleeping m. the shed on tlie night of the robbery, but he was not disturbed by the intruders. This is attributed to tho fact that each, night other' workers m the garden ar* accustomed to feed the horses in the stable adjoining the shed, and if the sleeper heard any noise he would think it came from his fellow-laborers at work Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14575, 10 April 1918, Page 8

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STABBING AFFRAY

CHINESE IN COUET.

<BI TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

■ AUCKLAND, This Day. A prosecution, as the result of a stabbing affray at market gardens at Panmure, Ah Chu flourishing a garden fork and wounding Shee Sing in the face during an altercation, Sing being in hospital for eleven days, was heard in the. Police Court to-day. Owing to the reluctance of the chief Crown witness, the charge, wounding so as to cause actual bodily harm Preferred against Ah Chu (27), was reduced to common assaut, accused beirfg convicted and ordered to pay costs £4 12s. The Magistrate remarked that Shee Sing, the Chinaman assaulted, had made up his mind not to get his countryman into trouble, and it would be useless to send the case to the Supreme Court. Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 8 October 1923, Page 8

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Visitors to Onehunga, especially at night, are often surprised to hear loud reports, as of firearms being discharged. It appears, says the "Herald." that there are a number of gardens kept by Chinamen in the town, and the Chinamen fire guns at intervals to discourage night prowlers from stealing the vegetables, a by no means uncommon practice. Most of the spare land in Onehunga is now cuiltivated by Chinamen, who pay £9 an acre a year for it. At Mangere the Chinamen pay £10 per acres for some land which they have leased there. Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13674, 13 January 1915, Page 4

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This morning Detectives Maddern and Kennedy, accompanied by Mr T. Quoi, interpreter, went out to the Chinese market gardens at Mount Alber t, and there arrested a Chinaman named Gin A-h You, on a charge of entering the colony .without paying £100 polßax at Wellington, oh March 31st l.asit.j Accused was brought before the Police Court this morning, and remanded till Tuesday, bail being allowed in one surety of £ 100. Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 196, 18 August 1900, Page 4

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FATAL ACCIDENT AUCKLAND, 15th October. A Chinese market gardener named Kwok Lam -was knocked down by, a horse and cart in the road today, and died shortly after. Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 93, 16 October 1918, Page 2

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FALL FROM TRUCK CHINESE FATALLY INJURED (By Telegraph.—Press Association.)
AUCKLAND, This Day

Falling from the back of a motortruck in Coronation Road, Mangere, early this afternoon, a Chinese, whose name is not yet ascertainable, was fatally injured. The truck, which was owned by a market gardener named Cher Yem. swerved, thus causing the accident. A doctor arrived from Onehunga, but the injured man had died. Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 35, 10 August 1936, Page 10

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Alleged Charge of Theft, —Two youths named Joseph Braslan and David Green were charged with stealing' a silver watch and chain and two pairs of boots, the property of Ah Quong. Chief Detective Grace appeared for the prosecution, Mr Reed for Braslan and Mr Parr for Green, both accused pleading not guilty. Mr T. Quoi acted as interpreter for the Chinese witnesses. Bing Quong, Ah Yet and Ming Set sitated that they left their house at Epsom early one morning to work in the garden. The door was shut, but not locked. On returning at nine a.m. they found several articles, including a watch, were missing. Isabella Noonan, second-hand dealer, deposed that she bought the watch produced from Braslan for Bs. She also purchased a pair of boots from him. Accused signed his name in her book as "J. Jones, Nelson-street." To Mr Reed: Witness did not know why she asked accused to write his name. Joseph Noonan corroborated. Acting- Detective Kennedy deposed that after he arrested Braslan the latter made a statement implicating Green. The latter was then arrested, and the statement was read over to him in Braslan's presence. Green's reply was, "There's no truth in it," Mr Parr submitted, and the Magistrate agreed, that there was no case against Green, who was accordingly discharged. Braslan, who reserved his defence, was committed for trial. Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 141, 15 June 1900, Page 5