Post by nzbc on Nov 7, 2023 10:41:14 GMT 12
陈达枝 Chan Dah Chee (1851 -1930)
POSTED BYby ADMIN AUGUST 24, 2011
Pioneer Chinese Market Gardener and Auckland Businessman[1]
Lily Lee and Ruth Lam
Chan Dah Chee 陈达枝, or Ah Chee as he was more commonly known,[2] was one of the most prominent and influential businessmen in the early years of Chinese settlement in Auckland. From his arrival in 1867 to his departure in 1920, Ah Chee contributed greatly to the growth and development of the Chinese business and market gardening community. Ah Chee spent over fifty years in New Zealand and deserves to be remembered as one of Auckland’s first Chinese pioneers in market gardening and business.
This story of Ah Chee is not only of a pioneering entrepreneur, but serves to highlight the significance of the Chinese contribution to market gardening and fruit and vegetable retailing more broadly. This story is not a complete account of Ah Chee’s life, rather it seeks to provide an insight into how he lived and a sense of what it was like to be an early Chinese market gardener in his time.[3]
Figure 1: Ah Chee surrounded by his grandchildren and children of his nephew Sai Louie. Back from left: Robert Ah Chee, Norman Ah Chee. Middle from left: Dorothy Ah Chee, Gordon Sai Louie, Rona Sai Louie, Bruce Ah Chee, Alice Ah Chee, Roxford Ah Chee. Front from left: May Sai Louie, Alec Ah Chee, Marjorie Ah Chee (c. 1918, Bruce Ah Chee)
The Story of Ah Chee
Born in 1851, Ah Chee grew up in the village Mong Ngow Dun望牛墪, Tung Goon东莞, China. At the age of 16, Ah Chee and his two brothers left their village in search of greater opportunities and the sun gum saan, meaning ‘new gold mountain’, the colloquial Chinese name for New Zealand and Australia. In 1867[4] Ah Chee and his brothers arrived in Auckland. Originally they had planned to travel to Dunedin (possibly to the Otago goldfields), but such was their seasickness that when the ship stopped in Auckland they too stopped to get off and stay.[5]
From the time of Ah Chee’s arrival it is believed that he worked as a gardener. In the 1870s he was a familiar sight as an itinerant hawker along the foreshore area of Mechanics Bay, Parnell and Lower Queen Street, Auckland.[6]
Figure 2: Chinese market gardeners such as Sing Chow, were a familiar sight in the late 1880s to early 1900s as they carried their baskets for hawking vegetables (October 1898, 1249, Akaroa Museum).
Market Gardening: Kong Foong Yuen 江风园
Ah Chee’s first recorded market garden was established on 7 ¼ acres (2.93 hectares) of leased land in Gillingham Street Parnell. The market garden had the auspicious name of Kong Foong Yuen 江风园 and was also known as ‘the garden of prosperity’.[7] The gardens were central to the success and achievements of Ah Chee and provided him with a platform to expand into a number of business enterprises.
Family history records Ah Chee growing vegetables on the land as early as the 1870s. Land registry records show that the land was formally leased to Ah Chee and Ah Sec in August 1882. [8] The lease was for 7 acres 1 rood 20 perch (just over 7 ¼ acres), ‘with all buildings thereon erected’, for a term of 21 years, at the annual rental of £95, in advance, payable on the 24th of October and April each year. The lessees were not to carry on any noxious or offensive trade or business on the said premises and ‘in the event of the lessees cultivating the said premises or any part thereof they shall do so in a proper and husbandman-like manner and so as not to unduly impoverish the soil.’[9] Fifteen years later in 1897, Ah Sec’s share of the lease was assigned to Ah Chee. It was leased again in 1903 under Ah Chee’s name and then renewed up until 1920.[10] In all, Ah Chee’s market garden was located at Gillingham Street for thirty-eight years.
The Kong Foong Yuen Garden was an ideal place for growing vegetables. It was situated in a small sheltered valley, with a northerly aspect and had soil of volcanic origin. The valley was once a raupo swamp,[11] a natural collection point for the runoff from the slopes to the south and east. The Waipapa stream, fed by the springs in the Domain, flowed through the valley on its way down to Mechanics Bay. Over the years, the course of the stream had been dammed to run the flourmill, diverted to supply the rope works and the tannery with water, and channeled to irrigate vegetable crops.
www.environmentalhistory-au-nz.org/2011/08/%E9%99%88%E8%BE%BE%E6%9E%9D-chan-dah-chee-1851-1930/?fbclid=IwAR2NksKK9SgZ4Fp_nTMq6BDeJZjuShdoCYZDBOWCdcvUtEok9zUQtcd2c0s