(DRAMATIC BEAT) Mark Twain ` one of the most famous writers who's ever lived. Even if you've never read his books, I bet you've heard of him. In 1895, he was broke and was forced to do a worldwide lecture tour. He came here. What did he think of us? What did we think of him? And what else was happening in New Zealand at that time? (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) Captions by Kristin Williams. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 (SLOW BLUES MUSIC) # I saw the devil. # In the year 1895, New Zealand was as wild as you could get in the Western world. As a country we were young, bold, adventurous and it seems, just a little bit crazy. And that's the year that this guy visited us. Mark Twain. (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) Mark Twain was in New Zealand for 39 days, but I'm on the road for a bit longer, because I'm not just following in his historic footsteps. I'm learning about the people who were helping to shape our country way back then. That means lots of people to meet and stories to learn about. As for Mr Twain, his tour of New Zealand started... right here. # Came up from the bayou. # Mark Twain landed here in Bluff after a long trip from Australia on a boat called the Mararoa. A journalist did an undercover interview with him while aboard. He hid his pen and paper so that Twain didn't know he was being interviewed. It was the first local press with him, and it was published in the Otago Daily Times. But what was it that fascinated Mark Twain so much that had dominated the first entries in his notebook? Rabbits. Oma rapeti. Ah, too late. Rabbits began their run in New Zealand at Bluff, and local conservationist Lloyd likes his bunnies flat out. Lloyd, when were the rabbits first introduced to this country? We got them here 1863. That was at Sandy Point here. And why did they release... Why did they do it? They had this idea that God's work was incomplete, that he'd been interrupted in his work of spreading animals around the world, and humans were obliged to carry on. And they thought` And they were doing God's work. Yeah. They thought, 'Well, he hasn't got around to putting the rabbits here. We'll give him a hand.' And then they had a public release of the rabbits. They had all the town dignitaries wishing the rabbits every success, except for there was a Scotsman, apparently, who stood on a sand dune and raised his fist and cursed the rabbits and said, you know, 'No good will come of this.' One thing that Mark Twain... One of the first things he wrote in his notebook, he wrote about the rabbits. The rabbit population was huge at that stage, so he would've seen far more rabbits than he'd have seen anywhere else in the world. So I'll just make a cut through the meat here. Oh, what do you do with the meat? Do you have a cat you can feed it to? Uh... You can tell I'm not very country. There's a wee bit of meat there, hardly any. No fat, no fat on a rabbit. No fat. No fat on a rabbit. Is that why they're such good eating? Uh... Healthy eating. Yeah, they're healthy eating, and they were advertised as for slimmers, so people trying to lose weight would get large numbers of rabbits to eat. Oh, are you finished cutting it open yet? Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's open. I'm such a wuss. Are you? (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) But rabbits aren't the only reason I've tracked Lloyd down. He's an expert on the hanging of Minnie Dean. She looked after children for a fee at her home, but when police found three bodies buried in her garden, she was found guilty of infanticide. Dean was hanged in Invercargill on the 12th of August 1895. (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) Here she is. Williamina McCulloch was Minnie Dean, yeah. When Mark Twain landed, the big news would've still been the execution of Minnie Dean. Of Minnie Dean, yeah. And here she lies, here in Winton. But you know a bit about her executioner, Tom Long. Yeah, I do. Yeah, here's Minnie, and she was hanged by Tom Long, who was the official executioner. (COUNTRY MUSIC, CHANTING) He was a bit of a public figure. So he would assess men for their hangability, and he would work out how much rope they would need. And all the naughty boys were brought along to the station, and the hangman was pointed out to them. 'That is the hangman, so you'd better watch yourself.' (LAUGHS) And he was the one guy officially under the employ of the government for this specific purpose? For this job. He hanged at least 18 people, and one of the perks of the job was that he got to keep the clothing of the person he'd hanged. Oh, wow. So he got her clothing, which he promptly sold off for more beer, cos he was a bit of a drinking man. On the day of the hanging he said, 'Look, I'm not gonna do the job unless I get something to drink.' So he got a drink and he said, 'Now, if you like, I'll hang 20 women.' He got paid �25 I think each time he would` Per hanging? Yeah. Would you, um, take $1000 to hang somebody? In 1895` It'd be tempting. It'd be tempting. ...I don't imagine the need for Polynesian comedy back then, so I think I probably would have. You probably would, yeah. Yeah. (LAUGHS) Who would you hang? Who would be top of the list if you had a rope? Probably the people that put the rabbits out. Yeah, that's a good idea, OK. Tom Long had 200 convictions, and he even hanged people while locked up himself. Criminal characters were a dime a dozen in the 1800s. Tim Shadbolt's great-grandad Benjamin did 17 years hard labour for theft before becoming a Southland whaler. He was more straight up than fellow whale killing enthusiast Johnny Jones. Mr Jones got four mates together, and they offered to buy what was left of the South Island for �200. Jessica from the BNZ knows what kind of cash they were all flashing about. So when Twain came in 1895, how would he have got New Zealand money to spend and pay for stuff while he was on his tour? So at the time banks issued their own notes. We didn't have a national currency? No. Well, our national currency was British pounds. OK. But our notes were produced by each bank. And they're really interesting, cos you can see the Kiwiana ideas coming through and this sense of sort of national identity. That's a really funny picture there. There's, like, two kiwis hanging out in the middle of the day, a waka going by in the background. And what are those? Maybe nikau palms. And, of course, you've got this picture. Yeah. Now, there's an interesting story about these guys. When the original design came out, this man wasn't actually wearing trousers, but they thought that was a little bit scandalous, and they've, you know, sort of forced some pants on him. (BOTH LAUGH) Do you know when we got uniform New Zealand notes? Yeah, so that was in 1933, and that one actually featured King Tawhiao on it. He was a leader in the Maori kingdom movement. What?! Check those mokos, man. And he was interested in banking himself. We don't know a lot about what happened with his bank, but he did set up The Bank of Aotearoa for a while there. That's pretty cool. Yeah. And the next note featured the figure of Zealandia, who was the, sort of, fictional daughter of Britannia` Oh. ...in the same way New Zealand was seen to be... The child of Britain. ...the child of Britain, exactly. There she is hanging out with the sheep, kiwi just hanging out and a cherub. Of course, the very rare New Zealand cherub. But they don't make them wear pants. Oh, nah. (GIGGLES) So Twain sold his tickets ` the cheapest ones were 1 shilling and the... I think the flash ones were maybe 4 shillings. So what, what would that be in today's money? Ah, so that would be $10 to $40 that you're looking at. So at the end of the night, they would've had lots and lots of money. Was security an issue back then? He may have had a bank escort or a police escort, I imagine. All bankers actually carried revolvers... Oh wow. ...to protect the money. This is a BNZ revolver. So you can actually see the Bank of New Zealand name on the handle. Not only did they issue their own notes, but they issued their own guns as well. Yeah. Can I... Can I hold that? Yeah. Wow. That's heavy as. Even though it doesn't work and it's way old, there's something about holding a gun that's just a little bit scary. Yeah, they actually had guns right up until the 1970s. Really? Yeah, it's a lot later than you think. Is that right? Yeah. Our money had patriotic artwork, but our coat of arms was a blank canvas. A design competition was held in 1906, but someone didn't like the entries, so they tried again in 1908. Three ideas made the shortlist and were dispatched to Mother England for judging. The winner ` drum roll, please ` (DRUM ROLL) the design by government draughtsman James McDonald. The coat of arms got a facelift in 1956 when Zealandia and the chief finally faced each other and the chief scored an earring. How stylish. Who knows? Maybe my flag idea might still fly one day. Coming up ` the Invercargillite Twain went into business with... If you've ever hand-beaten an egg with a... with this thing, well, he invented that too. He invented that? Eggbeater? He invented that as well, yeah. # Aaaaaaah..... # And another inventor has an instant hit. New Zealand ` I'm gonna say Invercargill ` invented instant coffee. (ROLLING COUNTRY MUSIC) The audience in Invercargill absolutely loved Mark Twain. Amid the raucous welcoming cheers, the whole theatre sung For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, which is amazing. International comedians only half joke that getting the front row of a Kiwi audience to unfold their arms is akin to a standing ovation overseas. He stood like this too. Held an elbow, put his hand thoughtfully to his face like this, which I quite like, cos it hides my pimple. Mm. Think I might do this for my next show. Naked Samoans ` coming soon. Twain also made and impression on local inventor Ernest Godward. He'd jumped ship here at the age of 17 to grab life by the curlies. Ernest convinced Twain to invest in his ideas, which included modern miracles like the hand eggbeater and spiral hairpin. Simon Gomez believes his grandfather was proud of his American angel investor. Mark Twain had an appetite for investing, and he invested in your grandfather's company. Is that right? Yes, yes. That's when he started to make real money. Right. He was one of the world's foremost experts on combustible engines? Yes. He worked out how to take the gas and heat it using the manifold of the car so that you get further on less petrol. He called it an economiser. He was a very resourceful man, and he was able to invent things. One of his most important inventions was the hairpin he invented. We like to say he invented the crinkle in the hairpin. They were the very first hairpins I saw, because with my mum's Samoan hair, they needed those crinkles. Yeah. And so that's... When I think of hairpins, it's your grandfather's one that I think of. Yeah, yeah. It works in all sort of hair, not just Samoan, yeah. I bet there's a whole lot of Kiwis that don't know that the crinkle hairpin was invented in Invercargill. Or the post-hole borer. And if you've ever hand-beaten an egg with a hand eggbeater, with this thing,... Yes. ...well, he invented that too. He invented that? The eggbeater? He invented that as well. The eggbeater, yeah. What did they used to use before that? They used to shake the chickens, I think. (LAUGHS) Twain sure knew some bright sparks. This film of him from 1909 was filmed by the father of the light bulb, Thomas Edison. Wow. Twain had one of the first residential landlines, but turned down buying into the Bell Phone Company. He secured the hairpin instead. Historian Susan Irvine reckons Twain got a taste of southern inventiveness ` quite literally. I love this coffee culture that's sprung up in Aotearoa. I totally buy that we invented the flat white. All about it. But instant coffee, really? We did. New Zealand ` I'm gonna say Invercargill ` invented instant coffee. (SLOW GUITAR RIFT) There was a fellow in Invercargill called David Strang. He looked around and thought, 'No one's doing coffee that well,' so he started his own business called David Strang Coffee and Spice Mill. He imports the beans, roasts them, grinds them and sells them all around New Zealand. He even won awards for his coffee. International awards? Yeah. Well, Australia, New Zealand, um... By 1890, apparently these little Strang coffee tins were all over the place. I see the label calls it soluble coffee and chicory powder. So, they didn't call it instant coffee? No, they didn't call it an instant coffee. All you needed was your breakfast cup, the instant powder in your cup, and then some boiling water. Now, if that's not instant coffee, then I don't know what it. Now, Mark Twain, when he came in 1895, he listed one of his favourite foods ` American coffee and cream. What do you think he would've made of...? He probably would've had a cup of Strang's, I wonder. He could well have tried their instant coffee. It was on the market. Wow. I know. That's so cool. That's way cool. I know. I have to confess, I love instant coffee too. Do you really? Yeah. There's a time when, yeah, you can have your long black, but sometimes as instant coffee is just... It's not bad. So, here's to David Strang. Here's to David Strang and instant coffee. Instant coffee. Cheers. Cheers. (BANJO MUSIC) And where is this sacred site? The spiritual birthplace of instant coffee which would sustain our country for decades until we figured out words like barista, long black and flat white? There it is. (GENTLE BANJO MUSIC) # Aaaaaaaah..... # Oh, we're good at celebrating old stuff, eh (?) Up next ` I meet a local who was alive and in Invercargill when Twain visited. Outlived the dinosaurs. Probably outlive all of us. The man. You outlived the dinosaurs, Henry. And I take some early Kiwi wheels for a burn. I've never been on anything as fun as this. You haven't? Nah. (UPBEAT MUSIC) (CHEERING AND LAUGHTER) SONG: # Oh, oh, hey! # Oh, oh, hey! (RATTLING) # Oh, oh, hey! # Oh, oh, hey! # VOICEOVER: Tic Tac. Refresh every little moment. I feel like whispering like David Attenborough. And so on November the 5th 1895, the first day he arrived in the colony ` we weren't even a proper country back then ` Mark Twain gave his first performance. And Henry, this Invercargill icon, was around. You were here when Mark Twain was here. Not only was he there at that time, but it was also a period of incredible creativity and inventiveness in Southland. And this Invercargill icon... was there. (UPBEAT COUNTRY MUSIC) Twain loved a good idea. He patented three of his own ` a history trivia game; a self-pasting scrapbook, which made him $50,000; but Twain's most famous invention, which is still used today, never made him a dime. It was a removable strap to help clothes fit snugly. It became the bra strap. By 1900, most New Zealanders seem to have invented something. We had the most patent applications per capita of any country in the world. And when it comes to Invercargill and inventions, the sky is the limit. Gidday, Phil. Hi, Oscar. Stargazer Phil Burt has an ingenious map of our night sky that he wants to show off. And why is there a giant umbrella with the south celestial stars here on the street in Invercargill? Well, basically, because the whole thing is one giant sundial. This is a sundial? This is a sundial. You're standing on the clock face as we speak. Is there a fairly consistent supply of sun down here as well? Well, if I'm going to have to be patriotic, I'm going to have to say yes. (LAUGHS) If I'm going to be honest, I'll have to say hmm. (LAUGHS) And old chap that lived here until the 1930s called James Stewart, his father one day hammered a nail into the side of their house and told him to mark off the hours during the day and then he could use it as a sundial, and he did that and became absolutely fascinated ` almost obsessed. It made him a prominent citizen of the world almost, because there's not only his sundials around New Zealand, they're also in Australia and Britain. And he's buried under a sundial at the Invercargill cemetery. No way. Oh, yes. One that he designed for his tomb. (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) And here it is. This is it. The final resting place of James Stewart. It is indeed. He made this many years before his death. It was always intended to be his grave marker. And it's very unusual because it's around back to front. So this crucifix should be pointed that way? It should be round, right round, 180 degrees. It's got the numbers nine to 11, and as the sun goes across the sky, the shadow from the crucifix appears around the other side. Then you've go the afternoon. Then we've got the afternoon there. Wow. And then it goes even more. We've got, um... And so I see he's got the months of the year on this little metal bit. Yes. That's amazing. Even in death he's still... He's still telling the time. Even in death he's still helping people tell the time. Tell the time, yeah. We should maybe have a minute's silence. Is there anyway of telling how long a minute is just looking at the shadow? I will tell you exactly when a minute's up. Can you? Right. I can tell you, yeah, with precise accuracy. About now. About now. (LAUGHS) (UPBEAT HARMONICA MUSIC) But sundials have nothing on the clock southern scientist Arthur Beverly built. It's powered by the atmosphere. Ticking off in 1864 ` 31 years before Twain visited ` it's still going 122 years later and has never been wound. It was the closest thing in the world to a perpetual motion machine. Brain boxes. Time to fly. I have a ride to catch on one last southern invention. When Twain toured, a local chap called Cecil Wood was working on a Kiwi car. He'd also made an engine for Richard Pearse's flying machine. Cecil built our first motorcycle, and then moved on to more wheels. Engineering fan Jim Geddes has rebuilt Cecil's Kiwi car and is firing it up for a burn. (MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY MUSIC) You can put this down as reverse gear. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. (CHUCKLES) That's it. If you make the noise, it's like reverse. Yeah. (LAUGHS) Beep, beep. (HANDBRAKE RELEASES) Handbrake off. Wee bit of throttle. (ENGINE WHIRRS) (ADVENTUROUS COUNTRY MUSIC) We'll see you down the bottom. In true southern spirit, it's cobbled together from bits. The flywheel cover started life as a frying pan. So if you work for OHS, look away. Nothing to see here. I've never been on anything as fun as this. You haven't? Nah. Oh, well. Fair enough. That's good. Yeah, it's great. Can go a bit faster, if you like? Oh, nah. Safety first. (LAUGHS) (FUN ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC) Over the roots. Just gotta slow down over the roots. (CHUCKLES) Now, let's hoon it. Let's hoon it, Jim. As for my first wheels, I had a 1974 Chrysler Valiant Ranger. I was so proud of that motor. It had no warrant or rego, but I doubt Jim's car has the current paperwork. All good. And Cecil Wood is buried just over there in the cemetery? Yep. Wow. And you can see his t` You can see his tombstone from here. You can see his tombstone from here. Yeah. I reckon Cecil would be happy that we're doing this just past his resting place. Yeah. Cecil Wood.