(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 Antony Vlug. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 (BLUES MUSIC) (TRAIN HORN BLARES) The part of New Zealand I grew up in, trains weren't really a thing, but on these few occasions where I get to ride something historic like this, it's just... amazing, especially on this journey, following Mark Twain's footsteps around the country. He loved the countryside, and he said you could count more sheep than in a lifetime of insomnia. You're looking out the window. You're looking at the same stuff. And just for a moment, if you squint and you're really tired ` and maybe you've had a gin ` you can, kind of, pretend that you're, kind of, back in that time. Most stuff from back in Twain's day is dead and buried ` including him ` but this beauty still chugs... thanks to the toil of trainspotters like Grant Craig. (COUNTRY GUITAR MUSIC) Lovely to chat, Grant. Do you ever get sick of this? Never, never. It changes every day you come up here. That clickety-clack of the railway line ` you'll probably be asleep on the way home, Oscar, with all the movement of the train and clickety-clack. Man, I'm feeling it. It's not talking to you, Grant, I promise. (LAUGHS) It's just it's exactly that; it's the movement of the train. Yeah, yeah. Mark Twain writes about his train trips. He loved it. Yeah. He talks about the countryside. He talks about the modern carriages. That must make you feel good, knowing that a great man like him got as much enjoyment out of this as you do. Yeah, well,... railways was the only way to travel in his day. So, you know, we were quite modern in our day in 1895. We had birdcage carriages, modern locomotives... and we had a main trunk line between Invercargill and Christchurch. So, yes, we must've seemed modern for a colonial backwater like New Zealand was in those days. Did we have quite an extensive rail network in 1895? Huge. Huge. Especially in the South Island, because we're, sort of, the flatter terrain and we managed to build railway lines quicker than they did in the North Island. Do you think that was the golden era of rail in this country? It definitely was. You know, railways was the airlines of the day. You know, railway stations were the airports. You got from one end of the country to the other. You know, train travel was it. What happened to our wonderful, intensive rail system? From WWI, it, sort of, went downhill because the internal combustion engine was developed and competed against railways. I was reading a book the other day saying that cars were the demise of people wearing hats, because when you caught a train or a tram, you had to put a hat on to keep warm, but when you bought a car, you just stepped out of your house into your car, so you didn't need a hat. (LAUGHS) (FUN, UPBEAT COUNTRY MUSIC) When I first visited Dunedin, it was quite late in life and the South Island was still a foreign country. It was July. It was night-time. And as I drove into the gas station, everyone was wearing balaclavas. Coming from Auckland, I thought, 'Whoa, I've walked into a robbery,' but, nah, it was just cold and people were keeping warm. Turns out crime does pay ` well, it did for Dunedin author Fergus Hulme. Fergus wrote over 140 books, including The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to create the most famous detective in the world, Sherlock Holmes. What's better than a fictional hero? Elementary, my dear Watson. Dunedin's real-life one ` Dr Thomas Hocken. Donald Kerr is a fan of our most famous Kiwiana collector and the founder of the Hocken library. Donald is busting me into the back room to clap eyes on a masterpiece from Hocken's home. (FRAME SLIDES HEAVILY) Wow. So, this was the big-ass painting that was hanging... in Dr Hocken's house when Mark Twain came for dinner? Yes. I'd say so. I'd say so. I'm looking at something Mark Twain saw? Yes. And Hocken would've been proud of this item. He gets it in November 1887. And from what I understand, he pays �200 for it. �200?! Which in those days would've been tens of thousands. And I think... probably the most he ever paid for any one item in his collection. Twain first clocked Maori with moko thanks to the art at Hocken's house, and, boy, did he wax lyrical. Nothing could be finer than these men's features. Nothing more masculine. Nothing more noble than their aspect. Donald, why are you so passionate about this man? Hocken? He's the right man at the right time. He adopted New Zealand as his home country, and at 26, he makes a statement collecting the antiquities of New Zealand. And I think he enjoyed that role. I think he liked being known as the Wee Doctor, the historian. You say 'Wee Doctor' cos he was only 5'2", wasn't he? He was even less than that, Oscar. About 4'8". What?! He's very tiny. 4'8"? He's very tiny. Like, oompa loompa like? (LAUGHS) Oompa loompa like. He's very small ` the Wee Doctor. Looking at a picture of him with his young daughter, Gladys, he seemed to have very kind eyes. Yes, yes. Eh? He had a lovely face. He had a lovely friendly face. Yes. And, you know, you talk about who would you invite for dinner, and I think Hocken would be one of those characters that you'd like to invite and sit down and have a yarn with. So, of course, when Twain visited, it was a given that he would visit Dr Hocken? Twain, his wife and one daughter, uh,... come along and have a dinner with Hocken. I think it would've been a fun night. (SLEEPY, GENTLE COUNTRY MUSIC) When very important people visit countries, they're always given a gift by their hosts, something special of that place. In Sri Lanka one time, our former PM John Key was given a baby elephant. In 2009, Barack Obama gave England's Gordon Brown some DVDs, not realising they wouldn't play in British players. And in 1947, the Queen's then government gave the Queen 500 tins of pineapple. So in 1895, what did we give one of the most famous authors who ever lived? Ta-da! It's a caterpillar with a fungus growing through its brain. Of course, it is. This gruesome gift was a popular memento of your 1895 tour down under. (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) (LAUGHS) Coming up ` the mysterious case of Queen Victoria's Maori godson, and Dunedin gets a five-star Trip Advisor review in the 1800s. Dunedin, heaven ` same thing. (LAUGHS) Mark Twain rules. * (HIP-HOP MUSIC) RAPS: # Brudda, I'm peaking. I've been going blind, and you seen him. # They just turning up where I been in. Tell 'em... # Dunedin loves its history. Instead of tearing down aged facades, they have a knack for making the vintage vibe hip. Our first city has always rocked as a cultural centre. One woman who knows more about that than most is Heritage New Zealand's Dunedin cheerleader Susan Irvine. So, Susan, I read that Twain wrote he was very impressed that a city like this had two art galleries, cos even back in North America that was quite rare. Yeah. The art scene was really vibrant in Dunedin at the time. Was it the emphasis on education that, kind of, led to all this creativeness and progressive thinking? Yeah, I think there was a real emphasis on education down here. First university... First university. First med school, of course. Our first female doctor was about to graduate. She was still at the medical school with,... I think the quote is, 'men throwing flesh at her every chance they got'. Flesh? Good Lord. And so, yeah, there was an emphasis on... 'let's think about things, let's explore... things, let's`' It's almost like Dunedin was the ancient Rome of New Zealand. Oh, I like that. Would that be a fair statement? Let's go with that. (LAUGHS) (UPBEAT MUSIC) One of my favourite bands in the world is The Rolling Stones. (CHUCKLES) Formed in 1964. Right. A year later they came here, and they didn't have very nice things to say about Dunedin. SADDENED: No. Mick Jagger said that it looked like Tombstone and that it made Aberdeen, which I've never been to, look like Las Vegas. (SCOFFS) Which is a bit rough, but I guess` It's a bit rough. It's a bit rude. I guess they were young and impetuous. Oh, all right. We'll let them away with it. But... Yes. Mark Twain himself said, when he visited Dunedin... Yes. The people are Scotch. They stopped here on their way from home to heaven, thinking they had arrived. No. Yeah. Dunedin, heaven ` same thing. (LAUGHS) Mark Twain rules. Never mind The Stones. No. Twain fell on his feet in Dunedin ` entertained by high society, swooned over by the glitterati. These drawings of his actual performance at City Hall were scratched by renowned artist William Hodgkins. So, Mark Twain, when he was here, was hosted by a very distinguished local fellow, Dr Thomas Hocken. What can you tell me about him? Oh, Dr Thomas Morland Hocken. He's in Wellington ferreting through the basement of the government buildings. Do you know what he finds? What? He finds the Treaty of Waitangi. In the basement? In the basement rolled up, thrown in the corner. The rats have had a go at it. What?! Shut the front door. Shut the front door. That's exactly right. Are you serious? That's the... amount of respect that we showed the founding document of this country? It'd just been forgotten and thrown in the corner until Dr Thomas Hocken found it. And now it's in this beautiful glass case in Te Papa. I know. And it's like, 'There's our founding document for our nation.' I know. And it was in the corner of the basement. Oh, shot, Dr Hocken. (GENTLE COUNTRY MUSIC) This is my signature. But what's cooler? This... or this? You might not know this, but that is a signature on the Treaty of Waitangi. Yeah, I think that's cooler. It would've taken ages. Damn. We not only nearly lost the Treaty but New Zealand's oldest art form, ta moko, as well. And Khylee Quince wants everyone to appreciate the importance of this cultural taonga. Khylee, have you seen this? Yes, I have. That is amazing, isn't it? Yep. So a number of tohu, so moko, used as signatures on the Treaty, absolutely. That's one of the most elaborate ones. Most of them are quite small little scrolls, so, yeah... Mm. And so obviously, they were very personal markers, weren't they, cos everyone was different? Absolutely. So ta moko's more than just an artistic representation. Of course, there's a connection to whakapapa. So it's about genealogy and identity. So it's a whanau, hapu or iwi marker, so it's about your family, sub-tribe or tribe. Ta moko has to be by Maori... Mm. ...by a Maori artist for a Maori recipient or wearer. Right. If it's a non-Maori` Otherwise it's not ta moko? No. Then it's kirituhi. We've adapted even a new terminology for that which is basically white folks' tattoos. (LAUGHS) You know, it used to be, of course, that, yeah, tattoos were gangsters, criminals, sailors. So, now they're pretty middle class, you know. So, you see, you know, every police officer in New Zealand with a sleeve. Yeah, I really like it when I'm watching Police Ten 7 and I see policemen with, like, full sleeves. I'm like, 'What the hell?' Back in the day when we were getting pulled over by the police, that was never a thing. Yeah, and it was a 6'4" white guy. No longer. (LAUGHS) And this is what I call a whakapapa tattoo. It tells people who I am, where I'm from, yeah. So it's directly linked to your ancestors? That's exactly right. And then we have more modern or contemporary use. So my other one, for example, this is use of te reo Maori in a modern` Wow. ...sci-fi context. So that's 'Kia noho te ihi ki a koe' which is 'may the force be with you' in te reo. So it's clearly not a historical piece, but, yeah... But is beautiful and it's written in the style of the credits. The movie credits, yeah. So, of course, ta moko's changed signficantly from the time of Twain being here. The use of ta moko was very common, and began to really change and die out for men before women. Men were the people that were, sort of, public citizens. They were the people that were out doing business and working in industry, whereas women were private, in the home. So Maori women probably kept ta moko longer than men, because they were still living a much more traditional life. What's the one around here called? It's a kauae moko. Kauae moko. So kauae's the jaw. Kauae's the jaw. The chin. Do you see, one day, the full-face moko making a resurgence? Yeah, that's a good question, cos that's a lot more confronting to non-Maori, isn't it? I think so. We have moved beyond the realm of this being the gangster look. It's just part of our modern reclamation of our identity. Revitalisation of te reo. You go do reo courses and you go get yourself a ta moko and you're, like... legit. Get this ` the first Maori born in England was Albert Victor Pomare in 1863, and Queen Victoria was his godmother. How flash! Hare and Hariata Pomare were part of a delegation of various tribes. They were invited to Windsor castle, where Victoria kissed baby Albert, and he even lay on the throne,... which he may have peed on. Who knows? Queen Victoria declared he should join the navy, and Albert did go to sea, but he vanished soon after, and to this day, no one knows of his fate. Good one, Victoria (!) Great godmotherly advice (!) Upper cut. And the champ is down. The champ is down. The crowd goes wild. Right around the corner, it's Timaru and their famous fighter, who was like Mike Tyson but white and with skinnier legs. The freckled freak Ruby Robert had rubies in his teeth, and he had a lion called Nero. Far out. That's gangster! VOICEOVER: Kinder Chocolate is made especially for kids with a yummy milky centre, kid-sized portions and a taste that kids love. Kinder Chocolate. Made for kids. * South Canterbury! It's all good. Timaru, more specifically. Home of Jack Lovelock, Richard Pearse, the mighty Phar Lap, actor Kevin Smith, and wait for it... (DRUM ROLLS) ...boxing champion of the world Bob 'Ruby Roberts' Fitzsimmons. (ACOUSTIC COUNTRY MUSIC) Bob was the Conor McGregor of his day ` nabbing three boxing titles in three different weight classes. In 1895, he was in America campaigning for the heavyweight title. He kept crazy exotic pets and even married a Hollywood star. One of his relatives, David Jack, is ready to weigh in on the Timaruvian who punched above his weight. Why are you so proud of your great-uncle? Well, he's the first boxer ever to win three world titles. He won the middleweight in 1892, the heavyweight championship in 1897 and then the light middleweight in 1903. So, no, very proud of his achievements` So not just three titles, but three different divisions? Three different weight divisions, yes. Wow. (ROCK MUSIC) He'd been beaten up as a kid at Main School quite badly and knocked out` Wow. And Bob made the comment that, um... it wasn't the beating from the kid that hurt him the most, it was the one he got from his mother when he got home. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) I love that story, Bob. I can relate to the old 'getting inspired by a hiding from your mum'. Mm. And also, I'm a real big boxing fan. So it's similar to how Muhammad Ali got into boxing, eh, cos he got his bike stolen. Yeah. Um, pretty much is how he started. His first fight was in, uh, 1891 where he fought old Jack Dempsey. Great Jack Dempsey? The Great Jack Dempsey. He fought Jack and was punishing him through the fight, kept saying to Jack, you know, 'Come on, Jack. Give up. You've had it.' So Fitz would deal to him again, and down he'd go, until finally, in the 13th round, he laid him out to take the crown. It's fair to say, then, that at that time of Mark Twain's visit, that Bob Fitzsimmons was our... was our one world sporting champion? At that stage, yes. He then won against Gentleman Jim Corbett, the world heavyweight boxing title. And then he won the light heavyweight in 1903 against Gardner. So he would've been quite the celebrity? Quite the celebrity. And then, obviously, in 1897 when he won that world heavyweight title in Carson City, that was the first filmed sporting event in the world. All the way to New Zealand, Fitzsimmons spars upon range and threatens to shoot his right for Corbett's jaw. Corbett smashes Fitzsimmons three times hard over the right eye. Once Fitzsimmons... So... he then took that show on the road. Fitz would travel round, and they would enact the bouts as they went around as well. So he, you know,... He got his marketing off that film. And the champ is down. The champ is down. Fitzsimmons with a right to the chest, but the champ is down. The crowd goes wild. Now, Mike Tyson, when he was world champ, he had things like pet tigers. Did Bob have any habits like that? Absolutely. Bob had a way with animals. He used to have bears, and he had a lion called Nero, and he used to wrestle them. He would take the lion on the train with him. If he was going somewhere, they would go with him. He had monkeys, dogs... It must've been a great show to see when he came to town ` him getting off a train with a lion on a chain or a bear. My cousin David Tua was, you know, David 'The Terminator' Tua. What was Bob's fighting nickname? Uh, the Freckled Freak Ruby Robert was another name he went by. He had rubies in his teeth, yeah. Wow. What? That's gangster. Legendary New Zealand and world boxing champion. But billed as an Australian. Oh, what?! (LAUGHS) Come on. Are you serious? God, so it started even back in Mark Twain's time? Yep, yep. Bloody Aussies for you. (LAUGHS) (COUNTRY GUITAR MUSIC) And here's another boxing yarn for you ` in 1936, the youngest man in our Olympic team to Berlin was 19-year-old Clarrie Gordon. But that ain't his only claim to fame. One day Adolf Hitler visited the Olympic village, and Clarrie was persuaded to show the Nazi leader his famous right hook. Clarrie swung and tapped Adolf on the chin. If only he'd put his back into it. In Timaru, Mark Twain performed in this exact theatre, and this box is the where the flash people and any grumpy Muppets would've sat. Speaking of grumpy Muppets,... the show was supposed to be a monologue, but it became a bit of a dialogue as there was lots of audience interjection ` or heckling as we would say today. Imagine heckling Twain! Hey, Colonel, what's the 11 secret herbs and spices. (LAUGHS) Get it? Obviously, Twain was much more than an author. If he was alive today, he would have his own TV shows, do podcasts, stand-up tours and be a regular on The Graham Norton Show. Gosh, these audiences were lucky! What a mean view from these boxes. As I stand here alone, I'm reminded of the words of Twain, who said...