(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 Alex Walker. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) Ah, beautiful Lyttelton. There's a cricket ground here where the captain of the Titanic got out for a duck. True story. Clearly, he couldn't keep his eye on the ball ` or icebergs, for that matter. Lyttelton ` always seemed like the funky jewel in the province of Canterbury, one of the hilliest and most historic parts. When I first came here those big old classic British pubs were still here that the sailors used to frequent. And it was there that I discovered how really wasted you could get on beer. So I've got fond, if hazy, memories of this place. It didn't hold fond memories for Mark Twain, though. It was here that he got on a ship called the Flora and embarked on what would be the most hellish part of his whole journey around New Zealand. Bound for Nelson, the former riverboat captain boarded the Flora and found 200 people plus cows on a ship built to take 100. He went full health-and-safety and fired a broadside. The owners of the boat were not technically guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, but they were morally guilty of it. Twain couldn't wait to get off the Flora, but Caroline Fitzgerald grew up playing hide and seek in the captain's cabin. Her great-uncle saved it before the ship was scrapped. So, this is where we played as children ` in this cabin. It doesn't feel very comfortable. No. But if this was the captain's room, I can't imagine what it would've been like for Mark Twain, who'd described his room as a cattle scow. 'Caroline's life is literally drenched in maritime history. 'Turns out her great-grandmother all but walked on water.' One day, Dad said, 'You look like your great-granny Orpheus Beaumont,' and I said, 'What a name! Where does that come from?' and he went, 'Oh, she's named after a shipwreck.' That's right. In the Manukau Harbour, was that right? Yeah, in the Heads. Right. On the sandbar. It's New Zealand's worst maritime disaster. 189 men drowned. It was a huge event. What year was that? 1863 ` the year that Orpheus was born. Your great-grandmother? My great-grandmother. Because her brother was on the shipwreck. So little Orpheus grew up having drowning fits. Dad said to me, 'She's named after a shipwreck, 'and she went on to invent life jackets.' Wow. And I went, 'Really? I want to know more about her. She's amazing.' Sounds amazing, you know? In 1912, the Titanic sank, which had a huge impact right around the world, of course. And a year later, the British Board of Trade put a competition around the Empire to invent something better than the cork life jacket, which they all wore on the Titanic. So she ` being a practical girl ` took on this challenge. And she won? Yeah. She got... That was the very beginning, also, of the First World War, and by the time the First World War finished, she got a first order from the Royal Navy back in London of 30,000 life jackets. It became, sort of, the number one life jacket for the Royal Navy and around the world. And, in fact, they were on the Wahine went it sunk. People were still wearing her life jackets in the 1960s. Wow. Right. Your great-grandmother sounds like the woman. Yeah, she's` Isn't it amazing?! Yeah. Orpheus, I salute you. Another great New Zealander making waves in the world. I'm actually a bit allergic to the sea, but not even Orpheus can solve this one. I nearly drowned when I was 20. It was quite terrible. I was underwater. I was blacking out. I was seeing green spots. My friends were trying to drag me to shore. It got to the stage where they were just about to leave me, because if they didn't, then I would've taken them down. From then on, the only time I went to the beach, I used to just sit in the car, eat KFC and drink. So me and the sea,... we're like strangers. And long may it stay that way. (LAUGHS) The Flora, the cows and Twain eventually made it safely to Nelson. Once he dried out, it wasn't the sunshine that sparked him up; it was tales of darkness. What fascinated Twain the most was when he heard about the infamous Maungatapu murders that occurred 30 years earlier, but people were still talking about them. And that was when the Burgess gang ambushed and executed five men on the remote Maungatapu Track. What fascinates me the most about that crime... is how people reacted after they were caught. The crimes shocked and rocked the colony. On the 12th of June 1866, there was a murder on the Maungatapu Track near Nelson. Next day, another four men were slaughtered nearby. It was the work of four bloodthirsty outlaws led by the ruthless Richard Burgess. But one of the Burgess gang narked; Joseph Sullivan turned on his co-accused. His evidence saw the other three men hanged together. It was the biggest show to hit town, and Meredith Rimmer knows where the bodies are buried. Well, prepare yourself, because (GASPS) here they are ` the death masks of the Maungatapu murderers. These were taken from moulds made on the actual heads of the men once they'd been executed. People wanted to know them. They wanted to know what their faces looked like. They wanted to know every single thing that they could about the murder, about the trial, about the executions. There was a huge amount of publicity around it. And would you say this was the crime of the century as far as our young colony goes? Absolutely. It was a sensational crime. The story around this murder is very theatrical. It's got a real dramatic bent to it, so I can see why Mark Twain was fascinated by it. It's just a really punchy story. This is a 1924 reprint of the book that Mark Twain actually had... that sparked his interest in the whole Maungatapu story. It starts out straightaway. 'When Mark Twain was in Nelson 30 years ago, he was engrossed ` 'strangely enough ` in the tragic story of the Maungatapu murders, which are here reprinted, 'and in his hand he held the book.' Wow! You see their portraits there on the front? Mm-hm. So that was taken after they were caught? That was. Yeah. It was taken a few months after they were put in jail. Mm. They've had their beards trimmed and their hair brushed. I mean, they were celebrities, in effect. Yeah. Well, look at them posing... Yeah. ...like they're learned gentlemen. This is a really fascinating article. This is from an eyewitness at the executions themselves. READS: 'Burgess ` when he came out of prison, 'he held in his hand a small nosegay consisting of a few flowers, 'at which he frequently smelt while addressing the spectators. 'These flowers he took with him to the scaffold and had them in his hand when the drop fell. 'He retained hold of them for about 25 to 30 seconds after his suspension. 'Then the fingers relaxed their hold and the flowers fell to the ground.' Wow. That's, like, epic to the very last moment. It is, isn't it? It's got all the hallmarks of a fantastic movie or a drama. The thing to do in Nelson was to go down to the Maungatapu murder trials. Yeah. Burgess represented himself ` then, the articulate showman gang leader. Obviously, a very charismatic man. Hugely charismatic. If only he'd channelled it into something positive. We can only hope. We can only hope. (LAUGHS) Coming up ` things blow up in Murchison, for reals. He was blown to atoms. What?! 'And looking at how Nelson's cookie crumbled.' New Zealanders eat 203 Gingernuts a minute. They made that back then? They did, yeah. * If you've dunked something ginger-y into your cuppa, then you're part of this next story too. This is just one of many picturesque streets here in lovely old Nelson, but over there is not just any corner. Historically, it's one of the most significant in New Zealand. If you have a sweet tooth, that is. In 1890, John Griffin turned out his first biscuits from this bakery. Griffin's nut Jessie Bray Sharpin is happy to share a cuppa and Griffin's recipe for success. It's kind of synonymous with biscuits in New Zealand, eh, that name, Griffin's? Yeah. Definitely. Yep. One of their early ones was the Gingernut, and` They made that back then? They did, yeah. And the Gingernut is actually still New Zealand's number one, most popular biscuit. Wow. (GIGGLES) # Griffin's Gingernuts are so spicy... # Something like` New Zealanders eat 203 Gingernuts a minute. What?! Yeah. You mean, in the time that we're talking, New Zealanders have already eaten about 600? Oh, they've been eating loads of Gingernuts. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) They baked a huge number of biscuits during World War II. So they were, like, making biscuits for the troops? Yeah. I wonder what biscuits they sent over. It would've been Gingernuts... I don't know if this is true, but I read somewhere that... that, uh, the chocolate-covered ones went to the US Army troops and that New Zealanders got the standard one that wasn't chocolate. Why are we always nicer to overseas people than our own? (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) The factory may have ground to a halt in 1987, but awesome records of Griffin and his co-workers live on. Here's one for you ` when are 105,000 negatives a positive? When they're William and Fred Tyree's photo collection. (ACOUSTIC COUNTRY GUITAR MUSIC) These English brothers were drawn to New Zealand by the gold rush, but it was photography that gave them fame and fortune. William and Fred's photos from the 1870s onwards record early New Zealand life. UNESCO even called the collection a national treasure. Darryl Gallagher is a guardian of their legacy. They kept... the entire catalogue. They didn't destroy them. In fact, they had a special brick-and-concrete bunker made just to... keep this collection. Wow. The most common form of photographic print is... what we see here ` the carte de visite. It's like a... calling card, a visiting card. So, people went around to other people's houses. They'd visit, and they'd leave their carte de visite. People also started to collect celebrities. In fact, it became a collecting craze. People called it 'carte de mania'. (LAUGHS) Really? Carte de mania? Carte de mania. It was... It was kind of like the Victorian Facebook. Why was everybody so serious in their poses? The thing is, we're talking about an average exposure time in these photographs of a couple of seconds. Now, you try holding a natural smile for a couple of seconds. Wait. I just did. A natural one? No. (BOTH LAUGH) Here's a great one of Trafalgar St. You take a photo down Trafalgar St today, you're not gonna get the whole street to stop and wait for the camera. You can see people... (GASPS) ...all the way down the street,... No way. So they posed? ...stopped and paused... They stopped, knowing that there was a photo being taken? There would've been a blur if they didn't. (LAUGHS) So, absolutely. Big day for the Empire. The 1887 Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. I love looking at these old photos, because, of course, I love hats, and... people wore hats back then. (ACOUSTIC COUNTRY GUITAR MUSIC) I like this one. What is that one? Boxing, shooting, drinking and music. (LAUGHS) So, this is a bunch of workmates that are killing a bit of time, and they thought, 'Why not pose a scene?' And if you look at it, there's so much going on in this photo. Everyone's reflecting their own interests and their own pastimes. 'So, OK, guys, I want everyone to do something crazy.' 'You, shoot at the kiwi. You, pretend to punch that guy.' (LAUGHS) If only they'd got Mark Twain into the Tyree studio and went, 'Mark, come in and get your photo taken.' I guess, in a way, that photography prob` probably wasn't as novel to Mark Twain as it was to the local population. Here we have the Adamant in 1874. It's one of, if not the only known photo of an immigrant ship arriving in New Zealand with the people on board. Wow. Even before they got off and set foot on Aotearoa soil. Absolutely. And one of them will be your great-great-great grandfather? He's in there somewhere. Yeah. WHISPERS: Wow. Does that make you feel a little bit emotional? Um... A little bit, yeah. The Tyree collection recorded life on the right side of the tracks, but in 1886, amateur photographers ended up behind bars taking our first mugshots. It was two decades before fingerprinting was invented, and prisoners were snapped with their hands visible to show missing fingers, scars, and the condition of their hands for future reference. There was one notorious crim the system wouldn't have worked for. That would be Joseph Sewell ` the world's very first suicide bomber. And Gerald Hindmarsh loves this explosive tale. (COUNTRY MUSIC) It was, basically, the world's first strapped-on suicide bombing. And when I say 'strapped-on' ` explosives strapped around your body. Wow. Yeah. Basically, it was a neighbourhood dispute. A simple` Between two guys? Between two farmers up the Mangles Valley. They lived on opposite sides of the Mangles River. They never got on: Walter Neame and Joseph Sewell. So even when Mark Twain came in 1895, they still would've been hating on each other? Yeah, they were. The dispute was building by then. This historic happening started because Sewell and his neighbour were fighting over ` wait for it ` a calf. One believed the other had stolen it, and, boy, did it epically get out of hand. So it ended up in court? Yeah. They started the proceedings, and as Neame started to talk, Sewell started to lose it in court, and he started to interject wildly. He'd said, 'There's not enough room in the whole Buller for us two.' 'One of us has to go, and I'm gonna blow him to bits.' And that was a definite red flag for the judge. (LAUGHS) Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Now, there were obviously knowing glances between the judge and Inspector Wilson. A bit of nudge, nudge, wink, wink between the judge and the cop? It's, like, this guy's crazy. Get him out of here. Yeah. As everyone stood up and started to go out, Inspector Wilson went straight up to Sewell and tried to put his arm on his shoulder, and at that point, Sewell ` who had his arm in his coat ` he detonated the sticks of gelignite that were tied around him. My gosh. He blew himself up in front of everyone outside the Murchison Courthouse. And they said that there wasn't one bit of Sewell left. As they described it in the paper at the time, 'He was blown to atoms.' It was a miraculous thing, because only Sewell died. What?! Yeah. Unbelievable. And no one inside was hurt? No. There were quite a lot of injuries. OK. One guy had his beard blown off. His beard? Yeah, his beard just burnt off. Another guy had his trousers blown off. People, still to the day, can't figure out how he didn't kill more people. Was it reported outside New Zealand? Oh, it was a huge event! It was reported right through the British Empire as having no parallel before. It's like this epic ballad of this feud between these two farmers in Murchison that ended in the world's first strap-on suicide bomber. Yeah. 'Next ` Twain takes to the sea again which leads to tales of whales.' Funny how it takes a man writing 123 years ago... to make you see your home in a whole new light. 'And New Zealand's first Chinese settler forgets to fill out some forms.' They called them, 'A filthy, immoral, disgusting lot.' * So, Twain found his sea legs again and set sail for the big smoke. Auckland. Tamaki Makaurau. By the time Twain got here, the show was really starting to go off. There was standing room only. They were putting on extra shows ` so much so that Twain decided to blow off Rotorua and do an extra show in Auckland. And not only were we enjoying him; he was really enjoying us. He said, 'Colonial audiences at once are friendly with you. They encourage you to give your best.' 'You feel, as soon as you've stepped on the platform, that they are your friends.' Oh, isn't that nice? Twain would've rubbed shoulders with all kinds of new New Zealanders ` whalers, gumdiggers, sailors and the like. Back then, becoming a Kiwi was as easy as jumping off a ship. And Diana Clark found out that's how her great-grandad became our first Chinese settler. He decided that he wanted to live here, but he couldn't, so he jumped ship. So I'm actually an overstayer. (LAUGHS) His Chinese name was Wong Ahpoo Hock Ting. Right. And then when he came here, that became...? Appo Hocton. Very English-sounding, isn't it? Yes. Well, you see... (LAUGHS) Because Appo was on those ships all that time, he could speak, read and write English. Chinese have had a hard time in New Zealand. I imagine, with your great-grandad being the first` I wonder what life was like for him in those early days. They were absolutely prejudiced against the Chinese. They called them, 'A filthy, immoral, disgusting lot.' When he married my great-grandmother, she was a spinster. And for her to get married to this handsome Chinese person, well, that must've been something. Mm. And were you always aware of how special your great-grandad was... No. ...growing up? No. I was brought up totally European. But it was when I was about 21, and my mother, she said, 'Diana, did you know your great-grandfather was a Chinaman?' I said, 'No.' A Chinese man. Chinese man. Yes. Doesn't that feel better saying it that way? No, because in those days, they called them 'Chinamens'. Yeah, but then` but this... Yeah, that's true. No, fair enough. It's your great-grandad. You can call him what you like. (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) Appo may have jumped off a ship, but I'm jumping on to one to see Auckland the way Twain did. When he steamed in, he went overboard writing of how the water sparkled. Twain was singing from the same song sheet as local Maori. In English, Waitemata translates as 'the sparkling waters' ` best name for a harbour anywhere, I think. - It's quite weird, cos I couldn't swim for most of my life. I... - (WATER SPLASHES) (LAUGHS) I never went on a boat. So I don't actually come into the harbour too much. Like most people who enjoy a trip on the Waitemata Harbour, Twain was absolutely enchanted. He wrote about Rangitoto and how it had the same shape from every point of view. And he wrote how, in the distance, he could see large schools of whales. Now, I've lived in Auckland for most of my life, and I had no idea that you could even see whales from the city. Funny how it takes a man writing 123 years ago... to make you see your home in a whole new light. WOMAN SINGS: # Pokarekare ana, nga wai o Rotorua. Time for a waiata. You'll know this one. # Whiti atu koe hine... # marino ana e. It's a love song about how the rough water was calmed by a beautiful girl, and back in the day, each region added the name of their own river or lake. The Rotorua version became popular after being told as part of the love story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai. But it was originally sung by Maori troops training for World War I, just over there in Takapuna. # E hine e,... # hoki mai ra. # Ka mate ahau...