avondale historical journal no. 59

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The Avondale

Historical Journal

May-June 2011 Volume 10 Issue 59

Official Publication of the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society Incorporated

Muriel Wells-Green, AWHS member, very kindly passed over a treasure trove of items and copies of photos and documents recently — including a photo (above)and a copy from a programme dated 19 December 1932: the performance of Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp at the Avondale Town Hall, under the auspices of Miss Bettina Edwards and Rudall Hayward.

Local children were trained for the show by Bettina Edwards (1903-1985), cousin to Rudall Hayward, and one of those who took part in his1925 film Rewi’s Last Stand . She taught dancing in Birkenhead during

the 1920s, and in 1934 joined with Beryl Nettleton to start the Nettleton-Edwards School of Dancing in Swanson Street. Bettina was balletmistress for the Centennial Musical Festival in 1940 and an examiner forentrants to the Royal Academy of Dancing from 1941. With PoulRudolph Gnatt, she was prominent in the establishment of the NewZealand Ballet in 1953—so the Avondale children had a very giftedteacher back in 1932!

The following are the names of those who took part:ALADDIN: Miss Thoral KeefeMRS TWANKEY: Mr. Dan FloodPRINCESS: Miss Mavis Beecroft

THE ROYAL HOUSEKEEPER: Miss Kathleen BullABANAZA: Mr Rudall HaywardTHE EMPEROR OF CHINA: Mr Headlam GreenhowA CHINESE POLICEMAN: William BackhouseTHE SPIRIT OF THE LAMP: Vincent Pooch

Next meeting of the

Avondale-Waterview

Historical Society:

Saturday, 4 June 2011,

2.30 pm

St Ninian’s ChurchSt Georges Road, Avondale

(opp. Hollywood Cinema)

Miss Bettina Edwards

continued page 2



The Avondale Historical Journal Volume 10 Issue 59

THE SPIRIT OF THE RING: John BryanA CHINESE SOLDIER: Victor GillardTHE CHINESE BALLET: Margaret Bollard, RomaMareno, Wendy Waterfield, Laurie Tinde, Mavis Coulter,Patty Hooker, Muriel Capes, Madge Blackburn, ValerieMartin, Barbara New, Frances Lyons, Joyce Thompson.

GLOW WORM BALLET: Shirley Metcalfe, BettyLydiard, Elva Green, Esma Porter, Louie Daly, EthelAnderson, Moira Green, Ina Gibson, Joan Lyons,Margaret Whale, Muriel Brown, Betty Daygood, DorisRunciman.PRINCESS’ ATTENDANTS: Esma Skeen, Pat Tindle,Muriel Davy, Molly French, Marjorie Williams.

Orchestral Arrangement : Mrs. H V BollardVocal and Chorus Training: Mrs Rudall HaywardLighting Effects: Mr W BarnesScenic Artist: Mr W CrossmanStage Effects: William ChalmersProperty Master: Mr Hough

Workers at the Brickyard

Thanks to Muriel Wells-Green, we have this wonderful photo of workers at Glenburn Brickworks, St GeorgesRoad, unknown date. Names provided by Muriel.

Back row from left: Mr Thomassen, Robert & George Heron, Mr Thomas.Front row from left: Mr Perrett, Hugh Heron, Oscar Nelson, Fred Downey.

Dan Flood, the lead, appears to have been in theAuckland Amateur Operatic Society during the early1920s, then performed in radio shows as a comic andsinger from late 1927. From late 1932 to mid 1933, heperformed in Aladdin up and down the country, usually

at venues operated or owned by members of the Hay-ward family.

I would love to know more about the pantomimeperformance and the lead up to it in December 1932here in Avondale, so if any readers recognise theirnames or those of their family, and you have somememories to share, please let me know!

Thank you, Muriel, for giving us a photocopy of yourprecious memento of this wonderful and interestingpiece of our local history.




A response from Sylvia Thomas to items from the last

issue.

Whales' Dairy

It was sad to see that another icon of old Avondale hadbeen demolished.

One of the most exciting days of my childhood wasbeing allowed to go to the pictures at the Avondale TownHall or the Grosvenor as it was later called, and racing athalf time to get a place in front of the crush at thecounter to buy my ice cream in Whales' Dairy. In thosedays Mrs Whale used to make up a big sectioned tray of small square ice blocks which I think must have been

just flavoured milk. Like making junket I heard her sayonce. They were then sold in a square cone for about 2d.each. She said she made them as a nourishing treat forthe children who didn't have much to spend. As I grewolder and my allowed spending became more, I chose thenew Choc. Bombs. I think they cost 9d.

Sometimes the Whales' daughter, Margaret, served in theshop and later on the young man she eventually marriedalso helped. He was Eldred Stebbing who working withhis older brother, was then part of Stebbing's SoundSystems. He later formed his own business recordingunder one of the new labels of the day, singers and musi-cians who became well known in NZ. He seems to havestarted recording at his home on the corner of MethuenRoad and Bollard Avenue, My sister Wilma and herhusband Cleave Anderson bought this house fromMargaret and Eldred in the ‘50s or ‘60s, discovering asound proofed bedroom and a quantity of wires andequipment related to the recording business, in theceiling of the garage.

Cleave died in 2003 and Wilma now lives in a rest homeso the house, their family home was sold just a few yearsago. Eldred Stebbing died fairly recently well known inthe music world.

The Avondale Drapery

I thought I knew the shops to the right of Fearon'sBuilding. From the 1930s the Farmer's TradingCompany was the shop next to Fearons Butchery. ThenMr. Watson's chemist shop and Mr. Findlay the shoe andboot repairer. Later came Battersbys the Funeral Directorafter relocating from small premises opposite and downfrom the railway station, and then Crawford's garage.

In 1968 the Farmers closed, and my husband and I leasedthe premises as Avondale Printers and Stationers Ltd.and Speedy Rubber Stamps Ltd., eventually buying theproperty from Mrs. Fearon. The shop and factory prem-ises were then enlarged, and room for another business

and a car park made. We were there for something like20 years.

The Dove's drapery shop I remember was across the roadin Rosebank Road, up from the barber shop and tobacco-nist, O'Leary's toy and fancy goods shop, and the Self Help grocery store which was on the corner. Mrs Doveand her daughters were very popular. I remember themwell until about the early 1940s. Doves' drapery inRosebank Road was later taken over by Mr. and Mrs.Tomlinson and their son who owned the business formany years.

(Wise’s Directories from the time W J Tait’s Unity Build-

ing was opened in 1932, show that next to the Self Help

was John Tomlinson, draper; Alf Kirby, barber; and E

Leary, stationer. The information that Dove’s shop in

Avondale was part of the Fearon Buildings complex

came from a study of the directories I made back in

2001, while researching Heart of the Whau. See also

page 6 this issue. – Editor)

New Windsor Road

I am a few years older than Robyn Fazakerley whoreplied to my earlier journal contribution so I rememberthe little family who used to visit our neighbours theDonaldsons, Roy, Florrie and our playmate, Maureenwhen we lived in the shop. Mrs Donaldson (nee FlorenceGreep) was a Blockhouse Bay girl, a Sunday School

teacher at the Mission Church (now the Baptist Church)and a Girls' Life Brigade officer. Because of her Ideveloped a curiosity about the Bible, and scaryimaginative things like fairies living in flowers, (don'ttread on them) and toys coming to life at night. (Be kindnot rough with them during the day.)

Wilma and I joined in several social activities forchildren at the Mission, on one occasion pushing ourdoll's pram the two miles to enter in the decorated pramscompetition I think Robyn's mother and Florrie weregirlhood friends. Only, Robyn, I will have to disagree

with you on one or two points. You must have visitedseveral times. You think you were only about three, but Iremember you with your thick blonde plaits, a littleDiocesan schoolgirl in your uniform of a blue dress andpanama hat with an elastic band to hold it on. There wasalso a large old style pram with a baby or two, a littlewalking boy and a tired young mother who apparentlypushed the pram a distance to New Windsor Road tovisit her friend.

Being a Blockhouse Bay girl, Florrie knew other youngwomen who still lived in the district, and was sometimes

visited by two other friends. One was the mother of sev-eral small children and the wife of the Avondale taxidriver, Mr. Sunderland. I well remember the child undertwo in his little romper suit. He became a well knownTV personality.

Letters



Another friend was Yvonne Pooley who because of herdisability, used to visit riding a horse or a wheelchairtowed by a German Shepherd dog.

Was I a nosy kid? I think (or imagined) your father

worked in the Auckland Savings Bank in Queen Street. Iremember looking out for him when I went with Mum tobank the shop takings.

Your Mrs. Scott was not "our" Mrs. Scott, our neighbouron the other side of the shop. Our Mrs. Scott wasScottish. During the Great War she had worked in a mu-

nitions factory in Scotland. In the days I wrote about ear-lier she would have been about fifty, and I am sure shedid not ride a bike.

My mother's friendship continued with Mrs. Donaldsonafter the family moved from New Windsor Road andafter a spell in a country district, built a house next to herparents up from Blockhouse Bay beach. A mutual friendstill has contact with daughter Maureen.

Hoyles were our neighbours when we went to live acrossthe road from the shop at no. 56. In fact we bought landoff them some years later for our next house at no. 58. Ihave never thought Mr. Hoyle was like Santa Claus -more like King George the Queen's grandfather and vari-

ous other royals who wore a neat, trimmed beard. WasMrs. Hoyle small and birdlike? I am short so I alwaysthought she was slim and tall. In fact together I thoughtthey looked like King George V and Queen Mary.

The Ash family lived next to Hoyles. I always admiredthe quietly spoken, gentle Christobel, an art teacher, Ithink at Epsom Grammar. Her late mother was responsi-ble for an adjoining section of ferns and trees gatheredfrom trips to Titirangi and the west coast beaches.

When Miss Joy Sparrow, a seemingly sharp, dominant,little person went to live with Christobel, by then twomiddle aged ladies, Joy wrote a book called theSignature was Joy, an interesting little book about herlife growing up in Mt Albert. Or did Christobel write itas some people thought?

I remember the van Leydens. We were never friendswith the girls although very curious about them, asthey had come from Indonesia to escape the war. (Mypresent day friend, Dutch-Indonesian, was internedwith her mother and teenaged sisters during that time.The father disappeared and the girls cruelly treated bythe Japanese). Ineke, Jessie and Saskia were goodlooking girls, older and younger than us, well dressed.

Their father we thought very superior in attitude, butmaybe was not. Mrs. Van Leyden was a very pleasant,friendly woman. She once rushed into our house, still a

good distance from her home in Batkin Road, to use thetoilet. My mother all flustered rushed to check it out,flushing it and picking up a scattered newspaper on thefloor, (toilet paper was a luxury in those days.Newspaper cut into squares hung by a string on a nail if somebody bothered to do it.) "Don't worry," called Mrs.Van Leyden in a hurry, "I have one too!" thus soothingMum. My embarrassment as a young teen, lasted a lotlonger!

I often think of those early days. Our lives trundle on andwe make so many connections as we go.


Photos from Sylvia Thomas: (Above) “Wilma,

Maureen with grandma Mrs Greep and Kingi at

Blockhouse Bay beach, 1934.” (Right) “Maureen,

Sylvia, Wilma, Kingi, 1936.”



Letter to Lisa Truttman in response to letter from

Gillian Dance in Volume 10 Issue 58 of the Avondale

Historical Journal.

Dear Lisa,

A letter in your last issue mentioning the Bollard homesent the family on a trip down memory lane.

My grandparents Harold and Rosa Bollard built thisdouble bay return verandah villa at 189 Blockhouse BayRoad (then called Manukau Road) in 1909. Originally itsat on a larger section with access from Donegal Streetand had a large flower and shrub garden in front, behindthe stone wall. The rear of the section was subdividedwhen Grandpa died towards the end of 1959. TheSegedins bought the house and lived there until quite

recently and at the time of the family reunion in 1999 thehouse had only two owners in 90 years !

As was common with villas there were a number of out-buildings. Behind the house was the back yard with theclotheslines, then a long shed parallel to the house, witha large chook house and run behind this and finally acorrugated iron garage behind this again with a drivefrom Donegal Street.

The shed had a washhouse, a workshed and toilet to oneend, and it was dark and mysterious to my pre-schooleyes.

My aunt, Mrs Bassett, grew up here and has clear memo-ries of the shed. The wash house had a copper in thecorner and three kauri tubs under the window, partlyfilled with water in the summer to stop them cracking, awringer between two of the tubs and a mangle used forpressing clothes and linen. Large wicker laundry basketshung on the walls.

Next to this was the workshop with its tool bench and

garden tools and shelves on the wall for storing rootvegetables. It also stored coal and chippings for thecopper.

Finally the toilet, which was probably further down theback originally. It was a later addition to the shed and assewerage was some way off, visited by the night cart.

There were never any stables and my grandparents werewell served by the local shops and the trams and trains.

Richard Bollard and Margaret Bassett.

Letter from Rosemary Brown, grand daughter of

Robert Dickey.

Dear Lisa,

I read with great interest the article by Sylvia Thomasabout New Windsor Road (September-October 2010),and her family’s grocery store

My mother Muriel was a member of the Dickey family(not Dickie) who owned the double-storey house on therise in New Windsor Road. They purchased the propertyfrom the original owner around 1916-1917.

(The house was built in 1883 by the Astley family. Elijah

Astley died in 1905, and John Edward Astley and

Thomas Atherton transferred the property to a Mr and

Mrs Larney of Morrinsville in 1907. The Larneys sold

the property to Robert Dickey in 1918. — Editor)

My grandfather, Robert Dickey, came here fromBallybeg in Ireland as a small boy. He married EmilyRichards in 1884. The family at one time farmed inDannevirke, then Te Puke before moving to Aucklandaround 1914-1915. They moved to Auckland seeking acure for Emily’s TB. Sadly Emily died in 1918.

They had 14 children: Edith, Minnie, Robert, James,Emily, Rose, Joseph, Sam, Nancy, Jeannie, Muriel, Con-stance, Francis and Ida. My mother was the eleventhchild, Muriel. Her oldest brother Robert died at Gallipoli

in 1915, shot by a sniper, and is buried there at WalkersRidge cemetery. The second boy James died in 1921after being severely gassed in the same war. My motherremembers the telegram arriving to tell them of Robert’sdeath and how her parents clung together and wept


Astley/Dickey house, New Windsor Road. AWHS Collection.



bitterly. The youngest girl, Ida, was only 3½ when hermother died. The older girls looked after their youngersiblings.

My mother, Muriel, married Walter Willoughby at thePresbyterian Church in Mt Albert Road in 1936. My

mother was given £7 by her father, enough to cover thecost of her wedding gown and a small reception. Thereare no photos as there was not enough money to coverthe cost. My father could not afford to buy an engage-ment ring.

I can remember as a child, walking from the end of Canal Road in Avondale (where my father had a marketgarden) all the way to New Windsor Road to visit mymother’s family. I remember walking past the Judd storeand even, occasionally, buying sweets or ice cream.

I remember the Brightwells and their glass houses. Therewere also glass houses at New Windsor which weremanaged by my mother’s sister Rose. The glass houseswere behind the house and well back from the road. Itwas quite a large property with market gardens beyondthe glass houses, fields in which there were numerouscows which Rose would milk, also an orchard down in agully which we loved to visit in summer and gorge onthe bounty.

I loved staying in the old house, playing on the upstairsverandah and sleeping in the bedrooms upstairs with thewind soughing through the pine trees between theDickeys and the Brightwells.

The property was subdivided 1960-1970. Rose retainedownership of the house for a number of years after that.It was sold around 1977-78 to my cousin John Hamilton(Ida’s son) who sold it again a few years later.

Rosemary Brown


Another letter from Robin Fazakerley.

Dear Lisa,

When we lived in Taylor Street from 1934? to 1949,there were two drapers and haberdashers in Avondale

that my mother patronised: Tomlinson’s in Rosebank Road and Atkinson’s on the corner of Great North Roadand St Jude’s Street (opposite Hellaby’s).

Tomlinson’s was opposite the tram stop in the block of shops opposite Jamieson’s and the cake shop. MrsTomlinson sold a wide variety of merchandise from hats,wool, material, clothes and small items like knittingneedles, pins, cottons, embroidery cotton, braids and rib-bon. Mrs Tomlinson seemed to cater more for womenand children — a different kind of clientele than Atkin-son’s. We moved to Alverston Road in Waterview in

1962 and I purchased a yard of blue gingham, red biasbinding and embroidery cottons there to make a table-cloth, which I still use.

Atkinson's was an old pioneer-type building, two-storeyed with a shop-verandah on two sides, painted buff with a red roof and red trimmings. Outside hung oilskins,waterproof hats and working men’s clothes on hooks.Inside it was a conglomeration and mishmash of hats andmen’s, women’s and children’s clothes all jumbledtogether. My mother used to buy our summer hats there,both for best and straw hats for everyday, All held on by

elastic which went under the chin and chafed very badly.I think the cheap brown leather sandals that I wore insummer were also bought there. I can also remember mymother buying yards of britway — blue, yellow andgreen — as well as green knitting wool in the early daysof the war. (Britway was a cotton material, somethinglike calico but better quality.)

In 1949 we left 68 Taylor Street, and went to live in mylate grandmother’s house at 13 Burch Street, Mt Albert. Ithink the Dove’s moved to Mt Albert about 1944because my mother would often shop there when she

Atkinson’s Drapery, c.1910s. AWHS collection.



visited my grandmother. We would catch the train at StGeorge’s Crossing, get out at Mt Albert and then walk to Burch Street. By this time my mother had 5 children,3 of us walked, one of my sisters rode a tricycle and thebaby was in the pram. The pram and tricycle went in

the guard’s van and hung on hooks — the rest of usclimbed into the carriages, Quite an expedition!

I don’t think we ever went to Dove’s Drapery inAvondale, because it meant crossing Great North Road,but I remember buying wool there (in Mt Albert) in1951 — one of my T.C. assignments? — or perhapswool for a jersey? I can’t remember.

I hope this might fill up a few gaps.

With best wishes,

Robin Fazakerley

Hokitika Mr Chisholm says : — " I like this country very

well, the weather is splendid. This district is very heavily

timbered where not cleared and very hilly, but the land is

splendid and the crops are grand; 10 bushels of wheat to

the acre and very little trouble to preserve it. This is a very

scattered place. Almost every settler has from 50 to 100

acres on the roadside and those behind these sections have

generally from 160 to 400 acres. Those in the front were

not allowed to take up large holdings. It is a special settle-

ment on deferred payment. Sheep and cows are the chief

products. We have a butter factory close by and there is

only one very small store within two miles. I have only one

man. We have to take out goods such a distance. On

Monday the four wheeled express with two horses has

about 16 miles round; on Wednesday, 32 miles; and Friday,

16 miles, and we have to go or somebody else would take

our customers. As far as I can see yet, I will do very well. I

pay 9s a week rent of store and dwelling and a four acre

grass paddock, so that my expense is small. The railwaystation is two miles away, but we have a Post and Tele-

graph Office just across the road. We are about 80 miles

from Wellington." (West Coast Times, 27 February 1890)

In their new home, Walter and Rachel Chisholm made theirmark in the community yet again. Walter was a local Meth-odist church Trustee, lay preacher and Sunday schoolsuperintendent, while Rachel appears to have used hernursing skills during an emergency in 1897 when, during abush fire, a Mrs McGregor and her children were badlyburned. The Hastwell Fire Relief Committee presentedRachel Chisholm with an album as a token of their appre-

ciation for her work in March that year. By 1900, Walterwas chairman of the Mauriceville West School Committee,and by 1902 he was a Justice of the Peace. But, he andRachel were both becoming older, and in 1902 their agewas used against them.

At Masterton on Friday Mary Nicoli, commonly called "the

gypsy woman," was charged with stealing £1 from Walter

Chisholm, Mauriceville West, on November 20, and further

with fortune telling at the same time and place.

Mr Chisholm, an elderly, grey-haired man, who is a Justice

of the Peace, stated that he was a storekeeper at

Mauriceville West. On November 19 accused went to hisshop, purchased some goods, and asked to see his hand.

Witness showed his palm and the woman told him some

very agreeable things. She said he was a very good man,

would live long, and would be very rich, plenty of money

coming over the sea (laughter). He charged her a shilling

less for goods than he would have done, for telling him

(laughter).

The next day she visited his shop again, and this time went

into the private room where he and his wife were. She

asked for two sovereigns for two pound notes, and he

changed one of the notes. Then she asked him to sit down

on a chair near the fire. He did so, and she took a seat be-

side him on the floor, and asked for a tumbler of water

which was supplied. She placed the glass on the hearth be-

tween them, and requested a pocket handkerchief, which

was given. Taking some chemical stuff out of her pocket she

tied it in the handkerchief, dipped it in the water, and then


Walter Chisholm was born in Southdean near Hawick c.1833 in the Scottish Borders country the eldest son of James Chisholm and Janet Brown. James Chisholm wasan agricultural labourer. By 1851, Walter was working onthe estate of Henry Elliot of Westerhouses, Chester, as amolecatcher. Paying his own fare, he sailed from

Liverpool for Melbourne in 1854, on the Americanclipper, The Red Jacket .

He worked in Victoria for the next 13 years, marryingRachel Graham in 1863 at Carisbrooke, Wedderbourn,north-west of Ballarat, a gold-mining town. Rachel wasoriginally from Ireland, and had arrived in Victoria in1860 on assisted passage as a nurse. At the time of theirmarriage, Walter was employed as a mail contractor.

From Victoria, the Chisholms headed to Hokitika, stayingthere for over twenty years. They lived in Sale Street,Walter working as an ironmonger's assistant by 1880.

There he devoted time to the local Methodist Church,teaching Sunday school, as well as serving as Poor Stew-ard and Chapel Society Steward. He may also have beensecretary of the Independent Order of Rechabites 1877-81.He was actively against the licensing of hotels in the area,successfully opposing the granting of Henry Sharpe'slicense for the British Hotel in Tancred Street, September1880. By 1883, he was a storeman, and by 1889associated with the Hokitika Hardware Company. In thatyear he was a member of the Hokitika Auxiliary of theBritish and Foreign Bible Society.

In 1890, Walter and Rachel, with their son James leftHokitika for Mauriceville, near Masterton.

The many friends of Mr Walter Chisholm will be inter-

ested to learn that he has bought the business of a general

storekeeper at Mauriceville, near Masterton, in the

Wairarapa, Wellington Province. Writing to a friend in

Story behind a St Ninian’s grave:

Walter and Rachel Chisholm

Lisa J Truttman




Copies of Avondale Historical Journal and AWHSNewsletter produced for us by

Words Incorporated, 557 Blockhouse Bay Road,

Blockhouse Bay.

The Society and AHJ editorial staff thank

Avondale Business Associationand

NZ Community Postfor their continued support and sponsorship of this

publication.

The Avondale Historical Journal

Published by:the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society Inc.Editor: Lisa J. TruttmanSociety contact:19 Methuen Road, Avondale, Auckland 0600Phone: (09) 828-8494, 027 4040 804email: [email protected] information:

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he "kept his eye on it like a cat watching a mouse"; he did

not ask for the note back; she did not tell witness "there was

no fool like an old fool "; witness did not offer accused a

pound if she would give him a kiss; witness (indignantly),-

"my wife is a better looking woman than her."

Mrs Chisholm corroborated her husband's evidence. Ac-cused, she said, crumpled up what seemed to be the notes,

mixed with some coffee, burnt them on a shovel, and held

the fumes under the nose of witness's husband. Afterwards

the woman bought some goods in the shop, and Mr

Chisholm charged 3s or 4s less than the usual price. She

was only out of the room a few seconds serving a child.

Recalled, Mr. Chisholm said he sold the goods cheaply be-

cause accused said she wanted to sell some of them again,

as she had a lot of young children to keep.

The Magistrate (Mr James, S.M.) said the case came within

the definition of larceny by trick. No one would believe that

the notes were burned, and he should find accused guilty of

larceny by trick. He could not understand how people, espe-

cially like Mr Chisholm, a Justice of the Peace, and appar-

ently of some common sense, could be so foolish as to lend

themselves to be cheated in this manner. It passed his com-

prehension altogether. "They bring these about by their own

stupidity, and then come here and complain that they have

been had," added Mr James. Accused was fined £5 and

costs £1 13s. (Bush Advocate, 8 December 1902)

James Chisholm took over the store at Mauriceville from1905, while Walter and Rachel retired and came to live in

Avondale, setting up their home in Elm Street. Once again,Walter took an active part in the Methodist Church, butsadly had a bad turn while on his way to the church onRosebank Road and fell, passing away in 1910.

James, separated from his own family, came up to live withhis aged mother, then remarried. He shifted to Ellerslie,taking Rachel along them, where he worked as a horsetrainer. When Rachel died in 1921, she too was buried hereat St Ninians Cemetery.

Sources:Audrey Barney, "Robert Chisholm of the Whau", Clan

Chisholm Newsletter June 2007; Papers Past.

spread it over the top of the glass. Then she asked him to

place a pound on the handkerchief. Witness demurred;

and she then placed a pound note of her own underneath

the glass. Eventually, on the advice of his wife, he also

placed a note across the top of the glass. Accused then

folded the two notes together and “wanted to touch my

back to cure some imaginary disease. I said my back was

all right (laughter), and then she wanted to touch my

breast with the notes," said witness.

Continuing, witness stated she put her hands under his

wife's skirt. When she withdrew her bands she had some

paper in them, but not the two notes. She quickly rolled

the papers up and put them in the fire. Then she said she

had burned her own note as well as his, and all disease

was taken away, so he must give her another pound for

the one she had lost. His wife went out of the shop, but

was only away about a quarter of a minute, and when

she returned accused left. Cross-examined, Chisholm

said he had no intention of giving the woman the pound;

avondale historical journal no. 59

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