Eureka moments in New Zealand
The latest edition of the New Zealand Genealogist contains many interesting articles , two in particular by Miles Dillon, who seems to be a relentless researcher. Included in the Auckland Museum Library treasures, he writes , is a small file of letters written between 1858 to l863 to Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand , which included Melanesia , by members of the Pitcairn Island Bounty mutineers community resident on Norfolk Island .
The literacy and educational achievements of the isolated Pitcairners amazed the writer .
Dillon was impressed by the literate and writing style of Arthur Quintall Senior (1795-1874),son of Bounty mutineer Matthew Quintall and Tevarua.
He wrote with a flourish in a strong, well formed hand. His son, John Quintall, employed a " tight , uniform style in the l850s."
However ,it was puzzling to discover a letter from John in 1907 written in a " juvenile-script of a primary schooler". Why ?
NZ and Australian newspapers published a periodic syndicated column from a Norfolk Island correspondent , The Auckland Star of November 15,l888, provided the answer .
It said one of the oldest and most respected members of the community, Johnny Quintall,"through the premature explosion of a charge of dynamite, while fishing from the pier , blew his hand away, there also being injury to his face, body and legs .
Not only did he make a full recovery after his arm was amputated four inches above the wrist, but he taught himself to write again with his left (?) hand . Eureka!I had my explanation, Dillon penned. . Johnny lived to 90.
Dillon had another Eureka! moment , solving a 50 year puzzle while researching his grandfather Edwin Logan Dillon, a teacher and keen photographer , who contributed to various publications.
Two photographs the writer had been aware of since a child were of a well dressed Pacific Islander (above) in a suit and bowtie, and another snap of him at the front of a house, in the l920s. He was eventually identified as Olaf Frederick Nelson , a fighter for Samoan independence , who from January 1928 was exiled to New Zealand for five years.
The son of a Swedish trader and a Samoan mother, Nelson, who could speak Swedish and German as well as English , was a leading businessman and politician, one of the founders of the anti-colonial Mau Movement , declared seditious . While in exile in Auckland, he set up the NZ Samoa Defence League and started a newspaper, the NZ Samoa Guardian .
In l962, Western Samoa became the first Pacific Island nation to achieve independence ,from New Zealand , .later changing its name to Samoa .
