WELLINGTON
: A surprising number of people claiming to be long lost relatives of the
Kiwi Deputy Prime Minister of Australia ,
Barnaby Joyce, have contacted
New Zealand newspapers . They and others are prepared to
supply exclusive information and anecdotes
for
a fee,
deposited in a Bank of Nigeria account.
One
of the most intriguing stories
to come to light is about a person only known in records as J. Joyce , head
gardener for a member of
the landed gentry in the South Island , Sir Heaton Rhodes
, on the Elmwood
estate at Otahuna , near Christchurch . It
became one of the most famous
private gardens in the Dominion ,
with vast areas
of daffodils , more than excited the poet William Wordsworth .
Gardener Joyce was mainly responsible for planting the daffodil bulbs and as a result was supposedly nicknamed both “ Daffy” Joyce and “Bulby” Joyce. It is suggested that Barnaby may have been so named after old "Bulby"...the Kiwi accent responsible for the error .
Gardener Joyce was mainly responsible for planting the daffodil bulbs and as a result was supposedly nicknamed both “ Daffy” Joyce and “Bulby” Joyce. It is suggested that Barnaby may have been so named after old "Bulby"...the Kiwi accent responsible for the error .
Heaton
was a member of a prominent
family which at one stage dabbled in
alpacas which were
found to have antisocial habits-kicking
, spitting. Readers of
this blog know that
Barnaby is also wary when dealing with alpacas .
Not
only did Heaton serve in the Boer War , he
turned to politics, held several
ministerial portfolios : Postmaster General , Railways, State Forest
, Public Health , Tourist Department ,
Defence ; even Deputy Leader ... Nearly
as many jobs as Barnaby
Joyce . It
is interesting to note that Sir
Heaton had a massive , rare stamp collection and
swapped part of it for a red poll bull .
Another dubious would be
informant , Keith Holyoake , above,
has been convicted
numerous times for
making Hokianga Hooch -
moonshine - from illegal
stills out in
the hills where members of the All Blacks run about with bags of cement on their shoulders . Holyoake,
who claims he is related to a
former NZ PM “Kiwi Keith” Holyoake ,
insists the Joyces bred like
rabbits and possums when they moved
to New Zealand
from the Old Dart in the l9th century and muscled
in on his great-grandfather’s market
for rotgut .
“There
was a lot of a feudin’ and a fussin’ between the Joyces and the
Holyoakes, '' he claimed .
It only ended when the
pioneers drew straws ,from behind their ears,
to end the
war - the Joyces got
the South Island , Bondi
and New England , the Holyoakes , the North Island, Wagga Wagga and the Gold Coast .
