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Onslow HS delivers the goodsA trunk of personal possessions including documents and photographs in the archives at Onslow Historical Society revealed the remarkable story of Dunedin-born Pixie Laing. Her story has been made into a short film, one of seven in the Great War Stories series screened on TV3's Newshub.

"The trunk had belonged to Captain Norman Bell, and it was left in a BNZ vault and given to the Society 20 years ago," says OHS Archive Manager Judy Siers, a member of the Society for 50 years. "We assumed it just contained papers about Norman and the local Bell Bus Company established in the 1920s." A closer look, as part of Jane Tolerton's research into women's contributions to WW1, revealed Ada (who renamed herself Pixie) Laing’s fascinating story first as a dancer at the Folies Bergere in Paris, and later as a volunteer nurse and ambulance driver in England.

"The filming was completed on a very fast turn-around," says Judy. "I got a call on Thursday from director/producer Anna Cottrell and we filmed the following Tuesday."

The local connection is Pixie's marriage to Englishman, Captain Norman Bell. She met Norman during the war and he wrote glowing testimonials of her service in the ambulance corps. They later lived in Ngaio, their home identified by the Bell Buses parked along Colway Street. Pixie became Mrs Bell to the passengers and was admired for her fine handling of a heavy bus up the Ngaio Gorge.

Thanks to the many contributors to this issue, which is generously funded by a grantfrom Lion Foundation, a Members' donation and Members' subscriptions. We are always interested to hear what you have been doing. Please contact Anne Taylor, Editor: E: editor@wrhpc.org.nz T: 04 388 6584 | M: 027 489 0704.

Today

Issue # 28 • MAY JUNE 2018 published by Wellington Region Heritage Promotion Council (WRHPC)

ISSN 2463-2988

Above: Judy Siers pores over papers on Pixie Laing, held at Onslow Historical Society. Pixie is the subject of a recent short film. (See story at right).

Above: A Bell Bus Company sightseeing bus at Island Bay, Wellington, May 1929. Photograph taken by F R Just. Ref: 1/2-071476-B-F. National Library of NZ website.

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The Great War Stories series is produced with support from Alexander Turnbull library, Archives New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. You can view the film about Pixie here. www.onslowhistoricalsociety.appspot.com.

Calling events hosts for Heritage WeekWellington Heritage Week Director David Batchelor is putting a call out for 'event hosts' for this year's Week. Sponsored by Museums Wellington, Wellington Civic Trust, and Wellington Community Trust, the Week explores Wellington's people, places and stories through walks, films, tours, and exhibitions. Organisations and community groups are invited to become event hosts and coordinate an event, with support from the Wellington Heritage Week Trust. For more information on how to become an event host, please contact the organisers before the end of July. E: info@wellingtonheritageweek.co.nz. www.wellingtonheritageweek.co.nz.

Seeking Victorian furnishings for GlensideA Victorian era chaise lounge, a mantel clock in working order and silver cutlery are just some of the items being sought for the interior of Glenside's historic Halfway House. The furnishing committee is focused on fitting out the public front rooms and hoping people can help out by donating items. The committee is interested in items from the "Victorian era or earlier". The list of furnishings is at http://www.glenside.org.nz/glenside-news-topmenu-61/409-victorian-furnishings-sought.html. If you would like to donate, please contact Marg Ellis T: 0210 224 0851/ E: marg.ellis@xtra.co.nz or Claire M: 022 186 5714.

Memorial Day remembers US Marines at KapitiKapiti US Marines Trust is currently working on this year’s Memorial Day ceremony, planned for Monday 28 May. We’ll have completed the Hut and have added a ramp for the viewing window, and transparent caption panels either side of the window to explain the items on display inside. The layout was inspired by a pastel drawing by Marine Por-firio Navarro who trained in Wellington region, 1942-43. This year a special visitor will be 97-year-old Jack Rogo, a US Navy Veteran who is a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbour. He will be particularly interested to see the Sailors' Memorial honouring 10 navy men who died during a landing exercise at Paekakariki Beach. Memorial Day has become a popular feature of the Kapiti year. The three Paekakariki camps housed Marine infantry, spearhead troops in the Battle of Tarawa when over 1000 of ‘our’ Marines died. Read more at https://marinenz.com. Anthony Dreaver, Kapiti US Marines Trust. See Calendar pg 6 for more details.

Above: Kapiti Menzshed volunteers Dave Porter and Murray Cardle making a strong foundation for the ramp.

WELLINGTONHERITAGEWEEK 201822 - 28 OCTOBER

Above: Committee members Marg Ellis and Claire Bibby at the historic Halfway House.

Photo: Mac McCardle.

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The Ace-High Dance Band. Ref: PAColl-1729-1. National Library website.

Celebrating Alexander Turnbull's generosityJune 28 this year marks 100 years since the death of Alex-ander Turnbull, who donated his vast collection of books, manuscripts, artefacts, maps, photographs and paintings to the nation to form the nucleus of what became the Alexander Turnbull Library. The Turnbull is now a research library of international renown – today part of the Nation-al Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mataranga o Aotearoa.

To celebrate on the day, the Friends of Turnbull Library will begin with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Turnbull family headstone in the Bolton Street Cemetery (Bowen Street entrance) at 9.30 am. In the evening, Professor Lydia Wevers ONZM, will present the Founder Lecture, 'Books and their Readers', in the Grand Hall of Parliament at 6.30 pm (by invitation only).

These events begin a programme of centenary celebrations that will culminate on 28 June 2020, the centennial anni-versary of the opening of the Alexander Turnbull Library to the public. A creative writing competition for second-ary schools students, SMART ALEX, is being offered in two age categories with prizes totalling more than $2000; and expressions of interest are now invited for a Research Essay on any aspect of Alexander Turnbull’s life and /or his role as a collector, with a prize of $15,000 awarded to the successful applicant. See the Friends’ website for more details: www.turnbullfriends.org.nz

Jazzy nerves, aching feet and foxtrotsContrary to popular belief, 1920s New Zealand was not a quiet, staid society that ‘closed at 5’. Dr Aleisha Ward, the 2017 Douglas Lilburn Research Fellow, explores facets of our own Jazz Age. Ground floor, National Library, Wednesday 2 May, 12.10pm to 1pm.

Fake News: Mapping 19th century newspapersHow did information circulate in 19th century newspapers and how did readers distinguish between real and fake news? This talk explores new approaches to data mining and data visualisation using historic digitised newspapers. Ground floor, National Library, Thursday 3 May, 5.30pm to 7pm.

New book on a forgotten man of NZ scienceDr Pamela Hyde is a descendant of Henry Suter, a con-temporary of James Hector, William Colenso, Frederick Hutton, and other scientists who lived and worked in late nineteenth-century New Zealand. She has recently pub-lished her research in a book called “A Colonial Natural-ist: Henry Suter’s Life of Discovery and Hardship in New Zealand”. She says Henry Suter is best known for his outstanding work on molluscs but he also discovered new species of plants, lizards and spiders. It’s a compelling story that makes an important contribution to the history of New Zealand science. Available from Unity Books, $35.Kate Fortune, FoTL & Friends of Bolton St Cemetery.

Above: A portrait of Alexander Turnbull.

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We're standing in front of a display board – Shirley, her sister Bronwyn, Shirley’s daughter Shannon and I – at Seatoun Primary School, one of the last stops on a packed itinerary for Wahine 50. The wind and rain are lashing the school as hundreds of people take in the students’ work and connect with each other. The weather is echoing the storm of 50 years ago which saw the passenger ferry sink just metres from the school.

While Shirley developed a lifelong fear of water that became a defining feature of family life for Shannon and her three siblings, it's the wind that Bronwyn can’t stand. Neither of them slept well the night before as the storm bought back memories of that terrible day. Shirley, who was born in Oamaru and now lives in Perth, was determined to be in Wellington for the 50th. It was the first time she had attended a Wahine anniversary and she described the day as "surreal", especially seeing memorabilia from the ship laid out at Muritai School.

Shirley, her mother Wieslawa, and 4-year-old Bronwyn had been travelling from the South Island up to Auckland where 16-year-old Shirley was to start at the NZ School of Hairdressing. They were in F deck and, when the sirens started some hours after they heard the ferry crash onto the rocks of Barrett Reef, she says their mother “went into survival mode”. Wieslawa had been one of the Polish refugee children sent to New Zealand after WW2. Her horrific wartime experiences, including their ship USS General Randall encountering a close call with a torpedo, made her more conscious than most of worst case scenarios. When they first boarded

When the 9am Wellington to Picton ferry set off in storm conditions the day after this year's Wahine 50th anniversary, one passenger was more anxious than most. Shirley Ritchie (nee Scurr) had been a passenger on the doomed vessel with her mother and sister. She told Anne Taylor how the disaster has had a lasting impact on her life – and how 2018 is all about facing her fears.

A mother's courage

the Wahine, she insisted that a purser find an extra lifejacket after discovering there were only two in their F deck cabin. When the sirens started some hours after they heard the ferry crash onto the rocks of Barrett Reef, Shirley says their mother “went into survival mode”. After relocating to the upper decks, Wieslawa was determined to locate a pen to write her daughters’ names on their arms. Thus prepared, she sat and waited. The photo from the Dominion Post collection shows her (above right) wearing her lifejacket. Bronwyn was just out of shot at right. Shirley remembers the woman next to them was South African and travelling alone with her children.

Shirley was the last to be put aboard and after being lowered into the ocean, she has vivid memories of being trapped as people began jumping for their lives onto the raft’s canopy. She was able to get part of her body through the canopy’s opening and shouted: “There are people underneath!” but she was told to be quiet: “That left me with a sense that I was not heard, not listened to, and that has stayed with me all my life,” she says.

Water was washing into the raft and her mother had to hold Bronwyn’s chin above the water the whole time. Shirley was taken onto a tug boat along with those sitting on the raft’s canopy and deposited at Wellington Railway Station. However everyone under the canopy remained on the raft and later washed onto the rocks. The distraught teenager remembers being told not to be “so self-obsessed” by a passerby when crying for her mother and sister, which has also affected her deeply to this day.

Shirley's mother is pictured above on board the Wahine.

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Shannon and Shirley both travelled from Perth, and joined Shirley's sister Bronwyn from Christchurch.

"My mother went into survival mode....she insisted that a purser find an extra lifejacket so that she and her

daughters could each have one. She also wrote our names on our arms". Thus prepared, she sat and waited..."

Fortunately, her mother and Bronwyn made it safely onto shore near Eastbourne and then reunited with Shirley who had waited around five hours for news of her family. " There was a Maori man who knew what to do on the life raft," says Bronwyn. "He kept telling the adults to push back hard on the sides each time we were hit by a wave, to stabilise it." Her mother said they wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for him.On returning to the South Island by ferry, Bronwyn asked her Mum "‘when are we going to be tipped out of the boat?’ , as that was the only way I'd experienced leaving a boat up to that point,” she says.

Shirley says her decision to take the Picton ferry back to the South Island the next day to see family was a self-imposed challenge. The sailing that morning was delayed until the 6m swells eased. "The waves were very rough as we eerily passed the Wahine’s final resting place and Barrett Reef," says Shannon. "It was kind of a freaky feeling. But after the sun appeared we were able to coax Mum onto the outside deck during the trip which was amazing. Thankfully the

journey into Picton was sunny and calming so it was very symbolic." "I had to face my fears," says Shirley. "I’m hoping this will be the end of a chapter and a new start for me.”

Shirley with daughter Shannon on the deck of the Picton ferry, on 11 April 2018.

Wahine displays at Seatoun Primary School.

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The surviving 'monster' petition from 1893 contains 25,519 signatures, including some men, and is displayed in the He Tohu exhibition on the ground floor of the Library.The public can search for names on an interactive panel that is part of the display, and Library staff have put in many hours to ensure that there are at least some biographies on each of the 546 sheets of the Petition.

Now a guide to Writing a Biography has been produced, that will help people write their own biographies on Petition signatories. Stephanie described how she chose several names at random to research and discovered a successful Auckland businesswoman and taxidermist, along with a 'competitive pedestrian' (above) who also just happened to be a relative of PM Jacinda Adern!

Checking out the Women’s Suffrage Petition database on NZHistory is the recommeded first step. A digital version of each sheet of the Petition is available and it allows you to search by surname, suburb, town, city, region, or sheet number. The guide sets out many other useful steps (including those at right). Biographies submitted by the public, once approved, will be featured on the interactive display at He Tohu as well as on the Petition database.

Writing your own Suffrage historyEvery woman's name – and her story – is important, according to Stefanie Lash of Archives New Zealand, and Thomasin Sleigh from the National Library. They are encouraging the public to research and add biographical information to the names listed on the 1893 Women's Sugffrage Petition. Anne Taylor found out how to get started.

Tips for writing a Suffrage Petition biography

• If you have a name in mind, check the database to see whether they have signed, and if any information on them is already available.• If you don’t have a name, use the database to pick a woman that interests you most. Why not try someone from your street, town, or region? Or someone with an unusual name? Can you find any men on the Petition? Or Maori women?• Women who have written the full names of their husbands are handy to research. 'Mrs. Charles Hanson' of Ponsonby may have a well-known husband, and then she will be easier to research.• Look for blocks of family names; you may find out snippets on several women in the process.• There can be mistakes in how a name has been transcribed from the Petition, and many women signed with the initials of their husband. So you may need to try different spellings of a surname.• Mothers and daughters often shared the same name. Although women had to be 21 to sign the Petition, there are some as young as 15. You may have to unpick which information belongs to which generation.• Even if you don’t find much information about someone, write it down anyway. Women are difficult to trace in published records, so any information, as small as it is, will be useful.• Read some of the submitted biographies at NZHistory for ideas and the format for submissions.

Left: Kate Sheppard glued the sheets of the Suffrage petition together at her kitchen table in Riccarton, then wound them round a broom handle to present to Parliament.

Competitive walker & Petition signatory Mrs J L Wiltshire.

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Calendar Dates

The history of this small settlement just north of Carterton on SH2 is closely entwined with the former racecourse and school, and this is reflected in Robyn Ray-MacGregor's newly published book.

Robyn grew up in Clareville in the 1950s and, despite being well-travelled, she now lives a stone's throw from her old family home. The book – Clareville – The history of our district 1855-2017 – opens with a foreword by former MP and Auckland Mayor John Banks, who describes being a student at the local school. He credits teacher Myra Thomas as being "the single most influential person in my life", having taught her students ethics, civics, respect and dignity. The book features the complete school roll from 1868 to 1968, organised by decades.

'Looking to the future to preserve our past', Sun-day 6 May, 2pm: The 164th Annual Service at Christ Church Taita. Frances Underwood will speak about her connection to both the Harris and Hooper families. Christ Church, 73 Eastern Hutt Rd, Taita.

‘In the Footsteps of the Marines’ annual race, Sunday 27 May: Kapiti Walkers and Joggers race around

Whareroa Farm (once Camp Mackay). Entries to Roger Childs E: pamandr-oger.childs@gmail.com.

'Malcolm Harrison, textile artist', Thursday 24 May, 5.30 pm: Ann Packer (left), who is a writer, editor and

Clareville close to author's heart

oral historian, talks about this significant New Zealand artist. Organised by Friends of Alexander Turnbull Library. Ground floor, National Library of New Zealand

Kapiti US Marines Trust Memorial Day, Monday 28 May, from 10am: The service will run from 10-11am, followed by refreshments at the new Park visitor centre. Donations towards expenses are welcome but not re-quired. Queen Elizabeth Park, signposted on SH1. Wellington Historical & Early Settlers' Association AGM & Talk, Thursday 21 June, 12pm: The AGM will be followed by a talk on Mt Victoria by Joanna Newman. Draughtsman's Room, Museum of Wellington, Queen's Wharf. $15 includes lunch.

Friends of Turnbull Library wreath-laying cer-emony, Thursday 28 June, 9.30am: Marking the 100-year anniversary of the death Alexander Turnbull, at the Turnbull family headstone in the Bolton Street Cemetery (Bowen Street entrance).

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Another focal point of the community was the Clareville Racecourse, home to the highest ever dividend paid out at a New Zealand racecourse. The track is now closed but forms part of the Wairarapa A & P Showgrounds, which is a busy venue for rural and equestrian events throughout the year. Robyn covers many aspects of the community and local organisations, along with recollections from descendants of some of the area's well-known families: the Ray, Bird, Street, Rzoska and Neich families.

The book is published by the Clareville Trust of which Robyn is Secretary. The Trust aims to support welfare and education in Clareville, and foster community spirit. Her book is available from Wairarapa libraries and at Take Note, Carterton and Hedleys Bookshop, Masterton, priced at $20. E: robynmacgregor@hotmail.com.

Clareville Racecourse with the snow-covered Tararuas in the background.