Edward, Prince of Wales, first royal visitor
Did you know ... Southland’s first royal visitor was Victoria’s great-grandson, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, on May 20, 1920. Torrential rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of the spectators. Special trains brought children from the country to the showgrounds and the town turned out to greet the future king.
The prince presented 30 military medals and distinguished conduct medals to returned soldiers. He said to the veterans, ‘‘I am glad to see so many of you here to-day, but am sorry that you have had to stand out in the cold so long. I watched your activities in the war with great interest and trust that in your civil life you will be as successful as you were in the army’’.
The oldest soldier present that day had been in the Crimean War.
The Southland Times said, ‘‘A member of the Prince’s suite when chatting to a Times reporter stated that two remarkable things were noticeable in the Invercargill welcome. One was that the majority of the Union Jacks were flown right way up and not reversed as many were in the northern centres, the other was that a great many of the returned men, perhaps through nervousness, failed to remove their hats when being received by thePrince.’’
The prince spent two hours in Invercargill before heading to Bluff and departure from New Zealand.
A Southland golfing record of six holes in one is claimed for Dave McFarlane and Grahame Buist. Grahame scored three holes in one on the same hole, the par-three No 4 hole on the Otatara course, and all Dave’s aces have been on the Queens Park course. These records are for competition play rather than social rounds, for confirmation purposes.
These results seem pretty insignificant when compared with the record set by North Korea’s Dear Leader Kim Jong il. In the 1990s – variously reported as 1991 or 1994 – Kim did a 38-under-par round of 34 on an 18-hole golf course in Pyongyang, which included 11 holes in one. It was the first time he had tried golf, and the remarkable result was verified by everyone present.
An early example of revenge was that taken by a Riverton cooper, perhaps Owen McShane, who had his home brew stock raided by visiting whalers. Some months later, when the same vessel was seen approaching, he boiled up kowhai leaves and flowers, added the resulting decoction to the beer and departed leaving the pot of poisoned beer and some handy pannikins.
One report says, ‘‘as they did not return to the ship on time, nor in response to frequent gun-shot signals, their officers came to look for them, and then – well it was a question whether they would ever recover from their terrific ‘‘springcleaning’’ they had not bargained for.’’
Kowhai extract was well known in rongoa Maori as an emetic. It is believed that all parts of kowhai contain toxic alkaloids, particularly the seeds, but these would pass through the digestive system before they became a risk. The story is a bit far-fetched, but the sailors possibly felt a little ill for a while.