The sinking of the Mataura
There is a Mataura Cove and Mataura Peak in Chile.
The Mataura was en route from Wellington to London via the Magellan Strait when she struck Desolation Island at the entrance to the strait on January 12, 1898.
She was run aground in Sealer Cove but became a total loss although all the 60 crew and passengers were landed safely.
The Mataura was a steel steamer built in 1896.
She was carrying 16,535 bales of wool, 2830 packages of cheese, 1374 packages of butter, 20,508 mutton carcasses and 2733 cases of rabbits together worth $US 2,000,000.
The cove is now called Mataura Cove, and the ship itself was probably named after the Mataura Freezing Works.
Long-wed
Southland’s longest married couple were Doris and John Sinclair of Mabel Bush who were married on March 29, 1938 and clocked up at least 73 years of married life.
This surpasses the previous record held by Bill and Alma Heaps who had been married for 72 years and 7 months when Bill died in June 2000.
Fred and Myrtle Flutey of Bluff had been married for 71 years and seven months when Myrtle died in May 2000.
As others see us
From N to Z was a popular, humorous guide to NZ first published in 1947.
‘‘No description of the main centres would be complete without mentioning Invercargill. There is some doubt as to how it got its name. One popular impression is that it was called after a famous band march, but this must be discounted. A march involves a regular movement from bar to bar and for many years there weren’t any. At one time it was called Inverkelly but the operations of a gang of that name in another part of the Empire forced the citizens to change the name to something more respectable. About this time, oysters were found in great quantities in Foveaux Strait and the idea of settlers in other parts of the Dominion having to pay for them left the citizens with a continual grin and the name became Invergiggle.’’
The name Invergiggle showed up again in the Blumsky Report in 2010. One of Mark Blumsky’s 55 ideas for rebranding the city included a week-long name change to Invergiggle, during which time there would be fun things to do. It was a brilliant idea, spurned by a dour, shortsighted council who thought it would make Invercargill the laughing-stock of the country – which was the intention.