Report casts doubt on shackles’ origin
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull paid almost $4000 of ratepayer money on a set of supposedly historic legirons, which it now appears were used to shackle camels.
Cull brokered the withdrawal of the hand-forged leg-irons from a public auction in the city earlier this year. It followed a public outcry over the auction as it was believed the shackles may have been used on Maori political prisoners brought to Dunedin to do hard labour in the late 1800s.
Vendor Steve McCormack told auctioneer Kevin Hayward of Hayward’s Auction House that in the 1970s he and his brother hacksawed the shackles out of a harbourside cave on Portobello Rd.
The cave was believed to be one of several used to shelter Maori political prisoners from Taranaki’s Parihaka village and surrounding villages sentenced to hard labour on the construction of Dunedin’s Portobello Rd in the 19th century.
But further investigations suggest the leg-irons most likely shackled camels in the Middle East in the 20th century and could have been brought back to Dunedin by a returning serviceman.
A report by Toitu Otago Settlers Museum has concluded McCormack’s recollections of where, when and how he removed the leg-irons from the caves ‘‘do not stack up’’ against historical records, and were ‘‘increasingly doubtful’’.
Findings from interviews carried out during the investigation showed the leg-irons were made in the early20th century and that the cave where McCormack said he found them was used as a powder magazine storage facility and then for other types of storage, the report said.
The cave never housed the Maori prisoners, it said.
‘‘Simply put [McCormack’s] account is not credible,’’ wrote Sean Brosnahan, one of the museum’s curators who carried out the research.
Cull, who paid $3900 out of his discretionary mayoral fund for the shackles, said he decided to buy them based on an earlier report, which said it was possible they had been used in the cave on Maori prisoners. At the time there was no reason to doubt McCormack.
McCormack rejects the latest report and insists he retrieved the shackles from the cave.
‘‘I just sold them as a pair of legirons and next thing you know I’m stepping on Maori rights and everything else,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m not tricking anybody.’’
Taxpayers’ Union executive director Jordan Williams said McCormack should not have to reimburse the council for Cull’s decision to buy the shackles.