Joseph Hatch – the penguin processor
Our About the South columnist on a former Invercargill mayor’s oily enterprise, the arrival of a sledging shepherd, and the Waikivi Tragedy. Lloyd Esler reports.
Southland’s penguin oil industry was started by Invercargill’s one-time mayor Joseph Hatch, who was granted a licence to extract oil from royal penguins on Macquarie Island in 1891.
For more than 25 years his gangs killed and boiled 900 penguins at a time in his digester. ‘‘A pint per penguin’’ was his aim. Contrary to the popular rumour, the birds were not herded alive into the digester but clubbed and gutted first.
Penguin skins were also kept for making fashion clothing.
In April 1891 one paper reported: ‘‘ Mr Hatch has a considerable industry on his hands in the Macquarie sea elephant and penguin oil business. He has a refinery at Invercargill where the oil, roughly prepared at the island, is filtered, and otherwise purified for use.
‘‘The refining room contains a 400 gallon digester and several 200 gallon open boilers for heating the rough oil and treating it with chemicals.
‘‘From the heating vats the oil goes to a filtering room where it passes very slowly through bags of closely woven stuff, and is then packed in casks and drums for the market.
‘‘The stearine which adheres to the sides of the bags is not wasted, being largely used in the manufacture of soft soap and sheep-dip of which considerable quantities are turned out at Mr Hatch’s factory.
‘‘The demand for the oil far exceeds the supply at the present time, and it compares favourably in price and quality with the best imported article. It is used as a lubricator for all kinds of machinery, and is specially suited for reapers and binders.’’
A sledging shepherd arrives
Southland’s first overland visitor to arrive by vehicle was Jock Mackenzie, a Highland shepherd who brought a sledge pulled by two bullocks through from Dunedin.
He arrived at Tuturau on October 16, 1854.
In 1855 Mackenzie borrowed a flock of 1000 sheep from Levels Station in South Canterbury and brought them over a pass into the flat country now called the Mackenzie Country after him.
He was tracked but fled and was later arrested in Lyttelton. Sentenced to five years in prison, he escaped several times before being freed on condition he emigrated and never returned.
The description of James Mackenzie from his wanted poster says: ‘‘Height about 5ft 11in; hair light; eyes small and grey; nose large and aquiline; face long and thin; body spare and muscular. He speaks English imperfectly and feigns generally that he understands only Gaelic. He has a peculiar habit of putting his fingers behind him and snapping his fingers.’’
The Waikivi Tragedy
Among the early tragedies in Invercargill was what the papers called ‘The Waikivi Tragedy’ of October 22, 1872 (Waikivi being then the usual form of Waikiwi).
Caroline Whitting threw three of her sons, Fred, 8, Karl, 5, and John, 10 months, into the Waikiwi Stream where they drowned.
This point was on a bush track a mile perhaps downstream from the state highway bridge where the forest was then being milled.
Caroline was in an unhappy marriage and the family were victims of domestic violence, sometimes having to flee the house and stay overnight in the bush.
At the time of the tragedy she was in poor health and suffering stress, but was found guilty of wilful murder.
The family is buried in an unmarked plot in the Waikiwi Cemetery.