Lithgow’s march world famous
Southland’s best known piece of music is the Invercargill March composed by Alex Lithgow in 1909 and named after his boyhood home.
The march is a brass band favourite worldwide.
Lithgow was born in Glasgow in 1870 and his family moved to Invercargill when he was six.
Being from a musical family, he learned the cornet and violin and became the principal cornetist of the Invercargill Garrison Band aged only 16 and toured New Zealand as a professional at age 23.
The following year he moved to Tasmania and in 1909 he arranged one of his compositions for his brother to play at the national band contest in Invercargill. His dedication reads, “To Invercargill, the Southernmost City in New Zealand (End of the World), and its Citizens, I dedicate this March as a memento of the many pleasant years spent there in my boyhood.”
In WW1 the Invercargill March was selected to represent ANZAC troops at a parade in London and its popularity grew from there.
It has been ranked with other great marches such as Stars and Stripes Forever, Colonel Bogey and the Radetzky March as one of the top band pieces worldwide.
A sea tale both weird and wonderful
In 1883 a strange incident occurred on Campbell Island. Captain S.S.Miner of the Sarah W. Hart, an American sealer, dispatched two whaleboats on a sealing mission while at anchor in Perseverance Harbour. A squall blew up and the boats were blown out to sea.
The mate’s boat and crew were not seen again but after several days of hard toil the second mate’s boat made it back to land.
Exhausted, freezing and starving the boat’s crew eventually reentered Perseverance Harbour only to find the schooner missing. Assuming both boats had been lost, the captain and steward, the only men still aboard, eventually managed to raise the anchors and get the vessel underway for Lyttelton. A rescue mission was organised and the second mate and his men were saved by the Stella on the 20th December 1883
They were in a very weak condition and reached Port Chalmers on Christmas night.
It was obvious from their accounts that they had been poorly treated. Two of the crew unsuccessfully took legal action against Captain Miner.
The press was outraged at the shabby treatment of the surviving crew, accusing Miner of abandoning the men, but still, his achievement in getting his vessel the 630 miles to Lyttelton with only two men aboard is commendable. The crew were repatriated to America but were not compensated for their losses.
Remembering New Zealand’s first Māori woman cabinet minister
Southland’s first woman
MP was the Honourable Whetu TirikateneSullivan ONZ who represented Southern Māori from 1967 to 1996 making her the longest serving woman member in the history of the New Zealand Parliament.
From 1972 to 1974 she was in cabinet — the first Māori woman minister.
Five other Southland women have been Members of Parliament.
Lesley Soper was a Labour List MP from April to August 2005 and February 2007 to November 2008.
National MP Sarah Dowie was elected to the Invercargill seat 2014-2020; in 2023 National’s Penny Simmonds was elected to the Invercargill seat; Labour list MP Dr Liz Craig was assigned to Southland duties 2017-2023 and New Zealand First’s list MP Ria Bond was in the house from 2015 to 2017.