The mystery of the Bledisloe clock
It’s been a conundrum for more than 50 years — who owns the handsome clock presented to a Cook Islands chieftainess in 1933 by Lord Bledisloe, then New Zealand Governor-General.
Auckland architect Simon Crispe, who will be watching the Bledisloe Cup final at home tonight, has spent years pondering the mystery of the handsome English “Empire” clock he was given on his 50th birthday. It was the engraved silver plaque attached to the art-deco ‘Napoleon’s hat’-style oak case that intrigued him.
“Makea Karika Takau Ariki from the Governor General and Lady Bledisloe 1933,” it reads.
Crispe, now 67, wanted to return the clock to the family, and asked the Weekend Herald to help track down descendants of Makea Karika Takau, originally known as Takau Tuarau¯poko Mokoroa ki Aitu¯ before she took the title.
As a result of that search, delighted Karika relatives in Rarotonga are now looking forward to the return of their noble forebear’s clock to the family
home, Ngarurutu Palace in Avarua, the Cook Islands capital.
When the current title holder, Makea Karika George Ariki, was told by the Herald of the clock’s existence he said it was “wonderful” news. “It is a gift I would really appreciate, especially from Lord Bledisloe. It will help us remember our past, our grannies.”
The clock’s history had been lost and the family had no idea how or why it ended up in New Zealand.
The Makea Karika lineage history received a blow in the mid 1980s when the original palace burned down in a fire. The flames took generations of memorabilia, official photographs, historic treasures and gifts so there was little of the original history left. If the Bledisloe clock had not been taken to New Zealand, it, too, would have been likely destroyed in the fire.
George Ariki, 77, lives in the rebuilt palace and says on its return the Bledisloe clock will be given a place of honour in the formal sitting room. His
cousin, Ian Karika, one of Makea’s great-grandsons, told the Herald the family would be pleased to have the clock returned to Rarotonga and invited Crispe to visit the island.
Fixing a timeless piece
Who took the clock to New Zealand is still a mystery to the family. Back in the late 1960s, someone dropped the timepiece into Peter and Heather Crispe’s jewellery and watchmaker’s shop at Hunters Corner in Papatoetoe. The clock had stopped working and if anyone could fix it, horologist Peter Crispe could.
He overhauled the clock until it was once again chiming every half hour and on the hour. But no-one came to collect it and Crispe tried unsuccessfully to track down the owners. So the clock stayed in his shop for the next 28 years until his retirement in 1987.
Still bothered by who owned it, Crispe contacted the Papatoetoe police to ask what he should do. The police gazetted an item about the clock in a local newspaper for several weeks and eventually told Crispe, who died in 2013, the clock was now legally his.
Since inheriting the timepiece, Simon Crispe has kept the clock at his Auckland home, including during a lengthy stint working in the Middle East, now winding it weekly to make sure it still chimes. He, too, is delighted the clock will eventually be returned to the Cook Islands once arrangements are in place.
“It shouldn’t be with me. I only have it because no-one collected it.
“There was no internet back when my dad was trying to find the owner.”
A vice-regal visit
Research shows the clock was a gift made during a vice-regal visit to Rarotonga in April 1933. A Press Association item, radioed from the New Zealand frigate HMS Diomede, tells of Lord and Lady Bledisloe’s party leaving the island after being detained “by slight mechanical trouble which necessitate repairs”.
The previous morning the Governor-General had visited Karika, described as “an important chieftainess and descendant of a
famous war-like family”. The report said
Karika presented Lord Bledisloe with “beautiful mats and other gifts”. In return she received presents from Lord and Lady Bledisloe, among which would have been the engraved clock.
“There was a large gathering of natives as Karika has a considerable following and influence,” the report said. “The visit to the island has been most successful. The cordiality manifested could not have been exceeded.”
A noble family
Karika, also known as Takau Tuarau¯poko Mokoroa ki Aitu¯ before she took the title, came from a long line of noble leaders, taking on public roles and attending community events on behalf of the islanders. She made land available to the Crown for public purposes and government buildings in Avarua.
When Karika died in 1942, the title was passed to her son, Makea Karika Pa¯ George, a distinguished WWI soldier. He volunteered for the New Zealand (Ma¯ori) Pioneer Battalion and joined the New Zealand Expeditionary
Force, serving in Egypt.
He was promoted to sergeant and, after the Battle of Jerusalem, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty while in command of a platoon”.
On Pa¯ George’s death in 1949, the title was passed to his daughter 29-year-old Margaret, who was 14 when Lord Bledisloe gifted the clock to her grandmother.
Margaret, later Dame Makea Karika Takau Margaret Ariki, honoured her grandmother’s land agreements, contributing forestry land to help create the 155-hectare Takitumu Conservation Area.
Affectionately known as Mama Karika, she had a life-long commitment to conservation and the environment, and held many leadership roles, work that was acknowledged in the 2012 New Year Honours list when she became a Dame Commander.
Dame Margaret was considered a national icon in Rarotonga, serving for 68 years until her death in 2017. Now her nephew, conservation veteran Ian Karika, works helping manage the reserve, trapping predators to protect endangered birds.