Businessman kept links to history of SS Ventnor alive
Keeping the memory of the SS Ventnor alive was something that Gordon Wu, who died in February, aged 86, worked hard to achieve.
The Ventnor sank off Northland’s Hokianga Heads in October 1902, carrying the remains of 499 Chinese gold miners being taken to China for reburial. Over the next few months their remains washed ashore, and members of Te Roroa and Te Rarawa iwi interred them in their urupā.
It created a unique bond between the New Zealand Chinese community and Northland Māori which, 122 years later, is a strong one.
Gordon also worked hard to promote Cantonese. Believing it would keep their culture alive, he gave free lessons to anyone wanting to learn the language. In his later years it was his passion for history and genealogy, where he achieved his greatest achievements. Chinese Kiwis had long faced hostility in New Zealand and Gordon gave them a voice, helping out on numerous books on Chinese stories including Fruits of Our Labour, a book examining the importance of the humble fruit and vege store in Aotearoa.
He also became a skilled researcher. That was never more handy than when it came to the Ventnor.
In countries like Australia and New Zealand, which experienced gold rushes, Chinese always had to deal with the tricky issue of returning home if they died. Chinese benevolent societies collected an annual fee and took responsi
bility for getting their remains to China.
In New Zealand, the first repatriation took place in 1883 by the Otago-based Cheong Shing Tong Society.
The Ventnor carried the remains of 499 Chinese who were exhumed from cemeteries across Aotearoa, including Karori.
The story of it sinking and the washing up of bones was quickly forgotten by everybody, other than Northland iwi. In 2007, cultural consultant Wong Liu Shueng began hearing stories about bones being washed up and buried by local Māori.
In an article in New Zealand Geographic Wong spoke of talking to Māori elders who remembered being told: “There’s Chinese over there. Don’t play in there.” It set off a series of events, which led to the discovery of the wreck, a documentary and the involvement of the Chinese government.
One big question, however, remained – what were the names of the 499 men? A research group headed by Wong Liu Shueng failed to find any relevant documents, until Gordon visited National Archives in 2016.
Gordon found a list of exhumation requests with Chinese names appended from 39 cemeteries.
Amongsthe names was Gordon’s great-grand-father, Ng Jor Ching of which Gordon said: “He is the brother of my grandfather’s natural father. He went back to China and married. Came back to New Zealand and had no children. When he died – his wife had no children, so she adopted his brother’s youngest son. She brought up grandfather as her son.“In other words, Ng Jor Ching was Gordon’s great-grandfather by adoption and his great-grand uncle by blood.
His discovery of the Ventnor names came just in time for them to be added to a memorial put up by the New Zealand Chinese Association.