One Man's Life: Richard Arthur Haydon

"The immigrants ... are a healthy, intelligent class of persons, and are likely in every respect to form good colonists." The Star, 22 October 1883.

This judgement of the Star's reporter on the character and disposition of the passengers recently arrived on the SS Taranaki held particulary true for one of them, Richard Haydon, through the rest of his life in New Zealand.

Disembarking at Lyttelton, it appears he spent some time in Christchurch before heading north. Perhaps it was in Christchurch, that as a government-assisted immigrant, he signed up with the New Zealand Railways.

In an addendum to his shipboard diary, Richard records: "started at East Town [Wanganui] Oct. 7th 1884". At East Town Haydon found employment in the New Zealand Railways' workshops.

Living at Aramoho he became engaged in his work as a railways carpenter and in social life. Within a few years he was chair of the Railways Benefit Club for employees and played regularly for the local Railways rugby and cricket teams.

In December 1887 he married Eleanor Grace Salome Ellis who came from the same area in Devon as he did. Together they would have seven children, their two sons dying in young adulthood.

From Wanganui, the Haydons moved to Dunedin where Richard worked at the Hillside railway workshops. By 1909, Richard had put in 24 and a half years of service in the Railways, attaining the rank of Lead Carpenter earning 11 shillings & sixpence per day.

The family remained in Dunedin at least until sometime during World War I because the family lore suggests that he was a member of a pipe band that farewelled troops departing for overseas service. At least one of their children, daughter Amy, married in Dunedin during the war years.

The Haydons moved back to Christchurch where Richard and Eleanor would see out the remainder of their lives.

Richard finished out his working career at the Addington workshops, the family home being located on Clarence Road that formed the western perimeter of the workshops.

Reflecting their deep attachment to their early life in Devon, the Haydons named their house "Chudleigh" after Richard's home town. Sadly, the house burned to the ground a few years later, necessitating relocation to a new home in Mathesons Road.

Richard Haydon died in Christchurch on 18 July 1927 at the aged of 62, Eleanor surviving him by eleven years. Richard had had little time to enjoy his retirement but he had made his own modest contribution, as many thousands of others had, to the emerging New Zealand way of life.

Richard Arthur Haydon was my great-grandfather.

Kaka Ale - W Strachan and Co, Victoria Brewery, Dunedin

"Clear To The Last Drop" - Kaka Ale advertisement supporting Kiwi troops during World War I. Source: Alexander Turnbull Library.

The Victoria Brewery was established in Dunedin in 1857 by William Strachan and partners and by 1890 was the oldest brewery in Dunedin, and possibly New Zealand.

W Strachan & Co, brewers of Kaka Ale, was formed by William Strachan near Port Chalmers, Dunedin in 1860 after the dissolution of the brewing partnership of Strachan, Thompson, and Co. In 1864, Strachan was operating the Victoria Brewery in Pitt Street, Dunedin, opposite Knox Church which must have raised the eyebrows of some parishioners. The brewery was there 26 years later, see ad below.

Classified ad, Otago Witness, 1890.

In 1878 at a meeting of brewers at the Captain Cook Hotel, Great King Street to oppose a beer tax proposed by the government, William Strachan opined that New Zealand "being the only place in the Southern Hemisphere where good ale could be made, anything likely to damage the brewing industry was a serious matter, and of general importance". Otago Witness, 17 August 1878, p. 7.

The Otago Witness reported on Strachan's Victoria Brewery exhibit at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition held in Dunedin in 1890. An excerpt from that newspaper is provided below - click on the image for a larger, readable view.

The bottled brand of William Strachan Co - the special brand - and quite possibly the forerunner of Kaka Ale - is singled out for particular attention.

The reporter suggests, in the sales puffery typical for what passed as news reporting in those days, that it "has a fine sparkle about it that may almost be likened to the sparkle of champagne. It leaves no after acidity on the palate, and is clear and free from the peculiar flavour that is characteristic of many of the colonially brewed ales."

Already Strachan's brew appears to being marketed as "clear to the last drop", the slogan of the World War I Kaka Ale.

Otago Witness, 9 January 1890, p.19. Click on image for a larger image to read.

No word on when the last drop of Kaka was brewed but clearly sometime after World War I.