CHAN Ah Chee of Auckland
1876 to 1930s ©
David Wong Hop
When in 1876 a 26 year old CHAN Ah Chee and his two brothers arrived in Colonial Auckland. there were only 6 Chinese in Auckland and soon Ah Chee joined James Ah Kew, Thomas Quoi and Ming Fong as traders. They were all featured in the newspapers' "news of the day articles" and between 1880 until 1921 Ah Chee was 'the most prominent and influential Chinese of Auckland', widely accepted in business and social spheres.
New Zealand:
1 Between about 1280 and 1350 Polynesians arrived and developed a distinctive Māori culture.
2 In 1642 New Zealand was discovered by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.
3 In 1769 Britain's Captain Cook was the first European to set foot on and map New Zealand and settlers from France and Britain came.
4 By the 1840s New Zealand was British colony, with its capital in Auckland. Britain was ruled by Queen Victoria and had 3 classes of society, the 'aristocrats' ie Lords etc with their castles where they enjoyed fine wines, smoked and used opium looked after by cooks and servants, then there were 'middle class' ie established families lived similarly on a smaller scale and lastly farm workers or factory workers who lived in crowded unsanitary tenements.
Chan Ah Chee:
1880 Ah See and Ah Chee leased Tanyards gully, their first market garden in Parnell and was called " Gong Fung Yuan 江風園 ." and employed Chinese to grow vegetables etc .
1882 Ah Chee naturalised and was a British subject, he married on January 21st 1886 and they lived in a two storied house in Gong Fung Yuan.
- In Auckland the business community was part of the middle class and Ah Chee & others used clay-pipes to smoke, probably occasionally opium and after his marriage, his house changed , employed housemaids and the used fine-Chinese-porcelain dinner-ware, gold-banded ivory chopsticks and when guests arrived enjoyed Chinese rice-wine [Ref: NZ Chinese Oral History Foundation, May Sai Louie interview.]
1883 he opened his shop to sell his vegetables and Chinese goods and soon opened a boarding house and employed house-maids , restaurants and other businesses and traded as 'Ah Chee & Co" exported Fungus, and went to Australia to arrange importing tropical fruit
1894 Ah Chee's nephew Ying Kew [aka Sai Louie] arrived to help Ah Chee and soon Sai Louie was in Suva arranging banana supplies etc
- Ah Chee & Co expanded with more market gardens in Epsom, Avondale & Patumahoe it employed up to 100 Chinese market gardeners and became Auckland's largest supplier of vegetable
1890s Ah Chee was a major importer and distributor of bananas, oranges and tropical fruit
1910 Ah Chee went to China and left Sai Louie to manage the Ah Chee business and that his 2 sons William & Clement started as junior managers and Mr & Mrs Ah Chee travelled to Sydney and Canton, China, where he bought land and built his house
1912 Mr & Mrs Ah Chee returned to Auckland and he encouraged his sons into the business.
1921 Ah Chee left William & Clement as Directors of Ah Chee & Co with Sai Louie as manager of the fruitshops
1927 In January William's health deteriorated and died, Clement took control however the Financial markets collapsed and this saw the end of Ah Chee & Co.
1931 Mr and Mrs Ah Chee died in Hong Kong & Canton respectively/
[ I have included information from these old newspapers ie NZ Archives' Paperpast, to recreate a view of the Ah Chee family as they described social-events' and events involving Chinese, advertisements and public notices referred to Ah Chee ]
Background:
Imperial China:
Imperial China Imperial China was ruled by an Emperor who made decisions and issued Imperial Edicts that were implemented by Imperial Ministers or administrators [who had residences and an annual Entitlement [ie salary, rice allotment etc. ]
China was isolated from the world but China's efforts to stop British opium arriving resulted in China's defeat and pay reparations to Britain, these resulted more taxes on Chinese people.
Transport was by coastal junks, barges, horse or on foot
1. Chinese people were taxed to pay for the Imperial Court and administrations' expenses , army, navy and war reparations.
2. China's capital and larger cities had Chinese medicine, traditional-Chinese-medicine doctors and hospitals, few schools and a university for exceptional students. In the early 1800s in Pekin a skilled silk worker annual income was less than £1
3 Rural areas,
Villages were connected by either small roads or paths most were illiterate, most of the people in a village were tenant farmers working 7 days a week, high mortality rate , life expectancy of between 30 to 40 years and probably annual income less that a skilled silk worker [ see above]. low incomes,
- Diet Villages survived on what its tenant-farmers produced, ie rice, vegetables, pigs, poultry or fresh-water fish and when crops failed they became more indebted to landlords. Many families especially in southern China sent their men overseas to work and support their family.
Part 1 British empire
1.1 1600s Trading:
- By the 1600s Britain's navy helped Britain become a major power with trading posts in the Caribbean, India and North America where land-owners used enslaved-Africans to work in cotton plantations.
1.2 1700s Industrial Revolution
- Goods made by one person could now be produced in factories powered by steam engines and workers from rural areas, the goods being sold domestically or exported. In the 1700s Britain's naval supremacy protected British trading boats ie "mercantile fleet' going to and from its colonies. Britain exported more* than it imported ie Balance of Trade and this increased Britain's ‘national-wealth’ [more* The colonies sent cheap raw materials to Britain who made expensive goods for sale locally or in the colonies. [ ie Colonial exploitation]
- Colonies & Mercantilism: " Many technological and architectural innovations were British. By the mid-18th century, Britain..a global trading empire with colonies in North America and the Caribbean, also controlled the Indian subcontinent" [Ref: Wikipedia Industrial Revolution]
1.2a 1700s-1800s Britain's mercantile fleet
- Britain's slow bulky barque cargo boats [multi-masted Sail-boats] sailed to India & the Far-East with British goods to the colonies and returned with sugar, opium, spices, and tea.
- Sail boats could be wrecked by storms-at-sea ie ripped sails, broken masts. Any survivor clung onto wreckage only to drift until they were rescued months later.
- Cargo boats carried a few passengers in a few cabins on the main deck. The crew pulled and lowered the sails etc and slept below decks in dark & airless cargo areas.
- A voyage from Britain to New Zealand or Canton to NZ took between 4-5 months, going south around South Africa into the 'roaring forties" to Australia & NZ.
1.2bi 1800s Immigration: Schooners & Clippers.
Faster boats were needed and schooner and clippers were designed. These had could have more passengers, 1st class and 2nd class cabins were more expensive and 3 meals a day at additional expense and the Ship's doctor was available.
- Steerage passengers: Working class migrants travelled below decks in poorly ventilated areas, a whole family shared one bunk, bunks were in rows 3 high and they prepared their own food.
- Fare [ how much it cost to travel] In 1820 travel the 1st class passenger's fare was expensive at about £20 as a labourer' annual wage for about £30 [Ref. Cici.com/1820 travel to NZ].
- Health, hygiene and mortality: any passenger or crew could wash by standing at near the back of the boat in the sea's spray, toilet was a bucket that one emptied over the ships side, disease spread quickly and many died during the long voyage only to be 'buried-at-sea'.
1.2bii Victorian era 1837-1901 Age of expansion & prosperity
This era had unprecedented technical innovation,expansion of trade and increasingly wealthy middle class ie entrepeneurs, traders etc
1.2biii 1920 Steamships:
Faster boats reduced travel i.e. Britain to NZ or China to NZ in 4 weeks, bigger boats had more decks with space for 'promenades' and deck activities, they could take more passengers, food was more available, cabins had electricity and a fan to blow the hot air towards the small window, the cabin had a small bathrooms and a toilet.
- Cost: 1st & class £50-£80? per person, 2nd class & cheaper 3rd class was in steerage was about £15- £30 per person.
- Health, hygiene and mortality: regulations meant better health & hygiene and fewer deaths.
Part 2 New Zealand
2.1 Indigenous People:
About 1,000 years ago Polynesians reached New Zealand, tribes settled in different areas, they worked & lived together and collectively owned the land
2.2 European settlements to the late 1700s
- Britain and several European powers i.e. France, Germany & Scandinavia established settlements around the coastline and small coastal boats sailed between settlements.
- Settlements relied on trading boats to bring candles, food, clothing & livestock to NZ. They were self-sufficient but traded axes and woollen blankets with local Maoris for fresh vegetables, meat and seafood
2.2a 1839-1841
- New South Wales, a British colony, administered New Zealand until 1841. Britain encouraged settlement in NZ and in 1839 Edward Gibbon WAKEFIELD's company 'The New Zealand Company" promoted migration to NZ and sold land to them.
2.2b 1840 February 6th New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi
The Treaty arose from British and the Maori Chiefs conflicting interests
British Aims
1 Britain wanted sovereignty to prevent European powers claiming NZ
2 Britain wanted to regulate land acquisition & prevent uncontrolled purchases of land that could lead to conflict with Maoris
3 protect settlers & establish law and order
Maori aims
1 protections from other countries
2 maintain control over land and resources
3 access to British goods and protection of British law.
2.2c New Zealand became a British Colony May 1841:
After NZ became a British colony, only settlers from Britain, Scotland and Wales were citizens of NZ and settlers from other counties were ‘aliens’ until they decided to be naturalised and became a New Zealand citizen.
- In the mid 1880s it cost between £500-600 to build a 2 storied brick house in Auckland, and a qualified tradesman's annual wage was between £100-150
2.3 1860s and the discovery of Gold
When gold was discovered in the South Island, miners from everywhere to the Otago and West Coast. Travel around NZ was coastal and river boats, travel on land was by canoe, horse and foot .
2.3a Restricting Chinese
Poll Tax 1882-1930: An estimated 5,000 Chinese paid the Poll Tax
- British & European miners tolerated Chinese miners, but resentment resulted in 1882 New Zealand passing a law that charged a tax of £10 on every Chinese who landed in New Zealand and by 1896 the tax was increased to £100
- Restrictions: in the following years more restrictions applied including
- In 1907 Chinese had to pass a reading test of 100 words.
- In 1919-1920 temporary visas allowed visitors to stay for 6 months
- in 1930 Chinese couldn’t come to NZ or be naturalised
- 1900s-1940s NZ people generally didn’t sell land to Chinese, this changed in 1940 after China joined the Western Alliance in World War 2.
2.4 Other restrictions:
Gambling In China a common past-time was gambling, fan-tan, pak-a-poo etc., however New Zealand law prohibited these and periodically the Police would raid Chinese gambling houses and jailed the gamblers overnight and in the morning fined and released.
2.4a Opium: The use and possession of Opium was legal until 1901. After 1901 Ah Chee & Co and other Chinese shop-owners and Chinese men were fined for possessing or using opium.
[In 1899 oung Hee alarmed that opium continued to be sold organised an anti-opium petition, signed by many of the Chinese goldminers in the South Island, this was submitted to Parliament and in 1901 NZ made the use or possession of Opium a criminal offence.]
Part 3 Ah Chee in Auckland
3.1 1860s Auckland was small with only 11,000 residents.
3.1a Chinese in Auckland 1870s-1921:
In the 1870s Auckland there were only 6 Chinese. Ah Chee and his 2 brothers arrived in 1876 and Ah Chee became friend with James Ah Kew, Thomas Quoi & Fong Ming Quong, traders with British wives.
3.1b In 1880 Ah Chee and Ah See leased land in Parnell for a market garden and this started Ah Chee's path to be a successful and wealthy businessman.
- In 1882 Ah Chee & Ah Sea become British subjects i.e. naturalisation and in 1900 Mrs Ah Chee also becomes a British subject. A photo of Mr and Mrs Ah Chee in the mid 1900s shows them in stylish western attire etc
- Ah Chee was welcomed in Auckland's business and social spheres, his friends included businessmen, lawyers, accountants, doctors and tradesmen.
3.2 Marriage: In the early 1880s Ah Chee a successful trader but not-married. Ah Chee's older brother in Canton acted as 'marriage broker', found a suitable family's teenage daughter, negotiated with them and how much dowry [payment] would be paid by Mr Ah Chee and finalised when she would arrive in Auckland [[ Her parents were farmers, probably wealthy land owners with house-servants who took care of the children ]].
- On Thursday January 21 1886 Ah Chee married Miss Ching Shee , 16 years age, at the Registrar's Office. [She and 4 other teenage girls had arrived in Auckland on the Waihora in late December 1885 and Ah Chee paid her poll tax.] The marriage was the first Chinese-Chinese marriage in New Zealand and widely reported in the NZ newspapers.
- Probably Mr Ah Chee hired a house-maid for their Parnell residence and took his wife on a 'honey-moon' around the North Island.
3.3 Chinese Community & Social sphere:
In the 1870s Auckland's prominent Chinese were James Ah Kew, Thomas Quoi, Ming Fong & a successful Ah Chee joined them in 1880 and provided work to newly-arrival-Chinese and contributed to how the Chinese community grew and developed
Ah Chee supported new arrivals as the Chinese community in Auckland was small.
3.3a Represented Chinese: Ah Chee, Ah Kew, Quoi & Ming [aka 'They'] represented Chinese at many events including
- 1890 Jubilee celebrations
- 1901 War Veterans Parade.& 1902 Labour Day celebration
- 1909 Civic welcome & dinner for Imperial Representative Y. L. HUANG
3.3b - Charity: They* all gave generously to charities and war funds including:
• 1903 Fund raising, Ah Chee donated £10
• 1914 War Funds Ah Chee donated 50 sacks of vegetables
• 1917 Red Cross monthly appeal, [.Ah Chee donated £10, Chinese donate a total of £116, shared between Auck Hospital & Red Cross. (collected by Ah Chee, Wah Lee, Sai Louie & Wong Gong). ]
• 1918 Epidemic fund raising
3.3c - High-Society & Hospitality:
- Mrs Ah Chee helped Ah Chee's continue expanding his business and they were welcomed into Auckland's social sphere suitably attired in the latest fashion.
In 1894 the Ah Chees hosted a garden party for Governor's wife Lady Glasgow, at Ah Chee's residence in Machanics Bay Gardens.
- In 1896 Ah Chee subscribed more than £3,000 in new gold mining companies' shares, when the average labourer's wage was about £100 per year [Ref Evening Star 1897 2 Feb]
- 1908 August 9th: Mr & Mrs Ah Chee hosts a dinner at their Mechanics Bay Gardens residence for the Admirals of the American White Fleet who presented them with a set of Buffalo hide cushions [Ref: Alice Ah Chee’s memoirs to David Wong c 1960s]
- Ladies social world: in the 1910s Mesdames Ah Chee, William Ah Chee, Clement Ah Chee & Sai Louie were prominent in Auckland's Ladies's society [Ref: Photo of 5 Chinese women in Auckland, May Sai Louie collection]
- Mrs Ah Chee supported Reverend Don, Rev Mawson & Rev Loie's wife and children .
3.5 Patriotism: from 1911 supported the new China ie Republic of China, arranged picnics or celebrations on China's National Day ie October 10th,
3.6 Religion: from the 1900s
Mrs Ah Chee & Mrs Sai Louie attended church, in about 1911 they befriended Rev & Mrs Timothy Looie during their stay in Auckland.
- From the mid 1910s Mrs William Ah Chee probably supported the Grafton Methodist Church as her son Robert gave an excellent musical item at that church
- Mrs Ah Chee attended the St Lukes Presbyterian church in Remuera and in China probably attended a Church in Canton near the Ah Chee residence.
3.6a Ah Chee’s junior wife, a Buddhist, had a small temple in the Ah Chee residence..
3.7 Ah Chee etc Residences in Auckland 1880-1920 :
3.7 Ah Chee: Between 1882 to the late 1880s Ah Chee lived in a well built house, part of the market garden at the bottom of Parnell Road, Auckland and after his marriage in 1886 he and his wife lived at 1890 at Mechanics Bay Gardens [a prestigious area on high land near Gladstone Road overlooking Mechanics Bay] .
3.7b Sai Louie
In about 1889 maybe Mr Sai Louie lived at the Parnell market garden until he married in 1905 and soon he shifted to in Seccombes Rd, Newmarket,
3.7c William & Clement
From the mid 1910s William lives in Park Ave, Grafton, Clement lived in Seccombes Road Newmarket close to the Sai Louies
3.8 Ah Chee's children in NZ:
Their 4 sons George, William, Clement & Arthur were born in Mechanics Bay Gardens but George, died in 1899 from diphtheria and was buried at Waikumete Cemetery in West Auckland.
- William, Clement and Arthur were educated at Wellesley Street Normal School.
- William was big and enjoyed football & boxing, Clement was more studious and Arthur excelled in horticulture.
- Ah Chee spared no expense, they were well cared for and well dressed in hi-class western attire and Mrs Ah Chee taught them Chinese culture and language.
3.8a Ah Chee's Childrens' interests:
William: In 1900 10 years old he's in Wellesley St Normal school's football team
Arthur in 1906 11 years old, at Wellesley St Normal school, excels at care of land.
Grandson Robert. in 1924 in a hockey team
3.8b Married Early: this was common and in 1904 & 1908 William and Clement went to China to get married and returned to Auckland to learn how to manage Ah Chee & Co's many businesses.
- In 1921 William and Clement became Directors of Ah Chee and Co when their parents retired to live in Canton
3.8c - Social life: From mid 1921 William and Clement continued enjoying the life of Auckland's high-society, they both had large American cars and competed in car races at Muriwai beach near Auckland..
Part 4 Business Ah Chee & Co 1890-1921 :
By mid 1880s Ah Chee is a successful wealthy businessman and traded as "Ah Chee & Co" , with market gardens in Parnell, Epsom, Avondale and Patamahoe, shops & restaurants, an importer of Chinese goods and tropical fruit as well as a major exporter of Fungus to China.
4.1 In 1894 his nephew Chan Ying-kew [ie Sai Louie] arrived to help Ah Chee
4.2 Travel
From 1890s Ah Chee travels often to buy fungus [and export it ]
- 1900s Ah Chee travels to arrange importing oranges
- 1910s Ah Chee, his sons & Sai Louie travel to Fiji to arrange supplies of bananas, ginger and tropical fruit,
4.3 Staff
Between 1890 to the mid 1910s Ah Chee & Co employed up to 100 Chinese Mkt gardeners ..vegetables for the Auckland markets, hotels, shipping lines and institutions.
4.4 Businesses & location
1883 Queen St fruit shop
1886 Queen St Scandinavian Dining room
1887 Wakefield St general store
1888 Albert St boarding house
1889 Mangere, McCraes farm, grow tobacco
- Queen St wharf Auckland Coffee Tavern ie meals
1891 Mechanic Bay Marine store
1892 13 Queen St Fruit shop
- Patumahoe 13 acres land
1904 Avondale 35 acres for market garden
1910 Rutland St, Ak ginger factory
Stanley St warehouse
[importing oranges etc, in competition with Wong Hop. trading as Wong She [Ref Wong Hop family history ]
1919 13 Queen St fruit shop
- Broadway, Newmarket. fruitshop
1920s 1 Queen St fruitshop
4.5 Transport
In the 1890s Ah Chee had 4 horse-drawn carts to transport his vegetables from his market gardens to the city markets etc
- in 1910s Ah Chee purchased a Jefferson 4 wheel drive [American] to get to muddy fields were cases of vegetables waited to be loaded and taken to the city markets. [The company that sold this truck proudly included this in their advertisement]
4.6 The Law:
Ah Chee had goods stolen, was assaulted or robbed, was not paid for goods sold, William testified that he was offered 1 ton of stolen potatoes [Ref Ak Star 1910 Mar 12]
- Ah Chee and other Chinese are periodically fined for:-
(i) breaching of trading hours, working on a Sunday or on a public holiday,
(ii) selling poor-quality fruit,
4.7 Travel to China
By the early 1910s* Mr and Mrs Ah Chee, a successful and wealthy Chinese businessman, visited Canton and took a junior wife and his 4th son Richard was born in Canton.
(1910s*: …Chinese customs accepted that wealthy men took one or more junior wives. The man provided a dwelling, and paid all expenses. )
Part 5 1912-1930 His sons manage Ah Chee & Co
5.1 From 1912 to 1921 Ah Chee encouraged his sons William and Clement to manage the company's operations ..
5.2 in 1921 Mr Ah Chee snr retired from Ah Chee & Co and went to live in China
William and Clement expanded operations through bank loans secured by mortgages on the shops, market gardens and their houses.
5.3 The end of Ah Chee & Co
1929 William died in Parnell, Auckland, the funeral was delayed 2 weeks as Mrs William Ah Chee was in Sydney waiting to return to Auckland. More than 2,000 people attended the funeral, Rev Mawson officiated, and included politicians, businessmen, Kuo Min Tang, Chinese Masonic League representatives, the Ah Chee families and the 30 car procession was one of the largest Auckland went from Hobson Street to Purewa Cemetery. The funeral was widely reported in the newspapers.
- Clement Ah Chee took over the management of the company
- 1930 the Wall Street crash affected many businesses and Ah Chee & Co’s fruit shops and market gardens were sold. Ying Kew opened a fruitshop in Onehunga and continued the fungus operations.
Part 6: Ah Chee in Hong Kong & China
6.1 Hong Kong:
By the 1890s Ah Chee was exporting fungus to Hong Kong and China, he visited Canton and Hong Kong and became part of the business and social worlds.
- Ah Chee became a major shareholder of San Yee & Co 46 Des Voeux Rd Hong Kong as its warehouse stored his fungus. Ah Chee also had a flat nearby
6.2 Canton:
- he had agents to buy Chinese silk and other goods for his shops in NZ and by the mid 1910s a rickshaw business in Canton.
- When he bought his car in Canton only the highest officials had cars.
6.3 Residence in Canton:
By the early 1910s Ah Chee had bought a large area of land 31 Miao Qian West road in Dong shan district and built a three level house with a circular driveway up to concrete steps.
- Basement classrooms and a place for worship,
- 1st Level Mr & Mrs Ah Chee & 2nd wife lived in separate apartments,
- 2nd Level: Each son had their own apartment
- 3rd level ie roof a swimming pool , water for use if there was a fire.
There was an adjacent building for the gardeners, driver, house staff, cooks
- Ah Chee had at least one new car
- the grounds had more than 3,000 fruit trees
There was a brick wall around the estate, with a front gate and a side gate for deliveries and staff to use
- Ah Chee gave land to his nephew Ying Kew to build his house
- Ah Chee sold allotments to affluent Chinese from NZ
6.4 Retirement in Canton:
- 1920s: Mr & Mrs Ah Chee left Auckland to retire in Canton
- William, & Clement visited his father in the mid 1910s and the late 1920s.
Part 7: the end of the Ah Chee era :
7.1 1931 Mrs William Ah Chee & family, Mr & Mrs Clement Ah Chee, Betty & Thomas left Auckland for the Ah Chee residence in Canton.
7.2 1931 March: Mr Ah Chee died at the HK Kowloon train station when he and his junior wife were in HK and he was buried in Canton.
- Mrs Ah Chee died shortly after in Canton. .
7.3 1939 The Japanese Army was close to Canton and Japanese planes shot and bombed the mansion as they flew towards Canton city.
- Mrs William Ah Chee & family, Mr & Mrs Clement Ah Chee & family return to Auckland.
- Richard and grandson John were left in charge of the Ah Chee mansion and they sold the bricks to survive.
