The dead tell tales
Historian Lyn Williams looks at who is buried in our local cemeteries.
John William Ellis was ‘‘one of those who made the Empire great’’, according to Hamilton borough councillor John Fow. Another councillor, S T Tombs, stated: ‘‘The outstanding features in Mr Ellis’s character were his absolute fairness, business morality and great kindliness and generosity’’. Ellis identified with all patriotic movements, gave generously of both money and labour in their promotion, and towards the end of World War I was promoting a returned soldiers club in Hamilton. He was awarded an OBE.
Ellis arrived in New Zealand as a child in 1859, was taken back to England by his mother Ellen for his education, then settled near Aotea in the 1870s. He traded with local Maori and ran a schooner up to Onehunga with their produce. His first wife, Te Reme (or Kauki) Tauira, Ngati Maniapoto, is shown in a photograph with him and others at Motakotako Pa. As a fluent speaker of Maori, he spoke at hui and was influential in the opening up of the King Country. Ellis became King Tawhiao’s confidential adviser.
In 1886 Ellis started a saw-milling business, later going into partnership with engineer Harry Burnand and businessman Henry Valder. Ellis and Burnand ran several mills and retail outlets in the King Country, moving their head office to Hamilton in 1905.
Ellis and his second wife, Manawa Hinewai (or Francis), whom he married in 1888, lived in a large villa, Muriaroha, on the corner of Lake Rd and Tainui St. At that time it was in Frankton borough, not Hamilton. Ellis was on the Frankton Town Board from 1912 and then on the Frankton Borough Council. He was a strong advocate of the merger of Frankton and Hamilton boroughs and became the first mayor of the merged council in May 1917. Despite ill-health – he suffered from diabetes and carbuncles – he ‘‘threw himself into the office with characteristic energy’’ but died in office only 15 months later. The funeral cortege was one of the longest ever seen in the district, with more than 60 vehicles.
Manawa was a close relative of Rewi Maniapoto. Her obituary states she was born in Tauranga, daughter of Major F Francis and his wife. She continued living in Muriaroha for many years, dying at Rotorua in 1955 aged 90. She outlived all five of their children. The house became Braemar Hospital, demolished recently.