Johan Gottlob August Rothe (aka John Rothe) arrived in New Zealand from Germany in the early 1880s. He married Sophia Maria Christina Rose (aka Sophy) in 1882. The groom was 32 and the bride was 24. Sophy was the grand daughter of German immigrants and grew up in the Upper Moutere. John and Sophy’s children were Annie Sophia, Thomas John and Lily Elise. Lily died in 1887 at 2 months old.
The family lived at Ngauranga where John operated a sausage skin factory for ‘Oppenheimer & Co of New York’ in the nearby Wakefield Gully. The former Wakefield Gully road appears to still exist as a cycle route between Newlands and the Centennial Highway at Ngauranga.
In 1890 John obtained a permit to slaughter and subsequently opened a butchers shop on Manners Street opposite the Opera House.
But the ‘nuisance’ caused by the commercial activities in Wakefield Gully came to the notice of the health authority several times. It was described as bleak, precipitous gorge and unlikely to be selected for building any housing. Towards the head, the gully branched and there was a dam at the left used for flushing the creek. The upper most inhabitant of the Gully was Mr Futter where he deposited animal refuse for several years. This was known as the ‘tip’. At John’s place, the refuse from the sausage skin factory was disposed of using a digestor and the solids were burnt. The liquid, which contained a large volume of gelatinous animal matter, was poured into the creek.
John’s lower neighbour in the gorge was Mr Taylor who ran a tallow and manure processing operation run in dilapidated buildings. Animal matter was lying about the banks of the creek. The toilets in all three premises drained into the creek also. These activities were about 500 – 600 yards away from the residents of Ngauranga and the stench was described as ‘very high’.
In a case against the three men in May 1900, Mr W.R. Haseldine, S.M ordered that James Futter was to cover all the accumulated material at the ‘tip’ with chlorinated soda and then destroy it by fire. John was ordered to remove the timber floor from the sausage skin factory and replace it with a cement concrete floor, to scrape the walls thoroughly and then lime white wash them before covering them to a height of 6ft with zinc panels. Frederick Taylor was ordered to thoroughly cleanse his buildings either by destroying them with fire or lime washing them.
We presume that John carried out the order as he continued operations until October 1904 when he sold out the lease on the premises and moved to Petone. On 26th April 1905, daughter Annie married Albert Wells at St Augustine’s church at Petone. Just a few months later on 16th October, John died at Annie’s house in Crawford Road, Kilbirnie aged 55 years.
Sophy died on 3rd August 1918, also at Annie’s house in Kilbirnie.
Albert and Annie Wells had five daughters and Annie died in 1949 and is buried at Karori Cemetery (Plot: *Ch Eng 2/E/160).
John and Sophy’s son Thomas went to the United States in 1907, married and fought during WWI. He died in 1965 in Michigan.
Plot: *Ch Eng/U/129
By Julia Kennedy
Rothe headstone November 2024.