Haining Street.
We recently shared the story of Yen Yep, a gardener in Haining Street.
Today is the story of Violet King who died Haining Street in 1906, aged 32.
The newspaper covering her death reads “One More Unfortunate”.
Violet was the daughter of George King, a military man who had served in Scotland and India. He married Jane Hall in 1859. George & Jane emigrated in 1861 as part of three regiments arriving on the transport ship “Henry Fernie”, arriving with 692 men and 69 women. In 1866 he was discharged as medically unfit and became a labourer.
George died in January 1894 and in February his son George junior was on trial for assaulting his mother, Jane. Violet was a witness. Jane appeared in Court with her face badly discoloured.
George asked his mother if she had been in Haining Street that night, and she replied that she had, but she “had only had one glass”. Dr Chapple had attended Mrs King and she gave him the impression of being intoxicated, although she denied it. Violet also denied that she was drunk that night but confirmed she was in the habit of smoking cigarettes. The newspaper also reported that there was a Chinaman in the house, who George also struck. His Worship said “here was a case in which the accused had taken another man’s wife into his mother’s house, and when his mother came home he had beaten her face to pulp”. The sentence was six months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
In 1900 Violet was summoned to the Magistrate’s Court herself for wilfully damaging 14 panes of glass at her brother Duncan’s house. Duncan said that she was “the worse for liquor” and when he would not admit her to his home, she “proceed with much vigour and many stones to demolish the windows”. She pleaded guilty and fumed out of the Court, vowing vengeance on her brother.
Jane died on 1 October 1906 and was buried with her husband George in the Public section at Karori Cemetery. Violet died just three months later on 19 December. Her death was put down to chronic alcoholism.
Violet had lived in the Chinese community in Haining Street for 12 years with a man named Wong Now. Following an autopsy, her funeral departed the morgue at Clyde Quay for Karori Cemetery where she was buried in the Public2 section.
Violet’s brother Duncan died in 1913 and was buried in the same plot as Violet. We hope they sorted out their dispute about the broken windows.
