Horse, buggy, river, NZ, early 1900s
When 18-month-old Sarah Jane Sterling died on a Sunday in January 1901 her father John was faced with more than just grief. John and his wife Mary Jane kept a store and accommodation house on the railway route eight miles beyond Taumarunui.
John at once sent word of the death to the nearest constable – 24 miles distant – but the constable did not come. John instead received a message that he must take Sarah Jane to Te Awamutu for burial.
Three years earlier, a five-week-old son of John and Mary’s had died at Coromandel and was buried at the Buffalo cemetery there. But this time John was faced with a trying ordeal just to inter his child.
At 3pm on the Monday afternoon he set out with the coffin and a driver, horse and buggy in order to catch the train the following morning. He had to travel across the Whanganui and other unbridged rivers and creeks. At 11pm the horse and buggy became stuck in the middle of a stream. The water rose and the coffin floated and John and the driver were in considerable peril. There was no light, as their lamp wouldn’t burn, and they had to get out into the water, unfasten the horses, and hook the chain to the back of the buggy. They then managed to haul the vehicle to the bank.
When John at last reached Poro-O-Tarao he was soaked through but had to continue his sad journey by train without any change of clothes. On arrival at Te Awamutu he saw the coroner, who at once gave him a burial order. John then had to convey Sarah Jane three miles to the Kihikihi Roman Catholic cemetery, where the interment finally took place.
This, though, was not the end of his troubles. Not long after the burial he was presented with a summons and charged with not registering the birth of the child. Brought before two justices of the peace, John declared that the child was registered at Coromandel, but despite his statement he was fined a shilling as well as 12 shillings court costs. John later took the matter to Mr Martin, solicitor, who advised he present the facts to the Minister of Justice.
There was great sympathy for John in his ordeal, newspapers commenting that the “lot of settlers in outlying districts is one beset by many disadvantages, and these should not be aggravated by needless hardships… In the interests of settlers situated as Mr Sterling is, we trust the Minister will inquire into the matter, and frame regulations to meet cases of this kind”.
The trials of the Sterlings would continue. Mary Jane died two years later, the same year another daughter was born to the couple. John ended his days at Tokanui Psychiatric Hospital and was buried at the cemetery there.
Mary Jane and Sarah Jane are buried next to each other at Kihikihi cemetery.
Horse, buggy, river, NZ, early 1900s
