The Great Sequah
I’m the oldest Great Grandson of Charles Frederick Rowley, otherwise known as “The Great Sequah”. (editor’s note: the “quack doctor” mentioned in Cars, cows and miracle cures – A Snip in Time by Meghan Hawkes, The News, January 9)
Having researched “The Great Sequah” since 2007, and visited both North and South Islands on a couple of long holidays, I have gained a lot of information about his life in New Zealand and other places in the world.
I have been asked to describe him by many people, the easiest way to describe him is to say he was an educated businessman, entrepreneur, showman-entertainer, charlatan, but, above all, a gentleman.
He was a gentleman in as much if he met someone who needed help, he would give them some money. While in Cambridge, England, in 1900, a lady asked him for help which he was not able to give, so he slipped a £5 note under her shoulder strap saying, “I think this will help you more that I can”.
In the later part of his life, he tried to lose himself on a farm near Balfour on South Island, and record wise I couldn’t find it, until while in Gore, I was introduced to a lady whose family lived on the farm. She took us out there the next day, and I was able to stand on the very spot he died, and looked out of the very window he looked out of as he died.
My research into where and what he was doing during the Second World War leads me to believe he was secretly working for the British government. He was a peoples person, and someone people would talk to about things they wouldn’t with other people, and I think several war traitors suffered because of that. Apart from what I have read referring to the Second World War his offspring seem to have followed in his footsteps, very dedicated to their country, with no war records that I am allowed to read.
Thank you so much for what you have written about him, I’ve logged it in my files.
Peter Rowley
Norwich, England
See: Cars, cows and miracle cures
Letters to Editor
More on productivity
Peter Nicholl’s excellent article, It’s about productivity, (The News, January 16) brought to my mind something I witnessed on January 10. I was sitting having a cup of tea outside the bakery opposite the dentist in Shakespeare Ave about 8.30am, as I waited for my car at the upholsterer’s.
Two late model Waipā District Council mini tip trucks were parked at the complex containing the dentists. The driver of one was casually blowing leaves towards the garden which they had presumably come from. The female driver of the other watched on, and twice went to her truck’s rear vision mirror to check her hair. A chap in a late model council ute was there briefly, left and came back for a short time before driving off again. Supervisor?
The leaves were blown back into the garden, and both trucks drove off. The cost of vehicles I saw ($100,000 plus?) non-productive staff wages, their annual and statutory holiday pay, ACC levies, Superfund contributions…all to shift back (not remove) some leaves. A pointless exercise paid for by the ratepayers.
I have lived in Waipa district (Whitehall) only two years, and I was astounded to realise that the council still employed “works” staff instead of opening this type of work (rubbish collection, mowing, gardening) up to competition from private contractors who would operate with a cheap ute and dispose of the material collected.
Local Bodies doing this uncontested work with expensive machinery will always be inefficient and wasteful, because they have no competition.
Has our new Chief Executive released any plan for reviewing the activities of the Waipa District Council? Cutting out $40,000 promotional activities best left to private enterprise would be a good idea too.
Peter Clapham
Whitehall
Admission fees
My wife and I regularly attend rowing regattas at Lake Karapiro and always have paid a spectator fee on entry. We note (Cambridge News, January 16) free entry was provided to all spectators attending the Waka Ama National Sprint Championships over the six day duration.
Can we expect the same generosity for those spectators attending this year’s Maadi Cup from March 22 to 30?
A.J. Rillstone
Cambridge
