Walking Instructions: Please now walk to the Southern cemetery, to the Sew Hoy Plot. If you are walking down the hill from Kum Poy's house, there is a (very) small pedestrian gate to enter located at the beginning of the cemetery, the first little walkway beside Zingari Richmond and opposite 48 Eglinton Road.
Tour Finish: Buses will begin departing to the City at 3.45pm
Directions as per the map below: Choie Sew Hoy's (empty) grave is Block 26P Plot 13. Also Eliza his wife. Kum Poy, Louisa and children have the neighbouring plot, Block 26P Plot 14. The map shows the small gate which Kum Poy used when caring for his father's grave (the same gate you may have entered with).
Below: Displayed below is headstone of Kum Poy, Louisa (before the addition of several infant children), on the old pre renovated grave site. There is also a memorial of Choie Sew Hoy, whose empty plot sits beside - his body was exhumed in 1902, and taken aboard the Ventnor, overseen by Kum Poy.
Below, Sew Hoy Grave Renovation Project (Pre Renovation): In February 2018, a fundraising drive to family was made led by Justin Sew Hoy (P49, G31) and Duncan Sew Hoy (P50, G31), to renovate the plot of Kum Poy & Louisa, along with adding two additional memorial headstones for Choie Sew Hoy and Kum Poy. Shown below are photos of the pre-renovated plot.
Below, Sew Hoy Grave Renovation Project (Projected Post Renovation): The design of the post-renovation plot would look as follows, with an additional two memorial headstones.
Below: Choie and Kum Poy Sew Hoy's graves are not in the Chinese section of the Southern Cemetery, and are not typical of a Chinese grave design. A more traditional Chinese headstone design would be like that below. Up to 200 Chinese burials are thought to have taken place between 1877 and 1921, of which 114 have been identified. The majority of those interred having originally come from around the Pearl River Delta.
(Source: The Peopling of our Nation: The Pioneering Chinese Goldseekers (with help from Les Wong)) Full References found on the Wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin_Southern_Cemetery,
Southern Cemetery Chinese Burial Ground Restoration Project: In 2005 the Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust of New Zealand received its first grant from the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust to restore the Chinese headstones and generally tidy up the Chinese Sector. Since then the Trust has contributed $53,036 in total to enable the work to be completed in 2013.
Invitation to Opening and Dedication Ceremony - Sunday 7th April 2013, by Leslie Wong
The Exhumation Below (1902), The Exhumation and Transport of the bodies: An article from the West Coast Times detailing the loading of the Chinese bodies from Dunedin, to be taken by Steamer to Wellington/the Ventnor. It refers to the new President of the Ching Shin Tong, Mr Kum Poy Sew Hoy.
Below: A picture of the S.S Ventor which took the exhumed bodies, then sunk after hitting a rock off of the Hokianga Coast.
Below: Clearly, the Chinese were desperate to find the deceased, and this included the family of Choie Sew hoy. See below the reward that was offered for his recovery.
Below: On November 19, 2014, the Ventnor Project Group announced that the wreck of SS Ventor had been found in 150m of water 21km offshore west of Hokianga harbour. This video shows the watery grave of Choie Sew Hoy. Source: OneNews
Congrats, you have finished the tour!
Take a while for rest, freshen up, and we shall see you at the Savoy, at 6:00PM tonight for the Sew Hoy Reunion Formal Dinner. As a reminder, the event will be organised as follows: