SLEEPING IN TE AROHA (2)

(published in the Aroha Advertiser 2017)

John Kilian 

The headstone for John Kilian is broken off and lying flat on the ground at the far end of the Te Aroha Cemetery.  The young lad’s birth name was Johannes Bernardes Kilian but most people around Wairongomai knew him as John.

John was the only son of Emilia and Johannes Kilian who, along with their small daughter, arrived in Auckland from Capetown aboard the “Steinwarder” in 1864.  In 1881 the family, which had now grown to include two more children, moved to Wairongomai where Johannes was the publican of the Premier Hotel at the time of his son’s accidental death.

John was a cheerful young man, full of fun and with a renowned singing voice. At the age of 17 John worked as a “blanket washer” at the Wairongomai Battery.  Blanket Washing was a labour intensive and dirty job and was the “first job” for many young lads.

On the night of 16 May 1884, John was working nightshift at the Battery.  At about 8pm John and another lad named William Collins were sent to clear some obstructions from the water races.  To do that they had to go up a bridge consisting of two planks of wood with a handrail.  The boys took a lantern and went off to do the job.  On their way back down the bridge John decided it might be fun to slide down, however William wasn’t keen and held the lantern while John did this.  According to William’s evidence, it had been raining and the bridge was wet. The first time John slid down it was fine, but the second time John slid under the handrail headfirst into the gully about 20 feet below.  William couldn’t see him as it was so dark, so he ran for help.

Although a doctor was called from Thames, nothing could be done to save poor John.  He died the next day at 9pm, of concussion and a fractured skull.

John was a good natured, well liked and friendly boy and his funeral service drew great numbers of people from all over the district. The funeral was reported in the Te Aroha News on 24 May 1884 to have stopped en route to the Te Aroha Cemetery to “permit of an inquest being held at the Court House”.

© Deborah Watson 2017