Colourful Life Ends
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Death of T. C. Kerry in NZ
f)F interest perhaps to old-time Papuan residents is news of the death of Mr. T. C. Kerry in New Zealand, in his Sbth year. He was born in England, but spent the
greater part of his life wandering—
mostly in the South Pacific. His story is reprinted from the “New Zealand Herald.”
ARRIVING at Port Moresby, New , Guinea, in 1881, Kerry found only two other white men there, one of them being a missionary, James Chalm ers, who was later killed by savages at Goaribari, in the Kikori Delta. Mr.
Kerry’s main object in New Guinea was to explore and to shoot birds of paradise.
While acting as second in command of an exploring party in New Guinea which was sent out by the Melbourne “Age,’’ he was captured by cannibals near the Bax ter River. The expedition’s schooner and equipment were lost, A spear thrust by a native pinned Kerry to the ground by a leg and he carried the scar for the rest of! his life. Most members of the expedi tion, including Mr. Kerry, escaped and spent two months struggling back to civilisation.
Shortly after this adventure he fitted out an expedition at Thursday Island, consisting of two vessels, the “Endeavour’’ and the “Wild Duck,” and left for New Guinea in relief of the Australian Royal Geographic Society’s expedition, which had been missing for some time.
After other explorations, Kerry returned to England. One morning he walked into a shop in London with four bottles con taining pearls from the New Guinea coast and walked out with £BO,OOO.
Visiting Kiel in his boat, the “Pan dora,” Kerry sold curios to the Kaiser for £28,000.
One of his most interesting experiences was connected with his lease from the British Government of Tristan da Cunha. a remote group of islands midway between Cape Colony and South America. Kerry went there to assess the value of the guano deposits on the islands. The rud der of the ship was lost in a tangled mass of kelp and he was forced to sail for Capetown in this plight.
WHEN news of the discovery of gold at Coolgardie, Western Australia, was received, Kerry was at Noumea, and he immediately left for the fields, where fortunes were won and lost.
Of late years, Kerry lived at his home,
“Wenderholme,” at Waiwera. This house contains a host of strange relics and curios which he had collected and each of them reminded him of some episode of his eventful life.