THE DEAD TELL TALES

It says a lot of a person’s standing in the community when over 400 people attend his funeral, 400 people from a farming community at that. Every home in Kaipaki was represented at Robert Speake’s funeral at Pukerimu Cemetery, according to the Waikato Independent, with a cavalcade of 100 cars and people from around the Auckland province. Speake was described as “an old identity”; he had been farming in the area for 38½ years.

Robert Speake was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He left England when he was only 17, spent time in Australia, then arrived in New Zealand in May 1883. Soon after his arrival he was appointed manager of the Rukuhia Cheese and Bacon Factory; this company had been set up in early 1883 on land close to Ōhaupō offered by entrepreneur James Williamson.

It was one of the first such factories in the Waikato and was to be set up “on the latest American principle”. The first directors were a who’s who of influential Waikato farmers and politicians.

In April 1886 the factory burnt down, along with the manager’s house − Speake and the young assistant lost all their belongings, but did manage to save a few cheeses. The factory had been the Ōhaupō grandstand, made of kauri.

The Waikato Times reported, on April 20 1886, that the factory was not a success financially, “though the cheese turned out by the manager, Mr Speake, was of the finest quality, and had made a name for itself all over the provincial district”. The Waikato Land Association had erected a cheese factory near Tauwhare in 1883, and Speake was appointed manager of this factory in 1886.

His sister Emma Speake lived with Robert at Tauwhare.

Emma Speake and her sister Mary arrived in New Zealand in 1888. According to a Speake family history website, Robert Speake had met Arthur (Harry) Waring, who was also from Shropshire, and one day Robert showed Harry Waring a photo of his three sisters, Mary, Bessie and Emma, who were still in England. Harry pointed to the image of Mary and offered to pay her passage to New Zealand if she would marry him. After some deliberation by the Speake family, that came to pass: Harry Waring and Mary Speake married in 1890 and settled in Taupiri (see “Dead Tell

Tales” July 22 2023).

Robert Speake was involved in social and sports events in Tauwhare.

When he decided to give up cheese making in 1894, the Tauwhare community held a dance to farewell him and Emma. Between 40 and 50 couples danced “right merrily” until 4am. It seems that Speake was not always in good health, as when his replacement at the Tauwhare cheese factory brought in a new more laborious method for making cheese, it was reported that Speake had not been willing to undertake it as “the extra confinement and labour involved would not agree with his health at present” (Waikato Times November 27 1894).

Speake took up land at Kaipaki and was engaged in sheep and dairy farming up until his death. He was also a polo player and fond of hunting and horse racing.

In 1896 Robert Speake married Emily Jane Bridgeman of Pukekura.

They had five daughters and four sons, all of whom remained in the Cambridge-pukekurakaipaki area.

Speake had been on the Waipā County Council since 1923, but before that he was a member of the Pukekura Road Board from 1907 until 1919 when he was then made chairman, a position he held until the merger of the road board with the council. Robert Speake had been a sufferer of heart trouble but when he died suddenly, on April 26 1934, his death was a great shock − he had looked “hale and hearty” at the council meeting four days earlier. Speake had gone for a walk on his farm “among his sheep, in which he took so much pride”, but failed to return. Family members found him in a paddock “having passed peacefully away”. He was 75 years old. Emily was buried with him after her death in 1951.