The sad case of AH SOW

The gold strikes attracted many people to Otago. They came from all parts of the globe. Some came directly from their homelands, while others had come from other strikes, especially Australia.

One of the nationalities that came in number were the Chinese. They often worked in groups, comprised of family members or people from the same village. Hardworking and full of perseverance, the Chinese were often the subject of racial hatred, often because they would work areas that had been abandoned by Europeans and would find gold. The case we are looking at today is from the 1880s – a long time after the heydays of the goldfields (the 1860s) indicating that this group was indeed one the determined few who continued to search for gold while many others had given up

Due to misunderstanding or mishearing their names, researching these people is sometimes difficult. There are several Ah Sow’s in the province at the time.

This Ah Sow, however, leaves us with a sad story, made perhaps even sadder as I cannot uncover what happened to him.  

12 February 1886. The Dunstan Times records that a party of five Chinamen, working at Kyeburn, were robbed. The party were washing up (the extracted gold) and the group took it in turns to watch the claim at night. On the night of the 24^th January Ah Sow was on guard, and he went to sleep.  It was suggested that he had been drugged, although there is no mention by the newspapers as to how. £80 was stolen.

Six days earlier, on the 6 February, The Mount Ida Chronicle noted that Ah Sow had been committed to the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum [near Dunedin] as being a ‘dangerous Lunatic’ by the Resident Magistrate in Naseby   

Ah Sow was admitted on the 10 February. His case notes state that he rolls about in his cell. He took his shirt off and put it his bucket [chamber pot]. He appears vacant and uninterested and doesn’t answer all the questions put to him by the interpreter.

One day he was recorded as covering himself with his own excrement. He believes people are trying to poison him.

He is violent, causing an uproar by shouting and banging his head against the floor. He also refuses food. He was listed as being both suicidal and potential violent to others.

He was discharged 11 March, supposedly ‘relieved’. What happened to him I wonder. Did he return to his friends and continue to mine for gold? Did he receive care and support from his nephew? We may never know.

 

Who was he? According to the committal papers, he was 43, married (but as there were very few Chinese women in the country, we must assume his wife was still in China) and his religion was stated to be Confucian. He had a nephew listed as next of kin, Shin Tye.