Charles Gray as a Benefactor

Charles Gray had a long history as a benefactor and while it can be argued that some of his seemingly generous actions were self-serving there is no doubt his donations did benefit the community. His first recorded act of generosity was in 1901 when he offered land to the Horokiwi Valley Tennis Club to build its courts on. It is not clear whether it was Gray’s own land or family land that was used for the courts. (Evening Post, 5 November 1901, p4)

Newspapers in 1915 published reports of auctions, carnivals and lists of donations all in aid of the Wounded Soldiers’ Fund. In May 1915 Gray offered John Luke, the Mayor of Wellington, a residential section in Pukerua to be sold in aid of the Wounded Soldiers’ Fund, one of 600 different funds operating during the First World War. (Evening Post, 27 May 1915, p8; Waipawa Mail, 6 October 1939, p1) Surveyors may have been working for Gray at that time but it was not until near the end of the year that the first of eight sections were subdivided at Pukerua and the name “Pukerua” approved by the Minister of Lands. In June 1915 both Charles and his brother James each donated £20 to the Wounded Soldiers’ and Sailors’ and Dependents’ Fund which was acknowledged by His Worship the Mayor of Wellington. The only higher donation recorded on that day was £30 from N. Abbot. (Dominion, 12 June 1915, p3)

In March 1918 a huge fire destroyed woolsheds, houses, shops, stables, sawmills, bridges and shearers quarters around Raetihi. Three lives were lost in the disaster. At the April Pāuatahanui stock sale a bull was donated and the proceeds went to the Mayor of Ohakune for the Raetihi Belief Fund. In addition Charles Gray donated £29 and his brother James £15. Other farmers who donated were V. Mungavin, E.W. Cottle, N. Abbott, W. Pearce, B. Mexted and Abbott brothers. (Dominion, 15 April 1918, p2)

In July 1918 a proposal was put forward that profits from the sale of surplus wool in England should be put towards a fund for the dependants of sailors of both the Royal Navy and the Merchant Service “but for whose vigilant protection during the last, four years this Dominion would probably have been under a foreign flag instead of in the enjoyment of unprecedented prosperity.” (Manawatu Standard, 12 July 1918, p5) There is no record of the sale of this site.

Under the headline “Patriotic Farmers Help for British Seamen” Charles Gray was listed among the famers who were prepared to give surplus wool profits to the fund. (Dominion, 19 October 1918, p8) Early in 1919 “a section of land at the seaside resort of Pukerua” was given by Gray to be a special prize in the Commercial Travellers’ Mercantile Marine Fund. (Dominion, 22 February 1919, p2) Charles Gray of Pukerua was formally thanked for his hospitality in the 1922 annual report of the Tararua Tramping Club. (Evening Post, 30 June 1922, p6)

In late 1923 the Postmaster General accepted Charles Gray’s offer of a site at the corner of Beach and Haunui Roads for a future post and telegraph office. The site had been chosen by the Chief Postmaster of Wellington and a representative of the Telegraph Engineer’ Department before the sub division, Extension No. 6, had even been surveyed. (Roads – Wellington Road District – Pukerua Bay claim – Charles Grey. R21067419. Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga) A post office was never built on this site.

Charles Gray’s greatest act of generosity was to donate three of the five acres for the Pukerua Bay School site in 1925. It was also the act for which he received the greatest public acclaim. At the opening of the new roads ceremony in March 1926 Mr W.H. Field MP “spoke of the big part Mr. Gray had played in improving the district” including donating land for the school site “and also a sufficient area to provide for all the sports facilities that were likely to be required by Pukerua.” (Evening Post, 22 March 1926, p11) The latter was in fact a requirement when subdividing land for house sections as Gray was doing.

When the school was opened in May 1927 the Minister of Education the Hon. R. A. Wright praised Gray for his generosity:

“I cannot help drawing public attention to the fact,” said the Minister, “that a site of three acres for this school was donated by Mr. Charles Gray, who invited the Department to select the land for itself—a most unheard-of proceeding. In some cases where land is donated it would have been better to have declined the gift. In accepting Mr. Gray’s offer, the Department most selfishly, I must admit, selected three of the best acres in the district. Then there arose the question of an additional two acres, as the Department holds that five acres are necessary for a school. Mr. Gray at once expressed his willingness to donate the further two acres, but, ladies and gentlemen, the Department’s conscience smote it—(laughter) —and it decided it would not trespass further on the good nature of the donor. Even then Mr Gray insisted on the land being sold at cost price. On behalf of the Department and the Government, I thank Mr. Gray for his generosity.” (Dominion, 23 May 1927, p13)

The president of the Pukerua Bay Ratepayers’ Association, Mr. Albert Basire, said “but for the energies of Mr. Gray, Pukerua Bay would not be what it was to-day. (Loud applause.)” (Dominion, 23 May 1927, p13) The opening ceremony concluded with the singing of the National Anthem and cheers for the Hon. R. A. Wright and Messrs. Field and Gray.

Twenty-two boys from the St. James’s Scout troop had a “most successful camp” over a week on Gray’s farm from the end of 1927 to the beginning of 1928. The boys had “a grand time” in spite of two days rain with highlights that included seeing in the New Year around a camp fire and a very successful visitors day. Among the visitors were a patrol of St. James’s Girl Guides. The Scouts were very grateful to Mr Gray for the use of his property. (Evening Post, 15 February 1928, p14)

After the Murchison earthquake in June 1929 many families well-known in Pukerua Bay at that time donated money to the Earthquake Relief Fund including Lindsays, Scotts, Mulherns, Ames and Mullins. Mrs C Gray donated one guinea and Charles Gray donated four guineas, easily the most generous donation from Pukerua Bay. (Dominion, 25 July 1929, p6) Following New Zealand’s deadliest earthquake, the Hawkes Bay earthquake of February 1931, Charles Gray donated £2 to the Hawkes Bay Earthquake Relief Fund. (Evening Post, 12 March 1931, p15) The smaller donation for what was a far more devasting earthquake would have been because of the sharp decline in wool prices as the effects of the depression were felt by farmers.

Gray frequently made donations from £1/1/0 up to £5 to the Wellington Free Ambulance. Dances organised by the Pukerua Bay Tennis Club, Plunket Society and Pukerua Bay Progressive Association, which the Grays were involved with, made donations to the Free Ambulance.

The Levin Memorial Home for “friendless children” at Berhampore was proposed in 1893 as a tribute to William Hort Levin, merchant, director of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway, politician and benefactor. The initial proposal for a statue was rejected and the Home was established by public donations in 1895. At the September 1927 meeting of the Levin Memorial Home Committee it was reported that among the gifts received was “one sheep” from Mrs Gray of Pukerua. (Evening Post, 16 September 1927, 13) Up until the end of 1934 Charles Gray donated a total of eight sheep to the Levin Home plus two “gifts” which were highly likely to have been sheep. On two occasions the donations were recorded in one newspaper to have been from Mr Gray and another newspaper recorded the donation to have been from Mrs Gray. An act of charity or an act of conscience? It is possible that the child Charles Gray fathered was at the Levin Memorial Home. The records of the Home were later held by the Alexander Nursing Home, then The House of Grace Trust and are now at the Alexander Turnbull Library. The records from around the time the baby was born are missing.

The National Patriotic Fund Board was established in 1939 along with eleven Provincial Councils to oversee patriotic activities and fundraising. This was in place of the hundreds of funds set up during the First World War. Late in 1940 Charles and Elizabeth Gray offered a section in Pukerua Bay and a representative of the Patriotic Board chose the section which was to be sold in aid of the fund. (Evening Post, 21 November 1940, p13)

In his will Charles Gray left a section in Wairaka Road to the Trustees of the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of New Zealand as a site for a future lodge in Pukerua Bay. (GRAY, Charles. R23133358. Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga.) A lodge was never built and the section was later sold to a private owner.

By Ashley Blair