Whare Ra – Georgina White

Introduction: We’re very lucky with the MTG [Museum, Theatre, Gallery] of Hawke’s Bay – they’ve provided us with four or five speakers, and so it’s with pleasure that I introduce Georgina White. So thank you very much, Georgina.

Georgina White: Thank you. In the dawn of the twentieth century, an avant-garde group of writers, artists and philosophers converged here in Havelock North, determined to fashion a new utopian community. Like their contemporaries in intentional communities and artists’ colonies in California, New York, England, France, Switzerland and Paraguay, this New Zealand collective aspired to create an idyllic pre-industrial village, where creativity, intellectual inquiry and spirituality would flourish.

In 1907, the group launched their journal, The Forerunner, an open forum for discussion on such radical subjects as theosophy, eastern mysticism, arts and crafts, socialism and conservation, not to mention the changing roles of women. They put their ideas on the page then took to the streets, establishing the organisation of ‘[The] Havelock Work’ to foster art, craft and performance. The Forerunners, as they called themselves, simultaneously pursued an unconventional spiritual practice, gathering together to worship in silence. The unprecedented fellowship of these Anglicans, Quakers and theosophists, and the spiritual impact of their silent meetings attracted significant international attention. Like-minded friends in England proposed a leader, Doctor Robert William Felkin, a missionary, medical doctor, explorer of Africa, personal physician to the king of Uganda, and founder of an occult order, Stella Matutina, which was an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In New Zealand, Doctor Felkin wrote in 1912, ‘We will have an opportunity such as has not occurred in thousands of years, in going to an entirely new and clear atmosphere which will leave us free to form fresh symbols, unprejudiced by any previous tradition’. In a temple beneath his Havelock North arts and crafts home, Whare Ra, Doctor Felkin, his wife Harriet and daughter Ethelwyn, introduced spiritually curious Forerunners to rituals they’d drawn from western esotericism, astrology, alchemy, tarot and magic, in an endeavour to engage in the spiritual realm.

This is the fascinating subject of a new exhibition that I am curating at MTG Hawke’s Bay which will open in May 2014, and the focus of an accompanying book to be published later next year – both nicely timed with the centenary of Whare Ra. My goal is to piece together this story from as many primary sources as I can find, and in this talk I’m going to present some of that research; I’ll also raise some of my current questions and identify objects I’m still hoping to find.

In the winter of 1908, thirty-six-year-old Reginald Gardiner and his business partner, John Fraser, opened the doors to their Hawke’s Bay Arts and Crafts Depot, a brand new gallery on Station Street in Hastings selling paintings, ceramics and crafts by international and local artists with fabrics from Liberty of London. After previewing the Depot’s inaugural exhibition, a journalist from the Hastings Standard declared that Gardiner and Fraser had become nothing short of the movement, quote, ‘Awakening the public to things artistic. This movement was timely’, the journalist continued, ‘as Hastings was ready to respond to the good, the beautiful and the true’.

In their Day One show, Gardiner and Fraser unveiled late nineteenth century paintings of Palestine by British artist Lady Caroline Gray Hill. They showed impressionist works by Lady Caroline’s compatriots, [Charles] Frederick Mayer, and then Dawson Dawson-Watson. Dawson-Watson would later settle in the United States. And they showed Ruskin wear and Chinese ceramics. [You] can imagine the Hastings public of 1908 would never’ve seen this kind of work before. According to the Hastings Standard, these international artists gave their works to the Depot specifically to encourage local creativity, a statement that suggests that there was correspondence between Gardiner, Fraser and their artists, as if Gardiner and Fraser received the work in response to their request for assistance.

I’m especially keen to see if I can find letters to or from Dawson-Watson. He was the President of the Boston Arts and Crafts Society. He was a member of an artist colony in New York State, and he lived for a time in Québec where he may’ve known Reginald Gardiner and his Canadian wife Ruth, whose family were also from Québec; and Reginald and Ruth lived there in the early 1900s. Dawson-Watson is the kind of figure who may’ve influenced Reginald and Ruth and inspired them in what they would go on to do.

Alongside these works, in the Depot in Hastings in 1908 there were arts and crafts made by Hawke’s Bay artists who are now represented in the Museum’s Trust Collection – portraits by Walter Bowring, snow scenes by William Rush, sketches by Herbert Olivant, and copper work and needle work by Emily Hamilton.

The Depot was clearly far more than a commercial venture. It deliberately set out to encourage local artists, and to generate their arts and crafts. Further, as the Hastings Standard journalist recognised, the Depot’s inaugural exhibition was a show of ideas; even ideals. In the Depot visitors could see what was good, beautiful and true. And these same virtues or aspirations appear on pages of The Forerunner, the journal emerged in 1907 from free-spirited conversations amongst the bohemian crowd that gathered in Reginald and Ruth Gardiner’s Havelock North home, Stadacona, now Keirunga.

While we don’t know exactly who came through the Gardiner’s door, we can guess they were some of the same people who would write The Forerunner; people such as Bessie Spencer, who would later found The Country Women’s Institute, theosophist and thespian, Harold Large, his sisters, Lillie, a music teacher at Woodford, and Amy, who would co-found the Country Women’s [Institute] with Bessie Spencer, Amy’s husband Frank, a sheep farmer, budding botanist, pioneering environmentalist, the architect, [James] Chapman-Taylor, [and] Mary Mitchell McLean, retired teacher, as well as William Rush, Herbert Olivant and Emily Hamilton, each of whom brought their inquiring minds and alternative ideas to the Gardiners’ table and the pages of The Forerunner.

Reginald’s brother, Allen, the vicar of the St Luke’s Anglican Church, himself a contributing writer, described The Forerunner as, ‘a forum for people trying to think out vital subjects of interest, religious, social and aesthetic; a medium for the interchange of ideas; a beacon light [coughing] that aimed to attract like-minded [cough] speakers of love, truth and beauty’. It’s a lovely quote that unites the Forerunners in a common quest and aptly describes the journal that was open to enquiry. Forerunner articles often do not follow the classic essay structure of point, evidence, comment; rather, they find their point in the last paragraph and take their reader on a lovely meandering journey to arrive here. I imagine the [?] flow was quite acceptable as initially the journal was for Forerunners’ eyes only. The first journals were handwritten or typed, illustrated and annotated by hand. The museum’s [coughing] earliest journal is the second issue published October 1907. There’s one preceding issue, which would’ve been published over that winter of 1907, which I would love to find.

So, in the issue of October 1907 there are several articles themed around new approaches to the home, inspired perhaps by the setting in Stadacona, the Gardiners’ modern Californian bungalow with its arts and crafts interior. In that issue, William Rush painted this sketch of an unidentified house which certainly bears a resemblance to Stadacona. Craftswoman, Emily Hamilton advocated an arts and crafts approach to home furnishings, in part, to reduce unnecessary clutter. Bessie Spencer went as far as questioning the need for domestic kitchens. She proposed communal kitchens where neighbouring families could gather to eat – a radical idea in its time. Others wrote about the nature of society, evidence of the human spirit and the evolution of that spirit, ideas that reflected theosophical interests in Buddhism and Hinduism.

In 1909 Reginald Gardiner acquired a small printing press, which he placed in the chalet adjacent to Stadacona, now the Quilters Cottage in Keirunga Gardens. The group invited public subscriptions and attracted readers and writers from further afield. And just an aside – one of the printers of The Forerunner journal was Walter Lorne Campbell McLean – I hope I got that name exactly right – who grew up here at Duart House.

New contributors to The Forerunner included such trailblazers as Emma Richmond, New Zealand’s first proponent of the Steiner education, Herbert Guthrie-Smith, the pioneering environmentalist, and Amy Hutchinson who would co-found The Country Women’s [Institute] with Bessie Spencer. And indeed, I think it could be argued that The Forerunner broke the ground for environmentalism at Tutira, Steiner education and the Country Women’s [Institute].

Throughout its lifetime from 1907 through to 1914, The Forerunner continued to make space for essays on religion, meditation and ritual by the likes of Reverend Allen Gardiner, his brother Reginald, Chapman-Taylor and Mary Mitchell McLean. It remained a place where Ruth Gardiner could present poems inspired by her spiritual experiences of the natural world, accompanied by Olivant’s delicate watercolours; and it remained a place for sheep farmer and budding botanist, Frank Hutchinson, to experiment with dreamy semi-fictional pieces about his love for the plants and birds on his station, Omatua in Rissington, where he lived with his wife Amy, her sister Lillie Large, and their friend Bessie Spencer. Frank is a largely unknown, yet quite talented writer, and after he died his wife Amy compiled this beautiful book of his writing, on paper Frank made by hand. Frank was also a budding botanist; he collected plants to produce the dyes, which is what Amy used to colour wool. As most of you I’m sure you may be already aware, the Omatua women, Amy, Lillie and Bessie, made cushion covers and mats from the wool they’d spun, dyed and woven by hand. They valued the handmade, and advocated a return to traditional practices; ideas very much in keeping with their fellow Forerunners.

Those who wrote for the journal The Forerunner were diverse in background, career, wealth, and religion, yet unified in their quest to, as they put it, “Aim at the highest; give rather than take; delight in difference of opinion; think of the good in the other man and let that grow; help thy neighbour; and finally, remember that the thoughts and desires and deeds of the physical man today are but the materialisation of the aspirations and ideals of the real man years back.” I don’t know whether they all agreed with this final point, but it certainly reflects the views of at least some members of that group who believed in the independence and evolution of the spirit, and karma and reincarnation. The Forerunners were as they put it, trying to ‘Get out of the common rut on life’s way’. They questioned convention; they were unafraid to be different. Some grew up in Hawke’s Bay, others had moved here from large scale urban environments such as London, Edinburgh and Québec where they’d seen, en masse, the appalling effects of the industrial revolution and then the Depression of the 1890s. In the dawn of the twentieth century these intelligent, inquisitive and gentle-hearted men and women sought a simpler life; one removed from material desires and more in touch with the natural environment, creativity and spirituality. They collected here in Havelock North; some were already here, others gravitated … like attracts like. Here they could live in a gentle climate on the foothills of Te Mata, within walking distance to each other’s homes and their village hall. [Cough] In Havelock North they found financial and philosophical support from some of the members of the Chambers family, and they found like-minded friends amongst the staff of private schools Woodford, Iona and Hereworth.

Though the Forerunners did not live together, their philosophies aligned with those of intentional communities and artists’ colonies around the world in California, New York, England, France, Switzerland and Paraguay that were active in the same period; experimental communities, begun by men and women who were fundamentally disenchanted with the modern industrial world who had banded together to settle in rural environments to create the kind of societies in which they wished to live. In his study of such communities, Doctor Antony Taylor of Sheffield University states, ‘These settlements were dedicated to a total transformation of society, and nothing less than the reform of human character itself’. In response, we could say the Havelock North Forerunners did not share such aspirations; they were simply talking amongst themselves, conversing, writing, drawing, critiquing each other’s work.

However, they had greater ambitions. Over the summer of 1908-1909 they held a public meeting at Frimley, or so the story goes – I’m yet to find tangible evidence of this meeting. But apparently it was there where they launched the Havelock Work, and certainly the name of this arts and crafts organisation appears in print from January, 1909. The establishment of the Havelock Work marks the moment in which their arts and crafts organisation shifts to Havelock North – in a village was the movement’s natural centre. The new private schools, Iona and Woodford, were recruiting teachers trained in English art schools; woman such as Eleanor Adkins of Woodford [House], Laura Seaward of Iona [College], who brought with them their skills in jewellery, carving and metalwork. This work is seen in the schools and homes around Havelock North, the homes of people who could afford a degree of financial support to local artists.

[Shows slides of art] That’s a very rough photograph of what is quite a lovely fire screen; some wonderful detail of the altar in Woodford Chapel, inspired by astrological symbols.

Under the banner of the Havelock Work, Havelock North residents could learn woodcarving, weaving, enamelling, and brass and leather work. Artists could sell their wares in the new Havelock workshop. The Executive committee of the Havelock Work set up a Drama Club and a Glee Club, and they put on evening entertainments. Young boys who were found idling about the Havelock North Hotel were urged along to readings and debates; [laughter] Havelock North women were invited to afternoon lectures on topics of current interest [and] afternoon lectures extended into musical evenings.

The sudden increase in cultural activity required a decent sized hall [and] the Executive committee put out a plea for sponsorship. The Glee Club and the Drama Club put on productions to raise funds – they raised half the amount required and borrowed the rest. The village hall was opened in May 1910; designed by Walter Rush, it had a stage, three dressing rooms, and space for three hundred people. It became the village venue for concerts, readings, theatre, flower shows and exhibitions. At the exhibition of 1912, which included eighteenth century lace and Japanese tapestry, one reviewer singled out and praised the local examples of wood carving, beaten copper, book binding, basketry and needlework.

In the 1910s and through the 1920s, Havelock North became synonymous with arts and crafts, and more broadly with free expression. It became known as a place where someone might go to try something out. It was, for example, the place where crime writer Ngaio Marsh chose to present a new play she had written because, Marsh explained, “By one of those curious runnings-together of affinities, Havelock North had become a cultural centre, and thought of itself as such. There was an architect”, probably James Chapman-Taylor, “whose house was constructed of axe-hewn timber with enormous axe-hewn beams, supporting nothing in particular; and though the floor wasn’t actually strewn with rushes, their presence was implied. There was a poet in Havelock North, and yoga regulated many of the families. Rudolph Steiner was a name to conjure with, and handicrafts abounded. The esoteric found a fertile soil there. Eurythmics [music through movement] “flourished, and psychic research was not ignored”. Marsh hints at an undercurrent of spiritual activity.

Since about 1909 and possibly earlier, some of the Forerunners had pursued an unconventional spiritual practice, meditating in silence to invoke the Divine. One of the richest accounts of this experience is given by Violet Hodgkin, a Quaker visiting from England. In an essay Violet describes how on an autumnal Saturday evening in May 1909, she and her family gathered with a group of about a dozen men and women, beneath the cypress and pine trees outside St Luke’s, then a small white church with a proud gothic tower. Later, someone else would observe that while the trees and the architecture of the church were brought from the old world, the practice within was quite new. Reverend Allen Gardiner unlocked the church door, and the group entered the vestry, where Violet writes, ‘The deep shadows of the woodwork enwrapped us; the meeting began. Quakers, Anglicans and theosophists performed the Quaker practice of communing together in silence until someone was moved to speak’. Though Violet was a Quaker, the experience was unlike anything she had ever known. There she was standing in an Anglican church, not a Quaker meeting house; on a Saturday evening, not a Sunday; with friends who were not only Anglicans but theosophists – people who had adopted Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in karma and reincarnation. However, ‘In that single hour’, Violet wrote, ‘the different denominations seem to unite in a reality beneath and behind and above all forms, our little separate folds forgotten. We were all one flock following the one Shepherd’. After a while Reginald Gardiner gave a short prayer, then one or two Quaker friends spoke and prayed including Violet’s mother, Lucy. In her gorgeous pictorial journal of 1909, Lucy noted that she spoke about the light that shined in darkness, and how we all naturally long for light. Violet later wrote that these words were beautiful, but it was the group’s fellowship in silence that for her was truly profound.

Violet would talk and write about the power of that single silent meeting that she attended, for many years to come. When she returned to Havelock North in 1922 as the new wife of John Holdsworth of Swarthmoor, [later Peloha] it was the memory of the 1909 silent meeting that first came to mind. These silent meetings caught the attention of a group Anglican ministers who were visiting from England, at least one of whom, curiously, was also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This man, Charles Fitzgerald, connected the Havelock North group with Doctor Robert Felkin.

The end of 1912 marks a dramatic moment of change. In November, the Havelock Work Executive committee held their famous Shakespearean pageant, a two-day extravaganza of Shakespearean theatre, games, sixteenth century songs, continuous entertainment in the so-called Blackfriars Hall, performances by the Woodford House Morris dancers, and a grand costume procession. The pageant attracted thousands of people. It was a spectacular expression of an inclusive, creative community; it was an extraordinary performance of a utopian, pre-industrial village as envisaged by the Havelock Work.

Just weeks after the Forerunners dismantled their festival tents and hung up their Elizabethan robes, they welcomed into the fold Doctor Robert Felkin, one of the most influential leaders of one of the most important occult orders in the world in its time. Felkin arrived with his wife, Harriet, and his daughter, Ethelwyn.

I’m fascinated by Felkin, and I’m putting together his story from primary sources which include his own accounts of his journeys through Africa; his experiences of working for the highly superstitious King of Uganda; his writing about his own understanding of Ugandan spirituality and folklore, as well as the letters in the family archives of his first wife Mary Jane Mander, and his second wife Harriet Davidson. Felkin married well, and his wives’ families have extensive archives, which in other published discussions of Felkin, really seem not to have been tapped, so they are exciting. To this end I’ m corresponding with people in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the United States and South Australia, to gather together as much as I can written by Felkin and the people closest to him.

An archive in London, the Freemasonry Museum & Library, revealed documents written by Felkin pertaining to the Golden Dawn and Stella Matutina. From these it is clear that Felkin believed in astral travel; his ability to move in time and space, to communicate with people who’d long since departed, even people who never lived. What I’m really considering at the moment and grappling with, is how this man of science, this doctor, rationalised a belief in astral travel. I’m curious about the stories he told of his own life, his mixing of fact and fiction and how his myths co-existed with his genuine belief and his ability to engage with the spiritual realm.

Scholars of early nineteenth and early twentieth century science suggest that spiritualism could have been regarded, and often was regarded, as a science. And it’s probably within that context, I think, that Felkin understood astral travel – he regarded it as a science, and he used alchemy, astrology, tarot, almost as methods to engage with the spiritual realm.

I’m also deeply curious about how Doctor Felkin, his wife Harriet and Ethelwyn were perceived by Havelock North in their time. Recently I was sent an article from the Mirfield Fathers who were some of the members of that group of Anglican ministers who came to Havelock North in around 1910. Charles Fitzgerald, who put the Havelock North group in touch with Felkin, returned in 1913, so he returned after Felkin had visited, and this is what he observed. He observed a sense of spiritual power in Havelock North more than anywhere else in New Zealand. He wrote, ‘Faith has been described as beginning in an experiment and ending in an experience. A certain number of people in Havelock North dared to make a venture of faith three years ago, and this spiritual venture has been rewarded. As they waited on God in silent prayer, he has poured in. This power is evident in spiritual healing and the conversion of life. The work is also hidden, but it cannot be spoken about, though is much spoken against’. And that gives some insight I think, to the idea that there would’ve been some members of the Forerunner crowd who embraced what Felkin offered, and there would’ve been others who likely turned away.

Felkin set up his medical practice. Some people have attributed the fact that no one in Havelock died from the polio epidemic to Felkin’s skills as a doctor, [and] as a doctor he was an important member of the community. There are accounts of Felkin being a popular doctor amongst the local Māori. He introduced colour therapy to his patients; he believed in the healing properties of colour. He also practiced hypnosis.

His house is full [was filled] with eclectic and exotic objects gathered from around the world. This was a chair carved by Ray Jones who was the caretaker at Whare Ra, and it was in the vault there. These are three of the objects that are now in the museum’s collection that were in the Felkins’ home. Felkin was also a Freemason; he was a church goer, and he was part of the social fabric of Havelock North. He went, for example, to Chambers’ family weddings.

Very few people now will have few vivid memories of Doctor Felkin, who died in 1926. Many people, however, remember the Christmas parties hosted by Harriet Felkin and Ethelwyn. And I just want to read the lovely story written by Barbara Anderson, who captured that experience, and it’s certainly a story that I’ve heard repeated by a number of former residents of Havelock North. She said, ‘Before Christmas, we went to the Felkin’s home. We knelt before a crowded nativity scene with animals of all sizes and colours. A camel with a nodding head stood shoulder to shoulder with a pink cow, twice its size. Three wise men trekked their way through the shambolic crowd from the left, the shepherds from the right. The Christ child was minute.’ A sort of a surreal tableau, I think, beneath the Christmas tree. ‘We were then asked to take the censer from Miss Felkin, swing it to the front, to the left, then the right and say, “Happy Christmas, baby Jesus”. David did this with well-coordinated grace. To me, it was torture’. And a number of people have described this experience – they said the same.

I looked also in Barbara Anderson’s autobiography to see if I could find further descriptions of the Felkins, and she describes how after [cough] her brother, Colin, died her mother invited Mrs Felkin and Miss Felkin to the house. She wrote, ‘Mrs Felkin and Miss Felkin, the followers of some esoteric branch of Christianity, Mum had known and liked both for some time, and Miss Felkin had been Colin’s godmother. Their faith in ceremonies were, I now think, a comfort to Mum after he died. The only one I knew about took place in 609 Roberts Street. Mrs and Miss Mary Felkin arrived with a censer, incense, and an air of gentle authority. Mum and Dad and David and I stood in the hall, and Mrs Felkin sat because of her legs which were alarmingly swollen. There was not much room in the hall except for a table, where a telephone sat, and a chair which Mrs Felkin now occupied. Beside her stood a gong; above all was an old painting, or perhaps a print of Saint Sebastian on a cross. In this narrow, dark hall with Victorian furniture and religious print, Miss Felkin said prayers, then swung the censer strongly in three directions, murmuring as she did so. Their ceremony was solemn and reverent, but I never discovered what it was about’.

There continues to be an air of mystery around Whare Ra and the Felkins, and yet I’m curious to think about how it must’ve been different at the time, what they brought to Havelock North, but perhaps we can understand it now. And I think really, the story of Doctor Felkin and the Forerunners, speaks to utopian communities worldwide and the invention of gurus, and humanity’s hope at the dawn of a new century. It draws into conversation unconventional approaches to spirituality, aesthetics in society; a conversation that was echoed in Victorian romanticism, but also in contemporary new age philosophies. In many ways Doctor Felkin and the Forerunners were a century ahead of their time, and I think their rhetoric really has resonance now.

That is a glimpse into the work I am doing at the moment in preparing for this exhibition and the book that will follow. And I’d welcome any questions, or ideas if you would like to offer any. Thank you very much.

Question: Georgina, do you know where the Havelock Workshop was?

Georgina: Yes – now someone [cough] correct me if I got this name wrong – but above Foster Brook’s bookshop. So it would’ve shifted when they launched the Havelock Work over that summer of 1908-1909. I suspect the Depot in Hastings then closed, and the shop moved. But I need to check. And I think … I’m just wracking my mind … but Deborah Giles? Miss Giles … was perhaps one of the people who worked in that shop for a time. And in the Havelock North Public Library there’s [there’re] some accounts from her about being there.

Was it Barbara Anderson? Or a perhaps a friend of hers … said to me that it was curious that the house was and is called Whare Ra, the House of the Sun, when it is the darkest house they’d ever encountered. And I imagine [laughter] a little person, you know, arriving there and seeing this house covered in virginia creeper, and the house itself is set back, you know, recessed behind a verandah. And certainly one person experienced the Christmas party in the temple itself. Other people spoke about going into the living room. But having to wind your way down the staircase and arrive into the temple … I went there last week.

Question: Have others been inside Whare Ra? [General affirmative response] Yeah, I was struck by firstly how large it was, and that it’s quite a utilitarian looking space … concrete bunker in a way. And it must’ve been … I imagine, again for a little person it would’ve been quite an intimidating environment. And actually, a little aside perhaps; the current owners – and again this may be where other people know – but when they bought the house they had a quick glimpse of the temple on their tour but no knowledge of the vault behind, and it was only once they’d moved in that they discovered that vault. And I was also struck when I went into the vault, it’s small; concrete; how much sound reverberates in there. And I just could imagine it would be quite a … if you were spending some time in there and there was some chanting, and perhaps candles and incense, and people around you, and perhaps you were in a costume that you wouldn’t normally wear; people’ve talked about robes and gowns being worn … I can imagine it would’ve been a transportive experience, because of the design of the space. Yeah.

The vault … no plans exist of the house, but the vault was surely designed in consultation with Felkin, and the symbols were painted by Harriet, his wife. And I’ve seen a very similar, small-scale model of this vault in the Freemasonry Museum & Library in London, so it does seem that it was copied from the vault that they had there. And it’s also aiming to replicate the tomb of Christian Rosenkrantz, who is understood to be the sort of mythical founder of the Rosicrucian rituals, which is what Felkin was, had learned and was bringing here. So yeah, this design and architecture has quite a long history.

Question: When did the group break up, or finish?

Georgina: Well, I think there were various phases; Felkin died in [19]26. When he died Reginald Gardiner came into the fold, and led the group of Harriet and Ethelwyn. Harriet and Ethelwyn died late fifties, early sixties, one after the other. The group continued for some time beyond that, but I think from the mid-twentieth century it was … there was a second wave who tried to come out to lead it, but I think it was beginning to fold then. And certainly in the 1970s it seemed that there was a split between people who wanted to just close it and finish there and then, and others who were interested in trying to keep it going. And there’s certainly an offshoot in Wellington that exists now. That group has published rituals from the Order, but they’re rituals that were given to them in the 1950s, and I’m more interested in piecing together what Felkin was practising based on what he has written. My interest is in the Order in the early part of the twentieth century. I think it finally closed here … I’m taking a bit of a guess, but say around the 1970s; other people in Wellington will probably pipe up and say, “No, it’s still going.” But I’m interested in that early stage.

Comment: You said that Robert Felkin was a Freemason, but he also belonged to the esoteric wing of the Masonic Lodge, which was the Rosicrucian Society of Freemasons, sometimes called the SocRos; and in this Latin view, Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia; in other words, the Rosicrucian Society of England. Now he was the Chief Adept for that, and was the first one in New Zealand. They have Colleges rather than Lodges, although they come under the general umbrella of the Masonic Movement. And there was a College in Christchurch, probably one of the earliest formed, before Felkins’ time, but there happens to be, in Hawke’s Bay, a Rosicrucian College of Freemasons named Felkin College, honouring Doctor Felkin.

Georgina: Where is this? I’ve heard about it.

I’ll talk to you sometime …

Georgina: Thank you. [Laughter] That would be good. I’m in touch with the Society in England who now hold some of his papers. When he came back from Africa, he presented to the study group of this Society you’re speaking of, his knowledge of ‘Folklore in Uganda’. And it’s so frustrating because I know the titles of papers he presented, but some were published, some were not. So I have a copy of his ‘Folklore in Uganda’; I do not have a copy, and I don’t think we’ll be able to get a copy, of his paper called ‘Psychic Experiences in the Great Pyramids’. I mean doesn’t that sound good? Yeah, this is the kind of thing I’m chasing.

Closing: ‘Our village is not ordinary; in fact it’s quite unique’.  [Eleanor Adkins]  Thank you very much Georgina, it was a wonderful experience. I grew up at Te Puna, which was across the road from Whare Ra, and we had something to do with the Felkins. I remember Mrs Felkin, when I was this size; and Miss Felkin. And we were invited to the nativity scene, and it was unlike anything else, of course, I’d ever experienced and ever will. It was quite mystical, and just beautiful. And the darkness and the candles, and the frankincense … it was very special. But this talk today of yours has been really, really interesting, and I don’t know … for many of you it might’ve opened up in a wider context what was happening in Havelock, and how it was linked to other similar movements round the world. So thank you very, very much for your talk and I wish you all the best for your forthcoming exhibition and book.

Thank you very much.

[Applause]