Rowling had a five-year-old son, William. First, in 1856, to Jennifer Rowling, a neighbour who had been widowed two years earlier. By 1872, he was also exporting dried fungus and scrap iron to China. He purchased land in Washington Valley, where he built a cottage for his family on Washington Road, as well as four cottages on Hastings Street, which he rented. He expanded this to three drays, and by 1849, he had ten bullocks.Īfter gaining New Zealand citizenship in 1853, Hocton was able to buy his own property. Within two years, Hocton had saved enough to buy a bullock and dray, and began a carting business. He found work as a housekeeper with Dr Thomas Renwick who had been ship’s surgeon on the Thomas Harrison, who was also making a new life for himself in Nelson.

He travelled widely, and by 1842 held the rank of steward aboard the Thomas Harrison bound from England to Nelson, where he jumped ship. Hocton left China at the age of nine to work as a cabin boy on an English sailing ship.

As carter, builder, roading contractor, then exporter, he was an industrious and respected resident of early Nelson. In 1853, Appo Hocton became the first person of Chinese descent to gain New Zealand citizenship. Now he’s back in a great spot on the Nelson English Centre, on the Church Street side. We first presented Appo Hocton’s story in a shopfront in Bridge Street in 2021-22.

Old Snook instaling