MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 July 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

JOHANN GOETHE’S GRANDSON.

(Recorded by J.H.S. tor “Times-Age,”) John Gotty, senior, lived a quiet life at the Maori village on the eastern bank of the Rangitikei River, three miles from Bulls. His home, among the totara and kahikatea trees, was conducted by his Maori wife in an orderly manner which just suited his simple tastes. His long hours of labour were devoted to the care of his flock of sheep. Through it, and his boyhood’s experience in Germany, he was enabled to amass a moderate fortune, £7OOO of which was devoted to the education and extravagant tastes of his boys at a British University. Among the attractions to those few pioneers who were privileged to visit his simple home in the bush, were about twenty peacocks, which were probably the first ever imported to this country. After the death of this devoted couple, the birds wan-. dered through the forest, and having wisely been made “tapu” at Mr Gotty’s suggestion, increased to hundreds, until exterminated by pakeha raiders. German history, especially the life of her great poet, Johann Goethe, was an intimate study of John, junior, who was intrigued by the strange fact that the departure of Johann Goethe, junior, from Germany “for an unknown destination” coincided with the date of his own father (John Gotty) leaving there. At the first school holiday, John and George went to Germany to investigate the mystery. There they learned from family records that they were actually the grandsons of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the greatest poet-philosopher of the century. When asked for tangible proof of this strange story, John merely said: “Well, there’s that trace of his genius we inherited, and still more, our uncle gave us £lOOO. which we blew out in a week’s festivities at Paris.” To those who knew him. John Gotty, junior, was proof of the theory that genius is the result of breeding from two distinct nationalities.