Appo Hocton was the first known Chinese New Zealander. He arrived as a young man in 1842 and spent the rest of his life in the Nelson area, raising a family, and running a carting business and farm. He died in 1920 aged around 100.

The town of Nelson was just months old when Appo Hocton arrived on 25 October 1842. It was a raw settlement, the New Zealand Company’s first in the South Island. Land negotiations with various Māori had been so lengthy that immigrants were already on their way to the settlement before the site at the Maitai River Flats had been agreed. It was an area that had no permanent residents, although its resources were harvested seasonally by several iwi.^[1]

The first British migrants arrived on the Fifeshire in February 1842. Within a few months Nelson had grown to several thousand settlers. One of the newcomers was Appo Hocton who arrived on the ship Thomas Harrison. Unlike English passengers like Mary Ann Thompson, Hocton was on the ship's staff, working as a ship’s steward.

According to family tradition, Wong Appo Hocton (his family name was Wong), had been working on English ships since he was 9 years old. Born between 1819 and 1823,^[2] his home village was in Heungshan County, now Zhongshan, an area very close to the port cities of Macau and Hong Kong.  

By his late teens or early 20s, Hocton had moved up the career ladder. In 1842 he was signed on as a ship’s steward for the immigrant ship the Thomas Harrison. The ship left London in May and arrived in Nelson five months later on 25 October. The journey was difficult, with illness, death, food shortages, leaks and continuous stormy weather.^[3] It may have been these conditions that caused a number of crew to jump ship. Appo Hocton was one of those sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment for desertion, although he was not sentenced to hard labour as others were.

When Hocton started his New Zealand life he was reasonably well prepared. He could read and write English and his work on ships would have brought him into contact with a wide variety of people. In other words, he already had experience of the world. He quickly gained a job as a housekeeper with Dr Thomas Renwick, the former surgeon superintendent on the Thomas Harrison.^[4] But by 1849 he had already struck out on his own, renting an acre section in the centre of town with a cottage, barn and 10 cattle. He also started a successful cartage business that would later deliver landfill and gravel for roads like Trafalger Street.^[5]

Hard-working and astute, Hocton was well accepted in Nelson's growing township. But there was one thing he could not do, and that was to own land. Up to 1866, no alien could purchase land in New Zealand.^[6] This may have been behind Hocton’s decision to apply for naturalisation.

Hocton's application arrived with numerous references, including one from Alfred Domett, the colonial secretary for New Munster - the colonists’ first name for the South Island. His note stated that during his time in Nelson, Hocton was 'well known for industry and respectability'.^[7]  The application was granted on 3 January 1853, making Appo Hocton the first naturalised Chinese New Zealander.

Soon after, Hocton bought land in Washington Valley. He built a house for himself and seven more to rent out. Four of the cottages he built are still standing.

With his businesses set up, Appo Hocton was well placed to start a family. In July 1856 he married his widowed neighbour Jennifer Rowling. It is generally thought that her five-year-old son William was Hocton’s natural child. If so, this would mean William was the first New Zealand-born Chinese. William was certainly treated as a son and took the Hocton family name after his mother’s marriage. At 14, he was already working with his father in the cartage business, which in 1865 had three bullock drays. Sadly, this was also the year that his mother Jennifer died of tuberculosis.^[8]

Hocton did not stay single for long. He married again six months later. His new wife was Ellen Snook and they appear to have had a loving relationship. Descendants recall Ellen calling her husband 'Diamond Eyes' as a term of endearment.^[9] They went on to have three children, Appo Louis (b 1866), Albert Ah Lina (b 1868) and Eirena Jane (b 1870). The couple also adopted a baby girl, Olive Clara Schroder, in 1887.

In 1876 the family left Nelson to settle in Dovedale, south-west of Motueka, where Hocton had purchased 485 acres of rural land. With his sons he gradually cleared the bush and ran cows and sheep.^[10] His sheep flock was recorded at around 295, which was quite large at the time. He was also one of the first in the area to grow hops.

Like other settlers both Ellen and Appo Hocton kept in touch with their families back home – Ellen’s in England and Appo’s in China. A letter survives from Appo Hocton’s mother begging him to come home and 'show his respects to his parents'.^[11] He never did return.

To his own children, Appo Hocton seems to have been a very caring father, building a total of seven homes for his grown children at his Dovedale property.^[12] It must have been a terrible blow when his youngest son Albert was accidentally killed in a shooting accident at the age of 11. He and his brother Louis were rabbit hunting. Hocton was on his way to take the gun off the boys, but arrived too late.^[13]

At a time of rising anti-Chinese sentiment, Hocton was highly regarded as a Nelson pioneer. He was one of 84 who attended a settlers’ luncheon to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.^[14] Hocton was in his mid to late 60s at this stage, but would go on to live another 33 years. He kept active, tending his garden, caring for his wife Ellen and enjoying his grandchildren. The family recalls him teaching the children to bow three times to a new moon and make a wish.^{15] The Nelson Evening Mail of 1918 reports that Hocton was still managing his own affairs at close to 100, stating, 'Mr Hocton is still a good walker, and informed an inquirer to-day that he had some business to transact at the bank'.^[16]

When Hocton died on 26 September 1920 he was living with his son Louis in Dovedale. His death was reported in newspapers throughout New Zealand, including the Auckland Star, which noted that he was one of Nelson's earliest settlers, but 'for over 40 years had been farming at Dovedale.^'[17]

Appo Hocton was buried alongside family members in the Dovedale Cemetery. By the turn of the new millennium, he had 1,600 living descendants throughout the country.

Remembering Appo Hocton: an uneven history
Explore more

‍