Country Life: Devcich Farm Shines A Light On Dalmatian Pioneers
The story of a pioneering family of Dalmatian immigrants has been kept alive through a cluster of old sheds on the Devcich farm near Thames.
, for Country Life
Old pack horse saddles slung over beams, a sack of ancient kauri gum and a well-thumbed Ready Reckoner on the counter tell just one chapter of the Devcich Farm story.
The items are in the farm's old trading post where, early last century, gum diggers and loggers came to buy stores for their camps up the Kauaeranga Valley on the Coromandel Peninsula.
There's also an old blacksmith's forge, a timber mill with sawpit and a winery complete with antique wine-making tools and a pungent aroma of sherry.
The Devcich family, originally from Dalmatia, now part of Croatia, farmed here last century. Their legacy, the Devcich Farmstead, is listed as a place of special significance with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, for 'reflecting significant developments in Dalmatian settlement in early twentieth-century New Zealand'.
The sheds, now clustered under a Croatian flag, also reveal their industriousness and range of skills.
Simun Devcich arrived in New Zealand from Podgora with his two brothers, Marion Anton and Nicola just after the turn of the 20th century. They worked their way up through gum digging and trading and into farming, buying the block, much bigger then, in 1915.
Simun had married another immigrant from Dalmatia, Matija Mercep, in 1913 and eventually took on the farm from his brothers, going from dairy to sheep farming, with his three sons working alongside.
Commercial farming has stopped now but Simun's granddaughter, Lorenza Devcich, has restored the buildings and runs a menagerie of coloured sheep, llamas, Highland cattle, emus and assorted exotic birds on the land which remains, with tourists often staying in the old homestead.
'My grandfather and his two brothers, they came from Yugoslavia to escape the army.
'Even for years after, the young men would leave because as soon as they got of age … they would get thrown into the army.'
'My grandfather had about 11 pack horses that he and his boys, my uncles and father, used to pack supplies right up into all the camps at the top end of the valley.
'When they'd first come here, a lot of [the gum diggers followed by loggers] had no money, so a lot of it was on credit.
'He also bought gum and sold it. So, they'd come back here with the gum, and that's how he'd get paid.'
Dalmatian immigrants were among New Zealand's wine making pioneers and the Devcich family was producing wine on a small scale from the late 1920s, under their Golden Valley label.
Lorenza remembers helping her father Ivan in the wine shed which still houses a wooden fermenting vat and other wine-making tools.
'And there's probably the last standing bottle of sherry up there, still with some sherry in it. It hasn't been touched. And maybe it could even be one of the ones that I bottled, because my job here was the dog's body.'
Lorenza still tends to the 80-year-old grape vines today, using 'the worst talkback radio station' she can find to blare out and scare away the birds.
'The sherry and the wine were all made from grapes grown on the property. All the beautiful, big black Albany Surprise, I think it's called, … is still there producing.
While the saw mill now stands quiet and the trading post has shut its doors, the farm courtyard is now home to a strutting peacock, brightly coloured pheasants and guinea fowl.
Lorenza stores their feed in a shed once used to stable Simun's beloved racehorses, an interest he took up in later life.
'They got fed all the lovely, cooked barley and everything. You'd go into the house, and you'd smell it cooking on the old coal range … all the old farm horses, the pack horses and everything else, just lucky if they got thrown some hay.'
She has somewhat sad memories of Simun.
'He got kicked in the stomach by a racehorse and ruptured his stomach, and he survived that, but then not long after, he had a stroke.
'I used to love sitting down talking to him, but when I'd start talking to him, get him to tell me the history, he'd get upset and start crying.'
He died in 1971, once a strong active man and very much the 'boss' in his day, and one of the pioneers of the valley, Lorenza said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Tauranga returns 70 percent of impounded dogs to owners, 25 percent put down
Tauranga city was able to return 70 percent of impounded dogs to their owners. Photo: More than 15,000 labradors, spaniels, pugs and other dogs call Tauranga city home. And they are lucky to - the city's animal control statistics were a standout in the region. Figures provided to RNZ show over a five-month period, Tauranga city was able to return 70 percent of impounded dogs to their owners and euthanised only 25 percent. Every other area of Bay of Plenty had to put down around half of all impounded dogs - (50 percent in Rotorua, 42 percent in Western Bay, 52 percent in Kawerau and 74 percent in Ōpōtiki ). Brent Lincoln from Tauranga City Council was quick to acknowledge the types of dogs found in Tauranga compared to other areas made an impact on the figures, as did the amount of animal control staff the city could afford. "We have a dedicated animal services group within Tauranga, where some of the small councils their dog control might also be their parking wardens and their bylaws officers or something like that," he said. Kat Thompson, from local animal rescue group Vada's, praised Tauranga for having gone the extra mile in reuniting or rehoming the large majority of impounded dogs. "I feel like they have worked really, really hard to get where they have," she said. But she also said there were many factors affecting the figures and people should not draw unfair comparisons. "You've got to remember Ōpōtiki, and I work closely with Rotorua, they are very different types of dogs you are working with. You are working with a lot more gang dogs, you are working with a lot more aggressive dogs, that aren't up for rehoming," she said. Thompson said she felt every pound in the area was working really hard, but Tauranga had done more. Brent Lincoln said once a dog entered the Tauranga pound a combination of things had been put in place to get the best outcome for the animal. One of which was hand delivering a letter to owners. "We try and work with the owners quite closely once we have identified them, offering the options and giving them a bit of flexibility on how they can work together to get their dog out of the pound," he said. Lincoln said 90 percent of dogs entered the pound because they were found roaming the streets and that was when microchipping and registering a dog became vitally important. Companion Animals New Zealand's register manager Sarah Clement said people often misunderstood what a microchip was. The only information on the microchip was the microchip number. "A lot of people think that once their animal has a microchip the microchip holds all of their information, but registration is really key, [that microchip number] needs to be put on a database, so it can be linked with the guardian's details." There are two nationwide databases for pounds to search - Companion Animals and the councils'. Clement encouraged councils to access both and for pet guardians to keep their information up to date on both. "It's always a really heartbreaking thing when you find an animal, you scan it, yes it has a microchip, you try and call the owner, and their details aren't up to date." Lincoln said they recently discovered a dog in the Tauranga pound had actually been stolen months earlier from Auckland. The national registry was able to reunite the dog and owners - an outcome everyone wanted. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Education Minister cut Māori words from future junior books, documents reveal
The ministry's report said: 'Under this option, we would not include kupu Māori in all phases of the RtRPP scope and sequence for any future books. The 13 RtRPP books currently in development do not contain any kupu Māori, apart from character names.' It was not clear in the paper whether the books would be reprinted. 'As noted above, the RtRPP resources are expected to have a lifespan in schools of approximately 10 years, so it would take several years for the books containing kupu Māori that are currently in circulation to be replaced in practice.' The document showed Stanford also instructed the ministry to develop a teaching sequence in the English curriculum to help teachers prepare children to read Māori words from their second year at school. Stanford told RNZ that would stop teaching children in mainstream classrooms to pronounce and read Māori from being 'left to chance'. The ministry's document said currently from Year 4, Māori words were included in the curriculum with increasing frequency and complexity. Stanford told RNZ she considered rewriting the 27 books that contained Māori words to retain only the proper nouns in Māori, but later decided against it. 'These are very early readers that teach children to learn to read and there are already 'heart' words in there that children have to memorise in English and if there are some te reo words in there as well, then that's okay and we'll leave them as they are,' she said. She described the decision as the middle position between conflicting advice. The minister's October decision included reprinting one of the books, 'At the Marae', as a big book but not as a 'reader' for children to take home – something that angered many teachers and principals in the past week. The document showed Stanford raised the issue after 'experts in structured literacy approaches' told her that including two different languages in the books could confuse learners and make it harder for them to master English phonetics. The ministry's paper said evidence about that was mixed but there was a case to consider the amount of Māori words in books for children learning to read. Literacy experts told RNZ this week Māori words were part of everyday New Zealand English and did not present problems for beginning readers because their spelling was regular and their vowel sounds matched some of the English vowels. The document said 26 of the 75 Ready to Read books had up to three Māori words and a 27th, At the Marae, had six Māori words. A handwritten note on the document showed the minister wanted te reo Māori introduced when children stopped using 'decodable' books like the Ready to Read series, usually at the end of their first year at school or early in their second year. 'I want to include in the NZC (English) a section on Te Reo vowel sounds and pronunciation to ready students for reading te reo words in school journals as previously discussed,' she wrote. Stanford also noted that: 'Interestingly – I asked kura leaders if they would accept English words in te reo Māori decodable books and they said no. So it would be consistent to keep one language only in very early Year 1 decodable books, except for names.' The ministry's paper said the Ready to Read series was designed to teach the reading of English 'and the sound-letter correspondences in English'. 'Our advice to schools is to teach kupu Māori in RtRPP books as 'told' words. The foundational skill of phonic decoding within the resources is based on the English language and students are not expected to decode the kupu Māori,' it said. The paper warned the options could result in pushback from schools. 'If we discontinue the use of kupu Māori (apart from character names) in RtRPP books, there may be a negative response and media attention. [REDACTED] In particular, recalling existing books has the potential to generate pushback.' The minister wrote in response: 'It's only in Year 1 decodable books that teach English and it would align with the approach taken in te reo decodables. Te Reo would be introduced immediately after the use of decodable stops which is typically end of Year 1 early Year 2 where students move on to journals.'
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Literacy experts say no problem with Māori words in book for learner readers
Te Aro School teacher Serah Mehrtens reads 'At the Marae' to her class. She says her pupils have not struggled with Māori words in the book. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen Literacy experts are challenging the Education Ministry's decision to discontinue a junior reading book that contains six Māori words . The ministry said it would not reprint 'At the Marae' in its small book or 'reader' version because it included a higher number of Māori words, "which present decoding challenges within the phonics sequence used in the series". "The primary challenge lies in the multisyllabic nature of many kupu Māori (e.g., karakia, wharenui), which have not yet been introduced at this stage of the series. Additionally, vowel sounds in these words differ from those specifically taught at this point, making them difficult for early readers to decode," it said. The ministry said the book would be reprinted in a large format for teachers to read with their classes. It said other books in the Ready to Read Phonics Plus series had Māori words and would continue to be printed as readers. "Given the high proportion of non-decodable words, At the Marae is best suited for shared reading. This informed the Ministry's decision to reprint it as a big book, supported by updated and expanded teacher guidance to ensure it continues to be a valuable resource in the classroom." The book's author, University of Canterbury senior lecturer in Māori education Jen Smith, said she was incredibly sad and disappointed because she wanted Māori children to see their culture reflected in their readers. "Te reo Māori was absent from my own literacy learning," she said. "And so I was thinking about all of the children that we've got out there, even though they're not learning in te reo Māori, still have a really unique relationship with it." The book was one of more than 75 in a series written specifically to help children learn to read through structured literacy - a sequential approach focused on matching sounds and letters. The books were written in tandem with Better Start, a structured literacy approach developed by Canterbury University and used by 1000 New Zealand schools Better Start's founder Gail Gillon said discontinuing the reader version of 'At the Marae' was a "very odd decision". "There's absolutely no evidence to suggest children are finding this reader confusing. And in fact, our data would suggest the opposite," she said. Professor Gillon said the reader's focus was on words with "st" such as stuck and step and while it had a few more Māori words than other readers, that should not present any problems. "There's absolutely no evidence that by introducing two or three more kupu Māori that reader is confusing children." Professor Gillon said it was important children saw themselves and their cultures in the readers. "It's just one reader within the series, and I think it would be a shame to to pull it from print. I know they're looking to keep it as a large picture book, but it's also really important that children are taking these little readers home and reading with their whanau," she said. University of Waikato linguistics senior lecturer Julie Barbour said Māori's writing system was one of the least problematic of any language. "There's nearly a perfect one-to-one relationship between sounds of speech and letters which are used to represent those sounds," she said. "So when children are being taught to decode words sound by sound, te reo Māori is not going to cause problems for those children because there is a consistent regular pattern of one symbol reflecting one speech sound." Barbour said the five Māori vowels matched five of the 12 English vowel sounds so that should not confuse children either. She said children already knew the Māori words in the reader such as kai and whare and it was appropriate they learned to read them. Barbour said close to one-fifth of the population identified as Māori and generations of Māori had been denied access to their language. "So having children's books that have a sprinkling of kupu Māori is really the entry point for servicing any kind of education system for Māori children, so absolutely from the outset we need Māori words," she said. Jennie Watts from structured literacy advocates, Lifting Literacy Aotearoa, said te reo was important. She said teachers needed to prepare learner readers for words in Māori. "It's important that the proportion of te reo Māori words that do turn up on the page is managed carefully so that the words can be taught first or children can be exposed to those words prior to being required to read the text themselves," she said. Watts said books with a higher proportion of Māori words had a higher "cognitive load", meaning learners would find them more complicated. She said children could cope with a small number of "non-decodable" words if they were explicitly taught about them beforehand. "It's the skill of the teacher that is crucial here. Highly-skilled teachers can deliver the right texts at the right time for maximum effect." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
