Latest news with #GisborneSuffrage
NZ Herald
05-05-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Memorial unveiled for Gisborne suffragist Agnes Scott at Taruheru Cemetery
Group director operations at Gisborne Hospital John Swiatczak focused on the health emphasis to Scott's compassionate work and her role as the first woman elected to the hospital board in Gisborne. Historian Jean Johnston said it was wonderful to commemorate someone who had been a formidable force in Gisborne but had been forgotten in the history of Tairāwhiti and lay in an unmarked grave in Taruheru cemetery. Johnston featured Scott in her book Ambitious Gisborne Women – The organisations they established and their impact on Tairawhiti 1875-1929 and had discovered her unmarked grave while carrying out research. It was the book that had prompted the idea to create the memorial headstone and the fundraising committee was formed to make it happen. The gathering began at Stonehaven on Nelson Rd, where people were given a service sheet and then followed piper Robert Hunter from the Gisborne Highland Pipe Band to the graveside. Dame Ingrid Collins and Swiatczak removed the tartan fabric that covered the headstone, unveiling the memorial. The ceremony finished with the singing of Te Whakaaria Mai, How Great Thou Art. A Scottish-themed afternoon tea was provided by the Gisborne Women's Institute before the unveiling ceremony. Scott was the first woman elected to the Cook Hospital Board 100 years ago. The former nurse was also part of the Gisborne Women's Political Association, secretary of the Cook County Woman's Guild and a trustee of the town's first children's creche, which was later named the Heni Materoa Children's Home. Her name and address can be found on the 1892 Gisborne Suffrage petition, which 220 local women signed. A strategic political worker in support of the liberal cause, she joined forces with and supported Margaret Home Sievwright when she addressed more than 200 women prior to Gisborne women voting for the first time in the parliamentary elections on November 28, 1893. Her catchphrase to any visiting politician was 'just push us forward'.
NZ Herald
29-04-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Honouring a Gisborne pioneer: Headstone for first woman on Cook Hospital Board
About 1.45pm on Sunday, a procession will make its way to Agnes and Francis Scott's graveside led by a piper from the Gisborne Highland Pipe Band. This will be followed by a ceremony led by hospital chaplain Rev Patsy Ngata-Hills, which will emphasise Agnes Scott's compassionate contribution to Tairāwhiti, and the memorial headstone will be unveiled. The committee said it was grateful for the help of John Swiatsczak – group director operations at Gisborne Hospital – in the event arrangements. One hundred years ago, at the end of April 1925, the Poverty Bay Herald printed Borough Council and Hospital Board results announcing that for the first time there would be a woman member on the Cook Hospital Board. Agnes Scott had determinedly sought election since 1910, along with other women candidates over this 15-year period. In 1886, nurse Agnes Murray became one of the first nurses appointed by the newly established Cook Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. She nursed under Matron Miss Guilbride in Gisborne's first general hospital built in the area of Aberdeen and Roebuck roads near the Taruheru River. Her marriage to blacksmith Francis Scott followed in 1887 and the couple made their home at Kaiti Beach, near his employment in Kaiti freezing works. Agnes Scott's name and her address, Freezing Works, can be found on the 1892 Gisborne Suffrage petition which 220 local women signed. From this time onward she had roles in the Gisborne Women's Political Association and as secretary of the Cook County Woman's Guild where she was one of the promoters of the town's first children's creche that was later named the Heni Materoa Children's Home. Having no children of her own, she was a trustee for the remainder of her life. Her signature was on the parchment of the Townley Maternity Home erected by the Cook County Woman's Guild in 1910 in Childers Rd and later discovered in a time capsule buried on the site. A strategic political worker in support of the liberal cause, she joined forces with and supported Margaret Home Sievwright when she addressed more than 200 women prior to Gisborne women voting for the first time in the parliamentary elections on November 28, 1893. Her catchphrase to any visiting politician was 'just push us forward'. In her obituary in the Poverty Bay Herald of December 17, 1931, Agnes Scott was acknowledged as an 'earnest social worker' and as the first woman member of the Cook Hospital board. Having been re-elected, she was still in office when she died.
