Lighting fire with the kerosene tin
On a Wednesday morning in early March 1925 Elizabeth Collins saw that her fire needed reviving and stopped to attend to it.
The busy 35-year-old mother of two was a widow who had kept a store at Piopio for several years. As was her custom Elizabeth picked up a can of kerosene and poured some on the fire to coax it along. But this time Elizabeth had accidentally picked up a tin of the far more flammable benzine. A violent explosion followed and Elizabeth’s clothing caught fire.
Her two sons, seven and 11, ran to a neighbours for help. When he arrived, there was not much he could do and a doctor was summoned. Elizabeth was taken to a private hospital, but died from burns and shock at 11pm. The force of the explosion was illustrated by the fact that the benzine tin was blown to fragments.
Elizabeth was popular and respected and her tragic end cast a gloom over the whole district around Piopio. She had been born in England and at the age of 24 immigrated to New Zealand on board the Dorset which carried 188 immigrants, a large number being farmhands, tradesmen and domestic servants. The domestics, of whom Elizabeth was one, came out under the care of a matron.
“All appear to be of the best type of immigrant,” observed a newspaper. The tedium of the long trip had been relieved by concerts, dances, and games and the passengers spoke very highly of the way they were looked after by the officers. The passengers were eager to learn if there was plenty of employment and which was the best town in which to remain.
A year after her arrival Elizabeth married Scotsman William Collins. William, from Glasgow, had immigrated two years previously on the Corinthic, his occupation being a grocer.
William and Elizabeth lived at Te Kūiti for a time and had two sons. William’s brothers were also grocers and had set up shop in Te Kūiti. Around 1917 William went into partnership with Mr Powell running a store at Piopio. William was well thought of in the district but ran foul of regulations in 1919 when he was charged with selling five pounds of blasting powder without a license and with failing to keep a book recording sales of explosives. He was fined for this as well as for keeping his shop open on Saturday, a statutory half-holiday.
In July 1921, William, who had suffered from chest troubles, was confined to his house for over a week with a heavy cold. He went to convalesce with his mother at the Esplanade, Te Kūiti. But after three months of illness 31-year-old William died, leaving Elizabeth with the two children aged four and six. A large number of mourners from Te Kūiti and Piopio attended the funeral.
For the next six years Elizabeth carried on with the store and raising the children until the day she mistook the benzine for kerosene.
Elizabeth and William are buried at Te Kūiti old cemetery.
A maid lighting the fire with the kerosene. One of a series of photographs highlighting hazards around the home in the 1900s.
