Captain with a cause

By Ruth Olsen

On March 22, 1860, Captain Martin Krippner arrived in Auckland on the ship Lord Burleigh with his wife, four children, his brother and the brother’s future wife, Elizabeth Turnwald and two other couples. He settled in Orewa where he was postmaster from 1861-1863. His house was almost opposite Orewa House facing the Nukumea stream and he acquired land that is now Eaves Bush, right down to the headland. When he put the property up for sale in 1865 it was described as having substantial outbuildings, stock (including 16 quiet dairy cows) with plenty of pigeon, snipe and pheasant shooting and an oyster bed within three minutes walk.

Born in Bohemia in 1817, Captain Krippner studied law at Prague University, joined the Austrian army in 1842 and rose to the rank of Captain. While he was in charge of a garrison in Frankfurt, Germany, he met English born Emily Longdall whom he married in 1851. For his services in Frankfurt he was knighted by King William I of Prussia with the order of Knight of the Red Eagle.

While living in Orewa, Captain Krippner devised a scheme to bring out migrants from his homeland. In June 1863 tempted by the promise of 40 acres per adult and 20 acres per child, 83 new immigrants arrived in Auckland on board the War Spirit. They were taken by cutter to the mouth of the Puhoi river and transported upstream by local Maori canoes. Puhoi in midwinter with only two nikau huts in the midst of deep bush to welcome them was no doubt a nasty shock. Life was tough and without the help and food provided by the local Maori population it is doubtful they would have survived.

Captain Krippner enlisted Puhoi settlers to fight in the Waikato Wars, and also helped establish a school andn Post Office at Puhoi. However by 1884 his charisma had dimmed and the locals petitioned for him to be removed from the school. They built the Krippners a house at Warkworth where he died in 1894 and was buried in the Warkworth cemetery.

Image: Captain Krippner’s cottage at Orewa in the late 1800s. Photo, Daniel Manders Beere. Reproduced with permission of Alexander Turnbull Library