Return & Departure Gold Fobs

Lot 954    Day 1    Return & Departure Gold Fobs

Estimate $600
Bid at live.noble.com.au

OHOKA, handcrafted in gold (9ct, 8.46g, 24.5x28mm), no maker, scroll and ring top suspension, obverse inscribed 'CAF', reverse inscribed 'To/Chaplain Major Fraer/From/Ohoka Residents/European War/1914-19'. Good very fine.

Chaplain Major C.Fraer was temporarily attached to the NZEF. In June 1915 it was reported in the New Zealand press that Rev. C.Fraer who was in Egypt had not recovered health as well as hoped. However, it was thought that he would go to Malta to see the Maori contingent before they go to the front. He was highly regarded by the Maoris and while he was overseas his wife, the daughter of Sir George McLean of Dunedin, was contininuing to work amongst the Maoris at the Kaiapoi Pa and throughout the district.^^Reverend and Mrs Fraer were instrumental in converting the old vicarage at Ohoka into a college for Maori girls under the title of 'Waipounamu' which means in Maori, 'South Island' or as they refer to it 'Water of greenstone'.^^Chaplain Major C.Fraer was invalided home arriving in New Zealand in late September 1916.