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Genealogy Investigations, Wellington (2026)

20/02/2026

The Ōngarue rail disaster
The train driver saw it as he rounded the bend, just after 6:00am on the morning of 6 July 1923. A huge pile to earth and debris right across the tracks.
The southbound Auckland to Wellington express was descending through rough country near Ōngarue, just north of Taumarunui.
Alexander Stewart was at the controls. He was one of the most experienced drivers on the line.
As the engine came around a sharp curve he suddenly saw the track ahead was gone.
Instead a massive landslip — mud, rocks and trees — lay piled across the rails.
Stewart shut off steam immediately. The train was already running downhill under its own weight but before the brakes could fully bite, the locomotive hit the slip.
Hidden inside the mud was a huge boulder, about 1.25 metres across.
The cowcatcher pushed it forward for a short distance — only a few chains — before the sheer weight of it threw the engine off the rails.
The locomotive, tender and postal van derailed.
Behind them, the first three passenger carriages bore the full force of what followed. The second carriage smashed into and through the first.
Then the third carriage ploughed forward and rode up onto the wreckage, telescoping the carriages together.
A gas container beneath the third carriage burst into flames, adding fire to the chaos — though another fall of earth smothered it before it could spread.
Further back around the bend, passengers felt only violent shaking. Some slept through it. Windows shattered, but those carriages stayed upright.
At the front, the wreckage was tangled and crushed and survivors were trapped, pinned by timber and twisted steel.
Men from Ōngarue ran to the site.
Uninjured passengers climbed out and helped, pulling people free, cutting through wreckage where they could.
The engine driver and the fireman were both badly burned.
Two hundred passengers had been on the train. Among them was the 1923 New Zealand Māori rugby team.
Eleven people were killed instantly while six died later from their injuries.
Twenty-eight more were seriously injured.
It was the worst railway disaster New Zealand had known at the time — and the first major loss of life on the railways.
A board of inquiry later found the cause was heavy rain, which had loosened the hillside above the track.
The hidden boulder made escape impossible.
As a result, gas lighting in railway carriages was rapidly phased out in favour of electric lights.
Carriages were strengthened to reduce the chance of telescoping in future accidents.
Usually we finish with a grave - but there are too many to choose from here and out of respect we did not pick one - instead, only two years ago a new memorial was put up on the Ōngarue-Waimiha Road, near Taumarunui.
We love stories: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

13/02/2026

The Pacific pirate
It’s hard to separate fact from fiction in the life of William ‘Bully” Henry Hayes.
In some ways he is a larger than life figure who was considered a rogue, pirate, slaver, bigamist and notorious ship’s captain.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in America, his father Henry Hayes was a lumberjack but his mother is unknown.
He is believed to be a close relative of Rutherford Hayes who would go on to be President.
After learning to sail on the Great Lakes, William went into the navy serving in China but was dismissed returning to America to marry his first wife - Lucy in 1846.
He returned to sea - trading although his movements are not well known. It did taken him into the Pacific - where he would make his reputation
In 1857 - with no sign that he had divorced Lucy, he married again - Rosetta Collis in Adelaide in Australia on August 1. Just 25 days later he married Amelia Moffatt.
With hard times on him and facing bankruptcy he sailed on the Cincinatti to Otago where for a time he was part of the entertainment troupe, the Buckinghams and married one of them Rosetta Buckingham in 1862.
Together they opened a hotel, The Prince of Wales in Arrowtown but by then he had gained a reputation and the pair left for Nelson where Rosetta drowned in 1864.
He married Emily Butler the following year in Christchurch.
He had become a sort of latter day pirate, convincing people to go into business with him, partnering to get a ship, and then he would sail away and the other party would never see him again.
He most often traded in copra and coconut oil but was also known for blackbirding - kidnapping people who were then taken into slavery on the plantations in Fiji.
Hayes would go to one of the Pacific Islands, offering a sort of work and passage often to nearby islands only to get them on board and head for Fiji.
It led to an enquiry by the British Consul in Apia but before anything came of it, Hayes managed to get himself on to the brig Pioneer under a pretence of checking the chronographs and with the help of another rogue sailor Ben Pearse, sailed off.
When Pearse was arrested in Hong Kong, Hayes took the ship, renamed it the Leonora and took off, only to be shipwrecked for six months before. Rescue came in the form of three ships, and one of them was the Rosario of the British Navy whose captain was persuaded to take Hayes to Sydney - Hayes again sailed off, this time in a small boat and made for Guam where he ended up in prison anyway.
In true Hayes style, he offered to captain a yacht to the Pacific Islands for a man only to leave him behind and sail with the man’s wife.
On board was a man called Dutch Pete - a cook and part time seaman who did not like Hayes and one night, after being taken to task by Hayes for his steering, took a piece of wood and smashed Hayes over the head with it, killing him on March 31, 1877. They were near the Marshall Islands at the time.
While there is some suggestion that Hayes was buried in Hawaii - most reports have him “buried at sea” - that is, his body was put overboard.’
As for his nickname - he was often called a bully - and was considered a cruel man, it in fact came from Bulli - a Samoan word for elusive - which he certainly was for most of his career.
Stories we love: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

06/02/2026

The father of curling
As the winter olympics takes over news and our screens, one of the sports that is oddly thrilling is curling.
The slide of the heavy granite stones toward the target or house and the shouting as brooms are used to sweep the ice.. Think of it as lawn bowls colder, louder and more tactical cousin.
Curling was brought to New Zealand by Scottish immigrants in the 1860s - in the South Island where there were places it could be played.
In fact the Baxter Cup was the second oldest sporting trophy in New Zealand. The oldest was the Ballinger Belt for rifle shooting.
Curling might have stayed one of those things that was a regional oddity except for Thomas Callender - often called the father of curling in New Zealand.
Thomas was born on January 25, in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland to Thomas and Margaret.
He worked originally for his father at a tannery then became an accountant and married Jane Baird in 1850. By 1863 they had found children and boarded the Sir Willima Eyre for the trip to New Zealand, landing in Bluff and setting up home in Dunedin.
He worked for a local firm before starting his own accountancy company. He was well respected and often called upon to be an auditor and liquidator.
Jane had another child the year after they arrived but in 1867 died in childbirth.
Thomas set up the Dunedin Curling Club in 1873. The New Zealand Association of Curling was set up in 1886.
He was also a keen bowler and is also credited with bringing that sport to New Zealand. He was considered a life member of several clubs he was influential in starting.
He was also noted as being a great collector of books and his collection was said to have historical significance.
Callender acted as auditor for the National Insurance company, the Westport Coal company, the “Otago Dally Times” company, the Kaitangata Railway and Coal company, the New Zealand Hardware company, McLeod Bros. Ltd., the Roslyn Tramway company, the Dunedin Sale-yards company, the Farmers' Agency company, the Perpetual Trustees, Executors and Agency company, and a good many mining companies, and was secretary to the “Moonlight” Sluicing Company, Ltd and was also a freemason.
There was an initial rush of curling clubs around the Otago region but it died away as the remoter areas that had suitable sites were hard to get to. It began to regain popularity as cars became common and travel was easier.
Today New Zealand is one of the few places that still has traditional ‘crampit’ curling - played outside as well as indoor curling rinks.
Unfortunately New Zealand’s team did not qualify for the curling event but there are 30 other countries on the roster.
Callender died in July 8, 1902 aged 77 and is buried in Dunedin’s Southern Cemetery
NOTE: We have altered our posting schedule. We originally started as a way to highlight our research skills but it seems we are victims of our own success. As work gets busier Fran and I have less time to do this - so we are cutting our stories back to once a week.
See more on https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

30/01/2026

The long distance flyer
New Zealand once stood at the very edge of the known aviation world, and one of the men who helped pull it closer to the rest of the globe vanished while doing just that.
In January 1938, Edwin Charles Musick disappeared over the Pacific while flying the Samoan Clipper on a survey flight returning from Auckland, New Zealand. The loss shocked the country. Musick was not just another pilot – he was the face of long-distance flying, and the man who had helped end New Zealand’s isolation from the air.
Musick was born in St Louis, Missouri, on August 13, 1894, the son of a hardware merchant. His family moved to California when he was nine, and from an early age he became obsessed with machines, engines, and flight. By his teens he was building aircraft of his own, often with more enthusiasm than success. He learned to fly properly before he finished school and quickly turned aviation into a career.
During the First World War, Musick served as a civilian flying instructor for the US Army Air Corps, training pilots in several states. After the war he flew for a number of early airlines, gaining experience in navigation and long-distance routes at a time when aviation was still experimental and dangerous.
By the late 1920s he had joined Pan American Airways, just as the company was beginning to imagine routes that crossed oceans rather than coastlines.
Musick rose rapidly. He became Pan Am’s chief pilot for its Caribbean division and then its most trusted long-distance flyer. In the mid-1930s he flew the Sikorsky flying boats.
He set ten world records and commanded the historic China Clipper on its inaugural Pacific crossing, instantly becoming one of the most famous pilots on the planet.
For New Zealand, however, his most important flight came in 1937. At the time, Britain and Australia were reluctant to allow Pan Am access to their airspace, but New Zealand broke ranks. On March 29, 1937, Musick flew into Auckland Harbour aboard a Pan Am flying boat, completing a survey route that proved trans-Pacific air travel was possible. Around 30,000 New Zealanders turned out to welcome him – an extraordinary crowd for the time. Known for his brevity, Musick addressed them with just five words: “We are glad to be here.”
That flight marked the beginning of New Zealand’s place in global commercial aviation.
Later that year, Musick completed the first experimental flight from New Zealand back to the United States.
Then, on January 11, 1938, he departed Pago Pago on another survey mission connected to the New Zealand route. Shortly after take-off he reported an oil leak and began preparations to return. His final radio message said the crew were dumping fuel to lighten the aircraft.
Wreckage was found, but no bodies were ever recovered.
At the time of his death, Musick was arguably the world’s most famous pilot. He had appeared on the cover of Time magazine and was mourned internationally. For New Zealand, his legacy was lasting. He had helped prove the country was no longer unreachable – and paid for it with his life.
He is of course lost at sea.
See more of our stories: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

27/01/2026

What’s in a name?
Like any other country New Zealand has plenty of names that are…well…odd. And it appears we’re bluntly honest.
We also have a habit of naming things in a way that's…hilarious.
So there are quite a number of knobs…Colonial K**b is the most famous but there is also Bald K**b, Nervous K**b, Philosophers K**b, Power K**b, Scotts K**b, Richards K**b, Jims K**b and Bobs K**b to name just a few. The ones with names are supposedly named after the person who discovered them. That probably doesn’t apply to Devils K**b in Nelson though.
We also apply descriptive names to coastal areas - which likely started because James Cook had no compunction about naming areas after his experiences - like the gales at Cape Foulwind on the West Coast, or Cape Kidnappers where the crew believed a Maori boy was kidnapped, or Poverty Bay where he was unable to reprovision the ship.
Our frustration with hard journeys is also evident - in particular mountains came in for rough names - 19 of them are called Mount Misery then there is Mount Awful, Mount Dreadful and Mount Damfool. There is also Mount Alarm and one called The Footstool.
Streams came in for more than their fair share of odd names - Doggies, Hambone, Ghost, Lonesome, Negative, Stinking and Frying Pan to name just a few.
There’s also a bunch of useless - Useless Bay, called that because its shallowness meant ships could not use it, Useless Islands and Useless Lake.
And who hasn’t had a giggle at S**g Point or S**ggery Gully or Amazons Breasts?
Then some names were changed - Lumsden used to be called Elbow. We know the name Bulls but it was originally Bull’s Town, where it was once said to be the only place where you can get milk from Bulls, Featherston (named for one of the founding settlers of Wellington) used to be called Burlings and Hastings was Hicksville.
Woodville was originally just called The Junction - which is kind of ironic even now when it is the meeting place between state highways between the Manawatu and Central Hawke’s Bay.
Judges Bay in Auckland once carried the grander name of Judicial Bay - but why it was changed is unclear.
The Hen and Chicken islands got its name because it looked like a hen with a brood following her,
Some names happened because of who lived there - Mechanics Bay in Auckland was literally a community of mechanics - both practical and artisan.
Arthurs Pass township is named for Arthur Dudley Dobson.
Then there’s Blowhard track, Breast creek, Cleopatra’s pool, Crooked Arm, Deadman’s point, Dumbbell Lake, Isolated Saddle, the Mounds of Misery, Ugly River and Three o’clock stream.
Sometimes places got the same name - Havelock in Nelson was named for a hero of the Indian mutiny - Sir Henry Havelock - and when Havelock North out of Hastings got its name from the same source, they tacked north on the end.
John Turnbull Thomson named more things than most people. Born in 1821 to Alexander and Janet in Northumberland, England, he studied mathematics and engineering and worked as a surveyor.
When he came to New Zealand in 1856 he was offered the job of chief surveyor in Otago. It was there he named Lindis Pass, named after Lindisfarne Island near his home. He named Mt Aspiring and Mt Pisa; Mt Earnslaw he named later, after his grandfather's farm. Many other features such as the Twizel River, Cardrona River and Mt St Bathans he also named after places in his homeland. As a result of his survey the first map of the interior of Otago was published in 1860.
Thomson married Jane Williamson on October 7, 1858 and they had nine daughters.
He died on October 16, 1884 and is buried in St John’s Cemetery in Invercargill, a town he helped plan.
Stories of New Zealand: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

23/01/2026

The Compleat Golfer
Few golfers dominated New Zealand amateur golf for as long as Arthur Donald Stuart Duncan.
Admired for his immaculate style, his courtesy, and his seemingly effortless mastery with the irons, he became a figure generations of golfers looked up to. Yet his story began far from the fairways where he made his name.
Arthur Donald Stuart Duncan was born in Colombo, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, in August 1875, the son of merchant John Duncan and Emily Georgina Duncan.
The family came to New Zealand in 1881 with his parents, two brothers and two sisters and settled first in Te Puke before moving to Wellington when his father became manager—and later a partner—of Levin and Company.
Arthur attended Wanganui Collegiate School, where his sporting ability was obvious from the start. He won the senior swimming and athletic championships, captained the First XI cricket team, and was a member of the rugby First XV. In his first year out of school he represented Wellington in both rugby and cricket.
But it was golf that would make him a legend.
Duncan won the New Zealand amateur golf championship 10 times between 1899 and 1926, a record that still stands as one of the greatest periods of dominance in any New Zealand sport.
He also won the New Zealand Open Championship three times—1907, 1910 and 1911—and remained a formidable competitor well into later life.
In 1935, in his sixtieth year, he finished third in the Open and was the leading amateur, a feat unmatched before or since.
At club level he was just as unstoppable: 23 Wellington Golf Club championships, six at Miramar, and four at Hutt. He played in New Zealand’s first international golf team in 1927 and was selected again in 1930 and 1935.
Duncan was admired not just for his skill but for the way he played. Known as “the compleat golfer”, he had a smooth, rhythmic swing and mastery along with his immaculate dress and manner and was famous for his courtesy on and off the course.
He was captain of the Wellington Golf Club three times, president twice, and served on the New Zealand Golf Association council, becoming its president in 1950. He believed firmly in giving back to the sport that had given him so much.
Outside golf, Duncan enjoyed a successful business career with Levin and Company.
He married Alice Marguerite Featherston Johnston in Wellington in 1902, and the couple raised two daughters.
When he died the tributes poured in. He died at his Wellington home on March 10,1951 and is buried at Karori Cemetery.
He was inducted into the New Zealand Golf Hall of Fame as one of the true greats of the game in 2015.
Picture by Matt Aylward.
New Zealand yarns: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

20/01/2026

An accidental New Year’s shooting
Welcome back for another year of stories about New Zealand.
New Year celebrations happen all over the globe and in many different ways. In Brazil there are beach parties and jump over seven waves for good luck, in Japan the eating of a particular type of noodles for a long life or in Romania where effigies are burned.
And some fire guns into the air.
It’s a practice that is widely discouraged.
It ended Agnes Sunderland’s life in 1924 although because a gun exploded on being fired.
Eric and Agnes Sunderland (nee Porteous) lived in Carey’s Bay, Port Chalmers. It’s a little place, mostly known for being named after the Carey family that settled the area and then discovering gold.
There was a New Year’s Eve celebration with several people attending including Charles Stevenson who had come at Eric’s invitation.
Many rural households had guns. It would have been a rare home that did not in rural areas.
On Eric’s suggestion Charles took a .303 Lee-Enfield rifle and fired it into the year. He was experienced with guns.
But when he did, some fault in the rifle caused it to explode and injured both Charles and Agnes.
Agnes who was 25 years old received a nasty wound to the chest and Charles in the neck and face.
Both were quickly taken to hospital and Charles was treated and discharged.
But Agnes was very badly injured, critically so with a large wound on the left side of her chest and doctors tried for days to help her but she slowly sunk away. She died on January 14.
A post mortem found there her left lung had been reduced to a pulp, having been torn to shreds by metal and a piece of metal had lodged in her heart.
Eric told the inquest that he had partly cleaned the gun only a few days before after firing it when it was working perfectly.
The night of New Year’s Eve Charles had loaded the gun.
After it exploded the gun was examined and found the breech had burst but how it happened was not clear.
A gunsmith called to give evidence believed that the bolt head was loose.
Coroner mentioned the folly of using live ammunition but said it was a pure accident and returned a verdict of accidental death.
Agnes is buried in Port Chalmers Cemetery.
Picture by Thomas Tucker.
We love stories: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

16/01/2026

Welcome back to another year of stories about the weird, the heroes, and people who made up the history of New Zealand. We’ll begin next week.
A New Year brings us the opportunity of new beginnings. New Year resolutions are often made with great intentions but just as often end up being lost in the rush of the year.
So here at Genealogy Investigations we don’t make them. After all, if we really intend to change, it’s not done because there is a particular day involved.
But what if change doesn’t have to be a big thing? What if instead it's a lot of little things.
Last year we started a project that lasted all year. It was just a bunch of little things. Little toys to be exact.
Each time we saw a soft toy in good condition at an op shop, we got it. There were some rules. Nothing that needed mending and nothing that couldn’t be cleaned.
Each one was then frozen (to kill bugs) thoroughly washed along with a disinfectant then dried before being given to a special shop for pre-loved toys to go to parents in need.
Life is busy and sometimes crazy so we needed a project that fit some criteria - it wouldn’t be a burden (even if the pile got a bit out of control), we could do it alongside everything else and it would make a difference. Then we handed them over to a charity to be handed out.
Somewhere on Christmas Day a kid who didn’t have much opened a present of a new fluffy friend.
We told no one and did not ask to be recognised. That was the point. We did it because we wanted to and it fitted one of our other goals - keeping things out of landfills and being green.
So why are we telling you this now? Only to show that a little thing can mean a lot.
Now we are considering our next project and looking forward to finding a way to make a difference.
No matter how you are starting your year, all the best to you and your family.
Join us next week for another story.
See us here: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

24/12/2025

From Fran, Deb and Cricket as Genealogy Investigations, we wish everyone a wonderful holiday break and Happy New Year. For all of you travelling, stay safe and join us in the New Year for more stories about murder, the strange, the heroic and historic. Thank you for taking the time to read in the last year.

19/12/2025

The Christmas murder that changed New Zealand law
Captain Alfred Albert Cash was well respected. For years he had helmed the ships of the Kaipara Steamship Company which served the Dargaville-Helensville run in the timber trade for years.
Cash had been born in London in 1873, to Martin and Ann Cash who brought him to New Zealand as an infant.
In 1892 he married Charlotte Sarah Cox - called Sarah.
And for a time they were happy.
Then Cash became unwell and was forced to leave the job he loved. He had what was called then consumption - what we now call tuberculosis.
Between them Alfred and Sarah ran a 14 room boarding house in Helensville.
On Christmas Day 1910 Sarah’s family was visiting. In the late afternoon Alfred told Sarah he was going into town the next morning as she went up to their bedroom.
A short time later Sarah’s sister found her in the bedroom clutching her throat which had been cut by Alfred with a razor.
He was arrested and brought to trial where his lawyer said he was insane at the time of the murder and had not known what he was doing. Doctors were called to give evidence but did not agree on Alfred’s state of mind although they thought his slowly progressing disease was affecting his mind.
Alfred had believed Sarah was having an affair. It was in fact not the first time he had threatened to take Sarah’s life and intended to then take his own.
The jury took less than four hours to find him guilty. The judge sentenced him to death.
Within days that sentence was commuted to a life sentence.
Which would have been the end of the story if it wasn’t for a little sequel.
A few months later the Public Trust brought a case to the Supreme Court - Alfred wanted his wife’s estate.
Sarah had died intestate - without a will - and Public Trust had been asked to administer it.
In other words, should a murderer inherit his victim’s estate?
Mr Justice Frederick Revans Chapman then gave a decision that is still with us - that Cash could not benefit from the murder he himself had committed.
None of it helped Alfred who died of the disease he had suffered from for years in 1913. His last few months had been spent in a hospital.
He is buried in Waikumete Cemetery.
Sarah is buried in the Helensville Cemetery.
This is our last story of the year. We want to wish you all well, happy holidays and safe journey if you are travelling. We’ll be back in the New Year with more.
See what we do: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

16/12/2025

Pies, bullets and exploding cows
If all John Pomeroy was known for was his delicious pies, that would be enough. After all, we love our pies.
But in fact Pomeroy is known for bullets - exploding bullets.
Pomeroy was born in Invercargill on August 17, 1873, and was an inventor from the age of 12 when he designed a non-slip clothes prop and sold the invention to a local engineering shop.
His father was a ship’s carpenter and fish merchant and for a while he worked on his father’s fleet of trawlers before signing on with a ship to sail the world.
He came back to New Zealand, marrying Mary in 1903 but the marriage did not last long.
He began inventing again while living on his Southland farm and later when he was living in Melbourne where he married again to Amy Blom.
Among his creations were a hat fastener, a process for removing bitterness out of oranges, a headlamp dimmer and a painless rabbit trap. Some even bought in money, his elixir of life got him £25,000 in the United States of America in 1919.
Some, however, never went anywhere, one was pneumatic leg-guards for cricketers which, when tested in Melbourne, sent every fast ball to the boundary.
But the design that carried his name was for explosive bullets used in the first and second World Wars.
The first one was in 1902 was rumoured to have been used on cows as test subjects. Apparently the cow was blown to bits.
The bullet was a standard round with a copper tube warhead inserted and inside that was an explosive compound of nitro-glycerine and kieselguhr - a porous earth clay - which makes dynamite.
He got so little interest in New Zealand that later, after he had left for Australia, he submitted it to the British War office. After a slow start he was asked to develop his design and with new ammunition, proved their effectiveness against Zeppelins.
After the war the British government granted Pomeroy £25,000 in royalties and he was offered a knighthood which he refused.
By the time of the Second World War he had designed a new anti-aircraft incendiary shell but got little response.
He told it to China and then the United States.
Despite the bullet's success he really earned his income from owning hotels in Melbourne and then establishing a pie cart drawn by a white horse that became a local landmark.
Pomeroy himself let down the counter flaps each night and sold pies, pasties, coffee, steak and kidney on toast and plates of peas until early morning and was known to all as Pop.
He died of cancer on August 21, 1950 and was cremated at Springvale Botanical Cemetery.
We love stories: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

12/12/2025

The mail order man
Catalogues used to be all the rage. They arrived in the mail and housewives all over the country sat down with a cup of tea to look at the goods.
In some cases it was the only way to get some items and you could even buy a house by mail order.
The first mail order catalogue in New Zealand was started by Robert Laidlaw in October 1909.
Two years before he had picked up a catalogue by American company Montgomery Ward and decided it was a great idea.
He founded a company Laidlaw Leeds and created the catalogue which was then sent out to 5000 households. It included remarkable bargains like men’s denims for what would be about $7.25.
The very first order he received was for wire netting. In the first year his sales were £26,000 - over $1-million in today’s money.
Within a year he had a warehouse and a second catalogue was put out - with 280 pages.
Among the innovations he used was a money back guarantee. By 1918 he had put out ninth catalogue.
It was then the Farmers Union Trading Company made an offer to buy the catalogue and the two companies merged to become the Farmers Trading Company - which is still in business today.
Robert Alexander Crookson Laidlaw was born on September 8, 1885, to Robert and Jessie who came to New Zealand from Scotland a year later. His father started a hosiery business and then a hardware business.
He was raised Open Brethren and studied in Otago. The family moved to Auckland and Robert became a travelling salesman in Southland and Otago.
He later moved to Auckland himself where he founded his mail order catalogue business.
He married Lillian in 1915 and they went on to have three children.
The catalogue was not the only thing he did by mail order. In 1938 he founded, along with James Rowan, the Postal Sunday School Movement Bible Discovery Trust.
Rowan had done something similar but after six months they decided to merge the two operations.
PSSM was founded on the same idea of the mail order catalogue. Laidlaw used the mail order catalogue system to send 'Sunday school' lessons to children in these rural areas, thus creating the "Postal Sunday School Movement." This continued via post until 2011 when it was transferred to an email based system. At its peak, there were 9,000 subscribers in New Zealand and another 3,000 overseas. Countries served include Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Samoa.
He remained active in business and Christian work until his death in Auckland on March 12, 1971 and is buried in Purewa Cemetery.
The stories of New Zealand people: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

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