Ng King Bros Chinese Market Garden Settlement
A growing business
A rare example of an original twentieth-century Chinese market garden settlement site that reveals how Chinese migrants worked and lived together and found their place in the local community of Ashburton.
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The story
The 伍Ng men came to Aotearoa New Zealand from Toi Shan/Hoisan county to seek new opportunities and escape civil unrest. To enter New Zealand, they paid the required £100 Poll Tax, which was almost equivalent to an unskilled labourer’s annual wage in New Zealand at the time.
The 伍Ng men initially settled in Gore but in 1921 moved to Ashburton where they rented 2.3 hectares (5.7 acres) of land for market gardening. The Ng King settlement offered newly arrived men companionship, security and a welcoming place to work, eat, sleep, and learn about the New Zealand way of life. As the men saved money, they were able to send some home and even visit China to see family and get married. Once their wives and children were allowed to enter Aotearoa from the late 1930s, the settlement grew to over 80 people in the 1950s.
The King Bros business, which grew a huge variety of vegetables, became an indispensable part of the Ashburton economy. The family-operated vegetable and fruit shops supplied local hospitals, hotels and Ministry of Works camps, and filled farmers’ pantries on local ‘country runs’ around nearby rural districts.
While the family integrated into the local community through social events, attending the local schools and learning English, they also kept their Chinese culture alive and welcomed Chinese people from around Waitaha Canterbury to large communal dinners.
The 伍Ng descendants still own the settlement, but in 2013 they agreed to the Ashburton District Council managing the site as a public reserve.
See and do
The Ng King Bros Chinese Market Garden Settlement is set within extensive parkland, with several intersecting walkways. Many of the key buildings remain intact and provide a unique insight into life at this site. Look through the windows into sleeping spaces, the old shop, the laundry/bathroom, the kitchen and living areas. The self-reliant 伍Ng men constructed these buildings over time, as needed, with whatever materials they had at hand.
Look down into the Chinese pig oven situated to the east of the standing buildings. This is thought to be one of only a few remaining original Chinese pig ovens in Australasia.
Around the site are eight interpretation panels, full of family photos and stories that share what life was like in the settlement for the founding owners, their families and workers.
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