1873: When Auckland Took Fright

February 17, 2024

By AHNZ

Today in history, 17 February, 1873: The Kaskowiski Hoax was perpetrated on the people of Auckland by the new editor of the Daily Southern Cross newspaper, David Luckie.

New Zealand is prone to periodic Russian Scares like this. Two others by 1885 led to significant investments in harbor defense forts like the one (image, left) at North Head in Auckland. Ref. 1878: Russian Scare, AHNZ

It happened again with the Sofinsky Affair and Vladimir Putin’s spy mission around 1980. And, in the 2020s Russia again went from being a valued trade partner to fearful boogieman as part of the mainstream virtue signalling around the war in the Ukrane.  Ref. 1979: From Sofinsky to Putin, AHNZ

Luckie’s hoax came at the public’s expense but did great things for his career. As a one-term MP for Nelson he had re-located to Auckland for the newspaper job which took him far from his electorate and from the capital city, Wellington. He did not seek re-election in 1875 and his skills, and the newspaper, were acquired in 1876 to become part of the New Zealand Herald.

The Maungatapu Murders in Nelson were Luckie’s big break in covering sensation and made him a nationally prominent. So, he knew how to leverage events into success using print media. In his ‘Cask of Whisky’/Kaskowiski hoax he boosted his profile and proved his value in the media world. It set him up for his post-parlaimentary and post Southern Cross career. I’ve noticed that the editors of student union magazines frequently do things like this too at the end of their run because they’ve graduated and hope to put such a stunt on their unofficial CV in a way that leads to employment in journalism. For example, Joel Macmanus did this when he left the Critic. And, Heather du Plessis-Allan also pulled a Luckie-like criminal stunt in 2015 when trying to get her show, Story, off with a bang. Allen, like Luckie, evaded prosecution by claiming that the deception was in the public interest. Ref. NZ Herald (2016)

Another speculative motive for what Luckie did was political. Calling attention to New Zealand’s defense vulnerabilities drew the finger of blame toward the Stafford Ministry. In a matter of weeks that Government fell to be replaced by the one Luckie was attached to- the horrible The Fox-Vogel Ministry.

“The paper’s editor, David Luckie, who was also the MP for Nelson, had been running the Southern Cross for just weeks and was no doubt keen to make his mark. ” – The day panicked Aucklanders hid treasure from fake-news Russian invaders, NZ Herald (2019)

“Some of the schools closed, citizens seized their guns and went-to the barracks, some old women started to bury their treasures, and men came riding hard from the outskirts to defend the town.” – Colonist (1914,) Papers Past

“New Zealand, with the rest ol the world, is astonished at Americans being thrown into panic by a radio version of one of H. G. Wells’s most highly imaginative novels, but New Zealanders’ grandfathers and grandmothers weie once frightened just as badly.” – Dominion (1938,) Papers Past

“At this moment we are under the complete domination of Russia, our own guns in our own man-of-war being pointed against the city, ready to be opened on us at any moment that the barbarous caprice of her captors may select. A domiciliary visitation to the to the office of this paper for daring to publish this narrative is what will probably have taken place ere these lines meet the eyes of our more distant readers. Duty to the public, however, demands that we set down the particulars of this terrible visitation…” – Daily Southern Cross (1873,) Papers Past

“Sir, — I wish you would not let that Southern Cross go and frighten our wives and children in the morning after we go to work when they get hold of a newspaper and read in it about the Russians and go half mad; they must want very bad to sell their paper, and if any of us working men take in the confounded paper again we ought to be kicked, as it is all humbug from beginning to end.” – Auckland Star (1873,) OOtago Taphophile

For his own ends, Luckie had caused genuine distress and harm to many hundreds of people. Schools closed and work stopped as an impromptu militia sprang into action to fight the imaginary phantoms and flush out the non-existent Davenport spy network. The Otago Witness printed that “Several women went into hysterics, and two premature deaths were caused by it.” Several ladies had husbands on the gold-carrying Wonga Wonga which Luckie specifically mentions as the next target. One had “violent hysterics and was very ill for the rest of the day and the mental healthy of several others suffered likewise. Auckland shops prepared for a siege.

Thanks to New Zealand’s culture of differential enforcement none of Luckie’s crimes came back on him. If you or I yelled “fire” in a crowded hall and alarmed people we’d be prosecuted for something. In 2022 Police arrested a man and charged him for obstruction just because he was walking along the same Wellington street behind them. Whereas, politicians and the media can pull of very and actually damaging stunts to further their own fame and income without any blow-back at all.

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Image ref. North Head harbor fort. AHNZ Archives (2018)

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