During the late 1990?s Margo Robinson was searching for Jackson Street premises to use for workshops on meditation and relaxation, but what she found was otherworldly. City Councillor Barbara Branch, who at the time was the Jackson Street Programme Coordinator, told Ms Robinson she could use the old police station office space. ?On the day of my first workshop I arranged the chairs and tables for 10 people, cleansed the space with sacred sage, as you do, and the scene was set. ?An afterthought struck me to ?feel out? the Jail House, just in case there was any negativity that might transfer itself into the office and the participants within,? says Ms Robinson. At the time she was running a Health Clinic and her life in general was ?rush, rush in those days?. ?So I quickly popped into the Jail House building just to make sure everything was all right. ?Well, what a surprise and fright I got ? on entering the front door and walking into the first cell I felt someone/something thump me in the chest,? she says. Barbara Branch was standing behind her and asked, ?Are you OK??, because Ms Robinson was physically pushed into her. ?I pretended all was well, and we moved along to the second cell, I got a similar reaction but not quite as forceful. In my mind?s eye I saw a big Maori man who looked very angry,? Ms Robinson says. She then undertook a quick cleansing to protect her meditation workshop. Evidently the first evening went off without any negative spirits entering the main room. First Petone Policeman double take Steven Hanna was taken aback when he read the last Petone Herald?s (October 21) front page article titled, ?Story of first Petone Policeman becomes folklore for family?. In the article Moera resident Basil Duncan talks about the first Petone policeman?s young daughter being abducted by Maori and then rescued. ?I got a bit of a kick out of it, because I was told the same story of how the child was taken as an infant. ?The story is almost identical, but in our one the Maori bring the little girl back. ?When they were asked why they had taken her, they said it was because they had never seen a white baby before,? says Mr Hanna. He says the child in the story is Sarah-Anne Wright, one of James Weight?s thirteen children. James Weight is recorded at the Petone Settlers Museum as arriving on the Martha Ridgway settler ship on 21 November 1840. The fable is confirmed in Mr Hanna?s ?fat family bible? that depicts James Wright as one of Petone?s first constables, and recounts the adduction tale. ?James Wright is recorded in the book as being a part-time constable, in charge of preventing the supply of alcohol, guns and ammunition to local Maori tribes,? says Mr Hanna. James Wright is Mr Hanna?s great great great Grandfather and a descendent from his mother?s lineage. ?The first Policemen was not a Duncan, he was a Wright,? says Mr Hanna. He says the girl from Mr Duncan?s story couldn?t have been his grandmother because Sarah-Anne Wright died at four years of age in 1842. As a Petone resident for the past 15 years, Mr Hanna has always felt certain nostalgia for his family?s folklore regarding the story of the kidnapped girl.
