Coastwatcher children

A Last Secret 16

Taengeri cared for an old man nobody else much bothered about and she played a mouth organ. She had a couple of children but had not been married. That was fairly common on Maiana. It had always been and was unchanged by the preaching of the recently arrived Catholic Church. One of her five children was Tiare, Charlie Owen's daughter who ended up living with the Featherston camp guard, Jack Owen. Charles Owen was born in Onehunga, south Auckland, and the youngest of four sons of William and Annie Owen. At one stage his parents owned the Railway Hotel in Palmerston North. Charles was born with a harelip, a disfiguring feature in those days. It made Charles introspective while his protective older brothers shielded him from comment. The first brother was killed in the Great War and the second, Jack, was wounded. Like so many of his generation Charles found himself caught up in the depression. In 1933 he was breaking land near Rotorua.

‘A very fine bloke Charlie,’ said one of his friends, Spencer Coyle, ‘one of the bes.t’