SUMMARY

CHAN AH CHEE (1853 -1931) was a very successful Chinese business-man in Colonial Auckland

In the mid 1870s in Auckland there were less than 50 Chinese men and initially worked as labourers.
They would have met and talked talk about hardships
and starting their own business.

CHAN Ah Chee was born in 1853 in Mook Ngou

Deng village near Dong Guan city, Canton, China.
He & two brothers were sailing on-route to Australia
and arrived in Auckland in 1876, one brother
returned to China. Chan Ah Chee and his brother
stayed in Auckland where Chan Ah Chee became
known as AH CHEE.

Ah Chee probably hawked vegetables around Auckland

township but soon he had workers on his market garden
Tanyards Gully in lower Parnell. He became a leader and
helped his clan-men to travel to & find work in Auckland.
"The Tanyard Gully gardens, a detail from George Treacy Stevens 1886, birds eye view of
Auckland, NZ Map 374, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries"

Working and living in Auckland 1880 to 1920s: From

the 1880s to 1920 Ah Chee and other Chinese
businessmen gave generously to charities i.e. Red Cross, Hospital and war-relief raising, Jubilee
celebrations. Ah Chee and others became leaders of their clanmen by helping them in many ways ie
paying the Poll Tax when they arrived in NZ, provided accomodation etc until they travelled further or
found work, provided work where possible at one of their market gardens or shops, Ah Chee etc also
acted as their translators in court, hospital etc and acted as a postal centre, helped with remittances to
the clan-members family in Canton etc and travel back to visit their family in Canton etc

1882 Ah Chee was naturalised & easily adapted to the social life in thriving colonial Auckland and was
friends with both Chinese and Auckland businessmen. Soon Ah Chee he started his first shop in Queen
St and after his marriage he expanded into Dining rooms, boarding house, marine store, Wakefield St
shop selling Chinese goods

January 21st 1886 Ah Chee married Miss JOONG, who had come to Auckland from Canton & he invited
business-friends, fellow Chinese friends etc to the celebrations. This marriage was widely reported in
newspapers around NZ being the first Chinese wedding in Auckland as previously Chinese men had
married local European women in NZ. Mr & Mrs Ah Chee lived in lower Parnell & Mechanics Bay & in
became part of Aucklands social, sporting and cultural life. 1894 they hosted an afternoon tea for the
Governor of NZs wife. Their sons George, William, Clement & Arthur were born 1888, 1889, 1892 &
1895 they were educated at Seddon Memorial school in Auckland & also educated in Chinese. Mrs Ah
Chee became a devout Christian and they attended St Lukes Presbyterian Church in Remuera

In 1894 his nephew CHAN Ying-Kew (known as Sai Louie) arrived in Auckland from Canton to
help and helped Ah Chees business to expand

Marriages: 1905 Chan Ying Kew and William Ah Chee went to China and married in Canton and Hong
Kong respectively. 1908 Clement married in Canton. In the late 1910s Arthur went to Canton, married and
stayed in China.

Ah Chee & Co had market gardens in Parnell, Epsom, Avondale

and Patumahoe and employed many clansmen and new migrants
from China and in its time was the largest supplier of vegetables to
the City Markets, hotels and shipping companies. It main fruit-shop
was in Queen St with a branch fruitshop in Broadway Newmarket.
Ah Chee and Co was held in high regard as was prominent in
importing bananas from Fiji and supplied the Auckland market, its
Fiji plantation supplied stem-ginger for Ah Chees Auckland factory to
process and exported ginger to China, it imported oranges,
pineapples, eggs etc to sell in its shops and supply the Auckland
market, it was one of NZs largest exporters of edible fungus to China

(c. 1890s James D, Richardson, 4-284 Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland City Libraries)

From 1880 to the 1910s Ah Chee managed Ah Chee & Cos operations and in the mid 1910s William
and Clement became managers while Mr & Mrs Ah Chee visited Canton, bought land to build his house
etc and returned to Auckland

5 Ladies group photo

1911

Mr & Mrs Ah Chee group photo

Mrs Timothy Loie,

unknown person

Mrs Anne Ah Chee. Mrs Sai Louie,Mrs Choi-mei Ah Chee

Sons Clement

Arthur

1911

William

wife, Choi-mei Mrs & Mr Ah Chee, wife , Ann

((photo: Alice & Francis Wong Family Collection)

From the late 1910s William & Clement Ah Chee & the Sai Louie
and their families visited Canton and stayed at the houses that Ah
Chee and Sai Louie had built.
(c. Alice Ah Chee Family collection: Ah Chee House mid 1920s)

By the 1920s Mr & Mrs Ah Chee retired from business and retired
to live in Canton. In January 1929 William died & Clement became
Manager until March 1931 when he left Auckland for Canton after
his father died and then his mother died in July 1931.

The combination of the Wall Street collapse and Clement going to Canton to support his mother resulted
in Ah Chee & Cos collapse.