Biography contributed by Melanie Kung
Jane Leung Chung (nee Whitman) born c. 1833 lived in Dunedin when she signed the petition in 1893. She was approximately 60 years old, and had also signed the previous year’s suffrage petition.
In 1873 she was married to Leung Chung, also known as Albert Leung Chung. [1]
She died on the 19th October 1900, aged 69, and is buried in the Southern Cemetery, Main Road South, Dunedin. According to the cemetery record, she was a native of London, England. [2]
In the Evening Star, 20 October 1881, [3] Chung is mentioned in the Dunedin School Committee column under the subheading A complaint. The Chairman of the committee is said to have received a letter from Mrs Chung, who formerly conducted the Bath Street School, "stating that she felt keenly the remarks which had been reported in the papers as having been passed upon her at a recent meeting of the committee, those remarks having hinted that she had shown incompetency." [4]
She was registered in the 1896 electoral rolls [5] as living on Forbury Road in Caversham, Otago, with her occupation down as domestic duties.
She raised money for St Peter’s Church, Cargill Road, as reported in the Otago Daily Times in January 1892. [6] She is also recorded as donating 5 shilling to the Queensland Relief Fund, which was in aid of the 1893 Brisbane flood. [7] In 1899 she was given thanks for her donation of 2 cases of apples to St. Mary’s Orphan Home in a report published in the Otago Witness. [8]
In 1900, Mrs Leung Chung placed an advertisement in the Otago Daily Times looking for a General Servant for a family of two, for their Upper Forbury Road home in Caversham. [9]
Albert Leung Chung (who according to New Zealand Naturalisation records was born about 1836 in Nam Hoy, Canton) also lived in Caversham on the date of his naturalisation 21 May 1875, and could be assumed to be Jane's husband. [10]
There is an entry in the 1880-1881 Wises’s New Zealand Post Office Directory [11] for Leung Chung, at Caversham, South Ward.
In 1880 Leung Chung was interpreter for convicted prisoner Ah Lee, who asserted his innocence of the charge of murder. [12] In another newspaper article, the sentence of Ah Lee’s execution was reported along with a comment about the interference of Bishop Neville with the sentence in garnering sympathy for the prisoner. Bishop Neville is also said to be training Leung Chung as a missionary, at that time. [13]
In Stone’s 1886 Dunedin and Invercargill Directory, as the proprietor of a Spanish restaurant, Albert Leung Chung’s address is given as 179 Police Street, Dunedin. (Also at that address is Arthur Shilling, journalist, John Griffin, mechanical engineer, Alexander Simpson, baker, George Douglas, Baker and Falconer, carpenter.)
His home address is given as South Ward of Forbury Road (from Main South road).
In the Evening Star in 1901 a Trusts of Deed Settlement between Jane Whitman, Leung Chung and David Gardiner is recorded as having gone before Mr. Justice Williams. [14]
Sources
Ancestry.com
Paperspast
Historical BDM index
Dunedin City Council Cemeteries Search
[1] Historical BDM index
[2] Dunedin City Council cemeteries search
[3] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18811020.2.2
[4] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT18811020.2.19
[5] Ancestry.com
[6] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT18920122.2.29
[7] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18930323.2.43
[8] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18990831.2.20
[9] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19000705.2.2.4
[10] Ancestry.com
[11] Ancestry.com
[12] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18801029.2.13.8
[13] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SCANT18801103.2.9
[14] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19010723.2.69
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
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