Thomas “Tommy” Ah Quoi was known throughout New Zealand as the unofficial head of Auckland’s Chinese community in the last decades of the 1800s.
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
A pioneering restauranteur, innkeeper and court interpreter, Tommy was for many years the go to commentator on Chinese concerns. He was also a true philanthropist. As the Wanganui Herald notes, he was “well-known… all through New Zealand…by his charity.”
The most notable of Tommy’s businesses were the Park House, on Victoria Street, the Anchor Hotel’s restaurant, and the Wharf Hotel. All his establishments offered highly regarded cuisine and lodging at a reasonable price.
PHILANTHROPIST
During the painful period of Auckland’s “Long Depression,” Tommy spearheaded efforts to provide for the poor. The Auckland newspapers report that he daily provided 50 loaves of bread to the needy, “a sufficient quantity to keep the unemployed poor provided with the staff of life….” The editor of one newspaper remarked that “if this unsolicited deed of kindness has not the effect of softening the hostility of those who have nothing but hard words for Chinamen, then it only shows that there are Chinamen with more of Christianity in them than many so-called Christians”
FIRST CHINESE BURIAL
Tommy laid to rest his infant son Frederick Quoi here at Purewa, in 1893 – he was Purewa’s first Chinese burial. Frederick’s mother was Elizabeth Ann Quoi (Davis), Quoi’s second wife. It is thought bronchitis was the cause of his early death. Buried alongside Frederick is his younger brother Albert. He was buried with Frederick in 1895 after living just 6 days.
They are buried in plot A/13/007. Their father Tommy was buried next to them in plot A/13/006 after his death in 1906 at the age of 49. In 1914, Tommy’s oldest son, Thomas Joseph Quoi, was put to rest in plot A/14/76 after his death at the age of 26.
Thomas Quoi
Died 1906
Tommy’s Park House establishment on Victoria Street. (IMAGE: Auckland Libraries)
