Free Pass
January 7, 2010
‘Siegfried Kohn of Kohn & Co, Wellington, held a New Zealand government contract for the manufacture of gold railway and transport passes but it seems that other firms, for example, N.J.M. Rein Ltd of Invercargill, were also issuing these passes, which were given to members of Parliament and other prominent citizens.
Shareholders of the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company conferred a free life pass on John Plimmer, one of the first promoters of the railway and for 18 years a director of the company. The unmarked medal carries an engraving of Plimmer. Prime Minister Richard Seddon held a gold railway pass in the form of a tiki, and a similar one was used by Sir Maui Pomare. A railway pass for the member of Patea is edged with mouldings of Maori carvings and embellished with a kiwi and a Maori waka in the central field. It possibly belonged to the member for Western Maori. A similar medal was used by Sir Maui Pomare, who also held a gold pass in the form of a patu. Yet another was for Rewi Maniapoto.
The oldest known is a sterling silver tiki, ca 1870s, issued to the Hon. J.D. Ormond, Superintendent for Hawke’s Bay, and New Zealand’s first Minister of Finance.’
