Don Buck

Don Buck (real name Francisco Rodrigues Figueira or Randoff Sanfrisco Figuero ) (died 5 August 1917) was a Portuguese immigrant in New Zealand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He was known for working newly released prisoners as gum diggers and trading the gum for a profit.

Biography

Figueira was born circa 1869/1870, in Madeira, Portugal. Figueira travelled to South Africa in his youth, where he made money. In 1892 at the age of 22, he travelled to New Zealand aboard a trading schooner, after receiving a small amount of money from his father. The local Aucklanders, unable to pronounce his name, decided to call him Don Buck. He made several attempts to establish himself as a businessman in Auckland, however none were successful and by 1899 he had lost most of his funds. and inspired Figueira to move to West Auckland in search of the product. before setting up the gum digging camp and farming land at Birdwood (now known as Massey). By 1900, Figueira had developed an arrangement with the Police Magistrates of the Auckland Law Courts, allowing petty criminals the option of either spending two weeks in the Mount Eden Prison, or two weeks at his gum digging camp. The magistrate agreed to this arrangement, due to the severely limited space available for prisoners at Mount Eden.

Convicts were collected every two weeks by Figueira, Gum diggers would roam across West Auckland to collect gum, as there were few fences or gates. In 1913, Figueira finally formalised the title to the lands with a settlers grant. and his lands were sold by public trust, left to his siblings and cousin in Madeira.

During his lifetime, Figueira was seen as a polarising figure, either as a humanitarian or as an opportunist, and his camp was seen as a blight in the region. Overtime, Figueira became a folk history figure to Aucklanders. Local researcher and schoolteacher Marianne Simpkins located Figueira's grave, and, noting that the grave had been left unpaid, fundraised to cover the costs and to have a memorial plaque to note the previously unmarked location in 1972. The Huruhuru Creek (south-western Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek) is known locally as Don Buck Creek from Don Buck Road down to where the Northwestern Motorway crosses it.