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16 December 1886. The Star Hotel, as it was named, because a popular meeting place
for Swiss and Italian miners; Stefano was often knovm to lend money for compatriots'
business and mining interests. His premises were also popular among the Cornish
miners, suggesting that entertainment venues, as well as the market place, tended to
become cultural melting-pots ~ an example of what Stuart Hall refers to as the
complex and cross-cutting forces at work modifying ethnic identity.*'
While Stefano was prospering well in his hotel at Daylesford, Leonardo was
doing less favourably in New Zealand. Once Margherita had joined him from
Australia, the couple produced another four children: Valerio Lambert in 1864, Emilia
in 1866, Teresa in 1874 and Giuseppina in 1878. Despite extensions to their hotel in
Hokitika, by 1879 they faced financial min. They decided to sell the hotel ~ receiving
in return only 100 pounds ~ and Leonardo retumed to his original trade as gunsmith,
setting up in a shop in Christchurch.**
By 1884, Stefano was paying rates on a house and land at Italian Hill. This
was to become the site of his new home and the place where he and his family would
live until his death some 30 years later. In 1885, Mary Aime produced a second child,
a son, whom they named Nilo Ezio. That Stefano insisted on Italian names for all his
children after 30 years in the Colony reveals the strength of his ties with Ticino. In
1886, he built a new home on Jubilee Lake Road next door to his mining associate
Christian Fumberger (ref figure 9). To the rear of Fumberger's property was the
entrance to the Long Tunnel Mine, with a second mine entrance directly behind
Stefano's house. Both their properties were irrigated by an iron-rich water supply and
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