---
category: City
created: 2026-09-23
location: Temuka, Canterbury, New Zealand
summary: South Canterbury town north of Timaru, site of the ethanol distillery of
  Chemical Technology Limited licensed in 1981 and of the 1984 burglary in which a
  passport was stolen.
tags:
- Place
- NewZealand
- SouthCanterbury
- RCHorsch
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Temuka is a town in South Canterbury, [New Zealand](/places/new-zealand/), 19 kilometres north of Timaru and the second largest centre in the region, with 4,047 inhabitants in 2013. Situated near the Arowhenua forest and early crossings of the Ōpihi and Temuka rivers, it was gazetted as a town in 1858 and surveyed in 1863, originally under the name Wallingford. It developed as a secondary industrial centre with early boiling-down and tannery works, a flour mill, a cheese factory and potteries; its pottery factory produced the New Zealand Railways cup and saucer from the 1930s.[^1]

### The Distillery

On July 14, 1981, the Minister of Customs, [Hugh Templeton](/people/hugh-templeton/), and the Minister of Energy, [Bill Birch](/people/bill-birch/), announced that a licence had been approved for "the commercial distillation of ethyl alcohol in a plant to be built at Temuka," the first such venture in the South Island, operated by [Chemical Technology Limited](/organizations/chemical-technology-limited/) and fed mainly by whey from the neighbouring dairy factory.[^2] The Minister of Science and Technology, [Ian Shearer](/people/ian-shearer/), opened the plant in April 1982.[^3] Its American director, Dr Stanley Stokowski, was the fugitive [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/).

### The Passport

After Stokowski left New Zealand on March 17, 1984, police said they wanted to interview him about "a burglary at Temuka, in which a passport was stolen," and believed he had used the stolen passport to leave the country.[^4]

[^1]: Wilson, John. "South Canterbury places: Temuka," *Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand,* February 28, 2007, updated August 17, 2015. http://web.archive.org/web/20241211004231/https://teara.govt.nz/en/south-canterbury-places/page-5
[^2]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31
[^3]: "Dr Shearer wants extra effort in biotechnology," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 23, 1982. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820423.2.96.9
[^4]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9