Court House, Tauranga

Tauranga Court House, 1966
Gale Collection, Ref. 0673
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

Can you believe that this photograph is taken from nearly the same spot? Take a look at the trees and you can tell that it is. The trees have also changed. The palm tree is still there but is much bigger.

Tauranga Court House, 2015
Photo by Charlie Colquhoun

The new Court House seems really crowded. It is kind of dark. The old Court House looks friendly. I wonder why they changed it?

Adams Cottage, Mt Maunganui

The Adams Cottage, Mt Maunganui, 2015

The Adams Cottage is located in Adams Avenue, Mount Maunganui. Although built as a bach or holiday home for John Cuthbert Adams it is a similar style of many pioneer cottages, having a gable ended simple design in what is known as ‘carpenter gothic’ style. Adams built it as a bach in 1906 when his family lived in Fifth Avenue at Taipororo.  It was said that his daughters could row to the bach faster than he could drive around Welcome Bay to the Mount, the only route at that time.

Adams arrived in Tauranga in 1876 and became a successful builder and later local body politician and mayor. He married Helen Edwards a relative of the wife of Henry Brabant of Maungawhare, the story of which appeared recently in this blog. Ten of their children survived to adulthood and three became school teachers. John Adams was very interested in Maori culture and his collection of artefacts remains in the Tauranga Heritage Collection. He was a member of the Polynesian Society.  He also corresponded with the former soldier Horatio Robley and owned more than a dozen original Robley paintings of Gate Pa and early Tauranga.

The Adams Cottage, Pilot Bay, Mt Maunganui, undated
Image © and courtesy of Tauranga City Library Ref. 01-185

The cottage is near the foreshore at Pilot Bay and originally had a simple plan. Bedrooms opened off the living room and the brick fireplace was double sided providing a means of cooking at the rear. As a bach occupation indoors was not as important as outdoor activities so it served well as a place just to eat and sleep. The construction was of timber and the rooms were lined with timber sarking and the saw marks are still visible on one wall. Additions of a verandah, garage, and large rear living area have been made in more recent years.

Lionel Adams inherited the bach in 1932 and family ownership ended in in 1976 and for ten years it was a private museum. The present owners have had the property since 1985.

Editor's Note (22 Jan 2022): This article previously stated that the "Adams Cottage ... is the oldest building in Mount Maunganui," which has been pointed out is incorrect, and the text has accordingly been amended with the author's permission.

Sources

Historic Houses Vol. 2, Vertical File, Tauranga Library.

Building File. Tauranga City Council.

Cunningham, B. & Musgrove, K.(1989)  A History of Mount Maunganui, pub. Mount Borough Council,.

Walker, Delwyn (2000) John Cuthbert Adams (1854-1932), unpublished essay, Tauranga Heritage Collection.

Mount Wharf

The Port of Tauranga at Mount Maunganui
Published by Dow Productions, 1976
Image courtesy of Justine Neal

The main export Port for the Bay of Plenty. One of the main exports through this Port is timber. The Wagner Log Grab for loading lifts 40 tons at one time.

Loading Logs, Mount Maunganui
Published by A.H. & A.W. Reed
Image courtesy of Justine Neal

From this overseas port, a few miles from the city of Tauranga, many hundreds of tons of logs are shipped each year, the largest contingent going to Japan. The logs are brought by road transport from the bush sites to the wharves.

Mt. Maunganui, Tauranga, N.Z., The Wharves
Published by Gladys M Goodall, c. 1960
Image courtesy of Justine Neal

Stacks of timber behind the F-shaped wharf are clues to the importance of Mount Maunganui, the main port for the Bay of Plenty. Every year  over 112,000 tons of paper and newsprint, 283,000 tons of timber and softwood, and 64,000 tons of woodpulp are loaded here. This is almost all New Zealand’s export trade of paper and woodpulp and 90 per cent of her timber exports. The total export value is 9 million pounds. The new harbour and wharves have been built since 1952 when the application of the trace element, cobalt, to the soils of the hinterland, revitalised farming, and the exotic forest industry came to maturity.

Logs at Hewletts Road, Mt. Maunganui, 2015
Image © and courtesy of Brett Payne

More Artifacts from the Tauranga Heritage Collection

Radio, AKRAD
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0006/01

This radio was manufactured in the1930s by the highly innovative Waihi firm AKRAD. Established by Keith Wrigley, the firm went on to produce PYE televisions.

Lemon Squeezer, WW1
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0055/13

This lemon squeezer was worn by Corporal Robert Lepper. He was awarded the D.C.M. for conspicuous gallantry in action. He rushed forward under heavy fire and brought to safety men who were lying wounded in front of the firing-line during the Senussi Campaign in Egypt.

Tauranga Railway Bridge Souvenir Plate
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0392/06

This souvenir plate celebrates the opening of the Tauranga Railway Bridge in 1924. The route the railway line took through town was the cause of controversy. Some residents felt it should travel down Elizabeth Street and not along The Strand.

Planet Jr., the All-Season Tool for Your Garden

Planet Junior Seeder No. 025 - Circa 1919
Image courtesy of Katikati Heritage Museum, Ref. 7420

The Katikati Heritage Museum collection contains a large number of agricultural artifacts, many of which relate to the dairy industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, before, during and after the Great War.  Also in the collection are several implements with the brand name "Planet Jr" cast into the metal parts.

1928 advertisment for Planet Jr. tools

The Planet Junior range of implements were designed and sold by the firm of S.L. Allen & Co., Inc. of Philadelphia for the small farmer or home gardener.

Planet Jr. cultivator
Image courtesy of Katikati Heritage Museum, Ref. 7745

In addition to the seeder shown above, the product line included a fertiliser distributor, various plough, hoe and harrow attachments, a drill marker and a grass edger.

Planet Jr. plough attachments
Image courtesy of Katikati Heritage Museum, Ref.7057

Advertisement for Planet Jr Farm and Garden Tools, Agents and Importers: Guinness Bros., Tauranga
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

The Planet Jr. brand was advertised in the Bay of Plenty Times by Louch & Co. as early as 1887, and in 1889 by Mann & Co. of The Strand.  By 1894 they were sold by The Cooperative Store, but by 1910 marketing of the brand in Tauranga was being by Guinness Bros., whose advertisment shown above for a seeder very similar to the one from Katikati forms part of the Tauranga Heritage Collection.