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Friday, 30 July 2021

Editorial Endorsement for Mr Pinfold

Digging around in WAI 215 documents and Pae Koroki [1] can yield some unexpected results, as one might expect from such rich and eclectic resources.

Social Studies Resource Book
Cover image provided courtesy of Hamilton Public Library

It turns out that the same Frederick Murray Pinfold who compiled the Social Studies activity book  The Maori People = Te Iwi Maori, published by AH and AW Reed in 1958 with a large print run of 5000 copies [2] was quoted with approval in an early 21st century Socio-Economic Impact Report for Nga Potiki [3]. In 1953 he was headmaster of Otepou School in Papamoa, a school with a long history of inadequate buildings and post-war baby boom overcrowding. His “pro-active stance,” as described in the Report, “was challenged by School Inspector Parsonage, who took it as a personal affront to his integrity in regards to establishing priorities.” [4]

It turns out that the same F M Pinfold became, first a writer for, and then Editor of, the Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society. In 1960 (issue No. 12 of the Journal) he essayed a collection of Maori Folk-tales of Tauranga District (an item I first stumbled on in early researches concerning the Te Puna-Wairere Track) [5].  His contribution and character was highly esteemed.  “… Immediately,” E L Adams wrote in his obituary [6], “his impact in the Society was apparent…. For he was, by inclination, more than just 'teacher' – in all his Maori school work, mainly in Hawkes Bay and here, he associated himself with their problems and everyday life… so much so that the Ngaiterangi Tribal Executive installed him as a kaumatua of the tribe …”

It turns out that Mr Pinfold is something of a hidden treasure. He seems to have escaped personal media attention – even the ubiquitous Tauranga Photo News, also now searchable within Pae Koroki, has (as yet) no captioned image of him. Unfortunately the Papers Past website for the Bay of Plenty Times, lately extended to 1951, falls short of his floreat period with our Society: 1960-67.

Mr F.M. Pinfold

This article is an effort to ‘out’ Mr Pinfold, and incidentally to celebrate the efforts of the Tauranga City Library to digitise the Society’s Journals – efforts he would, I am sure, have endorsed. 

Three years after his contribution of Tauranga Folk-tales, he made his first editorial interventions in Number 16 of the Journal, inserting not only his home address for communications with the Journal [7], but also some tactful notes here and there, and proposing a charming conceit: the selection of New Zealand books for the hobby historian’s bookshelf.  This was explained in the next issue as “… the shelf on which can be displayed as much of New Zealand writing as one book-lover can keep track of. [8]” 

Even before the age of the internet, this was probably a virtual shelf:  it would have been a groaning board in reality. Across ten issues, between June 1963 and December 1965, a total of 181 publications were assessed by one ‘F.M.P.’  It did “not profess to be a selection of reviews [9]” – these, quite different in tone and usefulness, also occasionally made an appearance, usually from then-President Ernest E Bush. The Journal’s Bookshelf was, instead, a survey of New Zealand publishing and writing that was both highly contemporary and securely based in a sense of New Zealand society that extended well beyond the colonial past. It showed a broadminded understanding of the challenges and the resources presenting themselves to New Zealand history scholars as well as general readers in the field – and incidentally offers some contradiction to present arguments that history was a closed, or at best a colonialist, book to late twentieth-century New Zealanders.

The amount of ground F.M.P. covered is staggering. In general, he was politely appreciative of most authorial efforts, but was unafraid to make a wholehearted recommendation:

The writer of these notes admires A.H. Reed’s wide choice of stories and the literary style and techniques adopted to typify their own peculiar spirit.  This is THE ONE which has the greatest popular appeal from this quarterly offering. [10]

and the occasional condemnation:

…the reflection of Markham’s attitude to his surroundings and. It would appear, to life in general, were to me repulsive. It is interesting in that it describes a way of life which is seldom uncovered to the public; it were better that if had remained so … I place this book on my shelf with very mixed feelings. Now that it has been produced I would not like my shelves to be lacking, nevertheless I feel that the taxpayers’ money could have been used in the production of something more in keeping with our standards of morality and literary worth [11].

(which makes the present writer determined to track down this unfortunate memoir. Was Markham’s merely a disparaging sneer or actually morally deficient?).

Mr Pinfold’s post as Editor of the Journal was made explicit in March 1964 [12]  and ended in August 1966 [13]. But he had already stated his manifesto in June 1963 (I am certain that the following anonymous comments are his):

… perhaps in various articles in this “Journal” are statements to which you can make additions; or which you feel have been inadequately stated; or of which you have a different version.  Write in and discuss it – albeit genteelly – and let this be a live “Journal" … [14]

It turns out, in short, that sixty years ago Tauranga was not lacking perceptive, open-minded and culturally sensitive thinkers about our past. F. M. Pinfold’s work for the Journal shows he had the grace and courage and scholarship to follow his own line, and the editorial judgment to accommodate and encourage a range of viewpoints. We can be proud of him; we should acknowledge his influence; and we must remember, as our local stories and pasts are re-examined by new scholars, that Mr Pinfold would have applauded this.

References

[3] Report prepared for Crown Forestry Rental Trust claim, WAI 717, by the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education, University of Auckland, for Auckland Uniservices Ltd.  Undated; “research for this report was conducted between January and September 2000”.

[4] Ibid, p.82

[9] ibid

[10] September 1963 issue, https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/23967 . Comment relates to A.H. Reed,  Myths and Legends of Maoriland, A.H and A.W Reed, 1963

[11] Ibid.  Comment relates to Edward Markham, New Zealand or Recollections of It, ed E. H. McCormick, Government Printer 1963

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Friday, 23 July 2021

Wiremu "Bill" Ohia, 1922-1992

Bill Ohia talking to Ernest Bush, former Society Journal editor, at Papamoa Hills
35mm film negative. Photograph taken for Bay of Plenty PhotoNews, No 69, 30 May 1970, p.57
Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. pn-7646

Bill was a man who was very aware of the history of his ancestors in Tauranga Moana and consequently extremely socially active all his 70 years in Waitao. He was one of the older sons of the twelve children of Hone Ohia, who farmed in close proximity to three marae belonging to Ngati Pukenga iwi.

Bill was born in the Te Puke Maternity Annexe, as was his only child Rahera. He attended the Pāpāmoa Native School (which later became Pāpāmoa Māori School and is now Te Kura Kaupapa Māori ō Otepou). When the school was Pāpāmoa Māori School, Bill’s daughter Rahera was a pupil there and his wife Hinemanu (a McLean of Tainui Descent from the Waikato) a teacher there. While Rahera was attending Tauranga Girls’ College, Bill served on the Tauranga Girls College Board of Governors.

Bill was a keen scuba diver who, if he wasn’t tied up with other things, went diving every weekend for kaimoana and often took his cousins, nephews and nieces along to teach them about the sea. Bill, by this time, was also farming in Waitao and he helped set up and run the Rangataua Young Farmers Club. Bill was the first Māori town supply farmer in the area.

Tauranga Moana Trust Board's Original Fund-raising Committee, 1953. (Left to Right) T. Te Kani, F.N. Pinfold, I. Tangitu, W. Ohia, R.G. Faulkner (inset) Tom Peek
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Moana Trust Board

The Tauranga Moana Māori Trust Board was formed after the iwi and hapū of Tauranga sought to make it known what had transpired between their ancestors and the Crown to enable colonial settlement of the area, and the establishment of Tauranga. It was the culmination of the work of a number of people over many years, including Bill, Turi Te Kani, Bob Falconer (then Director of the Department of Māori Affairs), Fred Pinfold and Ike Tangitu. The Trust Board was created to receive compensation from the Crown for lands that had been taken through confiscation. Bill was the inaugural chairman of this trust board, a position he retained for many years.

He was also the chair of the Waikato Maniapoto District Maori Council and a member of many other Maori organisations in the Western Bay of Plenty. One of these was the Tauranga Maori Cultural and Promotional Committee an initiative begun with Archie Clark, the city’s Public Relations Officer at the time. Apart from Bill and Hinemanu, that committee included Turi Te Kani, Charlie Kuka, Tim Smith, Sonny and Moira Rolleston and others.  The aim of the committee was to give voice to Māori cultural and civic aspirations. This committee started the annual National Māori Cultural Championships which many years later became Te Matatini.

Bill was a member of the Trotting Club (he owned race horses), the Aero Club (he was a pilot as was his brother Monty and Uncle, Barney Kahotea) and the Rotary and Lions Clubs (he was community-minded). So he was of many diverse networks. Through their contacts, he and his wife were part of a group who trialed a Māori Radio station based at the 17th Ave Historic Village which at the time was under the directorship of Noel Nicholls. Later, Bill became the inaugural Chair of Aotearoa Māori Radio, when the government of the day agreed to set aside part of the AM frequency for Maori Radio.

Tauranga Moana Trust Board's Fund-raising Committee, 1955. (Back Row) J. Foster, P. Rewiti, W. Ohia. (Front Row) F.N. Pinfold, I. Tangitu, C.H.D. Porter
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Moana Trust Board

According to Rahera her Dad, Noel Nicholls, "Uncle Turi, Uncle Charlie and others" (all of whom were determined that everyone should know the full history of the area) were part of a group who negotiated to get permission to clear Mauao of its dense scrub cover so that evidence of early Maori occupation was visible. She was roped in with others to trek to the summit most weekends to clear the scrub. The road to the summit was then created by Jack and Roger Prince with their heavy machinery, and when it was all done she and her father and Alan Clarke (a teacher from Mount Maunganui College) identified, measured and recorded all the pā sites there. This was all designed to make the Māori history of the area visible for all and to stimulate people’s curiosity so that they might want to know more.

Bill Ohia talking to the Tauranga Historical Society on the Papamoa Hills
35mm film negative. Photograph taken for Bay of Plenty PhotoNews, No 69, 30 May 1970, p.57
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Nga Wahi Rangahu. Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. pn-7638

In the 1980s, Bill moved from farming to orcharding and he grew kiwifruit, avocados, boysenberries and apples. The exposure to the kiwifruit industry led him and Turi Te Kani (also an orchardist, but at Matapihi) to champion Māori ownership of their own packhouse, so they began Te Awanui Hukapak, a symbol of their independence and the commercial intent and capability of Māori communities.

Bill Ohia receives his Queen's Service Order from the Governor General, Sir Paul Reeves, in 1988
Image courtesy of Rahera Ohia

Bill played a number of roles in the evolution of Tauranga and was awarded the QSO in 1988.

Turi died under tragic circumstances in around 1990, and sadly his long time and close friend Bill died in equally tragic circumstances in 1992. They were each mourned by thousands at Matapihi and Waitao respectively.

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Friday, 16 July 2021

Captain Wing and the schooner Fanny

Early Sailing Vessels and Visitors to Tauranga, Part XVI

The first survey of Tauranga Harbour was made in June 1835 by Captain Thomas Wing, an accomplished North Sea sailor with a lifelong interest in hydrography. In 1832, Wing served as first mate on the trading schooner Fortitude during its five month’s voyage from London to the Bay of Islands. Between 1832 and 1834, Wing traded around the northern coast of New Zealand and to Port Jackson in his capacity as mate of the Fortitude, acquiring in the process an excellent knowledge of New Zealand waters. In 1834, the Bay of Islands merchants Clendon and Stephenson appointed him master of their new schooner, Fanny. Wing went on trading voyages to Tauranga, Kaipara, Manukau, Kawhia and Raglan harbours (1835-1836), during which he made what are believed to be the first detailed charts of these harbours. When not at sea, Wing lived at Hokianga with Rautangi, a daughter of the rangatira Waiti. The couple had a daughter, Fanny, who was killed during the 1845 Flagstaff War at the Bay of Islands.

Wing’s 1836 sketch of his trading schooner Fanny

Unfortunately, only a few faded and spotted examples of Captain Wing's historic charts, sketches and notes remain, which have been described as having considerable artistic merit and a wealth of detail ‘written in such a clear hand, that they appear as living pictures of a bygone age.’ On his chart of Tauranga harbour, written concisely and legibly in small characters in one corner, are the following words:

A sketch of the entrance of Tauronga, a small harbour in the Bay of Plenty on the east coast of New Zealand, lat. 37.39 south. High water on the full and change of moon at 7.30 a.m. and rises from 7ft. to 8ft.The soundings were taken at low water, June, 1835.
The Fanny's track into the harbour is shown and to the chart is added:
Maunga Nui, a very remarkable high hill, seen in clear weather nine or ten leagues off shore. The coast at the foot of Maunga Nui is covered with large boulder stones. Vessels ought not to come out of Tauronga in the strength of the ebb tide if the winds are light, as the strong eddy setting round Stony Point would be likely to run them ashore on the north side of it.
Wing provided further information likely to be of service to mariners in this era, including: ‘In 1835 there was a remarkable tree that drooped over the water abreast of Stony Point with good fresh water close to it.’ Fresh water was still flowing there in the 1920s and to the west of the chart is an artistically drawn Maori pa, ‘close to low tableland.’ The fortress, shown in the form of a square, is surrounded by a strongly-built palisade enclosing six whare and two whata or storehouses, which Wing labelled ‘Tumaitai Pa.’ [Otumoetai Pa].

Part of Wing’s chart and notes on Tauranga Harbour

Describing the anchorage before Wing’s survey, the missionary William White had written:

The harbour of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, and a few leagues South of Mercury Bay, is resorted to by vessels for the purpose of trading in flax, pork, potatoes, and corn. It is a bar harbour, but safe for vessels of 100 tons burthen.
When Thomas Wing charted Tauranga Harbour in June 1835, the only permanent European buildings in the district were the stores and houses of the Pakeha-Maori traders James Farrow at Otumoetai Pa and the chevalier Peter Dillon at Maungatapu Pa, who accumulated cargoes for trading vessels from their hapu in exchange for muskets and munitions. Wing interacted with Farrow and the rangatira of Otumoetai Pa and was fortunate that his hydrographic survey was not interrupted by the intertribal fighting of the Musket Wars. Ngapuhi from the Bay of Islands had only recently ceased their long distance amphibious raids to Tauranga and the bloody storming of Maketu and Te Tumu Pa during the war between the Te Arawa people and the combined forces of Ngai Te Rangi, and Ngati Haua did not occur until the following year.

Thomas Wing about 1860

Captain Wing went on to survey Kawhia, Whaingaroa (Raglan) and Kaipara during 1836, with the Fanny narrowly avoiding a stranding in the latter harbour. In 1837 he went on to chart Port Ahuriri, the Otago coast and Foveaux Strait. In the same year he ceased to skipper the Fanny, captaining instead the trading schooner Trent and, in 1844, the 220 ton New Zealand Company brig Deborah. Thomas Wing was harbour master for the Manakau for thirty years from 1857, before his death at Onehunga in 1888. An accomplished cartographer, sea captain, harbour master and pilot, probably no other mariner of his day had a better knowledge of the New Zealand coast. The fate of the Fanny is unknown.

References
Byrne, T. B;  Wing of the Manukau, T. B. Byrne, Auckland, 1991.
Byrne, T. B; 'Wing, Thomas', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1w33/wing-thomas
New Zealand Herald, 2 September, 1932: 8.
Tuckett, Frederick, The 1844 Expedition and Otago Survey, Gerald Franklin (ed.),  The Frenchay Tucketts, 2005: 18-19, 96.
Webster, John, Reminiscences of an Old Settler in Australia and New Zealand, Whitcombe and Tombs, Christchurch, 1908: 253.
White, William, Important Information Relevant to New Zealand, Thomas Brennand, Sydney, 1839: 19.

Illustrations
Wing, Thomas,  (Capt), 1810-1888. A sketch of the entrance of Tauronga [Tauranga], a small harbour in the Bay of Plenty on the east coast of New Zealand, June 1835. [ms map]. Ref: Map Coll-832.16aj/1835/Acc.423. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
Wing, Thomas, Chart of the entrance to Kaipara Harbour, January, 1836 with sketch of the vessel Fanny. Map 4613, Old Colonists’ Museum Map Collections, Auckland Council Libraries.
Photographer unknown, Thomas Wing (1810-1888), master mariner, cartographer, harbour master and pilot, ca. 1860, PAColl - 7246. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

 

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Friday, 9 July 2021

Te Awanui

In 1970 Queen Elizabeth was to visit Tauranga and when the city fathers went looking for a waka to accompany the royal yacht Britannia to its berth, there wasn’t one, so the idea for a ceremonial waka for the city of Tauranga took shape.

Te Awanui, Tauranga, 10 February 1973
Photograph by John C. Bourne, Postcard published by Dow Productions, Ref. 150
Collection of Justine Neal

The ceremonial waka taua Te Awanui - the original name for Tauranga Harbour - was carved by Tuti Tukaokao in 1973 from a 300 year old, 124 metre-high kauri tree found at Waitawheta in the Kaimai Ranges. Before it was cut elders gathered together for a ceremony to pay homage to Tane Mahuta. Felling the tree took three-quarters of an hour using a chainsaw, with the lower limbs being retained for the carving of hoe (paddles).

The 46 foot-long waka took 22 months to complete, and used carving designs from all around New Zealand.

Te Awanui, Tauranga, 10 February 1973
Photograph by John C. Bourne, Published by Logan Print Ltd., Gisborne for Stars Travel, Tauranga
Collection of Justine Neal

Te Awanui was launched on February 10th, 1973 from the beach at Hawaii (Memorial Park). People lined the harbour banks three deep. A karakia was performed over the finished waka and as it floated for the first time, in went the 30 paddles and the chant especially composed for the occasion, Te Tau o Te Awanui, rang out over the waters of Tauranga Harbour.

Te Awanui and Te Urunga, The Strand, Tauranga
Photographer unknown, Postcard published by Dow Productions, No. 194
Collection of Justine Neal

When the Tauranga Moana iwi is not using the vessel for celebrations, it resides within Te Urunga, a purpose-built whare waka situated at the northern end of The Strand.

References

Tauranga Moana (Te Awanui), Pae Koroki

Te Awanui (Waka taua), National Library 

Te Awanui, Tauranga's Ceremonial Waka, by Debbie McCauley, 2013 (also reproduced in Historical Review: Bay of Plenty Journal of History, Vol 65, No 1, May 2017, pp. 1-6)

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Tuesday, 6 July 2021

Guinness Brothers and the Tauranga Bond Store

From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

At Tauranga City Libraries there is a collection in the archives labelled “Ams 12 – Guinness Brothers” that has largely been unheeded since it was donated back in 1975. However, very recently, it has been wheeled out to be examined in the light of day, catalogued and digitised and is proving to be a very intriguing find, indeed.

This collection begins in 1882 with the formation of Mann and Co.'s bond store – which stood in a prominent location at No. 1 The Strand – and ends in the early 20th century with the records of Guinness Bros. Despite being formed of just three files, it contains a wealth of material: papers relating to customs bond and the construction of the warehouse, ephemera linked to the businesses and photographs of the owners enjoying their free time. As such, it offers a glimpse of business life in Tauranga during the later 19th and early 20th centuries.

Guinness Bros Building, The Strand c. 1920. Tauranga City Libraries Image 99-1157

The Bond Store was originally built for James Alexander Mann in 1883 as a warehouse for storing imported goods. It was well-situated near the waterfront and the two main wharves, which were the main entry place for goods arriving at Tauranga by sea.  

James Mann sold the business in 1908 to Guinness Brothers. The Guinness Brothers Limited’s original directors were brothers Sidney Oswald Guinness and John (Jack) Arthur Daniel Guinness, along with their mother Jessie and step-father John Green. The brothers are indeed descendants of Arthur Guinness, founder of the famous stout brewery at St James’s Gate in Dublin. Jack and Sid’s grandfather, Francis Hart Vicesimus Guinness, was the grandson of Arthur Guinness and after a number of years living in India, he brought his family out to New Zealand to start a new life in 1852.  

Francis’s fourth son, Frank Hart Guinness, met and married Jessie Bannatyne, whose family was in the hotel business in Otago. Together, they were the licensees of several Dunedin Hotels. Frank died aged 44 at the Douglas Hotel in Dunedin, leaving wife Jessie and seven children. She remarried John George Green and they had one son, George Leslie Green 1902. The family moved to Christchurch in 1903 where they were again in the Hotel business and by 1908 they were on the move again. They left Christchurch on the vessel “Ellingmite” en route to Tauranga with the youngest six members of the family.

With the boys’ future in mind, Jack being 24 years and Sid 22 years, Mr Green purchased a business from Mr J.A. Mann that consisted of the direct importing business, a wholesale wine and spirit licence, farm machinery and a retail store selling general hardware, groceries and petrol.

As importers, producers and stockists of agricultural equipment, Guinness Bros. played an essential role in the development of the Bay of Plenty's agricultural industry. They did considerable business in the backblocks, extending from east of Opotiki to west of Waihi.  

They adapted well to trends, opportunities and changing needs of their community, and weathered the highs and lows, such as two World Wars (Guinness men were killed in both wars, including younger brother Cecil who worked as a storeman at Guinness Bros.).  

The business and its owners were an important part of the community and were prominent in Tauranga’s recreational and social scenes. They were also influential in civic matters, as can be witnessed by a letter in the archive collection dated 25 February 1909, : Ams 12/3/3 – Department of Trade and Customs Wellington.

Tauranga City Library Archive Collection – Ams 12/3/3

In the early part of 1909, the Government was contemplating closing the Port of Tauranga because of the drastic drop in revenue (Guinness, 1978). A direct approach by Guinness Brothers to the Minister of Trade and Customs urging that Tauranga continue as a Customs Port, elicited a favourable reply from the Government and the Port continued its trade. The fortunes of the port and of the warehouse business changed for the better, as by 1914 nearly 20,000 tonnes of imports were landed at Tauranga, and 466 tonnes exported.

Guinness Brothers businesses remained in the Bond Store for 70 years, plus a further eight years just for their wine and spirits business. When occupied by Guinness Brothers the Bond Store was a familiar landmark and popular retail outlet, becoming one of Western Bay of Plenty’s iconic and leading firms.

On this note I will leave you this quote from an article in the Journal of the Historical Society (45):
 “The name Guinness is surely woven into Tauranga’s past and present; it is an old, old name with a ring of quality about it, a quality embellished into a flourishing retail and wholesale business built from the sturdy independence, the faith and the outlook of the brothers...” (Morris, 1972)

Sources

Bay of Plenty Times, 1 April 1968, including special feature on 60 year anniversary of Guinness Brothers. (Ams 12/5/8).

Guinness, Olga. E. Guinness Brothers Limited 1908-1978. Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society Number 61; 1978.

Morris, E.W. How it began - No. 3, Guinness  Bros. Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society Number 45; 1972.

Smith, Rod. Guinness Down Under – The famous brew and the family come to Australia and New Zealand. Tauranga; Eyeglass Press Ltd. 2018.

The items from this archival collection is on our schedule for digitisation, and will be added to Pae Korokī once digitised. For more information about other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Jody Smart, Heritage Trainee at Tauranga City Library.



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