The schooner Trent and Major Thomas Bunbury, 1840

Early Sailing Vessels and Visitors to Tauranga, Part XIX

On the morning of 29th April, 1840, H.M.S. Herald left the Bay of Islands, bound for the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. The skipper, Captain Nias, had been tasked with taking Major Thomas Bunbury, officer commanding the British military forces in New Zealand, on a tour to secure further signatures to the Treaty of Waitangi. An experienced officer, Bunbury had just returned from a term as Lieutenant-Governor of the Norfolk Island convict settlement. Accompanying Bunbury as interpreter, was Edward Marsh Williams, who had assisted his father, the Rev Henry Williams in Translating the Treaty from English to Maori.  After obtaining Treaty signatures at Coromandel Harbour and Mercury Bay, where the Herald remained at anchor, Bunbury proceeded to Tauranga on the 18 ton schooner Trent which had been chartered for the purpose.

A 17 ton, Bay of Islands-built schooner at anchor, 1845

Described as ‘a little schooner,’ the Trent had been built during 1826, near the mouth of the Kawakawa Inlet, Bay of Islands on a small plot of land noted for its ‘two remarkable trees.’ The site had been purchased from the Ngapuhi rangatira Pomare II or Whetoi, at nearby Otuihu Pa for £10 by the shipwrights Thomas Scott and James Hawkins. With the assistance of the caulker Flower Russell, they completed and launched the schooner in 1837. The vessel’s initial survey certificate which has survived, reads:

This is to certify that Gilbert Mair has held a survey on the ship Trent, built at the Bay of Islands by James Hawkins and Thomas Scott in 1837, of which Thomas Bateman, trader, is the sole owner, the master and builders being British subjects. The vessel has one deck, is schooner rigged, square sterned, has a figurehead and no quarter galleries [balconies used as lookouts and for latrines on each side of the stern], and is of the burthen of 18 tons.

During the Trent’s coastal trading voyages, the skipper proudly flew New Zealand's first flag - the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand. After 33 northern chiefs signed the Declaration of Independence in 1835, the British government had recognized New Zealand as an independent Maori state. Locally built vessels flew this flag and the signed authority for the schooner read: ‘Trent is entitled to bear that flag and be respected accordingly. Given under my hand and seal at the British Residency, James Busby.’

HMS Herald and a steam ship tender, 1852.

Before HMS Herald departed the Bay of Islands, Captain Nias had been requested to ‘display the force of his ship’ at Tauranga ‘to show that we were prepared to resent any violence’, as a European had been reported killed in the region. Nias wisely ignored the recommendation and contracted Captain Bateman’s schooner Trent, to convey Bunbury from Mercury Bay to Tauranga instead.

After a quick passage to Tauranga, Bateman was unable to sail the Trent through the narrow channel under Mount Maunganui, due to contrary winds and tide, and was compelled to stand out to sea. They Treaty party were becalmed under the Mount for much of the following day, until a favourable wind propelled them through the channel and across the harbour to the landing below the Te Papa mission station.

The major’s Tauranga dispatch to Lieutenant Governor Shortland began:

I have made an excursion in the schooner “Trent,” to Tauranga. She left the "Herald" at Mercury Bay on the 12th instant late in the evening, and arrived off Tauranga on the Sunday following; but the night was too far advanced to attempt to enter the harbour until the following day when Mr. Parker of H. M. ship "Herald," Mr. Williams and myself went on shore at the mission station, where we were received by the Reverend Mr. Stack; and I was agreeably surprised to learn that most of the native chiefs in that neighbourhood had already signed the treaty, with the exception of the principal chief [Hori Tupaea], and one or two of his friends at the Otumoiti Pa.

Major Thomas Bunbury
A veteran British army officer, Bunbury held the rank of major during the Peninsula War in Portugal and Spain.

The resident missionaries Alfred Brown and James Stack had, in fact, gathered few signatures on their Māori-language copy of the Treaty, by the time Bunbury arrived on 11 May to check on  progress. Bunbury instructed Stack to produce two more copies of the Treaty. One was sent inland to Rotorua, the other to Taupō, where both Te Arawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa refused to sign.

Accompanied by Stack, the Treaty party visited Otumoetai Pa which Bunbury described as ‘a very extensive fortification, and appears to contain about one thousand men’. Unable to persuade the principal chief Hori Tupaea to sign his Treaty copy, Bunbury described the rangatira as ‘a very young man’ whose manner was ‘less than prepossessing than I had before seen in others’. Bunbury also stated that rangatira’s reluctance was driven by Catholic influences at Otumoetai Pa. (Tupaea had previously welcomed Bishop Pompallier’s Catholic missionaries and had his Ngai Te Rangi people assist them in building their chapel within Otumoetai Pa).

Captain Bateman next conveyed Bunbury on the Trent to Maungatapu Pa on the inner harbour, where he was received hospitably by the Nuka Taipari, principal chief of the Ngati He hapu of Ngai Te Rangi. There, he found that all but two rangatira had previously signed the Treaty and described the pa and its people as ‘of considerable strength and importance.’ In contrast to Hori Tupaea, Bunbury considered Taipari ‘well disposed towards the government’ and ‘a fine intelligent-looking fellow.’

Hori Kingi Tupaea
During the 1830s Tupaea succeeded his father Te Waru as leading rangatira of Tauranga’s Ngai Te Rangi people.

Coincidentally the shipwright Thomas Scott, who helped build the Trent in 1836, had operated a harekeke or flax trading station at Maungatapu Pa during the early 1830s. At this time, Tauranga Maori were exchanging dressed flax by the ton, for muskets and munitions. Rev Henry Williams who was at Tauranga in March 1833, trying to mediate in the bloody skirmishes between marauding Ngāpuhi, the local people, and Te Arawa, refers to ‘a Mr Scott who resides there as a flax agent.’ Williams subsequently made two visits to Scott at Maungatapu ‘to discuss the affairs of the natives’, It appears that by 1834 Scott was back in Sydney, at his previous and safer trade of boatbuilding.

During his time at Tauranga, Bunbury he had some profitable talks during runanga (public meetings) on a variety of Treaty related issues, particularly land sales, though he found the interminable questions posed by the rangatira exasperating. He was also dismayed by the fierce and disruptive competition for Maori converts, waged between the resident Catholic and Anglican missionaries, noting:

Whenever the boat of the Protestant mission, I was told, left the station, a boat with the priests started also at the same time for the same Pa. These unseemly disputes sometimes ending with rioting could not have been very edifying to the natives. With Mercutio they might justly exclaim, "A plague o' both your houses."

The Treaty party departed Tauranga Harbour on the Trent before daylight on 13th March, bound for Mercury Bay and HMS Herald. Against wind and tide they were barely able to claw their way through the channel. Before rejoining the Herald, they were becalmed again, this time between Te Ruamaahu (The Alderman Islands) and Tuhua (Mayor Island), but later reported that the fishing was excellent. Governor Hobson received the Tauranga Treaty sheet with its 21 signatures on 23 May 1840. Bunbury ended his Tauranga dispatch on a cynical note, suggesting that that the Otumoetai Treaty resistors, were unlikely to change their minds ‘until out bidden by the promise of an increased premium.’

Sources
Bunbury, Thomas, Reminiscences of a Veteran, Vol. III, London, Charles Skeet, 1861.
Evening Post, 22 October 1920: 8.
Lambourne, Alan, Major Thomas Bunbury: Envoy Extraordinary, New Zealand Soldier – Treaty Maker, Heritage Press, Waikanae, 1995.
Locker, Ronald H; ‘Thomas Scott lands in the Mahurangi’, http://www.mahurangi.org.nz › thomas-scott-and-sons
Matthew, Felton, The Founding of New Zealand, The Journals of Felton Matthew, Reed, Dunedin, 1940.
Patea Mail, 29 April, 1940: 1
Tauranga treaty copy | NZHistory, New Zealand history online, https://nzhistory.govt.nz › media › interactive › taurang...
Williams, Henry, The Early Journals of Henry Williams, 1826-1840, L. M. Rogers (comp.),  Pegasus Press, Christchurch,1961.

Illustrations
Hutton, Thomas, 'The Bishop's [Selwyn’s] schooner "Flying Fish" lying at her moorings in Orakei Bay, April 4th 1845,’ E-111-1-071, National Library of New Zealand.
HMS Herald  and steamship tender Torch, ‘Expedition to the South Sea’, Illustrated London News, 15 May 1852.
Bunbury, Thomas, Reminiscences of a Veteran, Vol. III, London, Charles Skeet, 1861: Front Cover.
Hōri Kingi Tūpaea, by Horatio Gordon Robley, c.1864. From the album of Henry Harpur Greer Digital image donated to Tauranga City Libraries in 2003 by Mike Dottridge (great, great grandson of Colonel Greer). Original painting donated to Alexander Turnbull Library (Ref: A-128-025-1). Link: http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/tauranga_local_history/images/show/8961

Maungatapu

 

Welcome Bay, Tauranga. Postcard published by F. Duncan & Co, Auckland
Collection of Justine Neal

Today Maungatapu is a quiet and pleasant suburb of Tauranga but just 194 years ago life on the peninsula was somewhat different.

September 7th 1834: missionaries A.N.Brown and William Williams visit the Maungatapu chief Nuku as part of their search for a site for the building of a new mission station. Nuku warned them not to settle at Te Papa as the iwi there was a dishonest one and would rob them of all their goods.

January 27th 1837: Maungatapu Pa attacked by an Arawa taua.

October 13th 1838: Waikato taua arrive at Maungatapu on their way to Maketu.

February 14th 1840: Arawa taua journeyed in their waka to Maungatapu. They opened fire on the Pa but no one was injured.
February 26th: another attack on the Maungatapu Pa. Three men on each side were wounded.

Maungatapu, Tauranga, Watercolour by John Kinder, 1863
Collection of Auckland Art Gallery, Ref 1937/15/45

September 18th–19th 1840: at Maungatapu, after 10 years of war, peace was made and a huge feast was given by the Maungatapu iwi.

June 1841: 114 baskets of potatoes were brought by the iwi to Te Papa in payment for Testaments.

February 14th 1849: a party from Maungatapu travelled to Te Papa to borrow pit saws so they could start erecting a chapel. Maungatapu was covered with scrub and ti tree not suitable for building and Rev Brown soon received a complaint from Otumoetai that a sacred tree belonging to them was being removed. Brown sorted the problem out and work was able to continue.

March 20th 1850: the posts for the new chapel were being set out.

Reference 

A Centennial History of Tauranga, by W.H. Gifford and H. Bradney Williams, publ. by AH & AW Reed, 1940

Marie Stewart and TEMCO

(continued from Part 1 published 2 July 2021, by a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous)

"More eggs for housewives" BOPT 20 Aug 1949
Courtesy of Papers Past

During the War years there were serious shortages of many things, and one was eggs for city dwellers. Marie Stewart was one of the initiators of the Tauranga  Co-operative Egg Marketing Society Ltd in 1943. She was assisted and encouraged by an English friend Joyce Laurence (Lorrie) who lived in New Zealand during the war.  Farmer’s wives could bring their baskets of eggs to a rudimentary egg depot near the Railway Bridge on the Strand extension and have them put under a light to check their quality. Any that passed were purchased and went into the pool of eggs to supply American servicemen, hospitals and urban households. At that time eggs were fetching 4d a dozen and often were bartered for other items. Poultry food was also in-ferior and very expensive.

Marie and Lorrie and the 1930 Model A Ford coupe
Image courtesy of Mackersey Family

In most centres these egg pool initiatives were under the wing of the local dairy co-ops but in Tauranga it was very soon set up separately. Marie also gave talks at var-ious meetings of the CWI in the mid 40s on ‘Egg Production.’  Marie sold the stock and plant from Cheriton in Waihi Rd around 1951 due to poultry disease problems, and travelled to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to help her old friend Lorrie on her poultry farm.

In the early 50s a levy of 1d per dozen was imposed by the Tauranga Co-operative Egg Marketing Society Ltd which financed the Society’s new premises. Profits were made, bonuses were paid and the Department of Agriculture began to recommend the area for intending poultry farmers.

Temco advertisement showing new building
Bay of Plenty Year Book, 1955, Astra Publishing
Image courtesy of Julie Green

A new building was opened ten years to the day after the formation of the society, helping business to grow tremendously. They ended up with twenty trucks delivering eggs from Thames to Opotiki and the eastern Waikato. In 1965 a mash plant opened at Mount Maunganui for the manufacture of poultry food, and there were TEMCO (having become the Tauranga Egg Marketing Company) branches in Rotorua, Taupo and Whakatane.

The TEMCO fleet in front of the mash plant at Mt Maunganui, 1960s
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries (Pae Koroki Ref. 02-117)

Many readers will remember the TEMCO processing plant situated on Cameron Road between 16th and 17th Avenue from the 1960s. I believe it was closed in the 1980s and the building was repurposed. Latterly it was an organic food outlet.

Packing eggs at Temco, 1963
Image courtesy of Bay of Plenty Times and Tauranga City Libraries (Pae Koroki, Ref. gca-5360)

By 1964 the city growth had squeezed Marie and her day-old chick enterprise out into the country. She moved operations to Taniwha Place next to the Wairoa River. Her niece Margaret remembers that in earlier times the newly hatched birds were careful-ly packed in octagonal boxes and transported to the Service Car (a forerunner of buses) depot from whence they were distributed rapidly all over the country. Eventually she produced 250,000 chicks annually and some even traveled as far as New Caledonia.

Marion was the first woman to serve on a primary producer board (1969-1973) and was awarded an MBE in 1974 for her services to the poultry industry and other com-munity organisations, such as the Plunket Society and the local Hospital Board.

Miss Stewart (at left) leaving Government house with her MBE
Image courtesy of Mackersey Family

She contributed to the New Zealand Farmer magazine for five decades and in the year of her death was given the poultry industry’s highest award.

Her last book ‘Keeping Chooks, Ducks, Turkeys and Geese?’ was published in 1979, dedicated to “My humble hens that have sent me to many more parts of the world than most are privileged to see.”

References

Anon (1949) “More Eggs for the Housewives,” Special Committee is Appointed, Bay of Plenty Times, Vol 77, Issue 15059, 20 Aug 1949, p20, from Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Anon (1955) Advertisement, Bay of Plenty Year Book, 1955, Astra Publishing
Anon (1962) Beautiful Bounteous Bay of Plenty, Stanton Smith & Co., Wellington, for Tauranga Branch of New Zealand Travel & Holidays Association
Anon (1971) Short History of TEMCO, Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society, No. 43, August 1971, p33-34, courtesy of Pae Koroki https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/23941
Anon (1975) Bay of Plenty Times, 26 Aug 1975
Elizabeth Cox. 'Stewart, Marion Watson', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2000. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5s46/stewart-marion-watson (accessed 4 December 2021)
Mackersey family reminiscences

Public Opinion in the Roaring Twenties: Letters to Editor 1920-1925

In total 887 ‘Letters to the Editor’ were submitted to William Gifford, the owner of The Bay of Plenty Times, between January 1920 and December 1925. By far the largest category was complaint-related and accounted for seventy-three percent of all letters written.

Over the five-year period the most frequent complaints were focused on the backward nature of the town. Many letter writers blamed terrible roads, poor leadership and the negative attitudes of residents. It was a battle between those who wished to spend money to improve the town’s infrastructure and facilities and those who saw nothing wrong with Tauranga and certainly didn’t want to spend their money paying for so called improvements.

Looking towards the disputed land at the bottom of Sixth Avenue, circa 1920s. Many years later it would become Memorial Park
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 99-795

There were numerous flash points, including whether to secure land on the foreshore to create a park at the bottom of Sixth Avenue and the construction of a bridge to Otumoetai. On the matter of the bridge, one disappointed land agent wrote: “I was astounded to see in your issue of the 29th instance that it had been decided to drop the bridge across the Waikareao, and this was strongly supported by several of the ratepayers that would have been considerably benefited. Every move has been tried by the ‘Death to Tauranga Crowd’ to stop this bridge and their tactics in forcing the cost of it up has no doubt done the trick.”

The bridge to Otumoetai was eventually opened in December 1959
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 04-434

Connected to these controversies was debate around rate collection and spending, which included factions both for and against Council borrowing. Few seemed to trust Council to spend money wisely and some even accused the Mayor and Councillors of incompetence, or worse, deliberately withholding information. This was particularly heated around borrowing to develop the town’s electricity supply. As one writer put it: “The Mayor is in the dark, Councillors are in the dark and the unfortunate ratepayers know less than nothing, their business apparently being to foot the bill. The Mayor is a happy individual if he imagines that thinking ratepayers will let vital matters go through in such a slipshod manner, without a protest.”

There were other issues which appeared again and again. Animal welfare and the town’s associated animal regulations caused considerable consternation in the early 1920s. Writing under the heading ‘A Nocturnal Menace’ one resident pleaded: “Will the Borough Council take steps to keep the streets clear of wandering horses at night? Some of these horses are evidently vicious. One that was browsing on the footpath of a street the other night lashed out at a pedestrian. Is this breaking of the borough regulations to continue until someone is killed or maimed?”

Letters that discussed sporting concerns were also common. One long thread debated the establishment of a Rugby League team in Tauranga with livid Rugby fans accusing League promoters of luring players away with promises of payment. In return League supporters claimed that Rugby officials threatened to ban those who switched codes.

Te Puna Rugby team, 1920. No doubt some of these players were tempted to switch codes
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 08-073

Finally, how the town looked was important to many. Town beautification was viewed as essential and often fell short of expectations. Litter was particularly bad especially on the town’s beaches: “Here again we find more rubbish, broken glass, old tins, crockery, to say nothing of an occasional dead cat.”  Trees were a constant bone of contention with most wanting to see more planted and existing ones better taken care of. However, this pro-tree attitude was not universal. For example, opinions for and against trees being planted along Cameron Road often appeared in the paper. As one ‘Camerodian’ put it, “I fail to see what Mr Murdoch has to boast of in leading the way in planting trees on a public thoroughfare after the ratepayers and residents had recorded their votes against the planting and decided that no planting should be done on the main street. I would point out that if all were allowed to plant trees at their own sweet will in front of their houses, what a nice hodge podge the streets would become.”

This article was originally part of a longer presentation given by Fiona Kean at a Tauranga Historical Society meeting earlier this year.

Pae Korokī is one year old

Pae Korokī (Dawn Chorus of the Birds), the library Heritage Platform is now one year old! It feels older than that to be honest (2020 through 2021 was about 8 years long after all). At that time we were pretty impressed with the 18 thousand photos, maps and archive items we'd managed to put on the site. 

Our very first Facebook Post used an image of Paraone Brown Reweti opening the Tamawhariua wharenui at Te Rereatukāhia marae in Katikati (1969). Here is that first post:

Today as I look at the breakdown of items we have on the site I can see nearly 35,000 photographs alone. One particular photograph collection that is growing fast is the Gifford Cross Collection. A  collection of negatives from the 1960s - 1980s by the Bay of Plenty photographers of the time, this collection of about 160,000 negatives is undergoing re-housing and digitisation as we work hard to protect them from the ravages of time.  

Schoolchildren's bicycles parked during a film, from the 1964 - Gifford-Cross series (Photo gca-6571)

Although photographs make the majority of our content, we've been working hard to get our archives online as well. It will be a long time before all of them are online, but we've nearly got all our high level descriptions online so that at least you can know what we have in our climate control facility. Currently 387 archive collection descriptions are up on Pae Korokī. 

Our newest addition are 152 artworks. You can see a link to these off of the Image Collections page. 

https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/56798

The Art Collections contains the follow :

• Collection by an unknown soldier with the 43 Regiment (three watercolours)
• Collection by an unknown soldier (15 watercolours)
• John Kinder collection (four original framed works)
• Horatio Robley collection (three framed paintings and an index sketch)
• Ethel Macmillan collection (55 watercolours)
• Emma Vogan collection (10 watercolours)
• An additional 31 works from a variety of artists.

We've been tracking how many people use Pae Korokī, to help us understand it's impact. Here are a few of our insights.

Over the 11 months we've been live, the number of people who visit fluctuates, and gradually increases on the whole.  These stats exclude anyone accessing from within the council buildings because we wanted to exclude staff activity working on the site. 

If we add staff activity to these figures we can see a similar pattern (in orange).

So how are people finding content on Pae Korokī? By Google of course, though only about half of them. For every two people that "googled something" and came to Pae Korokī, someone else out there has either typed in the address and come directly or had it bookmarked in their browser. Facebook referred just 12% of our traffic and the rest are small fry referrals. The list of sites that sent just a single visitor our way in 11 months is long and interesting. Pāpāmoa College is one, and a place called Swiss Cows another.

What are people most interested in?

Unsurprisingly the most visited pages are the Main Page  and the major collection pages like our Image Collections and our Archive Collections.  But at a more granular level, here is the Pae Korokī top ten!

1. Stories of Tauranga Moana (Compiled by Dame  Evelyn Stokes) 

2. Matakana Island 

3. Photographs collected during the 2013 Mount Maunganui Primary School Centenary 

4. 6th Battalion (Hauraki) Regiment Photograph Collection 

5. Fletcher's Mill by Peter Henson 

6. Rodney Giddens Tauranga CBD and Mount Maunganui Collection 

7. Uenuku, the Rainbow Atua 

8. Logan Publishing Tauranga and Bay of Plenty Photo News Collection 

9. John Aramete Wairehu Steedman Collection 

Coming in at number 10 is a photograph. 

10. Staff at Sanfords, Tauranga c. 1970s 

Tauranga City Libraries Photo 11-158

"Sanfords, Sulphur Point Depot, Tauranga c. 1970s. Front left; from man in dark suit - Doug Edwards (Edwards Engineering), Jack Costello, unknown, unknown, Roy Edwards with sleeves rolled up (Edwards Engineering). Also in photo; Vince Crossman, Eric Smith (unloading foreman), Dave and Frank Holloway." 

We don't know who took this photo, which will no doubt still be in copyright. So if you you know anything more about that, we'd love to know. 

Finally we want to acknowledge the passing of Huikakahu Kawe (Ngai te Ahi, Nga Tamarāwaho and Ngāti Tapu) who gifted the name Pae Korokī to Tauranga City Libraries. The name and explanation he gave us as to its meaning was instantly and enthusiastically embraced by our staff.  We even had T-shirts made for all library staff.

The mihi that welcomes all who visit the site captures this meaning well.

"Ka korokī ngā manu,

ka tākiri ko te ata."

Ko te tangi a te tūī, tui, tui, tuia.

Ko te tangi a te huia, hui, hui, huia.

Ko te tangi a te tangata, kanohi ki te kanohi

Tihei mauri ora!

Kei aku manu taki, kei aku manu tāiko,

kei aku manu kai i te mātauranga, tēnā koutou katoa.

E tiu taku manu, e topa taku manu,

e tau taku manu ki Pae Korokī, tau, tau, tau ana e.

"The dawn chorus of the

birds signals a new day."

The resounding cries of our native birds,

the tūī, and the huia, call us to gather

together, and reminds us that we are all

connected. Behold, tis the breath of life!

To those of you who have come here

from the four winds, to partake in knowledge,

welcome one and all.

Just like the birds whose journey calls

them to fly, to soar, and eventually settle,

let 'Pae Korokī' be the place where

you can come to learn,

to be informed, and inspired.

---

For more information about other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Harley Couper, Heritage Specialist at Tauranga City Library.

The Little Green Boatshed

by Guest Author Max Avery

The Little Green Boatshed, June 2017
Photograph by Fiona Kean

The subject of this article was no architectural masterpiece. Indeed, many may have called it unsightly. Yet, for nearly 50 years it was an integral part of the Tauranga foreshore. Snuggled by the Tauranga-Matapihi railway bridge it served the Yacht and Power Boat Club before it became a home for Tim Morrell and Bob Murray’s boating activities.

On July 15, 2021 at the stroke of a bureaucratic pen, the little green corrugated iron boatshed was demolished and one of the last remaining features of the old Tauranga harbour foreshore was consigned to history.

Slipway and Matapihi Rail Bridge, 7 May 2019
Photograph by Fiona Kean

Built by members of the TYPBC, the boat shed was on a reclamation, also organised by those enthusiastic yachtsmen. They needed an area handy to their clubhouse which their craft, particularly the seven-foot Tauranga class, could be rigged and launched from. Begun in 1935, the reclamation grew steadily in area over the years. A concrete slipway was poured in 1944 and some years later a manual winch installed.

Plans for a boatshed on the reclamation to house the club’s patrol boats were approved in 1963 and the building was erected by club working bees in 1974, according to club member Bill Faulkner. The club apparently had little use for the shed after 1977, when its small boat fleet became based at Kulim Park, and a new clubhouse was established at Sulphur Point in 1983.

Winch
Photo by Lee Switzer

Clubhouse custodian Tim Morrell is said to have used the boasted for storing nautical gear, and the adjacent slipway for the maintenance of his beloved mullet boat Lorna.  It became known as “Tim’s private slip.” When Tim Morrell moved on Tauranga land owner and keen fisherman Bob Murray moved in, and for many years shared the slipway and boatshed with fellow mariners and fishermen, until the Bay of Plenty Regional Council began trying to evict him. “I’ve had that shed for 30 years. It’s a mates thing,” the 84-year old told journalist Andrew Campbell in 2017, claiming that he had obtained a lease from the Tauranga City Council. “It’s between me and the council really,” he said, critical of what he called the regional council’s “bombastic attitude.”

Bob Murray was never ready to give up on his harbourside haven, and neither he did, until death parted them on August 30, 2018. The shed remained, its surroundings no longer kept tidy by Bob. The historic manual winch was wrenched from its foundations by persons unknown in September 2019. Through the efforts of members of the Tauranga Historical Society, to whom the winch had been given by the TYPBC, the artefact was recovered in February 2020 and is now safely lodged with the Tauranga Heritage Collection.

The boasted has gone and only the concrete slipway, girt by iron rails on which the wheels of the boat cradle ran, remains - a mute monument to the many happy maritime memories of past years. And of the old Strand and Dive Crescent foreshore, only the former TYPBC clubhouse (now a restaurant) and the railway wharf cargo shed continue to defy change.