The Wreck of the Cutter Oi on Panepane Beach, 1890

 

Panepane Point and Beach from Mount Maunganui, showing part of the narrow main shipping channel and the Tauranga harbour.

Populated for centuries by Māori iwi, and today mostly associated with Ngāi te Rangi hapū, Matakana Island is a long, flat barrier island 20km in length and about 3km wide. The island forms a sand barrier between Tauranga Harbour and the vast South Pacific Ocean. Since time immemorial Matakana’s dune-backed beach has been a landing and wrecking site for waka Māori, and before and following the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, a diverse range of Māori and Pākehā owned sailing vessels.

The name Panepane in 19^th century European sources referred to a specific southern section of Matakana Island close to Panepane Purakau or Panepane Point, not the entire ocean beach [1]. It was in fact a name for the southernmost three kilometres located across the channel from Mauao | Mount Maunganui.

Sailing craft, driven eastward during gales, were thrown bodily onto the beach where their crews attempted to leap clear into the surf, before their vessels began a deadly mast-shattering roll. Again, when sailing vessels of all sizes attempting to enter or leave the harbour during marginal conditions missed the channel by even a little, they, depending on conditions, either grounded temporarily or were rolled and wrecked among the breakers.

A Tauranga-owned and -based cutter, the Oi became a common sight on Tauranga Moana during its three-year working career - likely named, in part, after the common nautical haloo in use at the time, “Oi, ahoy!” Kauri-built cutters were much favoured by Tauranga’s small maritime entrepreneurs though they never outnumbered schooners. Interestingly, their single owner-operators also styled themselves master mariners though their crews might number only one or two.

On 16 January 1890, the Oi left the little Bay of Plenty port of Maketū. Crossing the Kaituna River outlet through heavy surf, it began the short 27km (14.6 nautical sea mile) voyage up the coast to Tauranga with a cargo of flax. Information on the cutter’s tonnage is not available, probably because it was unregistered. Regardless, the provisions and coastal timber trade on the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty coasts between the 1870s and 90’s was often handled by sailing cutters of 8-30 tons.

A gale had sprung up a day before the Oi’s departure from Maketū, but the captain and crew, later identified as ‘Messrs W. Turner and W. Cinnamon’ undertook the voyage regardless. The Oi cutter was last seen on the same day by people near Mount Maunganui around midday. It was then battling heavy seas just off Motuotau | Rabbit Island and Moturiki | Leisure Island and heading towards the Tauranga Harbour entrance [2].

 There were soon grave fears at Tauranga for the safety of the Oi and its crew, and two days later, despite the gale which was to last for a week, an intrepid search party comprising ‘Messrs Moss, C. Faulkner, C. Spencer, Allely, Maxwell, and Cotter’, was organised. First crossing by boat to Pilot Bay below the Mount, they were informed by the crew of another cutter that had just safely passed through the Mount Maunganui Channel, that they had seen wreckage of another vessel on Matakana Island’s Panepane beach.

The old Auckland-based, gaff-rigged cutter Jesse Logan. Note the long bowsprit which, without making their masts taller, increased the sail area of cutters while allowing the sail plan to be broken down into smaller, more manageable headsails.

Crossing the channel to Matakana Island and Panepane Beach, the search party found the remains of the Oi lying literally smashed to pieces above the high-water mark.

The mast was broken off to a stump, the bowsprit was completely wrenched out, and the timbers had all parted at the stern, leaving a great gap. Her hatches were off, and the hold was swept of everything. Her rudder was found broken in two places, and her sails were found on the beach double reefed. No trace of the crew was discovered, and there is little doubt that these unfortunate young men have found a watery grave. It is difficult to say what caused the catastrophe [3].

The following day, the same party began another search along the full length of Matakana Island’s ocean beach on horses hired from the Island’s Māori residents. Half way towards Tauranga Harbour’s northern Katikati entrance ‘they found broken oars, part of a hat belonging to Cinnamon, and parts of an accordion’[4].  Footprints on the beach initially gave some hope and the cutter Eleanor and several other local boats continued the search as the gale abated. The police also searched Mount Maunganui’s forested slopes but the Oi’s crew were never found [5].

 The loss of well-captained, shallow-draught, local vessels like the Oi had disruptive as well as tragic outcomes for the Bay of Plenty’s coastal communities. From December 1887, for instance, the Oi had transported much needed cargoes of provisions and sundries twice per month from Tauranga to the settlements of Katikati and Te Puke on the Uretara and Kaituna Rivers respectively, ‘cash on delivery’. In one instance, the cutter had sailed the inner harbour route from Tauranga to deliver, to the Uretara River bridge at Katikati, sacks of potatoes, flour, sugar, oatmeal, seed, ‘maize by the bushel’, and boxes of tea, soap, candles, jam and golden syrup for the new settlers there [6]. 

A beach-wrecked ketch or sloop at the high-water mark.

The Oi was by no means the last Pākehā or Māori owned sailing craft to be wrecked or temporarily stranded in the wrecking zone on Panepane Beach. In May 1893, just three years after the Oi’s loss, the wreckage of an unidentified ketch was found on Panepane Beach following a gale. The violence of the wrecking had broken off the 25-foot mast at deck level. Again, the bodies of the crew were never found [7].

References

[1] Panepane Purakau, Western Bay of Plenty District Council,https://www.westernbay.govt.nz ›community› projects

[2] Te Aroha News, 23 April 1890: 4.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Bay of Plenty Times, 9 December 1887: 3.

[7] Grey River Argus, 9 May 1893: 2.

Image credits

Panepane Point, Matakana Island, photo/file. Kiri Gillespie, ‘Matakana Island proposal: Panepane Point plan prompts encouraging level of interest’. Bay of Plenty Times, 27 August 2020.

 ‘Jessie Logan, circa. 1880s. Restoration of NZ’s Oldest Surviving Yacht’. Image courtesy of Keith Pine, New Zealand Prosthetic Eye Service, info@prosthetic eye service.

 Abandoned maritime wreckage. Stocktake royalty free images https://www.freepik.com › free-photos-vectors  

E is for Embroidery

“Success is not fame or money or the power to bewitch. It is to have created something valuable from your own individuality and skill, a garden, an embroidery, a painting, a cake, a life." Charlotte Gray, Canadian biographer and historian

This sampler is an example of embroidery created to demonstrate skill and proficiency in needlework. 
Tauranga Museum, 0283/84.

This embroidery sampler was created in 1913 by Iris Shead and, according to Tauranga Museum’s receipt book, was donated to the collection in 1972 by Mrs Wapp. When I first came across it, a few questions quickly came to mind: Who was Iris? How old was she when she embroidered the sampler? And where, or what, was Hamont?

Research revealed that Iris was born in Ashburton in 1898 to Amy and Walter Shead. Just a year after her birth, her mother was involved in a shocking railway accident at Rakaia, where four passengers were killed when two excursion trains collided due to excessive speed. Amy was pregnant at the time and sustained serious back injuries, prompting Walter to take a civil case against the Crown. The case was successful and became something of a landmark, leading to improvements in railway safety across New Zealand. Amy received £700 in compensation, and Walter £500, awarded for “the expenses he had been put to by his wife’s illness (he had been forced to hire a housekeeper) and as compensation for the loss of society and companionship.”

The Rakaia Railway Disaster: view of wrecked carriage in which victims were killed. 
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-18990324-04-03

 You may be wondering what any of this has to do with an embroidered sampler. A few months after receiving the payout, the Shead family left New Zealand for Europe. By 1913 Iris, aged 14 or 15, was living in Hamont, Belgium, where she embroidered this sampler.

In 1920, Iris married Englishman Wilfred Phillips, had a son, and eventually returned to New Zealand. She later divorced Phillips and, in 1927, married Arthur Wapp. Together they would also have a son. Through all these moves and life changes, Iris’s sampler travelled with her. Toward the end of her life, she chose to preserve it by donating it to the museum’s collection. What initially appears to be a modest example of needlework becomes something far more evocative - a stitched record of a young woman’s life shaped by family tragedy, migration, and resilience.

Captain Alexander Turner Jnr. and the Scow 'Margaret' 1892-1914

Part I 

Alexander (Sandy) Turner sailed from Ireland to Auckland with his family on the immigrant ship Carisbrooke Castle in 1875. Travelling on to Tauranga by steamer, he established himself as a 27 year old freehold farmer on Katikati’s Uretara River. After farming for some years, he commenced running coastal sailing vessels and cargoes between the Bay of Plenty, Auckland and intermediate ports. 

Captain Alexander Turner Snr. 

Image: The Pioneers: Settlers and Famulies of Katikati and District. Christine Clement, 2012, p.327.

On 13 February 1892, his son Alexander Jnr., known locally as Alec or Alick, sailed into Tauranga harbour with his new purchase, the Margaret, a bluff bowed, flat bottomed, two-masted scow. With a gross weight of 31-tons, it was powered solely by sail [1].

The scow Margaret c. 1890s.

Sitting level in low tide Tauranga  harbour, the crew are offloading posts and sawn timber onto two drays. While scows were often crude and ungainly in appearance, the Margaret has pleasing lines with a nice lift to the capping rail fore and aft. Image: Photographer unknown. Photo 04-572, Te Ao Mārama.

Built at Auckland for its first owner Mrs M. Andrew in late 1884, and described as ‘a small coaster’, the bluff-bowed Margaret was initially engaged in carrying kauri logs, baulk kauri and sawn timber to Auckland, from locations as diverse as Great Barrier Island, Ōrewa, Pūhoi, Pākiri and the Coromandel mill ports at Mercury and Kennedy’s Bay[2]. Between February 1892 and 1906, Captain Alec Turner and the Margaret regularly transported sawn kauri timber from Auckland and Coromandel sawmills to Tauranga, and on to Maketū and Katikati where it was needed for the construction of houses, schools, retail stores, hotels and churches for George Vesey Stewart’s immigrant settlers [3].

The large-scale timber felling and milling operations at Katikati, Whakāmarama, Omanawa and the Ōropi Bush which required numerous scows (most assisted by steam engines) to transport lumber by sea, did not commence in earnest until the early 20th century. During the depression of the 1890s, entrepreneurial local scow owner-captains like Alec Turner took every opportunity to acquire cargoes and ensure that their vessels turned a profit. On St Patrick’s Day 17 March 1892, for instance, he took a party of 30 people on a fishing excursion out into the Bay of Plenty, having sold tickets at 10 shillings per head. Turner continued his fishing excursions as far afield as Tūhua-Mayor Island and picnic excursions from Tauranga to the Mount throughout the 1890s [4].

When not delivering timber to Tauranga on contract, Turner disposed of his own cargoes of sawn timber and posts ‘at unusually cheap prices’, directly to local builders and timber merchants. Soon after purchasing the Margaret he sold off a cargo of sawn timber from Tairua at the Victoria Wharf in Tauranga at just 5 shillings and sixpence per hundred feet, yet was still able to return a profit [5].

The scow Lena Gladys on Katikati’s Uretara River, 1920

Like Captain Turner’s Margaret, the shallow draught Lena Gladys regularly sailed up the Uretara River to deliver and collect freight from Katikati. The Lena Gladys operated in Bay of Plenty waters until the Taneatua branch railway line opened in 1928. Image: Photographer unknown. Western Bay of Plenty District Council Community Archives.

Uplifting their purchases from the Margaret as it lay at Victoria Wharf or as it sat level at low tide locations around the harbour, Turner’s customers transported their purchases away by horse and cart.

Ever the entrepreneur, in October 1893, Turner returned from Mount Maunganui in October 1893 with a cargo of beach shells, before departing to sell them in Auckland for roading and road fill[6]. Turner continued this lucrative sideline into the late 1890s, supplying the Tauranga Borough Council with much needed ‘Mount shell’, as it was called, for local roading [7]. According to the Bay of Plenty Times:

"In those days there were tremendous quantities of marine shell deposited in the locality of the North Rock Light at the Mount. This was shovelled into drays, carted across the isthmus, and loaded into a large scow, the Margaret, in Pilot Bay. The unloading of the boat took place into drays at a point off the eastern end of Spring Street, but unloading periods were restricted to the times when the water was low enough to permit the draught horses to draw the loads. The pulling was heavy too, but nevertheless Cameron Road, the Strand, Devonport Road, and other streets in the business area carried surfaces up to four inches in thickness, when dressed with this material. Those road tops were well maintained. Half-a-century ago practically no metal was used [8]."

View of the Opopoti, Maungatapu Marae and the Rangataua Estuary on 2nd October 1958.

Captain Alec Turner and the Margaret once negotiated the estuary’s shallow inner harbour waters to bring a cargo of raupō (bulrush) for thatching the walls and roof of a new wharenui (meeting house). Image: Bronwyn Taikato. Ref 00-127. Te Ao Mārama.

Again, during April 1899, Turner and the Margaret arrived in Tauranga from an unidentified location with a cargo of raupō for Māori at Matapihi who were constructing a large wharenui. At that time there was also considerable demand for raupō by Ngāi Te Rangi hapu who were repairing their wharenui at Wharēroa Marae (near the present site of the harbour bridge on the Mount Maunganui side), at Karikari Marae (on the inner harbour near modern-day Bay Park Stadium) and at Maungatapu, where the Ngāti He hapū were constructing a new wharenui [9].

References

[1] Clement, Christine and Ellen McCormack, The Pioneer Settlers and Families of Katikati and District, Ellen McCormack, Katikati, 2012, p. 328; Bay of Plenty Times, 20 August 1936, p. 2.

[2] Auckland Star, 6 December 1884, p.2.

[3] Bay of Plenty Times, 1 February 1893, p. 2; 14 December 1898, p. 2; 14 May 1900, p. 2; Auckland Star, 25 March, 1898, p.2.

[4] Bay of Plenty Times, 15 February 1892, p. 2; 27 December 1945, p.4; 21 January 1948, p.2.

[5] Ibid:May 1892, p.2.

[6] Ibid: 30 October, 1893, p.2.

[7] Ibid:15 December 1897: 2; 25 August 1897, p.2.

[8] Ibid: 5 January 1839, p.5.

[9] Ibid:5 April, 1899, p.2.

The When and Why of Provincial Anniversaries

Provincial government boundaries came into effect on 17 January 1853. Over time the number of provinces increased to ten
Map courtesy of Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Two recent work-related mix-ups around Auckland Anniversary Day got me wondering about the when and why of provincial anniversaries. A quick search online revealed their relevance is increasingly debated and calls for consolidation, or even cancellation, are frequent. One of the most persistent arguments is that regions, like Waikato, should have their own celebration. Seemingly anniversaries being determined by a system of provincial government established in 1852 and abolished in 1875 is at best antiquated, and at worst, a vestige of colonialism. [i]

William Hobson, Oil portrait by James Ingram McDonald
Courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa

Six regions currently celebrate Auckland Anniversary - Waikato, Auckland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Northland, Gisborne, and parts of Manawatū-Whanganui. The day carries the additional historical significance of being New Zealand’s first public holiday. The commemoration date of 29 January marks the arrival of William Hobson in the Bay of Islands in 1840 and was gazetted in 1842:

Saturday, the 29th instant, being the SECOND ANNIVERSARY of the establishment of the Colony, His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct that day to be held as a GENERAL HOLIDAY on which occasion the Public Offices will be closed.[ii]

Hobson would later state that 30 January was the day the Union Jack was hoisted up the Herald’s flagpole at Kororāreka (Russell) and British Sovereignty over New Zealand was proclaimed. As a result, there was some fluidity around the date of the anniversary. At the end of the 1800s and the turn of the 1900s, the Bay of Plenty Times regularly printed advertising which used either date.

Advertisements for the annual Athletic Sports Day held at the Tauranga Domain on Auckland Anniversary Day. Printed in the Bay of Plenty Times in the weeks before each event, they show how the two dates were considered Anniversary Days. Courtesy of Papers Past

With ‘Mondayisation’ the date we observe the holiday is different each year. Indeed, in 2027 Auckland Anniversary won’t even be in January, the Monday falling on 1 February.[iii] Not that this will be the first time it’s been held in February. In 1901 the death of Queen Victoria necessitated the postponement of the celebration.[iv]

The campsite of the advance party sent to establish the newly founded city of Auckland, September 1840
Courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, Ref. E-216-f-115

Last year, in an additional twist to the date debate, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust called for the holiday to be moved to 18 September – the day Ngāti Whātua chief, Āpihai Te Kawau, gifted Hobson 3000 acres to establish the settlement of Auckland.[v] According to the trust this was the “true birth of the city”.[vi] While this seems a valid point for Auckland, those of us in the regions might be left wondering if it is indeed time to go our separate ways. However, it might be a case to be careful what we wish for as how can the Bay of Plenty – as diverse as it is – find a date of significance to all?

---

[i] Why NZ’s outdated regional anniversaries should be ditched | The Spinoff Auckland Anniversary 2024: Waikato community leaders supportive of own celebration - NZ Herald

[ii] The New Zealand Government Gazette, 26 January 1842, (Volume 2, 4th edition)

[iii] For those reading this blog in the future this year’s date is 27 January 2025.

[iv] Papers Past | Newspapers | Bay of Plenty Times | 30 January 1901 | TELEGRAPHIC.

[v] Yeah, Nah: Should the date for Auckland Anniversary Day be changed? | Stuff The case for celebrating Auckland’s anniversary on September 18 | The Spinoff

[vi] https://www.stuff.co.nz/te-ao-maori/350158615/newsable-auckland-anniversary-date-has-no-relevance-city#:~:text=The%20Ng%C4%81ti%20Wh%C4%81tua%20%C5%8Cr%C4%81kei%20Trust,does%20not%20relate%20to%20Auckland.

 

Tauranga Photographers: Stewart Brothers

Class photograph, Tauranga School, c. 1890-1892
Carte de visite photograph by F.E. Stewart of Stewart Bros., Tauranga
Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 04-502

In late June 1890 a Mr F.E. Stewart “of the firm of Messrs Stewart Bros., photographers, Thames” arrived in Tauranga on a visit[1] and, after negotiations with resident photographer and chemist Charles Spencer, made an arrangement to “take over Mr Spencer’s photographic business here for a few weeks.”[2] It is unclear why Spencer, who had been very active in the district photographically over the previous decade,[3] seems to have lost interest in the studio aspect of his business in the 1890s, but he had his fingers in many pies, and in 1893 moved with his family to Auckland.[4]

Stewart quickly showed his willingness to take up where Spencer had left off, announcing:

“First-class work at reasonable prices. Enamelling a specialty, also children’s portraits. Views of residences, etc., taken.”

Enamelling referred to the glossy finish that he was able to produce on his card-mounted portraits, while reference to children mostly signified to his customers that he was both equipped with the latest in fast lenses and shutters, and adept in pacifying notoriously fidgety or excitable children. The statement that “views of residences, etc.” would be taken indicates that in addition to welcoming customers to Spencer’s studio premises conveniently situated on the Strand, he was happy to carry out what was commonly referred to as outdoors work.

Class photograph, Tauranga School, c. 1890-1892
Carte de visite photograph by F.E. Stewart of Stewart Bros., Tauranga
Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 04-327

Two fine class photos taken at the Tauranga School in 1890 or 1891, then situated on the corner of Harington Street and Cameron Road,[5] have survived in the library’s collection, now displayed on Pae Korokī. They demonstrate Stewart’s skill at capturing the detail in the faces of a large group of students using the diminutive carte de visite format.

But who was “F.E.”? Since he was only ever referred to by his initials in the local press during his brief stay here, he’s not been particularly easy to track down, and it didn’t help that he proved to be unrelated to any of several other Stewart families then living in the coastal Bay of Plenty.

Young woman, tentatively identified as Marion Sophia Gilman (née Ferguson), c. 1890-1891
Carte de visite portrait, photographed by F.E. Stewart of Stewart Bros., Tauranga
Collection of The Elms Foundation

Francis Edward Stewart was born in 1865 at Chiselhurst, Kent (England) to carpenter Edwin Stewart and his wife Ellen. The family, including an older brother Herbert Samuel, arrived in New Zealand in January 1875 as assisted immigrants,[6] settling in Hamilton by 1877.[7] By early 1888 they were living in Cambridge, and older brother Herbert, working as a photographer, produced photographic views that were compared favourably with those from “the Auckland fraternity”.[8] By April 1890, probably after encountering stiff competition from well-established Cambridge photographers,[9] both Herbert and his younger brother Francis had moved to Thames, presumably sensing a growing demand there, and opening a studio in Queen Street.[10]The appearance of Francis in Tauranga only two months later suggests that clients in Thames were not as plentiful as expected.

The Tauranga Brass Band (including F. Stewart, front row, 4^th from left), c. mid-1891
Attributed to F.E. Stewart of Stewart Bros., later reprinted on card mount with incorrect date
Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 01-592

Francis, or Frank as he was occasionally known, quickly made friends in the Tauranga community, where his musical skills were an important social asset. He joined a small local orchestra as a cornet player[11] and, with George Arnold Ward, subsequently played a role in the resurrection of the Tauranga Brass Band,[12] which made its first public appearance in March 1891.[13] He was engaged to take photographs of “the Mercury Bay and Tauranga Football teams and the Brass Band [above] … the Fife and Drum Band [below] … [and] the Fire Brigade in full uniform” at the Domain in mid-1891.[14]

The Tauranga Drum & Fife Band, c. mid-1891
F.E. Stewart of Stewart Bros., Thames and Tauranga
Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 12-015

By early September, however, Stewart had decided to move on, and was given a rousing farewell by Ward and his other band mates.[15] Subsequent sightings of him in Waipawa (November 1891)[16] and Dannevirke (February 1892)[17] suggest that he was touring the central North Island. In the mid- to late 1890s Francis Stewart seems to have rather disappeared from view, although his brother Herbert did open a hairdressing saloon in Rotorua in 1895, simultaneously announcing that he hoped to open a photographic studio in due course.[18] In December 1895 there was a report of a “Mr Stewart, photographer” making a trip to the Ureweras and returning with a “portfolio full of interesting views”, which must have been either Herbert or his brother Francis.[19]

Popular Pastimes in New Zealand – Jumping at the A & P Show, Auckland, c. December 1907
Halftone print stereocard, photographed by F.E. Stewart, published by New Zealand Graphic
Collection of Te Papa Tongarewa, Ref. O.005495

In January 1900 a photograph of the Jubilee Swimming Carnival at Auckland’s Caliope Dock, an event which had taken place a decade earlier in 1890, appeared as a halftone print under the byline of F.E. Stewart – almost certainly our Francis Ernest –in the New Zealand Illustrated Magazine.[20] Then between December 1907[21] and January 1912[22] he was an intermittent contributor to the New Zealand Graphic of photographs of sporting events and leisure activities, mostly in the Auckland region, but occasionally further afield in locations such as Thames and Whanganui. In 1907 they also published some of his stereoviews as part of their New Zealand Graphic Series, issued with the weekly newspaper.[23]

Mud Volcano, Waiotapu, Rotorua, N.Z. (Radcliffe & Stewart, #158), c. 1907-1914
Sterephotographic view, photographed by F.E. Stewart, published as postcard by F.G. Radcliffe
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0105/19

A series of his stereophotographic views of the Auckland North, Rotorua and Taupo districts were published as postcards under the “Radcliffe & Stewart” banner, probably between 1909, when F.G. Radcliffe is known to have commenced his operations,[24] and the onset of the Great War in late 1914.

Tour group and guide standing before wharenui, Rotorua, c. 1900-1922
Photographed by F.E. Stewart, Rotorua
The Ngaire Hart Estate Collection, Courtesy of Cordy’s Auctions

In December 1915 advertisements appeared simultaneously in the Auckland[25] and Wellington[26] newspapers, inserted by Stewart and Bennett, photographers of Rotorua, looking for a outdoor photographer and a lady retoucher, “with experience [in] bromide printing and photographic colouring preferred”. Postcard format photographs are known from this era depicting tourist groups with Maori guides at several locations, including Whakarewarewa[27]and Ohinemutu (above), with “F.E. Stewart Photographer Rotorua” either as a blind stamp or in purple ink on the reverse.

Studio portrait of Te Akakura Ru (wife of Rua Kenana) and her son Ruhoni, Rotorua, c. 1910-1920
Silver gelatin postcard print, photographed by F.E. Stewart
Collection of Whakatāne Museum Te Whare Taonga o Taketake, Ref. P96

From the high negative numbers (up to 8648 have been found) it is clear that by this time Francis had a substantial operation in Rotorua, presumably with an outdoor photographer employed to capture the tourists on their peregrinations, while Stewart and possibly a retoucher remained at the studio to take indoor portraits and carry out the developing and printing.

Group of men and women doing a haka of welcome, Rotorua, c. 1907-1922
Photographed by F.E. Stewart
Collection of Alexander Turnbull Library (James Cowan Collection), Ref. 1/2-021059-F

Francis Stewart worked from premises in Pukaki Street, Rotorua until at least 1922, then between 1925 and 1938 moved to Amohau Street, describing himself as an apiarist. Then in 1941, a further move took him to Mount Maunganui where he became a shopkeeper. He remained there until his death in 1953.[28]

References

---

[1] “Untitled [F.E. Stewart on a Visit to Tauranga],” Bay of Plenty Times, June 30, 1890, Volume 17 Issue 2530 edition.

[2] Francis Ernest Stewart, “Photography. F.E. Stewart of the Firm of Stewart Bros., of the Thames. Advertisement,” Bay of Plenty Times, July 24, 1890, Volume 17 Issue 2537 edition.

[3] Brett Payne, “Charles Spencer (1854-1933) – Part III – Serving the Community,” Tauranga Historical Society (blog), September 13, 2019, http://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/09/charles-spencer-1854-1933-part-iii.html.

[4] Brett Payne, “Visiting Price’s Corner Studio on The Strand,” Blog, Tauranga Historical Society (blog), October 3, 2014, https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2014/10/visiting-prices-corner-studio-on-strand.html.

[5] Alan Charles Bellamy, ed., Tauranga 1882-1982, the Centennial of Gazetting Tauranga as a Borough (Tauranga, New Zealand: Tauranga City Council, 1982).

[6] “New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973,” Database with images (Wellington, New Zealand: Archives New Zealand, June 14, 2024), 1839–1973, FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1609792.

[7] “New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-2010” (Wellington, New Zealand: Parliamentary Library), Ancestry.com, accessed February 25, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1836/.

[8] “Mr H. Stewart, Photographer, of Cambridge,” Waikato Times, March 30, 1889, Volume 32 Issue 2608 edition.

[9] Herbert Samuel Stewart, “H. Stewart, Photographer, Cambridge. Advertisement,” Waikato Times, November 30, 1889, Volume 33 Issue 2713 edition.

[10] Francis Ernest Stewart, “Photography. F.E. Stewart’s Studio Now Open. Advertisement,” Thames Star, April 26, 1890, Volume 22 Issue 6559 edition.

[11] “Athletic Tournament (Tauranga Gymnastic Club),” Bay of Plenty Times, September 22, 1890, Volume 17 Issue 2561 edition.

[12] “Untitled [The Tauranga Brass Band],” Bay of Plenty Times, December 31, 1890, Volume 17 Issue 2573 edition.

[13] “Untitled [The Tauranga Brass Band’s First Public Appearance],” Bay of Plenty Times, March 16, 1891, Volume 18 Issue 2604 edition.

[14] “Untitled [F.E. Stewart Engaged to Take Photographs at Domain],” Bay of Plenty Times, August 7, 1891, Volume 17 Issue 2715 edition.

[15] “Brass Band. Presentation to Mr F.E. Stewart,” Bay of Plenty Times, September 9, 1891, Volume 20 Issue 2728 edition.

[16] Francis Ernest Stewart, “F.E. Stewart, Photographer. Advertisement,” Waipawa Mail, November 28, 1891, Volume 14 Issue 2692 edition.

[17] “Untitled [Photographer Mr Stewart Now in Dannevirke],” Bush Advocate, February 25, 1892, Volume 7 Issue 590 edition.

[18] “Local News and Notes [Mr H. Stewart Opens Hair-Dressing Saloon],” Hot Lakes Chronicle, July 17, 1895, Volume 2 Issue 128 edition.

[19] “Local News and Notes [Mr Stewart, Photographer, Has Returned from Urewera Country],” Hot Lakes Chronicle, December 18, 1895, Volume 3 Issue 159 edition.

[20] Francis Ernest Stewart, “Calliope Dock Auckland. Scene of the Jubilee Swimming Carnival, 1890,” New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, January 1, 1900, Volume 1 Issue 4 edition.

[21] Francis Ernest Stewart, “Auckland Agricultural Association’s Show [Photographs],” New Zealand Graphic, December 7, 1907, Volume 39 Issue 23 edition.

[22] Francis Ernest Stewart, “Wanganui Celebrates the Anniversary of the Province With a Big Caledonian Gathering. [Photographs],” New Zealand Graphic, January 29, 1913, Volume 49 Issue 5 edition.

[23] Francis Ernest Stewart, “Snapshots Taken During the Jumping and Riding Competitions at the Enormously Successful Auckland Show. [Photographs],” New Zealand Graphic, December 7, 1907, Volume 39 Issue 23 edition.

[24] William Main and Alan Jackson, “Wish You Were Here”: The Story of New Zealand Postcards (New Zealand Postcard Society, 2005).

[25] Stewart and Bennett, “Outdoor Photographer, Youth and Retoucher. Advertisement,” New Zealand Herald, December 2, 1915, Volume 52 Issue 16090 edition.

[26] Stewart and Bennett, “Photographer and Retoucher. Apply Immediate. Advertisement,” Dominion, December 10, 1915, Volume 9 Issue 2640 edition.

[27] Francis Ernest Stewart, Tour Group at Whakarewarewa, c.  -1920 1900, Silver gelatin postcard print, 88mm x 138mm, c.  -1920 1900, Te Papa Tongarewa, https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1400586.

[28] “New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-2010.”