F is for a Fisherman’s Priest

Fishing off the Town Wharf, Tauranga, 1960s. Tauranga Museum 0005/20/1194

Childhood memories of casting homemade handlines from local wharves, or from rocks on the harbour’s edge are shared by many. A national survey conducted in 2024 by MPI (Ministry of Primary Industries) reported that approximately half of all recreational fishing takes place along the northeastern coastline of the North Island. This will come as no surprise to Bay of Plenty residents. 

A home-made fishing handline. Tauranga Museum 0092/25

Less expected, perhaps, is the role recreational fishing, especially big game fishing, has played in promoting Tauranga to the world. In the 1920s and 1930s, the lure of catching swordfish, marlin and mako sharks off Tuhua (Mayor Island) attracted the rich and famous to Tauranga, including international bestselling author Zane Grey and Lady Yule, who was at one time the richest woman in Britain. 

 Zane Grey's yacht, the "Fisherman", alongside the railway wharf Tauranga. First visited in April 1927. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 04-576

Although big game fishing had already enticed international visitors to Tauranga, it was the arrival of the Lerner Expedition in January 1939 that firmly placed the region on the world stage. Led and sponsored by wealthy Americans Michael and Helen Lerner, the expedition's stated aim was to collect specimens of New Zealand marine life for the American Museum of Natural History. Yet the Lerners were also avid big game anglers, and fishing for recreation formed an important part of their visit. Later that year, Michael Lerner established the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), which helped shape modern sport fishing worldwide.

A souvenir of the Lerner Expedition. Tauranga Museum, 1101/06

This fish bat, used to stun or kill the expedition’s catch, is also known as a fishing priest – a name that alludes to its role in administering the 'last rites’. It is signed by all the members of the Lerner Expedition and was given to the donor’s father, Keith Gifford, who served as Secretary of the Big Game Club on Tuhua and accompanied the Lerners throughout their three-week visit. 

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.

When I first heard of Papamoa

 Papamoa farmland - typical flat land that the Baylys farmed in the 1920s.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo gca-20628

I can remember my parents talking about Elsie Walker when I was a child.  In fact, it might even have been part of a ‘stranger danger’ conversation with them.  The year before I was born, my father had heard on the radio that Bill Bayly had been hanged.  What does this have to do with Papamoa, my current home, you may well ask?

Elsie Walker, Auckland Weekly News, 28 February 1929, p.50 

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19290228-50-05

Elsie, an Opotiki girl, lived with her aunt and uncle, the Baylys, on their farm in Papamoa in 1928 when she disappeared.  Coincidentally, so did their car.  Some days later, her body was found in Auckland at Panmure, and the car was discovered with an empty petrol tank at Papatoetoe. Elsie did not drive.  The sandshoes she was wearing were worn out as though she had walked the seven miles from Papatoetoe to Panmure. The police and coroner could not establish her cause of death, with opinions varying from exposure to accidental. A witness claimed to have seen the car being driven to Auckland by a man with a woman sitting in the back seat, already dead, but the accuracy of this information was not conclusive. Some suspicion arose about Bill Bayly, Elsie's cousin, but he claimed to have been in Auckland all along, and the police believed him.

Mr F K Hunt, a Stipendiary Magistrate, spoke at the inquest stating that the public were entitled to a better service from the Police than they received in that case.  He referred to mistakes and described the enquiries as inefficient. No person ever faced trial for the murder of Elsie Walker.

William Alfred (Bill) Bayly, NZ Truth, Issue 1246, 17 October 1929, Page 7
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTR19291017.2.33.1.2

Five years later William Alfred Bayly, a married man with two children by then, was farming at Ruawaro near Huntly.  Bill Bayly lived on an adjacent farm to Christobel and Samuel Lakey. Other neighbours noticed one day in October 1934 that the Lakey’s cows had not been milked that morning and set about doing so. The Lakey’s 110-acre farm carried 51 dairy cows. The neighbours were concerned to find no sign of the Lakeys in their house and it was not long before they found the body of Christobel Lakey dead with her face in the duckpond.  As soon as this news spread around the district people assumed Samuel Lakey had murdered his wife.  

The search for Samuel Lakey, Auckland Weekly News, 8 November 1933, p.46 

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19331108-46-02

Police searched for his body, with the help of local people, expecting that it might be a murder/suicide.  Lakey’s shotgun was found in a creek on Bill Bayly’s farm and blood was found on items at his place.  The two farmers had fallen out and argued over a fencing issue when Bayly’s bull got into the paddock with Lakey’s cows, and they did not get on generally.  Mrs Lakey has said she believed he had killed Elsie Walker and could well kill them. Police used chemical tests that revealed that there were charred bone fragments on his shovel, for he had tried to burn Samuel Lakey’s body in a drum.  On 10 January 1934, Bayly was charged with Samuel Lakey's murder and he hanged for it in the following July. Gossip spread around the country and the version that I heard a decade later was that he fed the body to his pigs.  The guilty verdict reinforced the suspicion that he had murdered his cousin in Papamoa.

Burial of Samuel Lakey with his wife
Photo: KELLY HODEL / Waikato Times by kind permission

Christobel was buried in an unmarked grave in Huntly while Samuel's remains became part of the police's investigative and forensic training exhibits collection.  It was not until 2015 that the Police released the remains for burial and arranged to have a name plaque placed on the joint grave. The Lakeys were English and had no family in New Zealand.

 A to Z of Tauranga Museum - A is for apron

Charlie Haua outside his blacksmith shop in Grey Street. Late 1960s.

Image: Tauranga Museum.

It feels fitting to begin our Tauranga Museum artifact alphabet with a blacksmith apron once worn by Charlie Haua. In 1969, Charlie’s tools and equipment were acquired by the Tauranga Historical Society, forming the foundation of the museum’s collection. Although the Rotorua Museum offered a higher price, Charlie accepted the Society’s offer of £500, as he wanted his blacksmith shop to remain part of our story. “I’ve been at it all my life ... this is a dying trade, and I could not sell out. There is a great deal of old stuff here – material that you would not find in many places.”

Charlie Haua’s apron.

Image: Tauranga Museum

Born in 1903, Charlie came from a well-known and respected Tauranga family. He was the grandson of Anaru Haua (son of Watene and Merepokowai), and the son of James Haua and Mary Hearling. Charlie attended Tauranga District High School until 1919 and was a gifted all-round sportsman. He competed in rowing, rugby, hockey, sailing, athletics, gymnastics, and was a key figure in the local sporting community. He was the first captain of the Cadet Old Boys Rugby Football Club and went on to represent the Bay of Plenty in 1929. Later, he was made a life member of the Tauranga Rugby Association, a reflection of his long-standing contribution to the sport in this region.

Tauranga Football Representatives, 1925. Charlie Haua is pictured at the far right of the front row in this team photograph, taken by local photographer Robert Rendell.

Image: Tauranga Museum

After finishing school, Charlie Haua became the town’s most well-known and longest-serving blacksmith, dedicating an impressive 49 years to the trade. Even in retirement, Charlie and his blacksmith shop remained at the heart of the community, becoming a star attraction at the museum in Durham Street and then at the Historic Village and District Museum, which opened on Seventeenth Avenue in 1975.

Charlie Haua making a horseshoe for the bride and groom. Early 1970s.

Image: Tauranga Museum.

Charlie generously volunteered countless hours, captivating visitors with his skill and bringing the museum to life. His handcrafted miniature horseshoes became popular souvenirs, with thousands sold to help fund the museum’s development. In recognition of his remarkable contribution to the community, Charlie was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1976. 

Nellie Haua (left) and Charlie Haua. The person on the right is currently unidentified.

Image: Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 03-047

Source:

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Robert P. Moore in the Bay of Plenty

 
Robert P. Moore (seated, left) with Philomena Lantz (centre), John Mowlem (seated, right) and fellow members of the Tauranga Big Game Fishing Club, at Mowlem’s bach, Opo (South-west) Bay, Tūhua (Mayor Island), c. late 1920s-1930s
Silver gelatin print mounted in album, by unidentified photographer
Collection of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Photo 05-317

The following report appeared in the Personal column of the Bay of Plenty Times on Monday 3 March 1930:

‘A deep-sea fishing party comprising Messrs L. McKelvie, D. J. Gibbs C. S. Brice and R. Moore of Wellington arrived by car, via Matamata to-day, and leave for Mayor Island immediately in the launch Naomi. The party expect to be out about ten days or a fortnight.’ [1]

The party returned to Tauranga on Sunday 16 March 1930:

‘Five Swordfish Captured Off Mayor Island. Many game fish seen. A party, consisting of Messrs McKelvie, C. S. Brice, D. J. Gibbs and Moore returned from Mayor Island on Sunday. They had some fine sport and captured five swordfish and report a large number of big fish on the grounds ... They are pleased with the outing and are looking forward to another holiday next year. Mr J. MowIem kindly placed the launch Virginia at the party’s disposal.’ [2]

John Mowlem was a prominent Tauranga resident who owned the oil-fired launches Naomi and Virginia; his story has previously been told by Max Avery on this blog.[3] Robert Moore, on the other hand, was a Wellington-based photographer whose niche in large panoramic views taken with a specialised Cirkut camera, together with a passion for hunting and fishing, took him all over New Zealand.[4]

Hauling swordfish onto the beach at Opo (South-west) Bay, Tūhua (Mayor Island), c. late 1920s-1930s
Hand-coloured silver gelatin panoramic print in wooden frame, by Robert P. Moore
Collection of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 21-1295

Robert Percy Moore was born in Christchurch, grew up in Wellington and trained as a photographer in Feilding[5] before moving to Queensland around the time of his marriage in 1914.[6] He enlisted with the 12^th London Regiment and served with the Expeditionary Force briefly in France before a gunshot wound in his thigh sent him home, eventually discharged in November 1915.[7] He set up the Kitchener Studio in Brisbane and for the remainder of the war photographed soldiers, their families and training camps. By July 1919, when he captured the Peace celebrations in Sydney’s McQuarrie Street,[8] he had started using a large format Cirkut rotating panoramic camera that produced very long negatives (and prints) with a single exposure.[9]

Interior view of the Government Tourist Court at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, 1925-1926
Black-and-white silver gelatin print (248 x 1097mm), photographed by Robert P. Moore
Collection of Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. Pan-0468-F

In 1923 Moore was commissioned by New Zealand’s Publicity Department to take photographs for display at the British Empire Exhibition in London, and spent several months touring the central North Island with an assistant named Gurney.[10] In early 1924 he set up a studio at 88 Manners Street, Wellington, and employed a canvasser to scout for private business[11] while he toured the South Island on government contracts.[12] Wellington was his base for the next decade but, with his family still living in New South Wales, he travelled frequently back and forth across the Tasman.

Opo (South-west) Bay, Tūhua (Mayor Island), c. late 1920s-1930s
Hand-coloured silver gelatin panoramic print in wooden frame, attributed to Robert P. Moore
Collection of Tauranga Museum, Ref. 0144/13

Entrepreneurial in approach, Moore appears to have used official commissions and engagements to build up a network of acquaintances, which often resulted in further private work. He took advantage of the extensive travelling involved in his Government work to offer services to local businesses, councils, townscapes, farms and property owners[13] and, judging by the frequency of debt recovery reports in Wellington’s press, it thrived, even if some of clients were not paying their bills.[14] Many of his panoramas were hung on the walls of the Government Tourist Court at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in 1925 and 1926.

Opo (South-west) Bay, Tūhua (Mayor Island), c. late 1920s-1930s
Hand-coloured silver gelatin panoramic print, by Robert P. Moore
Collection of Peter Alsop

In February 1927 Moore photographed receptions all over New Zealand for the Royal Visit, as well as the fishing camp of the Duke and Duchess of York on the Tongariro River and their unveiling of the Te Arawa Memorial in Rotorua’s Government Gardens.

The Camp, Te Puia o Whakaari (White Island), 30 February 1928
Silver gelatin panoramic print, by Robert P. Moore
Collection of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 21-1890

He was in Tauranga at least as early as 1928 when he executed several panoramas of Tauranga landscapes and several homestead commissions, including Bureta Farm (Commander David M. Fell) and Mount View (Mrs Emma C. Bell) in Otumoetai, Trallwyn (William S. Harris) and Woodhill (Samuel Kingsbury). He also visited Whakatane and made a trip to Whakaari (White Island). In February 1933 he accompanied a cinematographer from Fox Film Corporation on a visit to ‘Mayor Island for the purpose of taking a complete sound picture of swordfishing’. [15]

Mauao and Mount Maunganui, Bay of Plenty, 1928
Panoramic silver gelatin print by Moore and Thompson, Rotorua
Collection of Tauranga Museum, Ref. 0132/13

Alongside the interest of their elongated form, an important selling point of Moore’s panoramas was the option of hand-colouring, skillfully carried out by his sister Evelyn Moore in Wellington – and perhaps other colourists.[16]

‘Treated by a special process of colouring, these are not ordinary photographs; they are works of art, worthy of attention, and, indeed, compelling interest from everyone who sees them’.[17]

‘Trallwyn’ homestead (William Sumpter Harris), Fifth Avenue, Tauranga, 1928
Hand-coloured silver gelatin panoramic print in wooden frame, by Robert P. Moore
Collection of Tauranga Museum, Ref. 1047/13

Colouring was often assisted by notes recorded by Moore. For example, notes attached to the film negative of ‘Trallwyn’ homestead (see framed print above), commissioned by Tauranga retiree William S. Harris in 1928, stated:

‘Trallwyn. 1928. 1 B&W. 3 oils. Dark red roofs. Dark brown facings. Various colour roses in front of house. Put in other flowers if possible. Tree on left of Norfolk Pine has pink flowers.’[18]

Evelyn Moore lived in Wellington for her adult life and may have played a more important role in the running of her brother’s studio than the (often occupation-less listings for women) electoral roll might suggest.[19]

Model Village, Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, c. late 1920s
Hand-coloured silver gelatin panoramic print, by Robert P. Moore, Wellington
Collection of J. Paul Getty Museum, Ref. 84.XM.679.2

Between 1935 and 1941 Moore lived in Rotorua, operating the Panora Studio[20] with his former assistant James Thompson,[21] after which he returned permanently to Australia.[22] Later versions of his prints generally carry the ‘Moore & Thompson, Photo. Rotorua’ inscription.

Living room of John Mowlem’s house in Devonport Road, Tauranga, c. 1950
Silver gelatin print by an unidentified photographer
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 02-338

Finally, we return to the living room in John Mowlem’s house on Devonport Road, complete with two framed prints of his friend Robert Moore’s photographs on the wall. The panorama hanging above his writing desk looks to be a view across Opo (South-west) Bay, the scene of many of their shared moments.

Robert Moore continued working as a photographer in Strathfield, Sydney, where he died in 1951. He left an enormous archive of 2,455 panoramic cellulose nitrate film negatives, taken between 1923 and 1928 during his time working for the New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department, of tourist scenes all over New Zealand, from Auckland to Cape Kidnappers to Milford Sound. These are held at the Alexander Turnbull Library, where they have been conserved and digitized over many years, and were the subject of a touring exhibition. There are also many prints, both framed and unframed, hand-coloured and black-and-white, in other institutions and private collections around the country and abroad.

References

---

[1] “Personal [A Deep-Sea Fishing Party].”

[2] “Deap-Sea Fishing. Five Swordfish Captured Off Mayor Island.”

[3] Avery, “John Mowlem - Tauranga’s Own Big Game Hunter-Fisherman.”

[4] Marshall et al., “The Long View.”

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

[6] Newton, “Out of Sight. R. Vere Scott and R.P. Moore: Forgotten Federation-Era Panoramic Photographers.”

[7] “British Army World War I Pension Records, 1914-1920.”

[8] Moore, Peace Celebrations, Sydney, Scene In McQuarrie Street.

[9] “Cirkut (Camera).”

[10] “Untitled [Photographs Taken in the Thermal Region by Messrs Moore and Gurney].”

[11] Moore, “Wanted. Lady Canvasser of Smart Appearance. Advertisement.”

[12] “Otago Expansion League.”

[13] Moore, Robert Percy, 1881-1948 :Panoramic Photographs of New Zealand.

[14] “Civil Court. Unpaid Debt Claims. Heard Yesterday.”

[15] “Deep-Sea Sport. Complete Sound Picture to Be Taken by Fox Film Corporation.”

[16] Moore, “Colour Artist. Miss Evelyn Moore. R.P. Moore’s Studios. Advertisement.”

[17] “Untitled. [Mr Robert P. Moore at Present Visiting Greymouth].”

[18] Moore, “Trallwyn”, Farm and House in Tauranga.

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

[20] Panora Studio, “Situations Vacant. Photography. Smart Girl for Dark-Room. Advertisement.”

[21] Newton, “Out of Sight. R. Vere Scott and R.P. Moore: Forgotten Federation-Era Panoramic Photographers.”

[22] “Tasman Air Service. Tasman Empire Airways Flying-Boat Aotearoa Left Auckland [R.P. Moore].”