Mrs Ruth Mander (1915–2015)

 

Left to right: Ruth Mander, Ina Bathe, Mary Parker, and Nancy Snodgrass admiring the rose "Remember Me" at the Tauranga Rose Gardens, Robbins Park, 1991

Image: Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 382/4/5

After several years working with the Tauranga Museum collection, I pondered on a number of donations made by Mrs Ruth Mander (née Prescott). Curious to learn more about them, I visited Ruth at her home on Ōtūmoetai Road in June 2011, where she shared memories of her life and the transformation of Ōtūmoetai from a rural district into a suburb of Tauranga. [1]

Ruth’s path to Tauranga began in the late 1930s after her mother became seriously ill with a goitre.[2] As the eldest daughter, she left her job in Hamilton to care for her younger siblings while her mother spent an extended period in hospital.[3] In 1937, seeking a healthier climate, her father, a First World War veteran, sold their Waikato farm and moved the family to a citrus orchard in Ōtūmoetai. 

Ōtūmoetai and Hinewa Roads, looking over Cherrywood and Bureta towards Mauao and Motuotau Island, c1950. 

Image: Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 12-575

At that time, the area was still largely rural. Work on the orchard, along with caring for poultry and a house cow, formed part of everyday life. Social life centred on visiting neighbours, swimming in the harbour below Ōtūmoetai Pā, and attending local dances. It was through these connections that Ruth met the Mander girls, Betty, Dot, and Nola. They would often bike together to attend films in town, taking the long way around as Ngatai Road had not yet been formed. These friendships would ultimately change the course of her life. 

Ray Mander, the older brother, had returned home for a holiday but stayed after meeting Ruth, and the two quickly became engaged. They purchased five acres on the Ōtūmoetai ridge and were among the first in the district to plant Chinese gooseberries, later known as kiwifruit. In a practical move to secure a government loan, they married quietly at the newly opened Tauranga Post Office in December 1938 - the first couple to do so - marking the beginning of their life together. Ruth recalled that afterwards they went to Rendell’s Photography and had a wedding photo taken and then to the only restaurant in town for a meal. 

Te Puke Times, Volume 26, Issue 52, 2 July 1937, Page 3. Papers Past.

With the help of a State Advances loan, they built a Beazley bungalow on their land, designed by Ruth herself. Construction was slow, and they did not move in until September 1939, but the house would remain their home for the rest of their lives. Over the following eight years, they had four children, bringing both busyness and energy to their lives, and it was clear that Ruth took great pride in them. While the orchard developed, Ray took on various jobs, later running a hardware shop in Ōtūmoetai and keeping bees on the property. Ruth managed the household, sewed much of the family’s clothing, and maintained strong connections within many communities.

A wicker pram purchased in the 1940s by the Manders from The Mart in Willow Street.

Image: Tauranga Museum 2005/84

Ruth became involved in numerous organisations, serving for decades as treasurer of both Forest and Bird and Rural Women, and participating in local garden clubs from the 1950s onward. Over time, the landscape around them changed. Ruth recalled that after the Second World War, orchards and farms across Ōtūmoetai were subdivided into residential sections. Roads such as Lemon Grove replaced rows of trees, and the rural district she had first known gradually became the suburb it is today.

 When I met Ruth, she was living alone, Ray having died in 1995. Despite being nearly blind, she was fiercely independent, able to stay in the home she had lived in for more than seventy years with the support of her family and her deep familiarity with every corner of it. She was particularly keen for me to identify some of the objects she had donated to the museum, and I was pleased to do so while hearing the stories connected to them - her memory remaining very sharp.

A 1930s ‘Airzone’ wooden mantle radio purchased for the Mander’s new home.

Image: Tauranga Museum 0038/95

References

 

[1]       At the time of our meeting, it felt only right to address her as Mrs Mander, so I hope she would forgive me for referring to her here as Ruth.

[2]       A goitre is an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland in the neck, often visible as a swelling at the base of the throat.

[3]       Ruth initially worked as a technician for Glaxo Laboratories and later took a position in the office at the New Zealand Dairy Company while waiting for an opportunity to move into their laboratory.

The White House in Ōtūmoetai

 

The 75-year old home today.  Image: Julie Green

Last year I was privileged to meet the occupants of this wonderful home, constructed in 1950 and sited a little back from the road, near Ōtūmoetai Primary School. They had a diesel-powered central heating system which no longer functioned well.  After considering their options they offered their vintage technology to the Tauranga Heritage Collection. This was not a suitable home for such an item so help was instead sought from Tauranga’s Vintage Farm Machinery Club. Through the kind efforts of one of their members the problems with the heater were overcome and it fired up once again.

 The family was very grateful to be able to use the heater last winter and is preparing to light it again as the cold weather closes in this year. I have enjoyed several visits to their lovely home and have permission to share with you this recent picture and a few older images in their possession.

William Barnard’s home and orchard in 1954. Photographer unknown

The home was built for Labour MP for Napier William( Bill ) Barnard after he retired from politics and moved to Tauranga to join his son-in-law in legal practice in 1948. He was Mayor here from 1950-52 and very involved in community affairs. One of the rooms upstairs was designated as a library and even though the shelving is long gone there are obvious lines on the walls where the shelves were attached.  Bill and his family had less than a decade of living there before he passed away in Auckland in 1958 at the age of 72.

The framed photograph below hangs on the wall of the upstairs landing.  It gives us a great idea of the topography in Ōtūmoetai prior to the development of the whole Bellevue area. You can make out the entrance of the Wairoa River, the curve of the railway line around the perimeter of  Bethlehem and the Matua Saltmarsh, and the farms which became the college in 1965 and, in 1967, the intermediate school.

Bellevue and Bethlehem in their agricultural days. Photographer unknown

The primary school is nestled in behind the row of dark trees to the left of centre. The area across the road, that now includes a fuel station, housing and the telephone exchange, appears to have been just a rough field when this photograph was taken. 

There has been a succession of owners over the home’s 75-year history. Not much is presently known about them but there have been several extensions at the back and side, dormer windows have been added to the attic space and the kitchen/dining area has been refurbished. There is now another home built in what was the front yard and of course the old orchard has become covered in dwellings also. But the old homestead stands tall and proud and is much loved by its present owners.

Very recently a former occupant arrived on their doorstep with an unframed painting and asked if they would like it. Of course the present owners agreed - it was very welcome. They intend to frame and hang it as part of the growing record of the story of their home.

“THE WHITE HOUSE,  Otumoetai”. Artist unknown

All images in this post were taken by Julie Green, courtesy of the owners.

 Jack Costello and the Union Fish and Ice Company, Chapel Street Tauranga

Site for Costello Seafoods Ltd. Sulphur Point, Tauranga c 1968. Jack Costello holds first marker peg, while fisherman Don Shattock drives it in with an axe.
Description and image courtesy of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 11-152

 In 1930 a retired Union Steamship Company captain, Roslyn King Clark, and his sister set up a fish curing business on the shore of the Waikareao Estuary. The Union Fish and Ice Company made hundred-weight blocks of ice in a concrete tower* and these were let down through a trapdoor to waiting trucks. 

Page 28 of the Bay of Plenty Yearbook 1955, Astra Publicity, courtesy of John Green.

 In 1938 fish retailer W.J. ( Bill ) Costello of Rotorua was the owner of a trawler operating out of Tauranga.  This was a former steam vessel, Marina, converted to a motor vessel three years previously. It was not a success due to high maintenance costs. His next boat, the Katoa, was holed off Town Point at Maketu on VJ Day, 15 August 1945 and was a total loss. 

Aerial view of Chapel St reclamation. The Union Fish and Ice Company is at the top left, its small jetty just visible at the harbour’s edge.
Image from Bay of Plenty Yearbook 1955, Astra Publicity, courtesy of John Green.

 Bill’s son Jack had served his time as a boilermaker in Rotorua but began his fishing career when he and his parents bought the Union Fish and Ice Company and their processing plant on the corner of Marsh and Chapel Streets for £3,500 in 1947. Prior to the 1959 construction of the Chapel Street road bridge, Costello’s trawlers operated from the wharf next to the plant, sailing under the Waikareao rail bridge to access the main harbour and open sea beyond.  

Trawler “Vanguard” discharging catch onto Costello’s Bedford truck at Fisherman’s Wharf, 1950s
Image courtesy of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 11-164

 Within two years they had expanded their fleet to three  —  Vanguard, Golden Gate and Sea Ranger. Jack bought his parents out so as to have full control of the operation. The catches brought in on their three vessels had outstripped local demand so he designed and built a blast freezer and sent the frozen fillets to Australia. By 1955 he had amalgamated with fishing giant Sanfords Ltd on reclaimed land in Cross Road, Sulphur Point with the proviso that he manage it for 10 years. In 1967, once his term was over, he negotiated with the Tauranga Harbour Board for a new site. His modern fish processing plant was erected nearby and named Costello’s Seafoods.

 

70-foot purse seiner “Valkyrie”, complete with pipe band on board, at her commissioning ceremony.  Built for Costello’s Union Fish and Ice Company in 1964.
Image courtesy of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 11-162

By 1971, Sanfords planned to build their own modern plant next door but the depressed fish export market at the time resulted in Costellos’ selling their assets to Sanfords and once again appointing Jack as managing director there until 1975, and then as an advisor for a further three years.

 

Costello’s Seafoods, Sulphur Point 1969.  

Image courtesy of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 11-157

Following this he moved to Auckland where he set up several more businesses, including two coolstores —  later sold to Sanfords. Jack then moved back to Tauranga and got into property development before leaving for the Gold Coast, Australia in 1981. He passed away over there in 1998, well respected and remembered for his efforts to establish a competitive and successful fishing industry in Tauranga area.

 * The tower was finally removed when the Marsh Street flyover was constructed in 2008

The Construction and Opening of the Maungatapu Bridge, 1959

 
‘Dawn Awakening’ — Pile driving for Maungatapu Bridge construction, 1958
Mounted silver gelatin print, photographed by Mrs Joan Hamilton, L.R.P.S.
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 21-1340

Pile driving by the Ministry of Works began in Rangataua Bay, Tauranga Moana in 1958 for the 316 metre long beam bridge between the Maungatapu and Matapihi peninsulas. This exciting and vital new link shortened the trip between Tauranga and ‘The Mount’ by many miles. Prior to this, vehicular traffic had to travel right around through Welcome Bay and Papamoa and back past Te Maunga and along the sandspit to Mauao. No wonder the Faulkner’s ferry services of the day proved so convenient and popular for townsfolk for a pedestrian trip to the beach.

Aerial photo of Tauranga Harbour with Maungatapu Bridge at centre
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-032

Opening day in 1959 was obviously a gala occasion with many residents out in their cars, new and old, and commercial enterprises sending their trucks to participate in the parade. It looks almost like an advertisement for many of the English makes of car and trucks available.

Opening of Maungatapu Bridge, 1959
Photograph by Rendells Photo Service, Ref. 9504-8
Courtesy of John Green

Two Bedfords, a truck (C F Washer and Sons) and a Shell fuel tanker, a Leyland Beaver (Heatons No. 12), Morris Minors, Austin A40s, Humbers, Hillmans, Standards, Volkswagens, Vanguards – affectionately known as ‘mudguards’ – Vauxhalls, Zephyrs, etc.

A closer look at those lovely old vehicles

Local logging and roading contractor Alf Walling leads the truck parade in his 1953 Ford Thorton followed by an Andersen’s Transport Bedford or Commer stock truck. Maungatapu Marae is clearly seen in the background. Just as an aside, I did not know until a few years back that to purchase a new car in New Zealand one had to have overseas funds right up until 1972.

Parade of cars on Maungatapu Bridge, 1959
Colour positive transparency photographed by David Allan Murdoch
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 06-468

Acknowledgments and Sources

Leslie Goodliffe — Information Access Specialist, Tauranga City Libraries
John Green — Transport buff
Pae Korokī — Tauranga Archives online
Rendells Photos Service image 9504-8 purchased on TradeMe June 2025