On Saturday 9 May, fifty years and one day after his death, representatives of Tauranga Historical were invited to gather with members of the Borell whānau to commemorate their koro and our rangatira’s contributions to his community.
Family man, famed sportsman and scholar, Mr David Borell of
Te Puna was a member of the Tauranga Historical Society in various roles in the
1960’s. He was on the Executive
Committee for a long time, starting in 1963 and serving as Vice President for
1965 (the job was taken over by T. R. Te Kani in1966). But his activities extended far beyond those
administrative functions, and well into the century’s – and his – 70s.
Te Puna Rugby Team, 1920. Davy Borell is third from left in the middle row. (Image: Te Ao Marama, 08-073)
Davy, as he was usually known, famously turned down the chance
to play for the All Blacks because his wife was due to have a baby. The confidence that underlay such a decision
may have come from his earlier experience as a scholarship boy: he had won his secondary education at a
big-city school, Sacred Heart College in Glen Innes, Auckland, where he learned
Latin, history and geography. He spoke
te reo all his life and moved effortlessly between te ao Māori and te ao pākehā. In his retirement, he put these talents at
the service of the Tauranga Historical Society.
In the Society’s September 1964 Journal (Number 21) [1] he
published a long-form article titled “Historic Te Puna”. Being the scholar he was, it took two full
pages of background description of waka voyages, social context, and whakapapa before
he actually got on to Te Puna; and in
the midst of this introduction is a small personal gem: his father saw the famous, now lost, family portrait
sent by Queen Victoria in return for a gift of a sack of wheat flour milled at
Rangiawahia. Davy mentions:
My father actually saw this portrait of the Royal Family, which he said measured about three feet by about four feet. In 1932 communication was made to the then Governor through the authorities, for a possible replacement of that portrait or something similar, but of course the request proved negative. It was I who wrote out the request and covered almost two foolscap sheets of writing paper.
Davy then goes on to describe, in order, the pā of Te Puna – Oikimoke, Epeha, Hamaruru, Raropua, Oturu, the strange and beautiful story of Hawaiki, the island pa of Tukoro, Hūharua on today’s Plummers Point, and the inland pa of Hopuni, Tawhitinui, Pukewhanake, Paerangi.
We must note here, given the current exhibition of toki at the Western Bay Museum:
The pā at Hakarua [Hūharua]… was a repository of scores of stone axe-heads. Miss Violet Plummer, while I was there building at her home, showed me two boxes of these stone axe-heads. Some of them were well polished, others were of a rougher nature, and the best ones she told me were sent away to the Auckland museum, a box full of them… a taiaha was found in swampy ground lower down… Who knows, there may be a lot of other old artifacts within or immediately outside that pā.
Davy wrote beautifully, and was a great storyteller. He could evoke character and personality, drama, emotion, and humour. He describes the workings of the mill on the Wairoa River, and how his father Werahiko and Hone Bidois built St Joseph’s church. He himself learned his carpenter’s trade from Werahiko. As late as 1967 he was still using these skills for the benefit of the Society, making “a large cabinet” for the Society archives, “placed temporarily in the Sladden Library room adjoining the City Council Library.” A suggestion that the cabinet was included in the Museum collection (Journal Number 42, April 1971) remains unconfirmed.
He was just as much at home of the water of Tauranga Moana
as the mainland, and organised two trips, both involving launch travel, to
entertain and inform Society members. Under
his guidance, in 1965 they enjoyed boating out to Ōmokoroa and thence (by bus)
to Whakamārama; and, in 1966, took another trip out to Motuhoa Island, which
started with a pōwhiri:
After these formalities were over, the tractors with their passengers and others who preferred to walk moved off towards the western end of the Island to the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. G. Borell. It was a lengthy trudge, for those on foot, but it helped to build up a thirst and an appetite…Mr Peter Bidois, who is a highly respected elder of the Pirirakau tribe, extended a worm welcome to the visitors in traditional Māori style. He likened their coming to the arrival of the early Māori fleet of canoes, with the winds, from the four corners of the earth, making the same waves that had carried both the visitors and the Māori people on their journeys.
Luncheon was then set on tables on the lawn…
By far the best story of island life, however, appeared in the April 1967 Journal (Number 30). It is an account of horse racing on Matakana Island, meetings which took place on New Year’s Day of 1919, 1920 and 1921: [2]
A Committee of management was elected, Mr. Aramoana Amohau being chairman and Mr. Turoia Kuka, secretary. The first programme was made known by way of notebook and verbal contacts. The news spread like wildfire, and nominations were soon received for the various races. … one such race horse, named Oaklands, a fine upstanding brown gelding, by appearance, and that alone; anyone would have deemed defeat in a race impossible; but alas, it was not to be. Some of the Island half-racehorses which ran against Oaklands beat him to a frazzle.
For the descriptions of the “Island half-racehorses”, and their names, and those of their owners, and the weight of their jockeys, and the adjudication of the races themselves, and the hilarious double-booking of the Tauranga Municipal Band that eventually triggered official intervention, you really do have to read the full article. When Davy died eight years later, the Journal editor reprinted it, along with his obituary (Number 57, September 1976).
At the end of his very first article for the Journal, Davy expressed the fear that
As we are being borne aloft on the wings of progress and speeding on into the vortex of a faster world, the very things we loved and cherished are being swept away…
At the commemoration we all agreed that he would be pleased to know that horses still occasionally race at Matakana Island. [3]
[1] All sources for the Journal references in this essay are available on Pae Koroki. For the Collection Summary page, go to https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/23915
[2] For a vigorous overview on horse racing activities in Tauranga, see Leabourn, B. From the Government Paddock to Group 1 Glory, especially Chapter 3. https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/50640
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