Library buildings in central Tauranga

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection.

Later this month the new Tauranga Library and Community Hub opens at Te Manawataki o Te Papa, Willow Street. It occupies the site of the Civic Centre that housed the library from 1989 to 2022, and is next to the site where the library had been (mostly) housed from 1930 to 1988.

Prior to that the Library was in the Mechanics' Institute building on the corner of Harington Street and Willow Street. Tauranga Borough Council took over the management of the Library from the Institute in 1906.

This was the second Institute on the site. The first, built in 1872 and extended in 1878, was lost to the big North End fire in 1881. Fortunately it was insured, so a replacement was constructed that same year. A room in the old Government Buildings in Willow Street was used as a temporary location while reconstruction proceeded (not the building in the background of the first photo - it went up in 1906).

Before the first reading room was completed the Institute's collection, developed in 1871, was held in a spare room of James Bodell's home in Cameron Road.

Here is a selection of images from our collections of these past Library buildings.

Tauranga Public Library and Mechanics Institute, Harington Street, built 1881), in the right foreground, probably about 1907.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 03-235

F.H.Hammond's bakery and grocer's shop on the south west corner of Willow Street and Hamilton Street, Tauranga. Subsequently used by Bond & Bond, it later housed the Children's Library before being pulled down in 1970 to make way for the 'new' Tauranga City Council Administration building.

Photo c 1915. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1145

In 1930 an Art Deco style building was erected on Willow Street next to the Town Hall. It housed the Public Library upstairs and the borough's electricity department downstairs. c.1940s.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-549

Tauranga Public Library, still only in the upstairs part of the Willow Street building, and looking crowded, 1959.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 06-306

Children watch magic tricks performed by magician G. A. Hansen, at the Tauranga Children's Library, now upstairs in the Art Deco building. Published 31 August 1974.

Tauranga City Libraries Photo gcc-24906

Tauranga Public Library's Newspaper Room, Tauranga Town Hall 1987. The Library's Archives collection was also in the Town Hall.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 06-351

Shelf tidying the downstairs collections in Tauranga Public Library's 1930 building was a cramped task, 1988.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 07-103

Tauranga Public Library, the 1930 Willow St building pre-demolition in November 1988.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1015

In 1987 Tauranga Round Table members erected a relocatable building on Hamilton Street as short-term accommodation for the children's section of Tauranga Libraries. This photo shows library staff moving boxes of books from the Children's Library into "The White House".

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 07-040

The new Civic block upon completion, in the Bay of Plenty Times of 27 July, 1989.

From: 100 years of local library - Tauranga Central Library.

Photograph of the same corner site as above, after an extra floor was added in 2006-07. The Library spread into more of the rear portion of the building. [In 2015 retiree Rodney Giddens undertook to provide a photographic record from the roadside of Tauranga’s CBD].

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 15-449

The Devonport Road entrance to He Puna Mānawa. Tauranga Library moved into the former Goddard's Arcade in early 2022 while the Willow Street building was demolished and construction began of the new Tauranga Library and Community Hub, to open on 16 October 2026.

The library network in Tauranga

Sources:

Pae Korokī links:

Tauranga 1882 - 1982 / edited by A. C. Bellamy. [Tauranga] : Tauranga City Council, 1982.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, 1871- (Organisation)

A detailed timeline of the library service in Tauranga, from 1867 onward.

100 years of local library - Tauranga Central Library.

The library network in Tauranga.

Te Ao Marama - Tauranga City Libraries moments in history.

Ōmokoroa from the Air: Alf Rendell and the Unsworth Subdivisions

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Today, it is difficult to imagine Ōmokoroa Point as it appeared in the early 1950s. Streets lined with homes, holiday houses, reserves and community facilities now occupy land that was once largely open farmland. The Unsworth Subdivisions at Ōmokoroa from the 1950s through to the 1970s, represent an important chapter in the transformation of the peninsula from farmland to a seaside community.

In 2004, Tauranga City Libraries received a donation from Helen Unsworth, containing records, files, plans and hand-coloured photographs relating to her parents' Ōmokoroa subdivisions over the years. These materials provide a valuable record of the area's growth and the role the Unsworth family played in shaping the community that exists today.

Aerial of Ōmokoroa 1956 (hand-coloured photograph by Alf Rendell) - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries  Photo 21-1307

(The Unsworth farm is across the centre of the aerial photo, showing the new road and its subdivision and butting onto Gerald and Myrtle Crapp's farm on the actual point). 

A Peninsula on the Cusp of Change

Allan and Nelle Unsworth purchased 68 acres on Ōmokoroa Point in 1953, and over the following decades, gradually subdivided the property, creating residential sections. The Unsworth's property originally extended across much of the width of the peninsula, bounded by neighbouring farms and framed by steep coastal land and beaches. It was adjacent to the houses at Ōmokoroa Beach.

When Allan and Nelle Unsworth purchased the farm from Ira and Jean Thomas, their intention was not to create a residential subdivision but to establish a model farm on what was regarded as some of the district's highest-quality farmland. However, circumstances beyond their control changed those plans. In 1954, major slips below the farm damaged the only road providing access to the Point, making it necessary to construct a new road through their property. Permission was subsequently granted to subdivide land along the new roadway. Then, in 1956, the Education Department purchased five acres from the upper part of the farm for the construction of a new school.

Aerial of Ōmokoroa 1956- Photo 21-1305

The new superior stretch of road opened the peninsula to easier access and made new subdivisions more economically viable. What began as a practical response to changing circumstances, evolved into one of the largest private subdivisions undertaken in New Zealand at the time. However, the development attracted the attention of Inland Revenue, which argued that the subdivision profits should be taxed. It was a test case for New Zealand to establish a new legal principle. Allan spent years fighting what he considered an unjust assessment,ending up with the Inland Revenue dropping the case in 1965.

As happened in many coastal communities around New Zealand during the post-war decades, improved roads, increasing car ownership and growing interest in holiday living and retirement, including from overseas, created demand for coastal sections beyond the main urban centres.

Archival records held in Pae Korokī (Ams 259) document this evolving process through plans, financial papers, and promotional material spanning the 1950s to the 1970s. These include detailed survey plans for successive subdivision stages, illustrating how the land was incrementally opened up for development.

 

Subdivision Plans over the years - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 259

Marketing the Coastal Dream

The Unsworth subdivisions were notable not only for the number of sections created, but also for the sophistication of their marketing. Sections were promoted through newspaper advertising, printed brochures and even screen advertising at Tauranga's Odeon Theatre in Elizabeth Street, stating: "You've seen the rest — now buy the best."  Demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit, Allan Unsworth also, promoted the subdivision from the driver's seat, using his car as a mobile advertisement to attract potential purchasers.

Reg Ellis and Allan with Reg's Kingfish, 1969 (Helen Unsworth Collection). At 13 Coppelia Avenue, Ōmokoroa Point, new house with farmland in the background and tractor shed on other side of fence. The tractor shed is still in use at the Ōmokoroa Settlers' Hall.

For many New Zealand families, the newly created sections offered a rare opportunity to own a piece of waterfront peninsula living at a time when coastal property was still within reach of ordinary households. The prospect of easy access to the harbour's fishing grounds was a major attraction. Fishing, being bountiful in those days, was a huge drawcard to the area - there was the wharf and a slipway for boat maintenance. 

What set Ōmokoroa apart from many other seaside settlements was Allan Unsworth's vision for the development. He was determined that the area would become a community of permanent homes rather than a collection of holiday baches. To maintain this standard, he encouraged prospective purchasers to build substantial houses and, if that did not suit their plans, he would direct them instead to the more affordable subdivisions emerging at Pāpāmoa at the same time. This approach helped shape the character of Ōmokoroa as a residential community rather than simply a seasonal holiday destination.

 

Cutting from Bay of Plenty Times advertisement for sections being sold by Allan Unsworth in Ōmokoroa - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 259

Alf Rendell's Aerial Vision

A distinctive feature of the Unsworth Subdivision was its innovative use of aerial photography. Renowned Tauranga photographer, Alfred Hugh (Alf) Rendell, captured images of Ōmokoroa at a time when aerial imagery was still relatively uncommon in local real estate promotion. 
 
Allan Unsworth commissioned a series of six small hand-coloured aerial images of the peninsula over the years. These photographs were not merely promotional; each purchaser received an image of the peninsula, creating a personal and tangible connection to their property and the community around them.

 

The Unsworth's homestead, "Kaharoa" (now 61 Ōmokoroa Road) - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries -  Photo 21-1269

A Lasting Legacy

This combination of careful planning and visual storytelling made the Unsworth Subdivision unique. Today, the surviving plans and photographs provide a valuable record of a formative moment in Ōmokoroa’s development.

David Topi Werahiko Borell – a tribute

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.

Paparoa marae, 9 May 2026  (Image: Beth Bowden)

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…

Screenshot of a Matakana Island beach race in 2012.  (Image: Stan Walker, J M Media)

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

 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXgUvLgNpps&t=24s , JM Media

 

Forestry on Matakana Island in 1969

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Matakana Island Timber Mill
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 21-248

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries' Heritage and Research Team and its predecessors have been collecting local history material for over 50 years. The snapshot above is from a set donated to the team by Hamilton City Libraries - Te Ohomauri o Kirikiriroa, and digitised in 2021. The set is undated, but looks like it may be from the 1970s or 1980s. The set can be viewed here, each individual image includes an edited version with colour restored, due to severe fading of the original prints.

The present Heritage and Research Team at Tauranga are reviewing their Vertical File collection and other, related items are emerging. In the Forestry file was an article clipped from an unidentified magazine and with no date, called "Matakana Island : reaping the Pineland wealth", by Olaf Petersen. After some investigation we determined it was published in the New Zealand Weekly News of 2 June 1969. We have added a scan of the article to Pae Korokī.

It contains twelve images selected from photographs the Auckland-based Petersen took of timber felling and processing on Matakana Island, in Tauranga Harbour. Of the twelve photographs in the piece, eight include pictures of individuals. For some reason only one of them is named - Mr Stuart Hume, forest plantation manager on Matakana - in the top left corner of page 31.

In 1988 the photographer donated his archive to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It is described at length in their Collections Online entry for the archive. Two of the photographs from this article have been digitised. The photographer had collected information about his subjects that wasn't included in the published article, so we can now add a little bit more detail to the story of forestry on Matakana Island.

The photograph on page 31 captioned "A stack of timber is wired together ready for transport" is described by Auckland Museum as "Photograph of Hohepa (Joe) Hamuera Kohu working in a shed and operating a hand lever used in timber production".

The photograph below it, captioned "Morning tea break in the Pinelands forest on Matakana", is described as "Three men who are working at felling trees in the forest, stop for a break to drink from jars and a thermos. On verso the men are named as L to R; Melbo Rolleston, Charlie Murray, Eru Tukaki. They are surrounded by felled trees and a stand of forest in the back ground. Sitting on the trees near them are two chainsaws and an axe". The published version has been cropped and is missing Melbo Rolleston.

We hope that over time more photos used in the article will be digitised, allowing the identification of more individuals.

Extracting the article, finding the work of other institutions and receiving donations has allowed us to both increase our knowledge of a subject of local interest and enable more questions to be asked. This process of accumulation can be slow and indirect, but placing it in Pae Korokī opens it up to discovery and engagement by one of the distinctive communities of Tauranga Moana. 

Sources:

Matakana Island / Neil G. Hansen. Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society No. 63, August 1979, pages 38-40 (or 41-43 of the PDF).

Matakana Island (Tauranga) / Jinty Rorke. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Matakana Island.

Matakana Island / Suzanne Woodley. Wellington, N.Z. : Waitangi Tribunal Division, Department of Justice, 1993.

Petersen was a well-known photographer who died in 1994. Te Ao Mārama -Tauranga Libraries holds copies of a recent collection of his nature photography - Nature boy : the photography of Olaf Petersen.

Tauranga in 1934: G. Duncan’s City Centre Plans

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

If you’ve ever wondered what Tauranga’s 'CBD' looked like nearly a century ago, G. Duncan’s 1934 survey drawings are a fascinating window into the past. These two maps - accessible in Pae Korokī as Map 21‑001 and Map 21‑002 - capture a city in transition, balancing its small-town roots with the ambitions of modern planning.

Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 1. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-001

We don’t know much about G. Duncan himself, but his work speaks volumes. His detailed survey of Tauranga’s CBD shows a bustling hub concentrated along The Strand, especially between Spring Street and Hamilton Street. This was the commercial core, lined with shops, fruiterers, bootmakers, drapers, clothiers, furniture makers, paint shops, loan and mercantile offices, garages—and, of course, hotels, tea rooms, and billiard rooms.  Even noted is the Gasometer on Grey Street and the banks on the corners of streets.

Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 2. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-002

Duncan’s plans captured an extraordinary level of detail, showing not only the footprint of every building, but also sheds, garages and outdoor lavatories. It documented each structure’s size, level of completion and storeys, and the materials used for walls and roofs. Even infrastructure like water reticulation, with pipe diameters, pressure levels, and parapet heights, is noted. This level of precision would have made the maps useful planning tools for the city to respond effectively to fires, to prioritise areas for growth and determine how Tauranga could balance practical needs with new planning laws.

Screenshot showing key to Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 2, Map 21-002

Sadly, you have to look very hard to see many of these buildings still standing, although there are a handful, particularly near the lower end of Devonport Road. When used in conjunction with other local resources, we are able to cross-reference and determine where previous owners had their premises.  Following, is an image, outlining names of business owners and their premises in 1934, on the corner of Wharf Street and The Strand:

Screenshot of part Map 21-001

We can only guess why these maps were made, however, the Central Tauranga Heritage Study (April, 2008, p 33-34) mentions that the Town Planning Act 1926 required all boroughs with populations over 1,000 to prepare a planning scheme by 1930. Tauranga’s first operative town plan didn’t arrive until 1969, but Duncan’s 1934 survey was almost certainly part of the groundwork for that process. 

Central Tauranga Heritage Study: part one, April 2008, p16

Next time you need to link a name to a location in central Tauranga, download G. Duncan's maps and you may be surprised at the connections you can make.

Sources

Duncan, G. (1934). Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-001 Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 1 | Pae Korokī

Duncan, G. (1934). Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-002: Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 2 | Pae Korokī

 

Gainsford, Jennie, Matthews & Matthews Architects Ltd, R. A. Skidmore & Associates, Rorke, Jean Euphemia Finlayson, Trutman, Lisa. (2008, April). Central Tauranga Heritage Study : part one, April 2008 Tauranga City Council & Bay of Plenty Regional Council. https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/109864

Palmer, Kenneth, Waitangi Tribunal: Te Rōpu Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi (2006). Legislation governing town and country planning in Tauranga Moana 1953-1990. Wai 215 - Waitangi Tribunal Tauranga Moana Claims https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/27713

 

New Zealand Legislation: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/

 

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 24-371. (1963). City of Tauranga – District Planning Scheme https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/115677

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Written by Jody Smart, Heritage Specialist at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

 

The Centennial Film in Tauranga, 1938-39

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

In 1938 the Government Film Studios, part of the Tourist and Publicity Department, started filming for a production to celebrate New Zealand’s centennial year in 1940. A short sequence of settlers landing from the ship that carried them from England was shot on location on Ocean Beach. The lower slopes of Mauao are visible in the background, but are not identified.
There are several reports in the Bay of Plenty Times on the filming of what it called the New Zealand Centenary Film. A front page article on Friday 4 November 1938 describes the arrangements being made ahead of the arrival of the production unit and two lead performers. They included collecting ‘properties’ to represent the arrivals’ belongings, and recruiting extras for the scenes on the beach.
The St John Ambulance Association proposed holding a fundraising ball where the attendees would attend in period costume, the best of which “will be given the opportunity of appearing in the film”.
The ball was held in the Town Hall on 28 November, with the costumes worn described enthusiastically in the Times the following day. Some of those selected as extras are listed, including a Miss Doreen Mander. Pae Korokī contains scans of two copies of a photo of a Miss Dorothy Mander in costume – presumably the same person.

Dorothy Mander in costume for filming on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui
(Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-343)

 Planned weekend rehearsals went ahead over the weekend of 2 and 4 December 1938, despite bad weather. There is a gap in reporting until 16 December when the director, Mr. Bridgman, and leading lady of the film, Miss Una Weller (accompanied by her mother), judged the costumes at a fancy dress ball for school children held at the Peter Pan Hall in Pacific Avenue. On 20 January 1939 there was a notice calling for extras for some filming at Whareroa.
Pae Korokī has scans of five other photographs taken during the filming on Ocean Beach. Three were provided for scanning by Ray Armstrong, one by Marion Proud, and we have a print from an unknown donor in our Climate Controlled Room.

Filming on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui 1938-1939

(Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-155)

Sets and extras on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui 1938-1939

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-156

These two photos were provided by Te Ao Mārama's then New Zealand Room team for a Bay of Plenty Times feature called “Back in time”, one in 2001 and another in 2006. Several people responded with more information - "Mr W. D. Moxham of Alexandra [writes that].... as a child he was an 'extra' in the film, qualifying for this privilege not because of his acting prowess but because he was top in arithmetic that day at Mount Maunganui Primary School" (Bay of Plenty Times, 18 August 2001).

This information enabled the dates of the filming to be narrowed down. However, no informant could remember the title the film was eventually released under – “One Hundred Crowded Years”. The articles found in Papers Past for 1938 helped make the connection. This led to the discovery of more detail about the production from a chapter in a 2004 book edited by William Renwick (listed in the Sources and available online). This doesn't mention who played the Māori seen on screen, opening a hāngī to feed the new arrivals, guiding the settlers into the bush, and later attacking a redoubt.

A lack of resources and the outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939 dramatically slowed the completion of the film. It wasn’t released until the very end of the Centennial Year, when “the government gave it to the National Patriotic Fund Board, which made it available to provincial patriotic committees to screen as a fundraiser” (Renwick, p. 269). It toured the country for the next 18 months, raising £1,200.

The fifty-minute film can now be watched on Archives New Zealand’s YouTube channel, with the landing sequence starting at 12 minutes 35 seconds, followed by the pioneers’ journey inland to start breaking in the countryside for farming (filmed around Ōropi at the same time).

 

 

As you might expect of a celebratory film of the period it skims quickly over the complexities of the Treaty of Waitangi, land ownership and later instances of warfare between Māori and Pākehā. This may be particularly so since the film’s ending included footage of New Zealand soldiers boarding a ship back to the Old World, to fight in a war with no certain outcome.

Exploring part of the set built on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui 1938-1939

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-269

In early December 1938 the film’s director wrote to the Mount Maunganui Town Board for permission to build “temporary huts, etc., on the ocean front necessary in the taking of the Centenary film”. This was granted, but it looks like the budget didn’t stretch to anything too elaborate.

Sources:

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII:

Issue 12497, 4 November 1938, Page 1

Issue 12517, 29 November 1938, Page 1

Issue 12521, 3 December 1938, Page 4

Issue 12521, 3 December 1938, Page 5

Issue 12522, 5 December 1938, Page 1

Issue 12531, 16 December 1938, Page 4

Issue 12258, 20 January 1939, Page 4

 Renwick, William. One Hundred Crowded Years: The Centennial Film. Chapter 19 of Creating a National Spirit: Celebrating New Zealand's Centennial. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 2004. Pages 260-270.

“The Tin Shed” : the origins of the National Film Unit. Wellington : New Zealand Film Archive, 1981.

Early documentary film in New Zealand - last paragraph. Retrieved 20 December 2025

One Hundred Crowded Years. Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 December 2025. 

Written by Leslie Goodliffe, Information Access Specialist at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

Joyce West, Tauranga writer

 From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

In the reference section of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, there is a a dedicated collection in honour of esteemed Tauranga writer, Joyce Tarlton West (1908-1985). 

While working full-time as an accountant - writing only at night, over a four-decade career, Joyce West produced a series of detective novels (with Mary Scott), articles and poems for periodicals, and eight children's outdoor adventure books which garnered global popularity. 

Joyce started writing in her teens and had stories published in the New Zealand Herald and the Weekly News. She wrote her first novel, Sheep Kings, while living at the family farm in Oropi, in 1936. Her 1953 novel, Drover's Road, was rejected by 13 publishers before being accepted by  J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, London.  It would go on to be used in New Zealand schools as an English curriculum literary text.

A black-ink illustration on p. 63 of  'Cape Lost' (1963), one of many that are Joyce West's own work.

Much of the inspiration for Joyce's childrens' stories came from her own childhood. She and her siblings did their secondary schooling by correspondence as her parents were both school teachers, who taught at remote schools in Northland, Taupō and the East Coast.  Her books have countryside settings,  depicting the rural places where she was raised.   Joyce told the Bay of Plenty Times, "I specialise in a type of nostalgia writing... I write childrens' books because I had such a pleasant childhood in an environment so differerent from ours today." (1974, p.9).

Joyce West, with her award-winning book, 'The Sea Islanders', and the contract from Walt Disney Productions, 1974. Te Ao Marama - Tauranga City Libraries photo gcc-26441

The Sea Islanders, published in 1970, was a particularly successful work. It featured in the BBC series Jackanory,  airing in five parts in September, 1971. Walt Disney Productions bought the rights to the book, though a screen adaption  was never made. 

A copy of 'The Sea Islanders' translated into Danish, in the Joyce West Collection at the library.

Following Joyce's death in 1985, the library sought to recognise her contribution to children’s literature through the establishment of the Joyce West Collection; a reference collection created to preserve and celebrate excellence in New Zealand children’s literature, and provide a resource for those interested in the field of New Zealand children’s writing in years to come. Initially beginning with a copy of each of Joyce's books, the collection grew through the annual addition of award-winning titles donated by the Bay of Plenty Children’s Literature Association (now Bookrapt), an organisation of which Joyce was a foundation member and patron. With help from the Friends of the the Library, the library continues to expand this collection by adding titles that include New Zealand Book Award winners and noteworthy authors from the Bay of Plenty region and beyond.

A signed copy of 'Drover's Road' with a 'Joyce West Memorial Collection' plate in the front of the book.

References

Bay of Plenty Times. (1974, October 26). Author gets TV showing.

Gilderdale, B. (1982). A sea change: 145 years of New Zealand junior fiction. Longman Paul.

Gilderdale, B. (1991). Introducing twenty-one New Zealand children's writers. Hodder & Staunton.

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

Written by Michelle Bradbury from the Heritage & Research Team, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries.

The imagination of Michael Hodgkins

The imagination of Michael Hodgkins

 From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

This month is the 60th anniversary of Michael Hodgkin's death, at his hut on the salt water marshes of Ōtūmoetai.

Headstone unveiled in 2009 at the Tauranga Anglican Cemetery, following fundraising by Tauranga Historical Society. 

Tauranga City Council cemeteries. B3691

The nephew of New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins, and grandson of the founder of Aotearoa's first art gallery, Michael followed his parents to Tauranga in 1937 and was well known in the district, walking long distances to gather botanical samples.

Alister Matheson and Jinty Rorke wrote in his 'Dictionary of New Zealand Biography' entry:

Local teachers, aware of Hodgkins’s immense knowledge of nature, encouraged him to visit their schools so that children could ask him questions. They also used him in lessons to foster a tolerance of eccentrics. Seated under a tree in the playground with his black Aberdeen terrier, Angus, Hodgkins held children spellbound with the tales he told of natural history.  

 One of these students was David Saric, who collected pencil sketches and notes made by Michael and donated them to Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Archives (Ams 285). A delightful collection that showcases a broad range of topics.

Peacock. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 285/1/38

Motorbike. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 285/1/42

David recalled Michael's 'sparkling blue eyes', and how his ability to sketch and write notes, perhaps from a photographic memory 'inspired many kids - sowed seeds of thought'.

In the era of the first moon landing, Michael's tales of satellites in the sky and how and why they worked, must have been spellbinding for young minds.

Sketch of a satellite (not to be confused with a water cannister with spikes).

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 285/1/1/1

First page of Satellite notes. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 285/1/1/2

The accompanying seven pages of Michael's note that the satellite

...with the dog would be more a ball shaped container fitted with an air supply food supply and means of warming the dog also a parachute to bring the dog down when the Satellite has descended to near to earth...if the dog can be got back alive...

Writing on scraps of paper that were available, Michael's fifth page of satellite notes is penciled across typed columns of people notes, such as B.R. Shakes from Tauranga was previously with Downer & Co, and Palmer from Tauranga had spent five years with the Auckland Harbour Board and had nearly completed their Accountancy Proficiency.

 

Fifth page of Satellite notes. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 285/1/1/2

 

The value of archives can be measured in many ways, one of the almost intangible is how they connect and delight the viewer. Enjoy exploring the collection, and imagine yourself as a child in 1950s-60s Tauranga, sitting under a tree, as a man (who later inspired characters in the writings of Frank Sargeson, Ian Mune and the TV film 'The Mad Dog Gang meets Rotten Fred & Ratsguts'), sketches in pencil and tells you about tigers, turtles, koala, Robin Hood, Māori warriors, aircraft carriers and more.

 

Thanks to David Saric, and others who have shared their memories of Michael 'Spring Heel Jack'.

 

Sources

 

Kean, Fiona. (2014, June 6). Michael Hodgkins, a gentleman and a scholar. Tauranga Historical Society. taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2014/06/michael-hodgkins-gentleman-and-scholar.html

 

Matheson, Alister and Rorke, Jinty. (2000). Biography: Hodgkins, Geoffrey Michael William. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5h25/hodgkins-geoffrey-michael-william

 

Saric, David. (2009). Portfolio. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Ams 285/2. paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/113206

 

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries. (n.d.). Who was Michael Hodgkins? paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/118696

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Written by Kate Charteris, Heritage Specialist at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries