Whitty Whitmore - A Lifetime of Achievements

By guest author Lucy Mullinger

Whitty as a child

Alaric (Whitty) Whitmore only has two more years before he hits the big 100 and, unsurprisingly, has a lot of great stories to tell. When asked how he made it past 95 - still fit and healthy - witty in nature and name, he replies nonchalantly, “I live longer than most.”

Whitty was born on December 24, 1925 and began his life at the railway stationmaster’s house on Marsh Street, where he reminisces watching his mother bartering with Māori women for kumara.

The family would go on to live in Taumarunui for some time, before moving back to a cold reception in Mount Maunganui near his grandparents - who didn't approve of his parents’ marriage (his mother was Catholic and his dad was Anglican). Despite family tensions, Whitty remembers an idyllic childhood, where he caught food for the family, including rabbits, fish and seafood. He recalls the price of food at the local bakers - three pence for a sultana loaf!

One of his earliest memories includes watching famed aviator Charles Kingsford Smith land his famous plane, the Southern Cross, on the beach near Takitimu Drive (where the big roundabout and flag is now). For just 10 shillings he was given the opportunity to sit in between his dad’s legs and fly to White Island (Whakaari), Mayor Island (Tuhua) and Tauranga in the plane.

Another interesting memory that Whitty laughs at now, was meeting the Duke of Edinburgh. Whitty was hanging from a chain fence outside Elizabeth Park, when Prince Philip and his entourage walked past. The Prince, who was known to suffer from foot in mouth, said, “Look at those monkeys hanging from the wire” to which Whitty replies, “I suppose it depends on the side of the fence you’re on''.

By the time he was 13, Whitty was informed his dad had died: “I went to the funeral in the morning and afterwards got ready for school. Mum said, ‘No, you have to work.’” He went on to deliver meat for Dunlop’s Butchery on Cameron Road and deliver 100 papers for the Bay of Plenty Times.

A few years later, Whitty decided to join up with the army. He asked for his mother’s consent but she said no, until he reminded her that she had brothers younger than him in the navy. He was only 16, but like many other boys at the time, he raised his age to 18 and went to camp in Burnham - where he would go on to serve in the 27th Machine Gun Battalion 2nd NZEF. The hardy Kiwi went on to make it for the last day of the battle of monte cassino and sustained a bullet through his stomach later on in the war, which would exit the same hole that had been sewed up many years before thanks to a burst appendix.

Paperwork from the war trials in Japan

Whitty saw a lot during the war that he doesn’t want to talk about but when it ended, he was told he was in the advanced guard to set up the J Force in Japan. Hiroshima had recently been bombed and there was nothing left standing. “I think there was the framework of only two buildings left”. In September 1946, he was a guard on duty at the war crimes trials of Japanese Generals. For the Whitmore family, it seems the war might be in the blood. His father’s cousin, George Stoddart Whitmore served in the Crimean War and would go on to set sail for New Zealand in 1861 as military secretary for General Duncan Cameron. By the time he arrived in the country, a truce had been declared, so he turned his hands to establishing a sheep run in Napier but by 1866, he led the colonial forces including several attacks on Te Kooti and Titokowaru’s forces. He became known as someone who was fiercely disliked, in part, possibly due to his military ability.

A recent photo of Whitty holding a picture of him during the war

Whitty would go on to spend a lot of his time along the beach side where his fearsome ancestor was said to spend some time. He would catch the ferry from the foot of the Mount, to Tauranga District High school and has fond memories of donkeys which were hired out for rides along the beach by the harbour look out at the time - Taffy Davies.

Whitty also used to climb up the Whitmore steps, which were put in by his ancestor to assist the troops during the Gate Pa wars. They can be found just past the surf club, on the left.

From the moment he left school, to recent times, Whitty has always been a hard worker, which he partly attributes to his long life. As the years progressed he got more experience working hard on the land and went on to run a farm which was the largest supplier to the Bay of Plenty Dairy Company as well as the largest producer of tamarillos in the southern hemisphere.

Whitty continued to play a big part in the farming industry, right up to as recently as 2014, when he was project manager for the Ellip dairy farm conversion in Te Puke, an off-grid project that took 36 working days from issue of permits to milking cows. “I like to get things done,” he says simply.

With four children (three of whom are currently getting a pension) and more grandchildren than he can count, Whitty enjoyed three parties for his ninetieth. With only two years to plan his centenarian, it's anyone’s guess how many parties he will enjoy next time.

Whitty's Story: The Life and Times of Alaric Davenport Whitmore

If you would like to read more about Whitty’s life, send him an email at whittymg27@gmail.com to secure his recently published book Whitty’s Story - The Life and Times of Alaric Davenport Whitmore.

Gardenhurst, aka Mullanee

by Shirley Arabin and Julie Green

Mullanee (formerly Gardenhurst), Photograph by Shirley Arabin

Recently I visited the house known as Mullanee and earlier as Gardenhurst.  It stands empty among long grass, and the trunks of old exotic trees that have been chopped down to make way for a new highway.  The doors and windows are boarded up as it awaits its fate of demolition or removal.

The house is a single storied weatherboard building with an iron roof.  It began as a cottage with a single gable and ridge line, with a brick chimney that has survived for at least 140 years. An addition with a matching gable was added at some point and then in the twentieth century further additions provided a kitchen dining area on the west side and a large living room on the east. The complete interior has been modernised, probably in the 1960s, with the interior walls lined with wall board and wallpapered. The only interior features that may have remained unchanged are the interior wooden doors. As well as additions to the house, rooms were also removed and used for other purposes. 

A member of the last family to own the land believed it began its European occupation as a Crown Grant to a militia veteran, but that is an item for further research. This house could well be one of the earliest European houses extant in Tauranga.

Richard Henry Farrar, c.1863-1864, Dublin
Image courtesy of the family

The first mention of Gardenhurst in the newspaper occurred when R H Farrer wrote to the editor concerning the supply of town milk from his dairy farm of that name. He also supplied vegetables to the town. Farrer’s occupancy ended not long after for he died in September 1883 aged 60 years. An Irishman from Queen’s County (since 1922 known as County Laois), who served with the 18^th Royal Irish Regiment, Farrer arrived in New Zealand on the Lady Jocelyn in 1878 with the George Vesey Stewart settlers. Mrs Farrer still resided in Gardenhurst in January 1884 as the newspaper acknowledged that she donated two books to the Mechanics Institute.

By 1885 William V and Charles F Tuthill and J P Whelan were partners in Gardenhurst Farm until William Tuthill withdrew from the partnership the following year.  In June 1889 R C Jordan rented 300 acres from Mr Tuthill, on 150 of which the Maori were to grow wheat. Several stock auctions were held on the property including one of Mr Jordan’s “live and dead stock” in June 1891 when he proposed to move closer to town to live and carry on his businesses. R C Jordan had a varied career in Tauranga as contractor, engineer, surveyor, founder of the Judea saleyards, and Mayor of Tauranga twice.

Plan from Title Deed

In July 1892 Gardenhurst lots 78 and 83 Te Papa comprising 300 acres with an eight-room dwelling went under the hammer of D Lundon, Auctioneer at the Haymarket in Devonport Road. The purchasers were the sons of Mr John Thomas Bull the postmaster who had recently bought Topcroft.  

In 1897 the property changed hands again to a Mr Howard, formerly of Johannesburg and was described as in Omanawa Road. It was during his time that an extensive garden was planted including the exotic trees that have recently been felled. There were oaks, chestnut, cypress, the ginko, camellia, a plum tree, and a huge persimmon.

Photograph by Julie Green

Howard sold the property in 1901 to Charles Turner Wallis previously of Hokianga who called for tenders for alterations to the house immediately. In 1908 Wallis died of typhoid fever at the age of forty-eight, leaving a wife and eight children under fourteen. Mrs Wallis and her sons Roland (Roy) aged fourteen when his father died and Marshall aged nine worked the farm.  Mrs Wallis suffered a significant loss when her milking shed and equipment were destroyed by fire and she was uninsured.  The Council had engaged with Mrs Wallis concerning land to be taken for a road but when she saw the agreement did not include matters verbally suggested she withdrew from the arrangement. Mrs Margaret Wallis died aged 96 in 1957 but after being farmed by Roy and Marshall for many years the property was sold.

Photograph by Julie Green

As a returned soldier from WW2 Samuel William Gilmer, a shepherd from Gisborne qualified for a rehabilitation loan and with that he bought the farm from the Wallis family. Sam and his brother Hugh farmed the land and brought their father, also Hugh up from Gisborne. Marshall Wallis continued to live in the house and the Gilmers lived in a tent for some years. The Gilmers called the property Mullanee after the place in Ireland Mullahanee from where the family originated. In 1967 they built a brick house nearer the road for Hugh senior and that later became the home of his grandson David Gilmer and his family and their horticultural business. Later Sam and David Gilmer swapped houses with the last occupant being Sam’s grandson and his family. After Sam Gilmer gave up dairying Richard (Dick) Smith took over the farm and subdivided parcels of land that have become Westridge Views, Takitimu Toll Road, and New Zealand Transit Agency Waka Kotahi property for highway extension.

Sources:

Bay of Plenty Times through Papers Past. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/

Tauranga 1882-1982 The Centennial of the Gazetting Tauranga as a Borough. Edit. A C Bellamy. TCC 1982

Interview with David Gilmer by Julie Green

Recollections of Dennis George Marsh - Part 4

Fourth part of a series contributed by guest author Dennis Marsh
(continued from Part 3)

Calf Club Day, Te Puke Primary School, c. October 1961
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Bay of Plenty Times Collection, Pae Korokī Ref. gca-2362

While I was going to primary school in Te Puke, I made friends with David Cannell. David’s father kept pigs. To feed them he used to buy old or unwanted horses, slaughter them and cook the meat up in big drums. It used to stink something awful and, as they lived on the outskirts of the shops, the cooking smell used to waft over the town and many people used to say derogatory things about the Cannell's. One weekend when I was staying with David, his father had been given an old thoroughbred. David’s dad said I should take it home as a horse to ride. I spoke to Dad on the phone and he was adamant that I was not to bring it home, but relented over the weekend and I rode it home on the Sunday afternoon. It was my first long ride on a horse and with no saddle – and by the time I got home I hurt in places no self-respecting person could mention. Dad laughed and called them “half-crowns”. Later Dad used to ride Captain, the name he was given, with Ron Brown when they went to muster the sheep. He was a ‘bugger’ of a horse to ride and the racehorse in him meant he did not like any other horse getting in front of him and he would bite down on the bit so that we had no control over him. Boy could he run !!!!

Dell at First Farm, Te Puke
Photograph collection of Dennis Marsh

We went to school on the bus leaving about 7:30 in the morning and getting home about 4:15. My job was to get dressed as quick as I could and get over to the shed to help Dad. Most of the time when I got there the cows had been milked and I had either to take them to the paddock, wash the shed and the yard or watch the separator to make sure the whey was going into the correct drum and the pig sty. We usually got finished at 5:00 and could then go back to the house and get ready for tea or maybe even do my homework.

My teacher was Jack Gemming. Jack taught us in standard 4 and 5. He then got promoted to secondary school. So when I went to college, I had Jack as my form teacher all through High School. I was part of the first batch of third formers to attend the Te Puke High School, as previously it had been a District High School.

Te Puke School bus, c. 1930s
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 07-073

The school bus was owned by the Te Puke Bus Company, Bill and Con Buckley, and most of the time our driver was Naera someone. Norrie Williams was the cream run driver and used to deliver all the stuff Mum ordered from town: groceries, bread, medicines and the stuff Dad ordered form the factory shop. Sometime if I was late to catch the bus, I would have to get a ride to school with Norrie who would drop me off at the factory corner and I walked up the hill to school. Sometimes there would be other kids on the cream truck for the same reason.

“Dennis and George Marsh with 1939 Ford V8 truck at first farm”
Photograph collection of Dennis Marsh

Dad and Mum bought a 1939 Ford V8 small truck- what would be called a ute in today’s language. It had a metal tray on the back and metal sides about 600mm high. Dad made a wooden crate to fit on the back so that he could take animals to the sale yards and back again. Going to “Town” was something special. Mum and Dad in the front and the three kids on the back – under a cow cover if it was raining. The road was only metalled so in the summer we had to contend with the dust and mud in the winter.

Capitol Theatre, Te Puke, c. 1960s
Postcard, Image courtesy of Pae Korokī, Ref. 99-046

Nevertheless, town day was something great. We could meet our friends, especially the girls, and if we had been very good at home, Dad might take us to the picture in the Capitol Theatre – always downstairs as it cost less. I only went upstairs after I started to get pocket money and I could afford to pay the difference myself.

Lolly dispenser, Capitol Theatre, Collection of Te Puke Museum
Photograph by Sandra Haigh, Courtesy of Western Bay Community Archives (Ref)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License

Dennis Marsh, Stewart St, Te Puke, 1961
Photograph collection of Dennis Marsh

Around this time the Post Office put new telephone lines up No. 1 and No. 2 Road. Dad got the job of taking down some of the old poles and wires. He wanted to use the poles for posts and the wire for fencing. I went with him on weekends to help. One Saturday when we were picking up the wire on the back of the truck, Dad said “Hop in and drive to the next heap”. I had driven different makes of tractors but never the truck. But youthful bravado rose to the fore. “OK” I said. Staring the motor and getting the truck moving was OK but then a car came down the road as I was driving to the next heap. What to do ???  PANIC. Dad saw what was happening and called out “Just keep going, You’re OK” and that was my first experience of driving the truck on the road.

(To be continued)

Recollections of Dennis George Marsh - Part 3

Third part of a series contributed by guest author Dennis Marsh
(continued from Part 2)

Dad & Ron Brown at First Farm, Te Puke
Collection of Dennis Marsh

In 1949 when I was 10, Dad and Mum bought a farm at the top end of Number 2  Road in Te Puke. I think it was about 50 acres and Dad milked 25 cows on it. This provided a living for our family for about 4 years. Mum used all her handiwork skills to feed and clothe us but I do not remember going without essential things. After Dad got the farm into the shape he wanted, he used to help the neighbours out and sometimes got paid for it. On the town side we had Bob and Doris Thompson with sons Graeme and Brian. On the gorge side was Ron and Francie Brown who had two daughters. Francie was from Scotland and was a war bride. Across the road on the town side were Ted and Jean Tanner with kids Margaret, Ann and Terry. On the gorge side was the Sigley family and they had about six kids. Further up the road were Olive and Keith Day with kids Ian and Colleen and further up again were the Lapwoods and, across the gorge, the Prendergrasts.

Back door of house, First Farm, Te Puke
Collection of Dennis Marsh

The farm was only about 60% in grass; the rest was in native bush. Ted Tanner was a conservationist, although the word was not in use at that time, and managed to persuade Dad to leave the bush standing. It’s ironical when Dad sold the farm, the new owner had cleared the entire bush within the first twelve months. The bush was really great – I loved walking through it and watching for tuis, bellbirds, and native wood pigeons.

Dennis with Chip, First Farm, No 2 Road, Te Puke
Collection of Dennis Marsh

In the early 1950’s the country had a rabbit infestation and  I remember when Dad invited Tom Fowler, Clarrie Kiddie and some of his other Tauranga friends up for a rabbit shoot. I was allowed to accompany them but not allowed to shoot. We got over 100 rabbits on that day. Dad used to go out on his own regularly, he owned a Savage single shot .22 calibre rifle and he taught me how to shoot with this. When Dad bought the Thompson farm, I was allowed to shoot on my own. I used to take six shots with me and bring back six rabbits. This was in the days prior to poisoning, so the rabbits I shot fed the dogs or occasionally Mum would roast them for us to eat.

Dad on First Farm, Te Puke, before the Tractor
Collection of Dennis Marsh

Dad farmed with horses and did not get the first tractor till some time later. He bought a Farmall Cub and a mower for it. All the other implements were adapted from horsepower to tractor power. Dad decided to get the herd tested to better manage the butterfat yield. The herd tester would arrive regularly to test which cows were performing the best. As we could only milk a maximum of 32 cows, he had to get the best return he could.

One herd tester named Joe Brough was a ‘Pom’ and he could really play the piano in true picture theatre style. Mum used to invite the neighbours whenever Joe was due and we would have a long night singing around the piano and the old folks would have a few drinks. Getting up early the next morning was a challenge.

(To be continued)

Recollections of Dennis George Marsh - Part 2

Second part of a series contributed by guest author Dennis Marsh
(continued from Part 1)

Dennis Marsh, 2 years old, c1941, Photograph by Rupert Connell
Image collection of Dennis Marsh

Some of my earliest recollections of our family was when we were living on an orchard on Moffat Road where Decor Greenworld is now located. Dad was away at the Second World War and stationed at Guadalcanal. Our neighbours across the road were Clarrie and Edith Kiddie and alongside the orchard towards the Kaimais were the Sheeley family.

Dennis Marsh at Bell’s Farm, Cambridge Road
Image collection of Dennis Marsh

Dad was manpowered out of the army to take up a sharemilking contract on Mrs. Kathrine McAlister Bell’s property on Cambridge Road right opposite the old family farm. We had a brand-new house to live in (it cost the Bells £600 to build) and Mum and Dad used to milk about 100 cows and send the cream in to the Tauranga Dairy Factory located on the corner of 12th Avenue and Devonport Road. Later they were founding members of the Town Milk Supply Association. The raw milk was sent for processing and redistribution to the consumers via the milkmen. During the later war years the Government subsidised farm labour with land girls and Mrs. Bell’s daughter Margaret worked for Dad. Our neighbours were Tom Ridder and family on the Judea side and Mrs Pruden on the Kaimai side. Mrs. Pruden had a daughter who lived with her but there seemed to be no Mr. Pruden.

George Marsh, Cambridge Road
Image collection of Dennis Marsh

Dad worked the farm with horses named Molly and Dell most of the time he was on the farm.  I remember when the first tractor arrived – a Farmall – and the fuss the neighbours made when they came to see it. At this time the old family farm had been taken over by Tom Fowler who had married Dad’s sister Mavis. Both the Fowlers and the Ridders had tractors but not as new as Dad’s.

Pop Marsh used to come out and help on the farm with things like haymaking and the young calves when he was needed and I remember one time when he was using the horse sweep when we were haymaking and he caught a wasp nest in the sweep. Boy, it wasn’t just the horses that were jumping around! Pop was a great stack maker. This was an art learnt over the years. How to stack loose hay and finish it off with a gable roof and how to make it rain proof by having all the hay lying in a line from top to bottom. We used to make covers out of old ‘super’(phosphate) sacks. We would split the sacks so that they were opened in to a single piece and we would hand sew with twine and sack needles all the many sacks until we had a cover big enough to cover the haystack. This went over the top of the haystack to hold the hay in place. Over the next months, until it was time to feed out, the cover would rot. By the time that had happened, the hay had settled in to place and the stacks seldom got wet. This is probably why the rats and mice were found when we opened the stacks in the winter.

Dad at Main Road Farm
Image collection of Dennis Marsh

I contracted Scarlet Fever and was hospitalised in isolation for a time. I don’t know how long, but it seemed a long time to a young child. Mum and Dad were not allowed to visit until the risk of spreading had passed. When they did visit, they used to buy me an ice cream from the dairy by the hospital. An old guy called Eddie Christmas used to bring ice creams but Mum and Dad frowned upon it– he may have been an unsavoury character but his ice creams were great!

Anything out past the hospital was considered to be in the country. Cambridge Road was metalled, not sealed. I remember going to visit Cyril Doidge and family who lived at Tauriko but on the other side of the Wairoa River. Driving up to the old mill wharf was like going for a major ride in the car. When we got there, Dad would whistle out to the Doidge family and one of them would row across the river in the boat and take us all over to visit. The Kaimai Rd was also just all metal.

(to be continued)

The Old Dairy Company Building

Opening of the Tauranga Dairy Factory, cnr 11th Ave/Devonport Rd, 2 October 1910
Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. 99-1181

My first view of the Army Hall gave the clue that it had been a dairy factory - the ventilators on the ridge of the roof. New Zealand has many examples of the remnants of old factories as they were not very far apart in the landscape due to transport of milk from farm to factory impeded by poor roads, if any, and the need to have the milk at the factory as quickly as possible for processing.

By the 1880s in the Tauranga district farming was being established and many of the well-known citizens like Lundon, Crump, Mathieson, Brabant and Tollemache began to speak up identifying the need for a factory. Eleventh Avenue, regarded as being on the fringe of the town, importantly had a fresh water. Dairy factories use water to wash the butter and need a reliable supply.

Tauranga Dairy Factory, 1918
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0324/10

In 1883 a meeting established the Tauranga Dairy Company and raised half the capital needed that night. There was a general preference to keep it local and refuse investment from out of the district. Eventually on 1 November 1885 the factory opened. They were not easy years ahead with problems like the difficulty in procuring young pigs to consume the whey, while some farmers wanted to keep the whey to feed the calves. Tauranga people were encouraged to buy the local butter but outsiders were trying to undercut the prices. Arguments arose when the Dairy Company proposed to open a store for their suppliers to purchase farm requirements and the town merchants complained that the Company wanted it both ways – to ask retailers to sell the butter but to undercut them with the sales of other supplies. The Dairy Company sales of bacon and ham remained an important part of the business. Those pigs needed to move on.

In the 1890s, a time of economic depression in New Zealand, the factory closed but reopened in 1900 under the management of Mr McPartland, the successful manager of the Te Puke Dairy Company. The Company paid three pence per gallon of milk to suppliers at this time. Exporting butter was more difficult than meat and it was not until the twentieth century that exporting increased. Britain’s need for food during the First World War created a huge market. A capable and energetic man Charles Macmillan had become the company secretary and saw the company through a period of growth. Macmillan became a Borough Councillor, later the Member of Parliament for the area, and Minister of Agriculture.

Dairy Factory, 1969. Photo by Renwood Studios
Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. 99-941

The butter factory prospered producing a quality product that won many prizes at shows around the country. In 1932 the meeting of the Tauranga Farmers’ Union revealed that £90,000 had been paid last season to suppliers and the bulk of it spent in Tauranga. In the twentieth century industrial action was a feature with a strong Dairy Factory Workers Union demanding better pay and conditions; the payment to farmers was low; and when things started to improve when War broke out again, there was a shortage of workers and the Dairy Company made representations to exempt some of their employees from War service. Photographs from 1969 show the factory still in business.

Army Hall, 2021. Photo by Shirley Arabin

The Tauranga Cooperative Dairy Company continued to operate from the Eleventh Avenue site through and after the Second World War but more research is required for those years until the building became the Battalion Headquarters of the Hauraki Regiment. This occurred in May 1981 with a move from the old Army Hall in Dive Crescent. The subject of a move had been debated since the 1970s when the City Council favoured demolition and building houses on the land. Bob Owens the Mayor favoured the Army so the new headquarters became known as the Hauraki Army Hall. The building includes a drill hall and the Hauraki Army Museum.

References
Bay of Plenty Times. Papers Past.
Taylor, Richard. Comrades Brave, A History of the Hauraki Regiment. Cosmos Publications, Napier 1998

The Yerexes of Kelston

Most Tauranga residents will have heard of Kelston Way near Tauriko but I wonder how many know anything of the Kelston Estate? In the course of researching the origins of our own 100 year old house nearby I have learned quite a bit and would like share a ‘taste’ with fellow history buffs. The original homestead has gone but there is another home on the site under the large Norfolk pines.

Kelston, Cambridge Road, Tauranga
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries/Pae Koroki, Ref. 03-077

The land was granted to Lieutenant Colonel Harington as part of his allocation for military service in the 1860s. I am not sure what it’s acreage was at the time but by 1906 when the Yerex family of Wellington took over it comprised of 800 acres and occupied the strip of land between Cambridge Rd and the Wairoa River. 200 acres fronted onto Moffat Road which was then just a farm track. In 1886 it was sold to W.N. Ley and in 1904 F.W. Wood purchased it for 1,150 pounds.

George Yerex had 4 sons and 3 daughters and though the homestead was roomy he extended the dining room and also the back porch for summer dining. A bathroom and hot water system were also added. There was a panoramic view of the river from the coach house and many other outbuildings included stables for 6 horses. Hay and oats were grown and there was a 16-acre apple orchard.

Kelston stables, Cambridge Road, Tauranga
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library/Pae Koroki, Ref. 03-076

The roads were typical of the day, boggy and dusty by turns, but they had a launch, and later a barge. The Wairoa River became their highway and their marine craft were made good use of by others, for example the transportation of machinery up river for the Omanawa power station.

Each of the four sons had their own area of skill and responsibility. Lincoln the eldest was the boatman and engineer, cutting and transporting hundreds of bales of chaff. Frank was the stockman caring for horses, beef and dairy cattle, and sheep. Lowell was the ploughman until he went to America with Lincoln to complete his education and was later a noted WWI pilot. Max, the youngest, fed the 40 or so calves and about 50 pigs. He devised a system of wooden rails running from the dairy shed to the pens along which he propelled the skim milk in an old barrel mounted on a chassis and four wheels.

To finish, a quote from Max Yerex himself, who wrote an article for one of our much earlier journals:

 

Sources
Pae Koroki, Tauranga Archives online
My Life at Kelston by Max Yerex, Tauranga Historical Society Journal, No. 57, Sept 1976
Maritime Tauranga 1826-1970, by Max Avery, self published, 2013
Map New Zealand - 100 magnificent maps from the collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Random House NZ, 2006

John Snodgrass

John Snodgrass
Image courtesy of Arnold Snodgrass

I first heard the name John Snodgrass when researching the Arabin family in 1985 in Ireland. We reached the townland of Moyvoughley in County Westmeath and talked to the current owners of the estate that belonged to the Arabins from 1703 to the 1850s. Charles Arabin R.M. was the last member of the family to live at Moyvoughley. He farmed cattle and was a Resident Magistrate, the career he continued in County Roscommon. While in Moyvoughley, Arabin was a member of the Moate Agricultural Committee and the Newtown Barn Agricultural School which promoted the improvement of agricultural methods in the County.

The estate was sold, then leased by William Dargan a famous railway engineer who was building the line from Mullingar to Athlone, and he grazed 300 horses on the land. At this time he employed Snodgrass, called locally the “Scottish agriculturalist” as his factor or farm manager. Snodgrass’s local fame lay in draining the Bugaun bog with a method known as jam shores. Some of his drains are still visible today.

Snodgrass house, Ōtūmoetai, 1917-1920
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library / Pae Korokī, Ref. 03-218

John Snodgrass was born in Renfrewshire in Scotland in 1814 and he married Barbara Graham.  Scottish agricultural methods were more advanced than in Ireland so he was welcome when he moved to Moate, a market town near Moyvoughley in light of the Newton Barn School and the Agricultural Committee. He left there after some years for the Greggs and Glinsk estate in Galway. Barbara Snodgrass’s brothers David and Robert Graham had emigrated to New Zealand earlier and were well established in Auckland. In 1861 the Snodgrass family decided to follow them and sailed on the Mermaid, arriving in Auckland in December.

Snodgrass set up as a carter and then, with his Graham connections, was appointed as a supervisor on the building of the Great South Road and a stockade at Clevedon. After an unsuccessful farming venture in Auckland, he was made bankrupt and spent some time in the Mount Eden debtors’ prison. In 1873 he sailed with his family for Tauranga to take up land at Ōtūmoetai. He and Barbara had ten children.

Playing tennis at Ōtūmoetai, 1917-1920, Foreground: Geoff Sharp, Lynn Snodgrass
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library / Pae Korokī, Ref. 03-218

With other farmers Snodgrass initiated the building of a cheese factory on Waihī Road, Tauranga but due to problems with keeping export cheese fresh the venture went into liquidation. His name remains in the district in Snodgrass Road, Te Puna.

Sources
Arabin, Shirley – No Petty People, the Arabin Family  - Moyglare Publishing, 2012
Snodgrass, Arnold – The History of the Snodgrass Family in New Zealand - 2011

Putting Matters Right

How W.P. Bell was elected as a Dairy Co-op Director, 1933-34

It’s possible that in 1933 William Pool Bell of Townhead Farm on Cambridge Road stood for election as Director of the Tauranga Co-Operative Dairy Association expecting merely to fill his father’s shoes. Walter Common Bell’s ill health had led to his resignation in 1925 after fourteen years’ service, and he died the next year. [1] But those eight short years had seen a collapse of butter prices and increasing anxiety about New Zealand’s sensitiveness to “external conditions.” [2] W.P. Bell, elected third on the ballot on 8 August, was in for a bumpy ride. [3]

William Pool Bell, June 1943. Image collection of Margaret Mackersey, nee Bell

The usual fuels for anxiety – rumour and controversy – were already at work. Well ahead of the 31 May 1932 balance date, the possibility that suppliers would be paid a mere seven pence per pound of butter was scotched by a statement in the Bay of Plenty Times. [4] The same statement, however, confirmed the gloomy reality that the payout would remain at ninepence-ha’penny. Later that year L. Tollemache stepped down as Chairman, a post he had held since 1927. [5] And at the 1933 meeting, chaired by his successor P.T. Keam, he was asked to publicly explain why, back in 1930, he had turned down the opportunity to improve the Co-op’s books by the sum of £2000.

The question turned on a lease of just over an acre of land owned by the Church Mission “under the old Military Cemetery.”  The 1930 Directors explained the rationale to the Co-op shareholders: they had “planned out a suitable area for a future factory [3 roods, 15 perches] when increase warrants it; the intention is to sublet the balance [1 acre 1 perch], which part we anticipate will practically leave us rent free. The site is adjacent to both deep water and the railway and will be a considerable saving in cartage of cream and stores.”[6]

None of these plans came to anything. The Board was still paying out £100 a year in ground rent when Tollemache was challenged at the 1933 general meeting by G Chapman of Te Puna, who asked “... if Mr Tollemache had received an offer for the land on the waterfront ... [and] if Mr Tollemache had advised the directors of any offer.”[7]

Tollemache averred that he had received an unspecific offer (from a Mr Green on behalf of the Shell Oil Company, to use as a depot) and had advised the Directors of it. All this occurred shortly after the lease had been taken. But now, one by one, the Directors told the meeting that they either were not aware of the offer or had not been on the Board at the time. We can only infer that this ambush affected his chances in the ballot. 

The votes were cast as the meeting traversed district meetings (fruitful opportunities for the exchange of rumour and opinion), the price suppliers paid for their butter (a loading of 2d. per pound!), and a break for lunch. They were counted after the appointment of scrutineers (and a wrangle over ballot closing time and methods), an address by the local MP (and former Chairman of the Association), C.E. McMillan, and discussion of several sundry items including a vote of thanks to the Dairy Factory manager and his staff. And Tollemache came narrowly fifth in a four-horse race [8] behind W.P. Bell [9] and C.O. Bayley.

Advert from Dairy Exporter's edition of the 1934 Report of Dairy Commission, p.19

All directors were present at the Board meeting on 9 September, the first that William Bell attended.  No mention of the recent general meeting appears in the Minutes. He successfully moved that a response to a letter of complaint from Mrs Kelso of the Womens Institute, seeking correction of a flawed advertisement, be made. [10] This was to introduce him early to anxiety levels in the dairy industry; even this small gesture had consequences.

Meanwhile, Tollemache had his champions. The adverse implications of his treatment of the Shell offer could not be allowed to stand. His supporter J. Hopkins lodged notice of a motion to remove Messrs Lever and Keam from the directorate. Keam chaired the extraordinary general meeting called to deal with this on 23 September, an unruly affair of claim and counter-claim, bearing a remarkable resemblance to twenty-first century website comment strings. Even a direct quote from the 1930 Minutes [11], confirming that on 12 April of that year the Chairman had not only received an offer (price not stipulated) and had advised the directors that he had turned it down, but also had had this decision endorsed by the Directors (moved Keam, seconded Lever) did not settle things down.

It comes as no surprise that the row descended into a procedural wrangle about the use of proxies in a proposed poll on the motion, vague references to legal opinions and “see you in Court” remarks.
 
At the Directors’ next meeting, on 14 October, William was prominent in support of moves by another Board member, Mr W.J. White, to regularise the stand-off between Chairman and former Chairman. [12] White wanted an opinion from the Board’s solicitors and preferred not to rely on Mr Keam’s own lawyer’s opinion. He moved accordingly. William seconded. Keam bristled. He considered this a personal, not a company, matter. "He had a perfect right to receive and pay for advice from whom he pleased." [13]

White got testy. This was a slight on the Company’s solicitors. [14] Would the Chairman indemnify the Company for costs entailed in a Court case? William temporised. "If the Chairman was prepared to get a written opinion from his Solicitors ... he would be perfectly satisfied. He would like also, as a matter of courtesy to have an opinion from the Company’s Solicitors, as he considered they were slighted.”

The move to avoid potential discourtesy to Sharp, Tudhope & Auld did not succeed, but the Chairman assured the meeting that a written legal opinion "as asked by Mr Bell" would be obtained. [15]

White, not yet placated, aired two further points of displeasure. He wished to correct a statement of the Chairman’s that was contrary to fact: he had not taken round the ‘Requisition’ to remove Messrs Keam and Lever. The Chairman conceded that he had relied on hearsay. White also pointed out that not only had no reply yet been made to Mrs Kelso; the Chairman had breached Company confidence by handing on her letter to “a third person”. The Chairman conceded again. He explained that an organiser of the Institute, visiting recently, had expressed concern that Mrs Kelso’s letter contained statements which (again) were contrary to fact. The Chairman had given her a copy in an attempt to help "put the matter right."

The energetic local atmospherics of Tauranga’s dairy industry of the 1930s illustrate, as well as desperate financial strain, a deep sense of concern for fair treatment that found immediate expression in the 1934 Commission and the (quite prompt) rehabilitation of L. Tollemache in the opinion of Tauranga farmers. [16] This concern continues to reverberate today.  Co-operatives rely on a sense of justice, driven by economics as well as social conscience. The long tradition of "putting matters right" can be aligned with modern anxieties about attitudes to dairying and a sense of division between country and town.  Tauranga dairy farmers were a spirited lot, but they ultimately stayed very loyal to a practice of sharing the risks of commodity production - and staying on side with the urbanites who bought their butter.

References
[1] Obituary, Bay of Plenty Times, Vol LIV, Issue 9262, 16 August 1926, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19260816.2.10
[2] Report of the Dairy Industry Commission, H-30 of 1934, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1934-I.2.3.2.37
[3] Acknowledgements are due to Bell’s daughter Margaret Mackersey, who kindly allowed access to his small archive of Minutes and associated papers from his time as Director of the Tauranga Co-Operative Dairy Company.
[4] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19320109.2.9
[5] He took over from C E McMillan, MP who held office until 1926: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19270809.2.20
[6] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19300812.2.18
[7] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19330808.2.22
[8] Ibid: It seems to have been a preferential voting process: total votes cast were significantly fewer than votes enumerated for the seven nominees.
[9] Ibid: Bell may not have been present when the results were announced.  The BP Times records thanks to supporters being offered only by Keam, Clarke and Bayley.
[10] Bell archive, Minutes of meeting of Board of Directors 9 September 1933, p.2., Collection of Margaret Mackersey, nee Bell
[11] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19330925.2.26
[12] Bell archive, Minutes of meeting of Board of Directors 14 October 1933 p.4., Collection of Margaret Mackersey, nee Bell
[13] Ibid: all further quotes are from this source.
[14] Sharp, Tudhope & Auld, a firm still practising in Tauranga.
[15] Op. cit: Bell archive, 14 October 1933. Perhaps indicating that the legal opinion had yet to be put into writing? Collection of Margaret Mackersey, nee Bell
[16] He was re-elected in 1934 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19340807.2.25 (W. P. Bell did not stand) and was still being elected to the Association in 1945: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19450717.2.9

Arthur Huia Honeyfield, by Max Avery

Book Review contributed by Gill Larsen

Arthur Huia Honeyfield, by Max Avery
published by John Charles Honeyfield under the auspices of the Tauranga Historical Society
Monograph Number One, 2016

Newcomers to Tauranga who are looking to explore the history of their new city, or long-time residents who have been part of its development, will enjoy this monograph of a man central to our story. Arthur Honeyfield’s journey ‘From the farm to the boardroom’ depended on the fertile land of the Bay of Plenty and his astute business activities. From a first position, as a new graduate, with stock and station agent Wright Stephenson, Honeyfield's varied career saw him involved in the management of poultry, vegetable provision for war supplies, forestry, dairying and avocados. He gave many years of service to the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board, key to employment and growth opportunities in both urban and rural Tauranga.

Honeyfield was a bit of a character, adventurous and bold in business and personal affairs. His flight logbook, necessary for his private pilot’s licence, shows some creative accounting. Employees describe a single-minded man whose wife Edith provided a caring influence. Always involved in local initiatives, Honeyfield was the unofficial ‘Mayor of Katikati’ in his later years.

Max Avery’s monograph includes generous images, each of which tells its own story. Throughout the text are names of men who contributed to the Tauranga in which we live. Their names are remembered on our buildings, reserves, businesses and street signs.

Copies are available from the society at $25.00 each. Please contact Julie Green.