Another new book from Trevor Bentley

 

Between 1864 and the early 1900s, Tauranga Harbour was not merely a backdrop to the district’s maritime history; it was the engine of it. Every local and visiting waka, schooner, cutter, barque, scow and steamer entering the harbour brought with them people, cargo, news and hope. During Tauranga’s Anglo-Māori War years (1864-1872), British battleship-troop carriers brought military occupation, violence, colonial officials, dispossession and despair.

While Tauranga’s early history is one of ships, it is also a history of the people who built them, sailed them, loaded them, anxiously watched them disappear over the horizon and joyously welcomed their return. This eight-part study casts light on Pākehā and Māori ship builders, their owners and their captains, on British and Māori fighting men, immigrant-settlers, merchants, labourers and visiting travellers, missionaries and officials.

The book restores their stories to the harbour and invites readers to see Tauranga not simply as a place on land but as a place defined by water - by tides, sandbanks, reefs, channels, and the vessels that once threaded among them. It is a reminder that our harbour has always been a gateway, a theatre of cross-cultural encounters, a workplace, a saltwater highway, a hazardous seaway and a home.

Racing from Tauranga to Auckland with cargoes of perishable goods, the Tauranga owned schooners Hope and Fortune arrived within a few hours of each other on 2 February 1866.

As many readers know, Trevor is a member of the society and an active contributor to this blog. His books and blogs explore Tauranga’s as well as New Zealand’s social, maritime and military history with a special focus on the Pākehā and Māori men and women who crossed cultures voluntarily and as captives. Dr. Bentley is the author of ten previous history books.

Book details

Early Maritime Tauranga: A History of Vessels, Visitors, Residents and Events, Volume II, 1864-1900s.

Author: Trevor Bentley

ISBN: 978-0-473-77735-7

Soft cover, 486 pages

RRP $39.99

Publisher: Kererū History Books.
https://www.kereruhistorynz.co.nz/

Image credit

Dawson, Montague. ‘The Orange Schooners,' from Ramsey, L.G.G. Montague Dawson, R.S.M.A., F.R.S.A., The Greatest Sea Painter in the World, F. Lewis, Leigh-on-Sea, England, 1970: 43, no. 179, plate 39.

An Ode to Tauranga

Photograph attributed to Charles Spencer, c. 1882, while Bodell was the proprietor
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0134/10

In 1893 Tauranga resident and wine merchant, Samuel Webb, wrote a poem to celebrate the town’s charm. It was published in his pamphlet ‘Tauranga Handbook’. Webb’s aim was to promote Tauranga and hopefully stimulate its economy having sunk all his money into moving here and taking over Bellevue House in 1892. Unfortunately, New Zealand was in the grips of a long economic depression and the population of Tauranga declined by 10 percent between 1890 and 1895. Webb died in 1896 close to bankruptcy. 

Tauranga

Tauranga. Bay of Plenty town,
My rest and sweet repose,
What can I do to make thee known –
Thy natural charms disclose?
There’s not a spot on Zealand’s Isle,
Which can with thee compare.
All nature seems on thee to smile,
And breaths her purest air.
While all thy nymphs so hale and tall,
Born in this charming place,
For horsemanship surpasseth all
In comeliness and grace.
Nor is this all I have to tell
Of fair Tauranga’s charm’s –
All sick who come she soon makes well,
No poor apply for alms,
And look the sea so smooth and blue
Is rippling on the Strand,
Has also charms for ever new
And always close at hand,
Where you with pleasure there may float,
A rowing go or sail,
All happy in your well trim’d boat
In summer’s balmy gale,
Or, should you wish to go and fish,
Then take your hook and line
And you will have a dainty dish
On which you all may dine.
Come then, come all, yea every one
Who seeks for change and health,
There’s not a place beneath the sun
Which needs so little wealth.

A mounted albumen print showing a view of The Strand taken from the Town Wharf around the time Webb penned his poem. The photograph was printed by The National Photographic Company.
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0431/08