Henry Williams and the Herald: Their First Visit to Tauranga Moana

Pilot Bay in the 1800s

Image: John Kinder, Mt Maunganui, Tauranga, 1874, 1937/15/46, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki

On 26th June 2026 the Karuwhā Trust held three events here in Tauranga Moana to commemorate CMS missionary Henry Williams’ first visit. 200 years ago, he arrived on the Herald, a 55-ton schooner captained by Gilbert Mair (senior) [1]. The two of them had helped construct the ship, launched in January 1826, on the beach at Paihia and the prime purpose for its voyage south was to obtain a better food supply for their fellow workers in the north.

Over the next two years Henry and others made at least four visits to Tauranga in the Herald, trading for potatoes.  While here, they were able to broker some peace and bring the good news of the Gospel to this area. They promised to send others to establish a mission station, which did come about in 1835. There were also other voyages undertaken to the Bay of Plenty in the 1830s, but these were in other vessels, as the Herald was unfortunately wrecked (but without loss of life) on the Hokianga bar in 1828. 

 

Dr Samuel Carpenter giving his Karuwhā Trust Lecture 26 June 2026.

Image: Karuwhā Trust

The three events held in June 2026 were very well attended.  The venue for the afternoon lecture by Dr Samuel Carpenter was relocated from the Elms Chapel to the nearby Vintage Car Club rooms to accommodate the demand for ticket sales. This was followed by a short walk to the old mission station and a guided tour for those who were interested in the Te Papa Mission site and its story.

Earlier in the day there had been a mihimihi and karakia at the Mission and Military Cemetery (formerly Otamataha Pā).  In the evening approximately 500 people attended the symposium presided over by Dr Joe Williams at Holy Trinity, where Dr Alistair Reece and others spoke.

Karuwhā Trust Symposium at Holy Trinity, 26 June 2026.

Image: Karuwhā Trust

There have been several previous articles on this website [2] dealing with Henry Williams and his various voyages.  Here I record a few other aspects of his life that I picked up from Dr Carpenter’s lecture and a podcast of an interview with Dr Alistair Reece. 

Henry was born in Gosport, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom in 1792 and rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Following this he became an ordained priest and married Marianne Coldham. In 1823 they were shoulder-tapped by the Church Mission Society to come and help lead the fledgling mission in NZ. They were quite strong and assertive in leadership and the CMS in Pahia began to make headway with the first conversions and baptism of two local Māori in 1830. Henry was strong on the learning of te reo by missionaries and their wives and was very involved in the preparation and signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. He and his brother William were largely responsible for the translation of the New Testament.

Henry Williams and te Kawenata Hou

Left image: Frontispiece, The Early Journals of Henry Williams. Pegasus Press Christchurch. Right image: Title page, first edition New Testament | Kawenata Hou.  https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/1st-Edition-New-Testament-Maori-1837/32152870474/bd

Henry and Marianne had 11 children. One son established Te Aute College, another was a parliamentarian, and a third was appointed a magistrate in the Native Land Court. Two daughters married other missionaries — Octavius Hadfield of Kapiti and Christopher Pearson Davies.  The latter was another connection with The Elms Te Papa. C. P. Davies and his family lived and worked there for seven years.

Notes

[1] The shipwright, not the soldier. See https://wdc.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/4929

[2] These are all by Dr Trevor Bentley and can be found at
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-karere-messenger-and-paihia.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-active-and-rev-henry-williams-1832.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2021/09/arama-karaka-pi-and-taeopa.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/04/during-morning-walks-over-mount.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/06/early-european-vessels-and-visitors-to.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-schooner-trent-and-major-thomas.html

Sources

Karuwhā Trust information online: https://www.karuwha.org.nz/
Dr Samuel Carpenter: I am Henry, lecture and article, 26/6/2026
Dr Alistair Reese podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3mu9FvxYCQRMc5ZECo66a4
Voyages of the Herald: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herald_(1826_ship)
Wendy Davies, descendant of Henry William and Christopher Pearson Davies

Methodist Church Picnic

Image: Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0672/08

Handwritten on the back of this photograph are the words ‘Methodist Church Picnic, Tauranga’. Sadly, it is not recorded when or where the picnic took place or who these cheerful looking people are. However, a quick search of Papers Past shows that the Methodist Church Picnic was an annual event from the early 1900s into the 1930s. Popular locations for the picnic, which took place in January, included Yatton Park, Tauranga Domain and Otumoetai Beach.

Submission on the Gifting of 11 Mission St to the Otamataha Trust

View of Mauao, the Tauranga Harbour and part of Otamataha Pa from the C.M.S. Mission Station
Pen-and-ink sketch by John Kinder, Christmas 1857
Glass plate copy negative by J.D. Richardson, c.1910s-1920s
Courtesy of Auckland Libraries, Sir George Grey Collection, Ref. 4-1218

The following submission was made by Beth Bowden on behalf of the Society during the Tauranga City Council's hearing on 1 August 2019. Thank you, Beth.

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It is a rare thing, in history, to find an opportunity to put matters right. Most of the work of historians involves working out what changed – at worst, what went wrong - in the past, and how, and why; most of us try to do so with an honest appreciation of the biases of hindsight. The burden of the present - contemporary prejudices and preferences - is inescapable.

The Tauranga Historical Society, which exists, among other things, to “foster and maintain a public appreciation of places and things of historic interest.... in the Bay of Plenty area” therefore has some sympathy with the various points of view being put forward concerning the process of making the property at 11 Mission Street available for use by The Elms Foundation. Everyone concerned is wrestling with the past – of just over a decade on the one hand; and nearly two centuries, on the other.

History teaches us that ‘public appreciation’ shifts and changes. In our submission, the story of 11 Mission Street aptly illustrates that lesson. And, in our submission, the right thing to do, given the history of the site, is to return it to the Otamataha Trust. We therefore stand alongside those who take the longer view, rather than those who base their arguments on expectations and intentions framed during the last thirteen years.

A straightforward gift to the Elms Foundation does seem to have been the eventual intention when the TCC purchased the property in 2006.

Alongside that, the Society balances the even clearer intention of the Church Missionary Society, expressed in 1855:

“Land... was acquired... solely for the purposes of the Mission, and the possession of it intended to promote through the Mission, the spiritual welfare... and permanent benefit to the Natives...”

Thanks to the careful research of Dr Evelyn Stokes and  Dr Alistair Reese, who has traced [Naboth’s Vineyard] the eventual and total alienation of CMS lands to the Crown, we know exactly how Te Papa became “no place for native settlements.”

Similarly, the Society takes note of the force of the 2004 finding of the Waitangi Tribunal that the award of the Te Papa block to the CMS in 1852 was in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.  History, especially modern history and international relations practice, is full of ways and means to remedy treaty breaches. We are not surprised to see that the Council’s efforts to meet the spirit of the Tribunal’s decision have been complex and involve compromise.  We commend the sense of mutual respect and dignity accorded to the parties concerned in this restitution process.  Not all such efforts have gone so well.

It is a well-worn truism that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  Since opportunities to break the repetitive pattern of pakeha occupation and control of land in Te Papa are rare, the Society encourages Council to depart from the worthy but narrow intentions that lay behind the purchase decision of 2006. We promote a wider, more inclusive view of the history of this peninsula. We see strong symbolic and, eventually, historic value in making 11 Mission Street over to the Otamataha Trust so that they may, in conjunction with the Elms Foundation, give expression to some of the hopes and ideals expressed at the time of the original missionary occupation.

Nothing, now, will restore to the descendants of Ngati Tapu, Ngai Tamarawaho, and Ngai Tukairangi the 240 hectares of the Te Papa peninsula that Deacon Brown traded for goods worth ‘near L200’ in 1839. His recorded motives expressed an intention to prevent settlement, sly-grogging and trading, which only goes to show how original intentions suffer alteration. The intentions of the tangata whenua are best described by reference to the Waitangi Tribunal [WAI 215, Te Raupatu o Tauranga Moana, 2004]: original permission to occupy nineteenth-century Te Papa, by anyone, Maori or pakeha, was of a shared and conditional nature.

It is not unusual for historians to propose, from studying an area’s past, that uses and boundaries have been fluid rather than mutually exclusive.  And historians also find that private, exclusive, use can change. It is as well to acknowledge here that the family home bequeathed to the Tauranga Historical Society, Brain Watkins House, was built on confiscated land and is now open to the public as a House Museum.

The Society has therefore formed the considered view that the best way to deal with the current question of who is best placed to own and control the land at 11 Mission Street is

• to take the steps outlined in Council’s proposal to transfer 11 Mission Street to the Otamataha Trust and
• for that Trust, in conjunction with the Elms Foundation, to use the property for further development of the Mission House as a place of historical experience and understanding of the past.

Far from over-complicating the matter, such a process upholds and exemplifies the history and function of the original Mission Station as a negotiated space, in place as well as time.

Further drawing from the Waitangi Tribunal report: the Council does not have to behave in typically pakeha terms: over-simplifying motives and consequences and ignoring inconvenient truths. The current position, as we understand it, is that neither the Otamataha Trust nor The Elms Foundation has any objections to the course Council now proposes to follow. We also cannot see anything but good coming from a long-term, considered and deliberate development of 11 Mission Street under the care of the two institutions.

At the very least, the transfer to the Otamataha Trust and subsequent perpetual lease at a peppercorn rental to The Elms Foundation allows a semblance of the original relationship between the tangata whenua and the Church Mission Society to be represented in modern terms. We endorse the proposal.

The Te Puna Patriotic League stands up for itself – Mary Munro and Florence Lochhead

Plummers Point. Image courtesy of WBOPDC

Uncertainty, fear and controversy characterised not only military issues during World War I.  They were at work on the Home Front as well.

Men of the Farmers’ Union, galvanised by Te Puna settler Tom Lochhead, were not slow to review their stocks of “waggons, horses, and forage” [1] in August 1914. The townspeople of Tauranga, however, seemed reluctant and slow [2] to commit to putting civilian society on a war footing. Ad hoc activities – local committees [3], private donations [4] - got under way, but it was not long before these voluntary efforts came under scrutiny from central authority. Against a background of increasing pressure to recruit volunteer soldiers, and then conscripted ones, the powers that be also bent their attention to the proper regulation, control and “unification” [5] of volunteers running patriotic funds. The War Funds Act 1915 constituted the National War Funds Council to supervise the process.

While the realities of war became starker [6], so the practical energies of the community gained focus. As another Te Puna settler, Mary Munro, was later to say in public, the work of the patriots at home came to be a curious mixture of jollity overlaying more sober emotions, including the constant threat of bad news. In July 1916, the same month that Mary’s son Niol was wounded and her second son Robert went to camp, the Te Puna Patriotic League announced its intention to have regular socials, “as near as possible to the full moon each month”.

Mary became President of the League. The socials took place in the Te Puna Schoolroom, by permission of the School Committee (Tom was its Chairman). Tom’s daughter Florence, known to her family as Flo, became League Secretary. Two of her brothers were now at the Front. And due to the status of the Lochhead home as Te Puna’s Post and Telegraph Office, Florence and her mother Elizabeth were always the first to know of telegrams. The solid community network that existed in Te Puna was put to work, not only on the emotional drain of sustaining morale among its families, but also on maintaining the League’s independent existence.

For the forces of centralised bureaucracy were gathering. In November 1916 a charm attack from a pair of Auckland ladies - Mrs Gunson, Mayoress of Auckland and President of that city’s Patriotic League, and Secretary Miss Spedding - had their invitation to ‘affiliate’ the Tauranga League as a branch of a larger, Auckland, whole accepted after some misgivings [7]. But the Te Puna League was less easy to convince. They were in any event deeply involved in organising their first, very successful, Monster Picnic and Sale of Work on Mr Plummer’s paddock at Te Puna Point (now known as Plummer’s Point). It will have done their cause no harm to show that they were capable of a feat of organisation on a scale that involved stalls, games, raffles, competitions, refreshments, at least one bag-piper, and a launch service from and back to Tauranga [8].

Pressure to ‘affiliate’ continued through 1917. Poor Florence battled gamely on, sometimes calling Te Puna a branch league in advertising its meetings and fundraisers, other times not; a third brother, Tom Junior, went to war in April. By August she had had enough. Te Puna farmer A D Bear took over as secretary of the League.  But by then the implications of s. 40 of the War Legislation Amendment Act had filtered out to Te Puna. This allowed the Minister of Internal Affairs to approve separate, stand-alone funds rather than compelling them to be part of a larger whole.

No doubt impressed by the joint efforts of Mary, Florence, and possibly Mr Bear, the Minister issued the Te Puna Patriotic League with just such approval in October 1917. This was in good time for the organisation of a second Monster Picnic six months later, along similar lines to the first, but bigger and brighter than ever.

Image courtesy of Papers Past

At some point during the tumult and the shouting, Mary Munro was invited to speak. With still a trace of a Tyneside accent [9], she thanked “those present both for their attendance and for the manner in which they had contributed to the sale. All had hoped last year that it would not be necessary to hold another sale, but unfortunately it was still necessary, and maybe again next year. They had to blend pleasure with duty and she felt sure all would help to make the effort a pronounced success.”

Mary’s point was entirely lost on the editor of the Bay of Plenty Times. Without apparent irony, he congratulated her League on exceeding the total raised at the previous event, abjuring them: “Keep at it Te Puna! Next year we shall not let you off with less than £150, so save up your pennies.

It proved, after all, to be unnecessary to hold another sad gala. About June 1919 the Te Puna Patriotic League wound up, as all the other Patriotic Leagues were doing. Work on hand went to local hospitals and homes for the returning servicemen. Niol Munro’s wounds never healed, and both William and Tom Lochhead died in France.  Both Niol and Norman Lochhead died young. Robert Munro was not demobilised until 1920, and he stayed on the farm at Te Puna for the rest of his life.

Florence married George Chapman at the Te Puna Memorial Hall in 1931. Mary Munro was a wedding guest; A D Bear played the music for the ceremony.

References

[1] Meeting at the Farmers’ Trading Agency,  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19140812.2.6
[2] Letter to the Editor, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19151014.2.6
[3] Tauranga Ladies Hospital Ship Committee, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19160117.2.15
[4] Close Bros of Te Puna’s donation of horses, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19160122.2.4
[5] Speech by J H Gunson, Mayor of Auckland, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19151027.2.13
[6] Letter from hospital ship “Lan Franc”, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19160422.2.5
[7] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19161117.2.14
[8] Advertisement, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19161120.2.3.6
[9]  Mary was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 26 June 1865.  She died in Tauranga in 1951.

Charles Spencer, Photographer (Part I)

Charles Spencer, probably taken c.1873-1876 by himself
Glass quarter-plate negative
Image courtesy of Auckland Library Sir George Grey Collection Ref. 1365-0368

When Charles Spencer set up his makeshift photographic studio in a tent adjacent to Thomas Wrigley’s Springwell Brewery at the corner of Spring and Willow Streets in April 1879, he had already made a name for himself as an adventurous explorer and skilled photographer of landscapes. Originally from Leicestershire, England, he emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1861 and grew up in Thames, where his father Thomas Spencer and chemist John Hall owned a chemist and assay business. It is likely that he learnt something of the chemist’s trade at the firm of Spencer & Hall in his teens, but by early 1876 he was in Dunedin where, with a reputed stake of £1000, he became a partner in the already successful photographic studio of Clifford & Morris.

View along The Strand, Tauranga, probably taken Sep-Oct 1878 by Charles Spencer
Mounted albumen print credited to Series No 932, Burton Brothers, Dunedin
Collection of Te Papa Tongarewa Ref. O.034032

A year later, in July 1877, he and his younger brother George moved on to work for the even more well known firm of Burton Bros, and spent many months taking landscape views across the Southern Alps and up the West Coast. After this successful adventure resulted in the addition of a large number of photographs to the Burton Bros. portfolio, they were sent to the North Island to take further scenic views in the country between the Lake country and Tongariro. It is likely that Spencer’s first photographs of Tauranga was taken in September or October 1879 while employed by Burton Bros, and when he was en route to or from the Lakes district. The above view northwards along the Strand towards the Monmouth Redoubt, complete with characteristic “Burton Brothers” reference number and byline at bottom left, is one likely candidate.

Wedding party of Emily Stewart and Richard Surtees, Mount Stewart, Katikati
Photograph attributed to Charles Spencer, 12 Jun 1879
Image courtesy of the Stewart Family and Tauranga Library’s Tauranga Memories Kete

The decision to leave the employ of Burton Bros. and try his luck at portraiture and outdoor photographic work in Tauranga may have been made during a summer holiday spent back at his parents’ home at Parawai in Thames. His stay in Tauranga did not have an auspicious start. In late May, by which time he had installed a stove, no doubt due to the onset of winter, the tent burnt down, although he managed to save all his equipment and chemicals. He was back at work within three weeks, and managed to score a commission to photograph the wedding of prominent Bay of Plenty resident George Vesey Stewart’s eldest daughter Emily to Richard Surtees at Mount Stewart, Katikati, that same month.

Charles Spencer, c. 1879-1881
Carte de visite, probably taken in Spencer’s Tauranga studio
Courtesy of Elms Collection Ref. 2002.0170

In early September, Spencer took over the Hoyte’s chemist and druggist business on the Strand. By employing Henry Clayton, a pharmaceutical chemist, as manager he was able to use a room behind the shop, originally designed as a consulting room for visiting medical practitioners, as a temporary photographic studio, opened in early January 1880. A month earlier he had married Isabella Sellars, daughter of local resident and ship owner Captain Daniel Sellars, which presumably contributed to his decision to put down more substantial roots in Tauranga. The market for portrait sittings was clearly insufficient to occupy him full time, because by early March he was offering “all kinds of portraiture” and “views and residences to order” from a tent in Hamilton, and later in Cambridge. He returned to Thames in August, erecting his “monster tent” studio and offering his usual fare for some weeks.

Charles Spencer & his wife Isabella née Sellars, c. Summer 1882/83
Glass quarter-plate negative, probably taken by Spencer
Image courtesy of Auckland Library Sir George Grey Collection Ref. 1365-0344

In September 1880 took on the agency for the Universal Copying Company of San Francisco, which undertook “Painting Portraits from all kinds of Family Photos,” and promised that either he or his agent would “visit every town in the North Island.” The following month he retuned to Tauranga and, stating that he intends to settle there permanently, dissolved the partnership with Henry Clayton, intending to operate both the chemist’s business and his photographic studio himself. Clayton, in turn, was appointed general agent for the Colony and took over the touring. Spencer lost no time get involved with local affairs, becoming a member of the Templar’s local Lodge, and took on the additional agencies for Singer’s Sewing Machines and Hopkins’ Bee Hives. In addition to “portraits from 15s per dozen,” he offered “all kinds of outdoor photos as per agreement” and “views of the Hot Lakes,” via advertisements which appeared almost continuously in the Bay of Plenty Times until July 1882.

Ivy Kate Spencer, aged about 12 months, c. Summer 1882/83
Glass quarter-plate negative, probably taken by Spencer
Image courtesy of Auckland Library Sir George Grey Collection Ref. 1365-0349

On 9th October 1881 Isabella Spencer gave birth to their first child, a daughter they named Ivy Kate. The portrait above was taken when she was about a year old. Sadly she died only 20 months later, on 12th June 1883, and was buried in Tauranga’s Mission Cemetery, where she is memorialized on her grandparents gravestone.
[… to be continued]

Vintage Garden Party & Fashion Show

Tauranga Heritage Award Presented to Heather McLean

Newspaper clipping from 1982. The award was organised that year but not presented until 1983.
The first presentation was to Mr Duff Maxwell.

This year saw the return of the Society’s Tauranga Heritage Award, which was last presented in 2004. The most deserving recipient was genealogist Heather McLean. Heather was presented with an Illuminated Scroll signed by Mayor Greg Brownless and Historical Society President Julie Green. (SunLive article)

Stephanie Smith speaking at the presentation ceremony in the NZ Room, Tauranga City Libraries, 24 October 2018.
Heather McLean is seated to her left.  Image: Fiona Kean

The scroll, detailing Heather’s many achievements, was as follows:

‘In recognition of Heather’s exceptional contribution in the discovery and transmission of genealogical and historical information for Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty region. In particular, her knowledge of local cemeteries and her meticulous transcriptions of headstones, completed over more than forty years.
For her tireless and generous volunteer work, including:
Twenty-seven years of collecting and indexing death notices and obituaries.
One day a week at the Tauranga Family History Centre since its opening in 1993.
One day a week at the Pyes Pa Cemetery since 2012.
Many years of valued support to the library community.
WW100 Tauranga committee member since 2013. 
In acknowledgement of Heather’s investigative skills, her phenomenal memory and her willingness to assist researchers by giving both her time and financial resources.’

Suffrage March, Katikati - 15 September 2018

Suffrage March, Katikati, 15 September 2018. Image: Fiona Kean

This weekend the sun shone on the women of Katikati as they came together to march for Women’s Suffrage. More than 200 women and children, and some men too, many dressed in period costume and holding banners, marched from Uretara Domain to the Katikati War Memorial Hall. While a number of the banners referenced the historic struggle for women’s suffrage, others carried contemporary messages highlighting challenges faced by women today, including ‘#metoo’, ‘pay equality’ and ‘support for midwives.’

Suffrage March, Katikati, 15 September 2018. Image: Fiona Kean

Those taking part were rewarded with friendly toots from passing cars. However, outside the Talisman Hotel, marchers encountered a vocal bystander telling them to ‘go home and get lunch ready!’ Few were phased by his taunts and the red camellias thrown outside the Memorial Hall suggested that it was all part of the re-enactment – red camellias having been worn by anti-suffragists 125 years ago.

Helen Clark at The Elms

Julie Green, The Elms, 7 September 2018
Photo courtesy of Fiona Kean

The Society was well represented at The Elms last week (Friday, 7 September) for the planting of three Kate Sheppard camellias by former Prime Minister Helen Clark. The occasion was organised to honour Alice Maxwell and the Women’s Suffrage movement currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. Society President and member of the Maxwell family Julie Green spoke of her great great Aunt’s commitment to the preservation of The Elms and fundraising for charities that helped others. Alice was also one of just two Tauranga women who signed the 1893 suffrage petition, the other woman being Margaret Galbraith.

Helen Clark and Debbie McCauley, The Elms, 7 September 2018
Photo courtesy of Fiona Kean

The camellias have been planted near the chapel and alongside the area currently being transformed into a stunning heritage garden. In the evening Helen Clark went on to speak at an event titled "Are We There Yet" that is part of a series of events organised by the "Suffrage 125" Tauranga Committee. For further information visit www.mytauranga.co.nz search word: Suffrage 125.

Photos from Jazz in the Garden

What's on in September

Statuette, Brain Watkins House

Monthly Meeting and Talk

Sunday 1st September 2013 2.00 p.m.
In the hall at the rear of the Brain Watkins House
Dr Peter Vickers, will talk to us about Cameron, Grey and the Invasion of the Waikato.