Tauranga Courthouse Update

Map of the ‘Town of Tauranga’ created by George Pulman in 1864-1865
The two buildings circled in red have been identified as accommodating the Magistrate’s Court prior to 1874
Image courtesy of Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Map 4498-4

In my November 2022 blog about Tauranga courthouses, I commented that the original site of the Magistrate’s Court was unknown – to me at least[i]. As is often the case with research, information comes to light when you’ve stopped looking for it and I can now report that the Magistrate’s Court in Tauranga was held in two further locations before the erection of the Government Building in 1874.

George Clarke (1798-1875), his wife Martha and their thirteen children, c. 1868, probably at Waimate North
It is likely that both Hopkins and Henry Clarke will be in this photograph
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 09-117

Oddly this information was gleaned from a court case brought by the Tauranga Town Board against Hopkins Clarke, Clerk of the Resident Magistrate’s Court, and brother of Henry Tacy Clarke, who was the Resident Magistrate in Tauranga during the 1860s and early 1870s. The Board was trying to obtain £5 15s in unpaid rates for a building Hopkins Clarke was occupying. Clarke claimed that, as the house and land was owned by the Government and used for Government purposes, he should be exempt:

“I shall be able to produce witnesses to prove that since I have been residing in that house it has been used as a Court house and also as a Government store ... there is a room used as a Court house, with a bar across for keeping the public from the bench; that bar is still in existence.”[ii]

The plaintiff also called several witnesses, including Ebenezer Norris, a member of the Town Board. Norris maintained that, although court cases had at one time been held in the building, it was his belief that it wasn’t during Hopkins Clarke’s residence. This is supported by a statement which appeared in the Bay of Plenty Times in September 1872:

“The old Mission school house is now converted into public offices. Here one will find Telegraph, Post, and Public Works Offices; also, Resident Magistrate’s Court.”[iii]

So, it appears that both the Resident Magistrate’s dwelling and the Mission school house, better known as the Native Institute, were used as the town’s first courthouses.[iv]

Resident Magistrate’s house on the left and Native Institute on the right
Photograph taken from Tauranga Town Wharf circa 1870s
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 16-011

 

Resident Magistrate’s house visible beyond the Bank of New Zealand on Wharf Street, circa 1880s
This house would be later be moved to a corner of the site to accommodate the Town Hall
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 04-383

 

The Native Institute, Tauranga
This building was erected in 1861 and according to the Central Tauranga Heritage Study, written in 2008, demolished in 1874 to make way for the new Government Building
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 01-140

References

---

[i] http://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2022/11/prosperity-to-this-building-and-to.html

[ii] Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 187, 20 June 1874.

[iii] Bay of Plenty Times, Volume 1, Issue 8, 28 September 1872.

[iv] The Bench found in favour of the defendant Hopkins Clarke “The plaintiff has failed to show that the tenement on which recovery of rates issued is not in the occupation of the General Government of the colony.” Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 189, 27 June 1874.

Richard Coles Jordan (1838-1919)

Richard Coles Jordan, Mayor of Tauranga 1882-3, 1885-6
Courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Ref. Photo 21-1852

This early Tauranga settler lived a reasonably long and rather fruitful life. He came to Te Papa somewhere between 1866 and 1872 and eventually fathered four sons and three daughters. A surveyor by profession, he was engaged by the Town Board as their first engineer to build the Beach Road, now our Strand. In 1873 he was the first to drive a horse and dray over the road to Ohinemutu in Rotorua, and was described as a roading contractor. Following his journey, locals were keen to see the establishment of a mail service on this route. New roads in those days were paved with firstly sand and then shell.

He continued surveying for a living until at least 1874 but was soon owner of a Bond Store and described himself as land agent, auctioneer and stock agent, reputedly the only one of the latter between Katikati and Opotiki. The first Judea sale yards (still operating in the 1980s*) were a venture of his, and he held an initial sale of cattle there in 1876. His residential address in 1880 was “West side of Strand, between Harrington and MacLean Streets.”

17 Oct 1883  Letter from J Mann to Matravers reminding him the longer goods stayed at Jordan [and Sheppards] the more they will be [ruinous]
Courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Ref Ams 12/2/7

From 1882 to 1915 Tauranga mayors were elected annually and RC Jordan was the second, following George Vesey Stewart. He held the office for two terms, in 1882 and again in 1885. Due to a fire in his premises he was forced to declare bankruptcy in early 1883, but was soon solvent again. He won the seat back from Thomas Wrigley nearly three years later. He was in office during the Tarawera eruption on the 10th June 1886 and called to Auckland for help for our citizens as he was concerned about the falling ash

16 Oct 1883 Telegram sent to officer in charge Customs, states that Mann’s Warehouse is approved and Jordan’s revoked.
Courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Ref Ams 12/2/1

It is important to note that another prominent citizen of Tauranga, also named Jordan, was elected Mayor five times, he was Canon Charles Jordan, vicar of Holy Trinity.

RC was later a member of the County Council representing the Waimapu Riding. He took an interest in the Acclimatisation Society, the Agricultural and Pastoral Society and called for expressions of interest in forming a Young Farmers Group.

Richard’s wife was Kate and they both appear on the ratepayers register for 1908 along with sons Cyril, a storekeeper, and his wife M(….), and Arthur, a surveyor, and his wife Jesse. The following year Cyril owned his father’s plot of land and at least by 1916 it seems that of this Jordan family only he and his wife remained in the area.

There is a small street off the West end of 9th Ave named after one of the Jordan residents, more likely RC.

*Please see post on Judea sale yards by Beth Bowden dated 23 August 2019

Sources

Tauranga 1882-1982, The Centennial of Gazetting Tauranga as a Borough, Edited by A.C Bellamy

Pae Koroki, courtesy Tauranga City libraries:
Tauranga Historical Journal No. 15 1961
Tauranga Rates Books 1907, 1916
Tauranga Street Directory 1880                                          

Geni  Family Tree

Te Awanui

In 1970 Queen Elizabeth was to visit Tauranga and when the city fathers went looking for a waka to accompany the royal yacht Britannia to its berth, there wasn’t one, so the idea for a ceremonial waka for the city of Tauranga took shape.

Te Awanui, Tauranga, 10 February 1973
Photograph by John C. Bourne, Postcard published by Dow Productions, Ref. 150
Collection of Justine Neal

The ceremonial waka taua Te Awanui - the original name for Tauranga Harbour - was carved by Tuti Tukaokao in 1973 from a 300 year old, 124 metre-high kauri tree found at Waitawheta in the Kaimai Ranges. Before it was cut elders gathered together for a ceremony to pay homage to Tane Mahuta. Felling the tree took three-quarters of an hour using a chainsaw, with the lower limbs being retained for the carving of hoe (paddles).

The 46 foot-long waka took 22 months to complete, and used carving designs from all around New Zealand.

Te Awanui, Tauranga, 10 February 1973
Photograph by John C. Bourne, Published by Logan Print Ltd., Gisborne for Stars Travel, Tauranga
Collection of Justine Neal

Te Awanui was launched on February 10th, 1973 from the beach at Hawaii (Memorial Park). People lined the harbour banks three deep. A karakia was performed over the finished waka and as it floated for the first time, in went the 30 paddles and the chant especially composed for the occasion, Te Tau o Te Awanui, rang out over the waters of Tauranga Harbour.

Te Awanui and Te Urunga, The Strand, Tauranga
Photographer unknown, Postcard published by Dow Productions, No. 194
Collection of Justine Neal

When the Tauranga Moana iwi is not using the vessel for celebrations, it resides within Te Urunga, a purpose-built whare waka situated at the northern end of The Strand.

References

Tauranga Moana (Te Awanui), Pae Koroki

Te Awanui (Waka taua), National Library 

Te Awanui, Tauranga's Ceremonial Waka, by Debbie McCauley, 2013 (also reproduced in Historical Review: Bay of Plenty Journal of History, Vol 65, No 1, May 2017, pp. 1-6)

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

Brain Behind the Boats and the Bridges

Joseph Denham Brain
Loose print from Album (BWH2004-0958), Brain-Watkins House Collection

In 1844 Joseph Denham Brain was born into a family of shipwrights on the Isle of Wight. He sailed to New Zealand, married Kate, sister of Auckland shipwright William Bishop, and came to Tauranga in 1881, taking over the shipyard of Mr Charles Wood on the northern end of the Strand. He constructed not only his own home but that of his eldest daughter Ada and built for himself three coastal boats, the Ventnor, Vectus and Dream. He also owned two whaleboats, the Esther and Tarawera. The General Gordon was another boat built by this man.

Brain's boatyard, c1900
Tauranga City Library Collection. Ref. 99-751

A quick read of Papers Past could lead one to believe that he was actually more of a bridge and wharf builder. In the BOP Times he was recorded as the contractor for at least 6 bridges: the Waetou and Atuaroa No.1 bridges on the Te Puke road, the Tarawera Bridge on the Rotorua-Te Teko route, the Waitekohe Bridge near Katikati (1882), the Kopurerua Bridge in Judea (1886) and the Wairoa Bridge at Bethlehem (1892). He tendered unsuccessfully for a couple more bridges and even tried to win the contract to construct the first bathing enclosure off Tunks Point (First Ave) in 1885. He later built the Ruahihi Bridge, the Hairini Bridge (1897) and the Omanawa Bridge (1906). He certainly knew how to build the much needed bridges for this district.

Bridge in Kaimai area built by Joseph Brain, c1900
Tauranga City Library Collection. Ref. 02-064

It is also recorded that he was responsible for the concrete seawall on the Strand and the Horseshoe Wharf at Mount Maunganui in 1913, as part of the East Coast rail project. Other structures he was responsible for were Tauranga’s first fire station and bell tower in Durham Street in 1911, a 250 ft tramway on Motiti Island for loading cattle, and his last, the Memorial Gates opposite the present courthouse in 1921, only 3 years prior to his death at 80.

The years shortly after his arrival in Tauranga must have been tough as he applied to have his section, Lot 147, assessed at a lower valuation in 1881 and asked for the annual rent for his portion of the foreshore to be reduced from 3 pounds to 5 shillings. He certainly did his civic duty, serving on the school board (1891), the Borough Council (1893), the Mount Domain Board (1894) and was nominated for the mayoralty in 1895. Brain was integral part of this town’s growth, a successful and much respected man, passing away in 1924 leaving an estate of seven thousand pounds.   

Sources
Papers Past — BOP Times 1881-1924
Historical Review  May 2003
Pae Koroki

The Bond Store

Tauranga. Postcard by Mary Humphries, 86 x 136mm, c.1900-1910
Courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0146/09

Known as No.1 The Strand, or Guinness’s, the substantial building originally the Tauranga Bond Store was built for James Alexander Mann in 1883 as a warehouse and bond store for storing imported goods. The Bond Store was situated on the waterfront not far from the two wharves which were the main entry place for goods arriving at Tauranga by sea. Mann & Co. developed as a retail store for general hardware, furniture, agricultural machinery, gardening tools and grocery items as well as liquor and tobacco. James Mann sold the business in 1908 to Guinness Bros., a local firm of general merchants who used it for storage and administration of their business, which included wholesale wines and spirits. As importers, producers and stockists of agricultural equipment, Guinness Bros. played an essential role in the development of the Bay of Plenty's agricultural industry. The shop was later greatly enlarged and served as the main retail area of their business for many decades.

In 1986 Hughes & Cossar, also wine and spirits dealers, took over the property; later it was leased and occupied by Saunderson Packaging, Tulloch Photography, Creative Tauranga and more recently the Weekend Sun. In late 1997 the ground floor of the building was refurbished as a restaurant and bar.  For several years the Tauranga Historical Society held their Christmas lunch at the restaurant where our members enjoyed the historical ambience of the building.

Tauranga men. Back row from left - F Stewart, E Pemberton, P Hines, C Guinness. Front row, third from left J Kelly
Postcard, 86 x 136mm, c. 1914-1918
Courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0483/10

The Bond Store is the oldest remaining commercial building in Tauranga and a reminder of the period when Tauranga was heavily dependent on sea freight. The building functioned as a storage place for imported goods that required the payment of import duties; these were collected on behalf of the customs department by the bond-holder. The Tauranga bond store is one of only a few remaining in New Zealand.  As a bonded warehouse the building played an important role in enabling access to restricted goods such as alcohol, tobacco and other goods subject to import duties.

The site of the Bond Store has proven human habitation pre-1900 and is therefore an archaeological site under the provisions of the Historic Places Act. Its footprint and curtilage is significant as it abuts the lower flanks of Monmouth Redoubt (formerly Taumatakahawai Pa). The Tauranga Bond Store is the only remaining example of the utilitarian and traditional style of buildings associated with the early years of Tauranga's history as a port and the former status of The Strand as the main commercial street.

Guinness Bros. tent stand at the Tauranga A&P Show with agricultural machinery on display
Unmounted Ilford vernacular print, 60 x 87mm
Courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0414/08

It is a good example of a simple, well-built, traditional brick and timber structure. As the oldest commercial/retail building in Tauranga it is therefore a rare type of historic place in this area. It sits in the context of the wharf and port area of Tauranga's commercial district, at the end of one of the earliest streets and close to the original shoreline.

If you are interested in the connection between the famous Guinness Brewery in Dublin and the retailers of that name in Tauranga history read “Guinness Down Under: the famous brew and the family come to Australia and NZ” by Rod Smith a member of the Tauranga Historical Society. The book is available at the Tauranga Library.

Source: Heritage New Zealand

Lawyer Bromfield's Trial by (Rugby) Combat

The Strand, Tauranga, taken from the Monmouth Redoubt, c. 1886
by The National Photographic Company (A.A. Ryan, Manager)
Albumen print (160 x 215mm) mounted on card
Courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0620/08

It’s rare for me to be stuck for a topic for the Historical Society blog. But, as the deadline approached, and perhaps as a consequence of the Covid-19 lockdown, I felt fewer symptoms of oncoming inspiration than usual. My shot in the arm? A look into the Bay of Plenty Times issued Saturday 10 July 1880 – one hundred and forty years, plus one day, before the date of this post. And there, in the middle of page 3 (the Times always offered two pages of advertisements before its readers got to the ‘real’ news), was a story with a tantalising headline: “AN EXCITING FOOTBALL MATCH ON THE TAPIS.” [1]

The article was, it turned out, a jolly colonial jape. The anonymous ‘correspondent’ (my money is on the editor himself) put forward a fake news story: a putative proposal to resolve a conflict as to which local body was responsible for the lamentable state of the street at the north end of the Strand. The outcome was to be determined by whoever won a rugby game. Rain was stipulated over shine; the teams were to come from the staff of the County Council and the Town Board, and to play in uniform. The ground itself was to be the northern-most section of the Strand variously and elsewhere described as a slough, a bog, or a large puddle. Afterward, our correspondent declared, they could clean up in the harbor and go on to a dinner together, “at which the hatchet will be permanently buried”. Admission was to be free. Spectators were to be encouraged by a bell, rung along the rest of the Strand by someone I have identified as Peter Grant [2], the contractor whose deliberate pace of work (he was almost certainly worried about not getting paid for it) had so exasperated local solicitor Archibald William Bromfield that he had issued a legal claim under the Public Works Act 1876 against the Town Board. The BP Times’ ‘correspondent’ nominated Bromfield as the umpire for the match.

Warming to his joke, that correspondent also advised readers that Mr Bromfield had “received instructions to prepare the wills of the combatants” who were, he further asserted, “on application to Mr Sheath ... appalled to find they could not insure their lives ... as the probability is that some of them will get swamped and smothered in the mire.”  The Coroner and an undertaker would be in attendance, and a team of bullocks, our mendacious informant concluded, would be there to pull inextricably stuck players out of the mud.

Northern end of The Strand, Tauranga, June 2020
Photograph by Beth Bowden

Bromfield, I am certain, would have taken the joke in good part, and relished the ridicule being leveled at the two reluctant Councils. His was a short, zestful and intriguing life that ended in the saddest of circumstances in 1889. It is hard to make this blog more about street improvement shenanigans in Tauranga than about him. In July 1880, however, he was fresh off the boat from Gisborne, where he had briefly settled after a voyage out from London in 1876 [3]. In Auckland, early in the following year, he had successfully applied for admission to the Bar of the Supreme Court [4] and was for a short while in partnership with one William Henry Connell [5], who eventually – and successfully - sued Bromfield for debt [6]. While in Gisborne he seems to have been appointed Crown Prosecutor [7], but little in the Court cases reported from there indicate his actually taking on this role.

A.W. Bromfield was around 35 years old when he set up his law practice in Tauranga, which makes the Bay of Plenty’s report of a claim to twenty years’ experience in the law just barely credible [8].  In Gisborne he had acquired his wife, Josephine [9]. I have found no record of their marriage in New Zealand [10], but they set up house (having left their home and all its chattels, including a piano, on sale in Gisborne) on the east side of Cameron Road in the block between Spring and Elizabeth Streets. He was to spend seven years in Tauranga, and it is evident that he was humourous, gallant and, until the very end, undaunted in facing down the vicissitudes of life.

Including a large, deep and muddy expanse outside his 1880 office door. Readers no doubt realise that 140 years ago the Strand was, actually, on the beach; and was, for that reason, highly convenient for boat traffic as well as horse- and bullock–drawn vehicles. The combination of commercial street appeal and very poor, tidally-affected drainage involved a hideous compromise. Bromfield, having suffered the indignity of mud coming over his boot-tops, put up his own (presumably wooden) sidewalk [11]; but the Town Board was not even prepared to accept the Chairman’s suggestion that “a few” cartloads of sand (not without its own problems [12]) be put down on the road itself [13]. In an election year, Bromfield sought £90 in damages from a debt-beset Town Board [14].

Extract from the Bay of Plenty Times, 16 Jan 1883
Image courtesy of Papers Past

Even in an election year, however, the seasons change. It is not clear that the action for damages was ever pursued (or that there would have been much point in pursuing it). It seems, sadly, that the Monty Pythonesque rugby grudge match did not take place. What is clear is that in August 1880 A.W. Bromfield’s professional brother in law, E.G.B. Moss, moved into offices right next door [15], whence the two counsel launched a not-quite-partnership rich in legal adventure and interest.

It’s also apparent that, in spite of my best efforts, this post turns out to be less about Tauranga roading politics than about Tauranga personalities. A biography of Bromfield does not exist: such is not my field, but I recommend him to anyone seeking a subject whose life combines moments of real bravura as well as the sloughs of despond.  And in 1880 he saw no dire symbol, only the joy of the combat, in the object of contention outside his Strand office.

References

[1] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/bay-of-plenty-times/1880/07/10/3. So pleased was the writer with the piece that it was reprinted in the Bay of Plenty Times of 15 July as well.
[2] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18800703.2.18.  Amusingly, Bromfield successfully managed Peter Grant out of a sticky indebtedness situation the following month: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18800821.2.8
[3] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18761111.2.12
[4] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18770331.2.10
[5] I have been unable to find a connection to the well-known Auckland firm of Meredith Connell, established about 95 years ago: https://www.mc.co.nz/about-meredith-connell
[6] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18790509.2.38
[7] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH18790611.2.9. Even this was not without contention; one C. C. Lucas thought the job should have been his.
[8] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18791218.2.6. Articled clerks were often quite young. https://englishlegalhistory.wordpress.com/tag/articled-clerk/ It’s possible Bromfield was claiming some early guidance from his father, a JP and Doctor of Law, who died in Bath, 17 April 1887: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18870627.2.13.2
[9] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH18791211.2.3.3
[10] I have her name from the birth certificate of their son, James Archibald Bromfield, born 23 May 1887: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18870524.2.5, https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/Search/Search?Path=querySubmit.m%3fReportName%3dBirthSearch%26recordsPP%3d30#SearchResults
[11] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18800729.2.19.1
[12] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18800722.2.5
[13] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18800703.2.18
[14] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18800710.2.16
[15] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT18800821.2.7.7

The East Coast Railway

Beginning of East Coast Railway Bridge, Tauranga. Postcard by Henry Winkelmann (Tourist Series 999)
Published by Frank Duncan & Co., Auckland. Collection of Justine Neal

The first reference for a railway to Tauranga was made in January 1873 when it was suggested that a line from Cambridge to Tauranga be built, but this was not favourably received at the time. In March 1879 it was proposed that any railway to be built should be between Tauranga and Rotorua. The Government couldn’t find the money to carry out this work so The Tauranga and Hot Lakes and East Coast District was formed in 1882 to construct the line. A struggle to raise the capital continued until 1887 without result.

First Train to cross Bridge & enter Tauranga. Mirrielees Photo 50
Courtesy of the Brain Watkins House Collection

By 1905 the railway from Hamilton reached Waihi and interest was shown in a possible route to Tauranga via Waihi. In 1904 a survey was made from Waihi to Katikati and by December 1908 had reached Tauranga. In March 1912 Sir Joseph Ward, the Prime Minister, turned the first sod on the Waihi-Tauranga line. In 1910 the Government decided to use Mount Maunganui as the headquarters for the construction of the East Coast railway. The first sod was turned by the Minister of Public Works 12 April 1910. The first scheduled trains began running from Mount Maunganui to Te Puke on 10 October 1913.

Railway Bridge, Tauranga, N.Z. (4821). Photographer unknown
Published by Tanner Bros. Ltd., Wellington. Collection of Justine Neal

Local interests were still keen to have the line extended to Tauranga. There was much discussion involving the route this line was to take. At one stage it was to come off the bridge, pass along Elizabeth St. and through to the Waikareao Estuary but it was finally decided to adopt the present route. A start on this section of line was made in March 1914 but because of the shortage of steel during the war it was not until February 1924 that the bridge was completed and the rails laid to the Town Wharf. On February 26, 1924 the Manawatu Standard reported:

Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Important Ceremony. Mr. C. E. McMillan, M.P assisted by Mr. B. Dive, Mayor of Tauranga, performed the ceremony this afternoon of driving the last rivet in the railway bridge across Tauranga Harbour, an important link in the east coast railway, connecting Tauranga with the eastern portion of the Bay of Plenty. Sir Maui Pomare was also present, representing the government. The bridge has 14 spans of 105 feet each and each weighing 85 tons and 15 sets of cylinders, varying in length from 15 feet to 110 feet. It is expected to be about three months before the bridge is opened for regular traffic.

Harbour and Railway Bridge, Tauranga, N.Z. Photographer unknown
Published by Frank Duncan & Co. Ltd., Auckland. Tourist Series 8168. Collection of Justine Neal

By 1925 the line to Taneatua was completed but the link between Taneatua and Moutuhora was never completed and so a small rural town inland from Whakatane became the railhead for the East Coast Railway. A great gala day was planned for the opening of the railway station on January 21, 1926. Visitors from all parts of the Bay were present and a special excursion train arrived at the Taneatua station at 11.45pm when the opening ceremony was performed, followed by a lunch at the Taneatua Hall. The children of the district were taken for a trip in the train over the bridge, which spans the Whakatane River at Taneatua. People travelling from Tauranga to Taneatua could catch a train on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving at Taneatua at 12.05 pm. The return train left at 1.05 pm, arriving at Tauranga at 5.40 pm.

Tauranga, N.Z. Photographer unknown
Royal Series. Collection of Justine Neal

The connection to the North Island Main Trunk Line was completed with the finishing of the Katikati – Wairoa Bridge section in 1928. The March 28 1928 edition of the Bay of Plenty Times ran the following story.

Tauranga is en fete today for the opening of the East Coast railway, between Waihi and Taneatua. Approximately 15,000 people assembled on the Strand, which is gaily decorated. There were many hundreds of Maoris, who accorded the Ministerial party an effusive welcome. The official party included the Hons. J. G. Coates, K.S. Williams and A.D. McLeod. The Hon. J.G. Coates was accorded a wonderful welcome. In replying, he traced the history of the railway operations in the Bay of Plenty, and referred to the consummation of their hopes and their endeavours. The gathering today was the largest in the history of the Bay. The town was gaily decorated and a big programme of attractions was arranged for the day and the evening. Trains from Tauranga and Waihi brought about 5000 visitors, the feature of which are great assemblages of children and of Maoris.

Tauranga, N.Z. Photographer unknown. Collection of Justine Neal

Today only freight trains rumble along the Strand and over the bridge on their way to the port at Mt. Maunganui. The last passenger train to run in Tauranga was at the Jazz festival in 2009. The line to Taneatua was run as the end section of the East Coast Main Trunk from 1928 – 1978. Freight services continued to be operated on the line until 2001, the line was closed in 2003. In 2015, a rail cart operation, Awakeri Rail Adventures, was established on the section of the line between Awakeri and Rewatu Road.

References
Papers Past.
Tauranga 1882 – 1982.
Going By Train. Graham Hutchins.