Anne Stenhouse

Many years ago I undertook the somewhat laborious task of going through every council minute book since 1882 noting the names of elected mayors and councillors. [i] In the one-hundred and forty-years since the town’s first election, residents of Tauranga have had the opportunity to fill 764 council positions. [ii] It may come as no surprise to learn that women have held only 48 of those positions - this equates to just 6 percent. Indeed, it took forty-four elections before the first woman sat at the council table.

Anne T. Stenhouse, Tauranga's first woman councillor (1944-1950), with Sir Donald Cameron at City Council Conference, c1940s
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Photo 04-159

Mrs Anne T. Stenhouse has the distinction of being the first woman to serve on the Tauranga Borough Council and it is amazing to me that her name is not better known. Born in Invercargill in 1891 to Irish parents, Teresa and John Lopdell, Anne (christened Annie Teresa) went on to become a sole charge teacher in the Otago region until her marriage to James S.J. Stenhouse in 1923. As the wife of a doctor her accepted role was to support her husband’s career and raise their four children. However, Anne’s desire to serve her community is evident as she was elected President of the South Otago Plunket Society and was Commissioner of Girl Guides in that district. [iii]

Photo 07-249 Tauranga District Federation of Women's Institutes. Back left to right: Mrs Pemberton, Mrs Cooper, Mrs NcNaughton, Mrs Stenhouse, Mrs Christie, D. Miller. Front: Betty Francis, Mrs Lloyd, Mrs Paterson (Dominion President), Miss Fielder, Mrs Denniston. Original from Miss E. J. McNaughton. Circa 1940s

After six years in Katikati, and a stay in Tahiti, the Stenhouse family arrived in Tauranga in 1938. Mrs Stenhouse quickly established herself within several local organisations including the Tauranga branch of the Federation of Women’s Institutes to which she was elected President. [iv] During the Second World War she helped to set up a District Committee of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary and was its first ‘Chairman.’ [v]

Postcard view of the Town Hall, corner of Wharf and Willow Streets, Tauranga. The location of the Tauranga Borough Council Offices. Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, 0250/09

In September 1943 her view on the role women could play in politics was expressed at a thanksgiving service celebrating women’s franchise held in the Town Hall [vi]:

“Mrs Stenhouse spoke on “The Future.” This was, she said, to be thought of in relation to the tremendous problems arising in regard to the new world order to be established after the war. Women had to take their share in all this implied and their contribution would have to be a worthy one. A rousing call to face the calls that would be made and an idealistic appeal to all women for the vision necessary in planning for the future of generations unborn.” [vii]

A year later, her election to the Tauranga Borough Council provoked little comment. [viii] At the first council meeting held after the election the Bay of Plenty Times reported that new councillors were welcomed by Mayor Wilkinson and ‘particular reference to Cr. Stenhouse to whom went the honour of being the first woman to have ever sat on council.’ [ix] Anne Stenhouse went on to serve for two terms.

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[i] On 15 March 1882 the first Borough Council elections were held in Tauranga. Tauranga City Council holds minute books from 1882 onwards. These are available to the public by contacting the Council.

[ii] This includes additional positions created by resignations and deaths. The number of council positions has also fluctuated over time.

[iii] Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14516, 10 November 1947, Page 3

[iv] Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 13021, 27 April 1940, Page 6

[v] Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13255, 4 February 1941, Page 1

[vi] On 19 September 1893 the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law giving New Zealand women the right to vote. In September 1943 celebrations were held around the country to mark the occasion.

[vii] Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13264, 30 September 1943, Page 7. It is also important to note that Anne was Vice-President of the Tauranga Branch of the National Party at the time of her election.

[viii] She received 1280 votes making her ‘second on the list of successful candidates’.

[ix] Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13474, 10 June 1944, Page 2

 

The Little Green Boatshed

by Guest Author Max Avery

The Little Green Boatshed, June 2017
Photograph by Fiona Kean

The subject of this article was no architectural masterpiece. Indeed, many may have called it unsightly. Yet, for nearly 50 years it was an integral part of the Tauranga foreshore. Snuggled by the Tauranga-Matapihi railway bridge it served the Yacht and Power Boat Club before it became a home for Tim Morrell and Bob Murray’s boating activities.

On July 15, 2021 at the stroke of a bureaucratic pen, the little green corrugated iron boatshed was demolished and one of the last remaining features of the old Tauranga harbour foreshore was consigned to history.

Slipway and Matapihi Rail Bridge, 7 May 2019
Photograph by Fiona Kean

Built by members of the TYPBC, the boat shed was on a reclamation, also organised by those enthusiastic yachtsmen. They needed an area handy to their clubhouse which their craft, particularly the seven-foot Tauranga class, could be rigged and launched from. Begun in 1935, the reclamation grew steadily in area over the years. A concrete slipway was poured in 1944 and some years later a manual winch installed.

Plans for a boatshed on the reclamation to house the club’s patrol boats were approved in 1963 and the building was erected by club working bees in 1974, according to club member Bill Faulkner. The club apparently had little use for the shed after 1977, when its small boat fleet became based at Kulim Park, and a new clubhouse was established at Sulphur Point in 1983.

Winch
Photo by Lee Switzer

Clubhouse custodian Tim Morrell is said to have used the boasted for storing nautical gear, and the adjacent slipway for the maintenance of his beloved mullet boat Lorna.  It became known as “Tim’s private slip.” When Tim Morrell moved on Tauranga land owner and keen fisherman Bob Murray moved in, and for many years shared the slipway and boatshed with fellow mariners and fishermen, until the Bay of Plenty Regional Council began trying to evict him. “I’ve had that shed for 30 years. It’s a mates thing,” the 84-year old told journalist Andrew Campbell in 2017, claiming that he had obtained a lease from the Tauranga City Council. “It’s between me and the council really,” he said, critical of what he called the regional council’s “bombastic attitude.”

Bob Murray was never ready to give up on his harbourside haven, and neither he did, until death parted them on August 30, 2018. The shed remained, its surroundings no longer kept tidy by Bob. The historic manual winch was wrenched from its foundations by persons unknown in September 2019. Through the efforts of members of the Tauranga Historical Society, to whom the winch had been given by the TYPBC, the artefact was recovered in February 2020 and is now safely lodged with the Tauranga Heritage Collection.

The boasted has gone and only the concrete slipway, girt by iron rails on which the wheels of the boat cradle ran, remains - a mute monument to the many happy maritime memories of past years. And of the old Strand and Dive Crescent foreshore, only the former TYPBC clubhouse (now a restaurant) and the railway wharf cargo shed continue to defy change.

Wharf Street, Tauranga in the early years

From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

A Henry Winkelmann (1860-1931) Tourist Series postcard featuring Wharf Street in the 1910s (Image 03-429) typifies many of the historic images within our Heritage and Research collection.  Wharf Street on a scale of ‘bustling’ to ‘abandoned’, looks closer to the later. 

Wharf Street, Tauranga (Image 03-429)

There is technically a crowd, three people, gathered by the roadside. A further two individuals talking by a car and four people walking are spread evenly throughout the scene. The image is described simply as “showing Hartley’s drapery”.  This is no one-horse town, but you might be forgiven for imagining “one horse town” to be at least a distant cousin.

Viewing this image on Pae Korokī with the “Zoom to 100%” tool reveals a lot more detail. 

The cables running the left-hand length of Wharf Street may still be telegraph lines, though the righthand pole shows a power cable running down into an electric light.   1915 was the year the town moved from gas street lights to electric street lights (October 2nd), though in this photograph I can only see a single electric street light. Perhaps the rest were still being installed? 

Portion of Image 03-429

In the distance as Wharf street rises, lines of Californian fan palms bristle out of their sturdy wooden cages. These were a gift from William Charles Berridge in 1911, then manager of an experimental farm  for the New Zealand Government.  Berridge wanted to beautify Wharf Street and thought Californian fan palms would do just that.  Letters to the editors complaining about the cages suggest not everyone agreed.  Some claimed they were an eye sore, and others a road hazard for motor vehicles.  The first recorded motor vehicle accident in Tauranga was 1914. I don’t think it involved the wooden cages but if it did, surely the target would have been the Californian fan palms themselves. 

Portion of Image 03-429

Wharf Street in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was one of those town and country streets that changed in character as it crept up the hill away from the commercial Strand end toward Cameron Road.  Yes, it had the imposing Bank of New Zealand (built 1876) and the Bank of Australia (1914) as well as the Town Hall (1914-1916). But it also had at various times, a shooting gallery, an electricity substation, a livery stable for horses and at the western end, open paddocks with overgrown Macrocarpa hedges and gorse. “Country” came right into town too, in the form of roaming cows, bringing complaints about blocked doorways and produce munched right from within their display shelves. It was roving cows that inspired our wooden cages, and that were eventually out-(by)lawed in 1932. 

Cows on Cameron road in the 1920s (Image 99-740)

Solicitors, architects and dentists resided on Wharf Street, and operated businesses.   In the 1910s you could have your suit altered at Mr Lyford's the tailor's, then get it dyed 'to look like new' at Tauranga Dyeworks. You could book your place on a service car to Rotorua or Matamata with Mr Baigent the agent. You could shop for plants and 'fancy goods', have a singing lesson with Mr Meadows (a former opera singer you know), and buy chocolate from Mr Whitaker. You could alter your will at Sharp, Tudhope, and have your teeth fixed by Mr Poole the dentist. Then if your jaw wasn't hurting too much afterwards, you could partake of refreshments at the Windsor Tearooms (later the Empress).  Finally, you could round off the day by going to the pictures at the Town Hall:  the films were all silent of course, enlivened by the music of the hard-working Borough Council pianist. 

Clipping from the 1907 District Electors' Roll for the Borough

 

Such variety in one short street speaks of a small, hard working population (just 1346 in 1911) building a modern and prosperous commercial town that included community facilities and connected with other centres in our region. 

Sources:

Bellamy, A.C. (1982), Tauranga 1882-1982

District Electors' roll for the Borough of Tauranga (1907, 1911, 1913, 1916, 1919, 1923, 1933)

Pae Korokī (https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz)

Paperspast (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers) 

Tauranga City Council information panels, text provided by Stephanie Smith, former archivist at Tauranga City Library

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This archival item has been digitised and is available to view on Pae Korokī. For more information about this and other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Harley Couper, Heritage Specialist at Tauranga City Library, and Stephanie Smith, former archivist at Tauranga City Libraries

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

Foraging and Hunting on Pae Korokī

According to Tauranga City Libraries Heritage Specialist Harley Couper, whether you're "foraging or hunting" there is something for everyone on Pae Korokī, the library’s recently launched online gateway to historical information. Indeed, after learning more about Pae Korokī at February’s Historical Society meeting, I thought it would be interesting to go foraging and share a few highlights.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

One of the first things to note is that most of the stories on the soon to be retired Tauranga Memories website have been transferred to Pae Korokī and can be found curated under the ‘Stories’ navigation menu on the home page. Information collated by librarians, community members and local historians such as Ellen McCormack and Christine Clement continue to be accessible.

A visit to 'Archives’ was next and this category contains some real treasures including the Tauranga Borough Council rate books and the outward letter book of the District Surveyors Office in Tauranga between 1866 and 1868. However, it was the diaries that caught my eye; those of Te Puna farmer Thomas Lochhead in particular. Twelve of his diaries, dating from 1883-1905, have been digitised and more will follow.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

One of the most popular features of Pae Korokī will undoubtedly be ‘Images’ where visitors can access an ever-increasing number of photographs that reveal the people, places and events of this region. Stand outs include the Gifford-Cross and Photo News collections. However, a real surprise was the selection of stills taken during the 1935 filming of ‘Hei Tiki’. Described as an important piece of New Zealand film history these stills must be unique.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

Onto ‘Maps’ and this section contains some intriguing hand drawn and annotated maps, including a sketch map of Katikati district and a map that shows the Maori occupation of Mauao. If this wasn’t enough, with ‘More’ visitors can search publications including the Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society 1955 to 1982 and listen to oral history recordings.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

Not only will Pae Korokī be a first stop when I’m researching, it will also be a place to visit when I have time on my hands and the urge to learn more about where I live.

Memorial Park Fountain

Fountain, Memorial Park, Tauranga
Photograph by Allan Scott, Postcard published by Dow Productions (No. 122)
Collection of Justine Neal

All self respecting parks of any size should have a fountain or a water display of some sort and Memorial Park is no exception. Gleaming white in the summer sun with clear blue water the fountain takes pride of place along the foreshore of the park. The idea was initiated by the Tauranga Jaycees and construction of the fountain began in 1962. It was built by voluntary labour of the Tauranga’s Jaycee members, who worked 5000 hours on the project and gave up their leisure hours over 27 weekends.

The Tauranga Photo News of 2 February 1963 reported that "Before a huge crowd assembled in Memorial Park, the Mayor Mr. Mitchell, switched on the new fountain for the first time. A great asset to the park, the fountain has already attracted thousands of spectators, especially after dark when its constantly changing colours and varying patterns of play can be seen to the best advantage. An almost limitless combination of effects is provided by 12 jet formations and 8 different light changes."

In 1987 repairs were carried out on the fountain and in 2009 the fountain was upgraded with a new, more efficient lighting system. The old system, which was installed with the fountain in the 1960s, was facing a $7000 bill for repairs and maintenance, and was also costing $5000 per year to run. The new system cost $15,000 to install, but will only cost about $250 to run. It will be a better display and will make a great photo at night too.

Tauranga Photo News. 2 Feb, 1963
Tauranga City Council Weekly News bulletin. Nov 2, 2009.

William James "Bill" Kennedy (1910 —1979)

Bill Kennedy (left) discusses the bush area he developed with Bill Turner
Bay of Plenty Times, 29 Jul 1989. Courtesy of Tauranga City Library

This dynamic man was a friend of my grandfather Duff Maxwell of The Elms. I well remember they spent quite a lot of evenings together in the 1960s as both were interested in the development of McLarens Falls Park as an Arboretum. In 1965 the Bay of Plenty Tree Society was given approval to begin planting and the Tauranga City Council undertook to cover the maintenance. It is now a world class facility with many thousands of trees covering 500+ species and a well known and popular recreational area covering some 190 Ha.

Another of this man’s enduring achievements was the establishment of Ngatuhoa Youth Lodge in the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park in 1967. It was his vision to establish an Outward Bound facility.  Many thousands of school children and other groups over the past 53 years have stayed there and enjoyed the confidence boosting outdoor activities, beautiful bush and the Te Rere I Oturu Falls.

So what was the background of this man and what drove him to do these things. It is quite hard to find information on him but he was a family man, Crete veteran, local farmer, poet and city councillor for at least one term retiring from Council in 1968.

Fascinating Aerial Photo from 1972

Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. N2D5F18

This fascinating aerial photograph was taken by Aero Surveys Ltd. in 1972. It shows the Council’s administration building under construction. It also reveals the size of the old Town Hall on the corner of Wharf and Willow Streets.

Sandwiched between the two buildings was the town’s library, which opened in 1930. It was later demolished along with the Town Hall. It is also interesting to note the large number of wooden houses still occupying the area at this time.

Changing Tauranga CBD - Part 2

My July post, which shared images of city centre buildings demolished in the past year, received a comment that it was hoped I had more photographs capturing changes around town over the last decade. Fortunately, I can oblige and for this post I thought it would be interesting to add an ‘after’ photo as well. I have enough images for a couple of posts so watch this space.

001 Fiona Kean, 11 October 2016, Private Collection

This photograph, taken from the top floor of Harrington House in October 2016, shows the cleared site of 15-17 Harington Street. Aspen Park, sometimes referred to as Aspen Reserve, is visible to the rear of the site.

002 Fiona Kean, 26 August 2016, Private Collection

Prior to demolition this villa, which occupied 15 Harington Street, was a bar and nightclub. At one time it was also described as a casino. Although the construction date of this villa is not known it does appear on a survey map of the town completed in 1934 by G. Duncan. This photograph, taken in late August 2016, shows the demolition process underway.

003 Fiona Kean, 16 October 2019, Private Collection

This photograph is of a portion of the new building that occupies 15 Harington Street. The building is known as ‘The Reserve’, a nod to the park behind. The tree to the right of villa, visible in previous image, gives a sense of scale between the old and new buildings.

004 Fiona Kean, 7 November 2017, Private Collection

This photograph, looking south from the top floor of Harrington House, provides a bird’s-eye view of the final stages of the demolition of Tauranga City Council’s administration building at 91 Willow Street.

005 Fiona Kean, 17 January 2017, Private Collection

This photograph of the Tauranga City Council’s former administration building was taken on the corner of Willow and Hamilton Streets in January 2017. The 30 000 square ft building took 17 months to construct and was opened in 1972. Demolition began in October 2017.

006 Fiona Kean, 16 October 2019, Private Collection

Described as a ‘container city’, Our Place, a temporary retail, hospitality and entertainment space now occupies the site.