Matakana Island

Pilot Bay from above, Mauao and Matakana Island
Colour postcard, photographed by Bob Ricketts, Old Grumpy’s Gallery, Mt Maunganui
Collection of Justine Neal

Matakana Island is a mixture of white, sparkling sand, pine forest, farmland and a peaceful harbour. It is the third largest island by area in the North Island and the 15^thlargest within New Zealand waters. The island’s long, white sandy beach is popular with surfers and is also a nesting place for the New Zealand dotterel/tuturiwhatu, a threatened shorebird.

Matakana Island and the Tauranga Harbour from the Bowentown Heads, June 2023
Photograph by Justine Neal

The island is 24 kilometres long and rarely more than 3 kilometres wide. It is New Zealand’s largest barrier island. Its development, together with that of the tombolo (a narrow strip of land, usually made of sand or gravel, that connects an island to the mainland or another island) adjoining Mauao and Bowentown Heads, formed Te Awanui/Tauranga Harbour, a 200 square kilometre estuarine lagoon.

Matakana Island, northern channel and Mauao from the Bowentown Heads, June 2023
Photograph by Justine Neal

The island has been continuously populated for centuries by iwi who are mostly associated with Ngai Te Rangi.

Nine year-old trees, Matakana Island
Unmounted silver gelatin print by unidentified photographer
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 12/4/5

The island has two distinct parts, 5,000 acres of farm and orchard land on the inner harbour and 10,000 acres of forest covered coastal land.

Wharf at Matakana Island
Unmounted silver gelatin print by unidentified photographer
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 12/4/4

The 1920’s saw the development of a pine forest through private plantings. In 1949 the first logging crew went into the forest. The first 30 year old plantings were used for the post and poles market. In 1951 Bunn Brothers Ltd. took up the island’s pine milling rights.

S.S. Ngakuta clearing the Tauranga Heads, View from the Mount, c. 1916-1922
Real photo postcard, photographed by John Welsh, published by Frank Duncan & Co. for A.J. Mirrielees, Tauranga
Collection of Justine Neal

My postcard shows part of Matakana Island as a low-lying sand bar in pre-forestry days. The SS Ngakuta was built in 1913 and owned by the Blackball Coal Co. She was designed and equipped as a collier but carried other cargoes including fruit from Pacific Island ports. From 1922 she was leased to the United Steam Ship Co. and purchased outright by them in 1942. She was sold to ship breakers in 1952.

References

Wikipedia

NZ Ship and Marine Society

National Library of New Zealand

Bay of Plenty Regional Council

The Wreck of the SS Tasman

Located off Matata, the low lying Rurima Islands or Rurima Rocks, were brought to the attention of Tauranga’s residents by the Bay of Plenty Times on 12 May 1921. At 4.25 a.m. on the 11th, the Northern Steamship Company steamer Tasman struck a reef near the south-western rock while steaming to Whakatane. The passengers and crew were saved, but the ship was lost along with all cargo and mail. The passengers and crew came ashore without their luggage and personal effects at Matata and Pikowai in three lifeboats, before being transported in trucks to Tauranga.[1]

The Northern Steamship Company vessel SS Tasman

Built in Auckland in 1903, the 179-ton kauri and iron steamer was 102 feet in length and powered by 280hp compound engines.[2] Placed on the Auckland to Whakatane run by the company, the SS Tasman was a regular sight at Tauranga’s Victoria Wharf between 1909 and 1921. There, it offloaded and took on new passengers, freight and mail, as well as coal for its boilers.

A Nautical Inquiry into the wreck of the SS Tasman held at the Auckland Magistrates Court the following month, expressed focused on four issues:

• The chief officer Mr. McManus was on watch and in charge of the Tasman with Captain William John Grigg also on the bridge when the vessel struck.
• Though the weather was squally, it was possible to see the higher points of the Rurima Group and also Whale Island. The vessel struck an island which could be seen at the time the accident occurred.
• When the steamer struck on the south-west point of the Rurima Group, there was about three miles of shore room between the shore and where the incident occurred.
• The course was a perfectly well-known one and had been run in perfect safety for the last 50 to 60 years and the Tasman was jammed for time to catch the bar at Whakatane.

The Rurima Islands
The SS Tasman struck a reef on the south-west corner of the Rurimu group

In evidence, Captain Grigg stated that he had been master of that steamer about three or four months before May 11. He had also been master of the Tasman at different periods and had originally been chief mate of the Tasman for close on three years. During that time the steamer had been wholly engaged in the Auckland to Whakatane trade. He had also been master of other vessels in the Northern Company’s fleet.

On the night of the disaster, he had kept a course close inside Mayor Island, which was passed at about 10 o'clock. He had followed his usual course, which he had always found a safe one, inside Whale Island. When passing Motiti Island the weather was clear, with no sea and just a medium breeze.

He was below when the mate called him at ten minutes to four, and told him they were close to Matata light, which was then just for'ard of the starboard beam. At this time, they were about two miles off Matata. As several other “objects” were in view, and Grigg "took a shot" at them over the steering compass, but took no other steps to place them accurately.

While the weather then was ‘fairly clear’ overhead, they were surrounded by black clouds. The wind was fresh, with squalls at times, from the S.S.W. Shortly after, the mate observed that the land was a little closer and altered the course half a point to the southward. A few minutes later the Tasman struck. The time was then within a few minutes of 4.25. He thought the vessel struck at the south-west corner of the Rurima Group.

According to the mate, the vessel did not seem to rest on the reef for any appreciable time, and backed her off, he steered straight for the mainland. SS Tasman sank scarcely a mile off Rurima.

Captain Grigg stated that he could have gone outside Whale Island that night, but there was smoother water on the inside. Mr. McManus, he said, had been his chief mate all the time he was on the run, and he had found him perfectly reliable as a navigator.[3]

A coastal steamer at Victoria wharf 1810s

On 9 June, the Nautical Court of Inquiry found that the SS Tasman was off her proper course when it struck one of the Rurima rocks and was wrecked. The first officer was adjudged negligent in not ascertaining his correct distance off' the land at Town Point (Maketu). The court also found that Captain Grigg, the ship’s master:

[D]id not exercise good judgment when deciding what distance the vessel was off the land at Matata. The court was further of the opinion that when the chief officer drew the master’s attention to the ship’s closeness to the Rurima rocks, the master, in sending a message to the officer on the bridge to alter the course a quarter of a point to the south, was not taking sufficient precautions for the safety of the vessel.[4]

Despite being found guilty of negligence and fined 20 and 10 pounds respectively towards the costs of the inquiry, Grigg and McManus did not lose their certificates.[3] Evidence had been put before the court that, in the vicinity of White Island, the needle of the compass would be liable to be deflected by the magnetic disturbance which existed at the time the grounding occurred.[5]

Sinking just 30 minutes after its initial grounding, the remains of the SS Tasman - the boiler, part of the hull and the engines - lie in 27 meters of water between the Rurimas and Matata.

End Notes
[1] Bay of Plenty Times, 12 May 1821: 3.
[2] Rurima Island, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Rurima Island
[3] Auckland Star, 6 June 1921: 7.
[4] New Zealand Times, 10 June 1921: 5.
[5] Ibid: 10 June 1921: 5.

Illustrations
[1] H. Winkelmann, SS Tasman 1903-1921, Auckland Weekly News, 19 May 1921, Auckland Council Libraries - Kura AWNS-19210519-43-01
[2] Photographer unknown, Rurima Islands, Wai 46 # A3, Te Rangahau Whenua Raupatu O Ngati Awa Report to Department of Conservation, 25 July 1992: 15.
[3] Frederick Radcliffe, Postcard, Tauranga, Victoria Wharf, 1910s. Accession number 0846/08. Tauranga Heritage Collection

Tauranga Railway Wharf Cargo Shed

by Guest Author Max C. Avery

For nearly 40 years the cargo shed on the Railway Wharf was the very busy hub of Tauranga’s mercantile marine commercial trading. It remains the only substantial architectural feature of the Tauranga water-front of the previous century - a reminder of bygone days when the wharf was crowded with sailing scows, coastal and trans-Tasman steamers and motor ships.

Railway Wharf, early 1930s
Real photo postcard, photographed and published by Robert J. Rendell
Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 0318/10

The shed had its origins in a 1919 proposal for development of the Port of Tauranga by engineer J. Blair-Mason, commissioned by the Tauranga Harbour Board (THB): “The construction of the quay proposed as part of the railway works at Tauranga should meet the needs of the coastal trade for some time to come, and allow for berthing a superior and large class of vessel,” the engineer surmised. At the time Tauranga had only the Town Wharf (off Wharf Street) and the Victoria Wharf (off Harrington Street), of which Blair observed: “None are adapted for berthing large vessels, or for the rapid handling of cargo and the quick dispatch of vessels.” With remarkable optimism and foresight, they recommended the construction of 9530 ft of berthage at Tauranga and 13,170 ft of berthage at Mount Maunganui.

Unidentified steamer arriving at the Railway Wharf, Tauranga, c. 1927-1935
Unmounted loose Velox print, postcard format, by unidentified photographer
Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 0692/08

However, the Public Works Department’s plan for a quay of about 710 ft at Tauranga prevailed. The East Coast Main Trunk Railway (ECMT) was then being built, and in February 1924 the bridge link to Matapihi was completed and the rails laid to the Town Wharf. Construction of the new wharf (which would be known as the Railway Wharf, as it carried a spur line from the ECMT) and the cargo shed began early in 1925 and was completed in 1927, although at first the wharf provided only 320 ft of berthage. The cargo shed, with sliding doors opening to the wharf on one side, and a landing for motor trucks on its Dive Crescent frontage, was a much-needed and much-utilised feature. When the last section of the ECMT (from Katikati to the Wairoa Bridge) was opened on March 28, 1928 the wharf went into full operation, with some cargo being transferred direct from ships’ holds to railway wagons, and other items into the shed or through to motor trucks, and vice versa.

“Dive Crescent – Situated at the north end of The Strand, is a hive of industry.”
Half-tone print used in Western Bay of Plenty Year Book, c. 1950s
Collection of John & Julie Green

Under the steady supervision of long-time wharfinger Jack Treweek, coasting vessels of all types, sailing scows, steamers, motor ships, and scows converted to mechanical propulsion, hailing from ports north and south, were found berths in order of their arrival. The masters of coasters like Clansman, Seagull, Kohi, Toa and Tuhoe had pilotage exemptions, and it was said they could smell their way up the Stella Passage in the dead of a dark and dirty night. All manner of general cargo, some bagged, boxed and baled, some in sacks and barrels, and drums, and individual items like machinery and motor vehicles, were hoisted onto the wharf using ship’s gear, for there were no wharf cranes. Steam and kerosene stationary engines hissed and banged as they turned the winches and capstans. The wharfies skilfully handled the ropes to land the cargo on big iron-wheeled trollies, to be trundled off to the cargo shed. There Jack Treweek, and the representatives of the Northern and Union Steam Ship Companies, if their ships were alongside, scanned cargo manifests and organised temporary storage in the cargo shed, or immediate onward carriage of goods.

“Three of a Kind: Aerial photo of the Company’s Hotunui, Nikau and Maunganui occupying the whole of the available berthage at Town Wharf, Tauranga, September 1955.”
Advertisement for The Northern Steamship Company Limited, mid- to late 1950s
Collection of John & Julie Green

Cargo over the railway wharf and through the cargo shed grew steadily. Until 1949 all imports were exclusively coastal in character and Tauranga’s wharf had never been busier. Ships were sometimes double-banked, awaiting a berth alongside the wharf. Tauranga Harbour board chairman Jock Reid reported a record 55,600 tons of cargo handled in 1953, and in June 1954 the New Zealand Herald surveyed Tauranga shipping and noted that that “Tauranga town wharf will remain the principal point for handling provincial and inter-island coastal cargo as well as a considerable tonnage of export timber, but further increased shed accommodation will be required.” However, the wharf and cargo shed were about to become victims of their own success, for in 1955 the chairman of the directors of the Northern Steamship Company was reported as saying that the inadequate port facilities at Tauranga were involving the company in losses on its provincial trades.

Railway Wharf, Dive Crescent, Tauranga, c. late 1960s
Loose silver gelatin print (90 x 128mm), photographed by Paul Anderson
Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 0063/15

By this time the Sleigh Line of Australia was sending its ships James Cook and Matthew Flinders to Tauranga to load cargoes of timber. L.B. Mckenzie and Bert Godfrey were busy pioneering this trade and Dive Crescent was becoming quite congested with New Zealand Lumber Company straddle trucks carrying packets of timber between road, rail and ship, while fork lifts handled exports from the Whakatane Board Mills. By 1957 the Northern Steamship Company was declaring that congestion was such that the company had to curtail its services to Tauranga.

Tauranga Railway Wharf Cargo Shed and warehouse, Dive Crescent, Tauranga, 1959
Medium format film negative, publ. Bay of Plenty Times
Copyright NZME, Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. gca-1156

The company was advised in June 1958 by the Tauranga Harbour Board that plans were in hand for the immediate construction of extra berthage space at the wharf, but it seems it was too little and too late. Load restrictions were placed on the deteriorating decking of the wharf, and the Mount Maunganui Wharf was then open and thriving. Within a few years the Northern Steamship Company flag would be only a memory at Tauranga. That situation applied also to most of the small coastal traders, as union activity saw them becoming increasingly uneconomic.

Tauranga Wharf railway lines being renovated, November 1964
Medium format film negative, publ. Bay of Plenty Times, 21 Nov 1964
Copyright NZME, Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. gca-7720

During the 1960s the trend in cargo handling was to bulk palletisation and containerisation. Individual items were carried by more efficient road transport, and with fewer general goods there was less need for the cargo shed. In March 1965 Poranui was the last NSS Company coaster to visit the Railway Wharf. The occasional cattle carrier called, the Wilson Portland Cement Company’s bulk carriers continued to be regular visitors, but they had no use for the cargo shed. Yet the wharf still provided a useful berth. When harbourmaster Captain H.A.C. Hodkinson took a 441 ft Liberty ship up the Stella Passage the occasion went into the record book as the longest ship to berth at the Railway Wharf. THB pilot Captain John Weston created a new and enduring record on June 26, 1968 when he berthed the 460 ft log carrier Kyotaku Maru at the war, but the cargo shed remained largely idle.

H.M. Submarine Taciturn berthed at the Tauranga Export wharf (aerial view), July 1965
35mm format film negative, publ. Bay of Plenty Times, 19 July 1965
Copyright NZME, Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. gcc-10375

The construction of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge and its opening on March 13, 1988 sealed the fate of the Railway Wharf and the cargo shed. From that date nothing larger than trawlers and launches could navigate the harbour south of Sulphur Point due to the height restriction caused by the bridge. The Railway Wharf continued to deteriorate and was in part demolished, but the cargo shed, still sound and weather-tight after nearly 40 years as the hub of Tauranga’s maritime commerce, was hereafter used for a variety of social purposes.