St Columba Church, Otumoetai

St Columba Church, Otumoetai, 1969
Colour transparency from the Gale Collection, Ref. 0976
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

This is St Columba Church on Otumoetai Road. It is near the Cherrywood shops. My Dad went to Sunday school here. I think this photograph was taken not long after the Church was opened.

St Columba Church, Otumoetai, 2015
Photo by Charlie Colquhoun

The church doesn’t look too different. I think the colour of the roof has changed because it is more than 50 years old. A footpath has been added since the photo was taken and the trees have grown a lot.

Tauranga Cemetery

Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Wesleya Ceneteries, Tauranga
Image courtesy of Google Earth

By May 1879 the decision had been made to establish a new cemetery outside the Borough on land between 17^th and 18^th Avenues with Grace Road to the east and Devonport Road to the west.[1] Burials continued in the “Old” or “Military” cemetery in family plots and of veterans of the NZ Wars. 

Trustees of the Tauranga Cemetery were appointed representing the main religious denominations with Thomas Tunks representing the Anglicans; Michael Brennan, Roman Catholic; Samuel L Clarke, Presbyterians; Jonathon Brown, Wesleyans; and Asher Asher, Hebrew.[2]

As the largest congregation in Tauranga the Anglicans received 7 acres, with diminishing acreage for the other denominations. The first burial occurred in the Anglican section in May 1881 following the death of Mrs Augusta Corlett.  Due to the “depredations of pigs and cattle” fencing the cemetery became an issue and Asher Asher proposed that the town be canvassed for subscriptions.[3]

The Trustees appointed the first sexton, Joseph Ransley in 1882 and he was to receive nine shillings for burying an adult and six shillings for a child.[4] Tenders were called for fence posts, won by Messrs Phillips & Hegarty’s tender of 3s 6d per chain[5]

Joseph and Kate Brain's grave marker

As Fraser Street bisected the cemetery the Trustees requested permission to install gates at the street entrance as the fencing was completed. However, views changed and in 1883 a petition was prepared for Parliament requesting Fraser Street cease being a public road and the land be vested in the cemetery.[6] Obviously this did not occur.  The Trustees proposed to accept tenders for the grazing of sheep at this time as the large area of bare land needed to be clear of vegetation.  The community and church control ended in 1886 when the “new” cemetery was vested in the Borough Council rather than the cemetery Trustees.

In 1963 the Council sold some of the land for housing and the money raised contributed to the purchase of farmland for the Pye’s Pa cemetery. The Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Methodist cemeteries remain but as there were no burials in the Hebrew section that acre was included in the sale.  A modern building on this site appears to be a mosque.

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[1] BOP Times 13 May 1879

[2] BOPT 8 Oct 1879

[3] BOPT 27 Sep 1881

[4] BOPT 22 Apr 1882

[5] BOPT 27 June 1882

[6] BOPT 29 May 1884

The Spit, Cemetery Point and Archdeacon's Point

Sulphur Point showing the remains of the old sulphur works about 1910. It was originally known as The Spit, Cemetery Point and Archdeacon’s Point.  In 1901, in depression time, the Salvation Army started a fishing business and a building was erected at Sulphur Point. Locally caught fish were smoked-cured and shipped to Auckland. This business was eventually sold to Sanford’s Limited.

An advertisement in the Bay of Plenty Times 23 May 1877 asked for all persons interested in the formation of a Gun Club to meet at the Commercial Hotel the following Saturday. Subsequently , the club that was formed had its range at Sulphur Point.  Could this be the rifle range where Elva Brain won Captain Millar’s trophy March 1917?

Rose Garden, Pond & Fountain, Robbins Park

Rose Garden, Pond & Fountain, Robbins Park, 1968
Colour transparency from the Gale Collection, Ref. 1019
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

I wanted to see if I could take a photograph that looked just like this one and I think I have. The pond, statue, roses and fence are still there and haven’t changed at all.

Rose Garden, Pond & Fountain, Robbins Park, 2015
Photo by Charlie Colquhoun

Other things have changed. The trees have grown a lot and the houses over the road are gone and there is a new modern house there.

The water in the pond is really dirty compared to what it looks like in the old photo. There are no plants growing. I wonder if there used to be fish in it before? There definitely isn’t any fish in it now. I think it should be cleaned up.

Gallipoli - From Tauranga to the Trenches

Gallipoli - From Tauranga to the Trenches mobile exhibition focuses specifically on the Gallipoli campaign and provides information, photographs and objects which capture various daily undertakings of those men that were positioned at Gallipoli.

The exhibition, put together by the Tauranga Heritage Collection and WW100 Tauranga, was initially placed at the Masonic Park site and has now been relocated to Classic Flyers as part of a larger WW1 exhibition created by Metro Marketing. Opened on Anzac Day it is free to the community for a month.