C.F Washer and Sons and Sam Snowden’s Spring Street Service Station (Part 2)

Guest article by John Green (continued from Part 1)

Sam Snowden felt there was room for another motor business in the downtown area and set up on the corner of Durham and Spring Streets (now the site of our first parking building). He was the agent for International and sold trucks and bulldozers as well as benzine (petrol) and other oil products.

Sam Snowden’s Spring St Service Station, 1940s
Collection of Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 03-457

All service stations seemed to sell benzine from multiple manufacturers, eg. Big Tree, Plume, Shell, Texaco, Europa, Atlantic.

The modernised stuccoed Snowden Garage with flat, undated
Black-and-white silver gelatin print (92 x 148mm) by Alf Rendell, Tauranga
Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 0181/15, Tauranga Museum

Much later the workshop was extended and a second storey flat was added to the building.  Former employee Alan Jones remembers Sam coming into the workshop on cold days and lighting his forge to warm the place.  We believe the Snowdens (possibly the two sons) also had a car rental business across the road next to their tractor showroom and parts department.

Garage of C.F. Washer Ltd, Willow Street, 1937
Copy negative of mounted print, copied for Bay of Plenty Photo News, No 93, 7 Mar 1970
Collection of Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. pn 6546

Washer’s Garage, Willow Street, c1950s
Black-and-white silver gelatin print (96 x 150mm) by Alf Rendell, Tauranga
Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 0186/15, Tauranga Museum

Meanwhile back at Washers expansion was underway, they now had the corner section for the sale of fuel and the side building was the service area. The name was changed to C.F. Washer and Sons and they became distributors for Vauxhall, Bedford and Chevrolet.

The final form of C. F. Washer and Sons, 1970
Black-and-white 35mm-format negative, published in Bay of Plenty Photo News, No 93, 7 Mar 1970
Collection of Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. pn 6534

Their buildings covered many square yards and included a truck workshop on Hamilton Street, lube bay, parts department, showroom and another service centre in the original 1922 building facing Willow Street.

Washer’s Resale Cars, Cameron Road
Copy negative of loose print, copied for Bay of Plenty Photo News, No 93, 7 Mar 1970
Collection of Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. pn 6548

Washers also dealt in used vehicles. If you look closely, you may recognise this building as part of present day Kale Print and a back corner of the Brain Watkins House is visible.

Charlie Washer, September 1964
Black-and-white 120-format negative, publ. Bay of Plenty Times, 30 Sep 1964
Collection of Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. gca-7412

Over the decades a lot of car brands went out of production and many of the oil companies had amalgamated. Boron (additive) was a sales gimmick for Caltex.

Sources

Tauranga 1882-1982 —The Centennial of Gazetting Tauranga as a Borough, Edited by Alan Bellamy. Published by TCC, 1982

Personal memories of the writer and Alan Jones, a former employee of Sam Snowden.

Images

Thanks to Tauranga City Libraries for their amazing collection of images on Pae  Koroki, and to Fiona Kean and the team at the Tauranga Heritage Collection for permission to use two of their images, including those taken by the late Alf Rendell

Na to hoa aroha = From your dear friend : the correspondence between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, 1925-50

 From Tauranga City Library’s Archives and Special Collections

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collections.

The writing of history has its own history, its own significant works and notable published writers. Such books in public library collections can wear out, or just get lost. Older, fragile and sometimes rarer works that have been significant in the writing of New Zealand and Tauranga Moana history are kept apart in Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries' Māori Special Books Collections - secure, cool and dry in a Climate Controlled Room. 

“Na to hoa aroha : from your dear friend” is one of these titles - a complete set of the three volumes is held, courtesy of the estate of Isla Nottingham.

They are an edited collection of the letters exchanged by Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) during the years 1925-1950, which Sir Peter spent as a senior academic anthropologist at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Hawai`i (eventually becoming its Director in 1936).

At that time letters were the main way of keeping in touch with friends and colleagues, particularly those abroad, and would cover a wide range of topics – politics, culture, family, professional work – with an immediacy and depth it would be hard to describe in formal historical writing or capture from newspaper articles.

For example, a lengthy letter from Sir Apirana Ngata to Buck of 17th December 1928 outlined the effects of the recent election in some detail. The Reform Party, led by his friend Gordon Coates, lost its large majority to the new United Party, which appointed Ngata Minister of Māori Affairs. This enabled him to press ahead with his ambitious scheme to enable Māori to farm their own land.

On 2 July that year Buck had updated Ngata on the progress of his ethnological work in the Pacific – writing up his researches on Samoan material culture and encouraging the creation of a Rarotongan dictionary. He also commented on the findings of the 1926-27 Sim Commission of Inquiry into the confiscation of Māori land under the 1863 New Zealand Settlements Act.

In a P.S. to that letter Buck says “At a meeting of the Academy of Science here, I stumbled across what to the scientists seems to be a new idea. I merely stated that Native Races did certain things because they liked doing it. This very abstruse statement has been very favourably discussed by the psychologists.” He thinks the idea (that indigenous people can make their own choices) may, after some dressing up, be launched by some academic authority as a proper theory.

Professor M. P. K. Sorrenson
Courtesy Auckland University Press

Professor M. P. K. Sorrenson's editing of the books is an example of traditional historical work – transcribing, editing and clarifying primary source material, then publishing it for others to use in their research, such as Dame Evelyn Stokes at the University of Waikato, who wrote extensively on Western Bay of Plenty history. Sorrenson's work, and the reporting of their lived experience by Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, provide a foundation for us all to continue investigating and sharing how our world has been shaped by decisions and events in the past, an understanding enriched by books, articles, newspapers, photographs, maps and archival resources.

Bay of Plenty Times, 5 March 1963, Page 1

The rest of Sorrenson's career is outlined briefly on the Kōmako Website (“A bibliography of writing by Māori in English"). Years of teaching and research at the University of Auckland were combined with positions at the Historic Places Trust, Waitangi Tribunal and Geographic Board.
In 1997, the year after he retired from the University, the New Zealand Journal of History published an issue of articles by colleagues and students inspired by his work (called a festschrift), concluding with a bibliography of all his publications up to that point ( he has continued to publish).

Dame Evelyn Stokes contributed the article ‘Pai Mārire and Raupatu at Tauranga 1864–1867’ (New Zealand Journal of History, Volume 31, Number 1, April 1997 pp. 58-84). 

Such work continues to this day, as with a recent Master’s thesis for the University of Waikato by Elisha Rolleston, “Tūtereinga o Pirirākau: He piringa rākau, he piringa whakairo, he piringa whare, he piringa mana Māori Motuhake : Reclaiming identity and mana Māori Motuhake”. In it he “explores the role that the Tūtereinga whare whakairo has contributed towards the reclamation of the identity and mana Māori motuhake for Pirirākau” – one of the hapū discussed in Stokes’ 1997 article. 

Sources:

Na to hoa aroha = From your dear friend : the correspondence between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, 1925-50. (Tauranga Library catalogue)

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography entry for Sir Peter Buck - Māori

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography entry for Sir Peter Buck - English

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography entry for Sir Apirana Ngata - Māori

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography entry for Sir Apirana Ngata - English

A bibliography of writing by Māori in English - M. P. K. Sorrenson

Tauranga Library holdings of the New Zealand Journal of History

Tūtereinga o Pirirākau: He piringa rākau, he piringa whakairo, he piringa whare, he piringa mana Māori Motuhake : Reclaiming identity and mana Māori Motuhake / Elisha Rolleston (this may take a while to load from the University of Waikato's digital repository).

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

Ena Thompson, horticulturalist, writer and independent woman

A Chinese Gooseberries label advertising E. R. Thompson’s ‘Tropical Acres’ farm in Ōtūmoetai
Tauranga Heritage Collection, 0020/87, Tauranga Museum

My introduction to horticulturalist, writer and independent woman, Ena Thompson, came through a pair of print blocks and several corresponding advertising labels that are part of the Tauranga Museum collection. These ‘Tropical Acres’ labels were used on the end of trays carrying Chinese gooseberries grown, packed and transported from Ena’s family orchard in Ōtūmoetai in the 1950s.

Ena Thompson with her father John Shaw Thompson outside their Ōtūmoetai home early to mid-1920s. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī, Photo 04-681

John and Isabella Thompson, 11-year-old Ena and her younger brother Alwyn arrived in Tauranga in 1920 to settle on a 53-acre farm at the top of the Ōtūmoetai ridge that was purchased from Walter Bent.[i] Their home, a white weatherboard villa, was part of the deal and still stands in Longwood Lane.[ii] Less than twenty years earlier their farm had been part of a 180-acre property owned by Edward Howell and was known as ‘Willowbank Orchard’. The orchard was widely recognized for its ‘wonderful variety of fruits’ including peaches, nectarines, plums, and apples.[iii]

Thompson house, Longwood Lane, Ōtūmoetai, painted by family friend Ethel Macmillan
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī, Ams 80/11/55

While Ena’s father was a farmer’s son, at heart he was a journalist and editor. John continued to manage and own newspapers while orcharding, although this may have been a financial necessity as parts of the farm, then called ‘Viewpoint’, were sold in 1923 and 1936.[iv]  By the late 1920s, John was spending extended time away from Tauranga and in May 1929 was taken to court for failing to register the orchard as a commercial entity – the charge was later dropped.[v] The 30s and 40s were plagued with health issues for the Thompson family and during this period Ena managed the orchard. Her love of the country and farming is recorded in papers given to the Tauranga City Libraries archive in 1992. In her unpublished manuscript which was a ‘fictional’ account of running an orchard Ena wrote:

“The countryman learns to listen for country sounds which mark the day and measure the hours; the tui which calls at a certain hour each morning, an owl at dusk, the tame thrushes which cheep – cheep in the same spots day by day, the little mother-thrush which returns the second season and looks in the self-same spot for food for her nestlings. These are his friends, and such sounds chime and charm the hour on his clocks.”[vi]

As the farm shrank Ena diversified and it is for her venture into Chinese gooseberries (kiwifruit) that she is best known. In 1951 she contracted a Wellington firm to test the impact of cool storage on gooseberries and their findings led to Ena becoming the first person to send the chilled fruit to markets around New Zealand paving the way for overseas export. [vii]

A report completed by Townsend & Paul Ltd. in 1951 that showed the ‘Effect of Temperature on Chinese Gooseberries in Cool Store’

By the 1960s Ena’s focus was on flowers, growing daffodils and irises for the Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch markets. At the same time the remaining orchard was subdivided, and sections were sold one by one. Ena was also engaged in a legal battle with the Tauranga County Council who wanted land for development on Hinewa and Ōtūmoetai Roads – an area that was known locally as Thompson’s Corner. As the city encroached and the last sections were sold, life in the country ended. Life was different but not quiet. Having many interests and friends beyond horticulture, Ena remained an active member of many Tauranga communities.

The corner of Ōtūmoetai Road and Hinewa Road can be seen towards the centre of this photograph. Longwood Lane is yet to be formed. The house that is circled is likely to have been Alwyn’s home next door to the family home that is obscured by trees. This photo was taken by Alf Rendell. He identified it as having been taken in 1950
Alf Rendell Collection RA031

References

---

[i] Tauranga was known to the family. John’s father, Robert Thompson, settled in Tauranga in 1866. He purchased land in Gate Pa and, as part of the Militia, received confiscated land. He eventually settled in Opotiki, becoming a major land holder in that district.

[ii] 8 June 1920, Bay of Plenty Times.

[iii] 16 February 1806, Bay of Plenty Times. Howell advertised the sale of his farm in 1907 stating that it would be subdivided to suit purchases.

[iv] Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ms Ams 215. John started up the Thames Courier in 1933 and was the owner editor until it folded in 1942. John’s son, Alwyn, was employed as the paper’s advertising salesman. 30 July 1923 and 11 January 1936, Bay of Plenty Times.

[v] 8 May 1929, Bay of Plenty Times.

[vi] Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ms Ams 215.

[vii] Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ms Ams 215.

The Bickers Family (Fencible) Cottage — Third Avenue Tauranga

Front of the Bickers cottage with some younger family members, c. 1890s

Henry Bickers and Maria (née Proud) came to New Zealand from the goldfields of Victoria, Australia in response to a call for more troops in the 1860s. He was a corporal at the Battle of Pukehinahina and was afterwards allotted 60 acres of land and a town section of one acre. However, it took about seven years for that to come into their possession and they had Henry John (always known as “Our Henry”) in 1866 whilst still housed in the Panmure Barracks, Auckland. By 1869 they had moved to a whare on the corner of Elizabeth and Grey streets in Tauranga, and their first daughter (also Maria) was born there in 1869. One evening Maria (senior) was told to go to the blockhouse at the Monmouth Redoubt for their safety but she refused. Hearing movements outside, after dark, she spent an uncomfortable night in the ditch with little ones. In the light of morning, it was discovered they had been hiding from the family goat.

In 1871 their long-awaited cottage arrived by boat from Onehunga in four parts and was assembled in Third Avenue, close to where the Inland Revenue building is now. The kitchen was a rectangular room at the back and a bedroom led off this. The two front rooms, a sitting room and a bedroom for the parents, were separated by an entrance hallway. A verandah across the front completed their new home, but as the family grew extra accommodation was built at the back. In 1872 Elizabeth (Lizzie) arrived, Emma in 1874, then William in 1877, and lastly Alice on a cool winter’s day in 1879.

Henry had been a plumber but by now had taken up painting and paperhanging. He was ill for three years before his death in 1885, when their youngest child was only six years of age. Maria continued living in the cottage and managing to make ends meet, providing for her family of six, by using her many domestic skills to earn an income.

Rear view of the home, probably in the mid-20th century

“Our Henry” married an Auckland girl and they settled on part of the land. Maria junior became an apprentice dressmaker and later stitched garments for my great-great-grandmother Euphemia Maxwell and her daughters Alice and Edith at The Elms. Elizabeth and Emma became governesses and William a journalist with the Bay of Plenty Times. Eventually granddaughter Una Pennell (Emma’s girl) inherited the cottage and it was occupied by their family until 1960 after which it was sold to the Intellectually Handicapped Children Society as a ‘sheltered workshop’.

Finally in 1970 the site was to be redeveloped as a medical centre and arrangements were made by Les Dickson with my grandfather Duff Maxwell for it to be relocated to The Elms. As a 12-year-old I remember it arriving there on a large transporter. The veranda had been removed but was not reinstated and sometime later members of the Elms Trust built a very small kitchenette onto the back. It continues to be a valuable resource and is currently used for Devonshire teas, and other occasions and meetings involving the serving of food. This lovely old building was repainted a few years ago in what is hoped to be closer to its original colours.

Present day cottage at The Elms (Te Papa)
Photographed by Bob Tulloch

My sincere thanks to Alison Howarth, a Bickers descendant and Tauranga Historical Society member, for this story. She lent me copies of a series of articles written by a cousin Colleen Sullivan for the BOP Times in 1977 and also the old images of the Bickers-Pennell Family homestead.