The Stranding of the SS Penguin

Matakana Island’s 20 km-long, ocean-facing Panepane Beach - notorious among 19^th century Māori and  Pākehā seafarers - posed a serious risk to paddle, sail and steam powered vessels. The beach formed a featureless, deadly, surf-pounded lee shore. Some vessels that hove‑to offshore during northeasterly gales often dragged their anchors on the sandy bottom and were driven ashore there. Others, particularly smaller sailing vessels under 20 tons that missed the channel entrance, even by small margins during such gales, were swept sideways onto the beach, rolled and wrecked.

The 5km beach section extending north from Panepane Point opposite Mauao | Mount Maunganui continued to claim shipping well into the 1900s. Had their skeletons remained they would have stood as a stark warning to careless or drunken skippers and those new to the Bay of Plenty. However, the many vessels wrecked there soon disappeared from sight, as the beach sands quickly absorbed their hulls.

Matakana Island’s Panepane Point and beach from Mount Maunganui across the channel

Built and launched in Glasgow, Scotland in January 1864, the steamship Penguin was sold to the New Zealand Steamship Company in 1879. Some 220 feet in length, with a gross registered tonnage of 749, the steamer became a familiar sight in Tauranga Moana during 1879 and 1880, as it delivered passengers, freight and mail to and from the North and South Islands’ east coast ports [1].

On 16 January 1880, New Zealand newspapers reported that the SS Penguin (Captain Malcolm), had gone ashore while entering Tauranga Harbour close to where the SS Taupo had been wrecked in February the previous year. Ironically, the Penguin had been purchased specifically to replace that unfortunate vessel on the return coastal route from Auckland to Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, Wellington, Lyttleton and Port Chalmers [2].

The SS Penguin at Port Chalmers

The SS Taupo had gone ashore on Stony Point Reef at the base of Mount Maunganui where the channel opened into the harbour (marked today by the statue of Tangaroa, the Polynesian sea god). It sustained significant damage to the hull in the process and although salvaged, later sank off Tūhua | Mayor Island. The Penguin, on the other hand, was driven to starboard while attempting to negotiate the channel during ‘a terrific gale’. It went aground on a sandbank close to Panepane Spit at the southern end of Matakana Island’s Panepane Beach [3].

The little SS Staffa (Captain Baker), was at once dispatched from the town to the Penguin's assistance. The mail and passengers were taken off and landed at the town. On 14 January the Auckland Star reported: 

The SS Penguin came off the sand hillock at eleven o'clock this morning, with the assistance of the steamer Staffa under the command of worthy Captain Baker. No damage was done. She had not even moved a pound of cargo or coal. Her light kedge came home, or else she would have got off when she first touched [the Penguin’s light kedge or emergency anchor had failed to hold and had been dragged across the channel with the ship] [4].

After reloading her passengers and mail at the town, the Penguin immediately resumed her voyage to the southern ports on her itinerary, one editor noting, ‘as the steamer is built of the best Lowmoor iron it would be almost impossible to injure her’ [5]. Despite again running aground during dense fog at Nelson in November 1895, and being refloated without damage, the SS Penguin was to prove as vulnerable to shipwreck as any other New Zealand coastal steamer. 

The SS Penguin ashore at Nelson in November 1895

On February 12, 1909, the SS Penguin (Captain Francis Naylor), struck Thoms Rock in Cook Strait while navigating during a severe storm. The women and children were loaded into the lifeboats, which were swamped by the heavy seas. Only one woman and a boy survived. All the other children drowned. Other survivors came ashore on rafts. As the Penguin sank, seawater flooded the engine room and, on reaching the boilers, caused a massive steam explosion. It was New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century: 75 people lost their lives while only 30 survived [6].

A court of inquiry found that Captain Naylor did everything possible to save the lives of his passengers and crew once the disaster occurred. Ultimately blaming Naylor’s navigational errors for the disaster, the court suspended his certificate for 12 months. 

References

[1] Ingram, C.W.N. New Zealand Shipwrecks,1795-1975, A.H. and A.W. Reid, Wellington, 1977: 308.

[2] Bay of Plenty Times, 4 March 1880: 1.

[3] Evening Star, 13 January 1880: 2.

[4] Auckland Star, 14 January 1880: 2.

[5] Manawatu Herald, 16 January 1880: 2.

[6] Ingram, 1977: 308.

Images

Cousins, John, senior reporter, ‘Panepane Point to be Returned to Hapu’, in Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Post. 26 January, NZ Herald,https://www.nzherald.co.nz › Rotorua Daily Post.

De Maus, David Alexander, 1847-1925: ‘Steamship Penguin at Port Chalmers’. Ref: 1/1-003381-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22384677.

Auckland Weekly News, ‘The Grounding of the SS Penguin: The Vessel on the Rocks outside Nelson Harbour, April 28,1904’. Record ID AWNS-19040512-12-02. Auckland City Libraries Heritage Collection.

The Library's Bay of Plenty Farmer Newspapers

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

In 2023, the Library's Heritage and Research Team was invited to see if there were any published items of value we could retrieve from the basement storage area at the NZME offices on Cameron Road. Among other titles, we found issues of the Bay of Plenty Farmer, a local, tabloid publication that the library had never collected.  

The newspapers are in fairly good condition. Some issues are bound in large volumes and others are loose with punch holes near the margins. We placed them all in snug fitting archival boxes and we keep them in the library’s climate controlled room for their protection and preservation.  

A bound volume of Bay of Plenty Farmer newspapers inside an archival box.

The Bay of Plenty Farmer was a free, monthly newspaper, delivered to the ‘farm gate.’ Printing commenced in 1982 and lasted until probably 2001. After 12 years, the publishing team moved from their Cameron Road location to ‘Farming House’ at 102-104 Spring Street, sharing the premises with Federated Farmers and Farmer Mutual Group. From September 1998 it was published from the Mount and Papamoa Times offices in Mount Maunganui.

An article in the Bay of Plenty Farmer, on Clydesdale horses working in the Tarawera Forest, July 1982. 

The newspaper comprised regular features on farming industries such as dairying, horticulture, forestry, motoring, education and house & garden, along with regular columns from the Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers.  It featured articles with photographs by local journalists such as the late Brian Rogers, who went on to co-found SunMedia and produce the rural Coast & Country News publication in 2000.

Photos of the Te Puke A&P Show, published in the Bay of Plenty Farmer, March 1994, p. 8.

Plenty of local social history is captured as Bay of Plenty Farmer journalists attended rural special events such as local A&P Shows, school agricultural days and the National Fieldays. Later, issues featured coloured front-page photographs and advertising.

Front page colour photo from the Bay of Plenty Farmer showing Ben Wiltshire with Shetland ponies, September 1998.

Kiwifruit industry related articles featured heavily in the publication, however, it is interesting to note that, through the years, other interesting agricultural ventures like ferret and ostrich farming were embraced by Bay of Plenty locals. 

An article on fitch ferrets, bred in Waihī for their pelts, Bay of Plenty Farmer, July 1982.

An article on ostrich farming, with ostrich industry advertising on the same page, Bay of Plenty Farmer, February 1998.

The only other copies of the Bay of Plenty Farmer are at the Alexander Turnbull Library, which holds limited runs - from 1985 to 1986 and from 2000 to 2001, so many of these newspaper issues are unique to Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries collection. 

Sources

A&P Show. (1994, March). Bay of Plenty Farmer. Tauranga, New Zealand.

From the horses mouth. (1998, September). Bay of Plenty Farmer. Tauranga, New Zealand.

Fry, C. (2025, October 12). Rural paper celebrates 300th issue milestone. SunLive. https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/372839-rural-paper-celebrates-300th-issue-milestone.html

Ostrich prices level with bird's productive value. (1998, February). Bay of Plenty Farmer. Tauranga, New Zealand.

Riches in fitches. (1982, July). Bay of Plenty Farmer. Tauranga, New Zealand.

Secombe, W. (1992, July). A pictorial look at the Bay at work. Bay of Plenty Farmer. Tauranga, New Zealand.

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Written by Michelle Bradbury, from Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

 

The Domestic Services Block (The Cottage) at The Elms Te Papa

In colonial times, for safety reasons, settlers often constructed a kitchen separate from the main homestead.  This was certainly the case in the mid-1800s at the Church Missionary Society station (now known as The Elms) on Te Papa peninsula here in Tauranga Moana. The kitchen building and nearby bakehouse were just a few feet from the main house.  In 1877, however, a fire destroyed both, the cause thought to be a candle left burning in the maid’s room when she went over to the house for evening prayers. 

 Due to stupendous efforts of the townsfolk who heard the mission bell ringing urgently and came to assist, putting out the fire and draping wet blankets over the shingles of the house roof, the large wooden home was unscathed. The burnt-out buildings were rebuilt as soon as practical, slightly more distant from the main house.

The replacement bakehouse under construction. Image: John Kinder

There is no way of knowing if the floor plan of the new building was the same as the one it replaced.  Today the domestic services block, as it has sometimes been referred to, consists of four rooms in a row, each with their own exterior door, An internal door connects the first two rooms. One source** quotes the rooms being used as “kitchens, bedrooms and a storeroom.”

 On the death of the second Mrs Brown in 1887 the property passed to her sister Euphemia Maxwell, a widow, and her unmarried daughters Alice and Edith. At this time The Elms consisted of 17 acres of land and most of the dozen or so mission buildings the Browns had purchased from the Church Mission Society over the previous decade. Permanent structures had originally included two houses, two schools, the chapel, Archdeacon Brown’s free-standing library, a storehouse, boathouse, carpenters’ workshop, smithy, and the kitchen building and bakehouse. 

Alice outside the cottage, 14 February 1945.  Image: The Elms Collection

In 1913 subdividing the property created 47 sections.  These were sold over the next few years, reducing the land area around the main house to about 3 acres and providing much needed capital to reroof it and add a kitchenette and bathroom. This enabled Euphemia to live out her days at The Elms in greater convenience until her passing in 1919.  Daughter Edith’s death occurred in 1930. Her sister Alice advertised for live-in help and a couple named Turner came to occupy “the cottage” as the 1877 building had become known. 1945 brought another couple, George and Elsie Lambie, who lived there rent-free in exchange for domestic and gardening help, which included Elsie showing visitors around at times.

When my grandparents Duff and Gertrude Maxwell became life tenants after Alice’s death in July 1949, the Lambies stayed on for a while, but then followed a series of tenants and boarders in the 50s and early 60s. A woman and her 11-year-old son* rented the cottage around 1950 until it was possible to find a home at Mount Maunganui where she had a teaching position. One family did two different stints there a few years apart whilst awaiting the building of their new homes in Ōtūmoetai.

 Gertrude Maxwell’s sister Mildred Huggins was in residence for a few years in the early 60s. A bathroom was added for her in the space between the cottage and the old bakehouse (then in use as a laundry area). Mildred returned to England leaving the cottage free for my uncle, his wife and their first child who spent time there while saving up for their first home.  

Mildred Huggins at home.  Image: julie Green

Finally, in 1971, Auntie Mildred returned from England to ‘retire’.  For the next 20 years she lived in the cottage very happily, mending broken china people brought to her, making marmalade on the old stove set up in the corner of the washhouse and washing her very long white hair in her pink bathroom. Mercifully the place was not burnt down again - she had a habit of placing logs in the fire that were too long and gradually feeding them in as the end burnt away. Six years before her passing she moved into a rest home. Several members of the extended family then lived in the cottage at various times.

 By the early 1990s both the main house and cottage were no longer occupied.  The Elms Foundation, which took over the property, began to use the room nearest to the house as an office.  The infill addition, containing the extra bathroom, was demolished. Thus the two buildings (the first kitchen and the old bakehouse) were separated once more. 

The bathroom addition in 1999.  Image: Julie Green

Currently the building is used by the management of The Elms Foundation as offices, a reception area and a base for the visitor guides. There is a very educational laundry display in the “Mangle room” and the Dairy is complete with original shelving for the display of milk pans  and butter making equipment. These two rooms are unlined, showing their interesting construction details, including the old wooden shakes, which remain under the corrugated iron roof.

 Acknowledgements

*This informal record was inspired by meeting the widow and daughter of the 11 year old lad. They visited The Elms recently to ascertain if the story they had heard from him was true.  We were able to confirm that it was.

**I referred to Sarah Ell’s book, ‘The Spirit of a Place’ to confirm some details to add to my recollections.

D is for Dog (skeleton)

 

Excavation at Ōtūmoetai pā on Levers Road, 2005. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum.

In 2005, archaeologists made a significant discovery at Ōtūmoetai pā on Levers Road - an intact dog skeleton, or kuri, buried in a grave at the highest point of the pā. Such finds are highly unusual in New Zealand archaeology. According to the country’s leading expert on kuri, Dr Geoff Clark, this suggested something out of the ordinary, possibly ritual in nature and associated with a person of high status. 

A mounted kuri. Image courtesy of Otago Museum 

Kuri were descended from Polynesian dogs, which accompanied the first people to Aotearoa in the thirteenth century. Medium-sized and long-haired, kuri are often described as being roughly the size of a modern border collie. They arrived as part of wider voyaging traditions, with waka travelling from Hawaiki carrying a variety of animals and plants, many of which did not survive in the cooler climate of Aotearoa.

Dog skeleton found at Otūmoetai pa. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum.

Kuri were valued not only for food but also their bones, which were used for making fishhooks. Several hooks dating to before 1600AD were unearthed during the Heritage New Zealand excavation at Ōtūmoetai pā. Archaeologist Ken Phillips who led the dig was reported as saying that “to be buried intact is pretty unusual considering most of his mates probably ended up as fishhooks.” 

Matau made from dog's jaw bone. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum

It is generally believed that interbreeding with European dogs led to the extinction of the kuri by the 1860s. This period coincided with major upheaval at Ōtūmoetai pā, which was caught up in the confiscation of 50,000 acres of Tauranga land by the government in 1865, following the New Zealand Wars.

Forestry on Matakana Island in 1969

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Matakana Island Timber Mill
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 21-248

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries' Heritage and Research Team and its predecessors have been collecting local history material for over 50 years. The snapshot above is from a set donated to the team by Hamilton City Libraries - Te Ohomauri o Kirikiriroa, and digitised in 2021. The set is undated, but looks like it may be from the 1970s or 1980s. The set can be viewed here, each individual image includes an edited version with colour restored, due to severe fading of the original prints.

The present Heritage and Research Team at Tauranga are reviewing their Vertical File collection and other, related items are emerging. In the Forestry file was an article clipped from an unidentified magazine and with no date, called "Matakana Island : reaping the Pineland wealth", by Olaf Petersen. After some investigation we determined it was published in the New Zealand Weekly News of 2 June 1969. We have added a scan of the article to Pae Korokī.

It contains twelve images selected from photographs the Auckland-based Petersen took of timber felling and processing on Matakana Island, in Tauranga Harbour. Of the twelve photographs in the piece, eight include pictures of individuals. For some reason only one of them is named - Mr Stuart Hume, forest plantation manager on Matakana - in the top left corner of page 31.

In 1988 the photographer donated his archive to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It is described at length in their Collections Online entry for the archive. Two of the photographs from this article have been digitised. The photographer had collected information about his subjects that wasn't included in the published article, so we can now add a little bit more detail to the story of forestry on Matakana Island.

The photograph on page 31 captioned "A stack of timber is wired together ready for transport" is described by Auckland Museum as "Photograph of Hohepa (Joe) Hamuera Kohu working in a shed and operating a hand lever used in timber production".

The photograph below it, captioned "Morning tea break in the Pinelands forest on Matakana", is described as "Three men who are working at felling trees in the forest, stop for a break to drink from jars and a thermos. On verso the men are named as L to R; Melbo Rolleston, Charlie Murray, Eru Tukaki. They are surrounded by felled trees and a stand of forest in the back ground. Sitting on the trees near them are two chainsaws and an axe". The published version has been cropped and is missing Melbo Rolleston.

We hope that over time more photos used in the article will be digitised, allowing the identification of more individuals.

Extracting the article, finding the work of other institutions and receiving donations has allowed us to both increase our knowledge of a subject of local interest and enable more questions to be asked. This process of accumulation can be slow and indirect, but placing it in Pae Korokī opens it up to discovery and engagement by one of the distinctive communities of Tauranga Moana. 

Sources:

Matakana Island / Neil G. Hansen. Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society No. 63, August 1979, pages 38-40 (or 41-43 of the PDF).

Matakana Island (Tauranga) / Jinty Rorke. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, Matakana Island.

Matakana Island / Suzanne Woodley. Wellington, N.Z. : Waitangi Tribunal Division, Department of Justice, 1993.

Petersen was a well-known photographer who died in 1994. Te Ao Mārama -Tauranga Libraries holds copies of a recent collection of his nature photography - Nature boy : the photography of Olaf Petersen.