Memorial Park Baths

Centennial Swimming Baths, Tauranga, c. 1950s
Real photo postcard published by N.S. Seaward, Broad Bay, Dunedin
Collection of Justine Neal

In 1945 a committee set up by the Chamber of Commerce submitted their report making recommendations regarding a baths scheme for Tauranga. The idea was for the plans to be submitted to the Government as a memorial project for WWII in order to be granted a substantial subsidy towards their construction. If granted it would mean the Borough would only need to supply an estimated £7-8,000 towards the £22,000 the scheme was expected to cost. 

Centennial Swimming Baths, Tauranga, c. 1950s
Hand-coloured real photo postcard published by N.S. Seaward, Broad Bay, Dunedin
Collection of Justine Neal

The following points were made in the report.

• The Borough Council had selected Jordan Park as the site for the pool, particularly suitable because of its central position and the fact that it was already owned by the borough.
• There was ample space available for parking cars and bicycles, and it was in close proximity to several schools as well as the main business area.
• The baths and buildings were to be constructed of permanent materials such as reinforced concrete, and as a safety measure both the main and children’s pool were to be lined with light coloured tiles.
• The main pool was to be 50 metres by 13 metres making the pool suitable for all swimming sports, including those conducted under the Olympic rules. This meant the pool could not only be used for New Zealand Championships but possibly for the Empire Games.
• The learner’s pool was to be 14 metres by 11 metres.
• The main pool should have a deep section at one end for high and fancy diving and a diving tower equipped with diving stages up to 11 metres above the water level.
• Sea water should be pumped into the baths through a purifier and fresh water available when required for fresh water championships.
• The pool area should be flood lit for evening carnivals and mechanical cleaning apparatus provided.

Memorial Park, Tauranga, c. 1964
Chromolithographic postcard published by “Photo News” (18_6)
Collection of Justine Neal

No self-respecting baths building could be complete without the following:

• men’s and women’s lounges with attached conveniences,
• a swimming club meeting room,
• a custodian’s office,
• sports officials’ room, and
• a ticket office and turnstile.

Memorial Park & Environs, Tauranga, c. 1980
Chromolithographic postcard published by Pictorial Publications Ltd, Hastings (P1674)
Collection of Justine Neal

During carnivals it was felt the following would be needed:

• locker rooms for men and women,
• conveniences and showers for swimmers and spectators, and
• individual hot and cold baths.

The committee thought that a heating apparatus should be put in during construction, even if not able to be used immediately, so that when sufficient electricity was available it could be used to heat the pool during the winter months.

The baths opened in 1955, and I suspect were a somewhat watered-down version of the 1945 recommendation.

References

Papers Past: The Bay of Plenty Times, 18 April 1945

Tauranga 1882–1982, edited by A.C. Bellamy

Henderson Brothers Sawmill, Upper Kaimai (1936-1957) Part Two

 By John and Julie Green

Early single man’s hut

The Henderson Brothers sawmill and village were built in 1936 on what is now known as the Old Kaimai Road. The construction was under the leadership of Harry Christian who lived in the lower Kaimai. One of the first residents was a Finnish national, Eino Kinnunnen (known as Charlie Anderson), who was invited there to help establish and run the operation.  He had a family but left them back in Gisborne and lived in a single man’s hut across from the mill.

Typical mill house

They were promised the first completed house, but after six months they could wait no longer to be a family unit. They came north and the five of them squeezed into the tiny accommodation. Charlie Anderson was a fitter and blacksmith, and had skills as a farrier. He was also responsible for the repair of the second-hand four-sided planer that was purchased from Auckland, and for its operation during his time there.

Cookhouse under construction

Eventually there were half a dozen “huts” and 14 excellent two-bedroom homes for families plus a cookhouse and office. Elsie, wife of Fred Henderson, ran the store and postal agency for the first couple of years, followed by Alf’s wife Laura. Locals thought that school teacher Alan Simcock coped remarkably well with the sudden increase in his roll from 24 to 35.

Fred Henderson

As time went by, a tennis club was formed, using the court at the school. Just prior to the war a meeting was held by locals and a commitment made to build community hall. Timber was donated by the company, hardware by the farmers and labour by the mill staff. It was the centre of the community’s social life including fortnightly dance, with an excellent dance floor made from specially selected matai timber.

Esme Henderson on the “skids”

One of Charlie’s sons wrote an extensive memoir of their time there for a “bush” reunion held in 1988, portraying an idyllic life of playing in the bush and the stream that ran nearby. It was not without tragedy though as their beloved dog was killed by one of the bush trams, and they took many a risk around the water. Fred’s daughter Esme, now 96, was there for two years as a ten- and eleven-year-old. She felt she was extremely well educated at the school, and when they moved to Matamata she was way ahead of her new school mates. She speaks very fondly of her time “up the Kaimai.”

Two single men’s huts (note concrete chimneys and timber stack)

Jean Cole (daughter of Roy and Dorothy Henderson, who were in residence for about nine years) remembers:

“Life at Kaimai was happy and carefree. There was a block of bush behind the mill houses, bordered by the new through road, which was our playground. We were free to roam between meals - the sound of a whistle being blown was the signal for the Simcock children to go home, and for the Roy Henderson family it was a cowbell. There was always someone to remind us that they could hear the cowbell and Mum wanted us home. When we heard we were to move to Tauranga there were many tears from the children, but our mother was very happy as she had struggled for years to dry the many nappies on the clothesline … blown about dreadfully and often rained on. Life by the beach in Tauranga was far easier for her.”

The village across the road from Henderson’s Mill

After the mill ceased operation in 1957, some of the homes were removed to Greerton and refurbished. The community hall was moved twice, eventually finding a new home at the Lower Kaimai School, where it is still in use. Only one house remains near the old mill site. The Henderson’s Tramline walking track nearby is nowadays managed by the Department of Conservation.

Sources

Memories of the time we lived at Upper Kaimai, 1936-1945, by Eddy Anderson
Henderson Mill, a Landmark, by Ron Lipinski, Bay of Plenty Times, 25/10/2006
Sawmilling Days in the King Country and Kaimai Range from 1933-1945, by Dorothy Henderson
Recollections of the Henderson Timber Company’s Mill, by Dorothy Henderson
More Recollections of Mill Operations, by Bob Henderson (appeared in a 1988 booklet, Kaimai Revisited - 75th Jubilee of the Kaimai School)
The Era of the Bush Tram in New Zealand, by Paul Mahoney, Transpress, 2004
Personal recollections of Jean Cole (daughter of Roy Henderson) and Esme Crawford (daughter of Fred Henderson)
Help with initial images Bill Coster, long time Kaimai Resident
Images courtesy of the Cole family
All images provided by Jean Cole and Esme MacDonald

The Hard Life and Times of Tauranga’s First Harbour Master

By guest author Max Avery

Captain Thomas Sparrow Carmichael
Photo courtesy of Carmichael Family Collection

The separate appointments of Harbour Master and Pilot for the Port of Tauranga in 1864 may have sounded like soft berths, but they were no sinecure for Captain Thomas Sparrow Carmichael, London-born in 1826. A merchant navy sailor, in 1859 he became master of the coaster Petrel in the Auckland-Whangarei trade. After marrying in 1862 he bought a house in St George’s Bay Road, Parnell, and later applied to the Customs Department for a shore job.

Captain Carmichael was appointed to the two Tauranga positions by Robert Graham, Superintendent of the Auckland Province, on 7 December 1864, and arrived in Tauranga on 13 December. His accommodation was a tent on the slopes of Mauao, becoming the first European resident at Mount Maunganui, but more than a year elapsed before the Province provided him with a house.

Notice of Carmichael's Appointment
Auckland Provincial Government Gazette, 8 Dec 1864

Excerpts from Carmichael’s diary, extracted by great-granddaughter Jean Goodison, describe his trials and tribulations, both with officialdom and locals. He arrived in Tauranga with no pilot boat, but managed to borrow an old dinghy from a Mr Rice at Te Papa (as Tauranga was then known), and proceeded to the Mount towed by the schooner Rapid. He recorded: “landed on the western side and pitched my tent. Obliged to stand up to my waist in water for three hours until the tide left the boat. Boat very old and leaky.” He awoke on 25 December 1864, to find that the boatman he had employed only three days before had absconded with all his provisions. No Christmas pudding for the Harbour Master.

H.M.S. Esk (at left) guarding the prison hulk Marion in Auckland Harbour, 1864
Watercolour by Joseph Osbertus Hamley
Collection of Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref. E-047-q-031

H.M.S. Esk arrived on 8 January 1865, but with no Jack hoisted obviously did not require a pilot. The next day the man-o-war practiced with her guns. Apparently attracted by his light-coloured tent they used it as a target, for the shells burst close to it. The Harbour Master hastily took shelter behind a large rock. When a boat-load of officers later came ashore and were appraised of their indiscretion, they apologized, saying they did not know anyone lived on Mauao. Carmichael magnanimously piloted the Esk to sea after she had hoisted the appropriate signal requiring pilotage. He warned visiting mariners not to interfere with unexploded shells from the Esk, but only a short time later there was a great explosion and Captain Doughty was wounded.

Unbeknown to Carmichael, his appointment had aroused some local animosity, including that of Captain D. Sellars, master of the schooner Tauranga. While at Te Papa on 24 May 1865, Carmichael received a message to pilot the Tauranga out of the harbour, which puzzled him, as that schooner regularly arrived and left the port without assistance. Sellars was asked the draught of the vessel, but the Tauranga grounded on the middle bank, the master having deliberately given incorrect draught measurements. Sellars then came from behind and struck Carmichael on the back and head, knocking him across the heel of the bowsprit and his hat overboard. He countermanded the pilot’s orders, and when asked if he intended to continue to interfere, replied, “Yes, damn you. You have the berth I ought to have. I only sent for you to annoy you.” Saying he would leave the vessel, Carmichael was then struck on the head by Sellars, who attempted to throw him overboard, but was restrained by his crew. Soon after the pilot left the schooner the Tauranga ran aground twice, and after returning to Te Papa ran aground again, due to Sellars, as he explained in the Tauranga courthouse two days later, having been drunk at the time. Sellars apologized for his behaviour, Carmichael withdrew his charge of assault against him and received the sum of thirty shillings as pilotage fee – rather hard won.

Lack of a sound boat and proper navigation gear made life difficult for the Pilot, who recorded that he, “made a buoy from a spar picked up on the beach, to be put on the spit running out from the eastern shore. The lower buoy was drifting to seaward, but no boat available to collect it.” Later, “For three pounds able to borrow Swallow to capture and replace the drifting buoy.”

25 December 1865 was recorded as the worst Christmas Carmichael had ever had: “The boatman was drunk, insolent and using bad language. There was fog, drizzle and gloomy weather, meat rotten – even a dog would not look at it. For dinner two wormy potatoes and two thin slices of bread.”

Mauao, Mount Maunganui, c. 1910s
Carmichael’s tent was probably located roughly where the shelter at centre left was later built
Real photo postcard by Henry Winkelman, Auckland (Tourist Series 997)
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0757/10

Carmichael’s hard life continued. He had to respond every time a ship fired a gun, and at night show a blue light before going out and piloting it in. Sometimes he rowed four miles back to Mauao after piloting a ship to sea, and once when it was too rough to get off a ship, he had to go to Auckland in it and return in the same vessel several days later. His boatmen were dismisses frequently for drunkenness and, in addition to piloting ships and maintaining harbour navigation marks, he had to organize the removal of unlawfully dumped ballast and mend his leaking tent after gales.

View of Mount Maunganui from the slopes of Mauao, c. early 1920s
Later incarnation of the Pilot House visible at lower left
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 99-160

At the end of March 1866 Carmichael had an opportunity to talk again to Superintendent Graham at Te Papa about a house for the pilot station, and to ask for and be granted some leave. Governor Grey was visiting Te Papa at the same time and, when he departed on the steamer Eclipse on 8 April, Carmichael was also aboard. When the Governor went ashore at Kawau Island, it seemed that the Eclipse would stay there for a few days. Not wishing to waste precious days of his leave, Carmichael borrowed the ship’s dinghy and set out to row to Auckland at 9.30am on the 10^th. Throughout the day there were south-west squalls with rain, but he arrived at Wynyard Pier at 10pm and was home in St George’s Bay Road at 11pm. Such was the seamanship and determination of Carmichael, who finally occupied the Pilot House on Mauao on 4 October 1866.

Thomas Sparrow Carmichael, one of the first Europeans to navigate the fabled North-West Passage, and holder of the Polar Medal, was probably glad to resign from his positions as Tauranga’s first Harbour Master and Pilot in late 1868 and return to a life as a ship’s master on the New Zealand coast. He died in Whangarei on 10 November 1900.