E is for Embroidery

“Success is not fame or money or the power to bewitch. It is to have created something valuable from your own individuality and skill, a garden, an embroidery, a painting, a cake, a life." Charlotte Gray, Canadian biographer and historian

This sampler is an example of embroidery created to demonstrate skill and proficiency in needlework. 
Tauranga Museum, 0283/84.

This embroidery sampler was created in 1913 by Iris Shead and, according to Tauranga Museum’s receipt book, was donated to the collection in 1972 by Mrs Wapp. When I first came across it, a few questions quickly came to mind: Who was Iris? How old was she when she embroidered the sampler? And where, or what, was Hamont?

Research revealed that Iris was born in Ashburton in 1898 to Amy and Walter Shead. Just a year after her birth, her mother was involved in a shocking railway accident at Rakaia, where four passengers were killed when two excursion trains collided due to excessive speed. Amy was pregnant at the time and sustained serious back injuries, prompting Walter to take a civil case against the Crown. The case was successful and became something of a landmark, leading to improvements in railway safety across New Zealand. Amy received £700 in compensation, and Walter £500, awarded for “the expenses he had been put to by his wife’s illness (he had been forced to hire a housekeeper) and as compensation for the loss of society and companionship.”

The Rakaia Railway Disaster: view of wrecked carriage in which victims were killed. 
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-18990324-04-03

 You may be wondering what any of this has to do with an embroidered sampler. A few months after receiving the payout, the Shead family left New Zealand for Europe. By 1913 Iris, aged 14 or 15, was living in Hamont, Belgium, where she embroidered this sampler.

In 1920, Iris married Englishman Wilfred Phillips, had a son, and eventually returned to New Zealand. She later divorced Phillips and, in 1927, married Arthur Wapp. Together they would also have a son. Through all these moves and life changes, Iris’s sampler travelled with her. Toward the end of her life, she chose to preserve it by donating it to the museum’s collection. What initially appears to be a modest example of needlework becomes something far more evocative - a stitched record of a young woman’s life shaped by family tragedy, migration, and resilience.

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.

---

 

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.

Captain Alexander Turner Jnr. and the Scow 'Margaret' 1892-1914

Part I 

Alexander (Sandy) Turner sailed from Ireland to Auckland with his family on the immigrant ship Carisbrooke Castle in 1875. Travelling on to Tauranga by steamer, he established himself as a 27 year old freehold farmer on Katikati’s Uretara River. After farming for some years, he commenced running coastal sailing vessels and cargoes between the Bay of Plenty, Auckland and intermediate ports. 

Captain Alexander Turner Snr. 

Image: The Pioneers: Settlers and Famulies of Katikati and District. Christine Clement, 2012, p.327.

On 13 February 1892, his son Alexander Jnr., known locally as Alec or Alick, sailed into Tauranga harbour with his new purchase, the Margaret, a bluff bowed, flat bottomed, two-masted scow. With a gross weight of 31-tons, it was powered solely by sail [1].

The scow Margaret c. 1890s.

Sitting level in low tide Tauranga  harbour, the crew are offloading posts and sawn timber onto two drays. While scows were often crude and ungainly in appearance, the Margaret has pleasing lines with a nice lift to the capping rail fore and aft. Image: Photographer unknown. Photo 04-572, Te Ao Mārama.

Built at Auckland for its first owner Mrs M. Andrew in late 1884, and described as ‘a small coaster’, the bluff-bowed Margaret was initially engaged in carrying kauri logs, baulk kauri and sawn timber to Auckland, from locations as diverse as Great Barrier Island, Ōrewa, Pūhoi, Pākiri and the Coromandel mill ports at Mercury and Kennedy’s Bay[2]. Between February 1892 and 1906, Captain Alec Turner and the Margaret regularly transported sawn kauri timber from Auckland and Coromandel sawmills to Tauranga, and on to Maketū and Katikati where it was needed for the construction of houses, schools, retail stores, hotels and churches for George Vesey Stewart’s immigrant settlers [3].

The large-scale timber felling and milling operations at Katikati, Whakāmarama, Omanawa and the Ōropi Bush which required numerous scows (most assisted by steam engines) to transport lumber by sea, did not commence in earnest until the early 20th century. During the depression of the 1890s, entrepreneurial local scow owner-captains like Alec Turner took every opportunity to acquire cargoes and ensure that their vessels turned a profit. On St Patrick’s Day 17 March 1892, for instance, he took a party of 30 people on a fishing excursion out into the Bay of Plenty, having sold tickets at 10 shillings per head. Turner continued his fishing excursions as far afield as Tūhua-Mayor Island and picnic excursions from Tauranga to the Mount throughout the 1890s [4].

When not delivering timber to Tauranga on contract, Turner disposed of his own cargoes of sawn timber and posts ‘at unusually cheap prices’, directly to local builders and timber merchants. Soon after purchasing the Margaret he sold off a cargo of sawn timber from Tairua at the Victoria Wharf in Tauranga at just 5 shillings and sixpence per hundred feet, yet was still able to return a profit [5].

The scow Lena Gladys on Katikati’s Uretara River, 1920

Like Captain Turner’s Margaret, the shallow draught Lena Gladys regularly sailed up the Uretara River to deliver and collect freight from Katikati. The Lena Gladys operated in Bay of Plenty waters until the Taneatua branch railway line opened in 1928. Image: Photographer unknown. Western Bay of Plenty District Council Community Archives.

Uplifting their purchases from the Margaret as it lay at Victoria Wharf or as it sat level at low tide locations around the harbour, Turner’s customers transported their purchases away by horse and cart.

Ever the entrepreneur, in October 1893, Turner returned from Mount Maunganui in October 1893 with a cargo of beach shells, before departing to sell them in Auckland for roading and road fill[6]. Turner continued this lucrative sideline into the late 1890s, supplying the Tauranga Borough Council with much needed ‘Mount shell’, as it was called, for local roading [7]. According to the Bay of Plenty Times:

"In those days there were tremendous quantities of marine shell deposited in the locality of the North Rock Light at the Mount. This was shovelled into drays, carted across the isthmus, and loaded into a large scow, the Margaret, in Pilot Bay. The unloading of the boat took place into drays at a point off the eastern end of Spring Street, but unloading periods were restricted to the times when the water was low enough to permit the draught horses to draw the loads. The pulling was heavy too, but nevertheless Cameron Road, the Strand, Devonport Road, and other streets in the business area carried surfaces up to four inches in thickness, when dressed with this material. Those road tops were well maintained. Half-a-century ago practically no metal was used [8]."

View of the Opopoti, Maungatapu Marae and the Rangataua Estuary on 2nd October 1958.

Captain Alec Turner and the Margaret once negotiated the estuary’s shallow inner harbour waters to bring a cargo of raupō (bulrush) for thatching the walls and roof of a new wharenui (meeting house). Image: Bronwyn Taikato. Ref 00-127. Te Ao Mārama.

Again, during April 1899, Turner and the Margaret arrived in Tauranga from an unidentified location with a cargo of raupō for Māori at Matapihi who were constructing a large wharenui. At that time there was also considerable demand for raupō by Ngāi Te Rangi hapu who were repairing their wharenui at Wharēroa Marae (near the present site of the harbour bridge on the Mount Maunganui side), at Karikari Marae (on the inner harbour near modern-day Bay Park Stadium) and at Maungatapu, where the Ngāti He hapū were constructing a new wharenui [9].

References

[1] Clement, Christine and Ellen McCormack, The Pioneer Settlers and Families of Katikati and District, Ellen McCormack, Katikati, 2012, p. 328; Bay of Plenty Times, 20 August 1936, p. 2.

[2] Auckland Star, 6 December 1884, p.2.

[3] Bay of Plenty Times, 1 February 1893, p. 2; 14 December 1898, p. 2; 14 May 1900, p. 2; Auckland Star, 25 March, 1898, p.2.

[4] Bay of Plenty Times, 15 February 1892, p. 2; 27 December 1945, p.4; 21 January 1948, p.2.

[5] Ibid:May 1892, p.2.

[6] Ibid: 30 October, 1893, p.2.

[7] Ibid:15 December 1897: 2; 25 August 1897, p.2.

[8] Ibid: 5 January 1839, p.5.

[9] Ibid:5 April, 1899, p.2.

The Mōtiti Road Rail Ferry

 

Two maps of Mōtiti.  Neither is contemporaneous with Brain’s work on the island, but the coloured image shows the settlement pattern of the island’s residents in 1929; the black and white sketch map shows the route (dashed line) of the tramline that once led to Orangatea Bay.  Images: (left) Western Bay of Plenty District Libraries, SAK 34A, digital only; and (right) Te Ara, An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, ed. A. H. McLintock, 1966

I first began researching the people who lived in the Brain Watkins House back in the early 2000s  when I was working for NZ Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand).  Among the listed achievements of Joseph Brain was “a tramway on Mōtiti Island to transfer cattle to a ship waiting off shore”.

George Alexander Douglas, An Irishman, originally from Derry, moved down from Auckland to Tauranga and received a Crown Grant of a piece of land in 1867. He became a successful storekeeper when he arrived in Tauranga.

He had begun working in Auckland as a commissariat contractor supplying the military forces in the country and was elected a member of the Auckland Provincial Council from 1869 to 1873. G A Douglas leased a portion of Mōtiti Island from a local chief Tupaea, probably commencing in 1867 but he did not move there to live until 1870. He improved the breeding of cattle and Clydesdale horses on Mōtiti. He was also responsible for the introduction of the Bumble Bees that were essential for the fertilization of the Red Clover flowers. The clover had been introduced to boost the quality of the stock food but could not flourish without the bees. The soil on Mōtiti was fertile, water was abundant from numerous springs, but it lacked a natural harbour. 

S.S.Staffa   Image: Te Ao Māramā – Tauranga City Libraries Photo 04-593

To ensure transporting stock and goods, Douglas bought a small coastal steamer S.S. Tauranga in 1870. From 1876 to 1881 he had the S.S.Rowena and S.S.Staffa. The difficulty created by the lack of a harbour was loading the stock onto his ship before he could send the cargo to Tauranga.

In Orangatea Bay Douglas built a system of stock yards, and tramline. The late local historian Alister Matheson, in his book Motiti[1], tongue in cheek, named the project “The Motiti Road Rail Ferry”. The stock yards held the stock until they were loaded on a punt that could hold twenty cattle. The punt sat on a cradle or bogie that ran down the tramline, gaining speed, and was attached by a rope on a winch on land. When the punt reached the steamer it was secured and the rope wound back by the winch. The cattle were individually lifted by slings on to the steamer, which then sailed to Tauranga.  Douglas was helped in the construction of the tramline system by Joseph Brain, the experienced ship and bridge builder of Tauranga.

Hoisting fat cattle from the wharf to a steamer for shipping from Auckland to Sydney, Australia, 1902. 

Image: Supplement to the Auckland Weekly News, 14 August 1902, p. 10

In an interview with Mrs Elva Brain Watkins, the youngest daughter of Joseph, Matheson learned that Brain’s practice was to row across the harbour to Mount Maunganui then walk along the ocean beach until he was opposite Mōtiti Island where he would signal his arrival.  A boat from Mōtiti would then pick him up from the beach. In his boatyard on The Strand Brain employed Māori men from Mōtiti who would stay at the Mōtiti Hostel across the street.

J. D. Brain, Brain Watkins House Collection.  Image: Shirley Arabin

At the time that Matheson wrote the book the only remnants of the Mōtiti Road Rail Ferry were decaying puriri posts at the site, so it is unlikely that there will be any evidence left of this project today.

When George Douglas visited Napier in 1892 to purchase sheep he fell ill and died there.  He had not married and in his will the beneficiaries of his estate were his nieces and nephews.

 [1] Matheson A.H.,Motiti,pub. Whakatane & District Historical Society P O Box 203, Whakatane 1979.

 

Editorial note: Readers may be interested in finding an extended photo-essay on Mōtiti Island life in the 1960’s by Tony Ahern, editor of Tauranga Photo News, Issue No. 34, April 3 1965:

https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/101354 

The White House in Ōtūmoetai

 

The 75-year old home today.  Image: Julie Green

Last year I was privileged to meet the occupants of this wonderful home, constructed in 1950 and sited a little back from the road, near Ōtūmoetai Primary School. They had a diesel-powered central heating system which no longer functioned well.  After considering their options they offered their vintage technology to the Tauranga Heritage Collection. This was not a suitable home for such an item so help was instead sought from Tauranga’s Vintage Farm Machinery Club. Through the kind efforts of one of their members the problems with the heater were overcome and it fired up once again.

 The family was very grateful to be able to use the heater last winter and is preparing to light it again as the cold weather closes in this year. I have enjoyed several visits to their lovely home and have permission to share with you this recent picture and a few older images in their possession.

William Barnard’s home and orchard in 1954. Photographer unknown

The home was built for Labour MP for Napier William( Bill ) Barnard after he retired from politics and moved to Tauranga to join his son-in-law in legal practice in 1948. He was Mayor here from 1950-52 and very involved in community affairs. One of the rooms upstairs was designated as a library and even though the shelving is long gone there are obvious lines on the walls where the shelves were attached.  Bill and his family had less than a decade of living there before he passed away in Auckland in 1958 at the age of 72.

The framed photograph below hangs on the wall of the upstairs landing.  It gives us a great idea of the topography in Ōtūmoetai prior to the development of the whole Bellevue area. You can make out the entrance of the Wairoa River, the curve of the railway line around the perimeter of  Bethlehem and the Matua Saltmarsh, and the farms which became the college in 1965 and, in 1967, the intermediate school.

Bellevue and Bethlehem in their agricultural days. Photographer unknown

The primary school is nestled in behind the row of dark trees to the left of centre. The area across the road, that now includes a fuel station, housing and the telephone exchange, appears to have been just a rough field when this photograph was taken. 

There has been a succession of owners over the home’s 75-year history. Not much is presently known about them but there have been several extensions at the back and side, dormer windows have been added to the attic space and the kitchen/dining area has been refurbished. There is now another home built in what was the front yard and of course the old orchard has become covered in dwellings also. But the old homestead stands tall and proud and is much loved by its present owners.

Very recently a former occupant arrived on their doorstep with an unframed painting and asked if they would like it. Of course the present owners agreed - it was very welcome. They intend to frame and hang it as part of the growing record of the story of their home.

“THE WHITE HOUSE,  Otumoetai”. Artist unknown

All images in this post were taken by Julie Green, courtesy of the owners.

No Deed Goes Unpunished: Forging Title at Lot 202

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Lot 202, Section 1, Town of Tauranga: a century-long ownership anomaly

Lot 202, Section 1, on the corner of Grey and Elizabeth Streets, originated as part of the Te Papa lands purchased in 1838–1839 from Ngāi Te Rangi by the Church Missionary Society to be held in trust, and was transferred to the Crown under post-war pressure in 1867 for the creation of the Tauranga township. At that time it was one of the sections that Governor Grey had promised to Crown aligned Arawa and Ngāi Te Rangi chiefs to receive in recognition of their service during the New Zealand Wars. Twenty-six sections were selected for this purpose, and Crown grants were eventually issued for twenty-five of them. Strangely, and despite later being occupied, Lot 202 was never officially granted, remaining on paper at least, in Crown ownership.

This went unnoticed for decades.

From 1871, it had been occupied and used by Anaru Haua and later by his descendants. Although the family lived primarily on the sections next door, Lot 202 was fenced, cultivated as a garden, and used as a horse paddock. After the road level was raised in 1920 the section was re-fenced, with a gated and padlocked entrance at the corner. Rates were paid on the land from at least 1910, and it was widely known locally as Haua’s paddock. In 1950 Charles William Haua, who had been operating at the Spring Street end of Grey Street, built a blacksmith’s shop on the section and continued to operate his business there.

Charlie Haua's blacksmith's shop, cnr Grey and Elizabeth Streets
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 02-156

By the 1920s, when the Crown reviewed lands that were “looked on as Crown lands subject to Native claims,” the mistake came to light.  Competing claims were raised by hapū who had originally been intended recipients of township sections in 1867, and in 1955 the Māori Land Court made an order vesting the land in Tamihana Tikitere of Ngāti Uenukukōpako. It looked like the Haua's might loose access to Lot 202 and the new blacksmith's shop would need to move.

Charlie Haua was not making his claim to the proprety through the Māori Land Court however, but under the Land Transfer Act, on the grounds that the land had been clearly and unambiguously in his family’s complete possession for several generations. In legal speak this is a principle known as adverse possession; and it meant that he could not make his case to the Māori Land Court, even though their decision directly affected the same land. Instead, he brought proceedings in the Supreme Court (A.122/59), heard in 1960 before Justice Hardie Boys. The Court examined the full history of the section and found as a matter of fact that Haua and his ancestors had occupied Lot 202 openly, continuously, exclusively, and notoriously (in the legal sense) from the nineteenth century onward. Lot 202’s ambiguous status, caused by administrative failure, was finally resolved by judicial decision after nearly a century.

Charlie Haua's blacksmith's shop, Grey Street, Tauranga c. 1940s.
Mollie Hardy, Charlie Haua, Pat Holloway.
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1161

Charlie operated his blacksmith business from the corner of Grey and Elizabeth Streets until 1969 when we finally retired. His blacksmithing operation was transferred to the Tauranga Museum / Historic Village, where it was preserved as a working exhibit. There, he continued to demonstrate blacksmithing for school groups and visitors, keeping the craft alive as a public heritage activity for many years. 

The judgement is part of Ms 81, the Papers of Charlie Haua within the archives at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, which have been digitised at made available on Pae Korokī Tauranga Archives Online. 

Sources

Lot 202 Section 1 Town of Tauranga, Judgement of Hardie Boys, J. (Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society Number 57, page 11)

Lot 202 Part II (Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society Number 58, page 19)

Lot 202, Section 1 in Tile 4: Survey Office map 55557

Judgement of Hardie Boys, J. for Haua v Tamihana and the District Land Registrar (Ms 81/2/1)

Tile 4: Survey Office map 55557

Papers relating to post war land tenure in the Western Bay of Plenty and other related material (Ams 270/1)

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Written by Harley Couper, Heritage Specialist at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries