The Bay of Plenty Times, a history from 1872

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Users of Pae Korokī - Tauranga Archives Online will regularly discover photographs from the Bay of Plenty Times. The library's Heritage and Research team has also collaborated with the National Library of New Zealand to put editions from the very first up until 1949 online via the Papers Past website. Here's a brief history of the paper, including an exciting new development for researchers! 

The Bay of Plenty Times was first published on 4 September 1872, making it one of New Zealand’s longest-running provincial newspapers. Its founder and first editor and publisher was W.B. Langbridge, with H.W. Penny also a publisher. Initially issued twice weekly, the paper consisted of four tabloid-sized pages and sold for threepence per issue. Printed on a flat-bed press from premises on The Strand, then Beach Road, it became known locally as the “Tauranga Duster.”

The first of the three long single story structures to the right is the initial Bay of Plenty Times on The Strand in the mid to late 1870s. A portion of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 04-213.

In September 1875 ownership passed to Edward Mortimer Edgecumbe, a prominent Tauranga figure remembered in "Edgecumbe Road". By September 1878 public demand for news led the paper to publish tri-weekly and it was becoming clear that the newspaper was a powerful tool for shaping public opinion . At the start of 1879 control of the paper passed to George Vesey Stewart and A.F. Rathbone, Rathbone serving as editor and manager. Stewart was a central figure in the organised settlement of Katikati and Te Puke, and was destined to become the first Mayor of Tauranga in a few short years (1882). That first month new premises were built in Harington Street on the former Customs House site. Before the end of March, he had became sole proprietor and Rathbone was out, departing for England that May. These early years were marked by repeated disruption: in May 1881 a major fire destroyed much of the northern end of Tauranga, including the Times premises. Publication resumed in short order (7 June 1881), missing just two issues, and rebuilding began immediately. By August 1881 the new, new building was ready for use. Over the next year and a half the paper floundered and in March 1883 it was sold by order of the mortgagee. And who should be waiting in the wings but our newly minted Mayor George Vesey Stewart and the Rev. David Bruce of Auckland for £1000. 

Astute and influential, Stewart was well aware that power and media went hand in hand. But now with control well in hand and with a sympathetic business partner, management could pass to the Reverend.

Portrait of George Vesey Stewart (1832–1920), Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 21-1915

The sale was part of a wider pattern of financial instability: over its first 40 years the Times changed ownership many times, including several changes through mortgagee sales. Ownership changed again in November 1887, when Edward Alexander Haggen became proprietor and Walter James Pull was appointed printer. On 16 April 1888 Haggen handed over the Bay of Plenty Times, which was amalgamated with another Tauranga paper owned by barrister and solicitor James Galbraith.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were difficult economic years for many provincial newspapers. Frequent changes of ownership, publication schedules, and printing arrangements were common, including at the Bay of Plenty Times. Despite this instability, the paper issued a Christmas supplement in 1897 that featured one of the earliest uses of photographs in a New Zealand newspaper. Stability began to return in the 1890s under William Elliot and General Arnold Ward, followed by technological upgrades and the construction of new printing premises in Willow Street. Photographic illustration, modern presses, and engine-powered printing kept the paper at the cutting edge in the region.

A major turning point came in 1913 when W.H. Gifford purchased the Bay of Plenty Times. Under the Gifford and Cross families, the paper entered a long period of continuity that lasted for most of the twentieth century. The Bay of Plenty Times Company was formed in 1929, and William Cross played a central role in the paper’s administration for more than sixty years. Circulation and staffing expanded steadily, supported by the growth of Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty, especially after Mount Maunganui developed as an export port in the early 1950s. New technologies were introduced, including linotype typesetting, reel-fed presses, rotary presses, and later full computerisation.

Bay of Plenty Times premises on Willow Street before it moved to Durham Street in 1955. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 00-399

A 1976 fire destroyed the newspaper’s own collection of back issues, but copies survived on microfilm kept by the publisher and now held by the Alexander Turnbull Library. A collaboration between The National Library of New Zealand and Te Ao Mārama, Tauranga City Libraries has meant these historic papers are also available on Papers Past up until 1949. But in an exciting update, this collaboration in currently being extended and we can expect to see papers from 1950 to 1963 appearing in the first part of 2027. 

Bethlehem School pupils shown around Bay of Plenty Times factory in 1966. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo gcc-13613

In 1992 the Gifford and Cross families donated tens of thousands of historic negatives to Te Ao Mārama – Tauranga City Libraries. Most date from the late 1960s to the late 1970s and are primarily 35mm film, which had replaced earlier 120-format negatives, along with a smaller number of large-format negatives. These have since been digitised and made available through Pae Korokī – Tauranga Archives Online.

That same year, the newspaper was sold to Wilson and Horton. In 1996 Independent Newspapers plc of Dublin acquired a controlling interest in Wilson and Horton, bringing the Bay of Plenty Times into a broader Australasian newspaper group.

From the early 2000s the newspaper faced industry-wide challenges of declining print circulation and advertising revenue. In response, it made significant changes to format and delivery: on 5 February 2011 the first rebranded Saturday edition, Bay of Plenty Times Weekend, was published, and in March 2013 the weekday paper shifted from a traditional broadsheet to a compact format with morning delivery.

A series of images captured by Bay of Plenty Times photographer John Borren during the Rena Disaster, 2011. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo NZME-CD810_181111jb08

In 2014 APN News & Media’s New Zealand operations were restructured into New Zealand Media and Entertainment, or NZME, a merged national media company combining publishing, radio, and digital assets. Under NZME, the Bay of Plenty Times became part of a national network of regional newspapers. NZME lists the Bay of Plenty Times among its current publishing brands, and its Bay of Plenty presence expanded in March 2024 when it acquired Tauranga-based SunMedia, including SunLive, The Weekend Sun, Coast & Country News, and New Farm Dairies.

In 2023 a second large donation of negatives and Optical Discs containing born digital photographs was made to Te Ao Mārama – Tauranga City Libraries’ Heritage and Research Team. This captured images from the late 1970s through to 2012. These will enter the teams schedule of work in the future.

Users of Te Ao Mārama – Tauranga City Libraries can access recent editions from 2008 onward through the library’s PressReader subscription, available free to library card holders.

Sources:

Pae Korokī - Tauranga Archives Online, The Bay of Plenty Times, 1872 - (Organisation)

Pae Korokī - Tauranga Archives Online, Gifford-Cross Photographic Collection

Pae Korokī - Tauranga Archives Online, Bay of Plenty Times moments in history

Pae Korokī - Tauranga Archives Online, William (Bill) Cross interviewed by Rosalie Smith in 1985

Tauranga District Museum Oral History Unit, Interview with Mr William Frederick Wallis Cross

A Bay of Plenty Times timeline (1995), part of the Vertical Files in the former New Zealand Room (Tauranga Library)

Papers Past (Bay of Plenty Times)

New Zealand Media and Entertainment (Wikipedia)

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Written by Harley Couper, Heritage and Research Team Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

 

The Centennial Film in Tauranga, 1938-39

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

In 1938 the Government Film Studios, part of the Tourist and Publicity Department, started filming for a production to celebrate New Zealand’s centennial year in 1940. A short sequence of settlers landing from the ship that carried them from England was shot on location on Ocean Beach. The lower slopes of Mauao are visible in the background, but are not identified.
There are several reports in the Bay of Plenty Times on the filming of what it called the New Zealand Centenary Film. A front page article on Friday 4 November 1938 describes the arrangements being made ahead of the arrival of the production unit and two lead performers. They included collecting ‘properties’ to represent the arrivals’ belongings, and recruiting extras for the scenes on the beach.
The St John Ambulance Association proposed holding a fundraising ball where the attendees would attend in period costume, the best of which “will be given the opportunity of appearing in the film”.
The ball was held in the Town Hall on 28 November, with the costumes worn described enthusiastically in the Times the following day. Some of those selected as extras are listed, including a Miss Doreen Mander. Pae Korokī contains scans of two copies of a photo of a Miss Dorothy Mander in costume – presumably the same person.

Dorothy Mander in costume for filming on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui
(Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-343)

 Planned weekend rehearsals went ahead over the weekend of 2 and 4 December 1938, despite bad weather. There is a gap in reporting until 16 December when the director, Mr. Bridgman, and leading lady of the film, Miss Una Weller (accompanied by her mother), judged the costumes at a fancy dress ball for school children held at the Peter Pan Hall in Pacific Avenue. On 20 January 1939 there was a notice calling for extras for some filming at Whareroa.
Pae Korokī has scans of five other photographs taken during the filming on Ocean Beach. Three were provided for scanning by Ray Armstrong, one by Marion Proud, and we have a print from an unknown donor in our Climate Controlled Room.

Filming on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui 1938-1939

(Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-155)

Sets and extras on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui 1938-1939

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-156

These two photos were provided by Te Ao Mārama's then New Zealand Room team for a Bay of Plenty Times feature called “Back in time”, one in 2001 and another in 2006. Several people responded with more information - "Mr W. D. Moxham of Alexandra [writes that].... as a child he was an 'extra' in the film, qualifying for this privilege not because of his acting prowess but because he was top in arithmetic that day at Mount Maunganui Primary School" (Bay of Plenty Times, 18 August 2001).

This information enabled the dates of the filming to be narrowed down. However, no informant could remember the title the film was eventually released under – “One Hundred Crowded Years”. The articles found in Papers Past for 1938 helped make the connection. This led to the discovery of more detail about the production from a chapter in a 2004 book edited by William Renwick (listed in the Sources and available online). This doesn't mention who played the Māori seen on screen, opening a hāngī to feed the new arrivals, guiding the settlers into the bush, and later attacking a redoubt.

A lack of resources and the outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939 dramatically slowed the completion of the film. It wasn’t released until the very end of the Centennial Year, when “the government gave it to the National Patriotic Fund Board, which made it available to provincial patriotic committees to screen as a fundraiser” (Renwick, p. 269). It toured the country for the next 18 months, raising £1,200.

The fifty-minute film can now be watched on Archives New Zealand’s YouTube channel, with the landing sequence starting at 12 minutes 35 seconds, followed by the pioneers’ journey inland to start breaking in the countryside for farming (filmed around Ōropi at the same time).

 

 

As you might expect of a celebratory film of the period it skims quickly over the complexities of the Treaty of Waitangi, land ownership and later instances of warfare between Māori and Pākehā. This may be particularly so since the film’s ending included footage of New Zealand soldiers boarding a ship back to the Old World, to fight in a war with no certain outcome.

Exploring part of the set built on Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui 1938-1939

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-269

In early December 1938 the film’s director wrote to the Mount Maunganui Town Board for permission to build “temporary huts, etc., on the ocean front necessary in the taking of the Centenary film”. This was granted, but it looks like the budget didn’t stretch to anything too elaborate.

Sources:

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII:

Issue 12497, 4 November 1938, Page 1

Issue 12517, 29 November 1938, Page 1

Issue 12521, 3 December 1938, Page 4

Issue 12521, 3 December 1938, Page 5

Issue 12522, 5 December 1938, Page 1

Issue 12531, 16 December 1938, Page 4

Issue 12258, 20 January 1939, Page 4

 Renwick, William. One Hundred Crowded Years: The Centennial Film. Chapter 19 of Creating a National Spirit: Celebrating New Zealand's Centennial. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 2004. Pages 260-270.

“The Tin Shed” : the origins of the National Film Unit. Wellington : New Zealand Film Archive, 1981.

Early documentary film in New Zealand - last paragraph. Retrieved 20 December 2025

One Hundred Crowded Years. Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 December 2025. 

Written by Leslie Goodliffe, Information Access Specialist at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

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.

Photographing the Queen: the 1963 Royal visit (Part 2)

Amateur photographers wait for the Queen to arrive, Waitangi, 6 February 1963,
Still from movie footage by British Pathé, “New Zealand Greets Queen,” on YouTube

Part 1 of this article looked at press photography during the Royal Visit to Tauranga on 9 February 1963. Some of their output may be found online in archives such as Tauranga Library’s Pae Korokī or, in the case of cine footage, on YouTube. Any stills or clips which include crowd scenes, however, show an enormous number of cameras in the hands of amateurs, many of whom have jostled their way to the front row or found an elevated point to capture the Queen and the Duke as they went past.

The Queen and Mayor David Mitchell at Memorial Park, 9 February 1963
Bay of Plenty Times, clip from 120-format film negative
Tauranga City Libraries, Gifford-Cross Collection, Pae Korokī Ref. gca-4687

The scene above captured by a Bay of Plenty Times staff photographer includes several onlookers with cameras at the ready: a young boy with a Kodak Starlet at far left, a man with a range finder, another man (in white hat) holding a box camera at waist level, an older man with a cine camera and, at far right, another man operating a cine camera. This was most likely Norman Blackie, whose footage of the day was donated to Tauranga City Library and subsequently deposited with Nga Taonga Sound & Vision.

The Queen and Mayor David Mitchell at Memorial Park, 9 February 1963
Still from 16mm movie footage by Norman Blackie, “Coloured Fountain & Royal Visit – 1963”
Collection of Nga Taonga Sound and Vision
Digitised for Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī

The footage has recently been digitised and will be made available in due course on Pae Korokī.

The Queen arriving at Ocean Beach, Mt Maunganui, 9 Feb 1963
Bay of Plenty Times, clip from 35mm format film negative
Tauranga City Libraries, Gifford-Cross Collection, Pae Korokī Ref. gcc-1606

Among the onlookers here welcoming the Queen and Prince Philip to Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui, at least nine in this view are wielding cameras.

Kodak advertisement, The Press (Christchurch), 2 Dec 1963 (Papers Past)

Since the previous Royal Visit nine years earlier, photography had become an almost ubiquitous presence in society. Not only were all the major newspapers sending photographers far and wide to fill each issue with images, but almost every household would have owned multiple cameras. Several Tauranga chemists, such as L.E. Woods, David Jones and B.F. Martin, as well as more specialist shops like Rendell’s and Carter’s Photo Service, would have stocked and processed film, as well as selling cameras such as those advertised by Kodak New Zealand.

Kodak Camera Parade product display, Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, c. 1963
Museums Victoria Collections, Ref. MM 107147

By 1963 the available models ranged from the Brownie 127 at the lower end (for £1-15-9) to the Retina Automatic I (£53-11-6) – equivalent to a range from roughly NZ$61 to $1845 in today’s money. The Brownie Flash II, of which there were several examples included in the above product display, was the latest in a long line of successors to the original Brownie produced in 1900, and cost £2-19-6.

Kodak camera models available in 1963, from L to R, (back row) Brownie Flash II, Retinette IB, Brownie Starflash, Brownie Starlet, (front row) Brownie 127, Retinette IA, Retina Automatic I
Collection of Brett Payne

Judging by the number of these cameras that turn up for sale on TradeMe, some still with a film inside, they were valued possessions. Although by this time the Starlet and 127 were predominantly made from plastic and marketed primarily for use by children, the top end Retina models were high spec pieces of equipment originally designed to compete with rangefinders such as the Leica and Contax.

Sightseers in Waikorire (Pilot Bay), Mount Maunganui, 9 February 1963
Colour positive transparency by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/594

The colour slide view above, showing Waikorire (Pilot Bay) crowded with sightseers and the Queen’s motor launch in the foreground, off Salisbury Wharf, was one of several taken that day by local resident Robert Gale, a teacher and member of the Tauranga Photographic Society. It is among more than 2000 slides deposited by his family and Alf Rendell with the Tauranga Heritage Collection.

The Queen and the Duke depart from Salisbury Wharf, Mount Maunganui, 9 February 1963
Colour positive transparency by unidentified photographer
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī, Ref. 04-305

In another colour slide, this one taken by an unidentified photographer, probably within minutes of the previous shot, and held by Tauranga City Libraries, well-wishers farewell the Royals as they head down Salisbury Wharf to the waiting motor launch.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Australia, 18-19 February 1963
Black-and-white positive transparency by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/131

Tauranga residents continued to follow the progress of the Royal Tour after they had left Tauranga. Robert Gale took this photograph of the television reportage on 20 February 1963, presumably on their arrival in Canberra (18^th) or Adelaide (19^th). There must be many more such images out there in the community. A short home movie clip from Archives New Zealand shared on Facebook a couple of years ago (watch here) brought several responses from people who remembered the day well.

It is my feeling that Tauranga’s 1963 Royal Visit may have been our most photographed event to date – perhaps not on the scale of the multitude of cell phone images taken nowadays, but a huge record for the time. Many of those snapshots and home movies have inevitably been discarded over the last six decades during attic clear-outs, moves and rationalisations, but there must still be some around. If you have any taken on that day, either by yourself or other family members, and are happy to share them, it would be nice to hear from you. Please email me at gluepot@gmail.com.

References

Royal Visit 1963 Itinerary, P.M. No. 60/1962, Transcripts from the Prime Ministers of Australia, URL: https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-586

Tauranga Photographers: George Alfred Chissell (1866-1892)

Advertisement, The Bay of Plenty Times, 28 Mar 1889

“Mr Chissell” announced his arrival on the Tauranga photographic scene in late March 1889 with some fanfare.[1] Having leased Charles Spencer’s studio for a few weeks, his emphasis was clearly on studio portraiture, with a list of prices for carte de visite, cabinet and boudoir portraits. (Note: the boudoir portrait was a larger mounted format measuring 5¼ x 8½ inches, nothing to do with the modern fad of so-called boudoir photography.) The advert also prominently displayed his late partnership with well known Auckland photographer R.H. Bartlett and, by dint of the latter’s claim to an appointment to the royal family, a coat of arms.[2] 

Carte de visite portrait of unidentified young man
Taken by G.A. Chissell, probably at Tauranga, Mar-Apr-May 1889
Image courtesy of The Elms Foundation Collection, Westlake Album Ref. 2002.0170

For much of the 1880s Charles Spencer had operated a photographic studio behind his chemist’s shop on the Strand, Tauranga, taking portraits, landscapes and capturing a number of local events.[3] Many fine views of the Bay of Plenty during this period carry his imprint, usually blind stamped on the print itself or printed in ink on the card mount.[4] Towards the end of the decade, however, Spencer appears to have either lost interest in the commercial portrait studio, or found it not sufficiently remunerative to warrant much attention. Chissell was the first of a couple of lessees before Spencer left Tauranga for Auckland in August 1890.[5]

Chissell repeated his advert periodically until the end of April, with encouraging reports in the Times:

2 May - Yesterday eight of our staff were photographed by Mr Chissell.

6 May - We have seen a photograph, showing the whole length of the Strand, taken by Mr Chissell. The subject makes a good picture, and will convey to strangers a pleasing idea of our town.

Despite announcing that his departure was imminent – a common trick of the trade – he did seem to be kept fairly busy:

16 May - Mr Chissell, photograper, seems to be doing good business previous to leaving us. On Saturday we noticed him taking (in a photographic sense of course) the premises and staff of Mr Dames, cabinet maker. At a later period he was busily engaged with several members of the Gymnasium Club, who were collectively posed in a pretty but muscle-straining position on the parallel bars. Observing that Mr Chissell seemed to be finished with them almost as soon as they had taken up their respective positions; we found on enquiry, that both groups were taken with the instantaneous shutter — the first negative with an exposure of the 25th part of a second, and the second with the l5th part of a second. "We have since seen the proofs, and they are really capital photographs of such difficult subjects.

A final advertisement indicated confirmed his departure, and notified his customers that all of his negatives had been retained by Charles Spencer, from whom prints could be obtained.[6]

Advertisement, Daily Telegraph (Napier), 4 Dec 1884

But who was Mr Chissell, where had he come from, and where did he go to? It was believed that he was William Chissell, a Napier storekeeper and carpenter who had emigrated from England in 1883.[7] Further evidence shows that the former partner of R.H. Bartlett and lessee of Spencer’s studio was in fact William’s third son George Alfred Chissell, who arrived in Napier in late 1884, more than a year after the other members of his family, and opened a hair-dressing salon.[8] In September 1886 he moved his business to Ruataniwha Road, Waipawa and restyled the premises as a “hairdressing saloon” offering “hairbrushing by machinery” and “tobacco, cigars and fancy goods.”[9]

Waipawa, Albumen print by Burton Brothers studio, c.1880s
Collection of Te Papa Tongarewa, Ref. O.030758

In February 1888 George added photography to his repertoire, announcing in the Waipawa Mail a partnership with R.H. Bartlett, who had probably taught him the rudiments of the art, and advised him on the import of “all the latest appliances for the successful carrying on of landscape and studio work on the instantaneous principle” from England.[10] Although Bartlett was a well-known Auckland photographer, he was experiencing some financial troubles and in June 1888 would be declared bankrupt so, while his wife fronted the Auckland studio, he appears to have avoided his creditors by practicing in the provinces.[11] George Chissell then sold the hairdressing saloon in Waipawa to his brother Charles Henry in March 1888.[12]

Styled as the photographic studio of Chissell & Bartlett, they offered portraiture, copy work, enlargements, views and residences. The Waipawa Mail mentions in particular a “view of the assembled multitude at the Anglican picnic” in March 1888 and the ceremony marking the opening of the Tamumu bridge in April, but it appears they soon exhausted demand from what was a fairly small community. By May they had moved to new premises in Omahu Road, Hastings,[13] before the perhaps inevitable dissolution of the partnership in July.[14] It is surmised that Bartlett may have removed to Auckland after the conclusion of the bankruptcy proceedings. Chissell then continued on his own, advertising as “G.A. Chissell, late Bartlett & Chissell, Artiste Photographers” until mid-August 1888,[15] after which there are no sightings until his appearance in Tauranga.

After leaving Tauranga, it seems likely that George Chissell returned to Hawke’s Bay. An inventory of his father’s household being sold by auction in 1890 includes a “photographic studio.”[16] In March 1891 George Chissell was back in Napier and had, with his brother Charles, purchased the City Hairdessing Salon, operating as Chissell Brothers.[17] By mid-June, however, they were in financial trouble again and declared bankrupt.[18]

It appears that George Chissell then decided to try his hand across the Tasman, although a notice of several undelivered letters at the GPO in Sydney in January 1891 suggests he was leading a somewhat peripatetic lifestyle.[19] He took photographs of groups of schoolchildren at Port Macquarie on Arbor Day in August 1891,[20] but in January 1892 was drowned while attempting to cross a river at Kendall, New South Wales.[21]

The carte de visite portrait displayed above is one of the few surviving images from George Chissell’s stay in Tauranga. It may be that there are other images in local collections, surviving either as original prints or as copies, which have lost their attribution. The author (Email) would be very interested to hear from anybody who has other information on his time as a photographer, Tauranga or Hawkes Bay, or images taken by him.

References

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[1] George Alfred Chissell, “Mr Chissell, Portrait and Landscape Photographer. Advertisment,” The Bay of Plenty Times, March 25, 1889, Vol XVI Issue 2401 edition.

[2] Tony Rackstraw, “Early New Zealand Photographers: Bartlett, Robert Henry,” Early New Zealand Photographers (blog), 2012, https://canterburyphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/bartlett.html.

[3] Brett Payne, “Charles Spencer (1854-1933) – Part III – Serving the Community,” Tauranga Historical Society (blog), September 13, 2019, http://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/09/charles-spencer-1854-1933-part-iii.html.

[4] Brett Payne, “Charles Spencer, Photographer – Part II, The Rotorua Connection,” Tauranga Historical Society (blog), July 12, 2019, http://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/07/charles-spencer-photographer-part-ii.html.

[5] F.E. Stewart, “Photography. F.E. Stewart. Advertisement,” Bay of Plenty Times, August 21, 1890, Vol XVII Issue 2545 edition.

[6] George Alfred Chissell, “Chissell and Spencer. Advertisement,” Bay of Plenty Times, May 16, 1889, Vol XVI Issue 2416 edition.

[7] “Auckland City Library - Photographers Databases,” 2022, http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/photographers/basic_search.htm.

[8] George Alfred Chissell, “Hastings Toilet Club. Advertisement,” Daily Telegraph, December 4, 1884, Issue 4172 edition.

[9] George Alfred Chissell, “Hairdressing Saloon. Advertisement,” Waipawa Mail, September 25, 1886, Vol X Issue 988 edition.

[10] George Alfred Chissell and Robert Henry Bartlett, “G.A. Chissell, Photographer, Waipawa. Advertisement,” Waipawa Mail, February 14, 1888, Vol XI Issue 2098 edition.

[11] “Auckland City Library - Photographers Databases.”

[12] Charles Henry Chissell, “Hairdressing & Tobacconist Business. Advertisement,” Waipawa Mail, March 10, 1888, Vol XI Issue 2109 edition.

[13] Robert Henry Bartlett and George Alfred Chissell, “Bartlett & Chissell, Artiste Photographers. Advertisement,” Daily Telegraph, May 17, 1888.

[14] George Alfred Chissell, “Dissolution of Partnership. Advertisement,” Hawke’s Bay Herald, July 10, 1888, Vol XXIII Issue 8101 edition.

[15] George Alfred Chissell, “G.A. Chissell, Late Bartlett & Chissell, Artiste Photographers. Advertisement,” Daily Telegraph, July 10, 1888, Issue 5267 edition.

[16] Anon, “Baker & Tabuteau’s Sales. Land Sale. Advertisement.,” Hawke’s Bay Herald, March 31, 1890, Vol XXV Issue 8634 edition.

[17] Chissell Brothers, “Messrs Chissell Bros. The City Hairdressing Salon. Advertisement,” Daily Telegraph, March 4, 1891, Issue 6089 edition.

[18] Anon, “Meeting of Creditors. Bankrupt Estate of Chissell Bros.,” Hawke’s Bay Herald, June 16, 1891, Vol XXVI Issue 8999 edition.

[19] General Post Office (Sydney), “List of Letters Returned and Unclaimed, GPO Sydney,” Supplement to the New South Wales Government Gazette, January 21, 1891, No 53 edition.

[20] Anon, “Arbor Day.,” Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate, August 29, 1891.

[21] Anon, “A Photographer Drowned,” Australian Star, January 12, 1892.