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.
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.
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.
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
