Library buildings in central Tauranga

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection.

Later this month the new Tauranga Library and Community Hub opens at Te Manawataki o Te Papa, Willow Street. It occupies the site of the Civic Centre that housed the library from 1989 to 2022, and is next to the site where the library had been (mostly) housed from 1930 to 1988.

Prior to that the Library was in the Mechanics' Institute building on the corner of Harington Street and Willow Street. Tauranga Borough Council took over the management of the Library from the Institute in 1906.

This was the second Institute on the site. The first, built in 1872 and extended in 1878, was lost to the big North End fire in 1881. Fortunately it was insured, so a replacement was constructed that same year. A room in the old Government Buildings in Willow Street was used as a temporary location while reconstruction proceeded (not the building in the background of the first photo - it went up in 1906).

Before the first reading room was completed the Institute's collection, developed in 1871, was held in a spare room of James Bodell's home in Cameron Road.

Here is a selection of images from our collections of these past Library buildings.

Tauranga Public Library and Mechanics Institute, Harington Street, built 1881), in the right foreground, probably about 1907.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 03-235

F.H.Hammond's bakery and grocer's shop on the south west corner of Willow Street and Hamilton Street, Tauranga. Subsequently used by Bond & Bond, it later housed the Children's Library before being pulled down in 1970 to make way for the 'new' Tauranga City Council Administration building.

Photo c 1915. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1145

In 1930 an Art Deco style building was erected on Willow Street next to the Town Hall. It housed the Public Library upstairs and the borough's electricity department downstairs. c.1940s.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 01-549

Tauranga Public Library, still only in the upstairs part of the Willow Street building, and looking crowded, 1959.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 06-306

Children watch magic tricks performed by magician G. A. Hansen, at the Tauranga Children's Library, now upstairs in the Art Deco building. Published 31 August 1974.

Tauranga City Libraries Photo gcc-24906

Tauranga Public Library's Newspaper Room, Tauranga Town Hall 1987. The Library's Archives collection was also in the Town Hall.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 06-351

Shelf tidying the downstairs collections in Tauranga Public Library's 1930 building was a cramped task, 1988.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 07-103

Tauranga Public Library, the 1930 Willow St building pre-demolition in November 1988.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1015

In 1987 Tauranga Round Table members erected a relocatable building on Hamilton Street as short-term accommodation for the children's section of Tauranga Libraries. This photo shows library staff moving boxes of books from the Children's Library into "The White House".

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 07-040

The new Civic block upon completion, in the Bay of Plenty Times of 27 July, 1989.

From: 100 years of local library - Tauranga Central Library.

Photograph of the same corner site as above, after an extra floor was added in 2006-07. The Library spread into more of the rear portion of the building. [In 2015 retiree Rodney Giddens undertook to provide a photographic record from the roadside of Tauranga’s CBD].

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 15-449

The Devonport Road entrance to He Puna Mānawa. Tauranga Library moved into the former Goddard's Arcade in early 2022 while the Willow Street building was demolished and construction began of the new Tauranga Library and Community Hub, to open on 16 October 2026.

The library network in Tauranga

Sources:

Pae Korokī links:

Tauranga 1882 - 1982 / edited by A. C. Bellamy. [Tauranga] : Tauranga City Council, 1982.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, 1871- (Organisation)

A detailed timeline of the library service in Tauranga, from 1867 onward.

100 years of local library - Tauranga Central Library.

The library network in Tauranga.

Te Ao Marama - Tauranga City Libraries moments in history.

Ōmokoroa from the Air: Alf Rendell and the Unsworth Subdivisions

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Today, it is difficult to imagine Ōmokoroa Point as it appeared in the early 1950s. Streets lined with homes, holiday houses, reserves and community facilities now occupy land that was once largely open farmland. The Unsworth Subdivisions at Ōmokoroa from the 1950s through to the 1970s, represent an important chapter in the transformation of the peninsula from farmland to a seaside community.

In 2004, Tauranga City Libraries received a donation from Helen Unsworth, containing records, files, plans and hand-coloured photographs relating to her parents' Ōmokoroa subdivisions over the years. These materials provide a valuable record of the area's growth and the role the Unsworth family played in shaping the community that exists today.

Aerial of Ōmokoroa 1956 (hand-coloured photograph by Alf Rendell) - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries  Photo 21-1307

(The Unsworth farm is across the centre of the aerial photo, showing the new road and its subdivision and butting onto Gerald and Myrtle Crapp's farm on the actual point). 

A Peninsula on the Cusp of Change

Allan and Nelle Unsworth purchased 68 acres on Ōmokoroa Point in 1953, and over the following decades, gradually subdivided the property, creating residential sections. The Unsworth's property originally extended across much of the width of the peninsula, bounded by neighbouring farms and framed by steep coastal land and beaches. It was adjacent to the houses at Ōmokoroa Beach.

When Allan and Nelle Unsworth purchased the farm from Ira and Jean Thomas, their intention was not to create a residential subdivision but to establish a model farm on what was regarded as some of the district's highest-quality farmland. However, circumstances beyond their control changed those plans. In 1954, major slips below the farm damaged the only road providing access to the Point, making it necessary to construct a new road through their property. Permission was subsequently granted to subdivide land along the new roadway. Then, in 1956, the Education Department purchased five acres from the upper part of the farm for the construction of a new school.

Aerial of Ōmokoroa 1956- Photo 21-1305

The new superior stretch of road opened the peninsula to easier access and made new subdivisions more economically viable. What began as a practical response to changing circumstances, evolved into one of the largest private subdivisions undertaken in New Zealand at the time. However, the development attracted the attention of Inland Revenue, which argued that the subdivision profits should be taxed. It was a test case for New Zealand to establish a new legal principle. Allan spent years fighting what he considered an unjust assessment,ending up with the Inland Revenue dropping the case in 1965.

As happened in many coastal communities around New Zealand during the post-war decades, improved roads, increasing car ownership and growing interest in holiday living and retirement, including from overseas, created demand for coastal sections beyond the main urban centres.

Archival records held in Pae Korokī (Ams 259) document this evolving process through plans, financial papers, and promotional material spanning the 1950s to the 1970s. These include detailed survey plans for successive subdivision stages, illustrating how the land was incrementally opened up for development.

 

Subdivision Plans over the years - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 259

Marketing the Coastal Dream

The Unsworth subdivisions were notable not only for the number of sections created, but also for the sophistication of their marketing. Sections were promoted through newspaper advertising, printed brochures and even screen advertising at Tauranga's Odeon Theatre in Elizabeth Street, stating: "You've seen the rest — now buy the best."  Demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit, Allan Unsworth also, promoted the subdivision from the driver's seat, using his car as a mobile advertisement to attract potential purchasers.

Reg Ellis and Allan with Reg's Kingfish, 1969 (Helen Unsworth Collection). At 13 Coppelia Avenue, Ōmokoroa Point, new house with farmland in the background and tractor shed on other side of fence. The tractor shed is still in use at the Ōmokoroa Settlers' Hall.

For many New Zealand families, the newly created sections offered a rare opportunity to own a piece of waterfront peninsula living at a time when coastal property was still within reach of ordinary households. The prospect of easy access to the harbour's fishing grounds was a major attraction. Fishing, being bountiful in those days, was a huge drawcard to the area - there was the wharf and a slipway for boat maintenance. 

What set Ōmokoroa apart from many other seaside settlements was Allan Unsworth's vision for the development. He was determined that the area would become a community of permanent homes rather than a collection of holiday baches. To maintain this standard, he encouraged prospective purchasers to build substantial houses and, if that did not suit their plans, he would direct them instead to the more affordable subdivisions emerging at Pāpāmoa at the same time. This approach helped shape the character of Ōmokoroa as a residential community rather than simply a seasonal holiday destination.

 

Cutting from Bay of Plenty Times advertisement for sections being sold by Allan Unsworth in Ōmokoroa - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 259

Alf Rendell's Aerial Vision

A distinctive feature of the Unsworth Subdivision was its innovative use of aerial photography. Renowned Tauranga photographer, Alfred Hugh (Alf) Rendell, captured images of Ōmokoroa at a time when aerial imagery was still relatively uncommon in local real estate promotion. 
 
Allan Unsworth commissioned a series of six small hand-coloured aerial images of the peninsula over the years. These photographs were not merely promotional; each purchaser received an image of the peninsula, creating a personal and tangible connection to their property and the community around them.

 

The Unsworth's homestead, "Kaharoa" (now 61 Ōmokoroa Road) - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries -  Photo 21-1269

A Lasting Legacy

This combination of careful planning and visual storytelling made the Unsworth Subdivision unique. Today, the surviving plans and photographs provide a valuable record of a formative moment in Ōmokoroa’s development.

A Journey Across the Pacific: Samoan Migration to New Zealand

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Image of Virginia Marshall (nee Williams). Taken when immigrating from Apia Samoa to New Zealand on the Matua in 1946 or 1947.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 13-1177

 

Among the treasured collections of Tauranga’s Pae Korokī archive is a photograph of Virginia Marshall (née Williams). Taken during her journey from Apia, Samoa, to New Zealand aboard the Matua in the late 1940s. While simple in appearance. This image captures a powerful story of migration, resilience and change. [Virginia M...Pae Korokī]

For many Pacific Islanders in the post-war years, travel to New Zealand represented both opportunity and uncertainty. The voyage itself was not an easy one. Ships like the Matua carried passengers across long distances, often in crowded and basic conditions. Space was limited, privacy scarce, and comfort minimal. Seasickness, unfamiliar routines and the challenges of life at sea made the journey physically demanding.

Beyond the practical difficulties lay deeper emotional challenges. Migrants left behind their homes, families, and cultural foundations. Carrying with them hopes for a better future. For some, English was not their first language, which created barriers in communication both during the journey and upon arrival. The uncertainty of what awaited them in New Zealand employment, housing and social acceptance added another layer of tension.

These journeys were also shaped by the political context of the time. Samoa was under New Zealand administration and movement between the islands and the mainland was influenced by official processes and restrictions. Migration was not always straightforward and many travellers navigated complex systems as they relocated.

Yet, despite these challenges. Such journeys were acts of courage. The photograph of Virginia Marshall represents more than a moment on a ship it reflects a pivotal transition in a person’s life and echoes the broader story of Pacific migration.

Today, images like this remind us of the strength and determination of those who crossed oceans to build new lives, enriching communities like Tauranga in the process.

Sources:

Pae Korokī - Tauranga Archives Online, Photograph of Virginia Marshall née Williams

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Written by John Atafu, Heritage and Research Team Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries

 

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

 

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.

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

 

Tauranga in 1934: G. Duncan’s City Centre Plans

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

If you’ve ever wondered what Tauranga’s 'CBD' looked like nearly a century ago, G. Duncan’s 1934 survey drawings are a fascinating window into the past. These two maps - accessible in Pae Korokī as Map 21‑001 and Map 21‑002 - capture a city in transition, balancing its small-town roots with the ambitions of modern planning.

Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 1. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-001

We don’t know much about G. Duncan himself, but his work speaks volumes. His detailed survey of Tauranga’s CBD shows a bustling hub concentrated along The Strand, especially between Spring Street and Hamilton Street. This was the commercial core, lined with shops, fruiterers, bootmakers, drapers, clothiers, furniture makers, paint shops, loan and mercantile offices, garages—and, of course, hotels, tea rooms, and billiard rooms.  Even noted is the Gasometer on Grey Street and the banks on the corners of streets.

Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 2. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-002

Duncan’s plans captured an extraordinary level of detail, showing not only the footprint of every building, but also sheds, garages and outdoor lavatories. It documented each structure’s size, level of completion and storeys, and the materials used for walls and roofs. Even infrastructure like water reticulation, with pipe diameters, pressure levels, and parapet heights, is noted. This level of precision would have made the maps useful planning tools for the city to respond effectively to fires, to prioritise areas for growth and determine how Tauranga could balance practical needs with new planning laws.

Screenshot showing key to Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 2, Map 21-002

Sadly, you have to look very hard to see many of these buildings still standing, although there are a handful, particularly near the lower end of Devonport Road. When used in conjunction with other local resources, we are able to cross-reference and determine where previous owners had their premises.  Following, is an image, outlining names of business owners and their premises in 1934, on the corner of Wharf Street and The Strand:

Screenshot of part Map 21-001

We can only guess why these maps were made, however, the Central Tauranga Heritage Study (April, 2008, p 33-34) mentions that the Town Planning Act 1926 required all boroughs with populations over 1,000 to prepare a planning scheme by 1930. Tauranga’s first operative town plan didn’t arrive until 1969, but Duncan’s 1934 survey was almost certainly part of the groundwork for that process. 

Central Tauranga Heritage Study: part one, April 2008, p16

Next time you need to link a name to a location in central Tauranga, download G. Duncan's maps and you may be surprised at the connections you can make.

Sources

Duncan, G. (1934). Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-001 Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 1 | Pae Korokī

Duncan, G. (1934). Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 21-002: Tauranga properties in the city centre - sheet 2 | Pae Korokī

 

Gainsford, Jennie, Matthews & Matthews Architects Ltd, R. A. Skidmore & Associates, Rorke, Jean Euphemia Finlayson, Trutman, Lisa. (2008, April). Central Tauranga Heritage Study : part one, April 2008 Tauranga City Council & Bay of Plenty Regional Council. https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/109864

Palmer, Kenneth, Waitangi Tribunal: Te Rōpu Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi (2006). Legislation governing town and country planning in Tauranga Moana 1953-1990. Wai 215 - Waitangi Tribunal Tauranga Moana Claims https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/27713

 

New Zealand Legislation: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/

 

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Map 24-371. (1963). City of Tauranga – District Planning Scheme https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/115677

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Written by Jody Smart, Heritage Specialist at 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

Joyce West, Tauranga writer

 From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

In the reference section of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries, there is a a dedicated collection in honour of esteemed Tauranga writer, Joyce Tarlton West (1908-1985). 

While working full-time as an accountant - writing only at night, over a four-decade career, Joyce West produced a series of detective novels (with Mary Scott), articles and poems for periodicals, and eight children's outdoor adventure books which garnered global popularity. 

Joyce started writing in her teens and had stories published in the New Zealand Herald and the Weekly News. She wrote her first novel, Sheep Kings, while living at the family farm in Oropi, in 1936. Her 1953 novel, Drover's Road, was rejected by 13 publishers before being accepted by  J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, London.  It would go on to be used in New Zealand schools as an English curriculum literary text.

A black-ink illustration on p. 63 of  'Cape Lost' (1963), one of many that are Joyce West's own work.

Much of the inspiration for Joyce's childrens' stories came from her own childhood. She and her siblings did their secondary schooling by correspondence as her parents were both school teachers, who taught at remote schools in Northland, Taupō and the East Coast.  Her books have countryside settings,  depicting the rural places where she was raised.   Joyce told the Bay of Plenty Times, "I specialise in a type of nostalgia writing... I write childrens' books because I had such a pleasant childhood in an environment so differerent from ours today." (1974, p.9).

Joyce West, with her award-winning book, 'The Sea Islanders', and the contract from Walt Disney Productions, 1974. Te Ao Marama - Tauranga City Libraries photo gcc-26441

The Sea Islanders, published in 1970, was a particularly successful work. It featured in the BBC series Jackanory,  airing in five parts in September, 1971. Walt Disney Productions bought the rights to the book, though a screen adaption  was never made. 

A copy of 'The Sea Islanders' translated into Danish, in the Joyce West Collection at the library.

Following Joyce's death in 1985, the library sought to recognise her contribution to children’s literature through the establishment of the Joyce West Collection; a reference collection created to preserve and celebrate excellence in New Zealand children’s literature, and provide a resource for those interested in the field of New Zealand children’s writing in years to come. Initially beginning with a copy of each of Joyce's books, the collection grew through the annual addition of award-winning titles donated by the Bay of Plenty Children’s Literature Association (now Bookrapt), an organisation of which Joyce was a foundation member and patron. With help from the Friends of the the Library, the library continues to expand this collection by adding titles that include New Zealand Book Award winners and noteworthy authors from the Bay of Plenty region and beyond.

A signed copy of 'Drover's Road' with a 'Joyce West Memorial Collection' plate in the front of the book.

References

Bay of Plenty Times. (1974, October 26). Author gets TV showing.

Gilderdale, B. (1982). A sea change: 145 years of New Zealand junior fiction. Longman Paul.

Gilderdale, B. (1991). Introducing twenty-one New Zealand children's writers. Hodder & Staunton.

For more information about these and other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Michelle Bradbury from the Heritage & Research Team, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries.