1941: The year that changed our library

From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

2021 is a year of anniversaries for the library. 150 years ago, the seeds of our library were sown when Tauranga Library subscribers met for the first time at the Masonic Hotel. This group amalgamated with the Tauranga Mechanics’ Institute on 12 June 1871 – an organisation you can learn more about by visiting our anniversary-inspired exhibition, which will be on display in Ngā Wāhi Rangahau, at Tauranga Library, until Monday 7 June.  

An event that is not as widely celebrated occurred 80 years ago, on 16 May 1941. This day saw a visit from Miss E. J. Carnell, Liaison Officer for the Country Library Service, to Tauranga Public Library. Although less celebrated, her visit is arguably as significant as the first meeting of library subscribers back in 1871. It marked the beginning of a project that changed the library from being a selective institution to a community-focused organisation. 

Up until this point, the library – which started its life as Tauranga Mechanics’ Institute and then became Tauranga Public Library in 1906 when the borough council took control – had relied heavily on income generated through subscription. This system posed many challenges: income was not always forthcoming, and the system was selective, with only those who could afford to subscribe being able to borrow books. Records held in our archive highlight these struggles. The annual report for 1933-1934 (Ams 11/3/7), reports a subscriber total of 369 out of a population of 3000. Shockingly, just over 10% of the community were making use of the library.

On joining the Country Library Service on 1 October 1941, subscription was abolished and, as outlined in the “Rules and Details Relating to Change-Over” (Ams 11/6/2), residents could apply for a borrower’s ticket, which would entitle them to the loan of one book from the fiction section, and one from the main collection, free of charge. 

In the years that followed, annual reports reveal a change in focus from struggling library to vibrant community space. Something that was enabled by the service. We see the introduction of children’s book week and adult education classes; story-hour for children; increased professionalism through access to New Zealand Library School courses; displays around the library; books supplied to the hospital; the emergence of a community archive through partnership with Tauranga Historical Society …

Planned changes to the main library room, mentioned in the annual report for 1944 (Ams 11/3/13), are a beautiful metaphor for the change in perspective ignited by the Country Library Service:  

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This archival item is on our schedule for digitisation, and will be added to Pae Korokī once digitised. For more information about other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Abigail Wharne, Heritage Specialist at Tauranga City Library.

An Ode to Tauranga

Photograph attributed to Charles Spencer, c. 1882, while Bodell was the proprietor
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0134/10

In 1893 Tauranga resident and wine merchant, Samuel Webb, wrote a poem to celebrate the town’s charm. It was published in his pamphlet ‘Tauranga Handbook’. Webb’s aim was to promote Tauranga and hopefully stimulate its economy having sunk all his money into moving here and taking over Bellevue House in 1892. Unfortunately, New Zealand was in the grips of a long economic depression and the population of Tauranga declined by 10 percent between 1890 and 1895. Webb died in 1896 close to bankruptcy. 

Tauranga

Tauranga. Bay of Plenty town,
My rest and sweet repose,
What can I do to make thee known –
Thy natural charms disclose?
There’s not a spot on Zealand’s Isle,
Which can with thee compare.
All nature seems on thee to smile,
And breaths her purest air.
While all thy nymphs so hale and tall,
Born in this charming place,
For horsemanship surpasseth all
In comeliness and grace.
Nor is this all I have to tell
Of fair Tauranga’s charm’s –
All sick who come she soon makes well,
No poor apply for alms,
And look the sea so smooth and blue
Is rippling on the Strand,
Has also charms for ever new
And always close at hand,
Where you with pleasure there may float,
A rowing go or sail,
All happy in your well trim’d boat
In summer’s balmy gale,
Or, should you wish to go and fish,
Then take your hook and line
And you will have a dainty dish
On which you all may dine.
Come then, come all, yea every one
Who seeks for change and health,
There’s not a place beneath the sun
Which needs so little wealth.

A mounted albumen print showing a view of The Strand taken from the Town Wharf around the time Webb penned his poem. The photograph was printed by The National Photographic Company.
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0431/08

Teasey’s Building & Garage

Following my theme of ghost names on buildings that no longer refer to the current occupants I draw your attention to Teasey’s Building No. 34 and Teasey’s Garage No 32 on the east side of Devonport Road.

William Teasey, early 1900s
Cabinet card portrait by Charles A. Winn of Remuera, Auckland
Brain Watkins House Collection

William Thomas Teasey arrived in New Zealand as a young man with the purpose of working for his uncle Mr J Wright in his draper’s shop on The Strand. Teasey left Caledon in County Tyrone in the area from which many of George Vesey Stewart’s Katikati settlers originated. In 1899 Teasey was able to buy a drapery business from Thomas Stuart and he married in that year Ada Brain the eldest daughter of Joseph D Brain, boat builder of Tauranga. The couple had two sons Harry and Wilson. The shop was located in The Arcade on the corner of Wharf Street and The Strand. Meanwhile Mr Wright continued with his business the "Temple of Fashion" on The Strand.

Harry and Wilson Teasey
Large format studio portrait by unidentified photographer
Brain Watkins House Collection

William Teasey widened his range of goods from drapery and a “good selection of Irish linen goods from Belfast” to bicycles in 1908 as interest in them gained popularity in Tauranga. He took part in cricket, the Methodist Church activities, shooting and the Acclimatisation Society, the Chamber of Commerce, he was secretary of the Tauranga Domain Board and became a J.P. He prospered and in 1911 William and Ada Teasey took a trip with their two young sons to visit “the old country.” From 1921 advertisements were appearing in the paper for Maxwell & Teasey land agents and although Maxwell’s name eventually disappeared from advertising Teasey continued to follow this occupation. Teasey’s drapery business moved to premises on the west side of Devonport Road opposite where he was to build his own building.

Teasey's Garage, Devonport Road, Tauranga, Estd. 1932
Tauranga City Libraries Image Ref. 15-223
Copyright Rodney Giddens CC BY-NC 4.0

Tauranga expanded and consolidated its commercial centre in the 1930s as the population grew to 3000. Teasey’s Building is a good example of commercial Art Deco style featuring the stepped façade with chevron details, raised plaster lettering and a rectangular patterned band along the top of the parapet. Wilson Teasey’s garage from 1932 predates the retail building which William T Teasey built in 1939 on the site of his small brick office from which he had operated as a land agent for some years. When the building was first built it provided retail premises on the ground floor, offices upstairs including a room for a piano teacher, with some accommodation at the rear of the first floor. The Tauranga Rowing Club began with meetings in a shed at the back of Teasey’s building before they moved to more appropriate premises on the water’s edge.

Recently the building has been strengthened to meet earthquake requirements.

References

Matthews & Matthews Architects, Tauranga CDB Heritage Study 2007 (for TCC)
Bay of Plenty Times

Photographs
Brain Watkins collection, Tauranga City Library Pae Koroki

Recent ANZAC Tradition in Tauranga Moana

Flagpoles, Tutereinga Marae

In April 1995, Howie Wilson says, he and three of his mates found the Anzac Day crowds at the Mount Maunganui RSA too large for their liking. The press of people in the club did not allow for the quiet reflection and exchange of memories that marked the day for him and Lincoln Smith, Perry Smith, and Tapuraka Dickson, all veterans of New Zealand’s campaigns in Malaya, Borneo and Viet Nam. They took themselves off, with a couple of crates of beer, to a retreat within sight of Hairini marae.[1] (This was not a new thing - old soldiers had made it their informal catch-up place as early as the 1980s.)

Marae are places of connection and re-connection, places imbued with meaning. It is not, therefore, surprising that the idea that came to Howie and his former brothers-in-arms on Anzac Day 1995 brought together past and future commemorations and began a new tradition. Five years later, after much korero and organisation, Ngāti Tapu hosted a dawn ceremony at Waikari marae on the Matapihi peninsula.

Howie and Donna planning, Tutereinga Marae

The first Parade Commander was a retired former Regimental Sergeant Major of the Hauraki Battalion, WO Ist Class Ben Morunga. The Hauraki Battalion has proved to be staunch in its support ever since, an acknowledgement of the large proportion of Maori who served in the three South East Asia campaigns. All of the veterans mentioned, except for Howie himself, have now passed on.

This was to be the first in a nineteen-year sequence, interrupted in 2020 when Covid-19 restrictions prevented any but the tiniest of Anzac gatherings.[2] The original plan was to hold the service at Hungahungatoroa, but a tangi intervened and the planning pivoted to nearby Waikari, “which was better, really,” says Howie. “The mist was well down and the contingent just came up out of it.” He was surprised and gratified at the turnout – about 500 people attended, many of them young.

Other marae were not slow to put in their bids as hosts. Over the years, dawn services have been held at nearly every marae in Tauranga Moana, including Hairini of course (in 2019) and Opureroa on Matakana Island. Given that there are 22 of them by my count [3], it was quite some time before Te Puna’s turn came.

This was to have been in 2020, the Covid year. Pirirakau elders were to be sadly disappointed; even sadder, two of the most forceful bidders, Maria Ngatai and Kiritoha Tangitu, had passed away before they could see their home marae, Tutereinga, be the venue for the service.

 “I did form the Tauranga Moana Tumutauenga Returned Services Association Inc [4],”  Howie told me.  “But I never really needed it. The service stays the same each year – only the people change.”  As the ranks of the original 38 members of the society – many of whom had served in the South-east Asian conflicts – dwindled, Howie found Tania Smith standing alongside him. She took on the takohanga in memory of her own dad, Lincoln. And the crowds, especially the presence of young people, got bigger every year.

Tania held the promise to Pirirakau as Covid restrictions relaxed. At the end of March 2021, a small group of planners got their marching orders: the wreath-making, the breakfast menu, the site of the rum station (just outside the marae), the lighting – Howie does not want anything too bright – the Ratana band and the Parade Marshall. Tania wistfully wonders if the kura choir might be coached in time to sing Hikoi kia toa, “but ke te pai if not ...” and the after-party venue (the Te Puna Rugby Club) is sorted. Photos of tipuna for the order of service, and their placement and presentation on the porch of the wharenui, no detail too small:  this will be a big day for Te Puna and Pirirakau are on their mettle.  “Expect the wharekai to  be full,” Tania tells Pirirakau whaea Donna Bidois.

“It’s an honour and a privilege,” Donna responds.

“Each marae has its own wairua,” Howie concludes. The old soldier stands in contemplation in front of the wharenui, flanked by Pirirakau whanau. Suddenly the connections are everywhere – those who are to be remembered, those who are yet to come. Marae are not monuments or memorials, but their power to contain time and memory, for “learned discourse, customary oratory, laughter, nostalgia and sharing sorrow and tears” [5] as the Ngai Te Ahi Trust describes Hairini, means it is no surprise that his idea of aligning military Anzac traditions with Maori tikanga has taken root and flourishes.

References

[1] For a useful description of this marae from interviews with twelve members of the Ngai Te Ahi hapū,  see Teddy, Nikora and Bernard, MAI Rreview, 2008, 1 Article 3; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33051444_Place_attachment_of_Ngai_Te_Ahi_to_Hairini_Marae
[2] For instance, a few locals waited for dawn outside the near-completed Te Puna Memorial Hall, maintaining social distance.  Elsewhere, people followed public health messages and stood at the end of their driveways at 6 am.
[3] https://maorimaps.com/node/14479
[4] Records of the society, now dissolved, can be found at https://is-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz/
[5] https://www.ngaiteahi.co.nz/rohe/hairini-marae/

Brain Behind the Boats and the Bridges

Joseph Denham Brain
Loose print from Album (BWH2004-0958), Brain-Watkins House Collection

In 1844 Joseph Denham Brain was born into a family of shipwrights on the Isle of Wight. He sailed to New Zealand, married Kate, sister of Auckland shipwright William Bishop, and came to Tauranga in 1881, taking over the shipyard of Mr Charles Wood on the northern end of the Strand. He constructed not only his own home but that of his eldest daughter Ada and built for himself three coastal boats, the Ventnor, Vectus and Dream. He also owned two whaleboats, the Esther and Tarawera. The General Gordon was another boat built by this man.

Brain's boatyard, c1900
Tauranga City Library Collection. Ref. 99-751

A quick read of Papers Past could lead one to believe that he was actually more of a bridge and wharf builder. In the BOP Times he was recorded as the contractor for at least 6 bridges: the Waetou and Atuaroa No.1 bridges on the Te Puke road, the Tarawera Bridge on the Rotorua-Te Teko route, the Waitekohe Bridge near Katikati (1882), the Kopurerua Bridge in Judea (1886) and the Wairoa Bridge at Bethlehem (1892). He tendered unsuccessfully for a couple more bridges and even tried to win the contract to construct the first bathing enclosure off Tunks Point (First Ave) in 1885. He later built the Ruahihi Bridge, the Hairini Bridge (1897) and the Omanawa Bridge (1906). He certainly knew how to build the much needed bridges for this district.

Bridge in Kaimai area built by Joseph Brain, c1900
Tauranga City Library Collection. Ref. 02-064

It is also recorded that he was responsible for the concrete seawall on the Strand and the Horseshoe Wharf at Mount Maunganui in 1913, as part of the East Coast rail project. Other structures he was responsible for were Tauranga’s first fire station and bell tower in Durham Street in 1911, a 250 ft tramway on Motiti Island for loading cattle, and his last, the Memorial Gates opposite the present courthouse in 1921, only 3 years prior to his death at 80.

The years shortly after his arrival in Tauranga must have been tough as he applied to have his section, Lot 147, assessed at a lower valuation in 1881 and asked for the annual rent for his portion of the foreshore to be reduced from 3 pounds to 5 shillings. He certainly did his civic duty, serving on the school board (1891), the Borough Council (1893), the Mount Domain Board (1894) and was nominated for the mayoralty in 1895. Brain was integral part of this town’s growth, a successful and much respected man, passing away in 1924 leaving an estate of seven thousand pounds.   

Sources
Papers Past — BOP Times 1881-1924
Historical Review  May 2003
Pae Koroki