Countdown to ...

... the Rugby World Cup. Oh, yay ... (not).

A collection of digits, spotted at QEII Square, outside Downtown Mall, Saturday morning.

St Ninian's of Avondale: Restoration in the Spring

As a friend gave me a lift home on Wednesday last, I noticed scaffolding at the old church building. Friday was the first opportunity I had to check things out.

Yes, indeed -- in the last days of the Auckland City Council, they are indeed getting on with restoring this, Avondale's oldest building.

I ended up having a bit of a chat with the foreman, who asked about the age of the building (1860), the cemetery (1873), and he advised that the roof over the front porch was down for replacement, the broken window was going to be good as before, and rotted timber on a sill was to be replaced with kauri to match the rest of the structure. I understand from what someone else has mentioned that the work is due to be completed in November.

And then, to my surprise and delight, I was invited in to have a quick peek inside -- the first time I'd been in the building for at least four years.

Top to bottom, they're getting the old paint off. That haze in these photos is all the dust in the air -- I wasn't there long, I can tell you. My thanks for the foreman for permission to take these photos.

Back outside ... the blue is the paint stripper applied to the timbers. They're working on roof leaks as well. All in all, the old lady of St Georges Road looks like she's getting the attention she deserves. I'll try to take more photos as work progresses.

C 472 -- A History

While I was at the opening of the Onehunga Train Station today, I spotted a man with a bundle of booklets in his hand. Heading over to him, I asked him what he was selling, and he told me. I bought one.

What I bought was C 472, A History by Jim Hansen, written sometime after 1996. Usually, the glamour of steam railways goes to the engines. In this case, a six-wheel composite carriage has the limelight.

C 472 was initially a second class car, ordered by NZ Railways in 1879, and ran on the Onehunga line until 1894. It was then transfered with two other C class carriages to the Kaihu Valley Railway in Dargaville. There, C 472 was upgraded to a composite car : one containing two compartments, first class and second class. First class get the padded seats, second class the plain wooden ones, both bench style under the windows. It remained in service until written off in 1933, and sold, along with C 474, to the Donnelleys Crossing Axemen's Association in Kaihu for use as a grandstand for chopping events. C 472 survived the elements mainly because it had been given a corrugated iron roof -- the other carriage wasn't similarly clad, and so rotted completely away.

That said, C 472 was in a very sorry state when the Donnelleys Crossing Settlers Club donated the carriage to the Railway Enthusiasts Society in 1988. It took until 1995 for the Railway Enthusiasts to receive Lottery Grants funding for the carriage's restoration -- but they did a wonderful job. A colour photo of the restored C 472 is here.

The booklet, 16 pages, A5 size, is I imagine available from the Railway Enthusiasts Society.

The new Onehunga Train Station

Once upon a time, a part of Auckland called Onehunga had a railway station from 1873. From that point, the Auckland to Onehunga line was said to be the only railway line in New Zealand which spanned from coast to coast (due to central Auckland's geography, and that we're on an isthmus.) Passenger services lasted around 100 years, and then things were shut down during the 1970s.

Local campaigning this century, however, has led to a grand re-opening today of the branch line, slightly altered, but now leading passengers straight to the Onehunga Mall, heart of the local shopping centre. I could not miss the opportunity to see the action.

Or the very cool photo reproductions they've placed on the fenceline along Onehunga Mall and Princes Street. If things look a bit "rough and ready" with loose and bare soil, implements lying around, bits of wood -- that's because they still hadn't quite finished the landscaping today. The bitumen in the carpark was still spongy. The rollers, trucks etc. were still parked there this morning,  an hour before ceremonies began.

"A Monday morning scene on Onehunga Wharf circa 1880."

"The first bank of Auckland in Onehunga."

"Shunting in Onehunga 1954."

"The Public Library and Post Office Hotel on Queen Street, Onehunga (now Onehunga Mall) circa 1879."

"The SS Wanaka and other sailing boats at Onehunga wharf. Mangere Mountain in the background."

"Sections of the original Onehunga station on the move to the Rail Enthusiasts Society site in Alfred Street, 1962."

"The first timetabled train to Onehunga, 24 December 1873."

"A painting, possibly by John Kinder, of Onehunga looking south west."

"L" class locomotive used on Onehunga line, circa 1906."

"Looking south down Queen Street, Onehunga, towards Mangere Mountain with a trolley bus travelling past the State theatre."

"Manukau to Onehunga Train route following the foreshore, 1954."

"The first 'South Auckland tour' rail fan special train arriving in Onehunga."

"The C852 engine at Penrose island platform getting ready to go to Onehunga."

"1908 - Queen St tram at Onehunga wharf."

"Onehunga station, looking back on to the Borough Council chambers building, 1954."

"An Epsom-Onehunga tram and a horse and cart travelling along Queen Street, Onehunga."

"A tram on Queen Street, Onehunga, 1908."

"The staff of Kauri Point Sawmill and their children gathered outside the premises on the corner of Beacroft and Princes Street, Onehunga, 1882."

I just love the horse in the photo. Lived a hard life, standing ever-so-patiently for the photo.

End of the line. Just beyond this point, according to a member of the Onehunga and Fencible Historical Society, the old station master's house used to be. The platform for the new station, by the way, is too short, according to news reports.

Taking photos of the trains on the platform proved difficult -- narrow platform, lots of people, wrong angle. I'm glad they sent an ordinary diesel along at first. It gave me the opportunity to scout out an alternative vantage point.

Board for those to inscribe their name for posterity, I suppose. No, I didn't sign ...

In case you come off the train and don't know where you are (despite all the blue and white signage) -- here's an extra clue.

There was a PC Plod on patrol, complete with truncheon.

The cutting for the old wharf connection still exists, along with the Neilson Street overbridge ...

... said bridge used for a local politics protest today, over the enforced acquistion of the Catholic school's land at Monte Cecelia by the present Auckland City Council.

More heritage stuff for folks to view.

At this point, I found my new observation site -- up on a bank, between a three-rail pipe fence and a hurricane wire fence. Despite the fact that I'm a 47-year-old overweight train-loving history buff, I made it over the pipe fence, and so was able to take the following shots.

Steam engine JA 1275 from Mainline Steam hauling two Tranz Scenic coaches, and backed by a diesel. Worth the two hour wait.

Looking at the shots here at home, I realised I had luckily caught these two characters as they disembarked from the train.

Also, another surprise -- a cool Chevrolet truck on the spongy bitumen.

And an older form of transport doing a circuit up and down Onehunga Mall.

Auckland's Chinese community in 1919

Back to another of my underlying interests. Completely by chance, I spotted the article below as I was looking through newspaper files yesterday at the Auckland Research Centre at the central library. 1919 was just under 60 years after the first indications of Chinese residency in Auckland, so this gives us an interesting (albeit European-focussed) view of the community six decades on, in the midst of a post-war rice "famine" in Auckland. "For the last few weeks there has been a rice famine in Auckland. The leading wholesale and retail dealers have been literally without a grain in their establishments, and the position has resulted in a good deal of hardship for those who formerly made rice one of their staple articles of diet. The situation has been relieved to some extent, for both the Niagara and Malcura have brought a considerable quantity of Ace from Sydney."(Evening Post, 11 September 1919)

From the NZ Herald, 29 August 1919.

CHINESE IN AUCKLAND.

GLIMPSES OF THEIR LIFE.

OLD TRADITIONS FAILING.

INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN.

Although the sight of the Chinaman working industriously in his trim garden, reckoning change with amazing accuracy in a fruit shop or handing out the week's laundry, is a very familiar one to Aucklanders, comparatively little is known of the local conditions under which these sons of the Celestial Empire are living. There are at present about 400 Chinamen in Auckland, and perhaps 10 Chinese wives. Nearly all the others, however, have wives and children in their own land, and are patiently adding day by day to the little board that will some day enable them to go back to their homes and families. The family tie is a very strong one with the Chinese, and their sojourn in a foreign land usually but the stepping-stone to a return home and prosperity among their own folk that it would be very hard to obtain in the ordinary run of life in China.

The ancient traditions of the Chinese still hold strong sway in some respects, but in others even the manners and customs of the oldest Empire are waning and undergoing the change inevitable when Occident and Orient come into close and continuous contact. The pigtail has gone, and the quaintly-trousered women, with shy eyes and tiny sandalled feet, have given place to smart young misses wearing tailored skirts and French heels. But the average Chinaman is still the frugal, industrious worker of the age old East; even in prosperous Auckland he still lives mainly on rice, although his needs in this respect have gone unfilled for some time past on account of the prevailing acute shortage.

Chinese Delicacies.

An inquiry made yesterday as to how local Chinese residents were faring in view of this dietary difficulty resulted in some interesting information being given with regard to the general trend of life among Chinese in Auckland. As in other respects, the Orientals are conforming more and more to European ideas with regard to foods and, although rise still is, or was until recently, their staple diet, the white man's menu is gradually being adopted by the Chinaman. A few traditional Chinese dishes are still regarded as a great delicacy: dried sharks' fins are in strong demand, and luxury fare is provided at the banquets occasionally held in Auickland.

A glance at a list of delicacies forwarded from China for local consumption revealed some weird and wonderful dishes. An item of dried shrimps and oysters looked more or less familiar, but sugared watermelon rind, fishes' eyes in vinegar, onions in treacle, bamboo shoots in syrup, beche-de-mer or sea-slugs brought to mind visions of a banquet truly Oriental. Other items were:- Chinese medicines and wines, canned bean cure, salt cucumber, hen albumen, and a quantity of the "Asiatic egg" so well known to local pastrycooks.

The Chinese are not given to riotous living but, by all accounts, local banquets lack few of the traditional delicacies associated with these sumptuous repasts, allowance being made, of course, for those dishes requiring ingredients which China alone can produce.

Keeping in Touch With Home.

There is in Auckland a strong branch of the Chinese Nationalist Society, which receives all the newspapers and current literature of China. This is widely read by local Chinese residents, who follow the occasionally-stormy course of home politics with keen interest. There are also two Chinese "Freemasons' " societies in Auckland, in which the trend of politics is reflected, although party feeling is apt to be a little less pronounced than is sometimes the case with regard to local politics. That is to say, the Celestials usually agree to differ politely.

One interesting point mentioned yesterday by a well-known Chinese resident was that the ancient dread of surgical operations is to a large extent dying out among Chinese living abroad. The Chinese physician is traditionally a herbalist; amputations were unknown in China until students of the present generation migrated to the West, where they learned Western methods of healing and treatment of the sick. Consequently Auckland doctors frequently tend Chinese patients and perform operations and send them to the General Hospital in a way that would have been undreamed of among the Orientals of a past generation.

At the same time, the use of herbs is still very popular, and the only Chinese herbalist in the Dominion, who has a shop in Wellington, does a fairly wide trade among his fellow-countrymen.

Another point of interest, as showing the general acceptance of Western ideas, is that the old tradition that the bones of every Chinaman must be taken back to his own land is not so inexorably observed as in the past. During the epidemic about ten Chinese residents of Auckland died; some of these were buried in the ordinary way and will rest forever in alien soil; but the others were embalmed and provision made for shipment of the remains back to China. This cannot be done, however, for at least one year after interment, and even the ultimate carrying out of the old tradition will depend very largely upon prevailing shipping conditions.

The difference in the term

The term being -- "election".

Mayor of Auckland City John Banks, at the launch of the Sir George Grey Exhibition last night, quipped about the whole Super City thing we're going through now. It is well-known how he  really, really wants the job of Auckland's first Super-Mayor come 1 November.

He mentioned in his speech how the first Mayor of Auckland, Philip A Philips, "appointed himself" as mayor of the new Municipal Corporation of Auckland (our city) in 1871, and that his successor, Henry Isaacs, did likewise.

Well ...

Philips was actually already chairman of the City Board from 1867, the year the Municipal Corporations Act came into effect. The entire Board, under the Act, was constituted as incorporated, and Philips was indeed elected as the first Mayor -- by the new councillors. This practice was common in the mid 19th century here, chairman of committees and boards rarely running for office apart from the office of acctually sitting on the committees. Positions such as chairmanships and mayoralties were sorted from within the ranks of the winners.

 From here:

... it was a lucky day for Auckland when the old Board gave place to the Auckland City Council, which came into existence in 1871. The fact that the Borough was proclaimed under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1867 shows that little time was lost in securing for Auckland the advantages vouchsafed by that statute. The credit for this promptness fairly belongs to Mr. P. A. Philips, then chairman of the City Board, and afterwards longer and better known as town clerk of Auckland. Through his initiative Auckland was constituted a borough under “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867,” on the 24th of April, 1871, and at a meeting of the City Board of Commissioners, held on the morning of Monday, the 22nd of May, Mr. Philips read the proclamation in the General Government Gazette, and declared the City Board duly incorporated as the Municipal Council. The members of this board, who thus became the first City Councillors of Auckland, under the new constitution, were:—Messrs Atkin, Asher, Bugden, George, Hampton, Macready, Staines, Smart, and Tonks. These members, at the same meeting, elected Mr. Philips as the first mayor of Auckland under the new Municipal Corporations Act. After holding the position for three years in succession, Mr. Philips declined further re-election to the mayoralty, and accepted the more permanent, though less prominent, office of Town Clerk.

What about Mayor No. 2, Henry Isaacs?

In 1874, Philips stepped down as Mayor to take up the office of Town Clerk (not often you see a local politician actually stepping down to a lesser position voluntarily!) Once again, the matter of who was to be Mayor foer the rest of the term rested with the elected officials -- and they chose Henry Isaacs (Southern Cross, 4 July 1874), a mayor just until 1875. There's a handy list of Auckland's Mayors at the City Archives site.

So, Mayor John Banks' implied quip -- wouldn't it be good if he could just appoint himself as Super-Mayor rather than do all the usual election circus stuff -- doesn't really hold much water historically. 

There ya go, history being the wet blanket on another political speech anecdote, yet again ...

Shades of Grey exhibition at Auckland City Library

I'm very grateful to Auckland City Libraries for inviting me along to their launch shindig tonight for their new Shades of Grey exhibition, at the Sir George Grey Special Collections. Take a look at that link -- and at their new Sir George Grey Collection website.

During the speeches, we were told that one book in the collection, the Rossdhu Book of Hours, was on loan at Luss in Scotland for the 1500th anniversary celebrations of the introduction of Christianity to Scotland. Quite a feather in the cap for my favourite library. It will return to Auckland in November.

MOTAT Sunday: I am the Last Tram exhibition

Main reason I headed out to MOTAT at Western Springs yesterday was to view the "I am the Last Tram" exhibition. A combination of trams and Auckland social history should be, I reckoned, quite interesting.

Took a while to find the exhibition, though. It ended up being in the middle of one of the exhibition halls, with entry through to it via another exhibition on the 1930s-1940s. Which was where this poster came from (apologies for the blurred shot). An interesting way to tell the middle-of-the-day shoppers to leave the rush-hour tram traffic to the workers. Rush-hour these days, though, starts at 3pm, with a busload of school pupils almost all yelling at each other at the top of their lungs. That "sweet and kind" lady would have even more incentive to head home smartly these days, with that commotion ...

Again, from the 1930s-1940s exhibition -- an iron lung, built at Auckland Hospital workshops, designed by the hospital's chief engineer Fred Jacobs, following a polio outbreak in the mid 1930s. The interpretive sign along with it says it may be the oldest surviving iron lung in New Zealand.

Some info on rationing was displayed here as well.

Then, I turned a corner, and -- ah ha!

A small space for the exhibition, I thought. Almost along the lines of the Auckland War Memorial Museum's "Centennial Street".

More views of the last tram to run in Auckland in the 1950s.

The exhibition aims to give folks a feel for the 1950s, when suburbia was just starting to pre-dominate (so they said), and when the motor car replaced the dear old trams. They had a selection of facades of noted Auckland central city buildings, along with a small display of what went on inside in each one. Nice job with the facades, quite impressively done. This one is the NZ Herald offices.

Example of an old newspaper printing press.

Smith and Caughey's, harking back to the Lippincott design.

This display window is quite close to the ones the store still has today.

What the best dressed 1950s manequin was wearing then.

This corner shop in the exhibition has an "open" sign in the window (it should have been open), but it wasn't, not yesterday. Notb enough customers through the exhibit, so the folks at the admittance office at the front of MOTAT told me. There's supposed to be souvenirs of the exhibit on sale in there. Well, no -- just DVDs of general tram stuff and the like. I'd have liked to have had a brochure on the exhibit, with the signage info, to take away, but ...

Some interesting stuff in the windows, though.

Non-PC golliwogs! And one flashing her knickers to all and sundry! (You may guess that I had a bit of an Enid Blyton nostalgia moment at this point. Not about the knickers, though -- I'm sure Enid wasn't like that.)

This is how folks satisfied that choclate craving out in the street in those days. The vending machine, though, came from the 1930s, not the '50s.

What intrigued me about this window was the Harbour Bridge toll tickets sign. The Last Tram (1956) would never have passed these (1959) by in reality.

Fun with digicams. A shot with the flash on ...

A shot with no flash.

The display inside even had something of the gorgeous Indian decorations of the real; movie palace in midtown Auckland, the Mighty Civic.

Plus, an early projector.

Somewhere along the "street" -- a post box that looks a darned sight more solid than the ones we have today. Not sure about more secure, though. Padlock might not have taken a crim long to handle, and the slugs would have had a lovely time ...

I turned another corner -- and suddenly I'm not in the exhibition anymore. Mind you, this 1909 photo of a Labour Day float by the Auckland Bootmaker's Union caught my eye.

So, that was the exhibition. I'm not exactly disappointed -- main things are that I wish I had something to take away as a souvenir booklet or some such, and that the exhibit was a bit larger. It's obvious, though, that as usual a lot of hard work went into the preparation. Well worth a look around.