Naming lions

Lion cubs Maud and George were born on February 16 1913 at Wellington Zoo. The authorities held a "plebiscite" to determine their names in April that year.

But the choice wasn't greeted with unanimous approval.

A correspondent who finds fault with Councillor Fuller for his protest against native names (which puzzle the average Briton) contends that Maori words should be bestowed on the Zoo lion cubs, instead of "George" and "Maud."

Evening Post 26.5.1913

George and Maud as names for the lion cubs at the Wellington Zoo did not meet with the approval of Councillor Barber at the last meeting of the Wellington City Council. He suggested that Native names should be given: Tutanekai and Hinemoa were his choice. "But they're brother and sister, not lovers," objected Councillor Hindmarsh. Councillor Barber said he did not know what George and Maud stood for. George might mean his Majesty King George, or it might mean George Frost. Councillor Fuller vigorously opposed the proposal to christen the cubs in Maori. "It's Pongatorotu and that sort of thing that's the curse of this country. People forget the names as soon as they leave. Give them good old English names." The council, by nine votes to seven, favoured the English names.

Northern Advocate 28.5.1913

Sadly, George died young, in June 1914.

Young George, the entertaining and handsome son of King Dick at the Wellington Zoo and heir apparent to the kingship of the Zoo, is dead. The Zoo has been under a cloud for some time during the illness of the cub, and the end came on Tuesday, from an attack of pneumonia. George was a particularly fine looking youngster, and, with his twin sister, had always been a popular exhibit. Teething troubles lowered his healthy vitality for some time before the cold weather came on, and the recent sudden changes and wintry snaps reached his lungs. The Zoo is the poorer by the loss of a very handsome beast, which was the more kindly regarded because he had been born and bred on the spot. 

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser 26.6.1914

Maud though, went on into adulthood, and mothered at least two sets of cubs of her own.

Images of the earthquake at Napier, 1931

Got these via a Trade Me auction just recently.  These images have appeared in publications before now -- but even so, and after all the years since February 3, 1931, they have still not lost their emotive power.

The Hawke's Bay Earthquake was magnitude 7.8, with 256 casualties and thousands injured. In comparison, Christchurch's 22 February 2011 earthquake was magnitude 6.3, with 185 casualties. Like San Francisco in 1906, fire in Napier was a factor in the destruction and loss of life.

Sandspit murals

The Sandspit here is the one from where travellers take a ferry out to Kawau Island across the Hauraki Gulf. Here, at the end of a day trip around the upper gulf (more later), I found a wonderful mural around the sides and the rear of the Sandspit loos.

Painted by John Mulvay in 1999, according to the plaque attached as a joint project between the Sandspit Residents and Ratepayers Association and Rodney District council, this work is faded today but still shows an exceptional three-dimensional feel to it. The pohutukawa blossoms seem to jut outward.

You can see it in its original form on Mulvay's blog.

Two Ponsonby memorials

This particular journey of my curiosity began once I brought home from a book sale The Beauty of the Bay: St Mar's Bay and Westhaven by Glenys Hopkinson (2001). I've been interested in obtaining the slim volumes done by Hopkinson on the Ponsonby area and surrounds, but apart from at book sales, they are a tad expensive.

Anyway  ...

One paragraph, in smaller-than-usual font, beneath a photo caught my eye on page 9:

A tiny fountain in memory of a Bay man, former Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage, was unveiled by Auckland Mayor Mr J H Luxford on July 18 [sic] 1955. Sited in Dedwood Street [sic], diagonally opposite the Gluepot, it states simply: "In memory of Michael Joseph Savage, Labour Member for Auckland West 1919-1940."

In 2006, this appeared in an article in the NZ Herald:

Savage was the area's MP for 21 years and after his death a drinking fountain was erected at the top of Dedwood St - Dedwood was an earlier name for Ponsonby - in his memory.Unfortunately, as [Gerry] Hill [of the Great Ponsonby Bed and Breakfast Hotel] points out angrily, the grassy plot where the fountain stands has over the years been blocked off by the erection of the Plunket Rooms and public toilets, "so it's hard to find and hardly anyone knows it's there". He would like to see the fountain moved to a reserve just behind the Leys Institute, another Ponsonby icon, donated to the area by two philanthropic brothers, and still in use as a library, gymnasium and community meeting place.

So, there seemed to be some strong feelings about this item which is nearly 60 years old. I wanted to find out more.

 Information from Auckland Council Archives records used in this post came from ACC 275/271/43/229.

In October 1943, the Women's branch of the New Zealand Labour Party wrote to the Council requesting provision of a women's restroom at Three Lamps, Ponsonby. The Council took this on board investigating possible sites close to the famous junction, the City Engineer advising in November that the only possible site he could see was on the south side of Jervois Road, all Crown Land, part of which was used at that point as the police station. The Council then wrote to the Government, but were declined in March 1944 by the Department of Lands and Survey, who said that the land would likely be utilised for a redeveloped station.

Undaunted, Council considered other sites.

Another site came up for consideration in September 1944, the corner of Dedwood Terrace and Jervois Road.

Jervois Road, looking toward Three Lamps, in 1926. Reference 4-1786, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

Detail from above image. Dedwood Terrace to the left, Jervois right, the "Old Village Smithy" at the corner, the Bond family house left.

As at late 1944, the corner site was occupied by a 1913 villa "of fair quality" at 5 Dedwood Terrace, and a dilapidated old smithy at 19-20 Jervois Road, used by a metal shutter manufacturing business, Danks Bros Ltd. The City Engineer proposed that, after purchase from the owner Mr Alfred John Bond, that the site would be a wonderful one for a women's restroom on the corner, and Plunket building from out of the suitably converted villa.

The corner site had been purchased in 1893 by Alfred Bond (1836-1914), father of Alfred John Bond (NA 66/246). The father appears to have followed another son, James Shiner Bond, to New Zealand, possibly in 1872 on the SS Hero, (Auckland Star, 16.2.1872), but his name appears in an 1881 census of Romany hawkers still in England. He was possibly the same Alfred Bond applied to be a steam roller driver working for Auckland City Council in 1884. (AS 26.9.1884) He was originally, according to this family history webpage, a "whitesmith" or tinsmith, from Shipton in Somerset.

Golden hair, and had a beard “like a Viking”. Worked as a smith (described as a Whitesmith) in Auckland at Deadwood [sic] Terrace in Ponsonby. His son Alfred John later continued the business. Alfred’s son, James Shiner, was the first of the family to come to New Zealand. Alfred and the rest of the family came out a few years later, partly because daughter Cherry had a weak chest. In their later years, Alfred and Sarah were cared for by their daughter, Rose.

His son Alfred John Bond (1877-1958) took over the old smithy on Jervois Road from 1909, and remained as owner (even though by the 1940s he was somewhat infirm, living in Epsom, and had rented No. 5 Dedwood Terrace to a Mrs. M Harvey). He admitted, in a letter to the Town Clerk dated 10 October 1944, that the smithy had seen better days, describing it as an eyesore.

"I would have liked to have held on to the property ... until the Harbour Bridge was built when I think Ponsonby will be a second Newmarket, but time marches on and I do not wish to stand in the road of progress."

He put the price at £2250. The Council, after consulting their valuers and considering the selling price of other land in Jervois Road, offered £1650, but finally went up to £1900 in August 1945, which was accepted. The site was formally transferred to Auckland City on 26 November 1945.

Danks Bros vacated the old smithy by December 1950, while Mrs Harvey left the old house in June the following year. Just before Council finalised plans for the redevelopment of the site, local MP Ritchie Macdonald wrote on 24 March 1951 putting forward the suggestion from the Auckland West branch of the Labour Party that a children's drinking fountain be included on the site, as a memorial to the late Michael Joseph Savage.

"May I add that the building on the proposed site was the scene of the first nomination of Michael Joseph Savage as a Candidate for Parliament."

This leads to a colourful part of Ponsonby history which I have yet to prove or disprove. The Star on 1 July 1955 recorded: "When the late Mr Michael Joseph Savage was first nominated as Labour Candidate for Parliament, for Auckland West, the necessary papers were signed on the anvil of the forge of a blacksmith's shop at the corner of Jervois Road and Dedwood Terrace, Ponsonby. To mark the spot and occasion, a children's memorial fountain has been erected on what is now the patio of the Ponsonby women's restrooms and conveniences."

If true, the event was in 1919, when Savage first ran for (successfully) the Auckland West seat. Hopefully, Papers Past later this year through the Auckland Star records might shed some light.

Council agreed with the proposal, provided that the Auckland West Labour Party branch took responsibility for the cost of the fountain and its installation. In the end, Ponsonby locals paid £75 toward the cost, the fountain designed by City Architect Tibor Donner. The Plunket rooms in the renovated villa were opened 12 December 1952. The restrooms and drinking fountain had their own moment on Friday 15 July 1955, when the Mayor took a drink from the new fountain.

The site today has greatly changed. The old villa has gone (left of this image, taken yesterday), and I believe the 1950s toilets have as well. Now, that site appears to be a toy library. All that remains is a patch of grass in the middle, behind the blue car, on the other side of the shrubs and the low brick wall, behind a childproof fence and gate.

I stopped at the gate, and asked one of the adults there if I could come in and take a shot. They seemed surprised that I asked, saying that it is a public space still -- but the fence and gate are there for the kiddies, and as a strange adult coming into places like that, even just to look at bits of history, it pays to ask first. I can see there would be the comment that "it's hard to find and hardly anyone knows it's there."

It is cool, though, to see that the fountain is indeed used by the children. I saw one young chap leaning his elbow on the flat part, where the inscription is, as he leaned forward into the flow of the water for a sip.

 But ... just when I thought I'd fairly well sewn up another post, found the item, prepared to put the words together, I found the following image in the Sir George Grey Special Collections.

"Memorial erected at Ponsonby to the memory of Trooper Stanley Rees Scott and Unveiled by the Hon. J Carroll, last Saturday. Frank Harris, Sculptor," according to the NZ Sporting and Dramatic Review, 31.12.1902, p. 18 (SGGSP ref 7-A15384)

Intelligence received from Durban yesterday records the death of Mr Stanley Rees Scott, of Ponsonby, after a short illness. Mr Scott was twenty-seven years of age, and a well-known Ponsonbyite. At the commencement of the South African war he, accompanied by a number of Aucklanders, left for the seat of war and joined Brabant's Light Horse, afterwards being attached to Roberts Horse. The departure of these young Aucklanders from our shores was a most enthusiastic one. For a number of years Mr Scott was clerk in the office of the late Mr E. T. Dufaur of this city, subsequently joining Messrs Morrison and Phillips' business, Auckland. His loss is mourned by a large number of friends. He leaves four sisters and four brothers to mourn their loss, and much sympathy is felt for them in their hour of tribulation. 

 AS 9.8.1902

A meeting of those interested in erecting a memorial to the late Mr Stanley Rees Scott took place last evening at the Suffolk Hotel, Ponsonby. Mr J. Baxter presided. Designs, estimates and specifications of a drinking fountain were submitted by a number of monumental masons. The number was reduced to two, Messrs McNab and Mason's and Mr Frank Harris' designs. The final ballot resulted in favour of Mr Harris' design, which provides for a fountain 12ft. high, of marble, with bluestone foundations. The cost will be about £7. The memorial will be erected near Shelly Bench in about three months' time.

AS 5.9.1902

On Saturday last the Hon Jas Carroll unveiled a memorial erected at Ponsonby, Auckland, to perpetuate the memory of Trooper Stanley Rees Scott, a member of Brabant's Horse. The memorial is in the form of a drinking fountain of white marble on a bluestone base. It stands 12ft. 6in high and bears the inscription: "Erected by old chums and friends to the memory of Stanley Rees Scott, who, after 2 years active service, died at Durban, June 26, 1902." 

AS 1.1.1903

Well, the memorial is no longer there on St Mary's Bay Road, opposite the Leys Institute and outside the old Ponsonby Fire Station. So far, I haven't found any Council records on it (but I'll still keep an eye on it), and it may well have vanished during work on the road any time from the mid 1920s.  Which is a shame, as Boer War memorials are uncommon in comparison with those for the First and Second World Wars.

Any info or suggestions from readers as to what was the memorial's fate would be appreciated.

Update 23 May 2013:

Edward Bennett of the Karangahape Road Business Association emailed me the other day, saying that he had been told the Boer War memorial had been removed to Symonds Street Cemetery possibly  in the 1930s and that "the Memorial was one of the casualties when the motorway was constructed; few of the gravestones were preserved and as the Ponsonby Memorial to Trooper Stanley Rees Scott wasn't connected with an actual body it wouldn't have been considered very important especially as there was the Memorial nearby on Symonds Street at Wakefield. Neither was his name incorporated into the 1966 memorial created next to Hobson's Grave."

An old fashioned front window

I passed this window by yesterday, heading down Wellesley Street West, just up from Elliott. Why did I take the photo (with the owner's permission)? Because this is the way I remember seeing shop windows as I grew up, especially dairies, butchers, stationers, haberdashers and small hardware stores. Items the store has to sell, displayed in the window, for passersby to see, and stop, and think, "You know, I think I fancy having that today ..."

The owner said he did this for his customers. It's a great potential drawcard for his business -- certainly attracted my notice.

These days, I see so many stores where they treat that front window as just another wall, instead of a three-dimensional permanent ad for the shop's contents, always ready to be changed around, the scope limited only by imagination.

This example is simple, compared to the seemingly top-to-bottom examples I can still fondly recall, but -- it brought back those memories for me.

Hope abandoned on Ponsonby Road

Heading home on Tuesday, lots of stuff floating around in the noggin from  having been to a meeting of fellow history-minded people -- I see this through the window of the 198 express bus travelling along Ponsonby Road 'tween Great North and Williamson Ave. Didn't take the flash off, darn it ...

Any ideas what this is about would be appreciated. I haven't seen any other posters like this.

The Aucklander's article on Miss Newey's cottage

Further to these posts:

Miss Newey's Cottage
Remembering Miss Newey

Last Thursday, the Aucklander was the first to take up the story of Miss Newey's cottage, out at Hobsonville at the present time and looking for a home back in Henderson where it was built.

Trevor Pollard, Graham Foster and I have received memory snippets about Miss Newey from the public, with a member of the local bowling club obtaining this image of her as President of the club. Another caller and her sister sent us a copy of a photo of a class at Orakei school in 1948, where Miss Newey taught for a time (commuting all the way over there from Henderson).

Another person dropped in to Henderson school just recently a photograph of that school's pupils in the 1950s or 1960s, being taught a lesson amongst orchard trees, with someone who does look like our Miss Eileen Newey.

As yet, we still don't know which way this will go. We've yet to hear back from Auckland Council or the Henderson-Massey Local Board as to whether there might be a spot for the cottage at Tui Glen in Henderson.  Our fingers are still crossed.

Token History

Back in January, I was alerted that someone was selling a Benjamin Gittos token on Trade Me. Unfortunately, I lost out on that particular token (final bidding occurred right when the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society’s February meeting was happening on 4 February), but — another one came up on the lists two weeks later. That time, I won the auction.

 I’ve been after a Gittos token for years, ever since first reading an article in the Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal from April 2001 called “The Money Merchants” by John Cresswell. In the earliest days of our country’s money system, while there were paper notes or their equivalent in circulation, there was apparently a shortage in coins. Businessmen took up opportunities provided by die-sinkers and coin manufacturers in Australia and England, such as Thomas Stokes of Stokes and Martin in Melbourne, his successor Joseph Taylor and Joseph Moore of Allen & Moore in Birmingham to order numbers of penny-sized tokens, as a durable form of early advertising. The Gittos token, for example, is nearly 150 years old! 

According to Cresswell, “The firm of B Gittos obtained supplies of their penny from Stokes of Melbourne in 1864 and once in circulation, these became a common feature of small change throughout the Province.”

Benjamin Gittos was a shoemaker in Auckland by 1854, entered into the leather and grindery business by 1857, built a new brick shop in Wyndham Street in 1863, and in 1864 both produced his penny token and took up land beside the Oakley Creek in Avondale for the first of the Gittos family’s tanneries.So,  this token is, to me, part of Avondale’s light industrial history — something I was dead-set on obtaining for its historical value alone. 

One side says: “ B. Gittos, Leather Merchant, Importer of Boots & Shoes, &c., &c.” The other: “Wholesale & Retail Leather & Grindery Stores, Wyndham Street, Auckland NZ, 1864.”

At the time of losing out on the first Gittos token, I went for a consolation -- which turned out to be this next one.

I think someone along the line may have worn this, judging by the hole at the edge. I was attracted to it as it served as a memorial to the late Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria. But Samuel Hague Smith had his own story to tell.

He was in Auckland from c.1859 to around 1876, leaving for Australia never to return after the death of his wife a couple of years before. But in the interim, he served on the Auckland Provincial Council -- so this piece is a bit of a hark back to that administration body. The date isn't known, but it would be after  1861 and before c.1970, after which he turned to sharebroking.

Finally, this. Tiny, made from aluminium -- this is said to be a penny token from the Dunedin Tramways. I do question whether this is real, or something churned out for later collector interest. But, as it didn't cost a bomb, I find it interesting.

A slightly flawed "genealogy" of street names

Last Tuesday, Alan Perrott’s article “Stepping Back in Time” appeared in "Canvas", part of the NZ Herald. Online, the article has been headed up with a spelling mistake, “geneology”, but that kind of thing happens.

I know I have a Street Stories series of my own here on the blog, but – at least when I muck things up, the comments field is wide open, and I can be democratically and publically informed where I went wrong, in order to keep things straight. Unfortunately, Mr Perrott’s article will end up indexed by the library, and will remain around the place for some time, to trip up the unwary who think that, by the tone, (and the use, mystifyingly, of the word “genealogy”) it’s 100% accurate. Without feedback.

Well, it isn’t 100% accurate.

Governor FitzRoy 

Both the print and online versions of the article spell Governor FitzRoy’s name incorrectly. As learned friends of mine have told me, you do need that capital R in the middle.

Surrey Hills 

“Two English booze barons, James Williamson and Thomas Crummer, saw pound signs and bought up enough land to establish Surrey Hills Estate with the intent of grazing it until property prices shot up. Unfortunately, their long-term scheme fell foul of the 1880s depression and they had to subdivide for far less profit than they'd hoped.”

The extent of James Williamson and Thomas Crummer being “booze barons” was that they operated the Victoria Hotel on the Auckland waterfront (according to Williamson’s biography. Garth Houltham in “Toast the Ghosts” said Crummer’s co-licensee was A de Phillipsthal). But they also had a store, and Williamson, the son of a Belfast linen merchant and ship owner (more than one) was primarily a merchant prince in Auckland, rather than a “booze baron”. The farm at Surrey Hills was one 314 acre estate. Crummer died in 1858, and Williamson bought out Crummer’s sons’ interest for £11,000, so there was no “they had to subdivide” in this story in terms of Surrey Hills. Williamson, by the way, is better known as the owner of the Pah Homestead out at Hillsborough.

Perrott refers to a Mr “Pullen” as one of those after whom a street was named on the estate. I do believe he’s referring to Dr. Daniel Pollen. Both the print and online versions have that error.

Ponsonby Road 

“…Ponsonby Rd, or as it was known until the 1880s, Vandeleur Rd, for the divisional commander who served under Wellington at Waterloo. Colonel Ponsonby, in turn, served under Vandeleur.”

Ponsonby Road shows as Ponsonby Road on the 1866 Vercoe & Harding map of Auckland. No references found for Vandeleur Street or Road in the Southern Cross or New Zealander in Papers Past. Earliest reference to Ponsonby Road found: 1852.

The Council Library site probably added to the confusion, and led to Perrott’s Vandeleur reference.

“Formed around 1863 in the Herne bay area and around 1883 in the Ponsonby area, part was previously Herne Bay Road to around 1886, part now all Jervois Road from around 1886, previously Vandeleur Road. May have been named after an Officer who served at Waterloo. In 1937 it was described as 1 mile long, with 137 business premises and 200 residences, and named 50 years before (1887) after Lord Ponsonby.”

And …

“Vandeleur Street: Proposed road, Felton Mathew's town plan 1841 (Ponsonby Road to Wellesley Street)”

Franklin Road 

“Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin was a heroic naval officer and Arctic explorer who became lieutenant-governor of Tasmania in 1836 … in 1843, they boarded the good ship Rajah and stopped off in Auckland on their way home. Being a rough-and-tumble type, Lady Jane left hubby at the hotel and set off up the track leading to Dedwood. That track eventually became Franklin Rd, our most famous boulevard of Christmas lights.”

Where did the story come from about Lady Jane hiking through the scrub? So far, I see an unverified Wikipedia page has mention of the tale. The link between Franklyn (the old spelling) Road and Sir John Franklin might be correct, as he was involved with derring-do explorations in the Arctic when he perished – but I’ll pass on the hiking tale.

Victoria Park 

“Once at the bottom of Lady Jane's road, I catch sight of that lush legacy of old Dedwood, Victoria Park, just one of many infrastructural tributes to the royal couple of the day still littering Auckland … Victoria's lovely park owes its existence to the complete lack of dunnies in its neighbouring suburb. Next time you're crossing its grassy expanse you might like to consider the 51,000kg of poop that was dumped there every week during the 1870s.”

Really? I don’t think so. Victoria Park up to the late 1880s was water – the bay in Freeman’s Bay, reclaimed during the 1890s to early 20th century by the Harbour Board. Rock and solid fill made far better reclamations than poo. Where else is this intriguing gem of information quoted by Perrott? Well, that unverified timeline on Wikipedia is one place … but there the writer said: “Every week during the 1870s 50 tons of "night soil" is spread over the ground in what will be Victoria Park.” Night soil wasn’t deposited near the city from the 1880s at the latest – the contractors chose places like Grey Lynn, Mt Albert, Pt Chevalier, Avondale and New Lynn to be depots.

The suggestions that Freeman’s Bay be converted into a recreation park named after Queen Victoria first seemed to appear in 1897, her jubilee year. Plans for the Freemans Bay reclamation and the proposed park were presented to the Harbour Board in February 1900 (Auckland Star, 13.2.1900) By 1901-1902, it was fairly well a done deal.

Wanderings at Three Kings

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Updated and edited 10 October 2016.

Invited to the reopening of the Fickling Centre in Three Kings today, I took the opportunity to do a bit of camera wandering for the ol' blog.

Above is a reserve with no name board -- but it does appear to be known in records up to at least 1988 as the Mt Roskill Rose Gardens. The triangle of land was once the site of the Olesen Store, first store in the Three Kings Area, dating from late 1903 (set up to service the nearby Veteran's Home, and later -- in 1906 -- becoming a telephone bureau and postal agency) before work began around 1959-1960 to create Warren Avenue's outlet with Mt Albert Road. So the Mt Roskill Borough Council had the land declared road reserve, bowled the shops that had been there, finished up what they needed to do with Warren Avenue (most of which lies on land once owned as open paddocks by the Ranfurly Home to the left of this image), then created the garden to compliment their new municipal building across on the other side of Mt Albert Road (see below)

The sundial was unveiled in December 1972 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Mt Roskill Borough Council. The plaque at its foot commemorates the start in March 1988 of a 10 year project by Mt Roskill Rotary Club to raise funds there for Rotary Polio Plus humanitarian project, that plaque unveiled by the Governor General Sir Paul Reeves.

As happens with some nice things in our city, the top of the sundial is missing today, probably due to brass & copper thieves. Hopefully, with the rise of the local historical society to raise awareness of the district's heritage, that will be sorted out in the future.

The foundation stone for the Mt Roskill Municipal Chambers was laid in 1956, with the building finished in 1957, then added to over the years. In the 1990s it came to be the offices for Metrowater, and with the amalgamation in 2010 to the Super City, it came to house some council departments, as well as the Puketapapa Local Board. Then, last month, things got rather mouldy in there.

Around the back of the Fickling Centre is a gathering of volcanic rock in still and muddy water, surrounded by more rock. This is actually a water feature, "Three Kings Waterscape", donated by the Mt Roskill Rotary Club in 1985. The Club fundraised to help complete the Fickling Centre itself.

But what I was heading for was the old Three Kings pumphouse.

The Mt Roskill Municipal Band were granted sole use of the pumphouse building for their practices back in 1958. According to the Auckland City Brass website, their successors still call it home. Pity, then, that the old Auckland City Council sign (you can just see the last peeling remnants of the logo) hasn't been upgraded and replaced.

The Mt Roskill Road Board formed a Water and Gas Committee in 1899, and initially sourced the district's water supply from the One Tree Hill reservoir. Then, in 1911, the Board called in water diviner and Anglican minister Rev Harry Mason, who determined by early 1912 that "an underground river or reservoir of water would be found under the three Kings Hills."

Successful test bores later that year, producing 1000 gallons per hour, convinced the Board that Three Kings was a grand place to build their pumphouse. Construction was approved in 1915.

Trouble was, along came Mt Albert's typhoid outbreak in 1922 (which I studied in Wairaka's Waters).  That a small-scale municipal pumping station, using volcanic spring water, was involved in the outbreak convinced the powers-that-be in the Public Health Department back then to urge that the Road Board in Mt Roskill shut everything down at Three Kings, and sell the disused assets.

The Road Board shut things down -- but they didn't knock the building down. Instead, they adapted it, adding a kitchen, ladies' cloakroom and a porch to the northern wall (see image below). The pumphouse became Roskill's first community hall, where dances, parties, social gatherings, local theatrical productions -- all the things that helped knit together a community -- took place.

The Auckland Boxing Club used the building in the 1950s, under the brass band took over. The Mt Roskill Borough Council restored the building in 1988.

And -- here's part of the interior of the Fickling Centre, where the Mayor Len Brown and other dignitaries spoke at the official re-opening. The Centre opened in 1976-1978, but it was felt recently that it needed a bit of a revamp ($2.9M worth, according to the Mayor today), and extensions to the library. Well, yes, the library has more space, shared with the local Citizens Advice Bureau, and the new panelling in the interior looks nice, but -- when the air conditioner turned itself on while the speeches were being made, the ducts rumbled as if heavy rain hammered on the roof. Unless you've got a strong set of pipes, even with a microphone, you run the risk of being drowned out by the rumbling.

Still, there are new touches. Orange, said to represent lava (this is on part of the now nearly all gone Three Kings volcanic zone).

Green for, um  -- well, growth, I think. Couldn't quite hear due to the air conditioning ...

Yellow kowhai flower detail on sliding doors, to symbolise the tree they say is found along the Manukau coastline from Waikowhai to Lynfield.

Plus the wooden pole entryways, reflecting the pa on Puketapapa or Mount Roskill. Perhaps uncarved pou?

The centre was originally named after Richard (Dick) Fickling, Mayor of Mt Roskill Borough from 1974-1987, and 31 years on the council. Fickling Hall opened in 1978, named after him. Mt Roskill, in the days of the Borough Council, has a tradition of naming rooms, buildings and streets after living, and in many cases still-serving at the time, mayors and councillors of the borough.

Anyway, well done to Mt Roskill for their revamped Fickling Centre and library. Wonderful to see so much heritage displayed today in the latter. Now, if Auckland Council could see their way clear to doing something about the (older) Avondale library ...