Avondale's postal history

Since the first days of European settlement in Auckland, the postal system has been a vital connection between what was once one of the furthest corners of the British Empire, and the outside world beyond the waters of the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours.

Prior to 1863, the postal service was represented in the Whau District by a landing place beside the first of the Whau River bridges, approximately where the present-day crossing of the river by the Great North Road. Here, mail for West Auckland was brought in by boat, off-loaded, then taken by track into the bush-clad wilderness.

1863 is the first recorded date for a postal agency in the Whau Township, in a small store and butcher’s shop situated near the corner of the present Rosebank Road and Elm Street, run by a Mrs Myers. The only other buildings of note in the township in those days were at opposite ends of the moral spectrum to the settlers: the Presbyterian Church (now St Ninians) and the Whau Hotel at the corner of Rosebank Road and the Great North Road.

According to researcher Mike Butler, there were four Whau district postmasters in the period from 1865 to 1871: Charles Cooper, L H Holloway, J Holloway, and S McCallum. It is likely that these were also the succeeding proprietors of the general store.

Mail was despatched from the Whau Bridge on a weekly basis by 1866, the river still the main transport route despite a daily run from town and back by the horse bus service of the time. In 1871 the post office was transferred to George Thomas' store at the northern corner of Great North  Road and St Jude Street, with William Morris serving as postmaster there from 1872 to 1877.

Some years later George Thomas (owner of the store) took over the postal duties again from 1877 to 1881. The transport of mails from the city was maintained by a daily wagonette along the still unmetalled Great North Road. Mails for Henderson were made up at Avondale and taken on by a four-wheeler, driven by Miss Jenny Hassell, (later married as Mrs Osborne, of Freemans Bay).

According to M.P. Mr. H.G.R. Mason in his speech at the opening of the Avondale Post Office in August 1938, the two first post office stores were later removed to Elm and Ash Streets, and were converted into dwellings that were still in use in 1938. In 1880, following the completion of the railway to Avondale, the post office was combined with the railway station, and the dual duties were undertaken by Mr. J Leach (1881-1884). From that date onwards the mails were transported by rail.

Eight years later, on May 15, 1888, the first letter carriers’ delivery was made on horseback by Ben Bollard, son of then Chairman of the Avondale Road Board District John Bollard. The delivery extended to the Mental Hospital, to Mount Albert, to the end of Rosebank Road, to a quarter of a mile beyond the Whau Bridge, and to Blockhouse Bay and New Lynn. For some reason, this service was suspended to Blockhouse Bay (Avondale South) and New Lynn from 12th July that year, until settlers had a fairly heated meeting in Avondale on 4 September and petitioned the Chief Postmaster, a Mr. Biss, to resume deliveries.

“The postman received £15 a year,” Mr Mason said, “and had to provide and keep two horses! He was also required to deliver telegrams as a part of his ordinary duties.”

The next postman had been Mr Sam Astley, and shortly afterwards Mr Leach was succeeded as combined stationmaster and postmaster by H F Howard (1884–1885), H Bell (1885–1889), Amos Eyes (1889–1900), and W A Ridgeley (1900–1906). In 1902 Mr Duncan Ingram took over the duties as postman. “In the summer and autumn the inward telegram traffic was heavy,” Mr Mason said “as the local growers received the normal advices as to the trend of priced for their produce. At this time the population consisted mainly of market gardeners, fruit growers and employees of the brick works. There were comparatively few city workers living there, but when workers’ fares were inaugurated on the trains shortly afterwards at a rate of 2/- a week the residential development became more rapid, and the horse bus service was discontinued.”

The last two men who combined the duties of stationmaster and postmaster were Mr Joshua Hutchinson (1906-1907) and Mr Charles Moon (1907-1912). On February 13, 1912 the post office relocated from Avondale railway station to the Avondale Hotel building at the Five-Roads intersection (modern-day Avondale Roundabout).

Telephones were another addition to the services provided by the Post Office in the early 20th century. The manual exchange was housed in the Post office itself from 1912 until 1938. (In 1940, a purpose-built telephone exchange was completed on the corner of Geddes Terrace and St Judes Street. Telecommunication services were split from the Post Office in 1987 as an State Owned Enterprise (SOE), and privatised as Telecom New Zealand in 1990.)

“A remarkable expansion had been recorded in the postal business from 1912 to 1938”, said Mr Mason. The postmaster had been Mr Ernest D Thompson, appointed February 1912. Mr Charles B McIsaac, appointed December 10, 1921, Mr John Brookes, appointed June 10 1924, and Mr John G McGregor, the then postmaster in 1938, who was appointed April 29, 1929.

On the day of general elections, the results as they came through to the post office would be posted up on a sheet hung from the former hotel’s verandah, to be seen by crowds congregating beneath the verandah of the Page’s Building just across the road. The first public toilet was available at the post office (in 1916 the Road Board tried to take this convenience over, but were unsuccessful).

The postal service in May 1926 was “inadequate”, according to the Avondale Borough Council, as box clearance was not completed in time for dispatch to the city. The council urged a clearance by 6.30 a.m. in time for the 7 a.m. train. The next month the postmaster replied, saying that clearances were by 8.30 pm, in time for dispatch on the evening trains.

The moves to get a new, purpose-built post office for Avondale began on September 25, 1935, when Mr C H Speakman started a petition which was signed by 500 Avondale residents, pointing out that the building then in use, was not centrally situated, and that inconvenience was caused to business firms and residents. It was felt, in view of the development of the district, that a new building was necessary. The petition was sent to the then Postmaster-General, the Hon. F Jones, stating that a decision had been made to erect a modern building. The building was completed and opened on 19th August 1938, the architect Mr. S. L. Piper. builder J A Penman & Sons, at a cost of £4295 plus £112 for the tiled roof.

In 1974, the Government recognised the limited space available at the old Post Office Building, taking the land owned by local real estate agent John Stackpole on a site between Crayford Street and St Judes Street under the Public Works Act. In 1977, and again in 1980, the planned closing of the old Post Office for a new one at the other end of the town sparked some controversy, the Avondale Business Association at the time concerned over the competition of one side of Avondale’s shopping centre with the other.

The new building was completed in 1984, with a function for 200 guests entertained by pupils at Avondale Primary School before walking from the school sport’s field along to the new Post Office. This was originally designed to house both the postal and Post Bank branches. But, during the 1990s, the Post Bank branch was moved out and into other premises elsewhere in Avondale, leaving the postal counters for some time a lonely sight in the vastness of the interior until a more recent redesign into the form of the current PostShop format. With the introduction of KiwiBank in mid 2002, the limited space has once more had to be shared with the new operation.

In these times of Internet access and the ease of email over that of the letter, the postal service still remains part of the landscape of Avondale, the current PostShop still a meeting place of sorts for the community, whether stopping for a chat outside the post boxes, or running into your neighbour in the one feature that hasn’t changed over the years: the queue.

Jan Grefstad : Fascinated by Movies

Originally written as an obituary in 2002.
Image from Waitakere News, 11 March 1993.

At 6 am, 9 August 2002, in Auckland Hospital, local resident Jan Grefstad passed away after suffering a heart attack the night before.

For over 36 years, he was an integral part of the life and times of Avondale, as the manager/owner of the world-famed Hollywood Cinema on St Georges Road. Thanks to Jan we have still been able to go down to the local “flicks”, to laugh and cry or simply have a wonderful time watching our very own silver screen, despite the ravages of television, videos and other more-modern entertainment. He had a passion for the cinema, and he shared that passion with us all.

Jan told the Western Leader in 1975 that at the age of nine, living in Green
Bay, he used to supplement his pocket money by making “films” from cartoon figures stuck on rolls of paper, showing them to his friends for a penny a time.

“I’ve always loved going to the pictures,” he said. “When I was a kid, going to the Saturday matinee was my big treat. I got so involved that I began making my own versions of movies. I had a toy projector made from cardboard called a kinescope. It was really for showing postcards, but I wrote scripts, used pictures from magazines and comics to illustrate them, and made my own entertainment. A couple of friends started making films as well and we used to swap them. We copied the movies we had seen and gave ours credits, titles – the works.”

The young Jan Grefstad made himself well-known to the manager of Blockhouse Bay’s own cinema, the Kosy (now the site of Foodtown supermarket), begging for posters or anything else he could make use of. Jack Ofsoke allowed him to help sell tickets on a Saturday, in return for which he got to see the film for free. Later on, he was paid $1 as well.

At 18, while the Kosy’s new manager was in Australia, Jan was in charge for a time. However, he entered Teacher’s Training College, then on graduation taught at Arahoe School in New Lynn, becoming one of the first teachers to have his class making films.

Then, in early 1966 Jan heard that the old Grosvenor Theatre in Avondale was available for anyone to take over the lease with Auckland City Council. In those days, the Grosvenor had a reputation as “a bit of a dive”, and faring poorly against the competition from television which kept the public at home rather than go out to the movies.

“One day,” according to Jan from his history of the Avondale cinema (2001), “Ray (Melrose) asked me if I would like to run the Grosvenor in partnership with himself, as he knew Bruce (Anderson) wanted to give up the business. I agreed and we entered an agreement with Selwyn Hayward to take over on a managerial agreement.”

He took over on 1st March 1966, painted it inside, put carpet in the foyer, lights in the toilets, renamed the cinema “Hollywood”, and ran the cinema until his death. His opening film on March 11 1966 was 55 Days in Peking, a blockbuster to highlight a gala charity event for the Lynndale Athletic Club raising money for young athletes.

In 1969, he equipped the Hollywood with central heating, the local press calling the cinema “Avondale’s Newest Hotspot.” From 1971 to 1974, Jan Grefstad was the president of the Avondale Businessmen’s Association, and campaigned with Charles Funnell for Council to make improvements to Avondale. He was also involved with the Avondale Community Committee and Avondale Citizens Advice Bureau.

In 1974, deciding that there was a market for “golden oldie” movies, Jan transformed a disused warehouse on Queen Street into the Classic Cinema. Difficulties with the Film Licensing Authority regarding special film licences (it was felt that there were enough cinemas in Auckland) led to him forming a cinema club which people flocked to join. Auckland’s first independent cinema in four decades opened in October of that year with a charity premiere of Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer organised by the Kiwanis Club of Avondale.

The Mighty Wurlitzer was restored and came to be installed at the Hollywood between 1979 and 1981 with Jan Grefstad’s help, and members of the Wurlitzer Organ Trust of Auckland have conducted concerts there ever since.

In 1980 Jan started showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, fixing the Hollywood as a firm favourite with all Aucklanders, and making the Hollywood famous.

On October 31 1999 the Hollywood celebrated 75 years of showing movies to the public of Avondale, West Auckland and beyond. Jan celebrated his own anniversary there of 35 years in March last year.

For some time, he had been researching for an intended history on the picture theatres of Auckland. Jan Grefstad was a man who had a keen eye for history and how precious heritage is, whether it was concerning his beloved cinema and movies in general, or the wider field of local history. He was a keen supporter of both the Avondale Historical Journal, the new Avondale-Waterview Historical Society, and offered me much encouragement regarding my own research into the history of Avondale Central, the forthcoming Heart of the Whau.

His enthusiasm, drive and infectious passion for Auckland’s cinematic history, and his cheerful optimism regarding Avondale’s future, will be greatly and sadly missed.

Image from Western Leader, 25 February 1992.

S. Vaile land agent photo

Does anyone out there recognise this?

I was given this photo by good friends who weren't exactly sure why they had it. The window advertises "Farms for Sale" in Auckland, Pukekohe, Hamilton, and Te Kuiti. The name above Samuel Vaile's name on the side-sign is, I think, E. C. Phillipps. One thing: it isn't Avondale (darn it!)

Any ideas -- I'd love to hear them.

When Our Racecourse Went to the Dogs

It’s interesting how unusual enquiries can lead to new information on an area’s history. One day in 2005, I received an email from Shirley Rolfe, a member of a South Auckland whippet club, asking about an “Avondale Cup” a member of her club had been given by a relative. The top of the cup has the figure of man with two dogs, both dogs caught at the moment of full stretch at a run. Near the bottom of the cup is a plate reading: “Avondale Cup 1894, won by J. Appleby’s Rambler”. Shirley wondered if the cup was to do with racing whippets.

I was aware at the time of a well-known photograph in the Auckland Central Library’s collection showing racing dogs and their owners outside the Avondale Hotel during Mr. Stych’s time (so, mid-to-late 1890s), but Shirley advised that the photo wasn’t of whippets, but their larger cousins the greyhounds. And that’s where it ended – a photo of an intriguing cup, a name, and some mystery.

Late last year, while I was looking for something else entirely in newspapers from the 1890s, I found this from 1897:

“Auckland Coursing Club. Nominations for the May Meeting Close at the Club’s Office, Vulcan Lane, To-Night (Friday) at 9 o’clock. Harry H. Hayr, Secretary.”

The name Harry Hayr made me sit up and take notice. He was the first secretary of the Avondale Jockey Club, an office he held for 23 years. Suddenly, there was a likely connection between dog racing and our racecourse. I dug further, and found that the Auckland Coursing Club had started sometime during the 1880s, their first meetings held in places like Papatoetoe – farming, rural districts. Coursing itself is an ancient sport, dating back to Egyptian times, and from the 19th century took on new popularity in English-speaking countries. It involved having dogs chase hares in races, but the hares mainly survived. The start of the Auckland season was in May of each year, and it was in May 1894 that I found the earliest report I have so far as to the Avondale dog races, held at the racecourse (an 1897 article confirmed the site):

“The first events of the coursing season were opened at the Avondale Plumpton Park on Saturday afternoon, and although the morning was cloudy and threatening, the weather held up fine during the afternoon … The dogs seemed to be well trained, and gave interesting sport, and the hares were for the most part strong and fast, the result being that in the majority of instances they made good their escape, while in the cases of any hares which were manifestly weak or young, the dogs were not slipped at them, and they were allowed to get away.”

Amongst the list of dogs who ran that day in May 1894 was one Rambler, owned by J. Appleby. A little later that year, he must have won the Avondale Cup with “Rambler” – the next year he raced “Evening Star”, and the year after that “Starlight”.

So, now we know we once we had a “Plumpton Park” on the racecourse, just off Wingate Street, where the hares ran and the dogs chased. All because a cup won 111 years before emerged from out of obscurity, and sparked a hunt of its own.

As for the cup -- as far as I'm aware, it was donated to the Greyhound Association, as part of that organisation's history.

Cyclopedia Photos 5

Photo of the first Terminus Hotel, built c.1882 and destroyed by fire in 1905. (The second Terminus Hotel burned in 1931). Probably closely associated with the completion of the Kaipara line to Helensville.

Cambridge Dairy Association Factory at Hautapu, between Hamilton and Cambridge. A local company established the factory in 1885, and were taken over by Hally and George Watt in 1889. "The buildings, which are of wood and iron, , are erected on freehold property close to the railway station. There are concrete floors throughout, and there are two cool chambers, each 18 feet by 20 feet. The factory has a first rate refrigerating plant, and butter and cheese are made, and bacon is cured and smoked in separate departments. There are two Alpha-Laval separators, each with a capacity of 440 gallons, and of the large quantity of milk passed through daily, half is made into cheese and the rest into butter. The motive power is a six horse nominal Tangye engine. A great deal of bacon is made at the factory, and about 5000 pigs are killed annually. An eight-roomed house for the resident partner stands close to the factory."

The Gordon Creamery, Piako District. Owned by the NZ Dairy Association, it was built in 1897, and its Alexandra separator was capable of treating 300 gallons of milk per hour. Ten suppliers milked from 200-300 cows, with the quantity "steadily increasing" as at 1902. The cream was sent daily to the Waharoa railway station, seven miles away.

At this time, the township of Gordon had 100 inhabitants.

Hauling logs, Kennedy's Bush, Coromandel.




J. R. Hanna photograph: "Bubbles: Young Aucklanders at Play."

Cyclopedia photos 4

Auckland's central police station.



Post and Telegraph Office, Whangarei.

Whangarei High School. Opened in 1881, closed in 1884 due to lack of government funds, then reopened in 1892.

St John's Church, Waimate.

Traveller's Rest Hotel, Waipapakauri. Established 1890 by Joseph Evans, it was reported to be well-patronised both by commercial travellers passing through the district, and gumdiggers.

Lester Brothers' Store, Kohukohu, on the Hokianga River. The brothers started their business there in 1892. Robert Lester at first worked for the Kauri Timber Company store at Kohukohu then branched out into his own business. His hobby was orchard work, according to the Cyclopedia, and in 1900 he built a large sanatorium, laying out five acres as a vineyard and orchard.

Cyclopedia photos part 3

Auckland's Opera House, Wellesley and Elliot Streets. Built in 1882, and the only true theatre Auckland had at the time, according to the Cyclopedia writers. "The building is furnished with the latest and most approved appliances for dealing with fire, including a patent hose-wheel, the invention of Superintendent Hughes. This is situated in a convenient position on the stage, so that in case of an outbreak of fire, the water could be turned in any direction at a moment's notice." Today, this is the site of the Smith & Caughey building in the city.

The Southern Cross, issues of which can be accessed today via Papers Past (and are one of the mainstays of historical research I do up to and including 1876) -- was published here. The photographer, according to the caption, was "Dr. Logan Campbell", which makes this doubly interesting. Brown & Campbell had offices and warehouse space in Shortland Street near the Southern Cross offices. It started publication in April 1843, and went down to December 1876, bought out by A. G. Horton of the NZ Herald, and taken over by that newspaper (for a long time, the Herald sub-titled itself as "the Southern Cross").

The interior of John Mitchell Jefferson's shop, corner Upper Symonds Street and Newton Road. A homeopathic pharmacist, Mitchell was the maker of: "... Jefferson's Barberry Bitters, Pectoral Basalt, Children's Cough Mixture, Petroleum Emulsion, Cod Liver Oil Emulsion, Nursery Hair Lotion, Eucalyptus White Oils, and a number of other well known remedies. He also manufactures "Neurol", which is the registered title of a new remedy for headache and neuralgia, infulenza or la grippe, colds and feverishness. "Neurol" is almost tasteless, and is said to contain no preparations of opium or morphia."

Auckland's Turkish Baths. Sometime, I'd like to look at these in more depth - I find mentions of them in Victorian/Edwardian Auckland fascinating. They used to be at the corner of Lorne and Victoria Streets.

"Established 1882. These baths are under the able management of Mr. A. C. Fort, and are well recognised throughout the province as a valuable institution. Some very noteworthy cures have been effected by their aid. One patient received the use of his hands, arms and legs though for over a year previously he had been considered a hopeless rheumatic cripple, having to be moved always by means of a wheel-chair; and even fever cases have been relieved and cured. The manager claims to have cured patients who have received no benefit even from the famous Rotorua treatment. The establishment contains 15 rooms, and all the appliances for Turkish, hot, cold, shower and vapour baths are provided. Mrs Fort attends to the ladies department. The greatest attention is given to cleanliness, and those who have patronised the baths speak of them in the highest terms."

Ambury's Devonshire Dairy Milk Factory, near the corner of Ponsonby and Karangahape Roads. For around 50 years, Ambury's was a major player in the town milk industry around Auckland, and was also the first to develop special Karitane milk for the Plunket Society.

An unusual view of the Auckland Lunatic Asylum at Pt Chevalier. Note they captioned this "Avondale Lunatic Asylum" (I bet John Bollard growled when he saw that, as he was forever trying to convince the media not to associate the Whau, then Avondale district with the asylum -- to no avail). This looks like one of the auxiliary buildings, or a wing of the main building. It isn't the classic frontage shot of the main building, as could be seen from Gladstone (now Carrington) and Great North Roads.

More from the 1902 Cyclopedia

The Ponsonby Naval Artillery from 1897. According to the Cyclopedia, this group formed in 1885, and amalgamated with the Devonport Navals in 1890. This is one of a number of Volunteer Corps set up from just after the Waikato War in the 1860s.

For anyone who has been through the relatively new Britomart Transport Centre -- this was what came before, just in behind the old Chief Post Office building. The Queen Street Railway Station as it was called then occupied the spot which used to be the old Britomart bus terminal. It was replaced later on in the 20th century by the grand Auckland Railway Station along Beach Road. Now, everything, of course, has moved back westward.

"One of the oldest streets in Auckland." I'll accept any and all guesses as to which old street this is.

The old Shortland Street Post Office and Victoria Arcade. Both now gone, the site of another redevelopment. The Post Office was replaced by Jean Batten Place and the government department building more recently called the Jean Batten Building.

St Paul's Church. One of my favourite buildings. Even in 1902, so I see, it had that "unfinished" look about it. As if the architect has the grandest of plans, but the coffers weren't deep enough for it.

1902 Cyclopedia of New Zealand

Some photographs, taken with a camera from off the pages of the 1902 Volume 2 of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand.

"Kawaka, representing Inland Kaipara." As Mad Bush points out in the comments below, this is Kaiwaka (that's what is etched on the photo itself) but in the caption, they missed out the "i".

"Gumdigger's Camp." Not sure where, exactly. My money's on Northland, somewhere.

"Kilbryde, the residence of John Logan Campbell." The Auckland Harbour Board bowled it and the rest of the point for reclamation, and so eventually the Tamaki Drive and souther-eastern Main Trunk Line could be built. Pity -- it was a lovely home, and look at the views! The tourists would go nuts for a place like that.

The Auckland Art Gallery when there wasn't as many buildings in the way.

This one is of the hall at Te Tii Marae at Waitangi. Some info about it, from NZ Historic Places Trust site:

"The original hall built on the site where Te Tii stands today was erected in March 1881, in commemoration of the signing of the Treaty, and was appropriately called “Te Tiriti O Waitangi”. The opening of the Treaty hall was a well-occasioned event, and an excerpt from missionary Henry William’s diary shows that the same issues that concerned Maori in the 1880s still resonate today:

“The meeting was outside by the hall. It lasted about three hours and passed off quietly. The principle talk was for a new Maori Parliament and for the foreshore to be ceded to the Maori.”

Sadly, the Treaty Hall was destroyed by a gale in 1917, so the decision was made to build a new hall in its place."

It's called the Waitangi Treaty House in the photo caption -- this from the days when the Treaty House we know today was slowly rotting away, forgotten.

The death of Maggie Brown: January 1876

From the Southern Cross, 7 January 1876.

On Wednesday afternoon, about half-past four o clock, a fine little girl, named Maggie Brown, aged 12 years (daughter of Mr. Brown, driver of the Whau and Mount Albut 'bus), came to her death by drowning in the Whau Creek. The particulars of the case are as follows ...

About noon, Maggie, with her little brother, went to the creek to play in a flat bottomed boat that had been washed up to the bridge by the late floods. Maggie put her brother in the bows of the boat, and then took off her own clothes and began to push the boat down the mud-flat to the water, and just as she got it to the water's edge (the bank of the channel being rather steep) it shot off into the water, pulling the unfortunate girl forward with such violence, that she fell face down into the water. The little fellow, seeing what had happened, began to shout and cry, which soon brought Mrs. Brown to the spot, who, seeing the cause of alarm, immediately rushed down to where the boat was with all her clothes on, the boat having drifted some little distance.

She was soon up to her neck in the water, but was unable to see anything of Maggie, and after looking about for some time, and thinking that she too might get drowned, encumbered as she was with her clothes, she began to make for the mud-flat again, when she saw her daughter once rise to the surface, face downwards, some distance down the creek.

By this time, assistance had arrived, and diligent search was made for the body all down the creek, but without success, until about five o'clock, when Mr. Woods, boatman, who happened to be up the creek at Mr. Archibald's brickyard, some miles below where the accident occurred, discovered it floating down, and secured it. Information was at once sent into town to the police, and Constable Clark, of Newton, was despatched to the spot.

The sad catastrophe has cast a gloom over all who knew her, as she was much liked. It is to be hoped that the sad end of Maggie Brown will act as a warning to all other boys and girls who are only too ready to play in boats on the water, or at the water edge. An inquest was held yesterday afternoon before Dr. Philson, when the above facts were stated in evidence, and a verdict of Found drowned returned.

Death of the infant Boyd: 1868

The following comes from my file on the Gittos tannery, but doesn't quite fit in to that story. Still, I feel it needs to be seen, even if only to emphasise just how brutally short life in the new colony could be.

From the Evening Post, 12 September 1868:

"A most lamentable accident resulting in loss of life, occurred on Thursday morning [3 September] last, at the Whau. It appears that early on the morning in question, Mrs. Boyd, whose husband is engaged at Mr. Gittos' tannery, at the Whau, went out to milk the cows, leaving her infant, as she supposed, safe in bed. During the absence of the mother, however, the child managed to get out of the bed and crawled to the neighborhood of the fire. By some means the child's nightdress caught fire, and before Mrs. Boyd could render any assistance the poor little creature was dreadfully injured; it was, indeed, so much disfigured that neither features or sex could be at all recognised. The infant lingered until Friday morning, when it expired. We understand that Mrs. Boyd's health has been so much shaken by the dreadful occurrence that doubts are entertained as to her complete restoration."

According to the Southern Cross (8 September), Dr. Hooper was called in only after the kiddy had died, and certified that death had been caused "by injuries received from burning."

The screams must have been terrible ...

Samuel Hayward Ford: NZ’s first resident surgeon

 Photo of Samuel Hayward Ford, courtesy Cally Whitham

When Samuel Hayward Ford died on the 19th of July, 1876, shipping in the harbour at Russell in the Bay of Islands had their flags at half-mast. He had established a hospital in the area in 1858 “for destitute seamen and others”, and it is said that at least two “whaling babies” were born in the Ford household, American “whaling wives” having accompanied their husbands on their round the world voyages. He was well-respected in his community, and his son Ernest Ford would be elected one of the first councillors on the Bay of Islands County Council in 1877.

Born c. 1811, Samuel H. Ford qualified as a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1832, and Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1833, after studying at St Thomas’ in London. He proposed to Martha Wilcox when he was 17 years old, and was rejected, but three years later succeeded with a second proposal in Belgrave Square. They married in December 1834, and the couple initially took up residence in Hampstead.

In 1836, Ford volunteered for service as a medical missionary with the Anglican Church Missionary Society, and arrived at the Paihia Mission Station in 1837. The Fords left Paihia for Te Wahapu in 1842, officially due to Ford’s poor health at the time, but unofficially there may have been problems between himself and Archdeacon Henry Williams. Even so, the two men got along amicably enough, as long as they worked independently of each other. Ford attended the Archdeacon during the latter’s last illness at Pakaraka.

Hone Heke’s war in 1845 meant the Fords had to leave Te Wahapu, although reluctantly, to live in Auckland for a time. From the obituary for Martha Ford in 1894 (NZ Herald), this remembrance of those turbulent times:

“On the day succeeding the sack of Kororareka (of which event and its surrounding circumstances, even when four score, Mrs. Ford had a clear recollection) she received a letter from Hone Heke desiring that she would come to his camp at Uruti, as he desired to see her. A chief named Paumuku had been killed in the previous day’s fight, and one of Heke’s requests was that Mrs. Ford would get the body across to Paihia, so that the deceased chief might be buried at the Paihia Mission station. Mrs. Ford agreed to do so, and got the seamen from the American warship to tow the body over to Paihia, she and some of her children going ahead with a flag.

“While this was going on Dr. Ford was away on board HMS Hazard, attending to Capt. Robertson, who had been wounded in the action. Archdeacon Williams got uneasy at the isolated position of the Fords at Wahapu and sent a boat across to bring them to Paihia. From thence they went on board the North Star, Sir Everard House, commander. Capt. McKeever, of the U.S. St Louis, kindly sent some of his men to bring off as much of their effects as could be saved, and they came to Auckland.

“Mrs. Ford had a kindly feeling towards the memory of Hone Heke. She stated that he was averse to the evacuation and sack of Kororareka, and exclaimed, “Why do you go away? We have no quarrel with you. The settlers should stand aside and let the Maoris and the Queen’s soldiers fight it out.”

In 1849, they returned to the Bay of Islands, and there Ford spent the rest of his life at Russell. Out of 10 children, only Ernest survived into adulthood; four of the others had perished during a scarlet fever outbreak in Auckland in 1848.

His widow Martha outlived him until January 1894, and died at the age of 83.

There are two reasons why Dr. Ford (although, according to A Most Noble Anchorage, A Story of Russell and the Bay of Islands by Marie King, he preferred being addressed as Mister, because he was not a doctor but a surgeon) is of interest to me in terms of Avondale history here in Auckland. His ownership of Crown Grant titles for Allotments 66, 67, 70, 71 and 72 from May 1845 meant that, while John Shedden Adam owned the part of today’s New Windsor that lies south and west of New Windsor Road, Ford owned most of the remainder to the east, as well as Allotment 81 where today’s Miranda and Ruahine Streets wind their way through Housing New Zealand subdivisions between Taylor Street, Wolverton Street, and Blockhouse Bay Road. So Samuel Hayward Ford was an early owner of a considerable amount of Avondale and Blockhouse Bay areas.

The second reason comes from his wife Martha’s family.

Martha’s sister Helena married Lt. Joseph Henry Wright in 1845. He was serving with the First Madras Native Infantry, the son of a chaplain of the East India Company. He later rose to the rank of Major. Helena and Joseph’s son, Martha’s nephew, was Ernest Edward Hamilton Wright (1847-c.1895) who lived in the Bay of Islands and married Sarah Atkinson there in 1873. After a failed attempt to manage a plantation in Fiji, Ernest’s wife and children left him. He was killed by tribesmen in the Solomons.

His eldest son was Reginald Hayward Wright, known last century simply as Hayward Wright in most sources, the horticultural experimenter and businessman who developed the kiwifruit cultivar named after him and a range of other plant types at his nursery on Avondale Road, in Avondale from c.1901 until he retired in the 1940s.

Hayward Wright was therefore the grandnephew-in-law to New Zealand’s first resident surgeon, and one of Avondale’s early landowners.

Sources:
Margaret Edgcumbe, who was the first to tell me about the Ford and Wright connection, and provided me with information on the Wilcox, Ford and Wright families.
Obituaries in the NZ Herald
R E Wright-St Clair, Medical Practitioners in New Zealand From 1840-1930, 2003
Marie King, A Most Noble Anchorage, A Story of Russell and the Bay of Islands, 1992

Rocky Road: The Northern Omnibus Company

In March 1883, a new company published their prospectus in the Auckland Evening Star. The Northern Omnibus Company announced its existence proudly, a first for the Avondale district and quite possibly that of Mt Albert as well. The list of provisional directors was a who’s who of movers and shakers in early 1880s suburban Auckland:

J. M. Alexander; A. Archibald; J. Bollard [Chairman of the Avondale Road Board, and Company Manager, 1883-1884]; J. Buchanan; J. Crawford; W. H. Connell; R. Dakin [owner of the Avondale Hotel]; P. Dignan; J. H. Daubeny; T Faulder; W. Forsyth; R. Garrett [of the Garrett Brothers tannery]; F. Gittos [son of Benjamin Gittos, of the Gittos tannery]; R. C. Greenwood [auctioneer and local land owner]; J. Holmes; N. G. Lennox; W. McColl; J. McElwain; T. Melville; W. L. Mitchell [Chairman 1883-1884]; W. Motion; J. R. Randerson [Secretary 1883-1884]; S. Stuart; A. K. Taylor [former Mt Albert Highway District Chairman, owner of Alberton]; E. Wayte

The prospectus advertisement stated:

“The rapid growth of the City of Auckland and its Suburbs have attracted general notice throughout the colony, and no suburb has made more evident progress than that of the important district of which the New and Great North Roads form the arteries of traffic. Three Omnibus proprietors have been running on these roads for a considerable number of years: but the want of accommodation to meet the increasing requirements of the public has suggested to the promoters, who are fully assured that this Company will not only supply a great public convenience, but also prove a financial success. It is intended not only to provide an increased Omnibus communication for the New North Road, Kingsland, Morningside, Mount Albert, Avondale and New Lynn, but also for Point Chevalier, Arch Hill, and Great North Road.

“The proposal of starting the Company has met with a most favourable reception, and the wide distribution of the shares throughout the District would secure the traffic. The intention of the promoters is to purchase the plant of existing proprietors so that as soon as a sufficient number of shares have been subscribed for, the Company may commence operations. Among the primary objects of the proposed Company are 1) more frequent communication, and 2) fostering the traffic by affording every facility possible for passengers.”

With a depot planned for Avondale, and 4000 shares at £1 each (2000 were issued), the promoters of the Northern Omnibus Company bought out the two existing horse-bus lines from the city to Avondale/New Lynn via Mt Albert, and one to Arch Hill (possibly, one of these was Phipps’). Within three months, however, it became apparent that the way to profit and efficient suburban public transport was rocky indeed.

The NZ Herald reported in July that there had been some complaint from Great North Road residents, and that “the company started with very limited plant, quite unequal to the requirements of the trade.” The company though, managed by John Bollard, planned to increase the Great North Road service to running an omnibus morning and evening, with an extra midday one to the Asylum “to suit the convenience of those who wish to visit their friends at the Institution. Sufficient time will be allowed to enable visitors to return by the same vehicle.” All very well – but the Company was to announce later that month that it was unable to continue with the Asylum service due to the bad state of the Great North Road. “Some of the ruts and holes are positively dangerous.” Later advertisement show that this route was reinstated.

In early February 1884, the NZ Herald told its readers:

“The Northern Omnibus Company have … purchased during the past week a triangular allotment (three-quarters of an acre), opposite Donovan’s Hotel, Avondale, and at the junction of five roads, for £250. It is the intention of the company to put up shortly on it the necessary coaching accommodation, a twenty-stalled stable, and the requisite granaries, etc. By the way, it is not very creditable to the railway authorities that the company is carrying a larger number of people to and fro in the Avondale and Mount Albert districts than the railway itself, and at rates (with the exception of first-class fares) below the railway fares.”

Three months later, however, came crisis. Personality clashes and accusations of mismanagement loomed. Two factions were to emerge – one led by John Bollard, chairman of the Avondale road district since 1868 and land agent, and another championed by John Buchanan, city merchant, local Avondale landowner and elder in the Avondale Presbyterian church. Both men were keen to see their land sold at profit in the district, but they hadn’t been able to see eye-to-eye apparently for quite some time before the Company was formed.

An extraordinary meeting of the company was held at G. D. Smith’s workshop in Morningside on 18 April. Even the location of the meeting was a bone of contention, before the accounts could be presented, with several shareholders condemning the directors for not having it in the Mt Albert Hall. John Buchanan then waded in, accusing the company of losing 20%-25% of the capital. The secretary, J. R. Randerson came under fire for his salary of £1 per week for his services (“Mr Quick said that although he had proposed that the Secretary receive £1 a week, he did not mean the resolution to be retrospective as the Secretary had made it.”)

The Star went on to report:

“Mr. Bollard then made a long statement relative to the management of the Company, in the course of which he condemned the action of the directors. He had been insulted, as manager, and in one instance the directors ordered the discharge of a driver, in consequence of certain complaints about delivery of parcels. He (Mr. Bollard) positively refused to carry out his instruction until an inquiry had been made, and said the directors could dispense with his own services if they liked, but he would not be a party to this injustice.

“Mr. Jno. Buchanan explained why he resigned his position on the directorate. He blamed the other directors for not compelling Mr. Bollard to obey their orders, and said the manager was the cause of the failure. He had eat[en] the vitals out of a company when he knew it was going to the dogs.

“Mr. F. Quick twitted Mr. Buchanan with having tried to sell to the Company a piece of land that had a very small frontage and large back. Mr. Buchanan denied that the land had a small frontage represented by Mr. Quick.

“The Chairman said as the line was not paying the directors had reduced the expenses as far as possible, and had requested Mr. Bollard to resign, but he refused to do so until his year’s engagement expired. Mr. Bollard said a minority only had requested him to resign.

“Mr. Quick said he could run the service for ten years, and could frame a time-table which would make it pay. Mr. Peck thought the fares were too low, and the system of selling tickets in dozen packets should be discontinued. Mr. Quick concurred. In reply to a question, Mr. Bollard said he was willing to place his resignation in the hands of the new directorate.”

The new directorate, elected at that April meeting, came under fire at a July extraordinary meeting of the company shareholders. This time held at the NZI Insurance Buildings, the business was “To pass a special resolution removing the present directors from office, and also to pass a special resolution requiring the company to be wound up voluntarily, and the appointment of liquidators.” Once again, Mitchell had the chair, and was immediately challenged by director C Hesketh who demanded to know whether he had just sold his own shares before the meeting for 10s per share. Mitchell denied this, as no money had been paid. Bollard then stepped in to the fray, asking whether Buchanan had not sold his own shares. The response was “he agreed to do so and signed the transfer, but he found that he would by handing it over be doing a dishonourable thing, and he had it in his own hand (Cries of Oh!).” The matter was then dropped.

The directors’ report was then read out:

“The report of the Directors was a very lengthy one. It stated that soon after they were elected on April 18 last an attempt was made by a certain faction resident in Avondale to thwart and hinder the Directors in endeavouring management of the Company. Mr. Bollard, the then manager, who had, at the extraordinary meeting pledged himself to resign, upon being called upon to do so positively refused, but questioned the legality of the election of Directors, and withheld from them every information regarding the affairs of the Company.

“To still further hamper the Directors a letter was sent to them, claiming for Mr. R. Garrett a continuing seat on the Directory, and that the lowest on the poll [this was S. Stuart] should retire in his favour. Gentlemen in the interest of the opposing faction took advantage of a quibble in law to oust a newly-elected Director from his seat, and the Director had no option but to admit the claim.

“Although Mr. Bollard’s resignation was handed in, and a change of management took place, the efficient working of the Company was at once paralysed when Mr. Bollard and his party caused an extraordinary meeting to be called for the express purpose of removing the directors from office. Later, the resignation of Mr. Garrett was handed in, and accepted.

“The report went on, commencing with a proposal that Mr. Bollard be elected to the vacant seat, and eventually recording the election of Mr. Phipps. Mr. Starkey was next engaged as manager conditionally. The directors believe that in the present manager they have a man who would eventually make the concern a success. Yet the harass and inconveniences in the way have well night determined its operations as one of profit. From the very outset the Company has not earned its expenditure, and the directors are dissatisfied with the management because of the want of economy, &c. In putting a stop to this, they received such persistent opposition that it was impossible to undertake the work of securing stabling on a site at Avondale under favourable terms. The directors concluded by suggesting that the best course to adopt in the interest of all interested was to cause an early and voluntary winding up of the Company.”

The meeting was adjourned until 15 July, at the Mt Albert Public Hall. Hesketh “delivered a lengthy address” stating that the directors since he’d joined them in April had done nothing but wrangle, and a section of them had one sole object: to get rid of Bollard. Hesketh praised Bollard (cheers from those present), and condemned the directors for appointing another manager.

“He denounced as false the allegations against Mr. Bollard that he had given preference to one firm in ordering grain and paying highest market rates, that he had over-fed the horses, and that he had kept too many horses for the sake of getting payment for grazing them in his paddock.”

The discussion came around to the matter of those directors offering to sell their shares. Mitchell, the Chairman, apparently didn’t go through with the April transaction with Hesketh. A Mr. Smith piped up that “anybody could buy his shares at 25s per £, but not for a penny less,” as the business was flourishing. Applause and laughter from those present.

Mr. W. Leys asked if Randerson, the Secretary, had refunded the £25 he’d received for the period before his salary was approved. When told he hadn’t, Leys expressed the opinion that Randerson should be removed from office.

Hesketh had said during his spirited defence of Bollard that “Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Bollard were at war with each other, and he supposed they would be so to the end of their days.” Indeed, Buchanan couldn’t let Hesketh get away with defending Bollard, accusing Hesketh of “unmitigated insolence” in his remarks about the Company’s bad credit. “The Company had been a good milch cow to Mr. Hesketh, and therefore that gentleman was anxious to keep it going, though it was losing £40 per week. He declared that Mr. Hesketh’s speech was altogether misleading.” Buchanan compared himself as a merchant and businessman to Bollard in scathing terms: “Mr. Bollard, “ in his opinion, “was an excellent man as a husband, a father, and a farmer, but as manager of a ‘Bus Company he was a failure.” Cries of “No!” from the audience.

Leys was in favour of forming a new Directorate, and giving Bollard another chance of making the Company pay.

Now, Bollard, a stout, burly man, was in his element – addressing an audience and speaking to the common man.

“Mr. Bollard … replied to the arguments. As to the charge of losing money, he pointed out that the new manager was drawing £10 less per week in fares than he had done. He disposed of the accusations that he kept too many horses in paddock. He alleged that the directors had tried to prevent this meeting being held by endeavouring to engage the hall; they were afraid to face the people of the district (Applause). He said the accounts were “cooked” in a way to induce them to wind up the Company.”

He added that Buchanan’s enmity stemmed from his unsuccessful attempt to sell the company his two-acre section of land as referred to in April, due to Bollard’s opposition.

The motion to wind up the company was lost by 26 votes to 12. The second motion to remove the directors from office passed by 35 votes to 6.

Smith shouted out, amidst loud cheering, “I’ll not sell my shares for 30s now!” Buchanan’s call for a poll came amid confusion and cries of “Half crown proxies.”

It was agreed to buy the shares of the late directors at 10s per £, with a number volunteering to buy them, and “the meeting, which was noisy and protracted, broke up amid the utmost good feeling with cheers for the Chairman.

This is the last meeting report found so far for the company. It fades away in history from 1884, to be replaced by the horse-bus company of Patterson & Co, and later Andrews & Co who organised tourist trips up to Nihotupu in the Waitakere Ranges. The stables on the triangle opposite today’s Mobil Service Station on Great North Road in Avondale apparently burned down in the 1890s, to be rebuilt by contractor Charlie Pooley for his use. The closed company files in Archives New Zealand, however, apparently go down to 1904, so things didn’t necessarily end as early as had been thought.

Update and more information here.

Newtown Zoo, Wellington

Another excerpt from The Zoo War: the early history of Newtown Zoo on Scribd.

Hokianga Historical Society

I bought a book on the history of Russell today, and noticed that it had been published by the Nothland Historical Publications Society. Unfortunately, this society appears to have wound up in 2005.

One of their successors, though, is the Hokianga Historical Society. The site's worth a look, and I'll add it to the links on the side of the blog.

Victor Longuet: another son of France (or Belgium)

According to Lucy Marshall (“Convicts and communists arrive in Auckland,” The New Zealand Genealogist, November-December, 2001, pp. 396-398), Victor Longuet had advertisements placed in the New Zealand Muse, a cultural magazine put out by former Communards who had come to Auckland in 1880. Whether he himself was a former Paris 1871 uprising communard is unclear -- he may have arrived before the main 1880 arrival which caused a considerable stir in the city. He was a hairdresser by trade when he purchased 20 acres alongside what was briefly the Rayer vineyard from Robert Greenwood. He was only there until 1885.

On 28 January 1884, he rose from his bed in his Avondale home, had breakfast, then went out with his servant to start chasing the farm's horse for a journey into town. While the two were out on the paddocks, they noticed that the 4-roomed house was ablaze. It burned to the ground, destroying all contents. Although there was insurance, Longuet lost heavily, and this may be the reason why he sold the property the following year to Harvey William Batkin.

The Batkin family were to remain there for 20 years, during which time the road laid out by Robert Greenwood in his original 1880 plan for the subdivision of Allotment 66 was taken over by the Crown in 1891 (it remains as Crown property today) and the name Batkin's Road applied because, well, it leads from New Windsor Road to what was once the Batkin farm at the end and to the left, facing the Oakley Creek. It was further subdivided after the Batkin family's period there, around 1910. The end of Methuen Road passes through.

M. Francois Rayer: Avondale's French Connection

A barricade in the Paris Commune, March 18, 1871. Source: Hachette Biblio College, Les Miserables. Via Wikipedia.

Posterity is left with two tantalising pieces of information about a Frenchman in the 1880s who came to settle in Auckland and chose a patch of ground on which to be a winegrower or vigneron somewhere close to Mt Albert and present-day New Windsor.

Taking the left side of the road above Mr. Gallagher’s farm, we came to the section lately purchased by Mr. Stewart, of the Thames Hotel, 25 acres in extent, taken up a couple of years ago, and laid down in grass; adjoining is that of Mr. Beaumont, 15 or 20 acres, just ploughed, and beyond that again the section of Mr. Longuet, where clearing and fencing is going on, and then comes the extensive vineyard of M. Rayer, some 12 acres in extent, with as much more yet to bring under cultivation.

(NZ Herald, 24 June 1882)

THE MOUNT ALBERT VINEYARD

On several occasions we have drawn attention to the efforts being made in the Mount Albert district to establish vine growing for wine making on a scale which will go far to settle the question as to the suitability or otherwise of this industry for the district around Auckland. The experiment is being carried out by Mr. Rayer, a skilled French vine grower.

The situation of the vineyard is not such that the majority of Auckland settlers would have chosen for such an enterprise. The site chosen is on the slope of land at the back of Mount Albert, on the rolling land stretching onto the blockhouse at the Whau. The surface soil is a clayey loam, resting upon a not unkindly free yellow-brown clay. The situation the vineyard occupies exposes it to the sweep of the south-western winds, as they come up from the Manukau, but Mr. Rayer says he has nothing to fear from any winds which prevail in Auckland. Far stronger winds blow in France, but even there no injury is sustained by the vines from this cause …

He is satisfied that the Auckland climate supplies … [equable climate] conditions … On this account Mr. Rayer is of opinion that the Auckland district will produce wine in greater abundance acre for acre than either France or Australia … These are certainly encouraging prospects and it is to be hoped that Mr. Rayer will be enabled to carry his experiment to a successful termination. He is at present unable to give an opinion as to the particular flavour (or bouquet as he called it) the Auckland-grown wines may develop, but he has no doubts as to the ripening of the grapes, and the abundance of wine which will be yielded.

The land purchased by Mr. Rayer is 22 acres in extent, about 15 or 16 acres of which is a clayey loam, and the balance rich volcanic flat, subject, however, to a super-abundance of water in the winter season. This, however, can easily be cured by blowing out a narrow ledge of rock which crosses the creek a short distance below the boundary of his land. A few acres of this flat have been sown in oats for oaten hay this season, but the vines are as yet all planted on the clayey loam, nearer the road than this flat. Fifty thousand vines are permanently planted out, at varying distances of three to five feet apart, besides a little over three thousand rooted plants, which will be planted out at the proper season. The vines are of different ages, some being planted only last season. A few of the older ones are bearing, and all are being trained in the bush form. They are all healthy looking though not yet making the rapid growth of wood which well rooted plants invariably do here…

Upon the whole Mr. Rayer is well satisfied with the prospects before him. This year he expects to make twenty or thirty gallons of wine merely as a sample of what can be done, but next year he anticipates to have a considerable quantity. Beneath his dwelling-house he has excavated a cellar where the wines will be made and matured. This cellar is of sufficient size to enable him to carry on operations for three years, by which time an opportunity will be afforded of testing the results of the enterprise.

(Auckland Weekly News, 20 January 1883)

M. François Rayer (c.1831-1883) seemed at the time of the Weekly News reporter’s visit, to be a shining example of a great horticultural and business experimenter – establishing a fully-fledged wine-making industry in Auckland. Within weeks, however, Rayer was dead and buried in Symonds Street cemetery. That alone would have made his story interesting: New Windsor may well have been covered by vineyards, had he lived and the project continued, up until the last quarter of the 20th century, judging by the development patterns of the Henderson area where thriving vineyards were also (later) established.

But – Rayer was also a convicted Communard, a former political prisoner, a participant in the Paris Commune uprising of 1871, sentenced along with thousands of others to penal servitude at New Caledonia when the uprising was crushed. Rayer was present at a series of events in the French capital which were to have a major impact on the political history of Europe.

Much has been written about the 1871 Paris Commune, which took place immediately after France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The Auckland press in 1880 called those from the commune “communists”, but the people themselves preferred to be known as “communialists”, to differ from the socialists and nihilists. The political prisoners on New Caledonia were pardoned from 1879, and were made a generous offer: as deportés, they had an option to either return to France or head for anywhere in the Australasian colonies at the expense of the French Government. Other prisoners, common criminals, were known as ticket-of-leave men. They were forever banished from France or any of her colonies – and to get elsewhere, they had to pay their own way.

A mixture of the two classes of former prisoners, 24 in all, sailed from Noumea in January 1880 to Onehunga in the Griffen, on a voyage which should have lasted just 10 days – instead, with bad weather, it took 30 days to reach New Zealand. Almost as soon as they touched Onehunga’s shore, the news spread of their arrival, and the papers blared that it was “The French Invasion.” The Auckland Evening Star did differentiate between the political prisoners and the ordinary criminals (the former not nearly as bad as the latter in their opinion), and most of the fuss over the next days was over whether France continued to intend to use New Zealand, or any British colony for that matter, as a dumping ground for their “dregs”.

Of the deportés, the Star found that their language skills in English were on the whole poor to non-existent.

A reporter from this office interviewed about a dozen of the Communists at Onehunga, while they were awaiting the arrival of the 1 o’clock train from the wharf. Some of their number had gone to Auckland early in the morning, and had returned to report progress. They appeared very anxious to ascertain the chances of employment, and made diligent inquiries with respect to the state of the market. None of them could speak English, and they seemed keenly sensible of the disadvantage at which this fact placed them. One gentleman who acted as a spokesman for the rest unearthed from the inmost recesses of a leather satchel a well thumbed French and English dictionary, and exhibited it with great satisfaction, although he sorrowfully explained that he had not a sufficient knowledge of the grammatical structure of the language to be enabled to derive much assistance from the volume.

(Auckland Evening Star, 18 February 1880)

By the time another vessel, the Sovereign of the Seas, arrived with more ex-convicts from Noumea the following month, Aucklanders had more or less settled on accepting that a new, small wave of immigration was taking place. After all, former Communards had arrived years earlier, via London, but because they had entered in dribs and drabs, no one created the fuss which occurred in February.

François Rayer when he arrived was described on a list of the deportés compiled at the Auckland Police Station and later submitted to Parliament as being 50 years of age, 5ft 4in in height, medium build, with a dark complexion and grey eyes. His hair was dark, tinged with grey, he had a full moustache, slight beard and whiskers. His general appearance was described as smart. According to records, he had worked as a contractor (possibly on Noumea), but in Paris he had been a wineseller. Almost everything else known about Rayer is sketchy at best.

What he was doing in Auckland from 1880-1883 is uncertain. There is a possibility however that he was at the New Windsor property as early as 1880, given that the Weekly News described the vines planted by January 1883 as being of varying ages. Rayer never owned the land he worked at New Windsor. Part of Allotment 66 of the Parish of Titirangi, it had been sold by Robert Greenwood to a solicitor, John Benjamin Russell, in May 1882. It was Lot 10 on Plan No. 131. Rayer comes into the picture, taking out a lease from Russell for Lot 10 in July 1882 – then, two months later, transferring the lease to Graves Aickin (Auckland chemist, politician and nephew of Dr. Thomas Aickin), Henry Brett (proprietor of the Auckland Star), and John Chambers (an Auckland merchant). So curiously, at the time of the Weekly News article, even the lease was no longer in his name.

Map from DP 131, LINZ records.

The Weekly News and the Star published concerns about his failing health before he died. On 3 March 1883, the following death notice appeared in the NZ Herald:

RAYER – Décédé hier, l’Hôspital Provincial, François Rayer, agé de 52 ans, natif de France.
L’enterrement aura lieu aujourd’hui, 3 Mars, á 4 heures après midi. Le cortège se réunira devant l’Hospital. Le members de la Société Littéraire Française sont invités á vouloir lui render les deroiers honneurs.

“His death,” the Star stated, “at the present time is much to be regretted, when the success of the experiment at vine growing for wine making purposes depended upon his knowledge and skill.”

All the French residents in Auckland are said to have attended the funeral in Symonds Street, along with members of the French Literary Society. “The Secretary of the Society“ the Weekly News reported, “placed on the coffin a crown of flowers, ornamented with the French national colours, and the cortege proceeded to the burying yard, where the Rev. Mr. Dudley read the burial service. M. A. Villeval [another former Communard], in the name of the French residents and of the Literary Society, made a short speech, in which he referred to M. Rayer’s humble but useful career, and bade him adieu.”

Sources:
Verna E. (Ching) Mossong, “The Communists are Coming!”, The New Zealand Genealogist, January-February, 1980, pp. 504-505
Christine Liava’a, “French Convicts in New Zealand”, The New Zealand Genealogist, September-October, 2001, pp. 323-325
Lucy Marshall, “Convicts and communists arrive in Auckland,” The New Zealand Genealogist, November-December, 2001, pp. 396-398
Land Information New Zealand records
Auckland Evening Star, Auckland Weekly News, NZ Herald, Papers Past.

1908 City of Auckland Map

Auckland City Archives have recently launched a searchable online version of the 1908 City of Auckland. History of the map's creation is included. Follow the link.

Catholic Church history in Avondale

In 2004, Jack Dragicevich (a very good friend of mine, and fellow member of the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society) put together an article for the Avondale Historical Journal called "To Serve Them All My Days", the story of the Avondale Catholic church. He has given me permission this morning to publish his article on Scribd (thanks, Jack.)

You'll find it here: To Serve Them All My Days.

A bush scene from somewhere, somewhen

My dear friend over at Mad Bush has seen this image before:

I've decided to give this one to Special Collections as well. It's in a bad way, quite faded. At least they'll be able to provide the right atmospheric storage conditions.

Some details from the photo follow:

Miscellaneous photos

Last of the Armanasco collection.



This one is unknown location, as is the next.



Mission Bay.



This was was labelled "Kaitia". Could it be Kaitaia?

Brigham's Creek

More from the Armanasco collection. Building in Brigham's Creek.