Another visit to Symonds Street cemetery

Some more graves from the Wesleyan/Anglican section of the cemetery.

The plaque, at the gate to the steps leading down to the cemetery:

City of Auckland

Grafton Bridge

Passersby are reminded that below this bridge reposes the honoured remains of many Pioneer Settlers whose enterprise and endurance through many difficulties and during troublous times laid the foundations upon which the progress and prosperity of this City and Provincial District have been built.

On the other post, the Grafton Bridge 1910 plaque.

Thomas Howard Kirkham, possibly a sawmill foreman, died 27 April 1880, nearly three months after the death of his 8 month old daughter Bertha, also buried here.

This one, shadowed by the bridge, is simple "R D, 1879".

We do have more on Stephen Edward Hughes, however.

Many of our readers will regret to learn of the death of Mr Stephen Hughes, of the well known firm of Hughes and George, solicitors, Auckland, which took place yesterday. The deceased gentleman was born in Rochester, England, in October, 1821, and was consequently in his 66th year. He arrived in Auckland in 1840, but in 1846 returned to England, and was married to his present wife. In 1850 he came back and finally settled in Auckland, and after a short time was appointed clerk to the Provincial Council, which post he held for some years. After that he joined the staff of the Southern Cross newspaper, which he subsequently left to study the law under the late Mr Wm.. Bracey, Mr Edwin Hesketh studying with him in the same office. He was admitted to the bar in 1862, and was joined by Mr George in 1876, forming,the well known firm of Hughes and George. Tha late Mr  Hughes was a member of the General Anglican Synod.

Thames Star 31 May 1887

Abel Goldsworthy, formerly of Redruth in Cornwall, just simply dropped dead in Queen Street one day in 1872.

An inquest was held yesterday at the Claricarde Hotel, before T M Philson, Esq., coroner, and a respectable jury, on the body of Abel Goldsworthy, whose sudden death we announced in our yesterday's issue.

The first witness called was Stephen Catran, who, being sworn, deposed : I am a miner, residing at the Thames. I have known the deceased for the last six and a-half years. He was a miner. He was a single man about 33 years of age. By appointment I met deceased on Sunday morning last at about 10.20. We started from the Royal Mail Hotel, and walked up and down Queen-street. I noticed nothing unusual in his appearance. He told me he felt very well, a few minutes after 12 o'clock. We were then at the corner of Queen- and Victoria-streets, speaking of an appointment we had in the afternoon. Deceased suddenly said, "I'm off, Steve." I caught him in my arms as he fell backwards. A crowd soon gathered. A man — who I afterwards learnt was named Shepperd — and who somebody said was a doctor, looked at deceased, and said he was dead. This was about five minutes after he fell. A table was brought, and we laid him upon it. Froth was coming from his mouth. When he took the fit I noticed that his face became very red, and his neck was very much swollen. Mr. Nankervis went for a doctor, who arrived about ten minutes afterwards. He pronounced deceased to be dead. He was then conveyed to his home. He had not been drinking. He had a fit on Saturday. Dr. Sam gave him a prescription  he did not get it made up. The deceased has a sister residing at Ballarat. His mother and another sister reside in England. No one bled deceased whilst on the table. He had a deposit receipt for over £300 and a £20 note upon him when he died. The police took charge of them.

H 0 Nankervis deposed to having seen the deceased on the morning previous to his death, when he described to him his feelings when in the fit on Saturday. He aho said he often felt a pain in his left side. He had not been drinking to witness's knowledge.

Dr Hooper deposed to having, at the request of the jury, made a post mortem examination of the body. He was of opinion that death had resulted from disease of the heart.

Dr. Seth Sam deposed to the deceased having met him on Saturday last, and having asked for a prescription, which he gave him. He had since heard that it had not been used. Witness believed death had resulted from heart disease.

The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony to the effect that deceased had died from disease of the heart.

Southern Cross 16 April 1872

One nice thing on the headstone are the words: "Erected by his mates, Martin Cateren and Bros."

The stone is so badly weathered, I hadn't a hope of determining who is this.

John and Mary Frances Eales, of 6 Grove Road, Mill End in London, lost their youngest son John, aged just 22.

Symonds Street's tram stop toilets

The Grafton Bridge had just been completed in 1910 -- and so, to help those in need of shelter while waiting for the tram along Symonds Street, Auckland City Council built this beside the new bridge that year: the Symonds Street tram stop and toilet.

Hard to get a good shot of it in all its glory these days. It took a while to wait for enough buses and cars to leave the scene between the toilets and the other side of the road.  This was a lucky attempt. A second later, it was back to traffic jam again.

A visit to Jomac Place

Seeing as I was down Rosebank way, taking photographs of traffic control boxes and old dairies, I decided to walk a bit further, and visit Jomac Place, before much of the industrial zone development hides the landscape forever.

Readers of Timespanner will already be aware of my feelings about the name "Jomac Place." I see, just to emphasise things, this is one of the few streets in Auckland with not one, but two street signs. Just in case you forget the name. As if ...

Of course, by far the most famous part of the Jomac Place landscape are two trees -- the oak (left) and the pohutukawa (right).

The pohutukawa at the moment is the one at most risk. It's been the subject of appeals, submissions, voluminous reports, hearings, many inches of newspaper comment and aggrieved letters, and (at the time of writing) is still subject to a planned Environment Court hearing where the developer wants it gone, and the Tree Council plus locals from Avondale say no. A stragly old tree causing a lot of paperwork (which, in turn, means more trees getting the chop to provide the paper, but ...)

Its companion oak is at less risk, but there are concerns for it should the pohutukawa get the chop, and ensuing works at the development impact on the rootspace for the tree.

Meanwhile, the developer seems fond of trees in other places. More have been planted beside the footpaths along the new road.

This used to be ploughed land, where cabbages grew. Today, before the rest of the development takes hold, it is full of weeds, sparrows darting about, and white butterflies. You can almost imagine it back in its heyday as a market garden. Indeed, this, the Connell-Copsey family holdings, was the last of the great market gardens on the peninsula.

So, there we have it. I guess in a couple of years, I might wander on down to see all the wild green disappeared, tamed perhaps in manicured verges and tiny lawns in from of office and light industrial buildings. It's anyone's guess, at the moment, whether the two most famous trees in Avondale will survive.

End of the large Coke can on Rosebank

I'd been alerted over the weekend that the well-known Avondale landmark was going to be removed from above the verandah of the Rosebank Dairy, 146 Rosebank Road, where it had been a landmark for, well, as long as I can remember. I headed down there today, earliest opportunity I had -- but missed it. "Oh blast and bother," I thought to myself.

But, where there's a will, and a collection of photos held by the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society, there's a way.

It just so happened that the first President, my precessessor Bruce Spencer, took this photo in April 2002, before the Society had even incorporated. Here you see the Rosebank Dairy in older livery, and with the iconic Coke can in place.

It seems, just by a quick look at the directories, that the dairy started as a grocers shop in the late 1920s by the Davies family, in particular a Mrs Jean Davies. I'd love to know more about the history of the business, if anyone reading this can help.

Three Doug Ford boxes on Rosebank Road

Three more Doug Ford boxes along Rosebank Road today. This one just beyond Victor Street at a pedestrian crossing over Rosebank Road.

Pity about the large branding Auckland Council's contractor slapped over the face.

This one is at the traffic lights at Avondale College's gate further along the road. It's fighting a losing battle with the poster bombers and taggers.

This one is at the corner of Eastdale and Rosebank, Alongsisde the playing fields for Rosebank School.

In the background are the Avondale Road shops.

In this case, the new traffic control contractor branding has been stuck on top of some tagging. An improvement of sorts!

Nobody Here But Us

Coming off a bus from the North Shore at Wellesley Street this afternoon, I find this huge and eye-catching piece of art.

Called "Nobody Here But Us", it's the 1991 work of Richard Deacon, in painted aluminium, commissioned by the ASB Bank Ltd and Fletcher Construction. It sits in the entry to the ASB bank building.

It's weird and big -- but I do like it. Reminds me of tangled movie film.

Labour Party manifesto, October 1938

In 1938, Michael Savage's Labour Government had served one term in power, and wanted to continue their programme of legislation and social change in New Zealand into ensuing terms. In September, they issued their political manifesto, detailing what they'd done so far, and what they still wanted to achieve or maintain.

The other day, someone gave me a torn, slightly foxed copy of the October 1938 "copy to householders, postage paid" version of the manifesto. I was quite taken with its contents, comparing it with today's New Zealand. Of course, with this year an election year for us, it might be interesting comparing how the promises we get today stack up against those of a perhaps simpler time, just as the social welfare system was being constructed, and before the advent of World War II.

The 1938 Labour Party Manifesto.

Former Lodge Titirangi Hall, Rosebank Road

Today, it is a Korean church. But, up to 2001, it was the base for Lodge Titirangi No. 204, which now meets in Burch Street, Mt Albert.

 1950s. From Avondale-Waterview Historical Society collection.

The former hall for Lodge Titirangi No. 204 at 69 Rosebank Road was once part of a three-quarter acre section purchased in the sale of the Robert Chisholm Estate by a settler in Avondale, John Boyd. He also owned land on Rosebank for a time, up until 1892 (see the story of the Best Varnish Works). He sold the corner site, Great North Road and Rosebank Road, to Avondale baker Thomas Gourlay Grubb and his wife Rebecca in 1894. It's possible Grubb had already set up his business in a wooden store, at the corner with a stable at the rear (the site of today’s hall). The couple sold the property on mortgage to their son-in-law, another baker named Robert Samuel Kirkpatrick, in 1903.

Kirkpatrick didn’t own the property very long. In 1905, he sold it to grain merchants Frederick William and Joseph Robinson Smith. Frederick William Smith appears in the Wises Directory for 1905, having a grain merchants business in Commerce Street in the city. He was to own the entire corner site through to 1909.

In that year, baker Daniel Robertson bought the whole property, and utilised the stables at the Rosebank Road frontage. He in turn sold the property to an agent named Edward Austin Whittaker in 1916. It appears that Whittaker originally came from Hawera, operating an auctioneer’s business there c.1905. In Auckland, he ran a land agency business with his father until at least the mid 1920s.

What ensued then was a tangle of mortgages and sub-mortgages; one of which, a mortgage taken out by Robertson back in 1912, defaulted and led to the sale of the property on 13 May 1919 to the Thode brothers.

On 22 May 1919, the Thodes sold the stables to Charles Theodore Pooley, Henry Potter, William Richard Thom Leighton and Alfred Morgan, the first trustees for “Titirangi Lodge No 204 of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of New Zealand”. Why the words “Lodge Titirangi” were transposed is anyone’s guess. Unfortunately, it meant that in common reference around Avondale as I grew up, we would call the building the Titirangi Lodge.

The Lodge itself originated from attempts over the course of eighteen months from 1913 to 1915, according to Lodge historian, Roger Hughes. Joseph Crisp, who lived on Station Road (Blockhouse Bay Road today, between the railway line and Great North Road) worked at gathering enough interest, followed by Walter Francis Brooke-Taylor, a New Lynn resident. He succeeded in gathering in 24 brethren from Avondale and New Lynn, six preliminary meetings held chaired by William Neilson Ingram, with Brooke-Taylor as secretary. In 1915, the petition to the Grand Lodge was signed, with Ingram as Lodge Titirangi No. 204’s first Grand Master.

The Thodes were most likely operating from what became known as “Thodes’ Corner” from c.1916. In February 1918, it must have appeared likely that they’d be in a position to have title at some point. A handwritten promise was made out to the Lodge on 20 February 1918:

“We, the undersigned, agree in the event of our purchasing the block of land on the corner facing Great North Road, and Rosebank Road, Avondale, to sell to Lodge Titirangi, No. 204, for the sum of £375 the built premises now occupied as a stable and the shed occupied by Mr Martin as a coal yard, and including the section on which the above premises stand to the live hedge at the rear.”

So, the Lodge Hall was probably built 1919-1920.

A rare photo of the Lodge from possibly the 1920s, from the Rosebank Road frontage. The brick building hasn't been plastered yet, and the Spanish tiled parapet hasn't been added above the door. The corrugated iron building appears to have been the old horse stable. From Avondale Historical Journal  No. 14, November-December 2003. Photo from Barry Thomas.

The next change to the trustees of the Lodge’s title came in 1941. Now they were: Henry Potter, Charles Pooley, Walter Francis Brooke-Taylor, Robert Ward and Colin Albert Crum. In 1951, Pooley was replaced by John Lupton. The next change was the final one, as the Lodge made plans to sell the hall in 2001: Donald William John Brownlee, John Oldham Currie, Thomas Ure Fraser, Alan Charles Gini, and Mervyn John Nichols.

At some point, the stable to the east of the hall (a coal dealer's business in 1940) was replaced in what appears to be brick, judging by the 1950s image, and was demolished in the latter part of the 20th century. Today the site is part of a carpark. The Spanish tiled portion of the hall looks a bit odd these days now, jutting out on its own.

In 2002. the hall was purchased by the Sung Rak Church Charitable Trust, transformed into the Auckland Sung Rak Church, and all exterior signs of the previous Masonic ownership were erased.

 

As for the story of the old wooden store at the corner – the Thode brothers leased the store to grocer Edward Civil in 1919, who in turn transferred his lease to Norman McKenzie in 1920 (the store then became known as McKenzies for the first part of the 1920s until the fire in 1925). The Thode brothers meanwhile sold the property to another set of brothers, the Fearons (Charles Edgar and Leonard Roger) back in 1920. When the fire razed the old store, the Fearons built the present day Fearon's Buildings.