Helensville, April 2008

A sample of more photos from the April 2008 NZ Federation of Historical Societies conference weekend.

A seat in Silverdale Museum

Photo taken during the 2008 national conference for the NZ Federation of Historical Societies in April. This is the kind of seat I'd have in my backyard.

Wade Hotel, Silverdale

Another for my list of "I'd like to know more." Buck Shelford apparently owned this at one time, according to some of the 'Net pages tonight -- but what's the history behind the Wade Hotel? The centre part of the building looks almost late Victorian-early Edwardian. Is it?

Sorry for the less than wonderful photo quality -- I was being safe and taking an optical/digital zoom shot from the other side of the highway today.

Silverdale Hall

When I can, I'll ask the team at the Silverdale & Districts Historical Society more about this building. Seems in late March 1896, the Wade Agricultural Hall burned down, according to the Hawera & Normanby Star of 23 March. Looks like it was rebuilt -- but in April 1899, it was nearly destroyed again.

Auckland, 11th April --An attempt to burn down the Agricultural Hall at the Wade, an agricultural district on the east coast, 24 miles north of the city, was frustrated on Wednesday night. A fire was discovered in the back part of the hall. The burning material proved to be straw saturated with kerosene. The floor of the platform and part of the walls inside had been similarly treated. The fire was extinguished.

(Evening Post, 12 April)

I popped inside today to have a look at the arts & craft fair happening there. Lovely interior -- a real rural meeting place.

History in modern distortion

So, there I am, Saturday morning, waiting on Albert Street at 8.30 am, trying to avoid getting my legs and feet caught under the brushes of the street sweeping machine which came along just as I was waiting for the Silverdale bus -- when I noticed this:

The reflections of the old building distorted by the panes of modern mirror glass quite took my fancy.

And here's the building -- the Shakespeare Hotel, corner Wyndham and Albert Streets in the city.

Memorial Park, Avondale

The small park at the corner of St Georges and Great North Roads was gifted by the Avondale Presbyterian Church to Auckland City Council as a war memorial area in 1948. A memorial was raised in honour of those in the district who gave their lives in both World Wars. Each Anzac Day, the annual service is now held there.

In addition to the long stone (which, unfortunately, has no names) are four plaques produced on various anniversaries to do with the Boer War through to World War II.

The Boer War one is interesting. Memorials to the Boer War are far fewer than to World Wars I & II, but it was still our first real conflict which gave rise to memorials.

More information here.

Painting heritage buildings

Exhibit A: Avondale's Hollywood Cinema. A recent repaint of the front and northern side has made this building look stunning. The cinema is scheduled on the Auckland City District Plan at the moment.

Exhibit B: Page's Store building, 1903. It isn't scheduled with Council nor registered by NZ Historic Places Trust. Avondale's oldest shopping block, it was built by the same Arthur W Page who had the more famous Kingsland store of the same name (but ours is older).

The latest in a long series of tenants in the northern-most part of the block (once the location of Des Ferry Panelbeaters) is a meals outlet. I understand the right of the business to have the colour branding of their choice, but -- bright green? It is somewhat of a pity, I feel. The Avondale Business Association put quite a bit into organising a heritage paint scheme earlier this decade. The Pages Building was one of their success showcases. Here's the building from the late 1980s.

Mind you, I could just be sounding like the old fuddy duddy I am becoming as the years progress.

Tea in a Pill

I found an old tin at the Avondale Sunday Market on March 9 this year. It was cheap enough, and fascinated both myself and the seller. I did tell her I was with the Avondale Waterview Historical Society, and that I’d look up on the Internet just what was the story behind this unusual wee tin. Here it is ...

What does a cuppa tea have to do with newspapers today such as the Sunday News or NZ Truth? A word which was once a brand name invented by a 19th century English pharmaceutical company named Burroughs Wellcome & Co — “tabloid”. Able to mechanise drug production by the 1880s, a process which has led to the tablets and capsules we also have today in our prescriptions or simply bought at the supermarket, Henry Wellcombe invented the brand name “Tabloid” for the company’s compressed pills.

The company produced “Tabloid” first aid kits, “Tabloid” photographic developer chemicals — and “Tabloid” tea, a cuppa in a pill. As the website for Wellcome’s archives says: “One can imagine the advertising for such a product: no matter where you were in the British Empire, no matter how inhospitable the climate, with the help of Burrough Wellcome & Co, a taste of Britain could be guaranteed.” The tin I bought may be as old as 1900.

However, the “tabloids” did not sell well. Instant tea had yet to find a niche in the pantries of Britain and elsewhere in the Empire. The brand name, however, now applied to a condensed form of the news of the day rather than a tablet to be dropped in a cup of hot water, has survived.

Work beginning on the Aotea Square revamp

As I was in the city today, took the opportunity of a couple of shots of the construction work underway. The Greys Ave entrance to the Civic carpark is closed, and work is well underway to make Aotea Square in the heart of the city look something like this.

The waters of Te Wai Horotiu once created a swamp there, before it was drained in the late 1860s and a markets building constructed. That in turn was torn down in the 1920s, as were many of the surrounding buildings, leaving the Town Hall to preside over an open-air carpark until the Civic Centre project got underway in the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the Mayoral Drive in the 1970s.

Work was needed here after leaks were found in the underground carpark. Te Wai Horotiu, it seems, is not quite tamed yet.

Advertisements 1911-1912 (3)

Next time I get bronchitis or a cold, I'll bet I won't see an armoured knight striding across, trampling the little men labelled with maladies such as those, as well as "sore throat", "asthma", "coughs" and even "consumption". This ad is as much marketing the product, as it is also a product of its time.

I like this ad because it is wonderfully drawn, and tasteful with regard to what it's selling -- the services of monumental masons, mainly in the business of headstones and memorial statuary.

How do you replace the old copper system of heating water? With a new copper system of heating water. This one involved stoking up the fires in one tank to heat the water for another tank. In another two to three decades, electricity would start to replace these systems.

An advertisement for buggies, from a "carriage and motor car factory". One foot in the past, the other in the future ...

This is here because it is awful. This could be enough to give someone nightmares. The artist was trying to convey the discomfort of realising your poor choice of laundry soap has shrunk your clothes. Instead, the poor victim looks like someone with a malnourishment disorder. I don't think this one was around for too long. At least, I hope not.

Advertisements 1911-1912 (2)

J. Wiseman & Sons started out as saddlers -- by 1911, they apparently diversified. I just like this ad for the Edwardian feel of what the man and woman are wearing. I do wonder how she's staying in the hammock without having a nasty tumble.

Curicura Medicinal Toilet Soap -- still going strong after all these years (in their case, since 1865). The ad is American in origin, reprinted without alteration, and showing a price on the box of 25 cents. The manufacturers used lots of cute baby art to sell their product here.

This ad is here mainly because of the name, "Wahoo".



I'd say this was an ad from the Australian market for the American Winchester brand of rifle and pistol cartridges, what do you think?

Mosgiel rugs were rightly famous here, in Australia and over in the US even at the beginning of last century. " THE PRIMACY OF THE MOSGIEL RUG is acknowledged the world over; The Perfection of its Quality, the Luxurious Richness of its Finish, the Artistic Character of its Designs, and its Durability make the "MOSGIEL" Rug the typical product of this young Dominion. Tourists can purchase genuine "MOSGIEL" at the leading Drapers and Outfitters," according to an ad in the NZ Tablet in 1908.

This ad, though, just looks attractive to me, and part of its time.

Advertisements 1911-1912 (1)

Early newspaper advertisements catch my eye now and then. Here's a few of them from 1911-1912, from the Auckland Star and Weekly News. If anyone wants full-sized copies of these, just let me know.

The Scouting movement was new here in 1911, but Highlander Milk was quickly associated with them, healthy activities outdoors, and nutrition. "It tastes awfully good spread on bread" says Baden-Powell.

The New Zealand Dairy Association advertising our world-famous butter, the "Anchor brand". Apparently, this was just as New Zealand was breaking into the American market, or trying to. "The United States Government recently purchased in London and Manchester from bulk shipments five samples of the choicest Australasian butter, one of which was manufactured by the New Zealand Dairy Association." The Kiwi sample apparently topped the lot.

This is here because of how R. Hannah & Co Ltd describe themselves: "shoeists". Not shoe sellers, but "shoeists". The difference in language between now and in the past is one of the reasons I love history.

Advertisements were often put in under headings like "Medical" (for the cures, medical aids, etc.) and, like this one, "Public Notices". Mr. Ogilvie is bringing it to your public notice that he's selling "Mermaid Waterwings". A shilling and thruppence -- pricey waterwings, those.

The rat is dining on "Common Sense Rat Exterminator". It not only killed the rodents, it dessicated the bodies so you wouldn't be offended by the smell. In 1911, rats were feared as the bringers of new outbreaks of plague, so such ads were welcomed by those with a vermin problem.

Carved horns at Dargaville Museum

The explanatory caption beside the horns said:

This nineteenth century fine example of carved bullock horns was donated to Dargaville Museum by the Fernandez family.

An excellent example of scrimshaw, they represent the two worlds that collided in the 1880s. [More correctly, 1840s to 1880s.]

The carving on one horn depicts Scottish noblemen and women, and Scotland's national symbol, the thistle. The other horn depicts a group of tattooed Taranaki Maori warriors wearing the white feather adopted at Parihaka as a symbol of resistance to the government's confiscation of native lands.

It is very likely that these horns were carved by a British soldier on active duty in Taranaki at the time, possibly serving under Captain Gustavus Von Tempsky, commander of the Forest Rangers Company.

As well as a renowned soldier and leader Von Tempsky was a talented artist reputed to have encouraged his men to use their non-fighting time productively. Several followed his own example which included scrimshawing bullock horns that were used as powder horns or, as these ones were at some stage, coat hangers.

I disagree with the caption, unfortunately. If the horns date from the Von Tempsky period, they are unlikely to be associated with Parihaka, however. Von Tempsky died in 1868. The Parihaka saga began a decade later. Still, the horns are stunning.

Old Church in Northland

My very good friend who operated the Mad Bush Farm blog has posted about this church with an artistic rendering. I deeply admire her artwork (if you see this post, Mad Bush, there's some St Ninians stuff I'd like to show off, as well ...)

The photos, according to the computer file, date from August 2006.

Update (20 October 2009): Spotted a blog post by Reading the Maps on the church today.

Old signs

Old St Ninians Hall sign.



Detail from above.



Old AEPB sign. Pre 1999, and chances are a lot earlier than that.

Who's Graham?

This is Graham Reserve, a patch of corner green between St Jude's and Donegal Streets. I have no idea who the person named Graham is or was, and why the reserve was named in this way.

Now, folks could say "Who cares?" It isn't really much of an issue, just a heritage one: back in the 1930s, the City Council renamed Palmer Street to Donegal Street because of a eastern suburbs street also named Palmer. Fair enough -- but this was still James Palmer's land, and across from this reserve is the acreage Palmer generously donated to the Anglican Church in the 1870s.

Naming this patch "James Palmer Reserve" would be nice. A campaign project for the future, perhaps.

Update 19 June 2009: Seems this patch of land is a road reserve, dating from the 1926 McLiver subdivision. Auckland City Council tell me (via their call centre) that the reserve has no name, that it's just part of the streetscape. They had no knowledge of the sign -- which, as at today, has gone, making way for a metal track put through for the construction vehicles working on the rail double-tracking. The seat's still there, though.