More on Henry James Bell of the Whau

I love receiving emails from those whose family history research leads them to come upon Timespanner, and share a bit of information on their ancestors. Such is the case today regarding Henry James Bell, of the Bell & Gemmell tannery at the Whau during the 1870s-1880s.

Previous posts: here, here, and a reference here.

Hi Lisa,

I have been researching my family and have just stumbled across a post you wrote on Sunday October 26th 2008. I knew my great great grandfather Henry James Bell had worked in a leather tannery in Whau Creek and I had also been told by family that they owned their own tannery there too. So it seems it could be them you are talking about. This is what I know about him and his family. There was a history of curriers, leatherworkers and shoemakers in the Bell family going back several generations in London and earlier in Lincoln, England to at least the late 1700s.

Henry James was born in London to James (a currier) & Elizabeth Bell in 1845. He trained as a currier and emigrated to NZ probably in January 1867 on the ship "Maori". He married a Sarah Ann Absolum in Parnell in 1872 and settled in Whau Creek. His parents emigrated to NZ later (probably on the 'Fernglen" in 1880 and I understand his father also worked with him in the tannery although James having been born in 1814 he would have been around 65 by this stage. Henry and Sarah had 5 sons and 3 daughters between 1873 and 1887. My uncle talked about them drying hides in later years around Panmure basin so whether they worked there at some stage I dont know. Eventually Henry and Sarah, James & Elizabeth and probably some of their now grown children moved to Mangapiko near Pirongia (Alexandra) and farmed in the area. One of the sons owned a general store there with his father in law. I'm not sure why they went farming. Possibly it was to follow one of their sons to the area. James & Elizabeth are buried at Pirongia where they both died in 1901. Henry returned to Avondale after his wife Sarah died in 1905 and married again but was eventually buried with Sarah in Pirongia when he died in 1915. As far as I know nobody in the family continued in the leather industry. Henry painted many oil paintings of landscapes and country scenes in the 1870s (rather English looking) and they are scattered around his many descendants. I hope this may be of some interest to you.

Kind Regards

Nicola Bell

A further email tonight from Nicola:

I dont know the exact date that Henry moved down to Mangapiko so maybe by then he was retired and his children were the only ones farming. I dont know. And like I said the way I worded my email made it sound like they worked at Panmure later but I'm not 100% sure on that later so it could have been earlier ...And one more point (but its not really relevant to the tannery side of things but may be of interest to any Absolums out there), Henry's wife Sarah wa the daughter of William Absolum who was a whaler who arrived in Auckland around 1848 but later farmed at Otahuhu. And her mother was Catherine Leslie who came out on the Ship "Ann" with her parents to Auckland from Northern Ireland. Her father was William Leslie one of the fencible soldiers at Otahuhu.

Wireless chats on the Neophone

My eyes were drawn yesterday to an article in the NZ Herald of 21 November 1931, describing the first business transaction by radio telephone between Auckland and London. We still rave about the marvels of wireless technology today, so it had me wondering about what led to the breakthrough described eagerly by the reporter -- and about the "Neophone" that did the job.

The 1930s neophone (see image at the left, from this page at the NZ Electronic Text Centre site) was the result from both Ericsson and the Western Electric Manufacturing Company (WE) to WE's advances in the "rotary" variety of automatic switching equipment, dating from 1919. Don't know about you, dear reader, but I grew up with rotary dial telephones. As a kiddy, I was taught not to touch the telephone without permission from an adult, and certainly not to answer one without such permission! But I was still taught how to use one, and learned my home phone number by heart in case I was ever lost (although that number has long since changed, it was on a party line and Mum didn't like those, I still know it and can still recite it.) The rotary phone was what we played with at school -- and yes, even in these days of push button advancement, I still term making a call on the phone as "dialling".

I picked up an excellent book recently on the history of New Zealand telecommunications recently called Wire & Wireless by A C Wilson (1994). He provides an explanation (page 119) why New Zealand's emergency number is 111, whereas in dear old Blighty it's 999:

Most of the New Zealand rotary system, incidentally, used a dialling pattern, numbered from 0 to 9, rather than the reverse, as in the UK. That is why we dial '111' here rather than '999', the full turn of the dial being necessary to ensure a definite connection for emergency purposes.

The initial rotary phones were the classic candlestick type, with the mouthpiece and the receiver as separate components -- the "neophone" in the 1930s replaced this type by combining mouthpiece and receiver in the same handset held up to the ear and mouth, the pattern carried through even to today's mobile phones.

So, we had a less clunky method of making and receiving our phone calls available by 1931 -- what about those chats to Aunt Lil back home in London?

International communication by cables laid along the seabed dated from the 19th century, but true wireless technology for international calls had to wait until short-wave radio technology was perfected. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company inn the mid 1920s refined the 'beam' system, which meant that instead of radio waves radiating along diffuse, less effective paths, special directional antennae allowed the waves to be beamed along clear paths, with a more effective signal. Competing European radio technology firms were rationalised into larger corporates in thye late 1920s, and one of these was Imperial and International Communications Limited, taking in Marconi and others. The new company's policy was determined by an Imperial Communications Advisory Committee, on which New Zealand was represented.

Short-wave radio's marriage with the telephone system began around 1926, when the first telephone link between Britain and Canada was set up, and continued with:

30 April 1930, establishment of a UK-Australia link;

26 August 1930, Wellington and Sydney linked;

22 September 1930, Wellington to Melbourne;

3 October 1930, Wellington to London.

The Australia-New Zealand link was formally inaugurated on 25 November 1930, by a chat between Sir Apirana Ngata, Minister of Maori Affairs, and the Acting PM of Australia, J E Fenton. 

The official inauguration of the NZ to UK link wasn't fficially until 23 July 1931. The rate, according to Wilson, was ₤6 15s for a three minute call.

And so we come to that Auckland conversation with London, from November 1931.

The modern marvel of the radio telephone made it possible for an executive of an Auckland millinery firm to spend ₤15,000 in just over 10 minutes with a London business house this week. It cost him ₤23 12s 6d to do it. This was the first time the Auckland-London service has been used to transact business from Auckland.

The Auckland man who spoke considered the cost to be justified by the great saving in time and bother. Moreover, it enabled him to gain an impression of the best fashions in vogue in London at the very moment he was speaking and to have any queries answered immediately.

The reception at both ends was astonishingly clear and no difficulty was experienced in hearing every word. The conversation was carried out shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning [18 November] London time, being about midday Tuesday. Conditions were so favourable that listening-in both at Wellington and Sydney in order to note instances of fading if any, did not affect the clarity in the least.

In fact, the voices were as audible as in a local telephone conversation. Instead of first one person speaking continuously for a period and then awaiting the other's reply, as is sometimes necessary, it was possible for short sentences to be exchanged. Static was completely absent. The clarity was also attributed to trhe use of the new improved neophone machine, in which mouthpiece and receiver are attached to the same handpiece.

Old Black Joe, the Railway Foe

 In the spring of 1931, a vandal was intent on creating mayhem on Auckland's rail network. He called himself "Old Black Joe, the Railway Foe". As it turned out, he wasn't so "old" after all.

"At one minute past 7 o'clock yesterday evening a constable at the Mount Eden Police Station was rung up and informed by a man's voice that he had just put a wedge between the points on the railway track under the overhead bridge near the Mount Eden railway station. Asked for his name and address, the man rang off. Constable Carson rushed from the police station, which is near the railway, and saw the Henderson to Auckland suburban train about to pull out from the station. He stopped it, and with some railwaymen went to the bridge and discovered, a strong batten nine feet long wedged between the tablet points leading off the main line to the shunting siding. Railwaymen consider that the engine probably would have been derailed. It was discovered that a batten had been removed from a nearby coalyard."

(Evening Post, 6 October 1931)

"Following an attempt on Monday night to wreck a train near the Mt. Eden station, the editor of the Auckland Star received a letter in print handwriting purporting to be from the man responsible, who signed himself "Old Black Joe, the Railway Foe." The writer described how he obstructed the line and telephoned to the police, and asserts that with a number of others he looked on while the obstruction was being inspected by the police. Further, he alleges that he was responsible for three previous attempts to stop trains, only himself being concerned, and he regrets that he cannot sign his name. As there were "to be more sensations yet," the letter was handed to the police."

(Evening Post, 7 October 1931)

"Old Black Joe" Again. - Auckland railway officials were forced to take rapid action a moment or two after six o'clock on Friday evening, when they received a telephone message from the city police to the effect that "Old Black Joe," the mysterious "railway foe," had interfered with the line within the Parnell tunnel (states the "New Zealand Herald"). The Whangarei express was due at Newmarket at 6.3 p.m. and word was sent to the station officials there to hold it back until the line had been inspected. A porter was despatched to run along the lino from Newmarket to the Auckland station, and it is said that he covered the distance in record time. No trace of any interference, however, was found, and the Whangarei train resumed its journey less than ten minutes late. The police had received their information in a brief telephone message from a man who called himself by the name quoted. He said he had "fixed” the tunnel line, and then rang off."

(Evening Post, 19 October 1931)

"Last July two attempts were made to block the railway points at Mount Eden, pieces of wood being wedged in them. One attempt was made known to the police by someone calling himself "Old Black Joe, the Railway Foe." After a long search the police last night arrested James Ramsay, aged 18, who was charged today with wilfully placing an obstruction in the railway points and also wilfully setting fire to a boot factory on 1st February. Detective-Sergeant Kelly said that the accused in a statement admitted the railway offences, and also admitted starting several fires; further, that he had written exaggerated letters signed 'Old Black Joe" to a newspaper, giving exaggerated reports of his doings. Counsel asked for the suppression of the accused's name, as his parents were respectable people. He said that the accused was quite mental. "The question is, is he certifiably mental?'” said the Magistrate, who refused the application, saying that the accused had said he wanted notoriety and that now he could have it. The accused was remanded in custody."

(Evening Post, 9 February 1932)

Shooting the Moon on Mt Eden

Image of Mt Eden/Maungawhau, from Wikipedia.

From the Auckland Star, 11 November 1931, a report of "shooting the moon" at Mt Eden in the early 1930s. The phrase has had a variety of meanings, from the "shooting through" of deadbeats escaping their landlord without paying the rent in the 19th century, to today's somewhat coarser and more sexual meanings. In the time of this article, however, it meant the practice of driving at speed from dance halls, under the influence of alcohol, to see who can go to the mountain, round the summit, then back to the dance halls, all between dances.

Because of the conduct of couples under the influence of liquor, who left dance halls to visit the mountain at all hours of the night and morning, and indulged in a pastime called "Shooting the Moon", the Mount Eden Domain Board, which is the Borough Council, last evening decided to have chains placed across the road just above the kiosk, and also at a suitable spot on the eastern side, and that the mountain in future be closed to vehicular traffic between ten o'clock at night and sunrise.

The Mayor, Mr T McNab, said that young couples were in the habit of leaving dance halls in the city and rushing up the mountain in motor cars. They were mostly under the influence of liquor, and last week there had been two accidents, one at 3.30 am, and the other at 4.30 am.

"It seems," said Mr McNab, "that these visits are in conjunction with what goes on in a scheme or game called 'Shooting the Moon.' The conduct should not be tolerated. There is no doubt about it, because I went up the mountain to observe for myself. There was one serious accident and a car knocked a hole in the wall in Clive Road. We hope to make the persons responsible pay for the damage done."

Mr Nagis: Must have been some impact.

The Mayor: Yes. The young people are mostly under the influence of drink. I don't think pedestrians should have their lives endangered. The other night between half-past eleven and twenty minutes past twelve no less than 23 cars went round the mountain. At certain hours of the night the parks all over the world are closed. One firm in Auckland tries its cars out on the mountain in the daytime.

Mr Connelly said Mount Eden was unique, being in the heart of the city, and many tourists made a point of taking a car ride round the mountain on a moonlight night. "I do not see why we should close it because half-drunk people go there shooting the rock, or the moon. We should wait till we get a complaint from the ratepayers, or the police."

Mr Mills said 'shooting the moon' he understood was not a bad game, but when asked to explain how it was played, he said he did not know much about it. He thought it was the speed at which the cars travelled that created the danger.

Mr Rendell said he did not think the whole of the mountain should be closed. There should be some control.

The Mayor: It is those who have been drinking we wish to stop. I think we should stop night-riding round  the mountain, and I suggest that it be barred from 11.30 pm till 1.30 am.

Mr Chappell was in favour of closing the mountain by using chains at 10 pm. Trade traffic would also have to be controlled now that Clive Road was completed, otherwise all sorts of trade vehicles would be taking a short cut over the mountain from Mount Eden to Epsom.

Mr Mulvihill said he was totally opposed to closing the highway at any time. The mountain should be patrolled by police. "Possibly," said Mr Mulvihill, "our constables suffer like our spare roller -- cannot make the grade. I will move that the conduct which takes place on the mountain be referred to the police."

The Mayor: No, no. It is our domain, and we should see to it.

Mr Connelly seconded the motion.

The Mayor: We have to protect our own people. It is almost impossible to walk up the mountain day or night without danger.

Mr Rendell moved as an amendment that the mountain be closed to wheel traffic between 10 pm and sunrise.

The Mayor seconded this amendment, which was carried.

Update on the Newmarket gun

Remember this post, when they'd relocated the gun but then just left it in the grass? And then this post and this post, where things somewhat hit the fan?

Well...

Passing today, on my way to Parnell, I spotted an upright object at Olympic Reserve ...

Could it be ...? I headed closer.

Yes! It is! The gun's off the ground!

No interpretive panel yet, but hey -- at least it is off the ground. Good result.

In the foreground above, the spot where it had been left, two impressions left by the bits of concrete.

Well done, Auckland City Council. They said August, and they have kept their word.

Whenuapai wartime crashes, revisited

Whenuapai airbase from the air. From Wiki Commons.

In my earlier post from March 2009, I referred to two Liberator crashes at Whenuapai. A comment received today brought me back to the subject:

Hi

I was in the RNZAF many years after this happened. While at Whenuapai (from 1967-72 approx) there was old aircraft wreckage visible just off Herald Island. I was told this was a wartime bomber that had crashed. However, I was told there was another WW2 bomber that crashed in farmland at the other end of the Whenuapai runway, and this one reputedly had a large load of weapons on board as there was an enormous explosion. Further, my father was in the RNZAF at Whenuapai during WW2 as an air traffic controller, then was posted to Gualdalcanal; the day prior to his departure a Lockheed Ventura crashed through the curved roof of the southern concrete hangar. For many years the repair of the roof was visible both form inside and outside. I have tried to find info on these events, never had any luck.

omanu@live.com

I wondered if Archives New Zealand's Archway database had extended enough by now to help out with memories like this involving the Whenuapai wartime air accidents. The answer is: yes.

I looked up "Whenuapai" and "accident". The following entries are from file references under AIR Agency, in the Wellington branch of Archives New Zealand. Just reading through these file headings, I realise that if a book hasn't already been written on wartime Whenuapai airport, it really does need to be done.

1940

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Baffin - NZ 162 - Whenuapai - Fire on ground - 12 July

1941

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82A - NZ 787 - Whenuapai - Wind, gusty - 13 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 782 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 27 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 676 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 10 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Vildebeeste - NZ 125 - Whenuapai - Overshot landing - 25 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 794 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 8 March

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 675 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 18 March

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 669 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 28 March

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 787 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 16 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 789 - Whenuapai - Ground loop wind - 14 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 667 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 16 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 792 and NZ 664 - Whenuapai - Collision on ground - 18 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 662 - Whenuapai - Overshot land - 17 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 665 - Whenuapai - Overshot land - 18 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 672 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 8 May

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 686 - Whenuapai - Forced landing - 10 May

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Vildebeeste - NZ 113 - Whenuapai - Hit power lines - 24 May

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Vildebeeste - NZ 124 - Whenuapai - take off drift - 6 June

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2003 - Whenuapai - Overshot land - 28 June

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 663 - Whenuapai - Control jammed - 19 July

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 788 - Whenuapai - Injury to Mech starting up - 26 July

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 668 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 23 July

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 675 - Whenuapai - Crash landing - 29 July

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 810 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 1 August

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 792 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 11 August

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 666 - Whenuapai - Stalled landing - 3 September

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 788 and NZ 789 - Whenuapai - Collision on ground - 5 September

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2003 - Whenuapai - Tail lock failed - 1 October

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 665 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 20 October

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - [?] - NZ 779 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 5 November

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 1404 - Whenuapai - Take off swing - 11 December

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 843 - Whenuapai - Forced landing - 15 December

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 768 - Whenuapai - Precautionary landing - 31 December

1942

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 808 - Whenuapai - Stalled landing - 17 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 1402 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 10 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 836 - Whenuapai - Collision on ground - 20 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Vildebeeste - NZ 120 - Whenuapai - Stalled landing - 29 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 664 - Whenuapai - Struck flare, night - 13 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 838 - Whenuapai - Stalled landing - 16 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - DH 82 - NZ 686 - Whenuapai - Fuel shortage - 21 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - B 17 Fortress - Usaac 41.2667 - Whenuapai - Crashed, 11 dead - 8 June

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2071 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 3 September

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2079 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 9 September

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Kittyhawk - NZ 3037 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 29 October

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2051 - Whenuapai - Swung on landing - 22 November

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2077 - Whenuapai - Crashed, 4 dead - 17 December

1943

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2078 - Whenuapai - Ground loop on landing - 20 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2062 - Whenuapai - Collided with tractor - 4 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2038 - Whenuapai - Ground loop - 23 March

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2062 - Whenuapai - Failed to take off, fog - 20 May

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2079 - Whenuapai - Structural damage air - 19 June

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Kittyhawk - NZ 3019 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 24 July

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4507 - Whenuapai - Taxy accident - 23 July

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - C 87 - USAAC JD4 - Whenuapai - Crash take off - 2 August

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4503 - Whenuapai - Undercarriage failure - 29 August

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Kittyhawk - NZ 3125 - Whenuapai - Fuel system failed - 18 August

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4586 - Whenuapai - Damaged hangar - 25 October

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4584 - Whenuapai - Low level bombing - 1 December

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4548 - Whenuapai - Blister window failed - 11 December

1944

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Oxford - NZ 1315 - Whenuapai - Damage turbulence - 8 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4598 - Whenuapai - Taxy accident - 31 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4599 - Whenuapai - Tail wheel broken - 27 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4551 - Whenuapai - Damage by bird - 14 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4578 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 12 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Kittyhawk - NZ 3275 - Whenuapai - Heavy braking - 10 May

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4601 - Whenuapai - Damage fire starting - 22 May

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Kittyhawk - NZ 3082 - Whenuapai - Fuel shortage - 1 June

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4552 and NZ 4581 - Whenuapai - Collided on ground - 24 July

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Corsair - NZ 5524 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 4 August

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Lodestar - NZ 3514 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 21 September

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4519 - Whenuapai - Engine failure, crash 4 dead - 26 October

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2053 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 20 October

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4518 - Whenuapai - Heavy landing - 23 November

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Lodestar - NZ 3514 - Whenuapai - Collision in air - 2 December

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4523 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 30 November

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4590 - Whenuapai - Lost hydraulics - 30 November

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Hudson - NZ 2053 - Whenuapai - Engine failed - 31 December

1945

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Liberator - EW 620 - Whenuapai – Taxy [sic] accident - 14 January

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4588 - Whenuapai - Engine failure - 21 February

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4518 and Dakota - NZ 3501 - Whenuapai - Collided in air, 1 dead - 21 March

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Corsair - NZ 5570 - Whenuapai - Stalled landing - 22 March

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Corsair - NZ 5562 - Whenuapai - Fuel shortage - 9 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Ventura - NZ 4588 - Whenuapai - Tyre blowout - 24 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Dakota - NZ 3534 - Whenuapai - Damaged while parked - 23 April

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Corsair - NZ 5540 - Whenuapai - Fire in air - 23 May

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Liberator - RAF T979 - Whenuapai - Swung off runway - 1 September

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Dakota - NZ 3550 - Whenuapai - Hit by truck - 30 November

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Dakota - NZ 3518 - Whenuapai - Nosed over run up - 17 December

RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Accident Reports - Dakota - NZ 3545 - Whenuapai - Nosed over run up - 18 December

Blockhouse Bay war memorial

At the gates to Blockhouse Bay Primary School, they've installed a new wall -- and something much older.

Good to see this, and well done to the school.

Guest Post: The Oamaru Freezer Building

(The second of two articles sent by Bruce Comfort, and reproduced here with his permission. The first article, on the Borough Water Race, is here.)

STEAM PUNK ,WATER PUNK. THE BOROUGH RACE.

In this second article about the Oamaru Borough Water Race, retired engineer Bruce Comfort contemplates the significance of the old Freezer Building. Long threatened by erosion of the Oamaru shoreline, it is now receiving some protection as the Council armours the ocean edge with a layer of huge rocks.

-------------------------------------------------------------

It's good to see protection work happening down at the foreshore, right where the sea is closest to the freezer building.

Now, I think we may have some confidence that in our lifetimes at least, the sea will not be coming in to gnaw away at the land on which some of our historic buildings are located.

And the freezer building what is that, and how historic is it?

Its place in the hierarchy of artefacts that relate to Oamaru's industrial past (as opposed to its visible opulence) was explored by The Oamaru Mail back in 2006 when it ran a feature article in The Weekend Extra. This is worth looking up if you are interested as it was well researched and well written by Dena Henderson.

My interest is in its engineering and functioning and of course in it's connection to the Borough Water Race, and although that might seem an obscure relationship, it will help if you know that before this town was the Steam Punk centre of New Zealand, it was the Water Punk centre.

When the Oamaru (town) water supply was first contemplated in about 1876, the Oamaru Borough Council, then barely a decade old, agreed that its designer should be selected by a kind of "competition" which would have awarded the successful architect with a bonus of ₤150 over and above the fee for doing the design.

There were a couple of notable things about this council decision and their requirements for the water supply.

Firstly the council knew, and decided, that an engineer would be needed to either design the supply system or oversee any design that was not engineered.

Secondly, the council decided that it needed its own Borough Engineer. The position was advertised in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, and one was appointed. He turned out to be local, and from Timaru.

Thirdly and seminal to this [article, story, vignette!!????? what do you call these things??] was the very innovative criterion that the design of the water supply, which was primarily for town water and mainly for fire fighting at that, was to include amongst its many specified attributes, the ultimate provision of 300 horsepower of spare water capacity.

Who made this momentous decision and how they were advised and by whom, is a mystery at this time and it will only be resolved when someone reads every minute book and every borough council note from the period 1868 to 1878. It was an amazing decision for a remote colonial council to make and it will be expanded on in later instalments of the story of the Borough Race.

Floating around, there were proposals to use Oamaru Creek or the Kakanui River for water and there were others, too unwieldy to consider, but options had narrowed and a water supply from the Waitaki River had been pretty well canvassed by 1876.

The debate then centred on whether a gravity fed race from away up in the valley, or a pumped supply from lower down, would endure and be most cost effective.

A water race seemed the best, and the Council said so.

Immediately, lots of people popped up out of nowhere and, with no qualifications to do so, they offered rash and at times bizarre proposals and predictions that 300 HP "simply could not be got" from a water supply as envisaged, "without running the Waitaki River dry, rendering the new bridge at Glenavy redundant" as one forthright correspondent opined at the end of a long letter filled with dodgy calculations!

Amongst the many scores of published letters to the Editor of the North Otago Times, and from other preserved comments, we can see that people thought that the supply could be provided by a small simple water race which could be "dug by a couple of good men from the goldfields, in a few months" so selecting an engineer for the adjudication, was an excellent primary decision.

It would have been so easy to screw up.

No decent proposals for a design were received by the council, so the Borough Engineer set about convincing the council to award the design contract to him, without claiming the bonus, which they did. His name was Donald McLeod and his contribution to Oamaru's prosperity has been greatly overlooked.

When the race was completed, the water was ultimately stored in the reservoir built in the head of Glen Creek gully at Ardgowan.

At the reservoir the water had a working surface level of just on 100 metres above sea level and it was, when distributed around.

Oamaru township in the huge cast iron pipes which were laid as part of the contract, well and truly capable of delivering the 300 HP which the foresighted council had said that they wanted.

The result was that the town was able to have clean water for its residents, water for fire-fighting, and water for hydraulic power.

Now hydraulic power,you might think, is a new thing - something that replaced steam and mechanical devices like winches and cables and pulleys after the introduction of modern machine tools and processes, and possibly as late as the second world war - but that is not correct.

Hydraulic power, derived from pressurised water - and long before the discovery of mineral oil - was utilised by the Victorians and it was a driving force for industry in many countries, contemporaneously with the age of steam and long before distributed electricity became usable.

A few of the worlds greatest cities had hydraulic networks, installed underground like a gas network - pipes carrying water at high pressure which was sold to consumers just as electric energy is now. In Victorian London, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto and others, huge steam engines pumped the water around the cities, and it, in turn, was used to drive "water engines" which superficially looked just like steam engines.

These water engines provided motive power to lift, carry, open bank vault doors, raise the stage and orchestra pit at many of the worlds great opera houses, bend cut and polish all the nick-nacks that the Victorians demanded from the manufactories which were springing up - Victorian water powered consumerism!

Oamaru businesses were no different. It is difficult to know, now, how many water engines were ever installed and run in Oamaru, but it will have been dozens.

Remnants of three are in one building alone. Where the PostShop is now, once was a factory making barbed wire, and all its cutting, crimping, winding and twisting was done with water power.

The freezer building had two such water engines, the first, installed in 1886 was built by A&T Burt in Dunedin and they boasted that it was the biggest water engine in the world at 135HP.

It drove a refrigerating plant that had been salvaged from a ship that had been taken out of service. The use of such a large water engine for refrigeration motive power may be unique in the world.

Much about the plant and the way it operated and the arguments that the operators had with the Borough Council over the contract to supply water (and the cost) is absorbing to discover.

The freezer building started life as a small brick-store and it was purchased by The New Zealand Refrigerating Company, a business incorporated in Dunedin and with a number of well known Oamaru men on its Board. The company had already built a small abattoir at Eveline in about 1884 and it sent warm sheep carcases to Oamaru to be frozen on board the refrigerated sailing ships that carried the commerce between Oamaru and London. No land based freezing facility existed in New Zealand at that time although ship based freezers, powered by separate steam engines on sailing ships, were quite common.

Significant, if plain, additions were constructed by Forrester and Lemon to facilitate the trade in frozen sheep carcases between New Zealand and the UK and this forgotten and unloved building was central to a trading relationship with the far side of the world for which Oamaru can claim a number of innovations and pioneering expertise.

The Oamaru freezer facility was established so that killing and freezing could go on even when there was no ship in port. It is said that the building could freeze and hold 22,000 sheep carcases.

Oamaru was not the first place which sent frozen meat to London of course. It had been shipped from Europe, South America and North Africa at various times - a trade made possible by the invention of the Bell-Coleman refrigerating plant. The design and patents of this device had been bought from the three Scottish inventors by an enterprising English engineer, Alfred Searle Haslam, who had a factory in Derby UK.

His machines dominated refrigeration on-board ships for 40 years and the Bell-Coleman principle is still current and utilised exclusively in many places - notably blast freezing of vegetables air liquification and the air-conditioning of jet airliners - a Victorian invention of very durable currency.

There are two Haslam made, Bell-Coleman refrigeration machines, still in running order, in Christchurch at the Belfast works and one in disrepair at McLean's Island Steam Park.

Most Bell-Coleman plant was steam driven, but Oamaru's foresighted burghers in 1877 had ensured that the townsfolk and businessmen of Oamaru were able to capitalise on water pressure, a fuel-free source of energy, for nearly 30 years. Of course the plan was to make money out of the sale of water, but plans sometimes, well, you know . . . .

The freezer building has strong links to the whole frozen meat trade and it and the remnants of the NZ Refrigerating Company's 1884 abattoir at Eveline are artefacts which we should work to preserve.

As it turned out, the business didn't ultimately last and the company didn't process lots of product in Oamaru. The split facilities were rendered redundant by the establishment of large combined killing and freezing plants, firstly at Pukeuri in 1914 then later at Timaru, Islington and Burnside, but its significance lies in what the company achieved early in its history, how they did it and the unusual link to our public water supply.

Sadly the freezer building is gutted and badly damaged and possibly effectively "lost" to preservation. The abattoir exhibits just its concrete floor and a few concrete hoppers, engine mounts and tanks to show us where it was.

------------------------------------------------------------

As usual, if anyone in Oamaru has any photographs or further information about the freezer building or the Borough Race, Bruce would be pleased to see them to help him complete the documentation of this fascinating part of our built heritage. Contact him on guyro@slingshot.co.nz or (03) 434-2094.

Guest Post: The Oamaru Borough Water Race

(Out of the blue, I receive an email this morning from Oamaru historian Bruce Comfort, including two of his articles on the industrial heritage of his area. I like emails like that, and especially when folks like Bruce give me permission to share his work with you here on Timespanner. This is the first article. The second one, on the Oamaru Freezer Building, is here.)

THE BOROUGH RACE

In 1870, Oamaru was a pioneer town of just 2000 souls. It was situated on the east coast by the Southern Pacific Ocean and a small peninsula gave its beach some shelter and thus afforded a rudimentary harbour.

There were no trees, and it was dry and harsh in summer, but because there were no trees when the European settlers arrived, the land was immediately available for grazing sheep on the predominantly palatable native grasses.

In the late 19th century, wool was a much sought-after commodity, particularly for the military uniforms used by armies fighting in the harsh Northern Hemisphere winters. Wealthy families established very big pastoral holdings in North Otago, and huge flocks of sheep were introduced to meet the international demand for wool.

The town's first "indigenous industry" was the wool industry.

It did however do very well out of gold mining, and some of its pre-industrial wealth was derived from it. Prior to 1870, Oamaru served as a service town for those gold miners who worked small claims in the Dunstan mountains and creeks running out of them. The Waitaki is not a gold bearing river and was never dredged, and so the "gold mining industry" of the Clutha and Central Otago never came to Oamaru. It did however thrive on its contribution to servicing the Otago and Central Otago gold rushes and subsequent dredging and quartz mining industries.

Oamaru is over 35km from here in a straight line, or 45km by road. You will be there in about an hour or so.

The town has a number of quite opulent classically designed limestone buildings, which people travel the world to see. It also has a wonderful old harbour and a revolutionary breakwater which was built out of concrete in 1878. It has a well deserved reputation for its nearly intact Victorian harbour-scape.

Oamaru's Victorian elegance was founded on money from the wool trade, and later from wheat growing, but it is its public water supply which I want to celebrate with you this morning, a thing much less attractive than the white stone buildings and so, largely unrecognised for its elegance, which derives from its concept, design, execution and utilisation.

Water supply for the town, in 1870, comprised wells and springs and a small ephemeral stream. Most households collected rainwater off their roofs.

The stream became polluted and muddy and the wells became unreliable. As the town grew, so did fire insurance premiums, and so a fire brigade with access to a reticulated town water supply became urgently needed.

Some hills close to and right above town had deep gullies which were very suitable as reservoir sites. Any of these could, with just an earth dam, provide good water storage at a height above the town which would create a water supply delivering water at about 150psi.

How to get water there, however, and where from, soon became the defining question for Victorian Oamaru.

A few options were obvious, and some less obvious ones were proposed.

Pumping up from the Waitaki River was possible with steam driven pumps and there was coal nearby, but the cost and maintenance of this "new" technology was daunting for the Borough Council and in the end, a gravity race was decided upon. Simply saying "decided upon" obviously minimises the controversy, acrimony and drama behind the decision, but that is another story.

It would be one which many practising engineers would recognise today.

Commencing with public notices and tendering in 1875, a public water supply and distribution scheme was designed over a two year period whilst land was acquired, legislation passed, and the finance raised on international markets in London and Scotland.

The water race was designed, unlike the water races of the gold mining era which were built "on the run" and with water flowing in them to help get the grades right. As well as the physical remnants, some of which we will see on this trip, Oamaru still has the 140 sheets of original drawings, on linen, done in red and black Indian Ink by the design engineer. A folio of these water coloured (washed) drawings will be available to look at when we get to Oamaru. They are beautiful artefacts in their own right. The survey sheets are seminal to the project, and are remarkable.

The Borough Race, as it became called, is a fascinating item of industrial history because, not only was it well made and very functional as a town water supply, delivering very potable water from an unpolluted source, but because the design, from the beginning, included 300HP of "spare capacity" to be available for motive power. This provision is what makes the race unique in New Zealand, and probably rare anywhere in the world.

The Borough Race terminated at a reservoir relatively high above town. This entailed a long channel with a very small gradient and its intake was a long way inland and at elevation. Here at Bortons, we are already nearly 6km downstream from the river intake.

The race then goes 41km from here to town. It was carried over about 20 streams and this was done by constructing wooden trestle box aqueducts. It also had to penetrate a number of rocky ridges and five tunnels were driven to achieve this.

To protect supply quality, all along its route there were comprehensive provisions to divert any small streams and watercourses and natural run-off, generally over the race.

This was achieved with wooden "troughs" (they will have a name - but I don't know it!) which were small aqueducts in their own right, to carry dirty water from the hillsides over the race and not into it.

These structures also protected the race from "overfilling and over topping" during heavy rain. If uncontrolled run-off entered the race in quantity, it would overload and over top the banks, causing catastrophic erosion. In actuality this happened a number of times in the history of the race. North Otago is generally a dry-climate area but it can rain very heavily. Larger streams were all crossed in aqueducts.

Construction work began in 1877.

The race comprises a hand dug open channel about 2 metres wide and one metre deep, pretty much following the 100 metre contour from the intake on the Waitaki River at about 126 MASL, to the reservoir at Ardgowan [above the town] where the water level is 97 MASL. The race was unlined and only puddled in a few places. It leaked but the leaking eventually stopped as silt built up and the banks became colonised by water plants and other organisms.

Its fall was calculated to be 1:3964 and the water flowed at just walking pace. Its total length is about 47km. We will see just 21km of it today. This is not long by comparison with say the Western Union Canal in the UK, but remember this race was just for drinking water for a very small town and not built as a river of commerce between densely populated industrial cities.

The five tunnels have a combined length of 2.7 km and the 19 timber aqueducts have a combined length of 1.4km.

The tunnels are all still clear and they have a flat floor. Being over 2 metres high, they could be comfortably walked through to effect maintenance. They are partly lined with cut limestone and the arched portals are all built from bolstered blocks.

The aqueducts are on mixed wooden and limestone (block) piers and they have quite substantial timbers in their structure.

A few were rebuilt in the 1920s with concrete piers. For a water supply, some are quite big. One was very big.

The timber had to be sourced from outside North Otago (remember NO trees!) and it was tarred and the steelwork made locally. The aqueducts were originally box section roughly 2 metres x 1 metre but all these flumes have been replaced over the years with half round steel channels.

The race was looked after along its whole length by a team of Racemen (about 7) who lived with their families in smallish houses along it and who cleaned and maintained the waterway and the land beside it. It was de-watered every Wednesday and the racemen would go into the watercourse to remove detritus and mussels (bivalves) and grasses and weeds which they cut with sickles and scythes. In addition, horses and drays were kept at two locations and there was a centrally located engineering shop and forge to create the required hardware. It was fully fenced on both sides, for its whole length - representing probably over 150km of fencing.

The race cost £136,000 in 1880 when it was finished and the cost bankrupted Oamaru for two decades. It delivered water to Oamaru for 103 years.

Apart from small take-offs permitted for domestic and stock watering along its length, the intake water was delivered in its entirety to Ardgowan. The race was not used for irrigation of pastoral land, but in the 1960s some irrigation of orchards and berry farms was permitted.

As soon as it was built and the cast iron mains laid throughout the town, the spare 300HP was put to work through water engines, turbines, Pelton wheels and other water motors. There was one water engine rated at 135 HP which ran a very large refrigeration compressor for the local meat works.

By about 1895, as grain growing had supplanted sheep farming in North Otago, large flour mills and grain stores on the waterfront dominated business and these too were able to utilise the mains water supply to run water engines and turbines for motive power. There are water engine remnants in a few of the old grain stores and wool stores in the heritage parts of town.

Because the water was reticulated right around the business area of the town and because it was at about 150 psi, it was also quickly recognised as being ideal for running electricity generating turbines, and the first electricity was generated from the town supply in 1887. DC power was created using a genuine Pelton designed (patented) wheel connected to a bipolar Compton generator. This, just 3 years after the Pelton wheel was patented in America.

When it was switched on, the Red Lion Flour Mill was lit by 23 electric light globes. On that evening, Oamaru had more electric lights than London and we still have the generator here in town!

It is thought that there might have been up to 100 independent DC generating plants in Oamaru at the peak of the technology.

By 1913 the Borough Council, recognising the potential for reticulated AC electricity, decided to build its own Pelton wheel powered plant running off the water delivered to the reservoir by the Borough race, and it although it took until 1917 to see the fruition of the vision, Oamaru became the third town in New Zealand to have Council supplied, fully reticulated AC power.

The race is still there. The tunnels are still there, and a number of the aqueducts survive. The bywash sluice gates are still there and the fence that kept the sheep out over the whole 50km, on both sides, can still be traced.

Four of the racemans cottages are still lived in. I hope you find it as inspirational an example of Victorian engineering, as I do.

The artefacts comprising the race are protected by the Historic Places Act which makes it an offence to modify anything associated with our heritage and which was created before 1900.

The Borough Race is not a listed (historic) item or place and in fact it is under-appreciated by the community.

Many local people do not know anything about it and certainly not that it was used to generate "our own electricity" early in New Zealand's electrification history, however many landowners with family land occupation histories that intersect the place and the period when the race was operational are well aware of it, and its stories, and that it had significant potential right up until the day it was de-commissioned.

Sadly all the easement land is now back in private ownership and the artefacts are slowly slipping into the past.

Bruce Comfort
November 17th 2009

Blockhouse Bay's latest mural

As I post this, right now there's a crowd of people waiting for a New Zealand flag-shrouded mural to be unveiled by Auckland's Mayor. I, though, felt that the biting wind was way too cold, so got there early, snapped my shots before the veiling, then headed home.

The photo is originally from the Auckland Museum and bears the description of the blockhouse barracks , although the official stand of the  Blockhouse Bay Historical Society is that this is the blockhouse. It may be -- while it's not the classic astyle of military blockhouse as built at the time (the one in Onehunga is an example), this looks sort of like the ones built at the Domain.

Keeping Auckland's treasures safe during WWII

The Auckland Star of 1 August 1944 published an article on the gradual return to the public eye of various collections of the city's treasures. While air raid shelters were created in the depths of city buildings, tunnels under Albert Park, and Anderson-style bomb shelters dug in school grounds, precious objects were buried (such as the statue of Sir John Logan Cambell from Campbell Crescent, the statue of a Maori chief from the Maori Centennial Memorial atop One Tree Hill, and artillery spanning the Land Wars through to World War I from Albert Park, beneath fifteen feet of earth at the sites they graced before the war).

The first four folios of William Shakespeare's woerks, books printed by William Caxron, and a number of fifteenth century volumes, "rare books of New Zealand interest, manuscripts of histrorical importance, and the bound issues of early Auckland newspapers" were placed in twenty large cases, and sent to a large basement of a ferro-concrete building in Te Awamutu from August 1942 until a few months before the Star report. City Librarian John Barr made regular journeys south to make sure the collections had come to no harm while in storage, in waterproof wrapping.

The authorities at the Auckland War Memorial Museum found a number of storage places, "over a fairly widely dispersed area," including the specially-strengthened basement of the Museum itself (some of the natural history specimens), a 10 feet deep hole at the back of the museum for flammable specimens (those stored in spirits), a stone building and private house in the suburbs, and "more of the material was stored in a brick fire-resisting farm institution in the Papatoetoe district."

The museum's greenstone collection from the Maori section was secreted "in a cave-cum-tunnel in scoria country on private property in the South Auckland district," formerly used as a storage place for explosives. An air-circulating plant was specially installed, "and the entrance barred with a strong steel door embedded in concrete."

The museum's research collection of insects was placed in the safe-keeping of the DSIR plant research station at Mt Albert. 

For those collections remaining at the museum, some were rendered safer in case of aearial bombardment, such as the thatch removed from various native houses on display. As at the time of the report, all the exhibits were back at the museum and on display, apart from the insects (still being used and studied at Mt Albert.)

On This Day in New Zealand, by Ron Palenski

Books about New Zealand heritage come out all year, every year, in a seemingly never-ending flow these days. Most, sadly, are generics. They reprint the same stuff previously published elsewhere, adding simply photos taken more recently (perhaps), a bit of rearranging here, surmising there ...

Most I don't buy. My money tends to go on books which I'll use as reference material, either for work, historical society stuff, or Timespanner.

But this one, Ron Palenski's On This Day in New Zealand, has me hooked. It's a book which I'm picking up from time to time, browsing through, thinking, "Hey, that's something new!" then putting down again. A good day-by-day history, complete with a fairly good index (great for the reference side of the deal), and reasonably priced to boot, I'd recommend this as a buy for yourself, as a gift for someone you know likes light NZ  history in easily digestible chunks -- and as an addition to the burgeoning reference collection.

As an aside, this post marks number 1000 for the Timespanner blog, just a couple of weeks shy of the second anniversary. Thank you, all -- the followers, the readers, the contributors, my friends who patiently listen to my rabbitings, the staff at various archives, libraries, museums and fellow local historians who have all kept this going. It's been great fun so far. Cheers.

Even More Otahuhu heritage murals

More photos of Otahuhu's heritage murals, based on images from the Otahuhu Historical Society.  Previous images can be found here, and here. From the Society's July newsletter:

"This month we have walked to the corner of Great South Road and Park Avenue to find three murals of the activities of Andrew and Andrew.

"This third mural relating to Andrew and Andrew shows Norman Pee with a Diamond T. delivery van. Norman was 22 years of age when this photograph was taken in 1920. He was employed as a driver at Andrew and Andrew, initially driving horses before progressing to motor vehicles. At this time Norman was living at Glasgow House, next door to the premises of Andrew and Andrew in Great South Road. He did not have far to go to work in the morning.

"About 1936 Norman shifted his family to Ruawai and became a farmer."

From the Society's August newsletter:

"This month we look at the north side of Park Avenue to find a mural of the Great South Road in 1913. The view is looking south from Station Road.

"The drapery and millinery shop on the right hand side of the road was run by Jas. McQueen. Next to this shop is tailor Bert Jenkins and bootmaker Edwin Jenkins Wilkins was in the shoe shop. Further up the street are Gardiner’s bakery and John Todd’s clothing shop.

"On the left hand side we are looking up the Great South Road towards the Criterion Hotel. In the foreground is Wallace and Sons grocery shop next to the butchers shop. Other shops on this side of the street are fruiters Nutter and Toms and the Bank of New Zealand."

My thanks to the Otahuhu Historical Society for continued permission to publish these photos.

Silverdale & Districts Historical Society website

Going through the various historical society newsletters from around the country -- I find that Silverdale & Districts have a website now, promoting the Society and their wonderful Pioneer Museum at Wainui Road. I have a great fondness for Silverdale's crew. They have always made me feel extremely welcome whenever I've had the chance to pop up and visit them. I'm delighted to add their site to the side-links. Do pay them a visit.

A mural survivor

At the back of the St James Cinema complex, facing Lorne Street and the Auckland City Library, there is a survivor among Auckland's collection of murals over the years.

A window space, adorned with a single mural where all else is featureless concrete.

A mother, pointing out something of wonder to her child, across the street.

The thing is -- this wasn't always a lone piece of art. Not here. I am very fortunate to have the permission from Colin Maddock to reproduce his 1999 photo of the same site. (Thank you!)

Once, the mother and her child were joined by an old woman, in an apron, her kitchen utensils poking up over the sill, watched by her black cat.

On the other side, what appears to have been simply an empty room.

Why are the other murals gone? What happened to make them be removed utterly? I don't know. At least, so far, there is the sole survivor, to enchant the viewer who happens to look up in what is, otherwise, a rather ordinary Auckland central city street -- catching sight of something extraordinary.