The new Onehunga Train Station

Once upon a time, a part of Auckland called Onehunga had a railway station from 1873. From that point, the Auckland to Onehunga line was said to be the only railway line in New Zealand which spanned from coast to coast (due to central Auckland's geography, and that we're on an isthmus.) Passenger services lasted around 100 years, and then things were shut down during the 1970s.

Local campaigning this century, however, has led to a grand re-opening today of the branch line, slightly altered, but now leading passengers straight to the Onehunga Mall, heart of the local shopping centre. I could not miss the opportunity to see the action.

Or the very cool photo reproductions they've placed on the fenceline along Onehunga Mall and Princes Street. If things look a bit "rough and ready" with loose and bare soil, implements lying around, bits of wood -- that's because they still hadn't quite finished the landscaping today. The bitumen in the carpark was still spongy. The rollers, trucks etc. were still parked there this morning,  an hour before ceremonies began.

"A Monday morning scene on Onehunga Wharf circa 1880."

"The first bank of Auckland in Onehunga."

"Shunting in Onehunga 1954."

"The Public Library and Post Office Hotel on Queen Street, Onehunga (now Onehunga Mall) circa 1879."

"The SS Wanaka and other sailing boats at Onehunga wharf. Mangere Mountain in the background."

"Sections of the original Onehunga station on the move to the Rail Enthusiasts Society site in Alfred Street, 1962."

"The first timetabled train to Onehunga, 24 December 1873."

"A painting, possibly by John Kinder, of Onehunga looking south west."

"L" class locomotive used on Onehunga line, circa 1906."

"Looking south down Queen Street, Onehunga, towards Mangere Mountain with a trolley bus travelling past the State theatre."

"Manukau to Onehunga Train route following the foreshore, 1954."

"The first 'South Auckland tour' rail fan special train arriving in Onehunga."

"The C852 engine at Penrose island platform getting ready to go to Onehunga."

"1908 - Queen St tram at Onehunga wharf."

"Onehunga station, looking back on to the Borough Council chambers building, 1954."

"An Epsom-Onehunga tram and a horse and cart travelling along Queen Street, Onehunga."

"A tram on Queen Street, Onehunga, 1908."

"The staff of Kauri Point Sawmill and their children gathered outside the premises on the corner of Beacroft and Princes Street, Onehunga, 1882."

I just love the horse in the photo. Lived a hard life, standing ever-so-patiently for the photo.

End of the line. Just beyond this point, according to a member of the Onehunga and Fencible Historical Society, the old station master's house used to be. The platform for the new station, by the way, is too short, according to news reports.

Taking photos of the trains on the platform proved difficult -- narrow platform, lots of people, wrong angle. I'm glad they sent an ordinary diesel along at first. It gave me the opportunity to scout out an alternative vantage point.

Board for those to inscribe their name for posterity, I suppose. No, I didn't sign ...

In case you come off the train and don't know where you are (despite all the blue and white signage) -- here's an extra clue.

There was a PC Plod on patrol, complete with truncheon.

The cutting for the old wharf connection still exists, along with the Neilson Street overbridge ...

... said bridge used for a local politics protest today, over the enforced acquistion of the Catholic school's land at Monte Cecelia by the present Auckland City Council.

More heritage stuff for folks to view.

At this point, I found my new observation site -- up on a bank, between a three-rail pipe fence and a hurricane wire fence. Despite the fact that I'm a 47-year-old overweight train-loving history buff, I made it over the pipe fence, and so was able to take the following shots.

Steam engine JA 1275 from Mainline Steam hauling two Tranz Scenic coaches, and backed by a diesel. Worth the two hour wait.

Looking at the shots here at home, I realised I had luckily caught these two characters as they disembarked from the train.

Also, another surprise -- a cool Chevrolet truck on the spongy bitumen.

And an older form of transport doing a circuit up and down Onehunga Mall.

Auckland's Chinese community in 1919

Back to another of my underlying interests. Completely by chance, I spotted the article below as I was looking through newspaper files yesterday at the Auckland Research Centre at the central library. 1919 was just under 60 years after the first indications of Chinese residency in Auckland, so this gives us an interesting (albeit European-focussed) view of the community six decades on, in the midst of a post-war rice "famine" in Auckland. "For the last few weeks there has been a rice famine in Auckland. The leading wholesale and retail dealers have been literally without a grain in their establishments, and the position has resulted in a good deal of hardship for those who formerly made rice one of their staple articles of diet. The situation has been relieved to some extent, for both the Niagara and Malcura have brought a considerable quantity of Ace from Sydney."(Evening Post, 11 September 1919)

From the NZ Herald, 29 August 1919.

CHINESE IN AUCKLAND.

GLIMPSES OF THEIR LIFE.

OLD TRADITIONS FAILING.

INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN.

Although the sight of the Chinaman working industriously in his trim garden, reckoning change with amazing accuracy in a fruit shop or handing out the week's laundry, is a very familiar one to Aucklanders, comparatively little is known of the local conditions under which these sons of the Celestial Empire are living. There are at present about 400 Chinamen in Auckland, and perhaps 10 Chinese wives. Nearly all the others, however, have wives and children in their own land, and are patiently adding day by day to the little board that will some day enable them to go back to their homes and families. The family tie is a very strong one with the Chinese, and their sojourn in a foreign land usually but the stepping-stone to a return home and prosperity among their own folk that it would be very hard to obtain in the ordinary run of life in China.

The ancient traditions of the Chinese still hold strong sway in some respects, but in others even the manners and customs of the oldest Empire are waning and undergoing the change inevitable when Occident and Orient come into close and continuous contact. The pigtail has gone, and the quaintly-trousered women, with shy eyes and tiny sandalled feet, have given place to smart young misses wearing tailored skirts and French heels. But the average Chinaman is still the frugal, industrious worker of the age old East; even in prosperous Auckland he still lives mainly on rice, although his needs in this respect have gone unfilled for some time past on account of the prevailing acute shortage.

Chinese Delicacies.

An inquiry made yesterday as to how local Chinese residents were faring in view of this dietary difficulty resulted in some interesting information being given with regard to the general trend of life among Chinese in Auckland. As in other respects, the Orientals are conforming more and more to European ideas with regard to foods and, although rise still is, or was until recently, their staple diet, the white man's menu is gradually being adopted by the Chinaman. A few traditional Chinese dishes are still regarded as a great delicacy: dried sharks' fins are in strong demand, and luxury fare is provided at the banquets occasionally held in Auickland.

A glance at a list of delicacies forwarded from China for local consumption revealed some weird and wonderful dishes. An item of dried shrimps and oysters looked more or less familiar, but sugared watermelon rind, fishes' eyes in vinegar, onions in treacle, bamboo shoots in syrup, beche-de-mer or sea-slugs brought to mind visions of a banquet truly Oriental. Other items were:- Chinese medicines and wines, canned bean cure, salt cucumber, hen albumen, and a quantity of the "Asiatic egg" so well known to local pastrycooks.

The Chinese are not given to riotous living but, by all accounts, local banquets lack few of the traditional delicacies associated with these sumptuous repasts, allowance being made, of course, for those dishes requiring ingredients which China alone can produce.

Keeping in Touch With Home.

There is in Auckland a strong branch of the Chinese Nationalist Society, which receives all the newspapers and current literature of China. This is widely read by local Chinese residents, who follow the occasionally-stormy course of home politics with keen interest. There are also two Chinese "Freemasons' " societies in Auckland, in which the trend of politics is reflected, although party feeling is apt to be a little less pronounced than is sometimes the case with regard to local politics. That is to say, the Celestials usually agree to differ politely.

One interesting point mentioned yesterday by a well-known Chinese resident was that the ancient dread of surgical operations is to a large extent dying out among Chinese living abroad. The Chinese physician is traditionally a herbalist; amputations were unknown in China until students of the present generation migrated to the West, where they learned Western methods of healing and treatment of the sick. Consequently Auckland doctors frequently tend Chinese patients and perform operations and send them to the General Hospital in a way that would have been undreamed of among the Orientals of a past generation.

At the same time, the use of herbs is still very popular, and the only Chinese herbalist in the Dominion, who has a shop in Wellington, does a fairly wide trade among his fellow-countrymen.

Another point of interest, as showing the general acceptance of Western ideas, is that the old tradition that the bones of every Chinaman must be taken back to his own land is not so inexorably observed as in the past. During the epidemic about ten Chinese residents of Auckland died; some of these were buried in the ordinary way and will rest forever in alien soil; but the others were embalmed and provision made for shipment of the remains back to China. This cannot be done, however, for at least one year after interment, and even the ultimate carrying out of the old tradition will depend very largely upon prevailing shipping conditions.

The difference in the term

The term being -- "election".

Mayor of Auckland City John Banks, at the launch of the Sir George Grey Exhibition last night, quipped about the whole Super City thing we're going through now. It is well-known how he  really, really wants the job of Auckland's first Super-Mayor come 1 November.

He mentioned in his speech how the first Mayor of Auckland, Philip A Philips, "appointed himself" as mayor of the new Municipal Corporation of Auckland (our city) in 1871, and that his successor, Henry Isaacs, did likewise.

Well ...

Philips was actually already chairman of the City Board from 1867, the year the Municipal Corporations Act came into effect. The entire Board, under the Act, was constituted as incorporated, and Philips was indeed elected as the first Mayor -- by the new councillors. This practice was common in the mid 19th century here, chairman of committees and boards rarely running for office apart from the office of acctually sitting on the committees. Positions such as chairmanships and mayoralties were sorted from within the ranks of the winners.

 From here:

... it was a lucky day for Auckland when the old Board gave place to the Auckland City Council, which came into existence in 1871. The fact that the Borough was proclaimed under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1867 shows that little time was lost in securing for Auckland the advantages vouchsafed by that statute. The credit for this promptness fairly belongs to Mr. P. A. Philips, then chairman of the City Board, and afterwards longer and better known as town clerk of Auckland. Through his initiative Auckland was constituted a borough under “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867,” on the 24th of April, 1871, and at a meeting of the City Board of Commissioners, held on the morning of Monday, the 22nd of May, Mr. Philips read the proclamation in the General Government Gazette, and declared the City Board duly incorporated as the Municipal Council. The members of this board, who thus became the first City Councillors of Auckland, under the new constitution, were:—Messrs Atkin, Asher, Bugden, George, Hampton, Macready, Staines, Smart, and Tonks. These members, at the same meeting, elected Mr. Philips as the first mayor of Auckland under the new Municipal Corporations Act. After holding the position for three years in succession, Mr. Philips declined further re-election to the mayoralty, and accepted the more permanent, though less prominent, office of Town Clerk.

What about Mayor No. 2, Henry Isaacs?

In 1874, Philips stepped down as Mayor to take up the office of Town Clerk (not often you see a local politician actually stepping down to a lesser position voluntarily!) Once again, the matter of who was to be Mayor foer the rest of the term rested with the elected officials -- and they chose Henry Isaacs (Southern Cross, 4 July 1874), a mayor just until 1875. There's a handy list of Auckland's Mayors at the City Archives site.

So, Mayor John Banks' implied quip -- wouldn't it be good if he could just appoint himself as Super-Mayor rather than do all the usual election circus stuff -- doesn't really hold much water historically. 

There ya go, history being the wet blanket on another political speech anecdote, yet again ...

Shades of Grey exhibition at Auckland City Library

I'm very grateful to Auckland City Libraries for inviting me along to their launch shindig tonight for their new Shades of Grey exhibition, at the Sir George Grey Special Collections. Take a look at that link -- and at their new Sir George Grey Collection website.

During the speeches, we were told that one book in the collection, the Rossdhu Book of Hours, was on loan at Luss in Scotland for the 1500th anniversary celebrations of the introduction of Christianity to Scotland. Quite a feather in the cap for my favourite library. It will return to Auckland in November.

MOTAT Sunday: I am the Last Tram exhibition

Main reason I headed out to MOTAT at Western Springs yesterday was to view the "I am the Last Tram" exhibition. A combination of trams and Auckland social history should be, I reckoned, quite interesting.

Took a while to find the exhibition, though. It ended up being in the middle of one of the exhibition halls, with entry through to it via another exhibition on the 1930s-1940s. Which was where this poster came from (apologies for the blurred shot). An interesting way to tell the middle-of-the-day shoppers to leave the rush-hour tram traffic to the workers. Rush-hour these days, though, starts at 3pm, with a busload of school pupils almost all yelling at each other at the top of their lungs. That "sweet and kind" lady would have even more incentive to head home smartly these days, with that commotion ...

Again, from the 1930s-1940s exhibition -- an iron lung, built at Auckland Hospital workshops, designed by the hospital's chief engineer Fred Jacobs, following a polio outbreak in the mid 1930s. The interpretive sign along with it says it may be the oldest surviving iron lung in New Zealand.

Some info on rationing was displayed here as well.

Then, I turned a corner, and -- ah ha!

A small space for the exhibition, I thought. Almost along the lines of the Auckland War Memorial Museum's "Centennial Street".

More views of the last tram to run in Auckland in the 1950s.

The exhibition aims to give folks a feel for the 1950s, when suburbia was just starting to pre-dominate (so they said), and when the motor car replaced the dear old trams. They had a selection of facades of noted Auckland central city buildings, along with a small display of what went on inside in each one. Nice job with the facades, quite impressively done. This one is the NZ Herald offices.

Example of an old newspaper printing press.

Smith and Caughey's, harking back to the Lippincott design.

This display window is quite close to the ones the store still has today.

What the best dressed 1950s manequin was wearing then.

This corner shop in the exhibition has an "open" sign in the window (it should have been open), but it wasn't, not yesterday. Notb enough customers through the exhibit, so the folks at the admittance office at the front of MOTAT told me. There's supposed to be souvenirs of the exhibit on sale in there. Well, no -- just DVDs of general tram stuff and the like. I'd have liked to have had a brochure on the exhibit, with the signage info, to take away, but ...

Some interesting stuff in the windows, though.

Non-PC golliwogs! And one flashing her knickers to all and sundry! (You may guess that I had a bit of an Enid Blyton nostalgia moment at this point. Not about the knickers, though -- I'm sure Enid wasn't like that.)

This is how folks satisfied that choclate craving out in the street in those days. The vending machine, though, came from the 1930s, not the '50s.

What intrigued me about this window was the Harbour Bridge toll tickets sign. The Last Tram (1956) would never have passed these (1959) by in reality.

Fun with digicams. A shot with the flash on ...

A shot with no flash.

The display inside even had something of the gorgeous Indian decorations of the real; movie palace in midtown Auckland, the Mighty Civic.

Plus, an early projector.

Somewhere along the "street" -- a post box that looks a darned sight more solid than the ones we have today. Not sure about more secure, though. Padlock might not have taken a crim long to handle, and the slugs would have had a lovely time ...

I turned another corner -- and suddenly I'm not in the exhibition anymore. Mind you, this 1909 photo of a Labour Day float by the Auckland Bootmaker's Union caught my eye.

So, that was the exhibition. I'm not exactly disappointed -- main things are that I wish I had something to take away as a souvenir booklet or some such, and that the exhibit was a bit larger. It's obvious, though, that as usual a lot of hard work went into the preparation. Well worth a look around.

MOTAT Mural

Tucked along the side of one of the exhibition halls at MOTAT, this rather good mural of NZ icons and elements of our post-1840 heritage. See how many of the references you can spot. Click to enlarge the images.

Avondale RSA Memorial Garden

I finally got a chance the other day to photograph the Avondale Primary School World War I memorial plaque, in its new home at the Avondale RSA Memorial Garden. I was a bit concerned, however, to see that the marble plaque has been broken over time.

I'm fairly sure that during its period of residing in the old window of the shop which was redeveloped to be part of the RSA's complex, that the plaque was not cracked. I'm certain when I saw it first installed in its new home, that it was still intact. If I find another photo fromm earlier to compare, I'll post it up. Possibly heat and sun caused the damage. The plaque was probably not meant to be displayed behind glass out in the open.

Below, I've reproduced my earlier post on the plaque, from 25 April 2009.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of when the soldiers returned from World War I.

AVONDALE SOLDIERS WELCOMED HOME.

The returned soldiers of Avondale township received a heart welcome home at the local town hall on Friday evening, the function being arranged by the Avondale Women’s Patriotic League. Dancing was indulged in until midnight. During intervals Miss Merson and Mr. Spencer contributed vocal solos, and Mr. McDermott recited, all items being highly appreciated.

Mr. C. J. Parr, M.P., was present, and on behalf of the ladies warmly welcomed the soldiers home again after their strenuous work in the battlefields.

Mr. H. Walker briefly responded on behalf of the guests, expressing their thanks for the way the ladies had looked after them while they were away.

MEMORIAL UNVEILED – AVONDALE PUBLIC SCHOOL

A representative gathering of Avondale citizens assembled at the public school on Saturday afternoon to witness the unveiling of a memorial tablet in honour of the 33 old scholars of the school who had made the supreme sacrifice in the war. Among those present were Mrs. Bollard, sen., who had taken take in various school functions for a period of upwards of 50 years in conjunction with her husband, the late Mr. John Bollard; and Mr. J. L. Scott, who a quarter of a century ago was headmaster of the school.

Mr. H. A. V. Bollard, chairman of the School Committee, who presided, expressed the deep sense of gratitude which the townspeople felt to the donor of the tablet, Mr. James Binsted. Other speakers were Messrs. R. B. Nesbitt, chair of the Avondale Road Board, J. L. Scott, J. A. Darrow, headmaster of the school, and H. W. King, a member of the Education Board.

Mrs. Binsted performed the unveiling ceremony while the children sang “Abide With Me.”

The tablet, a slab of marble, suitable mounted on polished rimu, has been erected at the entrance to the main porch, alongside the brass memorial to the late Mr. Bollard.

(NZ Herald, 22 December 1919)

I went to Avondale Primary School, 1968-1974. During the demolition of the old school buildings, the marble plaque was removed, and reappeared in a window display in the old dairy on Layard Street, part of the RSA complex by that stage. It was there for two decades before the RSA had their own redevelopment, the recessed doorway and window from the old dairy (where the school children of years long gone by used to get their penny ices on the way home) were removed and replaced with blank wall, and the plaque found a new home outside, beside the artillery piece which forms the RSA's memorial gardens, still on Layard Street. It can be seen there to this day, but loses some of its context outside of the school buildings. It forms the only World War I memorial to the fallen in Avondale.

Below, more images of the memorial garden.

Above, a memorial to James Herbert Gwynne. He wasn't an Avondale man, but a dairy farmer from Mt Albert, son of George and Helen Gwynne of Highland Road, according to Cenotaph.  I wonder why his stone was included on the wall. He died on the Somme, 4 April 1918.

Otahuhu Murals: Criterion Hotel

From the September edition of the Otahuhu Despatch from the Otahuhu Historical Society:

This month we walk down the Great South Road to the corner of Criterion Street to find a mural of the Criterion Hotel. The photograph was taken in 1948 on the day of the centennial parade in Otahuhu. The gentleman leaning on the fence to the right is Jonas Underwood, father of Mary Crighton.

The Criterion Hotel was one of three hotels built in Otahuhu in the late 1840s to serve the Fencibles. The Commercial Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1866 and the Star Hotel is still in business today albeit under another name.

The Criterion Hotel was demolished in 1994 to make way for the development of Criterion Square and a complex that now includes a BNZ bank. A McDonald’s fast food restaurant occupies part of the old hotel carpark. A flagpole on the corner of Great South Road and Criterion Street is reputedly from the original Paine Brothers’ building in Otahuhu. At the base of the flagpole is a milepost plaque that was originally set in the old hotel wall to commemorate a series of mileposts erected along the Great South Road. This has become the subject of much debate as the plaque is not in the spot where the milepost once stood about 10 metres further north along the Great South Road.