From the Mahurangi River to Kawau: a Sunday cruise

Sunday 11 March, good friends of mine shouted me a trip down the Mahurangi River from Warkworth on the MV Kawau Isle.  The craft, built in 1958, did regular trips between Sandspit and Kawau Island for around 30 years.

We passed by the 1908 scow Jane Gifford as we headed down river.

Along the Mahurangi, oyster farms proliferate. These, according to the commentary, are barges used to maintain and harvest the oyster beds.

Scott Homestead on Scott's Landing, Mahurangi Point. Took a number of shots, and they're all obscured by trees, so this was the best of 'em. Thomas Scott was a local shipbuilder and coastal trader.

Casnell Island just off the tip of Mahurangi Point, apparently a Maori pa site, is also a protected scenic reserve.

Pudding Island, so-named because it looks like a bread pudding.

Saddle Island (Te Haupa), again so-named because of its looks.

Motuora. This place has a lot of European history to it (more at the link).

I was fascinated by these rocky spurs, like teeth above the water ...

Leading to Motutara, an island which did once have an even greater rocky outcrop in the above view (western point of the island). Until it was virtually all quarried away from 1929 until the 1960s by the Auckland Regional Authority. 

Detail from DP 22125, 1929, LINZ, crown copyright

In 1926, Charlie Hanson (also known as owner of neighbouring Moturekareka) bought both islands (Deeds Index 1B.21), only to have the western point of Motutara taken under proclamation. After asking the Crown if they wanted to purchase the rest of the island along with Moturekareka in the 1940s, and being refused, Hanson sold the remainder of the land privately.

In 1967 the Commissioner of Crown Lands sought permission to bring the remains of the quarry into the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park, and succeeded the following year. After an aborted attempt to subdivide the remaining two-thirds of the island by the private owners in the early 1970s, the remainder was brought into the maritime reserve in 1975. In 1980, Motutara was classified as a scenic reserve. ("Flora, Fauna and History of Moturekareka, Motutara and Kohatutara Islands, Hauraki Gulf", by Tennyson, Cameron and Taylor, Tane (1997), p. 33)

Coming alongside Moturekareka, the boat's master swung in a bit closer ...

... so we could get a view of the remains of the Rewa, whose past has been excellently summarised by Writer of the Purple Sage.

Motuketekete, the history of which was previously posted here.

I was trying to get the best I could from a distance shot of the rocks at the eastern tip, where one seems balanced as a precarious ledge. I didn't realise I also caught a tern in mid-flight until I viewed the shots here at home later.

Beehive Island. According to Marjorie Holmes, Life and Times on Kawau Island (1999), the island was gifted to a Mrs I Wilson by Sir Ernest Davis at some point. Comment was made on the boat that the island looks like it just needs a castaway -- but that isn't sand around its flanks, but ground seashell.

First glimpse I've ever had of Kawau Island - South Cove, with the day's damp mist crowning the highlands, lending atmosphere to the trip. Timber milling and farming have formed the European history here.

A bit further on from South Cove, just before Dispute Cove, the old copper mine engine house, a registered historic site.

Painting of the old copper works by John Kinder, 4-1198, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library.

Judging by Kinder's painting from the 1850s-1860s, the engine house looks the way it does today perhaps because the rest of the shoreline appears to have been washed away over time. Most of the walls seemed to be still in place by 1910, but cracks are visible in the image below.

Auckland Weekly News 15 December 1910, ref. AWNS-19101215-14-1, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

Copper mining at Kawau was a relatively short-lived enterprise. From the mid 1840s to 1855, when the mine shafts flooded, this was Auckland's centre of industry.

Leading on to Kawau's other main claim to fame: Mansion House. Originally, this started out as a two-storey Georgian style Mine Manager's residence (much still to be seen on the right). Then Sir George Grey arrived, and along with his animal and bird life importations, he added the left side (but the fancy verandahs are a post-Grey addition from the 1890s).

These are distance shots only, as the boat was not allowed to dock at the jetty due to high fees, with these trips being a commercial enterprise. But private boats can get in any time they like, apparently. Didn't seem all that fair to those of us looking longingly at the building as it disappeared behind us.

Schoolroom Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, so-named after an 1870s school said to have been built there by Grey.

Above, this is it today.

Below, how it used to be.

Auckland Weekly News, 10 October 1912. Ref AWNS-19121010-6-1, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

These days, the vastly altered (wonder how much is actually left?) schoolhouse is tourist accommodation.

On the other side of Bon Accord Harbour is Smelting House Bay. This is the Kawau Island Yacht Club's jetty.

This is the remains of the copper smelting house, built in 1849 from Mahurangi Stone (possibly limestone?). Serious deterioration has occurred during the last century to the originally two-and-a-half storey building.

This was when some idiots set fire to the copper slag around the building. Auckland Weekly News, 3 May 1901, ref AWNS-19010503-8-2, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library.

Smelting House Bay (above) is where, in the 1860s, the hulk Marion was anchored, a floating prison for Maori during the Waikato War. From the link:

"Following their capture at Rangiriri in November 1863, these men were initially held in the prison hulk Marion on Auckland Harbour before being transferred to Kawau Island (in the Hauraki Gulf north of Auckland), where they were held without charge or trial. On 11 September 1864 they seized all the boats on the island and used improvised paddles to cross the channel to the Northland coast. They built a pā north of Warkworth."

The moody mists on Sunday seemed apt for this place.

Pembles Island (Tangaroa), said to have been given the European name "after a young miner and assistant teacher who lived and worked on the island when the coppermine was working," according to Holmes.

On the way homeward, heading for Sandspit, we passed the Spirit of New Zealand at anchor.

A neat end to a great day, despite the weather.

Naming lions

Lion cubs Maud and George were born on February 16 1913 at Wellington Zoo. The authorities held a "plebiscite" to determine their names in April that year.

But the choice wasn't greeted with unanimous approval.

A correspondent who finds fault with Councillor Fuller for his protest against native names (which puzzle the average Briton) contends that Maori words should be bestowed on the Zoo lion cubs, instead of "George" and "Maud."

Evening Post 26.5.1913

George and Maud as names for the lion cubs at the Wellington Zoo did not meet with the approval of Councillor Barber at the last meeting of the Wellington City Council. He suggested that Native names should be given: Tutanekai and Hinemoa were his choice. "But they're brother and sister, not lovers," objected Councillor Hindmarsh. Councillor Barber said he did not know what George and Maud stood for. George might mean his Majesty King George, or it might mean George Frost. Councillor Fuller vigorously opposed the proposal to christen the cubs in Maori. "It's Pongatorotu and that sort of thing that's the curse of this country. People forget the names as soon as they leave. Give them good old English names." The council, by nine votes to seven, favoured the English names.

Northern Advocate 28.5.1913

Sadly, George died young, in June 1914.

Young George, the entertaining and handsome son of King Dick at the Wellington Zoo and heir apparent to the kingship of the Zoo, is dead. The Zoo has been under a cloud for some time during the illness of the cub, and the end came on Tuesday, from an attack of pneumonia. George was a particularly fine looking youngster, and, with his twin sister, had always been a popular exhibit. Teething troubles lowered his healthy vitality for some time before the cold weather came on, and the recent sudden changes and wintry snaps reached his lungs. The Zoo is the poorer by the loss of a very handsome beast, which was the more kindly regarded because he had been born and bred on the spot. 

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser 26.6.1914

Maud though, went on into adulthood, and mothered at least two sets of cubs of her own.

Images of the earthquake at Napier, 1931

Got these via a Trade Me auction just recently.  These images have appeared in publications before now -- but even so, and after all the years since February 3, 1931, they have still not lost their emotive power.

The Hawke's Bay Earthquake was magnitude 7.8, with 256 casualties and thousands injured. In comparison, Christchurch's 22 February 2011 earthquake was magnitude 6.3, with 185 casualties. Like San Francisco in 1906, fire in Napier was a factor in the destruction and loss of life.

Sandspit murals

The Sandspit here is the one from where travellers take a ferry out to Kawau Island across the Hauraki Gulf. Here, at the end of a day trip around the upper gulf (more later), I found a wonderful mural around the sides and the rear of the Sandspit loos.

Painted by John Mulvay in 1999, according to the plaque attached as a joint project between the Sandspit Residents and Ratepayers Association and Rodney District council, this work is faded today but still shows an exceptional three-dimensional feel to it. The pohutukawa blossoms seem to jut outward.

You can see it in its original form on Mulvay's blog.

Two Ponsonby memorials

This particular journey of my curiosity began once I brought home from a book sale The Beauty of the Bay: St Mar's Bay and Westhaven by Glenys Hopkinson (2001). I've been interested in obtaining the slim volumes done by Hopkinson on the Ponsonby area and surrounds, but apart from at book sales, they are a tad expensive.

Anyway  ...

One paragraph, in smaller-than-usual font, beneath a photo caught my eye on page 9:

A tiny fountain in memory of a Bay man, former Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage, was unveiled by Auckland Mayor Mr J H Luxford on July 18 [sic] 1955. Sited in Dedwood Street [sic], diagonally opposite the Gluepot, it states simply: "In memory of Michael Joseph Savage, Labour Member for Auckland West 1919-1940."

In 2006, this appeared in an article in the NZ Herald:

Savage was the area's MP for 21 years and after his death a drinking fountain was erected at the top of Dedwood St - Dedwood was an earlier name for Ponsonby - in his memory.Unfortunately, as [Gerry] Hill [of the Great Ponsonby Bed and Breakfast Hotel] points out angrily, the grassy plot where the fountain stands has over the years been blocked off by the erection of the Plunket Rooms and public toilets, "so it's hard to find and hardly anyone knows it's there". He would like to see the fountain moved to a reserve just behind the Leys Institute, another Ponsonby icon, donated to the area by two philanthropic brothers, and still in use as a library, gymnasium and community meeting place.

So, there seemed to be some strong feelings about this item which is nearly 60 years old. I wanted to find out more.

 Information from Auckland Council Archives records used in this post came from ACC 275/271/43/229.

In October 1943, the Women's branch of the New Zealand Labour Party wrote to the Council requesting provision of a women's restroom at Three Lamps, Ponsonby. The Council took this on board investigating possible sites close to the famous junction, the City Engineer advising in November that the only possible site he could see was on the south side of Jervois Road, all Crown Land, part of which was used at that point as the police station. The Council then wrote to the Government, but were declined in March 1944 by the Department of Lands and Survey, who said that the land would likely be utilised for a redeveloped station.

Undaunted, Council considered other sites.

Another site came up for consideration in September 1944, the corner of Dedwood Terrace and Jervois Road.

Jervois Road, looking toward Three Lamps, in 1926. Reference 4-1786, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

Detail from above image. Dedwood Terrace to the left, Jervois right, the "Old Village Smithy" at the corner, the Bond family house left.

As at late 1944, the corner site was occupied by a 1913 villa "of fair quality" at 5 Dedwood Terrace, and a dilapidated old smithy at 19-20 Jervois Road, used by a metal shutter manufacturing business, Danks Bros Ltd. The City Engineer proposed that, after purchase from the owner Mr Alfred John Bond, that the site would be a wonderful one for a women's restroom on the corner, and Plunket building from out of the suitably converted villa.

The corner site had been purchased in 1893 by Alfred Bond (1836-1914), father of Alfred John Bond (NA 66/246). The father appears to have followed another son, James Shiner Bond, to New Zealand, possibly in 1872 on the SS Hero, (Auckland Star, 16.2.1872), but his name appears in an 1881 census of Romany hawkers still in England. He was possibly the same Alfred Bond applied to be a steam roller driver working for Auckland City Council in 1884. (AS 26.9.1884) He was originally, according to this family history webpage, a "whitesmith" or tinsmith, from Shipton in Somerset.

Golden hair, and had a beard “like a Viking”. Worked as a smith (described as a Whitesmith) in Auckland at Deadwood [sic] Terrace in Ponsonby. His son Alfred John later continued the business. Alfred’s son, James Shiner, was the first of the family to come to New Zealand. Alfred and the rest of the family came out a few years later, partly because daughter Cherry had a weak chest. In their later years, Alfred and Sarah were cared for by their daughter, Rose.

His son Alfred John Bond (1877-1958) took over the old smithy on Jervois Road from 1909, and remained as owner (even though by the 1940s he was somewhat infirm, living in Epsom, and had rented No. 5 Dedwood Terrace to a Mrs. M Harvey). He admitted, in a letter to the Town Clerk dated 10 October 1944, that the smithy had seen better days, describing it as an eyesore.

"I would have liked to have held on to the property ... until the Harbour Bridge was built when I think Ponsonby will be a second Newmarket, but time marches on and I do not wish to stand in the road of progress."

He put the price at £2250. The Council, after consulting their valuers and considering the selling price of other land in Jervois Road, offered £1650, but finally went up to £1900 in August 1945, which was accepted. The site was formally transferred to Auckland City on 26 November 1945.

Danks Bros vacated the old smithy by December 1950, while Mrs Harvey left the old house in June the following year. Just before Council finalised plans for the redevelopment of the site, local MP Ritchie Macdonald wrote on 24 March 1951 putting forward the suggestion from the Auckland West branch of the Labour Party that a children's drinking fountain be included on the site, as a memorial to the late Michael Joseph Savage.

"May I add that the building on the proposed site was the scene of the first nomination of Michael Joseph Savage as a Candidate for Parliament."

This leads to a colourful part of Ponsonby history which I have yet to prove or disprove. The Star on 1 July 1955 recorded: "When the late Mr Michael Joseph Savage was first nominated as Labour Candidate for Parliament, for Auckland West, the necessary papers were signed on the anvil of the forge of a blacksmith's shop at the corner of Jervois Road and Dedwood Terrace, Ponsonby. To mark the spot and occasion, a children's memorial fountain has been erected on what is now the patio of the Ponsonby women's restrooms and conveniences."

If true, the event was in 1919, when Savage first ran for (successfully) the Auckland West seat. Hopefully, Papers Past later this year through the Auckland Star records might shed some light.

Council agreed with the proposal, provided that the Auckland West Labour Party branch took responsibility for the cost of the fountain and its installation. In the end, Ponsonby locals paid £75 toward the cost, the fountain designed by City Architect Tibor Donner. The Plunket rooms in the renovated villa were opened 12 December 1952. The restrooms and drinking fountain had their own moment on Friday 15 July 1955, when the Mayor took a drink from the new fountain.

The site today has greatly changed. The old villa has gone (left of this image, taken yesterday), and I believe the 1950s toilets have as well. Now, that site appears to be a toy library. All that remains is a patch of grass in the middle, behind the blue car, on the other side of the shrubs and the low brick wall, behind a childproof fence and gate.

I stopped at the gate, and asked one of the adults there if I could come in and take a shot. They seemed surprised that I asked, saying that it is a public space still -- but the fence and gate are there for the kiddies, and as a strange adult coming into places like that, even just to look at bits of history, it pays to ask first. I can see there would be the comment that "it's hard to find and hardly anyone knows it's there."

It is cool, though, to see that the fountain is indeed used by the children. I saw one young chap leaning his elbow on the flat part, where the inscription is, as he leaned forward into the flow of the water for a sip.

 But ... just when I thought I'd fairly well sewn up another post, found the item, prepared to put the words together, I found the following image in the Sir George Grey Special Collections.

"Memorial erected at Ponsonby to the memory of Trooper Stanley Rees Scott and Unveiled by the Hon. J Carroll, last Saturday. Frank Harris, Sculptor," according to the NZ Sporting and Dramatic Review, 31.12.1902, p. 18 (SGGSP ref 7-A15384)

Intelligence received from Durban yesterday records the death of Mr Stanley Rees Scott, of Ponsonby, after a short illness. Mr Scott was twenty-seven years of age, and a well-known Ponsonbyite. At the commencement of the South African war he, accompanied by a number of Aucklanders, left for the seat of war and joined Brabant's Light Horse, afterwards being attached to Roberts Horse. The departure of these young Aucklanders from our shores was a most enthusiastic one. For a number of years Mr Scott was clerk in the office of the late Mr E. T. Dufaur of this city, subsequently joining Messrs Morrison and Phillips' business, Auckland. His loss is mourned by a large number of friends. He leaves four sisters and four brothers to mourn their loss, and much sympathy is felt for them in their hour of tribulation. 

 AS 9.8.1902

A meeting of those interested in erecting a memorial to the late Mr Stanley Rees Scott took place last evening at the Suffolk Hotel, Ponsonby. Mr J. Baxter presided. Designs, estimates and specifications of a drinking fountain were submitted by a number of monumental masons. The number was reduced to two, Messrs McNab and Mason's and Mr Frank Harris' designs. The final ballot resulted in favour of Mr Harris' design, which provides for a fountain 12ft. high, of marble, with bluestone foundations. The cost will be about £7. The memorial will be erected near Shelly Bench in about three months' time.

AS 5.9.1902

On Saturday last the Hon Jas Carroll unveiled a memorial erected at Ponsonby, Auckland, to perpetuate the memory of Trooper Stanley Rees Scott, a member of Brabant's Horse. The memorial is in the form of a drinking fountain of white marble on a bluestone base. It stands 12ft. 6in high and bears the inscription: "Erected by old chums and friends to the memory of Stanley Rees Scott, who, after 2 years active service, died at Durban, June 26, 1902." 

AS 1.1.1903

Well, the memorial is no longer there on St Mary's Bay Road, opposite the Leys Institute and outside the old Ponsonby Fire Station. So far, I haven't found any Council records on it (but I'll still keep an eye on it), and it may well have vanished during work on the road any time from the mid 1920s.  Which is a shame, as Boer War memorials are uncommon in comparison with those for the First and Second World Wars.

Any info or suggestions from readers as to what was the memorial's fate would be appreciated.

Update 23 May 2013:

Edward Bennett of the Karangahape Road Business Association emailed me the other day, saying that he had been told the Boer War memorial had been removed to Symonds Street Cemetery possibly  in the 1930s and that "the Memorial was one of the casualties when the motorway was constructed; few of the gravestones were preserved and as the Ponsonby Memorial to Trooper Stanley Rees Scott wasn't connected with an actual body it wouldn't have been considered very important especially as there was the Memorial nearby on Symonds Street at Wakefield. Neither was his name incorporated into the 1966 memorial created next to Hobson's Grave."

An old fashioned front window

I passed this window by yesterday, heading down Wellesley Street West, just up from Elliott. Why did I take the photo (with the owner's permission)? Because this is the way I remember seeing shop windows as I grew up, especially dairies, butchers, stationers, haberdashers and small hardware stores. Items the store has to sell, displayed in the window, for passersby to see, and stop, and think, "You know, I think I fancy having that today ..."

The owner said he did this for his customers. It's a great potential drawcard for his business -- certainly attracted my notice.

These days, I see so many stores where they treat that front window as just another wall, instead of a three-dimensional permanent ad for the shop's contents, always ready to be changed around, the scope limited only by imagination.

This example is simple, compared to the seemingly top-to-bottom examples I can still fondly recall, but -- it brought back those memories for me.

Hope abandoned on Ponsonby Road

Heading home on Tuesday, lots of stuff floating around in the noggin from  having been to a meeting of fellow history-minded people -- I see this through the window of the 198 express bus travelling along Ponsonby Road 'tween Great North and Williamson Ave. Didn't take the flash off, darn it ...

Any ideas what this is about would be appreciated. I haven't seen any other posters like this.

The Aucklander's article on Miss Newey's cottage

Further to these posts:

Miss Newey's Cottage
Remembering Miss Newey

Last Thursday, the Aucklander was the first to take up the story of Miss Newey's cottage, out at Hobsonville at the present time and looking for a home back in Henderson where it was built.

Trevor Pollard, Graham Foster and I have received memory snippets about Miss Newey from the public, with a member of the local bowling club obtaining this image of her as President of the club. Another caller and her sister sent us a copy of a photo of a class at Orakei school in 1948, where Miss Newey taught for a time (commuting all the way over there from Henderson).

Another person dropped in to Henderson school just recently a photograph of that school's pupils in the 1950s or 1960s, being taught a lesson amongst orchard trees, with someone who does look like our Miss Eileen Newey.

As yet, we still don't know which way this will go. We've yet to hear back from Auckland Council or the Henderson-Massey Local Board as to whether there might be a spot for the cottage at Tui Glen in Henderson.  Our fingers are still crossed.