Glenmore: the gaoler's farm

A photograph of Glenmore Lodge, possibly from the late 1950s. MAC 026, ID 115013, Auckland Council Archives, by kind permission.

Some years ago, a friend came across the name “Glenmore” in Wises Directories of the 1920s and 1930s, referring to a patch of the New North Road landscape between Kingsland and the rise towards Eden Terrace and Upper Symonds Street. Basically, as I’ve explained to folks since, it was an area so-named, but not officially so, around the vicinity of what was once the Kiwi Bacon factory. Just lately, though, the name has come up again – a family historian asking where it was because a probate document listed an address as “New North Road, Glenmore” (in that case, it was in Eden Terrace more than Glenmore), and when Claire asked about early brushmakers in Auckland here, and I found a factory in Buchanan Street, “Glenmore”. So – here is the story of Glenmore, an ephemeral district named after a building which, sadly, no longer exists. 

A certain colourful ex-convict from Australia, Thomas Cassidy (link is for a Facebook page now only in cache), claimed land in Hokianga, for which he received in settlement from Governor FitzRoy £2053 worth of land in Auckland in the form of scrip, according to 20th century research by Basil King. At least part of that scrip would have been used to purchase around 110 acres of land in Section 5, Suburbs of Auckland: the northern side of what would become New North Road, from the line of the Dominion Road flyover today, to the slopes of Morningside. In 1846, he sold the lot to George McElwain, and exited the stage of Auckland history. 

George McElwain (c.1804-1866) is said by one family history site to have had two younger brothers: John (1922-16) and Walter Richard (c. 1827-1901). Given the age difference, it seems obvious why George was the pioneer brother, followed in the late 1840s to early 1850s by his two male siblings. The family came from Killan House, Ballymascanlan in County Louth, Ireland. John McElwain was in the government service until he turned 26, so it would appear that all three sons (there were also three daughters) were reasonably well educated at least (John was said to have been educated in Dublin.) 

The Auckland Historical Society noted that George McElwain was gazetted as Head Gaoler in 1841 (Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, September 1983, No. 43); he testified in 1846, as head gaoler, that he knew a prisoner personally since 1842. (New Zealander, 5.9.1846) George McElwain also appeared in newspapers as a poundkeeper in May 1848. (SC 27.5.1848) Owning so much land relatively close to the city, I can understand why. 

The stocks, gaol and gallows of early central Auckland, when George McElwain would have been in charge. A much later sketch by Edward Bartley, published in the "Weekly Graphic". Ref. 4-2587, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries.

When was the stone lodge built? Tradition has it that it dated from 1846, the year George McElwain purchased the farmland from Thomas Cassidy. But Basil King (see later in this post) in 1959 found a tender notice in the New Ulster Gazette of 5 August 1861 for the erection of a dwelling “to house the jailer”. A wooden construction noted at the site of the Auckland Gaol at the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, as “Original Head Gaoler’s House” as at February 1862, however, might have been the building referred to. (see Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, No. 43, 1983, p. 13) Comparisons have been made between the lodge and William Edgecumbe’s Great Northern Hotel at Western Springs (1858), so there is a possibility that Glenmore Lodge indeed wasn’t built until much later than thought. Other stories link the construction in with McElwain’s superintendency of both the gaol in central Auckland and the stockade at Mt Eden, suggesting that prison labour was used. This, though, can’t be proved with certainty. Of course, it isn’t very likely that we will ever know details as to the early history of the lodge, unless a diary or similar primary documentation emerges from out of the past. 

In 1863, after 22 years serving as Auckland’s gaoler, it came time for McElwain to retire. However, while he had started his career as a public servant under the auspices of Governors and central government, his career end came during the period of the Auckland Provincial Council which now ran institutions such as the Auckland Gaol. In the mid 1860s, scrambling for income and grants to build such things as a railway and a new asylum, proved a parsimonious lot. 

PENSION TO MR McELWAIN. Captain Daldy said the consideration of this application had been fully gone into, but the government could not feel warranted in asking his Honor to grant a pension. Ho would therefore move, "That this Council whilst it fully recognises the long and honorable services of Mr George McElwain, gaoler to this province, does not feel justified in recommending his honor the Superintendent to send down a measure recommending the grant of a retiring pension to any one. And that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to his honor the Superintendent." … 

Mr. Foley supported the motion. It was well known that Mr. McElwain was almost as wealthy as any man in the province, and he certainly ought never to have made the application … 

Mr Kerr said it would be an act of great injustice to put off Mr. McElwain's claim. He had attended to his duties through good and ill health, and the safety of the prisoners in an insecure jail must have been a very irksome and laborious task. 

Mr. Wynn said the question at issue was, whether the Government should initiate the system of pensions. It once entered into they could not resist any application. It had been asserted by Mr. Cadman that every government recognised the principle of pensions but he forgot that such a thing had not yet been introduced in this province, nor had he been enabled to find that any other of the provinces had initiated it. He could not look at the necessity in the same light as the hon. members who had spoken in advocacy of the pension. It appealed to him that so long as the servant was well paid for his services he could not complain. When he became unfit for duty he would certainly have no further claim upon the salary than any other man. 

Mr. Rowe thought the granting a pension to Mr. McElwain would not introduce the system of pensions, as regarded servants of the Provincial Government within recent years. The fact of Mr. McElwain being so long a servant of the General and Provincial Governments would constitute the difference. 

Captain Daldy said Government had considered that the payment of a pension to Mr. McElwain would entitle other Government servants to look for the same consideration after several years of service. 

 SC 25.3.1863 

The vote was 15 for Daldy’s resolution denying McElwain his pension, and four opposed. Thus, McElwain, after his long years of government service, received but a thank you in return. 

 Southern Cross 2 May 1867

When George McElwain died, between 10 and 11 pm on 30 September 1866 at Glenmore Lodge, he left Glenmore to his widow Louisa according to Basil King – but it is George’s brother Walter Richard McElwain who held title to the property to the early 1880s. He was married there in early 1866. (SC 19.1.1866) His death announcement in 1901, indicates that not only was Walter McElwain an absentee landowner of Glenmore for most of his life, but that by then the family had started the George McElwain legends. 

We regret to record the death of one of our old and much respected citizens, Mr W R McElwain (youngest brother of the late Mr. George McElwain), of Glenmore Lodge, Rocky Nook. Arriving in Auckland as far back as 1858, he resided in the town until taking up land in Waiuku, where he carried on farming till within a year of his death. The last year of his life was spent quietly at his home in Rocky Nook. He leaves a wife and family of two sons and two daughters. The youngest daughter is away in Melbourne at the present time. The deceased's brother, the late Mr. George McElwain, was private secretary to Governor Hobson in the early years of this colony. 

 AS 3.1.1901 

Governor Hobson’s personal secretary was, actually, James Stuart Freeman. 

Daniel Pollen appears to have lived at Glenmore on New North Road, most likely the lodge, from around early 1869 to mid 1873 (Southern Cross and Auckland Star ads). By 1881, we see the lodge is the home of Richard and Jane Monk. (AS 6.6.1881) But these people must have only rented the property from Louisa and her brother-in-law Walter until a tangle of mortgages and agreements saw the property go to Thomas Morrin and William Stephen Cochrane in 1884. They left the names of Auckland’s commercial apparent best and brightest on the streets in the Glenmore subdivision of 1885: Morrin, (William) Aitken, (Samuel) Hesketh, (Robert Charles) Greenwood, (William) Buchanan, and (John C) Richmond. The inclusion of these names was likely not just recognition in the polite sense, but reflected real interest in the development by these lawyers, land agents, and merchants.

Auckland Star 14 November 1885

 Auckland Star 13 January 1886

By 1896, photographer John Carnduff Morton (c.1853-1936) owned the lodge and eight sections of the Glenmore subdivision both on which it stood and immediately around it, a total of half an acre. (NA 77/295) According to the Auckland Libraries’ photographer’s database, he originated from Edinburgh where he had set himself up in business “near Edinburgh” in 1880-1881. He arrived in New Zealand in 1881, working in Dunedin until 1883, then as assistant to Josiah Martin in Auckland until 1890-1891. He had his own business, the “Balmoral Studio” on Karangahape Road from that point, but used his home at Glenmore Lodge for bridal party photography. It would be interesting to find out if any of Morton’s photographs at the lodge still exist. 

Auckland Star 15 June 1897

Morton started to carve up his land from 1907. By 1921, the New North Road frontage was becoming filled by brick and wooden shops, blocking off the lodge’s historical association with the New North Road. (DP 15507) 

 Detail of DP 15507, LINZ records, crown copyright

In that year, the lodge and remaining quarter-acre of land was sold to commercial traveller Albert Asmuss and Mrs Evelyn Estelle Kelly. They didn’t own it long; in 1923, the lodge was sold to Frank Rawle (NA 345/72). From 1932, the house was administered by the Public Trustee. 

 Detail from NA 470/76 (1928) LINZ records, crown copyright

Beverley F Parminter's recollections, as a grand-daughter of Frank Rawle (her father was also named Frank) were published in the Auckland -Waikato Historical Journal, April 1988.

"I have recollections of the house, which was renamed Alstone by my grandfather, whilst the family were in residence. The interior was beautifully furnished with many antiques which grandfather had collected; tall dressers holding fine china in the dining room; grandfather clocks, venetian mirrors, velvet covered furniture in the lounge, we were not allowed to frequent as children. Tapestries, beaded pictures and tall mirrors on the walls going up the stairway. The stairway itself was most elegant with a beautiful kauri balustrade.

"Other memories include, the wooden slatted venetian blinds, the bath on legs in a large bathroom with an enormous gas califont, and the many quaint, gargoyle charactered earthenware garden ornaments. The old conservatory, later a fernery, my sister and I peeping through the windows upstairs with their wide stone ledges, the old orchard with its lichen covered trees, and sitting on the verandah in the sun on the old stone buttresses ...

"A conservatory was removed and the house converted into three flats, one of which was lived in by my aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs G Steed, until the house was sold ... after my grandmother's death ..."

In 1958, an Auckland second-hand dealer named Edward Cursons purchased the lodge; a month later, he sold the site to Rodney Augustine Farry. 

The lodge in the 1950s, from the MeGehan Collection, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries, ref. 255A-78

The 20th century romance with Glenmore Lodge, lasting a fleeting five years, began with a campaign by Fred McGehan, a Mt Albert resident (and a local borough councillor at a later point) who proposed that a number of landmarks in the borough be preserved, and urged the Mt Albert borough council to move toward that end. Four houses were slated for registration by the council in September 1957 out of six proposed by McGehan: Allendale, Alberton, Ferndale, and Glenmore Lodge. Some research was undertaken into Glenmore Lodge at the time. Articles appeared in the Auckland Star, and also the local paper the Sandringham Star, edited by Dick Scott (who later wrote In Old Mt Albert in the mid 1960s for the borough council).

MeGehan later wrote in the Auckland Historical Journal (October 1962):

"The house is typically English in design and solid in construction but it is far from elegant. It has two storeys, with four bedrooms upstairs and seven rooms downstairs. Built of stone, the main outer walls are about 2 foot thick and the roof is of slate. Over the years some additions have been made but the house remains substantially much the same as it was 100 years ago. The exterior doors are of French design, with two sections opening outwards. It is said that this was a precaution against Maori attackers, narrow entrances being less likely to give admittance to a mob.

"In 1922 the old home still had a large frontage to New North Road and its trees, mostly Norfolk pines and Moreton Bay figs, were one of Auckland's finest landmarks. Ax rates became geavier, further subdivision was found necessary. Experience bushmen were called in to fell the trees. There are houses now where once the orchard was planted and all that remains of the farm property is the Lodge itself. It is partly hidden from view down a right-of-way behind some shops."

The most detailed research at this point was carried out by Basil King, secretary for the Auckland Regional Committee of the National Historic Places Trust in 1959, these being the early days of the formation of the NZ Historic Places Trust, a time when there was still a blending of the Trust with elements which later coalesced into the formation of the Auckland Historical Society (Auckland Star 1.9.1959). But this registration presented problems. 

The owner of the lodge from May 1958, Rodney Augustine Farry, had other ideas for the lodge, ideas which the borough council’s protection order prevented. He wrote in complaint to the council (text of letter published in the Sandringham Star, June 1961): 

“I am in the most unfortunate position of owning Glenmore Lodge, a property over which I have no jurisdiction as it is on the list of historical landmarks. Approximately two years ago I applied for a permit to have the Lodge converted into flats. I was advised to submit for your approval plans for such a scheme. These were duly forwarded to you and the permit declined because of your refusal to allow the structure of the building to be altered in any shape or form. 

“At a later date I applied for a permit to have the building demolished. This request was also refused. “The Council then approached me for an option to purchase the said property. This option was arranged at £4,500, which has since lapsed. Recently I received notice from your Town Clerk that extensive repairs to the house were required if I wished to keep the house tenanted. At considerable expense and trouble I had all tenants find other accommodation so the house is still vacant. 

“I consider that I have been most lenient and just with the Mt Albert Borough Council in connection with this matter. I suggest that you either purchase the property at the reduced price of £4000 or remove it from the list of historic landmarks and give me the freedom enjoyed by other property owners. I have spent several hundred pounds on the property since purchasing, plus cost of having plans drawn for flats etc., and at the reduced price of £4000 I am showing a loss. 

“Being the owner of this property I have had personal experience of the tremendous interest taken in this building by hundreds of New Zealanders, and if your Council decides to purchase this property and preserve it as an historical landmark, I will instruct my solicitors to forward the deeds to you, payment in full to be made twelve months from this date, free of interest.” 

 In response, the Mt Albert Borough Council declined the offer, and as the house was by then in a “generally rundown state”, the old shell and lime mortar crumbling, it was removed from the council’s protection list. The Auckland City Council were approached by Farry two months later with an offer to buy, but the council’s Property and Health Committee decided to take no further action. The city engineer A J Dickson, by then in the midst of planning the Dominion Road motorway which would end the intersection of Dominion and New North Roads, create the flyover and alter the lodge’s neighbourhood to a landscape of overpasses and light industrial zones, said that he understood that the young Auckland Historical Society were still trying to preserve the building, but their hopes suffered from a lack of finance (NZ Herald, 1.9.1961).

By later that month, the building was declared doomed, with Mt Albert Borough Council ordering its demolition. By now, it had been badly vandalised, with windows smashed and the interior damaged “beyond repair”. While the council had ordered repairs in July that year, it was felt that, as the Auckland City Council’s works were planned to pass through part of the property, there was little point in the old lodge remaining (NZ Herald 19.9.61).

In March 1962, Farry sold the property to Rosebowl Autos Limited (NA 1532/96), with the new owners probably considering that the old building could be demolished. However, public pressure on Mt Albert Borough led to them purchasing the property in May 1963, for around £3400. A photograph of the empty section after demolition dates from October 1963. There’s no indication of the existence of the old house on a subdivision plan drawn up for the council in April 1964 (DP 53674); and in 1965 the remainder was sold to Merv Clark Limited. Today, a commercial building occupies the site. 

The site of Glenmore Lodge 289 New North Road, photographed 24 October 1963. Ref. A472, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries

If the cafuffle over the building had been a bit later, perhaps it might have ended up shifted to MOTAT’s pioneer village, stone by stone, as happened with another stone house rescued from Epsom later that decade. But – for Glenmore Lodge, such was not to be.

Soapy legends

 

(Updated 14 March 2015)

I've been meaning for ages to take a photo of this restored Sunlight Soap ad on the side of the Corner Store, Mt Eden and Nikau Streets, Grafton/Eden Terrace. A couple of days ago, I made my way down Mt Eden Road from the Upper Symonds Street shops, and finally ticked this off my inner "to-do" list.

The shop's been around for ages, probably turn of the twentieth century, perhaps before. This part of Mt Eden Road was, until they opened up the rest of the Western railway line to link with Newmarket in the early 20th century, the route travellers would trek up from Mt Eden Station towards Symonds Street and the waiting trams and horse buses to take them further into the city. Haven't seen a contemporary photo yet showing the original ad on the side of the shop yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was, indeed, that same Sunlight soap one, with its "£1000 Guarantee of Purity" plug.

Evening Post, 18 September 1909

My mother's mother's family came from Leeds in Yorkshire, the Killerby family of William son of Charles, himself descended from tailors, cloth drawers, weavers, and others associated with the Leeds wool industry going back to at least the 1650s. William married Martha Watson 23 December 1854 -- and that sparked off a family legend, involving Sunlight Soap, which lasted clear through to the early 1980s. There may still be relatives of mine, out there in the world, who still believe it, because it had been told to my grandmother Elinor, and she told all her four children.

Grey River Argus, 13 August 1912

The legend was that Martha's father invented Sunlight Soap.

Poverty Bay Herald, 31 December 1920

A lot of families have legends like this. You get little kiddies sitting around the knees of grandparents, this sort of thing takes root and becomes an oral history hand-down through the generations. In my family's case, I think it happened when Grandma Elinor was a kiddy herself (born 1892), and although living in London with her father and his second wife (Grandma's mum died when she was three), she was sent to north to stay for a while with Great-great grandma Martha. Who told her something about the family on Martha's side ...

Evening Post 29 August 1922

Well, come the early 1980s, and my mother and I decided to go looking into the family background. Whatever Martha Watson had told the young Elinor, it had been so convincing to Elinor that the family name Killerby had been wiped out in her memory; Elinor thought that Watson was her mother Emilie's maiden name. Mum and I did some checking, hired researchers in England, and found out the truth.

William Killerby, born around 1829 and a cloth-drawer by occupation, married Martha Watson in 1854. She was the daughter of John Watson, a chemical manufacturer in Leeds. William eventually rose to become a wool merchant, perhaps with help from money from Martha's side, but most likely I now find thanks to his close associations with his brother Frederick, who in turn worked his way up from being a warehouseman to a director of a woolen clothing company -- but Martha, it seems, was vastly more proud of her own side of the family than that of her late husband.

Then, Mum and I contacted the makers of Sunlight Soap, who very kindly sent us a pamphlet explaining the history of the product, first marketed in England in 1884. Sunlight Soap, back then, was an amalgam of a number of soaps and chemical processes from all over England. Firms like Knights Castile, for example, contributed to the manufacture. Another to contribute toward the making of Sunlight -- was a firm of Yorkshire soap manufacturers and tanners named Joseph Watson & Sons in Leeds, dating from around 1820. Lever Brothers, Sunlight's makers, bought out the Leeds soap factory around 1912.

Evening Post 28 March 1925

That line of Watsons went on to be Barons from the 1920s, but there's no indication so far that Martha's father was a member of that family.

Meanwhile, what is now known about John Watson (1808-1854) is that he started out as a stone mason in Woodhouse, Leeds, married Mary Spenceley in May 1827 (daughter of a prominent cow-keeper, later church warden, named Simeon Spenceley), and was in a partnership with a Joseph Watson as "manufacturing chemists" around 1851. The partnership was dissolved then, but it began sometime between 1844 and 1851. Then my ancestor was in partnership with a William Watson, "prussiate of potash manufacturers". This partnership dissolved as well, in 1854. He died in October that year, after a long illness. His daughter Martha married William Killerby two months after that.

Evening Post 22 August 1940

So -- t'was merely family legend about the Sunlight Soap. I have no idea at the moment if the Joseph Watson John had his first partnership with was the same "Soapy Joe" who is said to have developed his soap as a by-product of his tannery business. But, the brand, above all others, does still mean a lot to me. Mum would swear by its wonderful ability to get at tough stains in the hand-wash, and I still use the bars today (even though, for a while, it looked like they'd go off the market, here).

Oh, and if anyone reading this finds a John Watson, chemical manufacturer in Leeds, in amongst the genealogy or the story for the Barons Manton, do let me know ...

Grafton dramatic: the former Grafton Library

Claire in A Latitude of Libraries last Sunday posted a wonderful article on the former library for Grafton in Mt Eden Road, just down from Upper Symonds Street. A rather sumptuous Edward Bartley design, who won the competition held in 1911, just a few years before his death. It was the second branch library for Auckland City from March 1913, trumped for top title by the Leys Institute in Ponsonby -- but it was also a political statement in favour of the concept of Greater Auckland.

All the recent breast-beating about Super City and ultra-amalgamations ... as with so much in history, we can say "we've seen it all before" even if we weren't even twinkles in our parents eyes. In my case, there might have only just been the start of a twinkle in my grandfather's eye on my father's side, during the period when Auckland City mayors promoted the joys of being part of a cleaner, better organised, better watered city to the scattering of boroughs, town boards, and road board areas surrounding it.

In the case of Grafton's library, it wasn't built to serve Grafton, exactly -- the main residential centre for Grafton was back across the Grafton Bridge, to the north-east -- but it was a dangling carrot, in brick and stone, to the good folk of independent Mt Eden and Eden Terrace. Mt Eden people used it quite a bit.

It was also not simply just a library. In those days, libraries had to be multi-media centres, much like today. This one opened with a lending department, reading room, committee meeting room and a lecture hall to hold 200, capable of hosting lectures on current events during World War I. The hall was one of the headquarters of the Emergency Precautions Service during World War II.

It also served, from 1913, as the base for the Grafton Shakespeare and Dramatic Club. The club, formed in 1912, was apparently the country's first amateur dramatic societies. One of the club's members, Helen Stirling MacCormick, also a member of the Auckland Repertory Company, went on after leaving the country in 1938 to British stages and a part on the first British radio soap opera of its kind, Front Line Family. Some of her documents and keepsakes are at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

They tried to close the library in 1954, in 1960, in 1978, and succeeded in 1990, just after the last great municipal amalgamations. Just as Mt Eden finally joined the city -- it lost its library.

Since 1996, it's been an alehouse named Galbraith's -- still a place, in a way, for a sharing of the minds.

Street Stories 8: A street with a bit of a kink

Burnley Terrace is in the old Mt Albert Borough area from Sandringham Road, and Mt Eden Borough from Dominion Road. The border between the two boroughs is smack dab in the middle, based on the old survey lines between the farms along both main roads. Burnley Terrace is also quite obviously kinked.

There are other streets in Auckland with kinks for various reasons, but this one is because two separate landowners (Henry Hirst in Mt Eden 1887, Thomas Runciman in Mt Albert 1886) did two separate surveys and subdivisions, along with two separate road dedications., and didn't match up the line of road. Both ends were dedicated before either Mt Albert or Mt Eden had left their early Road Board status, and so probably couldn't do much about it. Henry Hirst, of Mt Eden by the way, was the father of Samuel Luther Hirst of Gribblehirst Park fame.

Surely, though -- seeing as the subdivisions were within a year of each other, even the surveyors would have alerted their clients to the possibility that the through-road they were each including to service the new sections didn't exactly match what was going on just across the way.

Do a virtual trip down Burnley Terace using Google's street view, and you'll see what I mean.

Update, 17 March 2013: Apparently, Henry Hirst had a large vineyard on his land which became the eastern part of Burnley Terrace, off Dominion Road.

As our small community is increasing in number and wealth, the culture of the grapevine is being extended. There are several places in the neighbourhood of Auckland where grapes are grown for table purposes under glass to a considerable extent. The other day we visited the vineries of Mr Hirst, Mount Roskill Road. For several years Mr Hirst has devoted a good deal of attention to grape culture, and fair success has attended his efforts. The vineries are situated in a small hollow, some distance off the line of road on the western side, and though Mr Hirst's residence is visible from the road, only a part of the top of one of the glass houses can be noticed from the same place. They are situated in a small sheltered hollow among the scoria land, and the vines apparently delight to send their roots down among the underground stonework of that region. Had the vineries not been so favourably situated in respect to underground drainage no doubt Mr Hirst would have been compelled to adopt more elaborate means than he has to prevent an undue state of moisture in his glass houses. The structures are very simple in character, but under their protection, and in the porous soil on which they grow the grapes are attaining a degree of perfection and vigour far exceeding that we have seen at places where much more care was taken, and when a vastly heavier expenditure was incurred.

It is evident that when grown on very porous soil, such as is found in so many places in the neighbourhood of Auckland, the warmth and evenness of our climate are such that the grape vine needs little protection or forcing to bring it to the highest state of perfection. Mr Hirst's vinery consists of four separate houses, one upwards of 50 feet long, two each 84 feet long, and one 24 feet long. In width they generally range from 14 to 16 feet. The roofs are not high, so that the vines do not require long rods to reach the summit. Three of the houses are fitted with appliances for artificially heating. This is generally done only during the night time, and throughout the day the fires are allowed to go out. Though this early in the season, the grapes in all the houses are not only set, but generally about half their full size. Only one of the houses has been heated, and in it some of the branches are beginning to colour. The others will supply fruit at a later period in the season.

The variety of grape grown is chiefly the black Hamburg. There are a few of the muscat of Alexandra, a few golden champions, and a sprinkling of mill hill Hamburg, but, like others, Mr Hirst has found by experience that the black Hamburg is a grape that surpasses all the others for a sure general crop of excellent quality. Mr Hirst prunes his vines on the spur system, and allows only one branch to hang from each shoot. The bunches are of good average size, with here and there some with indications that they could have been made into very large bunches if the grower so willed it. The vines are all planted inside the house, but not in prepared borders, and are not at equal distances from each other. The large blocks of rocks in many instances prevent this being done, but where large spaces exist he has allowed his vines to carry two rods from near the surface of the soil. The vines in all the houses show a remarkably even distribution of fruit, and the lower bunches appear to be swelling as rapidly and satisfactorily as those growing higher up. In stiffer soils the degree of moisture in the atmosphere of the vine houses could scarcely fail to develop various forms of fungoid disease, but here, in the open land thoroughly drained by nature, the effects of the heaviest rain disappear at once. This kind of soil the vines evidently delight in, and it is a long time since we have seen healthier looking or more abundant fruiting vines.

Judging by the manner in which the vines are planted, we think Mr Hirst will have about 190 bearing vines, from which he expects to harvest this year over two tons of marketable grapes. Last season he cut his first bunch on the 1st December, but this year he will be at least a fortnight late. To amateurs, an examination of Mr Hirst's vineries cannot fail to be a source of real pleasure, for the sides of each house are covered with a solid mass of fruit. He has constructed a large reservoir in the immediate neighbourhood of the vineries, from which an abundant supply of water can always be obtained, should the dryness of the weather reader watering necessary. This season, however, the natural moisture has prevented the necessity of applying to the reserve store at hand.

NZH 27 November 1883

Hirst won second prize for his black graps at the Horticultural Exhibition in March 1881, (NZH 28 March) but 1883 appears to have been his last hurrah. By 1887, his land was subdivided, and became the eastern part of Burnley Terrace.

Queens Hotel site, Eden Terrace

Of the Eden Terrace pubs of old, there's the Edinburgh Castle of 1864 (still existing today), the Eden Vine of 1866 (first building gone, second building now retail) -- and third the Queens Hotel of 1867. Of the three, this is one whose traces are completely wiped out.

The original wooden Queens Hotel, at the northern corner of Symonds Street and Khyber Pass, was completed in May 1867 for Peter Robertson (Southern Cross 29 May 1867). He let it to one W H Ripley from around June that year, then took back the licence in March 1868.

Southern Cross 15 June 1867

A meeting of the residents in the Kyber Pass and Newmarket districts was held last evening at Robertson's Hotel, to consider whether the Newmarket portion of the district should be constituted a separate district. There were about thirty persons present ...

SC 23 September 1868

By around 1869, Joseph Rose appears to have both purchased the hotel, and was the publican.A bit more study into the land history would be needed to confirm this, but the Auckland City Council valuation records from as late as 1912 refer to the hotel as being owned by the Rose estate (ACC 213/171d, Auckland Council Archives). J Hanson was publican there for a time from 1877, then George J Panter, who transferred to the wonderfully named George Frederick Brimblecombe in September 1881.

Brimblecombe had arrived in Wellington just five months before, immediately meeting with a newsworthy mishap.

James West, seaman, was charged with stealing an umbrella, value 30s, the property of George Frederick Brimblecombe. Mr Brimblecombe, who arrived in Wellington by the s.s. Rotorua this morning, said he went into the Pier Hotel for refreshment shortly after his arrival, and left his umbrella on the counter in order to visit the back of the premises. On his return, two minutes afterwards, he found his umbrella had been stolen. Constable Laurie deposed that he succeeded in tracing the properly to the prisoner, who said he had taken it for a lark. The prisoner was evidently under the influence of drink, and his Worship considered him too "boozey" to know what he was about, and discharged him.

Evening Post 29 April 1881

Observer 22 September 1883

He seems to have quit the hotel a year after a disastrous fire along Khyber Pass and Symonds Street in September 1882 which missed destroying the hotel but still left a considerable amount in damage costs.

Next was Michael O'Connor, who in 1884 transferred his licence for the Queens Hotel  to James Hawkins. Hawkins seemed to have real trouble from those who reckoned he was trading on a Sunday -- and also due to his outdoor urinal.

Mr Cotter applied on behalf of Mr James Hawkins for a transfer of the license of the Queen's Hotel from Michael O'Connor.—Superintendent Thorn offered no objection to the applicant, who, he believed, had done his best. He might mention, however, that the granting of the extension of time until 11 o'clock had been somewhat inconvenient to the police, as it necessitated the placing of an extra constable there on Saturday evenings.—Mr Laver considered that an extra constable in the locality would be of greater service on Sunday nights, although Mr Hawkins had nothing to do with the drunkenness which prevailed on the Sunday. —Mr Aickin complained of the urinal by the side of the footpath, but which the applicant would remedy.—Mr Cotter suggested the propriety of extending licenses generally to 11 o'clock, which would remedy effects of which complaints had been made to Mr Thomson, —The Chairman did not agree with Mr Cotter's suggestion. The extension should only be granted where it was required.—The application was granted.

Auckland Star 8 September 1884

Queen's Hotel. Mr T. Cotter, on behalf of James Hawkins, applied for a renewal of the license of this hotel. The Chairman said that something had been said about additional stable accommodation required. Mr E. Cooper appeared on behalf of Mr W. H. Connell, the trustee of the premises, and said that the stable was not required. The Bench decided to grant the application and leave the other matters to be arranged. Mr D. Robertson testified to the excellent manner in which the hotel had been kept by the present licensee. He considered that the urinal required attention, and he thought for the sake of the hotel the stable accommodation ought to be improved. Mr Hawkins said that he had removed the urinal three times in five years. It was decided to leave these matters to be remedied by the licensee. Mr Cotter asked permission to extinguish the light in front of this hotel at 10 o'clock at night, which was granted. It was also decided that the urinal should be built of brick.

AS 8 June 1889

"Children standing on the pavement outside the Queens Hotel at the corner of Symonds Street (foreground) and Khyber Pass (right)", c1890s, reference 4-RIC347, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

Hawkins transferred to George Symons Budge in 1895, and Budge in turn transferred yp Charles Reinhardt in 1898. In 1903, Victor Cornaga was the licensee. By 1912, it was George Henry H Foster, followed by Stuart Garland c.1925.

A forewarning of the ultimate fate of the hotels here on this site came in 1924, when the Council arranged for the dedication of part of the hotel's site as a road. But still, the site's owners at that stage forged ahead, and in 1929 built a brick hotel in place of the old wooden one for £24,000. Stuart Garland remained as publican when the hotel reopened as the Astor from 1930, but first Dominion Breweries in 1931, then NZ Breweries and Hancock & Co took over around 1939/1940.

I haven't really been able to find a shot of the Astor Hotel which I can use here. If any readers have one I could use, I'd appreciate it. But the end for the Astor, successor to the Queens Hotel, came in 1996. It was demolished for a Council planned revamp of the Upper Symonds Street area and to improve traffic flows.

Today, the site is that of the Citta Apartments of 2005, by McLeod Group. "Citta, on the corner of Khyber Pass and Symonds St, has 105 apartments and 90 car parks, as well as commercial premises on the ground floor." Most famous person connected with the building? Current leader of the Act party, Don Brash.

A baby's life

For $2, I bought this photo from a seller at the Blockhouse Bay Antiques & Collectibles market yesterday. On the back was the reason I bought it on a whim: handwritten in old ink -- Clement Leslie Billing, age 6 months.

I wondered how much I could find out about Clement Billing's life from public records.

When was he born? It turns out he was born 14 December 1899, but the birth was registered in early 1900 (so the latter year shows up on the BDM online database). The photo therefore comes from mid 1900. His father was William Henry Billing, a bootmaker who worked in Kingsland on New North Road (No. 131), and later had a house at 14 Haultain Street, Eden Terrace. His mother's maiden name was Emily Turner. Clement was the first of at least five children in the family. Those of his siblings I found were:

Alma Agnes Maud, born 1902 (she married Lionel Richard Maynard 18 March 1922 at St Paul's Church in Auckland)

Frederick Walter, born 1905

Ruby Claretta, born 1909 (she died, aged just 4 months on 28 January 1910, and was buried in the Wesleyan division of Waikumete Cemetery)

Lillian Evelyn Ruby, born 1912

Clement attended Seddon Memorial College, where in 1916 in the Plumbing and Sanitary Engineering department exams, he passed first grade second class in English Composition and Literature, and Practical Mathematics, second class in General Elementary Science and Trade Drawing.(Auckland Star, 22 December 1916)

Electoral rolls show he was in the Eden electorate 1928-1935. In 1928 and 1931, he lived with his parents at their Haultain Street house. During this time, he had a dreadful accident in 1932.

Four people were injured in the city and suburbs yesterday. The most serious accident occurred to a motor cyclist, Mr Clement Leslie Billing, aged 32, of the Birdwood Estate, Swanson, when he was riding his motor cycle along New North Road, Mount Albert, shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday. He collided with a horse and cart and was thrown on to the roadway, receiving severe spinal and internal injuries through being trampled upon by the frightened horse. He was taken to the Auckland Hospital by the St. John Ambulance, and his condition to-day is stated to be very serious. 

 Auckland Star 30 May 1932

Clement was obviously a survivor. He pulled through, and just three months later married Edna Eileen McKinnon on 20 August 1932. The couple were living at 4 Haultain Street at the time of the 1935 election.

By 1938, the couple were living in Pt Chevalier, where Clement won £5 in an Art Union lottery draw. (Auckland Star 4 October 1938) In the 1946 Wises Directory, he's listed living at 168 Pt Chevalier Road, with the occupation of gasfitter. That year, the electoral roll shows he was back at Haultain Street, this time no. 6. By this time, his mother Emily was a widow, living at 4 Haultain Street. The family may have had a large land holding.

From 1949-1963 he was voting in the Eden electorate, and from 1969-1981 he was in the one for New Lynn, now retired and living at 75 Kay Drive, Blockhouse Bay. His Edna died in 1972, aged 76, but Clement kept on going until his own death on 27 December 1983, having remarried at some point.His second wife outlived him, possibly for four years. Just as when he was born, Clement's death was registered later, in the new year. His ashes were buried at Waikumete Cemetery on 30 December 1983.

"Such a wonderful man," said one death notice, "was the greatest of any. A great guy. So very sadly missed and always remembered."

Today, there's nothing left of the Haultain Street residences of the Billing family, all now commercial offices and light industrial facilities. The world of 1900 which the baby in the photo saw is vastly different from today. But -- the baby certainly lived his life.

The photographer, by the way, was  Frederick William Edwards, who operated from the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets from c.1898-c.1903, fitting Clement's time period well. Source: Auckland Library's Photographers Database.

Two brewers named Arkell

Former Arkell Homestead, Hillsborough Road, Waikowhai. Photographed 16 June 2011.

In this country in the 19th century, there were two brewers and publicans with the surname of Arkell. Exactly what connection or relationship there was to each other, I still don't know, but the link only ever appeared years after the death of the first. Hopefully, as more of our newspapers appear online at Papers Past, and other national digital heritage databases make their appearance, then a few more pieces will be added to the puzzle.

[Update 23 August 2011: I've just received an email from Doreen M Muller, Arkell family historian, who wrote: "John and Daniel were brothers,  John being the elder by some years." Thanks, Doreen.]

Updated 26 May 2013 with info from NZ Herald.

Updated 19 August 2014 -- image of beer duty stamp provided by Bruce Mai. Thank you, Bruce!

Updated 24 September 2014.

Updated 21 May 2020 -- correcting May Delicia Thatcher's name.

Let's begin with John Arkell.

He first appears with an advertisement on 2 July 1863 in the Otago Daily Times for his White Star Brewery at Caversham, "Arkell & Peake, Brewers of Ale and Porter of the very best quality”.

WE, the undersigned, Hereby Give Notice, that we have this day, by mutual consent, dissolved the Partnership hitherto existing between us as Brewers. The Business, in future, will be carried on by JOHN ARKELL who will pay all debts and receive all accounts in connection with the late firm. (Signed) JOHN ARKELL. JOHN PEAKE. Witnesses— Henry East, Henry Crump. White Star Brewery, Caversham. 2nd August, 1864.

Otago Daily Times 8 August 1864

Later that month, White Star was taken over by Samuel Marks of the Dunedin Brewery. (OTD 18 August 1864) John Arkell apparently used that buy-out to start up another partnership on Weld Street in Hokitika with Samuel Pizzey, the Phoenix Brewery. (Timaru Herald 17 June 1865) This partnership led to a dissolution in March 1866, bankruptcy for Arkell for a time until September 1867, then reestablishment of the partnership as Samual Pizzey & Co up until October 1871. In the latter years at Hokitika, Arkell was also Steward of the local Jockey Club, while brewing Pizzey's beer. (various reports, West Coast Times)

By January 1872, Arkell had a store at Machine Site Road, Murray Creek, Inangahua with Frederick Franklyn. This partnership dissolved that month with Arkell selling his interest. (West Coast Time 6 January 1872; 13 January 1872) Arkell then said he would start a brewery at Inangahua. By April 1872, this was known as the Arkell & McPhee (Murdock) brewery. (West Coast Times 15 January 1872; Grey River Argus 8 April 1872)

In May 1874, Arkell shifted to Old Customhouse Street, Wellington, to take up a brewing partnership as Mace & Arkell. It is operational by August. Arkell hadn't forgotten his heyday on the West Coast: both Mace and Arkell were reported in the papers as having hailed from Hokitika. They also ran the New Zealand Hotel in Manners Street by 1875, then the Brunswick Hotel, Willis Street South sold their brews.

(West Coast Times 26 May 1874; Grey River Argus 2 November 1875; Evening Post  7 September 1876; 1 June 1876)

In 1878 Mace & Arkell’s brewery and hotel interests was sold to a George McCarthy, (Evening Post, 22 June 1878) but as was shown later after John Arkell had died, not all the interests were sold off. He then bought an interest in the Commercial Hotel in Wanganui, entering into partnership with W E McLevie formerly of the Royal Mail Hotel, Hokitika. (Evening Post 28 January 1879; West Coast Times, 14 March 1879)

Next came Arkell's period at the Maitai Malthouse in Nelson. He leased it for 10 years from 1 April 1879 from James Hooper. (Nelson Evening Mail 19 February 1880; 15 May 1880) At this point, John Arkell appears to have had an interest in Auckland. Whether he was up there for medical treatment (although why not at Wellington?) or some other reason is still not certain.

We regret to learn that a telegram was received to-day by Mr B Osborne from Mr Harper, traveller for the firm of Copeland and Co., stating that Mr Arkell, who has for some time been carrying on business in Nelson as a maltster and hopgrower, died suddenly at Auckland this morning. The cause of death is supposed to have been heart disease, from which the deceased was known to be suffering. Mr Arkell leaves a widow and family in Nelson.

Nelson Evening Mail 24 January 1881

He died in the Albert Hotel, Auckland, 24 January 1881, aged only 40 years. William Findlay and Thomas Duncan were appointed executors for Arkell’s estate. (Evening Post, 16 February 1881) Rosie, John Arkell’s widow, died at Nelson 9 January 1885. (Nelson Evening Mail, 10 January 1885) John Arkell's estate, however, continued -- and so we now introduce the second Mr Arkell.

Daniel Arkell

Tracking him is a problem. Daniel Arkell left very few traces of his career path prior to 1878. I was fortunate to find this first reference, a marriage notice from the Sydney Morning Herald of an event which took place back in the Old Country -- at Watford, Herefordshire, in 1876.

MARRIAGES.

ARKELL — WADE. — October 3, at Watford, Herefordshire,

Daniel, youngest son of Mr. John Arkell, to Susannah, only child of the late Frederick Wade, of Sydney, N. S. W., and eldest daughter of Mrs. Pain, Belmore-street, Albion Estate.

Sydney Morning Herald 3 February 1877

Then, he seems to have accompanied his bride Susannah back to Australia, arriving in Sydney on the Barrabool 23 February 1877. (Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February) He then set up what was to become his signature business -- a brewery. Well, at least for a few months.

NOTICE.
I have THIS DAY, sold to Mr. Killeher, all my right, title, and interest in a BOTTLED BEER BUSINESS, carried on by me at 161, Kent-street, Sydney.
Signed, JOHN KILLEHER, DANIEL ARKELL.
Witness: W. Ward, June 15, 1876. [1877]

Sydney Morning Herald 21 June 1877

A Mr and Mrs Arkell then left Sydney for Auckland on the Rotorua, 11 July 1877. (Sydney Morning Herald, 12 July) Eight months later, Daniel Arkell is mine host at the Point Russell Hotel, Mercer.

POINT RUSSELL HOTEL. MERCER.

DANIEL ARKELL begs to inform the travelling public that he has made great improvements to the above well-known Hotel, and in addition to other excellent accommodation, there is now added a Railway Refreshment Room at the Station for the special convenience of travellers by every train. The Best of Wines and Spirits. Hancock's sparkling Ale.

Auckland Star 15 March 1878

I suspect that he had an agreement with brewers Hancock & Co, as they were identified as the owners when the hotel burned in 1876. Up until mid 1889, all of Arkell's dealings whether as a publican or a bottler was in conjunction with the Newmarket firm. Later in 1878, he branched out to lease the refreshment room at Mercer train station.

The refreshment room opened by Mr Arkell at the Mercer railway station, has proved not only a success financially, but has given unlimited satisfaction to travellers. Mr Arkell has a smart style of serving up the refreshments, and the hungry traveller can sit down at once to a hot meal, and have ample time to do justice to the same prior to the departure of the train. We understand that the railway department is so well satisfied with the success of the establishment that they have decided to add a ladies' refreshment room, which will embrace a variety of much-needed retiring rooms, and will be fitted up with mirrors &c., so that travelling beauties may attend to their personal adornments.

Auckland Star 30 July 1878

By August 1878, he was Chairman of the Mercer Highway District Board. (Public notice, NZ Herald, 5 August 1878, p1)

On Wednesday there was considerable excitement caused at Mercer, just as the train left for Auckland, by Mrs Arkell, of the Point Russell Hotel, suddenly missing a valuable diamond ring. She discovered her loss a few minutes after the servant had left the hotel. The servant was taking her final departure, having had notice to leave. Mrs Arkell at once told her husband, who went for Constable Walker, and the two ran down the line shouting after the train. The servant was charged with taking the ring, and from her pocket was produced one of Mrs Arkell's pocket-handkerchiefs, in which the diamond ring was wrapped. She was taken into custody, and charged yesterday before Captain Jackson with larceny, receiving a sentence of one month's imprisonment.

Auckland Star 13 September 1878

The manner of catering at the Refreshment rooms at Mercer is thus apologised for in the Auckland Star: — “The lessee of the Mercer refreshment room pays £53 per year to the railway department for the privilege of selling refreshment to the travelling public ; he also pays a further sum of £15 for license to sell liquors. On the arrival of each passenger train at Mercer, a repast is ready on the tables, consisting of two joints of meat, besides butter, jam, &c, and as many cups of tea or coffee as may be required, the charge for which is the reasonable sum of 1s 6d. The lessee labours under a disadvantage in not having separate rooms m which to provide a different class of refreshments. All passengers rush to one common table. The tattooed Maori, in his odoriferous blanket is seen sitting in proximity to the fair belle from the city. Half-drunken men squeeze in amongst the highest aristocracy of the land. With such diversity of people and tastes, the only chance of giving satisfaction lies in the caterer striking the happy medium and giving a good substantial meal at a moderate charge, which appears to have been done by Mr Arkell. With increased accommodation, first and second class tables might be provided at 1s and 2s, or whatever figure would satisfy. At least a select room for ladies should be added."

Waikato Times 8 March 1879

DESTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY STATION BY FIRE.
(PER PRESS AGENCY.)
Mercer, 19th May. About two o'clock this morning the Railway Station at Mercer, together with the refreshment room and ladies' waiting room, was completely destroyed by fire. It was caused by a heated stove pipe igniting a wooden wall. The fire was discovered by the people at Riddler's Hotel, and William Morgan gave the alarm. The fire was then bursting through the roof of the station office. Only a few articles of furniture were saved. The stationmaster had been making up accounts till after mid-night. No one slept on the premises. The buildings had recently been enlarged. Mr. Arkell is the proprietor of the refreshment-rooms, which are insured for £50 in the Norwich Union. He estimates his loss at between £40 and £50. The adjoining buildings were saved by the use of wet blankets. Had not the house been wet with rain, the Telegraph and Post Office and other buildings must have been destroyed. They were in great jeopardy, and as it was the furniture had to be moved out. Mr. McDonald, the General Manager, comes by special train (to) view the ruins.

Evening Post 19 May 1879

Waikato Times 25 December 1879

Then, sometime over the course of 1880-1882, Arkell moved north to Auckland, and never left. In April 1882, he purchased 128 Newton Road (2 lots) from Mrs Jane Fairburn and Mrs Susan Jane Bennett (NA 26/269), between what is today St Benedict's Street and Upper Queen Street. He may have lived there for a time, but he worked at Hancock & Co's building in Custom Street. (Advertisement, Auckland Star, 14 June 1882)

He was almost granted a licence for the (then) unfinished Waverley Hotel, but court actions (he sold a glass of sherry at the hotel without a license to do so) and licensing committee objections to the transfer prevented that. (Auckland Star 24 December 1883; 2 April 1884)

Arkell's Gladstone Street bottling store and brewery, Gladstone/St Benedict's Street frontage, possibly 1890s. Ref. 4-RIC96, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries. By kind permission.

Then, in June 1886 – Arkell started construction of his Gladstone Street brewery, designed by architect Robert Keals, and built by Thomas Julian. (Auckland Star 18 July 1887) The court case he undertook suing the Council for damage done to his new building by their earthworks in levelling Gladstone Road he eventually lost, to the tune of £500 in total costs. (Thames Star, 26 July 1887) The bridge you see the children standing on remained there through to 1908 at least, connecting the raised street across the deep gully to the building's front door.

Then, in April 1887 comes the first link I have between the two Arkell brewers. 

Re John Arkell deceased.—Mr Harley applied for the appointment of Mr Daniel Arkell of Auckland, as a new Trustee, in place of Mr William Finley, who had renounced. The application was granted.

 Colonist 23 April 1887

Were John and Daniel Arkell brothers? John and Rosie Arkell had young children when John died, so I don't think he was Daniel's father as mentioned in the earlier marriage notice. The children, then still in their minority, were probably the reason for the enduring estate. It certainly gave Daniel Arkell a greater business than just his Eden Terrace bottling concern. For one thing, as executor to John Arkell’s estate, Daniel Arkell now owned the Newtown Hotel in Wellington. (Evening Post 5 May 1891; 7 May 1898)

In Auckland he was primarily a publican, or at least a license holder, up to April 1889, working in with Hancock's. He transfered the  license for the Royal Hotel, Princes St, Onehunga to Capt. Hargraves in March/April 1888, after holding it for around a couple of years. (Auckland Star 1 March 1888) In August 1888, James Murdoch transferred his licence for the Avondale Hotel to Arkell (Auckland Star 8 August 1888) who retained it until further transferring to Michael Foley in June 1889. (Auckland Star 1 May 1889) He was one of Avondale's briefest "publicans", possibly acting as a place-holder for Hancocks to keep the license going while the new hotel was being built.

By December 1888, during his period as Avondale's publican-in-name, Arkell was manager of the Te Aroha Soda and Mineral Waters Co., a subsidiary of Hancock & Co. Arkell’s office as Hancock & Co bottlers (the first use of his bottling plant at Eden Terrace, most likely) was at 83 Queen Street in May, 1889. By July, however, there seems to have been a parting of the ways between Arkell and his employer/partner of the previous 11 years – Arkell warned in public notices that Hancocks and their employees are not authorised to take money meant for him. (Auckland Star 4 May 1889; 31 July 1889) In turn, Hancocks sold the Te Aroha Soda and Mineral Waters company to John Grey & Son in November 1889. (Auckland Star 19 December 1888; 19 November 1889)

Arkell's Gladstone Street bottling store and brewery, from the rear, possibly 1890s. Ref. 4-RIC97, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Council Libraries. By kind permission.

From around August 1889, now in business for himself, Arkell now advertised that he bottled "Dunedin Ale & Stout, and Strachans XXXX Ale" from Gladstone Street. A claim that, a few years later, would cause trouble between him and the Dunedin brewers. From July 1902, they distanced themselves from Arkell in public notices which seemed to go on for weeks.

Auckland Star 11 July 1902

In July 1891, Arkell refused a wholesale license for an outlet on College Road ... (Auckland Star 14 July 1891)

Auckland Star 22 August 1891

... but by August 1891, his Eden Terrace bottling plant and brewery appears to have expanded to both Newton & Gladstone Road frontages. Now we see a trademark appearing, a star rising from the waters (I don't think it's a star sinking beneath the waters ...)

One thing about Daniel Arkell, he was certainly not a pushover. In fact, he was armed.

TRESPASSING.
A man named Thomas Lamb was charged at the Police Court this morning with having on the 21st of May wilfully trespassed on the premises of Daniel Arkell, and refusing to leave when warned to do so.

Captain Harris and Mr J. Gordon were the presiding justices. Inspector Broham conducted the case for the prosecution. Daniel Arkell deposed that the man was discharged from his employ, but he refused to go on Saturday. Constable Howell was sent for and removed him. At 7.30 o'clock witness again heard somebody on the premises and upon calling heard no reply. He then fired his revolver into the ground to frighten the person. He found it was the defendant.

The prisoner stated that he had gone out and visited 22 houses in three hours for Mr Arkell. Upon returning, he was discharged for being so long. He claimed to receive 36s more than the amount paid him.

Inspector Broham said that the man had a wife and family. He suggested that the man should be cautioned and dealt with leniently. This was done, and a fine of 10s and costs, or 24 hours' imprisonment in default, was imposed.

Auckland Star 23 May 1892

He called upon the services of R Keals & Sons to design more premises at Gladstone Street in March 1894, a malthouse and storage premises. (Auckland Star 1 March 1894)

… the tender of Messrs Philcox and Son for £2,292 has been accepted. The new building is to be situated at the rear of the present brewery in Gladstone-street, near the head of Khyber Pass, and will form an extension of the present premises.

Auckland Star 15 March 1894

We would draw attention to a new advertisement appearing on Page 1 from Mr Daniel Arkell, of the Gladstone Brewery, Auckland. Mr Arkell has built up a splendid business in Auckland as a brewer, master, and bottler, and his brands are being extensively sod all over the colony. As he supplies a superior and most reliable article, he should meet with considerable success in the Thames and Up-country districts.

Thames Star 25 June 1896

Then, in 1901, he had his house built, at 461A Hillsborough Road, out in the country (the road was Ridge Road), with a splendid view of the many moods of the Manukau Harbour with a spacious garden and grassland of over 73 acres attached. Once again, he used his preferred architect, Richard Keals. There may not be many of Richard Keals' residences left in Auckland region -- this one, from the outside, is a beauty.

Messrs R. Keals and Sons received tenders to-day for a two-storey residence in brick at Waikowai, for Mr D. Arkell. The tender of Mr W. G. Smith, builder of this city, has been accepted (£2339).

Auckland Star 2 April 1901; NZ Herald 3 April 1901 p6

Arkell's Waikowhai property has a somewhat perplexing title history. We know he began arranging for his house to be built in 1901. The above plan (DP 3537, LINZ crown copyright) dates from October 1904, and shows his house facing Ridge Road, and the formation of "Arkell's Road" (now Dominion Road Extension) which took place in 1902 (advertisement from Mt Roskill Road Board, Auckland Star 8 February 1902). But, then we have the following notice:

LAND TRANSFER ACT NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that the several Parcels of Land hereinafter described will be brought under the Provisions of the Land Transfer Act, 1885, and its amendments, unless caveat be lodged forbidding the same within one month from the date of the Gazette containing this notice : — 4180 ALEXANDER AITKEN, JEANNIE STIRLING Part of Allotments 17, 18 and 21, Section 13, Suburb of Auckland, containing 73 acres 3 roods 21 perches, occupied by Daniel Arkell. Diagrams may be inspected at this Office. Dated this 7th day of October, 1905, at the Lands Registry Office, Auckland.

Observer 14 October 1905

In 1905, Alexander Aitken, Jeannie Stirling Richmond and Samuel Hesketh had title to the property (NA 130/157). Alexander Aitken and Jeannie Richmond were nephew and niece to land agent William Aitken who died in July 1901. Possibly (and I'd need to check the application file on this some time) Daniel Arkell had started coming to an agreement with William Aitken for the property, but Aitken's death intervened, putting Arkell into somewhat of a limbo legally. Meanwhile, Arkell's Road was formed, and in 1905 William Aitken's heirs, along with solicitor Samuel Hesketh, put in a successful claim to a title based on Aitken's estate. Arkell finally secured title formally in November 1905, but the Aitken family included the following in the transfer:

"... reserving to the said Alexander Aitken, Jeannie Stirling Richmond and Samuel Hesketh one half of all minerals (except kauri gum) metals and precious stones ..." (NA130/157)

Arkell apparently secured more land on the other side of Arkell's Road later on.

4716 — DANIEL ARKELL — Parts of Allotment 15, 16, 17, Section 13, Suburbs of Auckland, containing 37 acres 3 roods 25.4 perches, and right of way, occupied by applicant.

Observer 12 September 1908

Auckland Star 30 December 1899

Also in 1901, another brief chapter in Arkell's career -- the time he ran for election as Mayor of Auckland City. When he wasn't supposed to ...

In 1901, the royal visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (future King George V) occurred. The city fathers, aware that Dr. John Logan Campbell intended giving his One Tree Hill estate to the people of Auckland, thought it would be wonderful if they had the "Father of Auckland" himself installed as Mayor in time to greet the royal visitors. To that end, one candidate (Joseph H Witheford, MHR) was convinced to withdraw, so that Campbell would be appointed Mayor without need for an election.

Observer 23 March 1901

DR. CAMPBELL AS MAYOR
(To the Editor.)
Sir,— I trust Dr. Campbell will accede to the unanimous desire of the Auckland people to accept the office of Mayor. There\, need be no personal trouble imposed upon our venerable fellow-citizen in connection with the matter. It would be such colossal impudence for anyone to contest the election that no fear of opposition need be entertained.—I am, etc., W. J. NAPIER, March 13th, 1901

Auckland Star 14 March 1901

For three weeks, it all seemed to be done and dusted. And then ...

Mr David Arkell announces himself as a candidate for the Mayoralty of Auckland. Dr Campbell is not to have a walk over after all.

Thames Star 8 April 1901

Mr. Daniel Arkell, brewer, at one time in Wellington, is a candidate for the Mayoralty of Auckland.

Evening Post 12 April 1901

He also had policies, which he expressed in newspaper notices.

THE MAYORALTY ELECTION.
TO THE ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF AUCKLAND.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,— In placing myself before you for such a responsible position as that of Mayor of the City. I am not actuated by any personal motive, nor with ambition for honours, but strictly to look keenly after the interests, welfare, and improvements of the City. I beg therefore respectfully to place before you briefly my views on a few of the most Important matters connected with the City.
1. CITY WATER SUPPLY.-I consider it a shame that this important work has not been carried out long ago. I am in favour of the present scheme, and consider the work should be pushed ahead without delay. We should then have a cheaper supply of water, and would be able to adopt the flush pan system in our closets, and thus do away with the present pan system, which is a nocturnal nuisance and likely to spread the germs of disease in the most healthy locality.
2. SEWERAGE.—I am in favour of a complete permanent system of drainage, and consider that our drains should be more frequently cleansed than they now are.
3. FIRE BRIGADE AND STATION.—I am in favour of the new site, and consider the building should be started without delay, and that the latest improved fire appliances and fire life escape should be obtained. I would also like to see a properly trained Fire Brigade, to be paid annual salaries, the men to be located at the Brigade Station. In this respect Auckland is very much behind other centres of the colony.
4. OUR STREETS.-They speak for themselves, and certainly require a great deal of attention and repair, which should be taken in hand during the coming winter.
5. SWIMMING BATHS.—I am in favour of erecting another Swimming Bath with as moderate an outlay as possible, and feel sure if erected to suit the people the cost would soon be repaid.
6. ELECTRIC LIGHT—This I am strongly in favour of. Auckland is shamefully behind the times in this respect, and now we are to have Electric Trams there is no reason why we should not have Electric Light—this not to be monopoly, but the property of the City.
7. CITY ABATTOIRS.—These should be erected on a more suitable place than the present, and placed under proper supervision; no meat to be allowed to leave for the market without being stamped. This system is adopted in other large cities and found to work admirably.
8. I am in favour of rating on the unimproved land values.
9. VICTORIA PARK.—I am in favour of the Park, but would endeavour to secure the whole of the Patteson-street frontage.
TOWN HALL.—This question has been too many years neglected, and I would be in favour of purchasing the adjoining allotments and erecting a handsome building suitable to the requirements of the City.
DRILL SHED.—I am in favour of a new Drill Shed being erected suitable to the wants of our Volunteers, and the site to be decided on by a vote of the Volunteers of the district. This, however, is not a municipal matter, but one which affects the Instruction and strengthening of our Volunteers, who certainly should be afforded every encouragement, not knowing the day that their services may be again required.
I have the honour to remain,
Yours obediently,
DANIEL ARKELL. April 13, 1901.

Auckland Star 13 April 1901

Outrageous! This Eden Terrace brewer, of seemingly little fame, compared with the founder of the Campbell side of the Campbell & Ehrenfried business empire of breweries and hotels, had the "colossal impudence" to try to spoil the best laid plans of the City Fathers. Such is why I privately call Daniel Arkell "the spoiler". Graham Bush, in Decently and In Order: The Centennial History of Auckland City Council (1971) refers to Arkell as "an undeferential hard-heart" who "perversely made the aged doctor go to the polls."

The City Fathers tried to dissuade Arkell ...

MR ARKELL AND THE MAYORALTY.
Yesterday afternoon a deputation consisting of Messrs J M. Shera, A. R. Watson and W. J. Courtney waited on Mr D. Arkell in connection with his nomination for the office of Mayor during the ensuing term. Mr Courtney, who acted as spokesman, pointed out to Mr Arkell that the election of Dr. Campbell bore every appearance of being by all classes in the community, and it was difficult to see what object Mr Arkell could have in courting certain and probably ignominious defeat. Before anything more was said Mr Arkell broke in with an assurance that he was determined to go to the poll and abruptly left the deputation, which had no alternative but to withdraw.

 Auckland Star 17 April 1901

Mr Daniel Arkell is apparently determined to go to the poll for the Auckland Mayoralty. A deputation waited upon him to impress upon him the advisability of retiring from the contest for the Mayoralty, as they believed that they represented the voice of the community, and in their opinion, he had no chance of being elected. Before Mr Courtney had spoken to Mr Arkell for three minutes the latter went out of the room and would not hear anything further, but simply contented himself with stating that he would go to the poll. Mr Courtney says that before Mr Arkell left the room he told that gentleman that it was the general desire of citizens that Dr. J. Logan Campbell should be Mayor. He again asked Mr Arkell to retire with a good grace. Mr Arkell declined to retire, and left.

Thames Star 18 April 1901

While the Auckland Star was certainly in full har-rumph mode.

(Editorial)
The nomination of Mr. D. Arkell for the position of Mayor of our city has been received with as much amusement as surprise. It is extremely difficult to understand Mr. Arkell's reason for making his debut in local politics at this juncture. He could not have selected a more inopportune moment. Aucklanders have, we believe, rarely been as unanimously in favour of any candidate for office as in the case of Dr. Campbell. He undertook to fill the Mayoral chair at the request of a deputation truly representative of Auckland's citizens. A gentleman who has rendered considerable public service, and who was contemplating offering himself for the position, courteously withdrew when Dr. Campbell was prevailed on to accede to the wish of the many, and allow himself to be nominated. Now Mr. Arkell, who, as far as we are aware, has never taken an active part in municipal or colonial polities, and whose name even is quite unknown to many Aucklanders, comes forward and asserts his unalterable intention of putting the question to the vote. We do not for a moment wish to suggest that any man has not a perfect right to aspire to the highest position in our local government, but the peculiar circumstances of the present case make the nomination of Mr Arkell in questionable taste. Could this gentleman show us that any one section of Aucklanders is desirous of his offering the city his services, a different complexion would be put on the case, but careful enquiry fails to elicit any information as to from what class or body Mr. Arkell expects to gain support. As a business man Mr. Arkell has, we believe, proved his ability, and we should be glad to see him take an active interest in municipal affairs. But to put the city to the cost of a useless election is a proceeding which the majority of citizens will, we feel sure, regard as wholly inexcusable.

Auckland Star 17 April 1901

The Auckland Ratepayers' Association met last evening, Mr Caleb Wood presiding. In reference to the Mayoralty, Mr Wood expressed the opinion that Mr Arkell had acted inadvisedly in coming out in opposition to Dr. Campbell, and putting the city to considerable expense, when his prospect of success were comparatively nil. The Association resolved, on the motion of Mr Wm. Coleman, to declare in favour of Dr. Campbell, and to take all possible steps to forward that gentleman's candidature for the Mayoralty.

Auckland Star 18 April 1901

The result, though, was a foregone conclusion.

The contest between Dr. J. Logan Campbell and Mr D. Arkell for the City Mayoralty resulted, as was anticipated, in an overwhelming majority for Dr. Campbell, who polled 3517 votes against his opponent's 895.

Auckland Star 25 April 1901

And with that, Daniel Arkell slipped back out of the limelight.

Bruce Mai very kindly sent through an image of a beer duty cinderella stamp in August 2014, dating from 1902, just after the mayoralty run. “Two gallon – Sixpenny New Zealand beer duty stamp that has  “DANIEL ARKEL” July 21  1902, AUCKLAND”

Prohibition, then a rising force, started to clip back sections of his business empire. The Newtown Hotel in Wellington closed on 30 June 1903 due to the previous year’s prohibition poll. (Evening Post 26 November 1902) He still had his brewery at Gladstone Street, managed from 1906 by Herbert J Arkell (NZ Herald 11 April 1906 p4) He finally retired from the business in 1909.

Mr D Arkell, brewer, was presented by his past and present employees on Friday evening with a large gramaphone, suitably inscribed, on the occasion of his retirement from the business, which has just changed hands. The manager, Mr W Duncan, made the presentation, and. Mr. Arkell suitably replied. During the evening a number of songs were contributed by those present, and the gathering terminated with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne."

NZ Herald 4 October 1909 p.6

Arkell left for England for a time in 1910, and in January 1911 his Waikowhai house was offered for lease -- 50 acres all in grass, two-storey 12-room brick house, large stables and coach house, "view over the whole Manukau Harbour". (NZ Herald, 25 January 1911, p3)

Susannah Arkell died on 8 March 1912, and Daniel Arkell followed her on 17 December that year. They were both buried at Waikumete Cemetery. William Henry Knock, a wine and spirit merchant and Thomas Clifford Rowly Thatcher, accountant, were named as executors of Arkell's estate. (NA 26/290) Thomas Thatcher and his wife May (misreported in the newspapers as Mary) were appointed guardians of Arkell's sole heir, an adopted daughter Elsie Bertha Dunlop Arkell, aged around seven years old.

We know about her due to an almost Dickensian-style tale revealed in a court case in 1918.

HEIRESS TO FORTUNE.

GUARDIANS IMPEACHED

The action of the guardians of the heiress to an estate worth between £14,000 and £15,000 was challenged in a case which was commenced in the Supreme Court on Saturday before Mr Justice Cooper (says the "New Zealand Herald"). Wm. H. Knock, merchant, of Auckland (the Hon. J. A. Tole, K.S., and Mr Pullen), petitioned for the removal of Thomas C R Thatcher and his wife, Mary Delicia Thatcher (Mr Prendergast), from the guardianship of Elsie B. D. Arkell, a girl about 13 years of age, who is sole beneficiary under the will of the late Daniel Arkell, brewer, of Auckland, by whom she had been adopted. It was also prayed that the petitioner and. Dr. R.. M. Beattie be appointed by the Court as guardians of the child.

Mr Arkell, who died in December, 1912, appointed Messrs Knock and Thatcher executors of his will, and Mr and. Mrs Thatcher guardians of the child. His estate was to vest in the child when she became of age, or married, and in the event of her death before she reached the age of 21 it was to pass to the Jubilee Institute for the Blind. To the guardians he left an allowance of £150 per annum for the child's proper maintenance, clothing and education, and he directed that she should be brought up in the faith of the Church of England.

Mr Tole, in opening the case for the petitioner, said that under the will Miss Arkell inherited an income of between £850 and £900 a year. In May 1915, Mr Thatcher sent her to St. Cuthberts College, but after seven months he took her away to what might be called the back blocks at Waiharakeke, near Raglan, where he had acquired a farm. There she was required to do what could be described as menial drudgery, and was certainly injurious to her health. Mr Knock became doubtful whether the money paid to the Thatchers was being expended in accordance with the will, and, at his insistence, the girl was sent back to St. Cuthbert's College in February last. On her arrival there her wardrobe was found so deficient that clothing had to be borrowed for her. In May she was removed by the Thatchers to Mrs Moore-Jones's School, where she still was. Mr Tole read affidavits by Drs. Milsom and Beattie to the effect that the girl had told them that she was required to rise at 5 .a.m. and to milk four cows morning and evening, that she was not always able to attend school, and that on Saturdays and holidays she was sent out to cut scrub; also that the Thatchers frequently beat her and threw plates at her. It was also stated in the medical affidavits that she was anemic, and of less than average height and weight, and that her education was backward.

Mr Justice Cooper interrupted Mr Tole with a remark that the statements just quoted were purely hearsay on the part of the deponents and could not be accepted as evidence, seeing that the girl herself was a competent witness. The affidavits filed were so contradictory that it was necessary that Miss Arkell should come before the Court for examination.

Mr Prendergast said the child's explanation was that the statements made by her consisted principally in answering "Yes" and ''No" to questions.

After further discussion His Honour adjourned the case to a date to be fixed, both counsel undertaking that until the further hearing neither of their clients should approach the girl.

Affidavits filed by the respondents stated that the child was taken to the country under medical advice; that she was having proper education at the local school and by means of private tuition, and that when it was considered that her health permitted she was sent to boarding school. The deficiency in wardrobe was accounted for by the fact that Mrs Thatcher, on her way to St. Cuthbert's with the girl was taken ill, and had to be removed to the Auckland Hospital, being thus unable to complete the wardrobe by purchases in the city. It was denied that the girl was ever called upon to do milking or other farm work. She had, it was alleged, always been weak in constitution, and the local schoolmaster's testimony is quoted to the effect that she appeared well cared for and happy in her environment.

Ashburton Guardian 1 August 1918

Was the case ever continued? I don't know yet. But Elsie Arkell married Percival Ernest Thatcher, son of her guardians, on 3 January 1923, and died 14 February 1924, aged 19. (BDM online) She was buried in Hillsborough Cemetery.

Executors Knock and Thatcher sold the Newton Road property to John Spinley a bootmaker and his wife Agnes Kate in 1913 (NA26/290). The Gladstone Road property, leased by Arkell to gum dealer Max Lichtenstein from 1910, was sold outright to Lichtenstein in August 1912, before Arkell's death (NA26/292). As for Arkell's grand country homestead at Waikowhai, Percival Thatcher, Elsie's husband, inherited William Knock's trusteeship in 1923, and with his father subdivided the property from August 1925. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd opened their Mt Joseph Orphanage at the homestead in 1931, selling the property only in 1985 when it was converted to become part of the current Hillsborough Heights retirement complex.

Update 29 June 2011: I was given the wonderful opportunity today of having a close look at the building which still exists at 29 St Benedict's Street, now altered internally as apartments, at the invitation of one of the residents (many thanks!)

It was pointed out to me that a spring of water flows from St Benedicts Street down into the gully where Daniel Arkell built his bottling and brewing plant, which would explain why, despite all the strife with the Council over the levels, Arkell still sited his business there. The remains of an old well appears to be intact beside the southern side of the tall building. The following images come from today's visit to the site.