The Point of Historical Awareness

In the latter part of 1923, a movement came to be in the Auckland suburb of Point Chevalier. Led by Michael J Coyle, local politician and luminary both to that suburb and the neighbouring Mt Albert, a committee of determined souls went door-to-door, canvassing almost all of the over 800 ratepayers, and obtaining over 500 signatures to a petition asking the Auckland City Council to change the suburb’s name to Brighton.

What exactly they had against the existing name, I’m still not certain. I’ll be doing some more digging, when I can, for a piece I’ll put in an upcoming issue of the Point Chevalier Times. There were vague references to the name being less than attractive, full of negative connotations, and hindering progress.

In response, another committee was set up, bent on thwarting the first committee, and they too went around the neighbourhoods. They gathered just over 400 signatures. A win to the name-changers, you would have thought. But unfortunately for Mr Coyle and co, their enthusiastic helpers visited the same people in around 200 cases, crossing over each other. With a real total of just over 300 signatures, (many also signed the retention petition later), the Brighton-naming cause was lost.

This incident, though, is an important one. Much more important than at first glance. In the course of heading around and gathering signatures, the retentionists asked the people, “Do you know why Point Chevalier is so-named?” When the answer was “No”, they provided the information: the traditional story of Lt. George Chevalier’s marksmanship in a contest with Lt. Toker, somewhere in the district, possibly the late 1850s or perhaps 1861. How Chevalier won, and the men present that day huzzahed and declared their camp’s name as Camp Chevalier. People who had just started moving in to the suburb, at the beginnings of its development as a working-class housing area, were being informed as to its heritage values. All in order that one side would win the argument.

Along with this door-to-door campaign of knowledge spreading, the two Auckland papers and their editorial letters columns became a battleground between the two sides from the middle of November to early December. Out of that came published recollections from people who were alive back in the days of Chevalier and Toker. Those connected by family ties to the 65th regiment, the one both lieutenants were attached to. Those who recalled seeing old cottages, and remembered when Lt. Chevalier visited the homes of their families. From that forgotten debate a flow of information came which I’m still in the process of assessing and sorting.

I found the debate via a single file in Auckland Council archives containing only the pages of pro and con signatures, and the final Council decision on 5 December 1923 to go with the status quo. It was like finding a piece of pottery on an otherwise empty landscape, only to dig down further and discover value beyond measure.

There is also an untold message in all the words on the printed pages now photographed and viewed on a microfilm strip. That message is: in late 1923, Point Chevalier became aware of its history. It seems to have been a start of a series of start-stop phases for the suburb. Before then though, people had been finding relics linked with Point Chevalier’s past, and bringing them to the attention of the media and the community at large.

The tale of a button found on the battlefield of Waterloo is scarcely so interesting as the story of another of these ornaments to military tunics, and, indeed, almost a twin to that from the fields of Waterloo. This button may be a souvenir, or it may be part of the equipment of an historic regiment. At any rate, it was picked up by a resident of Point Chevalier on the grounds where the troops had their camp in the Maori War. The button is as the other in that it has "India”, a tiger or lion, "14" and "Waterloo" on its face, but the only decipherable letters the back are "London," the maker’s name being too much clogged by filth. The finder of this button is of opinion that it is of great historical value and he reads the inscriptions, together with the place where it has been found, as meaning that the brass fastener has been through at least three campaigns.

(Evening Post, 28 October 1919)

The button came from the 14th Regiment of Foot, stationed in New Zealand from around 1860. The maker was P Tait & Co, and the big cat emblem was a puma. Dating from 1751, the regimental history spanned campaigns both in India and the Napoleonic Wars, hence the Waterloo reference. Today, they are part of the West Yorkshire Regiment.

City Councillors used the traditional story when opening places of note in the suburb, such as Ellen Melville in November 1926, three years after the debate.

The story of how Point Chevalier got its name was related by Miss Ellen Melville at the opening of the new Point Chevalier Library on Saturday … The old Maori name was Te Rae, meaning, "the headland," but in 1860 and 1861 Lieutenant G. R. Chevalier, instructor of musketry in the 60th Regiment of Foot, set up a rifle range at the Point for training the regulars and the militia prior to the departure of the regiment for Taranaki, and the place has been called Point Chevalier ever since.

(Evening Post, 25 November 1926)

The next big phase of heritage recognition was 1961, nearly fifty years ago, when A H Walker put together Rangi-mata-rau. The Pt Chevalier Community Committee, established in the early 1970s, had periods of heritage appreciation, the latest one this past decade finally spawning the Point Chevalier History Group (encouraged by Padmini Raj of ther Pt Chevalier Community Library),  and later Historical Society. But those weeks in late 1923 – that was when, I feel, The Point (a shortening of the place name Mr. Coyle didn’t like at all) came to be aware more fully than ever before that it is an area with a history.

Oh, and if you need info on M J Coyle, leader of the Brighton committee, here’s his obituary as published in the Evening Post, 25 March 1941:

The death has occurred at Auckland of Mr M J Coyle, who had a notable record of public service on many local bodies for a period of over 40 years. Mr Coyle was born at Mount Eden 76 years ago, and spent all his life in Auckland. After passing through the Grafton School he learned the trade of coachbuilding, and set up a business of his own in Eden Terrace. Mr Coyle became one of the best-known men in public life in Auckland. His first experience was gained as chairman of the Mount Albert Road Board for seven years, and when Mount Albert was constituted a borough he became its first Mayor, and was twice reelected to that office. To the Auckland Hospital Board Mr Coyle gave 23 years' service, including 4½ years as chairman during the war period. Mr Coyle was one of the first members of the Auckland Drainage Board, and was chairman of the Point Chevalier Road Board, when that district joined up with the city. He served on the Auckland City Council for 10 years, on the Metropolitan Fire Board for seven, and on the Transport Board for three.

Street Stories 24: Asquith Ave -- not a “chain-gang road”

Asquith Avenue, 28 July 2012, looking south from the railway level crossing.

Back in the 1980s, when I first picked up a copy of Dick Scott’s In Old Mt Albert and read it cover to cover, looking for the connections between that district’s history and that of my own Avondale, I believed what the book said. Everyone then held Mr Scott’s work up as a fine example of local history. In many respects, it is still that today, if a little dated, and with the holes in the research much widened under our digitised-database view, along with increasingly tattered edges.

One of those lapses is Scott’s story about Asquith Avenue as being a “chain-gang road”, formed by Irish army deserters in the early 1860s. The story has permeated Mt Albert local history since his first edition in 1961, was perpetuated in bronze by the Mt Albert Community Board in 1995, included in the first newsletter of the Mt Albert Historical Society and essentially repeated as true in the recent Owairaka-Mt Albert Heritage Walks brochure by Carron Boswell, also funded by Eden-Albert Community Board in 2010, and published early 2011. But – I doubt the veracity of the story of the “chain-gang road”. Looking into the story behind the cutting that goes through the scoria lava flow has been for me, over the past few days, much like the chipping away of the rock with pick axes and other tools undertaken by the roading contractors of the day.

For one thing, Scott described it as “once the main route north”. I’ve had trouble reconciling that statement for the last thirty years or so, actually. “Blocked by the swamp at Western Springs the Great North Road swung left to follow the Western Springs Road ridge and then down through the solid rock of Asquith Avenue to continue along the present day New North Road.” Interesting, but … Asquith Avenue predated most of New North Road which wasn’t even properly surveyed past Eden Terrace until the mid 1860s and A K Taylor’s first sale of his “Albert Park” and “Morningside” properties. In fact, New North Road between Mt Albert Road and the Asquith Ave junction was all part of Asquith Avenue up to the mid 1860s, and the development of what was to become Mt Albert’s main road, relegating Asquith to the status of a back or farm access road. The Mt Albert end can be seen on Samuel Elliott’s survey now filed by LINZ as SO 927, dating from before the time A K Taylor purchased his lands (mid to late 1840s).

The Great North Road, or Karangahape Road to go by an early name, didn’t stop at or become diverted by either Asquith Avenue or Western Springs Road. It continued on, passing by Pt Chevalier, the future site of the Asylum, what would become Waterview, and on to Avondale and the west. The Mt Albert back roads were connections, rather, between Great North Road and the interior of the isthmus: Mt Albert Road in particular, and possibly also tracks which became the Kingsland or Cabbage Tree Swamp Road (Sandringham Road). The “main route north” remained the Great North Road.

Western Springs Road, following the ridge by Fowlds Park, although surveyed by Elliott in the 1840s to 1850s (SO 1262), appears to have only become reality when A K Taylor created his first Morningside subdivision, “Albert Park”.

It was between two and three years ago that Mr. A K Taylor resolved to sell a portion of his farm, and with a view to that object, sought and obtained the aid of others interested in the locality to open a new line of road to commence at the foot of McElwaine's Hill, and join the old Great North Road at the Whau. That movement was successful—it, doubtless, helped to enrich the projector and at the same time largely increased the value of all surrounding properties. The healthiness of the locality, the beauty of its scenery, and the excellent nature of the soil, induced a number of persons to purchase for themselves a plot whereon to erect a house, which they would each dignify with that dearest of all dear names to every Briton's heart— “Home!” Within a few months enclosures were made, houses erected, and a village had sprung up.

(NZH 14 November 1866)

This makes much of what Scott wrote about the importance of Asquith Avenue to early settlers in the district nonsense. He considered that “the block of land in the New North Road-Asquith Avenue area” was “probably the first to be sub-divided in the district”. Unfortunately, “Albert Park” was described in the advertisements of the time as being two miles from the city (Southern Cross 11 November 1864) so it was more likely the area east of Morningside. Taylor’s “Morningside” sections adjoined “Albert Park” (Southern Cross, 11 February 1865). Boswell in 2010 wrote that the “Albert Park” subdivision was shortly after that of “Morningside” – which is incorrect.

I can’t find any contemporary references, in either the Southern Cross or the NZ Herald, to military prisoners being used in chain gangs to cut down and form roads in the Mt Albert area in the 1860s or any other time. Much less a group of men who were not only all deserters from the regiments based here during the land wars, but Irish to boot. If they were going to say they came from an Irish regiment -- why not say, it was the 18th Royal Irish Regiment (which existed, and was in New Zealand during the 1860s). Details, with regard to the story however seem to be almost deliberately vague. Like a yarn passed from neighbour to neighbour over the stone wall fence.

Scott got his information from a piece put together by someone calling himself simply “Tramper” which appeared in the Auckland Star in 1929 (not the NZ Herald, as Scott thought). "Tramper" had a brief career in the paper, sending in occasional snippets of interest from around Auckland and other parts of the country to the Star from 1928-c.1932.

Asquith Avenue was made by the soldiers so that dates it in the early 'sixties. It was known familiarly as the "chain-gang road," because it was made by the defaulters of an Irish regiment. And a spell on that stretch of the road to the far north must have been a most effective method of taming the wildest of wild Irishmen. The defaulters must have cursed the north and the coincidence that threw them and that rocky road, together, for much of it is through solid basalt.

"How on earth those men shifted some of the boulders we have come across beats me," said one of the staff at present engaged in modernising this historic old thoroughfare. "Some of the stones we came across," said he, "weighed seventeen hundredweight.

"Even with our modern gear we found them tough enough, and I can't think how those soldiers handled them, for handled they were: we found that out by the fact that they were packed."

A quarter of a mile or so further on one comes to the Khyber Pass cutting. This part of the isthmus is full of lava flows, and crossing the line of road was a fold of it, much like the fold of a heavy rug or blanket. The Legree of “the chain gang" surveyed right through the fold, and that meant a narrow cutting with straight sides through solid rock, which necessitated much blasting powder and must have caused much bad language. The cutting is about 25 ft high, wide enough for one cart only, and is all the more striking as in the old days the pioneers invariably followed the ridges, and eschewed anything like cuttings or fillings wherever possible.

After the road past the Western Springs and the Stone Jug was built, Asquith Avenue (or whatever it was called half a century back) evidently fell into disuse. 

(Auckland Star 29 October 1929)

Looking north, toward the "Khyber Pass cutting".

Where did “Tramper” get his information from? I have a sinking feeling that I know who it might have been – a certain clerk of works at the time, employed by Mt Albert Borough Council from 1928 to 1931, by the name of Forbes Eadie, at the same time commencing his other career as a teller of sea tales, Lee Fore Brace. His Scrapbook (still in reference at the Auckland Central Library Research Centre) has been found by local historians today to be of dubious value. Some stories from his Lee Fore Brace series have been called into question, and as for his own personal history – that was written and re-written over the course of his life.

If Eadie was there that day, chatting with “Tramper” – he probably sounded knowledgeable and believable. Forbes Eadie always did. But he had only reached Mt Albert at the beginning of the 1920s, and I doubt he or anyone else at the time had the documentation to prove the story of the “chain-gang road”.

There is, however, documentation against that version of the road’s story.

Detail from SO 1262, LINZ records, showing Elliott's early survey of the lines of Asquith and Western Springs Roads. Written beside the area of the deviation around the height of the scoria outcrop: "A great improvement may be made in the Road if Mr Taylor would allow it according to the dotted lines." In the late 1850s, A K Taylor owned land on both sides of the future cutting, but sold Allotment 172 (to the left) in 1861. This eventually came to be W H Martin's land from 1881, the year before the Old Whau Road contract began.

For starters, the line of Asquith Avenue appears on maps from the 1840s right through to the early 1880s – but with a kink, a line going around the troublesome scoria outcrop, and across it where the land sloped more gently toward the south-east. Today, the nearest road to this original line of the “Old Whau Road” is Amandale Avenue. If the “Tramper’s” Irish soldiers had really forged through the “Khyber Pass” as he termed the cutting which straightened the road – they took their time doing it.

Detail from NZ Map 190, Champtaloup's Map of Auckland, c.1880-1885. Sir George Grey Speciual Collections, Auckland Libraries

By the time we reach the 1890 County of Eden map – the road has straightened, with a wide road reserve in the spot where the curve once was.

Detail from Roll 46, LINZ records

In the intervening time, we have more documentation, in the form of the minute books for the Mt Albert Road Board (MAC 100/2 and 100/3, Auckland Council Archives), the reports of public ratepayer meetings, and advertisements placed in the newspapers.

A petition was presented to the Road Board on 14 April 1882 by a number of settlers “calling the attention of the Board to form the road from Railway crossing and over the hill to Mr Martin’s Gate.” The Board agreed to “form that part of the road leading over the hill toward Mr Martin’s Gate, if the funds at their disposal will permit.”

Looking towards St Lukes Road overbridge, Asquith Avenue level crossing.

The railway line to Helensville had been constructed through the district in 1879-1880, and the crossing, as it is today, was just to the south of the Meola Stream on Asquith Avenue, and the land boundary between the Parish of Titirangi and the Suburbs of Auckland.

Looking towards the dip where the Meola Stream crosses the line of the road, before rising towards the cutting, and St Lukes Road beyond.

William Hurst Martin owned the farm to the west of today’s cutting from 1881 (Deeds Index 6A.366), the Plant Barn nursery on part of his land. Before 1882, the road, after being crossed by the railway, dipped down toward the stream, then took a sharp right turn to avoid the hill, and curved as best as possible (following Elliott’s survey) around the obstruction, toward Western Springs Road.

Looking towards the cutting.

On 5 May 1882, the Board discussed whether it was necessary or not to employ a surveyor. They visited the site on 9 May, and decided to employ Mr Hill in that role (a man with an apt name for the task). Tenders for the task of forming the Old Whau Road were then advertised in June, with Martin offering a sweetener (considering he had a lot to benefit from the work) of providing and spreading scoria ash on the road on satisfactory completion.

Auckland Star 10 June 1882

Henry Hickson Grant’s tender of £89 10/- was accepted on 16 June, but by January 1883, after two extensions of time, things weren’t going all that well for the contract. The Board advertised for tenders to complete the project that month, and accepted J Brown’s tender of £87.

Auckland Star 12 January 1883

In all, the Old Whau Road contract was to cost £148 from the Board (and ratepayers’) funds.

East side of the cutting, 1929 surface.

Brown didn’t have all that much of a better time of it than Grant did. By June 1883, the project was again delayed. Unfortunately for the Board, now the ratepayers noticed.

The Chairman then read a list, showing the amounts expended on the different roads of the district, and explained that the £85 contract was part payment for cutting a hill on the old Whau-road, near Mr. W. H. Martin's property, on which contract there was a farther liability of £63, making a total expenditure for the cutting and embankment of £148 …

Mr J T Garlick seconded the adoption of the report, and enquired why the sum of £148 had been expended on the Old Whau-road for the benefit of a nine ratepayers, who had, so far as he could learn, contributed nothing beyond their rates, while on one short road near the residence of Mr J M Alexander those benefitted had given equal to £17 to meet a similar amount for ash expended by the Board. At the last annual meeting he had informed the ratepayers that the contract then let for £90 would be thrown up. This had been contradicted by some of the trustees, who stated that the contractor for the cutting was prepared to complete the work but if not, the ratepayers (who) benefited were prepared to assist by special contribution. Mr Garlick concluded by asking the Chairman if any subscriptions had been received, and if so the amount? In reply, an extract from the minute book was read by the Secretary, "That Mr W H Martin had guaranteed on behalf of himself and others to ash the road at their own expense as soon as the contract was finished.”

Mr. Randerson inquired if the Board had a written guarantee to that effect? This brought Mr Martin to his feet, when he informed the meeting that "his word was his bond," and the work should be completed in a satisfactory manner. Mr W L Mitchell complained that such a large amount had been expended on the back road to benefit only a few people, while the Kingsland-road was neglected and had in some places nearly three feet of water on it, and that out of a total revenue of over £500 less than £9 had been spent on the New North-road, the main road of the district. The railway crossing at Morningside was the most dangerous one near Auckland. The Roads and Bridges Construction Act had been in force some time, but no action had been taken by the trustees to take advantage at the Act for the improvement of the district. Mr Mitchell strongly urged the ratepayers to elect new men as trustees. Mr. Garlick supported the suggestion of a loan under the Roads and Bridges Act. The motion for the adoption of the report was then put to this meeting and carried. Messrs. Randerson, Young, Martin, Waterhouse, and Taylor addressed the meeting at considerable length on various matters connected with the state of the roads and the duties of trustees.

(NZH 4 June 1883)

The Old Whau Road contract was surely a headache for the Board. Brown was accused at the time of removing stone for his own use, without the permission of the Board; in July the Board was told that the contract “was in a very unfinished and unsatisfactory state.” The surveyor Hill also chimed in with his disapproval as to the fact that, he felt, the contractor had not kept to the plan and specification. Still, the Board was probably stuck with what they had – money had already been expended, their ratepayers were increasingly agitated over the state of the local roads, so they allowed Brown to plow on. The Board’s engineer certified that the work was finally completed to his satisfaction at the Board’s meeting on 1 November 1883, nearly 18 months after the process began. There were probably sighs of relief at the Board’s meeting table in the local public hall.

West side of the cutting, 1929 surface. Just beyond is the Plant Barn nursery site.

Martin, though, wasn’t happy with the state of the road at all, and demanded to see the plans and specifications for his own engineer to examine before he kept to his end of the deal. The Board declined to forward these to him – whether Martin gave up and provided the scoria ash anyway is not recorded.

There’s no mention of all this in Scott’s book, which I find surprising. He refers to other subjects raised in the minutes at the time – weeds, dog taxes, applications to government for roading and bridge construction loans – but not this. Perhaps, believing the Irish soldiers story, he thought this was just remedial work on the road, not the true formation over the hill? Hard to say.

Still, by 1883 the road had been formed and the hill cut. There was now a more-or-less straight access from Martin’s Gate along the rest of the length toward Mt Albert shops. Renamed Avondale Road (probably for no other reason than “Whau” became “Avondale” in 1882), it was again renamed as Asquith after the British politician. Its form was left alone until 1929 when the Mt Albert Borough Council decided to widen it.

According to “Tramper”:

It has now emerged from its loneliness, and the ghosts of the chain gang have been exorcised by the operations of a team from the Mount Albert Borough Council's staff, which is tearing up the old track and putting it down as a modern full-width road, with a foundation of almost Roman solidity—there is no lack of rock in those parts—and with a bitumen surface, not to mention a strip of lawn between carriageway and footpath. It is altogether a fine piece of work, and does credit to the resident engineer (Mr. W. E. Begbie), who, by the by, is the youngest resident engineer in the Dominion.

That straightened part of the road, oddly enough, wasn’t officially gazetted as such until 1940.

Detail from SO 30981 (1940), LINZ records

The old Crown Grant road which curved carefully around the troublesome scoria, through which Grant and Brown and their men chopped and carved in 1882-1883, is now a mix of road and residences.

Amandale Avenue, off Asquith

The brass plaque beside a Council-provided seat facing the Plant Barn nursery was stolen after installation in 1995, and a replacement (not brass) installed in late 2011, complete with historical and other errors.

I can’t see anyone rushing to correct it, though. After all, a fondly-held myth about hard done-by Irish soldiers far from home made to do hard labour in the Mt Albert countryside to form a road which I heard someone say a few years ago was “as straight as a gun barrel” is hardly going to be replaced by the story of an 18-month early municipal project, laced with political in-fighting and angry scenes at public meetings, now is it?

More’s the pity …

Hassall’s mistake: explosion in 1883

Last post update: 31 October 2014

Avondale in 1883 was getting used to its new name from being known as the Whau (so were some of the newspapers of the day). The railway through to West Auckland had been in place for three years. Large farms on Rosebank Peninsula and up towards the new station were either being sold or about to be sold in residential subdivisions. A year later, a new Anglican church would be built.

A carter named Henry Hassall (also spelled Hazell by some sources) lived close to Avondale. There, it seems he operated his service. One wet winter’s day in July 1883, Mr Hassall went scouting around inside and headed up to the loft, of all places, which he hadn’t been in for some years. There he found a lump of about 6lbs of “black dusty stuff in an old biscuit tin”, as later reports described it. Thinking that it looked like some old coal, he took it downstairs to the fire and poked it onto the grate.

There was a fizzing sound suddenly -- and then an explosion which shook the house.

John Bollard was the first at the scene, possibly alerted by Hassall’s grandson who was in the room at the time but escaped with only slight injuries. Bollard sent a message through to Dr. Young at the Asylum, who sent a lotion for Mr and Mrs Hassall, both severely burned. Mr Hassall’s face was said to have been so swollen that he couldn’t see, but fortunately he hadn’t been blinded by the blast. Anglican Rev. John Haselden was passing by and dismounted upon being told by John Bollard of what had happened; the reverend stayed at the house for the next hour and a half continuously applying the lotion to the stricken couple and dressing their wounds. A few days later, it was reported that Mrs Hassall and their grandson were progressing well, but Mr Hassall was still in critical condition.

As for the lump of black stuff Mr. Hassall found in that biscuit tin? It turned out that it was actually around 6lbs of blasting powder, left up in the loft back around 1879-1880 by his son-in-law who was employed at that time on the Kaipara Railway. It was thought that when the son-in-law realised some of the blasting powder he had been using had become wet, he thought the best thing to do was take it home to the Hassall residence, and let the powder dry off in the tin up in the loft. However, he forgot all about the powder, and it remained up in the loft until that day in July 1883 when Mr Hassall curiously opened the old biscuit to see what was inside. Fortunately for Hassall, the powder was well past its full strength through age, but how well he recovered, if at all, remains uncertain.

This man shouldn't be confused with George Hazell/Hassell, who owned land at Sandringham for a while in the 1870s until 1882, and ran a riding school at the corner of Charlotte Street and New North Road in Eden Terrace from 1883 until he died in 1886.

The Village Smithy

"Blacksmiths played a very important role in Victorian times. Before the days of complex electrical machines the local blacksmith could mend most machinery. Farmers would bring their tools to the smithy to be mended, and many smiths were also farriers and would put horseshoes on the horses. With thousands of horses at work in the countryside this kept the blacksmith busy.

The wheelwright was the skilled man who made cart wheels. With horse-drawn carts and coaches providing most local transport this was an important trade."

From Powys History.

In early Auckland, the blacksmith was just as important as he was in the Old Country. The forge was the only place, for example, where the quality of coal could be determined by the fire it produced.

In the 1870s, a Mr John White appears to have been a local blacksmith, featuring in the accounts kept by John Bollard for his Whau Farm from 1871 to 1878. To date, he’s the first known in the district, appearing in Wise's Directory for 1878-1879. He may have started a forge up Blake’s Street (St Judes Street), just down hill from the later Myer’s smithy from the late 1890s.

In 1874 there is a record of a James Owen, “Engineer, Millwright and General Smith”. [Bollard papers, held at Auckland War Memorial Museum Library] In 1878, in Wises, he appears as a storekeeper.

By 1890, George Downing appears. He's also in the Village in 1896. His smithy was beside the Primary School on Great North Road, site of the later Salvation Army Hall and video store.

Perry’s Avondale Shoeing Forge on Great North Rd had an entrance at Geddes Tce [Avondale Road Board minutes, 5/4/16]. This could have become Trigg’s garage [by 1920s], later Avondale Auction House and Avondale Spiders.
Advertisement in The News, 11 November 1916

“Before you let your gig or trap go too far, run along to W.B. Perry. He’s the cheapest and the best – yes, by far – Wheelwright, Coachbuilder, Agricultural, Shoeing and General Smith.”

Thomas Myers (c.1881–1967), the blacksmith in Blake Street was the rival:

“Since we commenced business in Avondale we have built over one hundred carts and sulkies for the district.; We guarantee you better value than you can get elsewhere. Horse Shoeing, Ploughs made to order. All Kinds of Agricultural Implements Repaired.”

Advertisement in The News, November 1916, Challenge of the Whau, p. 73

His father William Myers came to New Zealand c.1895, starting up the family blacksmith business in Avondale, while living in Avondale South (according to William’s grandson, Roger Myers, the family were the first ones on what was to become Myers Rd, later Margate St).

Thomas Myers went into the business with his father in 1908, and remained in business there until 1962-63. During that time, the original building was cut down, and part leased.

“I started work with my father, the blacksmith William Myers, in 1908. I had served my apprenticeship with Hughes and Donger in Eden Terrace.

From Memories of early Avondale, by Tom Myers, Avondale Advance, 21 November 1960

“We did a lot of work then for Charlie Pooley, who was the contractor. There was always plenty of work at our smithy. I started work at 7.30 in the morning and we worked long hours especially in the summer.”

Myers’ was more than simply a farrier (Thomas wouldn’t do a lot of work for the Jockey Club, his son Roger told me, as he considered thoroughbreds as “too flighty, a young man’s job”) – he also did a lot of work for market gardeners, both in Avondale and as far afield as Oratia and Henderson. He’d do repairs to plows, disks, harrows. Farmers would bring up to the shed 3 or 4 spades at a time, to have handles repaired. Thomas Myers also made up wheelbarrows.

He also worked for Odlins timber at Karekare, a day’s work shoeing 8 to 10 horses. As a wheelwright, he would repair wagons, virtually anything that could be drawn by animals, so his son says, including drays and milk vendors carts. Roger Myers described to me how wheel rims were replaced. In the days of harsh roads, cart wheels were rimmed in steel, that was forged at the local blacksmith’s.

The wheel was first dismantled, leaving only the hub, then completely re-spoked. The wheel would then be dropped into a hole dug in the ground to lie flat. The steel rim was then made up, and dropped into the hole around the wheel while still hot, then could water was poured into the hole to shrink the metal snugly around the wheel, and to stop the wood burning.

His son would ask Thomas Myers how he knew that the steel rim would fit every time. The answer, with a tap to the head, was simply, “Ah, son …!”

[Conversation with Roger Myers, 28 June 2001]

Land of the "Paragon"

Story of the South St Judes Street Block (Part 1)

(Photo: "Dingle Dell".)

The lines on the old 1884 deposited plan are a bit of a hotchpotch. In an area of land bounded by the road known then as the New North Road (which we now know as St Judes Street), the Kaipara Railway line, the road to the brickyard (now St Georges Road) and one of at least two Government Roads in old Avondale (now called Chalmers Street) – the surveyor hired by former hotelier James Palmer drew his lines. For one thing, a curvy unnamed creek snaked its way across his plan, distorting the rear boundaries of all the properties. Also, a new street was dedicated, and marked out (but unnamed). This was in later years to become Ahiriri Street. Then there was the buildings already on the land, in one case going back to 1867 (the Public Hall, where now stands the Hollywood Cinema) and a blacksmith’s forge. These meant the lines that were normally straight across that pesky creek became oddly angled close to St Georges Road, and at the site of the old forge, Lot 6 made extra wide compared with the other parcels of land. The railway line, surveyed in the 1870s, land taken for the purpose by 1878, left the southern end of Layard Street cut off from the rest of the road (an unformed road now a green swathe leading to Chalmers Street today), and made the lots just below it jagged and irregular in shape.

This was part of the second “Greytown” sale, the auction advertised for December 9 1883 at noon at D F Evans’ mart in Queen Street in the city, on terms of “One third cash, the balance can remain for 5 or 10 years at 8 percent, or can be paid off at any time.” You can see a copy of that auction map at the Avondale Community Library today.

The surveyor and the speculator

This land was originally part of a great area of land, Allotment 64. This was originally around 54 acres, bounded (although these roads did not exist then) by Blockhouse Bay Road, Rosebank Road, Great North Road and Chalmers Street.

I thank Mr. Cullen Szeto of Szeto Visique Optometrists (2022 Great North Road) for donating to the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society a copy of a valuable historical background report by Infinite Enterprise International Ltd. completed c.1987 for one of the then-owners of the Page’s Building. It is a good summary of research into the early land titles for the area.

In 1845, Thomas Florence purchased Allotment 64 from the Crown on crown grant. According to The Infinite Enterprise report, he was a surveyor who came to New Zealand in 1834, one of the earliest surveyors in Auckland, working from North Cape to Castle Hill in the Coromandel area. He may have been the same Thomas Florence, a surveyor and settler in Tasmania in 1818, who had been asked by the Lt. Governor there to survey Macquarie Harbour. Whereas others bought land in the then-Whau District purely on the basis of land speculation, Florence owned his allotment until 1862. It was likely farmed, and possibly the land was leased out for use as grazing. It would have been sloping country (present day Avondale residents can testify to the steepness of the climb up Crayford, St Judes and Chalmers Streets), possibly best suited to cattle, foraging in the scrub.

The farm was sold to Daniel Lockwood on 2 September 1862. He was a hotelkeeper, licensee of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Hobson Street, and a landowner in the central city area. Not much is known about him at this stage, but he on-sold the farm to Thomas Russell seven months later.

There is a considerable amount of information known about Thomas Russell however (1830-1904). Four years before he purchased Allotment 64 he had founded NZ Insurance Co., and in 1861 he formed the Bank of New Zealand. He and his friends, among the number included shipowner Thomas Henderon (founder of Henderson’s Mill, which later became Henderson), (Sir) John Logan Campbell, (Sir) Frederick Whittaker, and flour miller Josiah Firth, all of whom were fellow capitalists and speculators.

According to the 1987 report, Russell appears to have immediately subdivided the farm into 48 lots, named it Greytown (likely after then-Governor Sir George Grey), and dedicated three new roads for the subdivision: Cracroft Street, Blake Street (these likely named after heroes of the Taranaki War), and Layard Street (the reasoning for this name is even more speculative – it could be after Sir Austen Henry Layard, a noted archeologist of the time).

I had believed that land speculator Michael Wood (earlier subdivider of land further north he dubbed “Waterview” in 1861) had been the organiser of the Greytown subdivision. Instead, according to the 1987 report, he had been the one to buy all except for 6 lots at the original 3 April 1863 auction. Ownership of these lots, which included those which make up the property today bounded by St Judes Street, Great North Road, Chalmers Street and the railway line, passed to Michael Wood on 4 May 1864, who the next day on-sold 32 lots, including the above area, to a friend of his, David Nathan. David Nathan is best known for being an extremely successful Auckland merchant in the mid-19th century, a scion of the Jewish community, and founder of a business that evolved into L. D. Nathan & Co. He had considerable involvement in land dealings in the Avondale and Waterview areas, either buying lots in speculation, bailing out his friend Woods, or providing mortgages (to John Thomas of the Thomas Star Mill in Waterview, for example). Here, we leave the 1987 report (which from this point focussed on the area of Allotment 64 around the present-day Page’s Store).

James Palmer (1819-1893) enters the picture in 1867. On 22 July that year, he purchased all the lots of the original farm south of the present-day line St Jude Street, bounded also by Great North Road, Chalmers Street, and Blockhouse Bay Road. Before coming to the Whau he was hotelkeeper at the Royal Hotel, Eden Terrace. He may have actually arranged to buy the land earlier that year, for it is noted, when the Whau Minstrels held their first fundraising concert for a public hall to be built, that “a piece of ground kindly lent by Jas. Palmer, esq., of the Whau, in a position well suited for the erection of a permanent public hall,” served as the site of the stage in early March 1867. However, the entertainment could also have been on the site of the Whau Hotel (second in the area) that he had erected by 1870, which was situated on the other side of today’s roundabout.

By April that year, Palmer had donated land for the public hall (site of today’s Hollywood Cinema). He went on to build the third Hotel in 1873 (after the second burned down the year before), donated land on St Judes Street for the Anglican Church in July 1874 (it was built 10 years later), and in creating the lot numbers recognised today in the St Judes to Chalmers Street block in 1883 later dedicated and laid out the path of the present day Donegal Street (once Palmer Street) and Ahiriri Street (April 1884).

On the same day, 9th of April 1884, he sold Lots 9, 10 and 11 to William Potter, a bus driver.

William Potter To Elizabeth Kelly and beyond – Lots 9 to 11 (1884 – 1970s)

This William Potter could have been the same “Mr Potter” which the 1994 book Challenge of the Whau stated ran a horse bus service from the Whau around 1882. Considering that the Northern Bus Company started in 1884, Potter could have been one of their drivers.

Potter’s purchase would have been a pasture falling steeply to the south and the winding creek. Sparks from passing steam trains would land from time to time in the part nearest the rail line. But it was ideally placed, if Potter was running his own, competing bus service, to be a paddock and shelter for horses, being situated on the main route used to get to the city via Mt Albert. At this stage, little more is known about William Potter.

In August 1900 Potter sold the three lots to Elizabeth Ellen Kelly. There isn’t much known about her, except that by 1916 the News referred to her as “an old resident of Avondale, but who for the last three or four years has resided in Te Aroha.” In 1905 she on-sold Lot 9 to William Kelly, a builder (it isn’t certain whether he was a relation, but he occupied all three lots in 1905 according to the Avondale Roads Board rates listing for that year.)

At some point between 1900 and 1913, the Paragon Boarding House was built on Lots 10 and 11. This was a nine-roomed house which was completely destroyed by fire on 13 January 1916. At the time of the fire, the building was occupied by the Schmidt family of four adults and five children. The Schmidt’s eldest child woke at around 2am on hearing a sound in an adjoining room on the eastern side. He woke his father, but by then a portion of the house was already enveloped by fire. The westerly wind fanned the flames, and with Avondale at the time having no reticulated water supply (and also, no fire brigade), the gathered neighbours could do little to try to save the house. Apart from some hastily-gathered personal items, nothing was saved, the Schmidt’s furniture and effects going up in flames with the building. A detached outhouse which had some items stored within was untouched.

As happens in Avondale after incidents such as this, the locals immediately looked for reasons why the fire happened. Sparks from a train engine were discounted, as no train had passed for at least three hours, and also there had been several sharp showers of rain that night between the departure of the last train and the fire. Thoughts turned to the possibility of an arsonist (the premises of William Myers the coachbuilder were nearly set alight in what the News at the time called “a deliberate attempt” the previous late December, and in 1917 Binsted’s butcher shop down at the St Georges Road corner was completely destroyed, that fire unexplained.)

It is doubtful that Elizabeth Kelly arranged to have another building erected on the site. In 1919, she sold the property to Charles Frederick Mackadam (a commission agent, from Te Aroha). The property remained with the Mackadam family until recently. “Dingle Dell”, the building demolished in late June 2005, could have dated, therefore, from the early 1920s. It became 21 St Judes Street.

Whoever William Kelly was, he sold his lot 9 (17 St Judes Street) to Selima M Murray by 1913 (she owned the property at least until 1920). The house there could be as old as 1905, perhaps built by William Kelly. In 1928 John Bentley (wharf foreman) was living there, and in 1929 a contractor named George Larkin, according to the directories of the time. No one else is listed until 1940, when it seems Fred W Percy (a labourer) shifted over from No. 15. By 1952, the house was occupied by a local butcher, Arthur Furse. He was there down to the 1970s.

The Coteles of Upper Symond Street

In a comment to an earlier post on the Pierce Building on Symond Street, "M" wrote:

Hi I've become quite a fan of your site and have noticed you've written a few pieces about the upper Symonds Street area. I happen to live in the area and love it and have heard a few things about the history of the empty lot on the opposite block to 'Symonds Court' at the end on the corner with Basque Road. I wondered if you were open to the challenge of finding out the building history of that (recently sold) empty lot. Also why 'Basque' Road and 'Basque' Park?

As it turns out, I took a photo of the site in June when I was out on the fairly bleak day up on the ridge, getting images of the buildings in the area. I already knew what had once been there -- and I've wanted to do something on it for years.

What was there once was a house dating back to c.1902 named "Cotele" -- actually, the second Cotele House on the site. The first dates right back to 1849, when David Burn purchased land here in January 1849 from William Smellie Graham, who in turn bought from the Crown in December 1848.

David Burn (c.1799-1875) is an interesting character. The State Library of Tasmania notes:

David Burn was born in Scotland c.1799 and after a short career in the navy he arrived in Tasmania for the first time in 1826. In 1842 Burn accompanied Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin on their soujourn to the west coast of Tasmania writing the Narrative of the Overland Journey from Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour. He was also a playwright and wrote Fugitive Pieces in Verse (Hobart Town, 1842) among others. In 1847 Burn migrated to Auckland where he edited the Maori Messenger and the New Zealand Herald. He retired in 1865 and died on 14 June 1875 at Auckland, aged 76.

He married Catherine Fenton at New Norfolk, Tasmania, 6 November 1832 (Hobart Town Courier 9 November 1832), left Tasmania for England in 1835 (Hobart Town Courier 1 May 1835), only to return in 1841, doing a tour of all the penal facilities in the Australian colonies. I wonder just how involved he was in the penal system, judging by his own comments in a letter later published in New Zealand.

“As a Tasmanian landholder … and, for several years, myself a component portion of the prison discipline machinery, so ably and efficiently worked by Sir George Arthur …

“I visited and closely inspected all its prison machinery, from its principal depot of trebly refined crime at Port Arthur , to its scarce less infamous probation barracks, at the Seven Mile Creek, near Marlborough.””

New Zealander 31 March 1849

This seems to have been, somehow, in response to a pamphlet he published in England on the convict transportation system and whether it increased vice and corruption in Australia or not (he reckoned it didn't) and a dispute over the issue he had with the Bishop of Dublin. Burn definitely merits closer study at some stage.

He appears to have arrived in Auckland from Sydney on the Hyderabad, 17 April 1848. He edited the New Zealander for John Williamson until he was dismissed in July 1849 -- in favour, according to him, of a Wesleyan summoned from England. But he was then in the process of building Cotele. In his diary enrtry for 1 May 1850, he refers to it as “a very airey mansion at present.” References seem to indicate that it was relatively new. “Met Sir George and Lady Grey … Having made some remarks on my house, I invited him to call and see it. He said he would be most happy to do so.” A raupo whare apparently preceded the house. On 4 May 1850: "“Kitty has two Maories [sic] pulling down the raupo house.” May 9: “The horrid raupo warre [sic], otherwise “Buckingham Palace” thrown down at last. It is a great relief, and has unmasked a pretty view.”

In The Lively Capital (1971), Una Platts noted that Burn and his wife walked home to Cotele from Col. Wynyard's fancy dress ball, which was also the first of its kind in New Zealand, according to the Southern Cross of 19 July 1850.

Southern Cross 24 February 1852

Why Cotele? Dr. J B W Roberton commented to Donald Rae, author of "Cotele: Dr Ernest Roberton's House in Upper Symonds Street, Auckland", Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, September 1988, p. 5, that the family believed "Cotele" to mean "cottage on the hill."

The highest point of the hill would have been directly across the road where there was a reservoir and a firebell.It would fall slightly to the east through St Sepulchre's and the vicarage and large garden across the road (Burleigh Street). One went a little up the hill from Khyber Pass to the church.

I'm not too sure about that derivation, but there doesn't appear to be anything else more likely to replace it. Burn's background in the navy doesn't throw up any alternatives.  Nor is there a Cotele in Scotland. There is Cotehele in Cornwall, and an old family of Cottle/Cotele which goes back to William the Conqueror, but nothing seems to link in with a house and estate in Auckland, NZ, mid 19th century. Perhaps, even, something to with the word in French: "côtelé" means ribbed, as in cloth. Who knows.

(Update 25 January 2012: My friend Margaret Edgcumbe wrote in November 2011 that "there was a Mr Henry Edgcumbe/Edgecumbe at Deloraine in Tasmania, who decided to call his extensive property Cotehele ... Henry apparently selected ithe block in in 1841, about the time that David Burn's mum was dying at her selection, Ellangowan. I have no idea whether these two farms were anywhere near each other but they appeared on the same pages of the Tasmanian newspapers." So, there's another option. Thanks, Margaret.)

Mr and Mrs Burn lived there only until 1857. They moved Emily Place by September that year, and leased Cotele to Francis Braithwaite.

Southern Cross 15 January 1861

Then, in 1861, came the first and largest sale of Burn's Newton/Eden Terrace land -- 150 allotments in South Newton. This sale was followed by that of the Cotele Estate. the following year.

Southern Cross 7 January 1862

New roads appeared: Basque, Dundonald and Exmouth. Basque Road, seems to be most likely connected with an 1809 Napoleonic Wars sea battle, The Battle of the Basque Roads. Dundonald Street could be in honour of another piece of British naval history, Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, a naval captain during the Napoleonic Wars. Exmouth Street could also be part of the Napoleonic Wars pattern -- David Burn, who grew up during that period, may have been a fan of that historic period in naval history -- for we have Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, who served in the Royal Navy during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary War, and the war against Napoleon.

Approximate footprint (black) of the first Cotele House, taken from image ref NZ Map 4495-11, map of the 1862 Cotele sale, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries. The underlying map is Deed 1333, LINZ Crown copyright, date unknown but shows 1862 Cotele sale allotments and streets. See also NZ Map 4164

Real Estate.—On Wednesday Messrs. Connell and Ridings sold the suburban estate of Cotele, the property of Mr. D. Burn, in forty-six allotments, for £3,076. There were about 12 acres disposed of.

Southern Cross 28 March 1862

"Cotele" became, for some time after the sale, a readily-identifiable district. It seems it even had a cricket team named after it.

CRICKET.
COTELE v. STANDARD.
On Saturday afternoon the return match between these two elevens was played in the Domain, wickets being pitched at 2.30 p.m., and as will be seen by the subjoined scores the Cotele won the game after a close contest by one run. The rain coming on about 5.30 p m. prevented the game being finished, which was consequently decided by the first innings. We believe a match between the same elevens will be played next Saturday, at the same time and place.

Southern Cross 15 December 1873

When Burn died, over on the North Shore, whatever controversies he attracted in life, at least his obituaries were kindly compiled.

Mr. David Burn, of the North Shore, expired on Monday, June 14. Mr. Burn had been connected with the fortunes of Auckland for about 30 years, during which time he had filled many honourable positions. For many years he had editorial charge of the New Zealander in its palmy days, afterwards he was for some time editor of the Southern Cross, from which position he again, returned to the editorial chair of the New Zealander. When the New Zealand Herald was started Mr. Burn acted as editor for some time. For several years he has lived a retired life at the North Shore, upon the well earned fruits of a successful career as a colonist. He was always of a cheerful and kindly disposition, and had the pleasing art of successfully making friends. He leaves a widow to mourn her loss.

Southern Cross 8 July 1875

Mr David Burn, of the North Shore, died last night at half-past nine o'clock. Mr Burn was a very old colonist, was formerly an officer of an English ship, and devoted much time in early life to literature and dramatic compositions. He was formerly connected with Auckland press, and was engaged upon the New Zealander; and subsequently on the Southern Cross and New Zealand Herald. Mr Burn had always been of an economical turn of mind, and consequently amassed a considerable fortune. He leaves a widow well provided for, and numbers of friends at the North Shore, who will cherish his memory with respect.

Auckland Star 15 June 1875

After David Burn, came John Roberton (c.1829-1894), a merchant who purchased the house along with just over an acre of land in 1862 for £840 12s 6d, bounded by Symonds, Basque and Dundonald Streets. 

There's an Avondale link to the Cotele story. Sometime from 1866 to the early 1870s, Henry Walton decided to retire and leave the colony to return to England in retirement. He resigned from the Legislative Council in 1866, but still retained land holdings which would have needed a New Zealand resident agent to manage on his behalf. Walton appointed John Roberton as his attorney, and part of the land Roberton was tasked to administer was the Walton Estate in Avondale, today's Roberton area (the street and the area named for John Roberton). After John Roberton died, Henry Walton's family appointed Roberton's son Dr Ernest Roberton attorney for the estate of the now deceased Walton.

DEATH OF MR J. ROBERTON.

News was received by cable, from Sydney last night, of the death of Mr John Roberton, a gentleman whose name has been long and honourably associated with the commerce of this city. Mr Roberton was born in Glasgow 65 years ago, and first went to Sydney. He came over to Auckland in 1846 to his brother-in-law, Mr Wright, of Wright and Graham, merchants, Fort-street. Afterwards he was the Auckland partner of Bain, Graham and Co. Subsequently Mr Roberton was in business on his own account for many years in Queen-street, next the Bank of New South Wales, and was one of the largest and most prosperous merchants here in those days, and took a keen interest in all matters connected with the welfare of Auckland. When his premises .in Queen-street were burned down, Mr Roberton transferred his business to Durham-street, and in 1872 he sold out and went to England. While at Home the purchaser went out of the business which was carried on by Mr J. Potter until Mr Roberton returned, when it was arranged to continue in partnership which lasted until a few years ago, when Mr Roberton finally retired from business. 

He was for some years Chairman of directors of the Taupiri Coal Company, but resigned that position last October. Ever anxious for the progress of the city of his adoption Mr Roberton was one of the foremost men in obtaining the San Francisco mail service. He was formerly president of the Chamber of Commerce, and was one of the small knot of gentlemen who started St. Sepulchre's Church in Symonds-street, being for many years a church warden. During his lengthy residence in this city Mr Roberton in all his transactions acted so as to leave behind him an irreproachable character, while in his private life he made numerous friends who will sincerely mourn his loss. As a business man, he was successful in accumulating enough of this world's goods to enable him to pass his later years in ease. Some time ago, by the death of a relative, he had property left him in Sydney, and it was in connection with this that Mr Roberbon went to reside in New South Wales with his wife. Latterly he had been in a weak state of health, but the cable sent last night by Mrs Roberton to her son, Dr. E. Roberton, did not state the actual cause of death. In the earlier years of his life, Mr Roberton was an active member of the Masonic fraternity. He leaves behind to mourn his death, the partner of 35 years' married life, and also four sons, Dr. E. Roberton, Mr A. B. Roberton, Mr B. H. Roberton and Mr E. B. Roberton, and three daughters, Mrs G. Chamberlain, Mrs D. Wilkie and Mrs H. D. Heather. 

Auckland Star 20 July 1894

But, John Roberton and his family had vacated Cotele by 1884, letting it out to a Mr J Ballard in that year (letter from Ballard giving Cotele House as an address, Waikato Times, 26 January 1884), and Dr. Lawry in 1886.

Dr. Lawry, writing from Cotele House, Symonds-street, states that his name appeared by mistake as one who took part in the fancy dress ball on Wednesday last. He adds :—" As the statement is likely to do me considerable harm, please correct it. I have neither the time nor inclination to indulge in such frivolities."

Auckland Star 11 August 1886

According to Donald Rae in the Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, the Robertson's son Dr. Ernest Robertson was the next owner of Cotele House, taking over in 1888. Dr Robertson, however, apparently didn't return to Auckland from Europe until 1891.

Photo supplied by Donald Rae to Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, September 1988

The view above is captioned from the Journal as being an image of the Old Cotele during Dr. Robertson's occupancy. It doesn't seem to quite fit the 1862 footprint pattern for the house, though.

In 1902, though, he demolished the old house, and built a new Cotele. Land just to the south, according to Rae, was transferred to Selina Robertson for a block of shops.

Second Cotele, c.1905. Photo supplied by Donald Rae to Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, September 1988

Dr Ernest Roberton (1862-1949) was educated at Auckland Grammar, and Edinburgh and Vienna Universities. He was honorary physician to Auckland Hospital 1891-1924, then served as honorary consulting physician. He was president of the New Zealand branch of the Medical Association in 1905. Dr Roberton was one of the founders of the Diocesan School for Girls, a member of the Auckland Grammar School Board of Governors in 1896, and chairman of that board for a number of terms. He was first chairman of the Auckland Orphanages Advisory Council, and was appointed a serving brother of the Order of St John in 1928. He was twice president of the Auckland Institute and Museum, in 1898 and 1905, and served overseas during World War I, 1916-1919, in the New Zealand Medical Corps. A few years before he died, he and his wife went to live in Christchurch (obituary, NZ Herald, Obituary Scrapbooks, Auckland Central Library.)

Rear view of second Cotele. Photo supplied by Donald Rae to Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, September 1988

Dr. Robertson owned the house until 1912, when he sold it to John Fuller, the theatre proprietor. From that point on, however, it became a boarding house and a private hotel. From 1924, when Fullers built the block of brick shops still standing today next door to Cotele (see below), the older building became known as "Mount Royal". Fullers sold the property in the 1940s.

Cotele in 1986. Photo supplied by Donald Rae to Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal, September 1988

By the time this photograph was taken, the building was as I remember it -- retail, with accommodation at the rear. Sometime after 1996, the second and last Cotele House was demolished. (Edit, 12 July 2014 -- a commenter below has very kindly pointed out a video on YouTube showing the house fully ablaze c.1996-1998). Stills from Geoff Mackley's video.

David Burn's view, from where he watched the weather and the appearance of sails in the harbour in the 1850s, is now gone, blocked by development and factories. This photo is of the site of Cotele House as it was in June this year.  Redevelopment, and a new building facing Symonds Street, may not be far away, now the site has been sold.

Sources:
Valuation field sheets, ACC 213/172c, Auckland Council Archives
NA 124/276,  403/87, Deed 1333, DP 3294, LINZ records
Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal (thanks to John Webster for advice on photo use)
The Lively Capital, Una Platts (1971)
David Burn diary, Library of NSW website (thanks for the heads up from Margaret Edgcumbe)
Auckland Research Centre, Central Library (thanks for sending me Dr Ermest Roberton's obituary)
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries
Auckland Council website, GIS viewer

George Maxwell Memorial Cemetery: Part 3 -- Other burials

Dr. Thomas Aickin and his family

First medical practitioner in the district, and second superintendent of the Auckland Asylum. More about Aickin here.

Capt. Robert David James

Captain James is discussed in detail in another post.

Thomas and Ann Fletcher Jackson

The Jacksons travelled all over New Zealand on ministry work for their Quaker faith in the late 19th century. From 1893 to 1899 they lived at “Meliora” in Avondale, a farm situated around present-day 103 Avondale Road (original house still standing, according to K. Brehmer.) In 1897 they helped found the Victoria Hall church opposite the cemetery. Thomas died in 1899, Ann Fletcher Jackson died in 1903.

Bollard family

John Bollard arrived in Avondale in 1861. From 1863 he was on the first committee for the Whau Public School (now Avondale Primary), was on the committee and later Trust for the Whau Public Hall from 1867, Chairman of the Whau Highway District Board (later Avondale Roads Board) from 1868 to 1896, when he stepped down to become MP for Eden until 1914. He was also a district coroner, land agent, farmer and roads engineer. He died in March 1915.

His son Richard Francis Bollard was a district valuer and rates collector for the Avondale Roads Board in the 1890s, and became an MP for Raglan, and later Minister of Internal Affairs, until his death in 1927. His remains are currently interred at Karori Cemetery.

Another son, Ben Bollard, was Avondale’s first postman (late 19th century) and then from 1906 until 1916 was part of the Bollard and Wood partnership with Edward Wood.

Henry Peck

From around 1870 until the early 20th century, Henry Peck’s Store next to the Avondale Hotel was the largest general store of its kind in West Auckland. Until his death in 1890, he served from time to time on the local Road Board.

Silva, Ringrose, Fremlin families

The cemetery is the resting place of many members of Avondale’s settler families. The Ringroses arrived in Auckland in 1859, the Silvas were a prominent family on the Rosebank peninsula in the 20th century, and Fremlin Place is named after the Fremlin family.

John and William John Tait

John Tait arrived in Avondale in 1864, working on John Bollard’s farm for 25 years, then running his own farm and market garden on a portion of the land. He died in 1916.

His son William John Tait served on the Avondale Roads Board, including as the last chairman in 1921-1922, and was the second mayor of Avondale Borough from 1923 to 1927. In 1937, he was one of the founders of the Avondale Businessmen’s Association, and was its first President. He was also a well-known land agent in the area. In 1932 the Unity Buildings was constructed on his property in central Avondale, and in 1940 he donated land to the Council for Avondale’s first public restroom. His widow transferred land in Blockhouse Bay Road to the Housing Corporation for the present-day Tait Village named (as is Tait Street) after her husband. He died in 1947.

Charles Theodore Pooley

From 1898 until the mid 20th century, “Charlie” Pooley was a roading contractor and transport provider for the district. He was engaged by the Roads Board to work on forming up what is now Bollard Avenue and Blockhouse Bay Road, amongst others. The stables he built on the burned out ruins of the Patterson Stables, just down Great North Road from the Avondale Hotel, was a landmark until 1924 when the stables burned down. In 1925 he gifted land along the Great North Road frontage of his property to the Avondale Borough Council (the Council bought additional adjoining land also) which was earmarked “with a view to making a civic square” (Roads Board minutes). Part of this land is the present-day site for Stage 1 of the Avondale Mainstreet Project.

Frances Gittos

Died 6 August 1924, aged 81.

Connected with the tannery company of the 19th century in Avondale and Blockhouse Bay, Benjamin Gittos and Sons. He came to Avondale around 1863, was on both the early committees for the Public School, and in November 1867, he proposed that “the members of the Committee procure as many books as possible for the formation of a library for the Hall.” Books were to be solicited to form a library for the Hall for the use of the public. (from Heart of the Whau)

He owned much of the land bounded by what is now Blockhouse Bay Road, New North Road, Bollard Avenue and New Windsor Road.

Charles Edgar Fearon

Died 31 October 1948, aged 68.

(from Heart of the Whau)
There were originally four brothers: Charles Edgar (always called Jack), Len, Cedric, and one other who was lost to the Influenza Epidemic of 1918.

In 1920, Jack and Len started a butcher shop in Avondale, on the site which is now the Battersby carpark. The family had now moved to Station Road. Later, there was a fire which destroyed what had been the Thode Bros. store, then run by Mr MacKenzie. The Fearon brothers took over the land and remaining buildings, and built the Fearon Block by 1922.

In an advertisement from the News of 4 June 1921, the Fearon Bros. butchers said they were in Avondale and Ponsonby. “Patronise the Small Butcher -- No connection with the other Firm”, and asked: “Have you tried ‘Avon’ Sausages – made with specially prepared Sausage meal and clean fresh meat. ‘Avon’ Sausages are right”. They stocked “Primest Beef and Mutton, Dairy-fed Pork, Milk-fed Veal, Mild-cured Beef, Corned Pork and Ox Tongue. Our Quick-Lunch Pressed Beef is Delicious. Home-made Luncheon Sausage.”

“Avon Sausage” was apparently mixed in the Fearon’s own small factory they had built out the back the shop, using salt, pepper, mace and sage, although only a little of this was put in the mix.

Arthur John and Adelaide Annie Morrish

Arthur Morrish died 6 November 1949, aged 80, his wife Adelaide died 1 August 1941, aged 70.

(from Heart of the Whau)
Sometime in 1913-14, Arthur Morrish (1869-1949) printed the first issue of his weekly publication for Avondale, New Lynn, Waikumete, Henderson, and Swanson, called simply The News. Morrish, originally emigrating from the English county Devon in 1894 when he was 25, married and settled in Princess Street (Elm St), where he set up his business before shifting first to Great North Road (just down from the 1938 Post Office), and then to Rosebank Road. Copies of The News are rare, and photocopies sought after these days. No one knows when the newspaper ceased publication, but Arthur Morrish died in 1949, aged 80.

His wife Adelaide Annie Morrish (c.1871-1941) ran her own business in Rosebank Road alongside her husband’s printing works.

Dr. Daniel Pollen

Died 18 May 1899, aged 82.

Born 1813, Dublin, Ireland. Died 1896, New Zealand, aged 82
Premier from 6 July 1875 to 15 February 1876 Daniel Pollen was born in Dublin, Ireland on 2 June 1813. Many details of his early life are unknown but he studied medicine and graduated with an MD. He moved to New South Wales and then North Auckland in the late 1830s. He was a witness to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Pollen was appointed Coroner for Parnell in 1844 and on 18 May 1846 married Jane Henderson. He later became medical officer at the mining town of Kawau. In 1856 he was elected a member of the Provincial Council representing Auckland Suburbs and later Auckland East until 1865. In 1858 he was appointed commissioner of crown lands for Auckland. Then in 1861 he became a member of the Legislative Council on and off for the next few years.

In 1873 he was appointed by Vogel to both the Legislative Council and the Executive, becoming Colonial Secretary. After Vogel was delayed while overseas Pollen became Premier in July 1875 and relinquished the job back to Vogel on Vogel's return in February 1876. He remained Colonial Secretary until October 1877.
Pollen then spent the next 19 years as a member of the Legislative Council until he died on 18 May 1896.

Dr. Pollen was also another of Avondale’s early settlers, purchasing land in the initial sales of 1844 at the end of the Rosebank peninsula, and in the mid 1850s starting a brickworks on the Whau Creek, celebrated as the earliest of many brickworks later to start up all over West Auckland on the clay seams. Pollen Island Motu Manawa) is named after him, as is a street in Ponsonby.

Binsted family

John Binsted died 8 March 1900 aged 78, Henry Binsted died 3 September 1895 aged 44, James Binsted died 28 October 1920, plus seven other family members in Rosebank Cemetery.

(from Heart of the Whau)

In 1886 Henry and James Binsted opened a butchery on the corner of St Georges Rd and Great North Rd. Also built an abattoir on the present site of Rewa Park in New Lynn. Cattle for the yards were driven across the city from Remuera via Avondale to the yards.

According to Binsted family descendents, the parents of James Binsted, John and May, came to New Zealand in 1873, with six children. The started a butchery business in Drake St, Freeman’s Bay “before the reclamation in 1879, when Drake St ran along and parallel with the foreshore of the Waitemata Harbour.”

James Binsted is said to have been a small-built man, who wore a bowler hat most of the time (some have said he was balding). His shop would have a cashier, where you would pay for the meat, and a counter where the meat was served. Binsted’s delivered to a wide area, and were known to “dress-up” cuts of meat for those who couldn’t afford the more expensive cuts.

By October 1888, “Binsted’s corner” had become an Avondale landmark. In 1895, Henry Binsted, James’ brother and partner, died of typhoid fever, and their father John died on 8 March 1900. In 1902, James Binsted bought the Avondale shop from his family, and had a new shop in Mt Albert, corner of Mt Albert and New North Roads, by 1911.

In 1920, James Binsted died. The Avondale shop was sold to R&W Hellaby’s for £3090, and from then onwards, James’ son John Claude Binsted became manager of the Avondale R & W Hellaby’s shop.

Robert Dakin, John Rubbick Stych

Robert Dakin died 27 June 1894, aged 58.
John Rubbick Stych died 20 December 1898, aged 53.

Both of these men were licensees of the Avondale Hotel during the 19th century, Robert Dakin from March 1879 through possibly to the late 1880s, and John Stych from 1896 to his death in 1898.

Robert Dakin was originally licensee of the Suffolk Hotel in Ponsonby, and purchased the (then) Whau Hotel from its rebuilder and owner, James Palmer, in March 1879 for £2,400. “The new landlord at the Whau Hotel,” according to the New Zealand Herald of March 22, 1879, “has the reputation of being a suitable and obliging.” In 1879, he was one of the signatories to the application for incorporation of the Whau Public Library.

(from Heart of the Whau)
John R Stych, (1845-1898) committed suicide on 20 December, shooting himself in the head with a shot-gun in the cellar of the Avondale Hotel. He was apparently in financial difficulties, and after being approached that afternoon by a Mr. Boylan and Mr Abbott, he went to get a revolver and shot-gun, and ended his life. The suicide, and resulting inquest presided over by John Bollard as district coroner, was quite a sensation in Avondale at the time, so much so that it went into “Avondale lore” as the suicide of the last publican after losing the hotel licence in 1909. Only after I interviewed Mrs Vera Crawford, and she mentioned the name “Mr Stych”, was I able to put Mr Stych’s death together with the suicide story – a part of Avondale lore which turned out to have more than a grain of truth to it. His widow Emma took over the licence for 5 years.

“The deceased was very popular in the Avondale district and was not supposed a likely man to commit suicide. He had many friends in Auckland, where fore many years he was employed in Messrs Bycroft and Co.’s mills. As a horticulturalist Mr Stych used to carry off prizes year after year at the local flower shows and was an enthusiastic gardener. He leaves a wife and three sons.” [Auckland Star, 21/12/1898] See appendix.

John Stych was buried in the Rosebank Cemetery, his headstone giving no indication of the cause of his demise.

Exler family

Moses Exler, died 12 August 1900, plus 8 family members.

Moses Exler started the family pottery business in the late-1870s in New Windsor. Bricks made at that site were used, according to Challenge of the Whau, as part of Bunsted’s butchery, the horse bus stables and St Jude’s Church. Neville Exler, his descendent, was part of the Avondale History Group who worked to put together Challenge of the Whau in 1994.

William and Thomas Myers

William Myers died 2 October 1927, aged 75. His son Thomas died 16 August 1967, aged 79.

(from Heart of the Whau)
Thomas Myers (c.1881–1967), the blacksmith in Blake Street was the rival:
“Since we commenced business in Avondale we have built over one hundred carts and sulkies for the district.; We guarantee you better value than you can get elsewhere. Horse Shoeing, Ploughs made to order. All Kinds of Agricultural Implements Repaired.” [Advertisement in The News, 11/11/1916. Both examples from Challenge of the Whau, p. 73]

His father William Myers came to New Zealand c.1895, starting up the family blacksmith business in Avondale, while living in Avondale South (according to William’s grandson, Roger Myers, the family were the first ones on what was to become Myers Rd, later Margate St).

Thomas Myers went into the business with his father in 1908, and remained in business there until 1962-63. During that time, the original building was cut down, and part leased.

“I started work with my father, the blacksmith William Myers, in 1908. I had served my apprenticeship with Hughes and Donger in Eden Terrace.

“We did a lot of work then for Charlie Pooley, who was the contractor.
“There was always plenty of work at our smithy. I started work at 7.30 in the morning and we worked long hours especially in the summer.” [From Memories of early Avondale, by Tom Myers, Avondale Advance, 21/11/1960]

Myers’ was more than simply a farrier (Thomas wouldn’t do a lot of work for the Jockey Club, his son Roger told me, as he considered thoroughbreds as “too flighty, a young man’s job”) – he also did a lot of work for market gardeners, both in Avondale and as far afield as Oratia and Henderson. He’d do repairs to plows, disks, harrows. Farmers would bring up to the shed 3 or 4 spades at a time, to have handles repaired. Thomas Myers also made up wheelbarrows.

He also worked for Odlins timber at Karekare, a day’s work shoeing 8 to 10 horses.

Ernest Croft, Albert Edward Bailey

Ernest Croft, died 15 July 1968. Avondale Borough Councillor.

Albert Edward Bailey, died 15 November 1971. Auckland City Councillor.

(from Heart of the Whau)
The Croft family came to the district in 1920, Mr Ernest Croft, senior (1880-1968), taking a house in Waterview. Three years later the family moved to the corner of Riversdale and Rosebank road. Their house, according to Mr Croft’s son Ernie, was one which had belonged to the Bollards. Mr Croft was on the Avondale Borough Council from 1924 to 1927. He was also a builder by trade, and was employed by Charles Pooley to build his block of shops opposite the present-day Mobil service station after the destruction of the stables there in 1924.

Albert Bailey was an Auckland City Councillor from 1956 to 1959, and 1962 to 1965.

He bought the Avondale Hotel in 1940, and renamed it the Avoncourt. He sold it in 1967, when it was then demolished.

“Avon court is listed in the AA Hotel guide as “2027 Great North Road, Avondale, 30 Beds, B.B.” as Mr Bailey gave up the full board service in 1957. Up until it’s demolition in 1967, Avoncourt only hotel between Symonds Street and Henderson.” [Western Leader, 18/8/65]

Albert Bailey was also involved with the Avondale Businessmen’s Association as Secretary.

Sydney Margaret Hamilton

From this site:

“Before William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) had graduated from Trinity College Dublin, he was appointed in 1827 as Professor of Astronomy and Royal Astronomer of Ireland. He trained three of his many sisters to operate Dunsink Observatory for him, whilst he worked on his mathematics. His invention of quaternions in 1843 made him one of the most renowned mathematicians of the 19th century. His third sister Sydney Margaret Hamilton (1811-1889) administered the Observatory, did much of the observing and performed extensive computations to reduce the observational data to publishable form. Sydney lived in Nicaragua from 1863 to 1874.

“Her scientific friends tried twice to arrange a Civil List Pension for her from the British Government, but their appeals were rejected first by Disraeli and then by Gladstone. Accordingly, Sydney sailed from Dublin in 1875 to Auckland, to earn her living at the age of 64 as Matron of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Auckland. To her surprise, New Zealand's elder statesman Sir George Grey (1812-1896) was eager to meet her as sister of the great Hamilton. Grey had intense interest in science, he was a personal friend of many scientists, and at the age of 63 he was studying quaternions.

Grey's magnificent gifts to Auckland Public Library include many papers which Sydney presented to him, including manuscripts of William Rowan Hamilton and editions of two of his major books which are earlier than any listed in any of the biographies and bibliographies of Hamilton. Grey attended Sydney's funeral in 1889, when she was buried in Rosebank Road cemetery in Auckland, across the road from Avondale College.

Archdeacon Robert Perceval Graves, author of the 4-volume biography of William Rowan Hamilton, later arranged for a tombstone to be erected on Sydney's grave, with the (existing) inscription.”

At present, her grave is sadly neglected. The grave itself has been engulfed by a wild tree allowed to grow right in the grave area itself, and the headstone is being crowded out by the trunk of the tree. The remains of an old wooden pallet was leaning up against the tree next to her headstone when the cemetery was visited on 3 May 2002.

In the opinion of the author, the tree should be cut down and removed, and the grave resealed with a cement slab, so that Sydney Hamilton’s headstone can be seen clearly once more.

Update 6 February 2013: I've just received this link to a page on Miss Hamilton's life. Many thanks!