Night of the Exploding Tote

Avondale residents and those in surrounding districts for several miles around were enjoying a peaceful evening on September 22 1924, when at around 8.45 pm a thunderous roaring boom filled the air, coming from the Avondale Jockey Club. It was immediately feared that the grandstand was on fire.

Houses shook, neighbours and volunteer fire brigade members came running, as sheets of flame tore through the centre of the roof of the totalisator building on the course. Pieces of galvanised roofing iron were parted from their fittings, strewn about the paddocks around, one even found a hundred metres away on the racetrack itself. An old roller-type of totalisator machine owned by a Mr. S Yates and used by the Jockey Club was completely wrecked. All but one of the windows were blown out, purlins measuring 3 X 2 lifted from the cross beams throughout the structure, inside toilets wrecked with “lumps of porcelain … scattered about the room”. Part of the front wall of the building was “shattered to fragments, leaving an aperture several square yards in extent,” according to an Auckland Star reporter.

Almost immediately, rumours that the explosion was deliberate, rather than an accident, began to circulate around the village. “There is not the slightest evidence which would suggest that the explosion was an accidental occurrence,“ the Auckland Star declared, giving as a reason for this deduction that only the gas and water mains could have caused an explosion, and both were found intact (part of the gas main, however, was badly twisted on the edges of the damaged area.) The reporter pointed to the fact that the door to the commission room was found open, saying that it suggested that a forced entry had been made as the door opened inwards. “The bracket of the lock was forced away and the tongue was still as it had been turned in locking.” However, the Star did add that the explosion could have accounted for the door being open.

Reports were made of “adverse comments” having been made of the totalisator system at Avondale up to the night of the explosion. Unlike the automatic systems to be found at the time at Ellerslie, Avondale still used old hand-controlled roller types, such as had been introduced by the first secretary of the club, Harry Hayr, back in the early days of the racecourse. According to Graham Reddaway, a former president of the club, Avondale had been at the forefront of totalisator technology in the early years, thanks to Hayr and his company (continued on by Yates). Up until 1903, there were only bookmakers on the course, but these were replaced by the totalisator. There were advances in the totalisators from Hayr’s time until 1924, but it still took up to seven minutes after the tote had closed to adjust and ring up the bets for each horse, in order to determine each bet’s share of the total pool. The Star noted that the delay was found “tedious” by the betting public attending the meetings at Avondale. The Star also reported an opinion about the town that there was a “difference of opinion” over the verdict on “two very close and exciting finishes” on the day of the explosion.

Six of the eight tote machines in the building were severely damaged, and belonged to Yates, while two others belonging to the club remained undamaged.

Despite all the rumours and speculation rife in Avondale, the official insurance investigation found that the cause was due to the escape of “coal gas”. Mr. Reddaway, who has done some study into the incident, said that the building was lit by gaslight, and it was highly likely that someone had forgotten to turn the gas supply off to at least one of the lights before closing the building at the end of the day’s racing, and a spark ignited the gas.

Fooled by "the gypsy woman"

In Avondale's St Ninian's Cemtery lies the gravestone for Walter and Rachel Chishollm, a hard-working Methodist couple who were integral parts of every community they settled in. Sadly, though, in declining years they fell victim to a con.

Walter Chisholm was born in Southdean near Hawick c. 1833 in the Scottish Borders country the edlest son of James Chisholm and Janet Brown. James Chisholm was an agricultural labourer. By 1851, Walter was working on the estate of Henry Elliot of Westerhouses, Chester, as a molecatcher. Paying his own fare, he sailed from Liverpool for Melbourne in 1854, on the American clipper, The Red Jacket.

He worked in Victoria for the next 13 years, marrying Rachel Graham in 1863 at Carisbrooke, Wedderbourn, north-west of Ballarat, a gold-mining town. Rachel was originally from Ireland, and had arrived in Victoria in 1860 on assisted passage as a nurse. At the time of their marriage, Walter was employed as a mail contractor.

From Victoria, the Chisholms headed to Hokitika, staying there for over twenty years. living in Sale Street, working as an ironmonger's asstant by 1880. There Walter devoted time to the local Methodist Church, teaching Sunday school, as well as serving as Poor Steward and Chapel Society Steward. He may also have been secretary of the Independent Order of Rechabites 1877-81. He was actively against the licensing of hotels in the area, successfully opposing the granting of Henry Sharpe's license for the British Hotel in Tancred Street, September 1880. By 1883, he was a storeman, and by 1889 associated with the Hokitika Hardware Company. In that year he was a member of the Hokitika Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

In 1890, Walter and Rachel, with their son James left Hokitika for Mauriceville, near Masterton.

The many friends of Mr Walter Chisholm will be interested to learn that he has bought the business of a general storekeeper at Mauriceville, near Masterton, in the Wairarapa, Wellington Province. Writing to a friend in Hokitika Mr Chisholm says : — " I like this country very well, the weather is splendid. This district is very heavily timbered where not cleared and very hilly, but the land is splendid and the crops are grand; 10 bushels of wheat to the acre and very little trouble to preserve it. This is a very scattered place. Almost every settler has from 50 to 100 acres on the roadside and those behind these sections have generally from 160 to 400 acres. Those in the front were not allowed to take up large holdings. It is a special settlement on deferred payment. Sheep and cows are the chief products. We have a butter factory close by and there is only one very small store within two miles. I have only one man. We have to take out goods such a distance. On Monday the four wheeled express with two horses has about 16 miles round; on Wednesday, 32 miles; and Friday, 16 miles, and we have to go or somebody else would take our customers. As far as I can see yet, I will do very well. I pay 9s a week rent of store and dwelling and a four acre grass paddock, so that my expense is small. The railway station is two miles away, but we have a Post and Telegraph Office just across the road. We are about 80 miles from Wellington."

West Coast Times, 27 February 1890

In their new home, Walter and Rachel Chisholm made their mark. Walter was a local Methodist church Trustee, lay preacher and Sunday school superintendent, while Rachel appears to have used her nursing skills during an emergency in 1897 when, during a bush fire, a Mrs McGregor and her children were badly burned. The Hastwell Fire Relief Committee presented Rachel Chisholm with an album as a token of their appreciation for her work in March that year. By 1900, Walter was chairman of the Mauriceville West School Committee, and by 1902 he was a Justice of the Peace. But, he and Rachel were both becoming older, and in 1902 their age was used against them by a Serbian con artist posing as a fortune-teller.

At Masterton on Friday Mary Nicoli, commonly called "the gypsy woman," was charged with stealing £1 from Walter Chisholm, Mauriceville West, on November 20, and further with fortune telling at the same time and place. 

Mr Chisholm, an elderly, grey-haired man, who is a Justice of the Peace, stated that he was a storekeeper at Mauriceville West. On November 19 accused went to his shop, purchased some goods, and asked to see his hand. Witness showed his palm and the woman told him some very agreeable things. She said he was a very good man, would live long, and would be very rich, plenty of money coming over the sea (laughter). He charged her a shilling less for goods than he would have done, for telling him (laughter). 

The next day she visited his shop again, and this time went into the private room where he and his wife were. She asked for two sovereigns for two pound notes, and he changed one of the notes. Then she asked him to sit down on a chair near the fire. He did so, and she took a seat beside him on the floor, and asked for a tumbler of water which was supplied. She placed the glass on the hearth between them, and requested a pocket handkerchief, which was given. Taking some chemical stuff out of her pocket she tied it in the handkerchief, dipped it in the water, and then spread it over the top of the glass. Then she asked him to place a pound on the handkerchief. Witness demurred; and she then placed a pound note of her own underneath the glass. Eventually, on the advice of his wife, he also placed a note across the top of the glass. Accused then folded the two notes together and “wanted to touch my back to cure some imaginary disease. I said my back was all right (laughter), and then she wanted to touch my breast with the notes," said witness. 

Continuing, witness stated she put her hands under his wife's skirt. When she withdrew her bands she had some paper in them, but not the two notes. She quickly rolled the papers up and put them in the fire. Then she said she had burned her own note as well as his, and all disease was taken away, so he must give her another pound for the one she had lost. His wife went out of the shop, but was only away about a quarter of a minute, and when she returned accused left. Cross-examined, Chisholm said he had no intention of giving the woman the pound; he "kept his eye on it like a cat watching a mouse"; he did not ask for the note back; she did not tell witness "there was no fool like an old fool "; witness did not offer accused a pound if she would give him a kiss; witness (indignantly),- "my wife is a better looking woman than her." 

Mrs Chisholm corroborated her husband's evidence. Accused, she said, crumpled up what seemed to be the notes, mixed with some coffee, burnt them on a shovel, and held the fumes under the nose of witness's husband. Afterwards the woman bought some goods in the shop, and Mr Chisholm charged 3s or 4s less than the usual price. She was only out of the room a few seconds serving a child. Recalled, Mr. Chisholm said he sold the goods cheaply because accused said she wanted to sell some of them again, as she had a lot of young children to keep. 

The Magistrate (Mr James, S.M.) said the case came within the definition of larceny by trick. No one would believe that the notes were burned, and he should find accused guilty of larceny by trick. He could not understand how people, especially like Mr Chisholm, a Justice of the Peace, and apparently of some common sense, could be so foolish as to lend themselves to be cheated in this manner. It passed his comprehension altogether. "They bring these about by their own stupidity, and then come here and complain that they have been had," added Mr James. Accused was fined £5 and costs £1 13s.

Bush Advocate, 8 December 1902

The following year, Mary Nicoli was sentenced to £5 or three months imprisonment in New Plymouth, for obtaining money from Maoris under false pretences (Hawera & Normanby Star, 23 December 1903), and was accused of pretending to exercise witchcraft in Hastings by two Maori women, when Nioli promised to help them bear children. (Poverty Bay Herald, 7 May 1906)

James Chisholm took over the store at Mauriceville from 1905, while Walter and Rachel retired and came to live in Avondale, setting up their home in Elm Street. Once again, Walter took an active part in the Methodist Church, but sadly had a bad turn while on his way to the church on Rosebank Road and falling, passing away in 1910.

James, separated from his own family, came up to live with his aged mother, then remarried. He shifted to Ellerslie, taking Rachel along them, where he worked as a horse trainer. When Rachel died in 1921. she too was buried here at St Ninians Cemetery.

Sources: Audrey Barney, "Robert Chisholm of the Whau" Clan Chisholm Newsletter June 2007 (.pdf); Papers Past.

Avondale’s Racecourse by the River Part 2: Surrounded by Change (1923-2019)

Spring racing at Avondale, from Auckland Weekly News 27 September 1923, AWNS-19230927-47-1, 

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections

(Following on from part one) 

For a number of years in the 1920s, it seemed that the Avondale Jockey Club committee members had to constantly watch their backs, taking a group deep breath whenever opening the morning paper, in case something else had cropped up to try to end their endeavour. Having seen off the earlier threat of closure in 1922, it may have freshly rattled their nerves when it was reported early in 1925 that former Avondale resident Richard Francis Bollard, then Minister of Internal Affairs and son of first AJC president John Bollard, spoke of amalgamating Avondale with Ellerslie’s Auckland Racing Club. Bollard though later emphatically denied that such was the case. The coal gas explosion which wrecked part of the club’s totalisator house in October 1924 probably added to the tensions at the time. 

But the club had their plans, and they had a firm business basis with which to do them. The annual report dated 10 July 1923 proclaimed, in bold letters, that “the Club has no liabilities whatever.” During 1924, they purchased land between the course and Wingate Street; the land once leased from Moss Davis and the Hancock Brewery to the east, including the strip fronting onto Great North Road, Webb’s Paddock in the middle, and the western end from Ellen Barker. More of the former Bollard farm was purchased along Ash Street, the site today of Sandy and Nacton Lanes. The club’s fullest extent would be reached, as mentioned in the previous article, in 1943 with the resumption of Jane Bollard’s property on Rosebank Road, but – by 1925, most of what those living in Avondale from the mid-20th century onward recognised as part of Avondale’s recreational greenspace was together under the club’s ownership.

The buildings 

The layout of the main structures for the course had always reflected the divide between members of the club, afforded due privileges of that membership, and the general public. While situated at the Wingate Street side of the course, this divide was probably not so pronounced, due to space restrictions. But once the shift had taken place to the Ash Street side, onto Bollard’s former land, the spacing of the demarcated areas laid out in 1900-1901 remained at least to the mid 1980s. 

Closest to the Whau River was the public area. This was fenced off from the main area beside it, and it was where the old 1890s grandstand that had been shifted across was placed. At some point between around 1905 and the late 1920s this oldest part of the racecourse architecture was removed. Plans were drawn up for open terraced seating in its place in 1928. The new stand was roofed in 1937. This was known as both the “public stand” and the “Derby Stand” at various times. It was destroyed by fire in 1985. 

Next to the public area was the lawn enclosure, featuring the main grandstand, the 1900-1901 version designed by Edward Bartley, with its distinctive “jockey’s cap” roof shape. It was shifted forward, closer to the track, in 1936, and had concrete terraces added to it. From 1963 it lost its prominence due to the construction of a new main and larger grandstand immediately adjoining it. 

The grand totalisator building from 1911 crossed the division between the public area and the lawn enclosure, and was divided off as well to reflect the separation of facilities between the two enclosures, which of course cost different admission fees as well. In September 1939 it cost 1-/ to enter the racecourse at the public enclosure, and another 1/- to park your car there as well. Entrance to the lawn enclosure (which included the general admittance) was 6/- for gentlemen, 8-/ for ladies, and all vehicles 2/6. Children under 12 were not permitted to the Grandstand Enclosure. “Men in uniform of His Majesty’s Forces will be admitted free.” 

The layout takes shape 

The greatest change was in the racetrack layout. Plans were drawn up in late 1925 for the old course to be completely obliterated, with a back straight now running nearly the full length of Wingate Street down to and including part of the old brickyard land. Alongside this, lasting until the 1990s, a steeplechase route was also added. The track was effectively shifted south as well as widened, leaving the members and public stands a considerable distance back from the track (a reason why both stands were eventually shifted forward, and the members stand realigned at an angle, to get the best views). H Bray & Co of Onehunga were the successful tenderers, and by February 1926 Avondale residents witnessed huge ploughs drawn by teams of ten and twelve horses engaged in the work of shifting topsoil and laying the foundation layers for the new track. Work was completed by February 1928. This didn’t include the mile/1600 metre start which was laid out in 1939, up by Great North Road and behind the block of shops there (as at July 2019, the site of the proposed new community centre and library), or the half-mile/800 metre start laid out in the 1950s at the Whau Creek end. 

Unfortunately, 1928 marked the end of the club’s nearly three decade long working association with architect Norman Wade, carrying on from the earlier plans drawn up in the 1890s for various structures by Edward Bartley. A legal disagreement over professional costs for the shifting and rebuilding of the grandstand resulted in a parting of the ways between the architect and the club.

Possibly, the oncoming Great Depression was the brake to any further work developing the racecourse facilities until halfway through the following decade anyway. As mentioned before, the work of shifting the members stand and the public stand took place in 1936, the public stand cut in half to complete the task. Ornate gates were added to the Elm Street entrance in 1937. In 1939, while totalisator earnings appeared to be lower than they were in 1928 for various reasons, it was still reported that the club looked forward to a brilliant 1940 season, with their racecourse facilities finally all in place, the new mile start in use, along with a training track in the infield.

But then, of course, along came World War II. 

The racecourse during the war 

Earlier full article here.

Up until July 1941, military camps on the racecourse were of a temporary nature, not really impacting on the club’s operations. But that July, construction began for a permanent camp, meaning that Avondale’s meetings migrated to Ellerslie for the duration. This was something that hadn’t happened before on the course – roads were laid down, rows of huts installed and erected. During the course of the camp’s existence, it was divided into army and naval transit camps, and even a POW camp for a time, after the uprising of Japanese prisoners at Featherston in 1943. There was also a temporary US Forces camp for a month only. 

From January 1944, the military camp was converted by the government into a Works Department camp. The Army vacated the racecourse in July 1945, and the Public Works Department finally evacuated in February 1947. The Jockey Club put in a £15,422 claim for compensation. They eventually agreed to accept £6000 cash plus some buildings (two mess halls, a recreation hall, and a cottage at the back of the tote building), and repairs to fences, latrines, stables, horse stalls, tote building, turnstiles and ticket boxes, outside stand, lawn grandstand, judges box, jockey’s board, steward’s stand and casualty room totalling £7500. The claim was eventually split between PWD and the Army. The club initially intended using at least one hut as a restaurant, but by March 1947 had submitted plans to the City Council for joining together and converting three ex-Army huts into an afternoon tearoom just in behind the public stand, along with a separate soft-drink stand using another ex-Army building just to the west. 

The City Council recreation areas 

On 5 October 1944, City Councillor Archibald Ewing Brownlie set in motion the process by which the Avondale community and surrounding districts came to be able to enjoy using large parts of the racecourse land on a long-term and permanent basis for recreation. At the time, the racecourse was still under government occupation. A full return to normal operations was nearly three years away. Brownlie asked the Parks Committee to look into the possibility of securing land at the racecourse for public use, without interfering with the racing and training there. The committee headed out to visit the course the following month, and by 8 December provided a report describing what was proposed to be acquired from the jockey club. 

The area beside the mile start was on the December 1944 list, with the exception of the Great North Road frontage to a depth of around 100 feet, so the club could have the option at a later point of subdividing and selling that part for commercial retail use as part of the shopping centre. That subdivision came about in 1961, with sales taking place from that point. (As at July 2019, this is the proposed site for Avondale’s new Community Centre and Library). The area ultimately vested as a gift to the City Council in 1959 curved around to have a Racecourse Parade frontage. Tennis courts were set up here, later becoming netball courts under the administration of Western Districts Netball Association during the 1970s. 

The other main area was around 19 acres at the western end of the racecourse, fronting the Whau Creek. Today, this is the residential area of Corregidor and Michael Foley Place, the Rizal Reserve, and the site sold in 2017 for the Tamora Lane development. Back in the 1940s, it was an area of broken ground, topsoil stripped off (possibly transferred to the main part of the racecourse during the work in the late 1920s), littered with remains from the earlier brickmaking operations there plus the club’s own rubbish tipping. Two power pylons were already in place on the site, but the City Engineer still remained keen, suggesting that part of the waterway could be reclaimed to provide more space for the required playing fields. In a lengthy report from February 1945, the City Engineer went on to speculate that acquiring the whole of the racecourse’s 124 acres would go a long way toward the calculated 210 acres required to provide for the expected future recreational needs of not only Avondale but the wider district, creating a regional reserve. 

“At the present time,” he wrote, in what would now appear to be a rather prophetic piece of report writing, “under the present conditions of Metropolitan Government, to acquire such a total area for regional purposes would be beyond reasonable expectation. It is possible that at some future time, the area might be considered for subdivision for urban development. In that event a portion at least will no doubt be acquired for reserve and in any case the opportunity would present itself for acquiring the whole area. Circumstances may then be different.” 

The report was adopted by the Council in March 1945. By the end of April, the jockey club put forward a further proposal: that the city council lease, for a term of 25 years, the infield area bounded by the training tracks for 1/- per annum. In March 1947, the Avondale branch of Citizens & Ratepayers convened a meeting at Avondale College, which came up with the suggestion that twelve playing fields in the area to be leased by the council be made up of: Rugby and League, seven fields; Soccer, two fields; and Hockey, three fields. Two concrete cricket pitches were also recommended. In June, the council authorised the laying out of ten playing fields in the inner part of the racecourse. There was a delay regarding the setting up of the playing fields, as the Auckland Rugby Union was using that space at the time, and asked to be able to see the winter season out. Drawn up in 1947 as part of the wider agreement covering that, plus the two outright gifts of land, the lease between the Jockey Club and the City Council was eventually agreed to and signed in 1952. 

As for the 19 acres by the river – some members of the Jockey Club committee had a change of heart by March 1948. They felt that “a mistake had been made as they thought that the area would be required for future extension [the 800 metre start] and the siting of racing stables.” The Council’s Town Planning officer assured them that there was provision in the agreement for the club to have land handed back to provide for the additional starting space, but the committee members were adamant. The gifting of that part of the racecourse land to the council was, from that point on, off the table. 

The lease for the inner field playing areas expired in 1977 without right of renewal. The Jockey Club required, as part of the agreement to renew the lease, the provision of a hard-surface car parking area at the north-eastern end, and underground toilets in the midfield. The council’s Department of Works designed the required toilets, male and female, in 1978, and these were built for around $28,000. The matter of the hard-surface carpark however dragged on, and the lease wasn’t formally renewed at that time, although the club and the council came to an agreement that use could continue while negotiations carried on. 

In July 1981, Councillor Jolyon Firth described the toilets in a memo to the chairman of the Parks Committee as:

“... a four-holer semi-submerged Clochemerle sited in majestic isolation in the mid-field area of the racecourse. This was considered necessary as, in want of such a facility, many people had no alternative but to make a convenience of the back of the Club’s dividend indicator board thus causing discolouration and rot to a most important raceday facility.

“In constructing this new facility, the Council was obviously mindful of the dictum of the late Chic Sale, author of The Specialist who, in his ground rules for these types of facilities, made famous the words “For every Palace a privy, and every privy a Palace” … There was no official opening. Such an event would have been embarrassing because no sooner had the edifice been put in place, then it flooded. A member of the Suburbs Rugby Club told me that it was “awash to the gunwhales.” Having got past that calamity the facility is now a great convenience for thousands of people. And, of course, the Club’s dividend indicator board is no longer rotting away …” 

The facilities into the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s 

After the five year gap, the Avondale Jockey Club’s return to racing at Avondale after the war did not go as smoothly as planned. Their spring meeting that year was to be their first, but before it took place, major repairs and maintenance were required to the buildings due to the military occupation. Although the government promised to undertake these repairs, these were deemed by the Auckland Carpenters and Labourers Unions to not be “essential” work, and the job was declared black. Presumably, some sort of compromise was reached between the government, the contractors and the unions, for in September 1946 the first post-war race meeting was held on the course. 

The racecourse’s 1950s story is told mainly in the developments made to the course and its facilities. The additional 800 metre start was added at the Whau Creek end. An addition was built for doubles betting at the auxiliary tote building at the rear of the lawn enclosure by 1951, along with a standalone indicator board, and an eastern addition to the members grandstand. Five small open public stands were built beside the old 1900 grandstand around 1951. 

An amendment to the Liquor Licensing Act was passed in 1960, and this allowed the club to once again sell alcohol from 1961, even though Avondale itself remained dry. The club replaced the old huts that had served as tearooms with a beer garden, and constructed a members bar and a garden bar attached to the outer public stand. Around this time, the old 1911 tote building was converted into a cafeteria. Liquor sales allowed the club to go ahead with the new public stand next to and overshadowing the old 1900 version, replacing the small 1950s open stands. The cost of the grandstand project at the time was £140,000, and it opened in January 1963. In behind the old stand, the club provided asphalt basketball courts for the use of 11 Western District schools from May 1964 until the old stand was also later replaced. 

The club raced for only six days a year (raised to eight by 1969), but had the third highest daily totalisator turnover in the country. It maintained three training areas beside the main track: the plough, the two-year-old and the No. 1 grass. The club’s success during this period shows in the further developments of a new members stand in 1964, and the installation of an infield indicator in 1967. A block of 18 loose boxes were built beside the Whau River in 1969. 

July 1969 saw the retirement of course caretaker Walter Willoughby. When he started working at the racecourse as a casual in 1928, it took a day and a half to mow the ten miles of the course proper with a horse-drawn manual mower. By the 1960s, it was mechanised into being just a four hour job.

  

Divots kicked up by horses on raceday however still took him and 21 helpers several hours to replace the following day, on top of the cleaning of the 146 lavatories dotted around the course. 

In 1976-1977, the old grandstand from 1900 with the “jockey cap” roof, was finally demolished for another public grandstand between the 1963 building and the members stand. A birdcage track was added in front of the members stand in 1979. A new tote building was constructed in 1983 for the introduction of the new Jetbet system where the same window could be used to place bets, as well as collect the dividends. A new parade ring was installed in 1984. 

The racecourse hosted the New Zealand Polynesian festival over the course of three days in February 1981, an event started in the early 1970s to encourage competitions among Maori cultural groups, known today as Te Matatini. 

In 1985, fire ripped through the 1928-1937 outer or Derby grandstand, and the remains were demolished, not to be replaced. Reports at the time erroneously described it as part of the old racecourse from the 1890s. In fact, the oldest structure of all, what remained of the 1911 tote building, continued on for another few years, finally disappearing when the course was later subdivided in the early 1990s. 

The Avondale Sunday Market 

The market originated as an idea for a method of fundraising used by the West Auckland Labour Party electorate committees. The Otara flea market had started for partly the same reasons, back in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, flea markets were held by schools, and also by Suburbs Rugby Football Club in Avondale on Saturdays from 1978 – it doesn’t seem to have been all that much of a stretch to take the idea, once a rental agreement was arranged with the Jockey Club, to establish a regular event each week on the outer grounds, accessed from Ash Street. 

From 1983 to at least 1991, the market appears to have been run by a committee of trustees on behalf of the electorate committees. A minute book exists for that time period, but my information here comes mainly from the newspapers and the council’s property file on the racecourse. 

The trustees approached the City Council on the matter in May 1982, calling it the “West Auckland Market Day”, and an application to operate the flea market was lodged with the Council in July. This was granted in October that year for a period of six months before reassessment, with the conditions that the market operated only from 9am to 12 midday, with no stalls to be set up prior to 8am. Only second hand goods could be sold there. At the time, the principal planner reporting back to his department didn’t feel that the market, selling only second hand goods, would prove to be much in the way of competition for the retailers in the Avondale Shopping Centre area, and “moreover, the scale of traffic that would be generated on Sunday by the fleamarket would be considerably lower than that generated by Racecourse activities during the other days of the week … Avondale Racecourse, with its large area of open space, carparking and public facilities appears well suited to a fleamarket.” 

A later report stated that the first such market opened at the racecourse in November 1982, a month after the approval was given, and there are letters in Council files from January 1983 referring to traffic issues on Sundays in the Ash Street area, seeming to involve the market. But there was no mention made in the Western Leader in November 1982 – the earliest notice advising that stall holders could contact the organisers actually appearing in the newspaper on 22 February 1983.

In July 1983, a further three months was granted to the organisers by the Council. In 1984, an application was lodged with Council to allow the market to operate on a permanent basis, but the system remained of six-monthly approvals, on the basis of regular review. 

The market proved exceedingly popular, and despite the initial small scale continued to grow. By the week preceding Christmas 1984, 206 stalls were operating. By February 1985, rather than just “second hand goods”, the market had attained a similar flavour to that of today, selling fresh produce, meat, fish and shellfish, flowers and plants, homebaked goods, takeaways, new clothing and footwear, second hand clothing and footwear, craftwork, and “second-hand household effects.” Gates were opened to the public at 8 am. It rarely ran much over the 12 midday time limit, as most of the vendors had already sold out and gone home before then.

Permanent consent to operate the market was granted in 1989, with a variation of conditions in 1995, after the market appears to have ceased being controlled by community trustees and became a private business. 

NZ Herald 31 March 1987

Brand new ideas for the 1980s – night racing at Avondale 

The club’s night racing idea was very much something from out of the speculative era of the 1980s. It was a gamble by a club that had indeed made its business from gambling, but this time they well and truly lost the bet. 

According to George Boyle’s Highlights from One Hundred Years of Racing at Avondale Jockey Club (1990), it was outgoing Club President Peter Masters who suggested in October 1983 that consideration should be given to night racing, as well as meetings on Sundays, “to bring New Zealand racing out of the Victorian age.” His cue was taken up by club secretary John Wild, credited by Boyle as being the driving force behind the project to introduce night thoroughbred racing to Auckland. He and Don Marshall travelled to Hong Kong and West Germany to view other facilities, and checked out manufacturers of the required lighting systems. 

By October 1984 the project’s cost had risen from $2 million to $3 million. A request for a loan of $1 million from the Racing Authority was turned down. Nonetheless, the club plugged on, raised finance, sought and gained Council approval for the installation of the lights, and in October 1985 at that year’s AGM announced the appointment of Lobley, Treidel and Davies of Melbourne as the consulting engineers for the work. The first contract was let by June 1986, and the first of the lighting masts was in the ground by November that year. 

The club held a dress rehearsal on 9 March 1987, a trials meeting with no betting, but an estimated 3000 turned up anyway for the spectacle. The date of the first main meeting with full betting was, perhaps rather unfortunately in the light of what happened so soon afterward, April Fools Day 1987. Nevertheless, the official attendance figure was a crowd of 9380. The night was deemed a success, but John Wild shared in that success for only just over a week before he died from a heart attack. 

When things came unstuck – the beginning of the land sales 

In October 1987 came the sharemarket crash. The economy went into downturn, and financial markets were hard hit. General betting turnover went down as well. Some blamed the economy, others blamed the rise of alternative games for the gambler’s dollar, such as Lotto (and later Instant Kiwi). Certainly, the expected crowds didn’t come out to Avondale’s racing nights. 

By January 1988, the Avondale Jockey Club’s finances were less than completely sound, and the committee were faced with hard decisions. They had enormous debts from the night racing development, and not a lot of income from the venture to show for it. Less than a year after the inauguration of night racing, the secretary/general manager Stephen Penney had a meeting with the Council’s Director of Parks to discuss the possibility of Auckland City Council purchasing 10-14 hectares of the infield areas that they were leasing from the club, at $300,000 per hectare. Discussions also included provision of a $670,000 underpass from Wingate Street to the land should Council purchase it. There had still been no agreement between the Jockey Club and the Council regarding formal renewal of the Council’s lease over the playing fields area. 

By June 1988, the Council settled on just having a lease agreement rather than purchasing the land. The Club then offered a lease to last until 2002, with one right of renewal to 2027. Eventually, by March 1989, the Club and the Council came to an agreement, based on the greater of either 5% of agreed value of the land, or the total amount of rates charged to the Club for the racecourse. In 1990, this was around $75,000 per year. 

Back in October 1988, the loss made in the Jockey Club’s annual accounts of $1,282,080, plus its interest liability of $998,742 on the $5 million borrowed for the course improvements became public. At their annual general meeting that month, however, none of the 76 members who attended queried the club’s financial performance or situation, the sole question from the floor only being about “the scruffy standard of dress in the members stand,” according to one report. Apart from the attempt to sell a chunk of the infield land to the Council that past year, the club also had plans to develop the corner site at Ash Street and Rosebank Road as a casino, and develop more land along Ash Street for commercial use. 

Retiring president Laurie Eccles had just returned before the meeting from giving a paper on night racing at the Asian Racing Conference in Sydney, and told the AJC members they “should not hold any fears over the wisdom of the switch to night racing.” His successor, newly elected president Eddie Doherty is said to have stated, “The financial difficulties were short-term. In a year or two the club would look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.” 

By May 1990, when the City Council granted approval to the club to sell off a $600,000 strip of its Wingate Street property for state housing (this though fell through the following month), the club faced a $4 million debt to the Bank of New Zealand who refused to extend the club’s overdraft, and $2.3 million to the Racing Authority. Servicing the loans was costing the club $1 million per year. There was talk of forced amalgamation of the Ellerslie and Avondale clubs to stave off disaster. At the end of that month, Avondale’s race meetings were cancelled until further notice. 

The club tried once again to get the council to buy the playing fields, this time for $3 million, but were turned down. In July, discussions began with the bank to try to get them to agree to a rescue package put together by the Racing Authority (where the club’s financial control would be in the hands of an appointed board), but the bank refused. The head of their Credit Recovery Unit was quoted as far afield as Australia: “The Avondale Jockey Club must face the consequences of its own business decisions … It is a business in the same way as a corner dairy, and must accept full responsibility for its financial position.” 

A notice of default of payment was issued by the BNZ, set to expire 7 September 1990, at which time the bank would foreclose and sell the racecourse property to the highest bidder. An incredible situation, given that the reported turnover of the club, prior to the racing cancellation, was $50 million per year, the second highest in the country. The club at this point, though, couldn’t even afford to apply for planning permission to have its Ash Street land rezoned for sale, and the BNZ refused to lend them the money to do so. 

The Racing Authority and the BNZ eventually came to an agreement which staved off the foreclosure. After the October 1990 annual general meeting for the Avondale club, the bank provided the club with a three year term loan of $2.5 million. The Authority provided the Jockey Club with a further loan of nearly $2 million to pay off creditors and stay within the credit facility offered by the bank, and a three-member Board of Control was put in place to manage the jockey club’s financial affairs. The club resumed racing on 1 November 1990, after shifting a number of their scheduled night fixtures to daytime, with the cooperation of the Greyhound Racing Association and the Racing Conference. The stake for the Avondale Cup was reduced from $250,000 to $100,000, trainers and jockeys agreed to donate their winning percentages to the club, totalisator staff worked for free, and races were sponsored. 

The board of control had the power to dispose of portions of the club’s real estate that didn’t interfere with racing operations, in order to reduce the restructured debt. Land at Rosebank Road (Avondale Lifecare) andWingate Street (again, to Housing Corporation), was duly sold. By the time of the October 1992 AGM, the club reported a profit of just over $100,000. 

But still more land had to go. The club’s Ash Street property just west of the main entrance was sold in 1995 to Prominent Enterprises Limited, a company which intended to use the land as a golf driving range. This didn’t eventuate, and today the site includes a service station, McDonalds, and Nacton and Sandy Lane residential areas. The 1911 totalisator building finally disappeared. 

Most of the area of land that the club decided they didn’t want to gift to the Council back in the late 1940s by the Whau River, was sold in 1995 as well, becoming Corregidor and Michael Foley Place.

From just over 51 hectares or 127 acres at fullest extent in 1944, the racecourse property in 1999 was 36.6 hectares or just over 90 acres. 

The racecourse into the 21st century 

By 2001, the club held 17 meetings a year – but it was reported at that time that a plan for Avondale’s redevelopment, the Avondale Liveable Community Plan, proposed to rezone a third of the racecourse for multi-storey apartment blocks. Soon after, commercial enterprises began to approach the club with the view of leasing parts of the remaining land, including The Warehouse around 2003. By 2005, the club held 16 meetings, down from 22 in the 1990s, but still had an annual betting turnover of $22 million. 

Then came the message from New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing and the New Zealand Racing Board that they thought that it was better that Auckland have only two racecourses – and Avondale wasn’t one of them. From around 2007, the situation became more fraught, and by 2009 the club had only 13 “industry” meetings, most of them on Wednesdays and featuring moderate horses, and still had $2.5 million in debts. 

On 3 July 2010, the club held a final meeting before going into recess yet again. Many Avondale locals popped along, myself included, to say goodbye to what had been, up to that point, such a large part of the local area’s sense of place. We certainly hoped it wouldn’t stay closed. 

It didn’t. Racing returned on 25 April 2012, but the debts remained. More land just west of Sandy Lane was proposed for sale in 2014. This took place in 2017, with development yet to begin for 54 terraced homes at Tamora Lane as at the time of writing this article. Then in July 2018, the Messara Report to the Minister of Racing, Winston Peters, was released. In it, the recommendation was made that Avondale receive no further racing licences from the year 2020/2021. “Venue with 11 meetings in 2017/18. Training. Excellent location. Poor infrastructure. Freehold. Extremely valuable land with an estimated value of more than $200 million with rezoning and which should be sold for the benefit of the entire industry. Avondale JC should race at nearby Ellerslie or possibly Pukekohe.” 

Coming in a period where proposals had also been drawn up by Auckland Council’s Panuku property arm concerning plans for Avondale’s future development – including the possibility of great chunks of the racecourse land becoming residential housing should the racing cease and the jockey club wind up — the report alarmed not only the club but the surrounding community, many of whom feared that the Sunday Markets for one thing may well cease. But just as I conclude this part of the article, the Jockey Club sent a number of letters out to various parts of the community, including the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society, and posted diagrams on their website indicating that they still intend to have an operating racecourse, come what may. Facilities in their plan would be further squashed together, so that slightly more land could be sold to reduce the costs of maintaining the course. They are planning, they say, for “an even more exciting future.”

After nearly 130 years of racing, surrounded by change both in the industry and in Auckland as a whole, down there on the Avondale Flat it is still a matter of “don’t give up yet.”

Before Avondale’s Mosque: teachers, tanners and stationmasters

Here in Avondale, an application has been made for resource consent to replace an existing Islamic Centre with a full-fledged mosque at the top of Tait Street, close to the intersection of Rosebank and Blockhouse Bay Roads. This was once a Seventh Day Adventist church and school from the 1960s until around 2000.

I don’t object to the proposal myself. There’s already a place of worship there, and apart from traffic snarl-ups once in a while on a Friday, I don’t experience any adverse effects. Whether the proposal eventually will go ahead or not (there are a number of resource consent issues which have made it notifiable, with a hearing due from later this month) I don’t know. But, looking at the plans, I realised that I had a gap in my knowledge and information on the site’s history – especially when I looked back on the land titles, and found the names of Amy Caduceus Graham and Charles Eyes.

I’ll wind back to the beginning, when this was part of a surveyed allotment in the Parish of Titirangi, November 1845.

The Crown Grant title for Allotment 62 of the Parish of Titirangi (88½ acres) went to John Marmon in 1845. The ensuing owners were: George Frederick Russell (1846,) Samuel Norman, publican of the New Leith Inn in Onehunga (1847), Robert Willoughby Dickson (1853,) then George Codlin (1855). Codlin subdivided the allotment, and sold 21¾ acres to William Pilcher in 1857, and the following year Pilcher subdivided the allotment further, selling 10¾ acres to James Comrie. Comrie was one of the founding members of the Presbyterian church here in Avondale (see post on St Ninians history).

Comrie, on leaving for Pukekohe, sold the land in 1861 to Archibald Hitchens Spicer. Spicer in turn transferred the land, via equity of redemption, to Benjamin Gittos in 1864. Gittos proceeded to erect a tannery on the site, which came to include part of Allotment 65 (towards New North Road) and Allotment 5 ) towards Mt Albert).

In 1884, John and James Gittos sold the tannery site as the Ingleton Estate. It wasn’t until 1898 that Amos Eyes had title to Lots 8 and 9 of Block 1 of the Gittos estate (which included the old house, lived in by James Gittos and possibly by A. H. Spicer even earlier), but Eyes purchased Lots 1-3, 4 & 5 of the same block in 1884. This five years before Eyes became the fourth stationmaster and postmaster of Avondale. Much of the following information on Amos Eyes comes from his descendants’ family historical research.


Amos Eyes was born in Wolverhampton, England, c.1835. He married Sarah Ward in Stretton, County of Chester, on 30 June 1862, by which time he was already a railway inspector for goods trains, possibly for the London and Northwestern Railway Company. His eldest child, Charles (1863-1933), was born at Bushbury, one of the towns along the line, on 6 May 1863. (Charles in the 20th century was an early Waterview landowner). Amos, Sarah and young Charles arrived in Auckland for the first time on board the Golden City from London, 5 March 1864, and two children were born in Freemans Bay: Amos John Thomas (16 March 1867, died 1935 in Te Atatu) and Minnie (born and died, 1869). Then, around 1870, the family left New Zealand, only to return 23 March 1871, on board the Caduceus. As was common in those days, young Amy who was born on board during the voyage (17 January 1871, one day before the ship crossed the equator. She died in Ponsonby 1946.) was christened with “Caduceus” as her middle name.

For a time, the family lived in Epsom where, in October 1872, another child was born (and sadly died that year). On 7 June 1873, Amos Eyes wrote to the Railways Department asking for employment on the Auckland and Waikato railway. His letter is lodged with Archives New Zealand (Inwards letters, AGG-A/1/69/75/507):

Epsom Mt Eden
June 7th 1873

To The Hon Dr. Pollen

Dr Sir

I beg most respectfully to offer myself as a candidate for a Situation on the A & W Railway, as Station Master, Inspector, Guard or Signal Man.

I also beg to inform you that I am quite qualified to undertake any of the aforesaid offices, having a thorough knowledge of all Railway work as I was employed by the London & North Western Railway Comp upwards of seven years as Porter, Shunter, Pointsman, Extra Passenger, and Goods Guard, Parcels Clerk and in charge of a large junction, Bushbury.

I wrote to Messrs. Brogden & Son and they referred me to an office at Wellington called the A&WR. I have written to that office twice the last time with an enclosed stamped addressed enveloped Mar. 4th ’73 and they returned it empty copy herewith enclosed. I should feel obliged if you would be kind enough to see to it for me and if you should require any more local references I shall feel most happy to furnish you with them as I am well known by almost all the leading Gentlemen in Auckland.

I hope Sir you will pardon me thus trespassing on your valuable time and beg to remain

Your Humble and Obedient Servant

Amos Eyes

(copy)

Epsom Mt Eden
Mar 4th 1873

To the Manager of the A & W Railway
Principal Office
Wellington

Dear Sir

I beg most respectfully to repeat my application for a Station Master, Inspector, Guard or Signal Man on the Auckland & Waikato Railway as it is fast advancing and I wrote you some six months agow [sic] enclosing three Testimonials also W Cawkwell Esq. Manager of the L & N W Railway whose service I was in upwards of 7 seven years informs me he has forward to your [sic] my Character during the time I was in that Comp Service. I should feele [sic] greatly obliged if you would say whether you have received the same and if my application is accepted by so doing you will greatly oblige

Your Humble and Obedient Servant

A Eyes

Judging by the period of service, 25 years 1 month, noted beside his name on the first published list of railway employees in 1895 (AJHR), Amos Eyes began working for the department in May 1874. By January 1875 he was a ticket collector on the southern Auckland suburban line.

“Breach of the Railway Act. — John Adeane was charged with a bleach of the 10th bye-law of the Auckland and Onehunga Railway, by refusing to deliver up his ticket on demand of the porter authorised to collect the same on the 26th instant. — Mr. Thome prosecuted on behalf of the railway authorities. — Amos Eyes deposed that on Saturday the 26th inst, he was acting as ticket collector. After leaving the racecourse platform at Ellerslie, witness asked the defendant for his ticket. Defendant said he had lost his ticket, and he refused to pay the fare. - John Kernley was called by defendant, and stated that he was in the train, and heard the defendant say that if he did not find the ticket between there and Auckland, he would pay on arrival at the Auckland station. — The defendant was further charged with making use of obscene and insulting language on the 26th instant to James Stewart, a railway officer .— His Worship considered each charge proved on the evidence of the Railway Manager, ticket collector, and Constable Naughton. For refusing to give up his ticket, it being the first case of the kind brought before the Court, the defendant was ordered to pay 1s. and costs. For the second offence a fine of 40s. was imposed.”

(Southern Cross, 1 January 1875)

Amos Eyes was one of the stationmasters at Papakura south of Auckland (the station opened there in March 1875 and was for a time the last station on Auckland's suburban Southern line). He certainly owned blocks of land in the district: 2 blocks at Kirikiri, Opaheke Parish from 2 October 1879 (DI 7A.14, DI 16A.204), and another smaller block at Opaheke Parish from 20 June 1881 (DI A2.437), This is according to his will, made out on 26 September 1879, when he was stationmaster there. Three of his children were born at Papakura: Lily Antigone (1877-1950), Lois Mable (b. 1878) and Daisy Effie (b. 1882). So, he may have been at Papakura from c.1877 to at most 1889. (I made contact with the Papakura & Districts Museum today – they may have more info which I can add in an update.)

He had interests in Auckland, however, during the Papakura period – he loaned a mortgage to a Mr. Sykes for a Mt. Eden property in 1884 (DI 16A.541), and he took out a title over part of the Gittos family’s Ingleton Estate at Avondale also in 1884 (DI 19A.257). At the opening of the Avondale Post Office in August 1938, H. G. R. Mason recited a brief history of the post offices in the district and their postmasters. Amos Eyes was named as combined stationmaster / postmaster at Avondale Railway Station from 1889-1900, succeeding J. Leach (1881-1884), H. F. Howard (1884-1885), and H Bell (1885-1889). Why, if Amos Eyes was still in Papakura up to 1889, did he invest in property at Mt Eden and Avondale? According to the report of his funeral in 1901, he certainly had a residence in Papakura. While he was here, he may have stayed at the house once lived in by James Gittos, which had occupied the site of today’s Islamic Centre.

He was our stationmaster by October 1889, when the station was robbed. Little further is known about his time here in Avondale. He probably retired in 1900, perhaps from illness (he had been ill for 10 weeks before he died on 12 January 1901.) From the Weekly News, 18 January 1901:

“The funeral of the late Mr. Amos Eyes, late railway stationmaster, of Avondale, who, after 10 weeks of severe illness, died at his residence here [in Papakura], on January 12, aged 66 years, took place on January 14, and was largely attended by relatives and sympathising friends, who, by their attendance, and by many floral tributes, showed their last tribute of respect to the memory of one well known and much esteemed here. The Rev. O. R. Hewlett was the officiating minister, and he conducted an impressive service in the Anglican Church, where two suitable hymns were sung (Mr. A. G. Fallwell presiding at the organ), and at the grave. The deceased leaves a widow, two sons (one married), and four daughters (two of whom are married) to mourn their loss.”

The Avondale and Papakura properties was in Sarah Eyes’ name until she died in 1924. Her daughter Amy and son Charles inherited the estate as trustees, and in 1926 subdivided the Avondale property for sale. Tait Street was finally named by the Eyes family, after William J. Tait, the then-Mayor of Avondale Borough, and dedicated. Robert Earnest Steele and his wife Beatrice Adelaide purchased most of the present-day Islamic Centre site in 1929 – NA601/38 (the Seventh Day Adventist Church purchased part in 1937 where they built a hall – NA693/189). The church purchased the remainder, up to the corner of Tait Street and Blockhouse Bay Road, in 1955. The present buildings date from between 1960 and 1987. The old wooden house, if it still existed, was demolished.

Around 2000, the church sold the site to the New Zealand Muslim Association, and we are back to where this essay began.

(Above) The main house as at 1879 when the railway survey for the Kaipara Line was prepared.


(Above) Detail from 1884 Ingleton Estate Deed 37, showing the Tait Street/Blockhouse Bay Road corner. LINZ records.


Detail from 1926 subdivision map. House footprint outlined in red. (LINZ records)


1940 aerial of the site (outlined). This, and next two aerials, courtesy Auckland Regional Council website.


The site in 1959.


The site in 2001.

(This post updated, adding Amos Eyes' letters in 1873, 14 March 2009)

Riccarton, oh Riccarton ...

Jayne, the indefatiguable chronologist from the West Island, included a bit about Riccarton race course, Christchurch, in her blog today. I'm not sure what turned on a lightbulb in my noggin, but I started wondering whether the racecourse really was as old as the Christchurch Library said it was.

Well, it stands to be a shade older -- but may still have been just one of a few sites used by those fond of the Sport of Kings in Christchurch until the late 1860s.

The library used as one of its sources, J. P. Morrison's The Evolution of a City, 1948, which in turn used a book of memories of early Canterbury by Miss. C. I. Innes, Canterbury Sketches, or Life from The Early Days, 1879. Morrison said that Innes described the first race day at Riccarton racecourse in 1856. However, the passage he quoted didn't have that date included, and I can't lay my hands on Innes' book at the present moment in time.

Nothing in Papers Past via the National Library seemed to help. Early Canterbury newspapers which were around at the time are not yet on the site. So, I turned to Proud Silk, a history of NZ racing, from 1979.

The first four ships of immigrants for the Canterbury Association landed in December 1850. A year later, amongst festivities to celebrate the settlement's first birthday, horse racing events were held, on a ground later to "become that part of Hagley Park facing the road running from the Riccarton Hotel to the Fendalton Bridge." The following Easter Monday, 1852, they held another meeting there.

On the second anniversary, 16 December 1852, the arrangements were more formal, with nearly all jockeys "in proper costume." 16 December 1853, more races at Hagley Park. On 4 November 1854, "a public meeting was held to consider forming a Canterbury Jockey Club. " One of the club's stated aims was "acquiring and preparing a suitable racecourse." This was the start of the Canterbury Jockey Club. "

"In the memorial the Club stated that the most suitable piece of land for a racecourse was that lying in the neighbourhood of Trig Pole No. 2, about six miles from Christchurch, and that in order that an oval or horseshoe-shaped course of two miles round might be laid out, not less than 300 acres would be required.

"For these reasons, the meeting that would have celebrated the 1854 anniversary was held over until 6 and 7 March 1855, when the first meeting under the auspices of the Canterbury Jockey Club took place on the course arranged for in the neighbourhood of Trig Pole No. 2."

(Fine -- but where exactly was this Trig Pole No. 2? Anyone with a handy early map of 1850s Christchurch and environs, I'd love to hear from you.)

Back to Papers Past.

The Nelson Examiner of 28 March 1855 recorded that at the recent market day in Christchurch, "the polling for the country members, together with its being the day appointed for the payment of the stakes won at the races, brought a large number of persons together." A silver cup was imported from England by April 1857, and presented to a winner. But in 1864, despite hurdle races having been held at the Trig Pole No. 2 site since 1855, there seemed to be a bit of a search for a place to hold them.

"Steeplechase Meeting. —A numerously attended meeting took place at the Jockey Club Room, at Mr. Birdsey's British Hotel, on Saturday afternoon, for the purpose of settling the preliminaries of the race which is to take place on the 4th of August. Mr. Thomson occupied the chair. Mr. Lance reported that Mr. Quinn and himself had selected Mr. Wakefield's farm, near Riccarton, as the ground best suited for the steeplechase, and read a letter from the proprietor, who is now m Wellington, consenting to the race being run upon his land; he imposed the conditions that his grounds should be open to all foot passengers, but that the horses taking part m the race should not be followed by any one mounted. Mr. Lance said that on the 30th instant he would appoint a time when Mr. Quinn and himself would point out to the jockies about to ride the course, which would be flagged out on the morning of the race. A discussion of considerable length took place, as to whether winners of hack hurdle races should be admitted and it was eventually decided that the race should be a strictly "maiden" one, and that all winners except those of flat races should be excluded."

(Timaru Herald, 30 July 1864)

By 1866, things seemed to have settled down.

"The great race meeting, which has created so much excitement lately in this province, was inaugurated yesterday at the course on the Riccarton Road, in the presence of a large number of persons, who came together from all parts to witness it. The crowd was scarcely so large as it was last year."

(Evening Post, 19 January 1866)

According to Proud Silk, a stone grandstand had been added to the course in 1864.

Race courses in early New Zealand tended to move around before finally settling in one location (usually once clear title was assured). In Auckland, the first races were at Epsom on 5 January 1842, with day two of the races immediately following. By 1849, annual races were established, and the first racing club in the region formed (New Ulster Jockey Club). From 1842 to 1856, most of the races were held on Potter's Paddock, close to present-day Alexandra Park raceway. Annual races were held at Ellerslie from 1857, by then run by the Auckland Jockey Club. 1863-1864, Otahuhu was the location, then in 1865, a return to Ellerslie. The Auckland Turf Club held a meeting there in 1873, then the Auckland Jockey Club (now Auckland Racing Club) from 1874 to the present day. (Source: William Mackie, A Noble Breed, Auckland Racing Club 1874-1974)

Image above: Otago Witness, 15 March 1856, via Papers Past, National Library of NZ.

Cremorne Gardens

Jayne, in a comment to my earlier post on Michael Wood, which included reference to Auckland's Cremorne Gardens in Herne Bay, pointed out a post she had made previously on a Cremorne Gardens in Melbourne. Perth had one as well.

But the first appears to have been in London, Lord Cremorne's Gardens from 1845-1877. Like the Auckland gardens (which don't appear to have lasted all that long, ending around 1871), the English original is remembered by a street name. London's Cremorne gardens came off as second best to the more famous Vauxhall Gardens -- here, our Cremorne has faded into footnote before the much more well known Vauxhall of the North Shore, and Robert Graham's Ellerslie Gardens.

A map of Herne Bay's Cremorne Gardens can be found here.

As slick as the Orange

We've got the teacher to bash the pianna,
And Joe from the store on the drums.
We're as slick as the Orange in Auckland
For whooping things up and making them hum.

"Down the hall on a Saturday Night" (1958), by Peter Cape

These top two photos are from 2006, when I visited the Orange Coronation Hall in Newton Road, known by all in Auckland simply as the Orange Hall or "the Orange".

Edit: Take a look at the Orange in 2016 ...

I chose a pretty dismal wet and chilly Auckland winter's day last Wednesday to visit the area again. I noticed that the rather out-of-place verandah from 2006 had since been removed. The Orange was back to what it had once been.

The "Orange" in the name comes ultimately from William of Orange, King William III of England in the late 17th century who, as a Protestant king, did much to secure Protestant overlordship over Catholics in Ireland. His name graces or stains Irish history, depending on who you're talking to or to which group you belong. The Loyal Order of Orangemen revere him, and brought that reverence with them when they arrived in Auckland in 1840.

By 1867, they'd set up a Lodge here. The image at left is an Orange Order poster, from Wikipedia. By their 1912 Deed of Trust, the Auckland Lodge trustees listed among their duties “to promulgate the principles and further the practice of the Protestant Religion and to afford its members the means of Social intercourse, spiritual improvement and rational recreation.”(Constitution and Rules of the Auckland Orange Hall Society Incorporated, 27 July 1954, Companies Office records)

.

They met at the Protestant Hall in Karangahape Road, but sold that site to pay for the Newton Road building. The Orange Hall was designed in 1922 by Arthur Sinclair O'Connor, and built  in 1923 by Fletcher Construction.

A stone was placed in the foundations, honouring David Goldie (1842-1926).

1882-1923

THIS STONE IS PLACED

IN THIS BUILDING

IN HONOUR OF

DAVID GOLDIE ESQ

R. W. P. GRAND MASTER

LOYAL ORANGE INSTITUTION, NZ

FOR FAITHFUL SERVICES RENDERED TO

THE ORANGEMEN OF

THE CITY OF AUCKLAND

DURING MORE THAN 40 YEARS

AS CHAIRMAN AND TREASURER OF

THE ORANGE TRUSTEES

The Auckland Orange Hall Society was formed in 1954 by the Lodge, and remained as owners of the hall down to 2010. As the NZ Herald reported:

A colourful piece of Auckland's social history will soon be privately owned, as the heart of Auckland's early jazz and big-band scene is sold for the first time. The Orange Hall, or the "Orange", on Newton Rd, established itself as a popular dance hall before television and other forms of entertainment captured Aucklanders' attention ...

During World War II, the Orange opened its doors six nights a week to crowds who queued four-deep down its steps and along Newton Rd. It was one of the institutions that helped launch the careers of performers such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the late Sir Howard Morrison. The supper room below the dance hall area served sandwiches, cakes, tea and coffee for the crowds until the 1980s. No alcohol was allowed on the premises by the owners, the Auckland Orange Hall Society.

 NZ Herald 9 February 2010

Long-running tenants and users of the dance hall included Arthur Skelton and his Dance Band and the Beau Regarde Dance Club. Arthur Wheelhouse, Skelton’s partner, recalled in 1987 how dance halls, such as the Orange Ballroom, helped to start the careers of New Zealand musicians and entertainers, such as Mavis Rivers, Bill and Boyd, Howard Morrison and Kiri Te Kanawa. Tom Sharplin is said to have developed his rock and roll style at the Orange. Auckland musician Bill Sevesi, who played at the Orange Ballroom for 23 years, received the Pacific Islands Artist Award in 1997 for his contribution to the development of the Pacific Islands arts in New Zealand. Musician for more than 50 years, composer of nearly 200 songs with 20 LPs to his credit, Sevesi was the first to record the Yandall Sisters and Annie Crummer when she was still an unknown. He started playing at the Orange Ballroom in 1958, his band finally ceasing in 1981.

In 1990 the ballroom underwent a colour change to its interior, repainted a cream colour by the Performing Arts School. The trademark interior orange colour is said to have originated just after World War II.

The Christian City Church have now moved out and gone to Ellerslie, so I see by a notice tacked up by the entrance. Who now uses the old hall, with so many memories for Aucklanders still, I don't know. A private trust purchased it for $1.6 million.

The last waltz was played at The Orange in 1987. It was subsequently used by the Performing Arts School, which repainted the trademark orange interior cream and, more recently, by the City Christian Church. The building has been maintained in very good order, including the sprung dance floor, which was replaced in 1954. We'll be keeping a close eye on the future of the Orange.

NZ Herald 22 July 2010

The Great White Fleet, 1907-1909

An especial treasure I picked up through Trade Me recently is this: a 1908 postcard, printed by Clark & Matheson, engraved by C E Mackie, of the US Fleet entering Auckland Harbour, Sunday, August 9th, 1908. I’m not sure why, but the “Great White Fleet” (see also the Wikipedia page for a good map) as the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet were known during their 1908 tour of the Pacific has been a recurring fascination for me. Obtaining the near 104-year old souvenir was wonderful. Even better than I’d hoped: I got also the image of the little kiwi at the top of the border, one of the earliest impressions of the bird as our national symbol; and the flags tucked around the image. Better than just a photo of ships in the harbour.

The best text I’m come across so far on the fleet and its context in that Edwardian world of shifting diplomacy, sabre-rattling, and the premonitory twinges in world history which led down to the trenches of the First World War, is James R Reckner’s Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet (1988). I purchased my copy towards the end of last year, at the price of $52.00 from the souvenir shop at the Voyager Maritime Museum in downtown Auckland. With the thought soon after the deed was done with my Eftpos card that my dratted spontaneity in such things had finally gone, well, quite literally overboard. Such a price for a book with only around 220 pages – and softback at that! But, it is printed in the US, which makes a refreshing change in these days where publications, due to cost and economics, are increasingly produced by the roaring engines from Chinese and Taiwanese establishments. I do have a soft spot for American books. Also, and this is the main reason why I feel I have made a good investment – this book is wonderfully well-written. Clear, concise, and packed with well-researched information from files and the newspapers of the day, along with images from the time.

Yes, yes, I do still wish I’d spotted it in a second-hand bookstore from amongst my usual haunts and obtained it at a cheaper price. That’s my quarter-Scots blood from a grandfather coming out, not to mention the fiscal caution of my late mother. But … ah well. What’s done, is done.

The reasons why the fleet’s tour happened are linked to a changing focus for America in terms of possible defence needs, or at least as they were perceived at the time. Japan, having just won a war with the Russians, set up a presence on the Chinese mainland and arranged a diplomatic treaty with Britain, seemed to those on America who believed in the “yellow peril’ paranoia to be a new threat. In that light, the Great White Fleet was possibly sabre-rattling on a grand scale. But President Theodore Roosevelt also seemed keen to see just how well his coal-fuelled battle fleet could do if required to take action against some future foe. 

"Departure of the American Fleet for the Pacific: the principal vessels of the squadron, which left New York December 16, 1907," Auckland Weekly News 26 December 1907, ref. AWNS-19071226-11-4, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

The fleet left their base in December 1907, arousing suspicion from authorities in Argentina and Chile where stopovers were made (North American dominance over South America an issue which would linger through the entire 20th century), while the Peruvians greeted the fleet warmly. They reached Los Angeles by April 1908, and left San Francisco in July. Hawaii was reached later that month, and American Samoa by 1 August.

Ships of the American fleet (Great White Fleet) on Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, 1908 Reference Number: 1/1-006190-G Ships of the American fleet (Great White Fleet) on Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, in 1908, photographed by James Hutchings Kinnear, Alexander Turnbull Library

In Auckland, at 7.10 am on 9 August, around 100,000 people lined the shores of the Waitemata Harbour and Rangitoto Channel, according to Reckner – 10% of our national population then.

“They conducted an intricate S-patterned maneuver in the outer harbour of Rangitoto Channel and then, escorted by a flotilla of local craft dangerously overloaded with cheering passengers, rounded North Head and swept up the channel to anchor in modified line of squadrons in the Waitemata Harbour. A plan for the ships of each division to anchor simultaneously went well except when the Rhode Island found insufficient room in her assigned anchorage and nearly rammed the British flagship Powerful. After much backing and filling, the unfortunate ship was assigned an alternate anchorage and guided there by the harbour master.” (pp. 93-94)

Auckland Weekly News, 20 August 1908, ref. AWNS-19080820-12-1, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

Here, we had “American Fleet Week”, an almost unending round of receptions, banquets, floral arches, flag waving, including trips to Rotorua and a day at the Ellerslie races.

Visit of the American fleet, Queen St arch. C.B & Co Ltd. Real photograph by Ernest de Tourret, Whangarei, N.Z. [1908?] Reference Number: Eph-B-POSTCARD-Vol-3-034-1 Shows Queen Street, Auckland, with an archway constructed of towers, scaffolding, raupo and cabbage trees, with the word WELCOME on the arch. There is the New Zealand coat of arms and an American eagle decoration on each tower. Alexander Turnbull Library.

"Officers of the American Fleet who took part in the official landing, Monday, August 10, 1908," Auckland Weekly News, ref AWNS-19080820-10-3, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

A look at Papers Past will show that the entire country was fixated on what was to become “the” event of 1908 (so much so that, ahead of the scheduled completion time and official opening, politicians and their et ceteras steamed up from Wellington on their special Parliament Train, just to be on hand when the fleet arrived in Auckland).

Auckland Weekly News, 20 August 1908, AWNS-19080820-16-6, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Library

 Observer, 15 August 1908

The fleet eventually left at 8am, Saturday 15 August, and the grand tour of the Pacific, including Australia and Japan, concluded in February 1909.

Observer, 29 August 1908