Auckland City Archives have recently launched a searchable online version of the 1908 City of Auckland. History of the map's creation is included. Follow the link.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Catholic Church history in Avondale
In 2004, Jack Dragicevich (a very good friend of mine, and fellow member of the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society) put together an article for the Avondale Historical Journal called "To Serve Them All My Days", the story of the Avondale Catholic church. He has given me permission this morning to publish his article on Scribd (thanks, Jack.)
You'll find it here: To Serve Them All My Days.
You'll find it here: To Serve Them All My Days.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
A bush scene from somewhere, somewhen
My dear friend over at Mad Bush has seen this image before:
I've decided to give this one to Special Collections as well. It's in a bad way, quite faded. At least they'll be able to provide the right atmospheric storage conditions.
Some details from the photo follow:
Some details from the photo follow:
Miscellaneous photos
Last of the Armanasco collection.
This one is unknown location, as is the next.
Mission Bay.
This was was labelled "Kaitia". Could it be Kaitaia?
This one is unknown location, as is the next.
Mission Bay.
This was was labelled "Kaitia". Could it be Kaitaia?
Ngaruawahia
Images of Ngaruawahia, early 20th century, from a portion of a photo album once owned by the Armanasco family of Blockhouse Bay.
I've left the photos as-is in scanning. They aren't all inserted straight, as you can see, and were glued (!) onto the pages with fancy frames on other pages glued (!!) onto the photos. I know this is something some scrapbookers do these days, but hey ...
I was given just a few pages from the album which has been separated by the Blockhouse Bay Historical Society. They'd removed images relating to Blockhouse Bay. I wish the album had been left whole and as complete as possible, though, and lodged with Special Collections or the Auckland Museum. At the moment, I'm scanning each image in both .tif and .jpeg, and this week I'll drop what I do have of the album into Special Collections for safe keeping.
As I do the scanning, I'll post more of the images up on the blog.
I was given just a few pages from the album which has been separated by the Blockhouse Bay Historical Society. They'd removed images relating to Blockhouse Bay. I wish the album had been left whole and as complete as possible, though, and lodged with Special Collections or the Auckland Museum. At the moment, I'm scanning each image in both .tif and .jpeg, and this week I'll drop what I do have of the album into Special Collections for safe keeping.
As I do the scanning, I'll post more of the images up on the blog.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Avondale Sports Day, January 1887
Close to the Auckland Anniversary date, and on the day itself, Aucklanders in the 19th century not only got out onto the water in the Waitemata Harbour regattas, they also held sports days in various districts. Avondale was no exception, and their organised sports days stretch back to at least the early 1870s (the paddock belonging to George Thomas of the Star Mill used, between what is now Crayford and St Jude Streets in the heart of Avondale's shopping centre).
What is interesting about the following article is that the sports day was held on John Bollard's farm, part of which forms the Ash Street half of the Avondale Racecourse -- and they held horse races, although on a small scale, that day. As this was 1887, this event would have been one of the earliest, if not the earliest, known instances of horse racing on this particular part of Avondale, and predates, of course, the Jockey Club which formed in 1889-1890.
From the Auckland Evening Star, 29 January 1887:
What is interesting about the following article is that the sports day was held on John Bollard's farm, part of which forms the Ash Street half of the Avondale Racecourse -- and they held horse races, although on a small scale, that day. As this was 1887, this event would have been one of the earliest, if not the earliest, known instances of horse racing on this particular part of Avondale, and predates, of course, the Jockey Club which formed in 1889-1890.
From the Auckland Evening Star, 29 January 1887:
"AVONDALE SPORTS
The local sports for the districts of Avondale, Mount Albert, and Henderson were held to-day in Mr. Bollard's paddock at Avondale, when there was a good attendance. The events, which were of the most interesting character, were under the control of the following gentlemen: Judges, Messrs J. Kelly and J. Bollard; Starters, Messrs. J. Archibald and G. Thomas; Clerk of the Course, Mr. J. Potter; Clerk of the Scale, Mr. H. Peck. Mr. A Beetham, the energetic Secretary, was also present, and it is owing to that gentleman's exertions that the sports were so successful.
Foot Race (100 yds) -- Wood (scratch, 1; Ramsbottom, 2; Potter, 3.
200 Yards (under 14) -- Only two entered. E. Wood won the prize of 15s.
Extra Race (boys under 14) -- Six started. P. Burke, 1st, 5s; J. Burns, 2nd, 2s 6d.
Horse Races
Hurdle Race -- Handicap Hurdles of £5. Six horses started. Mr. J. Gordon's No Name, 1; Mr. J. Stewart's Lady Alice. 2. Won hands down.
Pony Race, 1 mile. -- First prize, £2. Height, 14h, 2in. Ten entries -- Mr. Hazard's Kitty, 1; Mr. Stewart's Little Minnie, 2."
Friday, November 7, 2008
Old photos (Part 3)
On the back: "Joyce and Ernie, November 1942."
On the back: "To Mrs and Mr King from Rachel". Saxony Studios isn't included on the ACL database.
This is from an old postcard -- unfortunately, it was apparently never used, as nothing is written on the back to tell us what this gathering was all about.
This photo is another I find intriguing. The photographer was NZ Photo Co. of Wellington (no info on ACL database). So ... what was this chap doing? Where was he? What's he looking at?
Just a glimpse of the lady in the greenhouse. No information on the back, unfortunately -- but whoever she was, she had a green thumb.
Old photos (Part 2)
The photographer is Frank R. Huff, advertising on the back of this card "Artistes in Miniature" and "This Photograph can be enlarged and finished in Oil or Water colors to any size required." According to the ACL database, there was a Frank R. Huff in business in Wanganui in his "American Photographic Rooms" (note the spelling of "color") from c.1880 until he and his family left for London in 1886.
On the back is written, simply, "Father."
This is Alice Tapp, according to a note on the back. George Gregory was a photographer from c. 1886-1911, but the Excelsior Studios where this photo was taken dated only from 1905. He died in 1913.
This is a photo of Mary Dunn. Another George Gregory photo, but from his first studio in Ponsonby, so this dates from c.1886-1892.
I find this photo intriguing. A dapper gent, standing to pose with a cane and top hat, in what looks like a field or paddock. The photographer's shadow can be seen in the lower left corner.
Old photos (Part 1)
The photos in this and the next couple of posts were found in a basket of photos being sold for fundraising by the Blockhouse Bay Historical Society a couple of years ago or so. The origin is unknown.
This one could be English, but it reminds me in a way of mid-19th century American portraits as well. There's some old newspaper stuck to the back, covering the photographer's stamp, so I can't give you more information than that.
Another one that could be English. The background reminds me of the brick tenement housing in London and the northern counties.
The photographer was part of Falk Royal Studios, Symonds Street "right opposite Khyber Pass". No sign of this one at the moment on the Auckland City Libraries' photographer's online database.
Written in very small white letters on the folding card where this photo is mounted is "Ivy Studios". No info on this one.
Nothing on this photo at all, front or back. The card it's on, though, resembles those used as promotional ad cards by photographers.
... and then came the bridge.
Another Auckland local history book, and one I've been looking forward to reading, will be launched tomorrow -- ... and then came the bridge, a history of the Torbay area from earliest times, down to 1959 when the Auckland Harbour Bridge was completed and everything changed.
I'm making the bus journey starting around 7 am (two buses) from Avondale to Long Bay, then a hike up to Vaughan Homestead by 10 am tomorrow to attend the launch. The things I do for the sake of my passion/obsession! Should be a nice day weather-wise, though.
A free plug for my friends at the Torbay Historical Society -- the book is $35 plus $5 p&p for one copy, available from the Society.
I'm making the bus journey starting around 7 am (two buses) from Avondale to Long Bay, then a hike up to Vaughan Homestead by 10 am tomorrow to attend the launch. The things I do for the sake of my passion/obsession! Should be a nice day weather-wise, though.
A free plug for my friends at the Torbay Historical Society -- the book is $35 plus $5 p&p for one copy, available from the Society.
Traherne – Avondale’s second island
Head out along the North-Western motorway from Waterview, westward towards Rosebank Road, Te Atatu and beyond. Just before you reach the Patiki interchange you might see a blur of wetlands, mangroves and perhaps birdlife beneath State Highway 16’s causeway there. You will have passed over one of Avondale’s two main off-shore islands (the other is the larger Pollen Island): Traherne, around 18-20 acres of mud, shell, scrub and precious animal species.
Both Pollen and Trahern Islands are basically low-lying banks of mud and shell. Half of Traherne is underwater at high tide, and wasn’t even surveyed until 1889, more than 40 years after the more famous Pollen Island. But when Henry Douglas Morpeth Haszard surveyed the island, noting that it was covered in wiki and manuka, with mudflats all around and between it and the mainland, he must have felt that it was worth something. In 1894, he and his brother, fellow surveyor Norman Haszard, purchased title to the island, and were to remain owners until 1906.
H.D.M. Haszard was noted in his field. He surveyed the Kermadec Islands in 1887, was responsible for the survey of the Waihi and Waitekauri mining townships, and carried out a survey of Niue, while he was in the Pacific recuperating from blood poisoning, in 1903. Haszard was a founding member of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors. He retired in 1921, living out the rest of his days in Waihi.
In late 1927, Ernest Tasker bought the island. He already owned a section towards the end of Rosebank Road, and in 1928 tried selling both his land on Rosebank and the island to a firm called the Dale Shell Lime and Sand Company Ltd. However, things didn’t work out, the company vanished, and Tasker was to remain as Traherne’s owner until 1947. Some of Avondale’s residents from that time recall him burning heaps of shell until all that was left was the powder – lime, valuable both when used in building mortar and upon the fields of crops. It was lime from Pollen Island, and perhaps also from Traherne, that Avondale Road Board shipped to their neighbours in Mt Albert during the 1922 typhoid outbreak, to decontaminate the affected springs behind the Asylum grounds.
In 1954, the last private owner of Traherne Island, Charles Whitfield Ralfe, had the island taken from him by the Ministry of Works for the planned motorway. Since the 1960s, all that can be seen of Avondale’s second island by most of us is a brief glimpse, but usually hardly more than a blur, while on the way to somewhere else at speed.
Both Pollen and Trahern Islands are basically low-lying banks of mud and shell. Half of Traherne is underwater at high tide, and wasn’t even surveyed until 1889, more than 40 years after the more famous Pollen Island. But when Henry Douglas Morpeth Haszard surveyed the island, noting that it was covered in wiki and manuka, with mudflats all around and between it and the mainland, he must have felt that it was worth something. In 1894, he and his brother, fellow surveyor Norman Haszard, purchased title to the island, and were to remain owners until 1906.
H.D.M. Haszard was noted in his field. He surveyed the Kermadec Islands in 1887, was responsible for the survey of the Waihi and Waitekauri mining townships, and carried out a survey of Niue, while he was in the Pacific recuperating from blood poisoning, in 1903. Haszard was a founding member of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors. He retired in 1921, living out the rest of his days in Waihi.
In late 1927, Ernest Tasker bought the island. He already owned a section towards the end of Rosebank Road, and in 1928 tried selling both his land on Rosebank and the island to a firm called the Dale Shell Lime and Sand Company Ltd. However, things didn’t work out, the company vanished, and Tasker was to remain as Traherne’s owner until 1947. Some of Avondale’s residents from that time recall him burning heaps of shell until all that was left was the powder – lime, valuable both when used in building mortar and upon the fields of crops. It was lime from Pollen Island, and perhaps also from Traherne, that Avondale Road Board shipped to their neighbours in Mt Albert during the 1922 typhoid outbreak, to decontaminate the affected springs behind the Asylum grounds.
In 1954, the last private owner of Traherne Island, Charles Whitfield Ralfe, had the island taken from him by the Ministry of Works for the planned motorway. Since the 1960s, all that can be seen of Avondale’s second island by most of us is a brief glimpse, but usually hardly more than a blur, while on the way to somewhere else at speed.
British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines
Another from my collection of anonymous photos. The period is just about the only thing I can pin down -- late 1940s-early 1950s. This is because of the plane, part of the fleet of British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, based in Sydney but operating throughout the Pacific region. They started in 1946, and ran into financial difficulties after a plane crash (cause: pilot error) on approach to San Francisco Airport in 1953. QANTAS took over the airline's Pacific route, and TEAL (forerunner to Air New Zealand) took over the planes.
Somed of BCPA's promotional posters are online.
Somed of BCPA's promotional posters are online.
J & A Wiseman, saddler and harness maker
I took this shot (sorry for the odd angle and the flash, folks) in Centennial Street at the Auckland War Memorial Museum last Easter Sunday. I'm thoroughly glad the museum is open on Easter Sunday, by the way -- a welcome diversion from the weekend.
Anyway ...
The following comes from the museum's 1966 guide to Centennial Street (the street display itself originally donated by Milne & Choyce to mark their own centenary):
Anyway ...
The following comes from the museum's 1966 guide to Centennial Street (the street display itself originally donated by Milne & Choyce to mark their own centenary):
"The firm of Wisemans was founded in 1861 by two brothers, James and Alexander Wiseman, who came to New Zealand from Tasmania, where they had been in the saddlery business with their father.Alexander, the son of James Wiseman, became an architect and designed one of Auckland's enduring landmarks: the Ferry Building (1912).
"They started a wholesale saddlery business in Dunedin, but soon moved to Auckland where, under the name of J & A Wiseman, they opened their first shop next to the site later occupied by His Majesty's Arcade. At that time, a creek flowed down Queen Street, and entrance to the shop was by footbridge.
"By the end of the century, the premises consisted of a large three-storied building, mainly occupied with the wholesale trade. In 1921, the premises were moved across the road next to the site which they now occupy.
"On the death of Mr James Wiseman in 1898, the business was taken over by Mr John Wiseman. In 1924, Mr Frank Wiseman formed the company of Frank Wiseman Ltd to operate the retail side as a completely separate business.
"Shortly after the business opened in Auckland in 1861, Mr. James Wiseman cast a white horse in plaster and mounted it over the shop front, where it remained for nearly 50 years. It is claimed that the last hitching post in Auckland was outside the shop."
Devonport's "Bear Gardens"
(Plaque on part of the "Bear Garden" wall -- sadly, what is known doesn't agree with the plaque.)
As I was writing The Zoo War this year, a couple of people I know mentioned Devonport's Bear Gardens in relation to early menageries in New Zealand. I had never heard of these before (but then again, I'm finding out stuff that's new to me almost every day, which is one of the reason why I love local history), so decided to do some digging. I was disappointed somewhat that the Devonport Museum was closed at the time, so I was unable to access any of their collections -- but what I found out via other sources led me to believe that the reason why I hadn't heard of this before was because it never truly existed as either a pleasure garden of the late-Victorian style, nor was it a menagerie of any size. Certainly, I found no documentation as to the bears. You'll find the info on the "Bear Gardens" here, from page 8.
(Another part of the original concrete and scoria wall -- rapidly built, and now only partially standing. Bits of green bottle glass jut from the very top, a possible 20th century addition)
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