Graphic description of cow vs. train

I love Victorian-era newspapers. They can be descriptive wonders of the art of text. I suppose, seeing as this report came from the Waikato Times, a mainly rural paper in the early 1880s (28 March 1882, to be precise), it isn't surprising to see the abattoir-like description of the victim's remains. It wouldn't have turned a hair on the readers' heads.

"On Saturday the goods train, which leaves Auckland at 6.30 for Hamilton, consisting of three waggons and guard's van, met with what might have been under other circumstances a very serious accident, when about half a mile on the south side of the Papakura station. On this side of the station there is rather a steep decline, and near the bottom of it is a swamp ; about half a mile down the decline there were three head of cattle on the line, one of which instead of running off the line undertook to race the train, and before anything could be done to stop, the beast was knocked down, and the train passed right over it, cutting the beast to pieces.

"For a distance of about 30 yards it was distributed in fragments, on and alongside the line, pieces of bone, windpipe, skin, &c, being strewn about promiscuously. The three trucks and guard's van were thrown off the rails, and for a distance of 150 yards were dragged along, the wheels on one side bumping along on the sleepers, cutting into them about an inch, and the other wheels tearing up the ballast between the rails. Fortunately the line at this particular part is almost perfectly straight, for had it been at one of the curves, with which the line abounds, it must have been a more serious mishap, and might very probably have resulted in a fatal manner to those in charge.

"The passenger train arrived at Papakura and learning that a mishap had occurred, the engine at once proceeded to the scene of the accident to render assistance, and after about three-quarters of an hour's delay, the trucks and van were replaced on the line, and the goods train shunted into the Papakura siding, thus allowing the passenger train to proceed. The passenger train was then delayed an hour and 20 minutes at Mercer, as the authorities did not expect the line would be cleared so soon, and arranged that the up and down trains should pass at Mercer instead of Rangiriri."

Street Stories 9: The Governor's Private Secretary

Image from Wikipedia.

Back to Layard Street. As I mentioned in a previous Street Stories post, one suspect for the position of namesake to the street was archaelogist Henry Layard, short of finding anyone else to fit the general Land Wars pattern of the other names in Thomas Russell's Greytown subdivision.

Well, I found another: Edgar Leopold Layard, born 1824 in Florence Italy, and he died at Budleigh, Silverton in England in March 1900. He served as private secretary to Sir George Grey from 1854, when Grey served in the Cape Colony, and accompanied Grey to New Zealand. His main claim to fame was as an ornithologist.

Still a bit dodgy, but at least E. L. Layard had an NZ connection.

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.

An Austrian flag incident, Ruakaka, March 1900

Image from Wikipedia.

Apologies to my Northland historian colleague (hi, Liz) for straying into her turf, but -- on finding this article in the Weekly News of 11 May 1900, I was intrigued.

"Waipu, Monday.
An inquiry instituted by the Government, at the instigation of the Austrian Consul in Auckland, was held here to-day, in connection with the incident of hauling down the Austrian flag at Ruakaka, where it had been hoisted by some Austrian gumdiggers. Mr. Hutchinson, S.M., who is holding the inquiry will take further evidence at Whangarei before reporting to the Government.

"Our Waipu correspondent writes: -- The pulling down of the Austrian Crown flag at Ruakaka on March 19 last, by Mr. N. J. Campbell, has been taken up as a serious offence by the entire Austrian community throughout Auckland, as one of the witnesses at the inquiry stated that he made the complaint to the Austrian Consul in the name of over two thousand Austrians. The principal witness, named George Vlich, seemed to be impressed with the idea that the flag was ordered down by public authority, and in his statement to the Consul averred that the flag was pulled down by Constable Abrams, and trampled on. This statement was made on oath, I am informed, before the Consul, but at the inquiry here, before Mr. Hutchinson, S.M., he admitted that he knew there were only three men left in the camp at the time of the incident, and these three men all stated that it was Mr. Campbell who took the flag down. The investigation, so far as it proceeded here, entirely exculpated Constable Abrams from any indiscretion in connection with the flag.

"The simple facts are as follows: --

"Mr. N. J. Campbell, a storekeeper here, is lessee of a block of flat gum land, on which diggers go every summer to search for gum in dry weather, and Mr. Campbell has a small store on the ground to receive gum and supply necessaries to the diggers. The majority of men digging there every summer have been Austrians, and some years ago a party of Austrians erected a flagpole, on which it was customary for them to hoist a variety of different flags. And many different parties of Austrians have been coming and going to the field, forming camp there, and the flagpole, which is standing in close contiguity to Mr. Campbell's store, and which is undoubtedly Mr. Campbell's property, was used by the different parties to display their emblems on without objection till this particular occasion.

"The Austrians were celebrating the anniversary of the Emperor Francis Joseph, of Austria, the Rev. Father Smeers holding Mass in Mr. Campbell's store, and a long line of bunting was hoisted on Mr. Campbell's flagpole, the Crown flag of Austria waving proudly at the top. Mr. Campbell was on his way from Waipu when he met a man on the road, who advised him not to let the Austrians fly such a flag as that at his place, as it was a fighting flag, and was put up as a defiance. When Mr. Campbell reached his store, the Mass was over, and he asked the Austrians who put up the Crown flag, but he got no reply, so he told them it would have to be taken down.

"George Vlich, the principal complainer to the Consul, rushed forward, and violently declared that he would kill any man who dared to pull the flag down, and also declared that Austria would yet rule this country, and he would see the b------ British flag trampled in the dust. Mr. Campbell thereupon sent for Constable Abrams, and in the meantime the whole of the Austrians, excepting three who were left in camp, proceeded to the races, which were being held on the Belleveau Road.

"When Constable Abrams arrived, he went to the three men left in the camp, and at Mr. Campbell's request asked them to pull down the Crown flag, but they declined, saying they did not want to get into trouble with their mates. Mr. Campbell then lowered the flag himself, taking off the one he considered objectionable, and hoisting up the rest of them again. These are the simple facts, which the aggrieved parties admit to be true, and over which it is hoped a risk of international complications may be averted."

Lost child in a Coromandel winter, 1900

From the Weekly News, 8 June 1900.

"Last evening word was received in Coromandel that the little son of Mr. V. Y. Gatland, of Tiki, had strayed away and was lost. The child was 20 months old, and when missed had neither boots nor hat. It transpires that Mr. Gatland was in his brother's yard, about seven or eight chains from his own home, the little chap being with him. Whilst the father's attention was otherwise engaged the lad suddenly disappeared. This was about four o'clock.

"Tea-tree was growing plentifully around the house, and it was particularly dense on one side. Between the two homes lies a swamp, which is spanned by a single plank bridge, with a rail on one side only. Mr. Gatland, on finding that the child had not gone into his brother's house, became anxious, and at once made for the swamp bridge in case he should have fallen into the water. He found no trace of him, neither had he reached his own home.

"The family were now alarmed and the assistance of neighbours was invoked, and active search made. Dense tea-tree rendered a search in the dark most difficult. An adjacent creek was searched and the deep holes dragged. Darkness set, and a cold, wet and stormy night was threatening, but still no signs of the wanderer.

"In the meantime word had been sent to the various churches, and the announcement to the congregations that a little child had been lost stirred up practical sympathy. The male portion of the congregations, almost to a man, turned out with lanterns and overcoats to aid in the search. There were now about 200 searchers, including the various ministers of religion and many ladies, each armed with a lantern. The sight of these lights darting in and out of the bushes, like so many will-o'-the-wisps afforded a most unique spectacle.

"Teddy Collins, the Australian tracker, joined in the search, but he was led on a false scent down the creek. The search for the child was maintained throughout the night, and renewed with increased vigor at daylight this morning.

"At about nine o'clock the searchers' efforts were rewarded by finding the child. He was about a quarter of a mile from home in the dense tea-tree. When found he was in a clump of soft mossy ferns, near the edge of a swamp. His cry was heard by one of the searchers, Mr. J. Carina. When found his clothes were dry and his body fairly warm, but his feet and hands were chilled, and show marks of severe suffering through his 20 hours' exposure.

"In his arms was his pet, the family cat."

Cheaper going further on early suburban rail

The Western or Kaipara line was completed by the mid 1880s, when passengers were able to journey between Mt Eden and Newmarket without having to hop off and take the horsebus or go by foot. It seems that from that point on, things became quirky as far as fares went.

In 1885, the NZ Herald remarked that, while a passenger could journey from Mt Albert to Auckland for a shilling, first class -- if said passenger tried boarding at Newmarket to return to Mt Albert, a shorter distance, he stood to pay more: 1 shilling tuppence. The less you travelled, it seemed, the more you paid.

Somewhere I have an article (I can't find it at the moment) where a train user at the turn of the century, buying a ticket to Kingsland from the city, decided to get off at Mt Eden instead, and was promptly fined for using the cheaper Kingsland ticket to just go to Mt Eden (the stop before Kingsland).

Yesterday, I found the following letter published in the Weekly News, 14 April 1900, written by a noted West Auckland settler, John Gardiner:

"Sir, --

It is tacitly understood by the travelling public that the farther you go the less, in a given proportion, you pay per mile. However, the Kaipara railway fares are an exception to this law -- or, rather, they are in the inverse ratio, because the further one travels the more one pays in proportion per mile.

The case in question is this: For a ticket between Kaukapakapa and Mount Eden you pay 7s 5d, and from Kaukapakapa to Auckland 8s 3d, making a difference of 10d, whereas the ordinary charge from Mount Eden to Auckland is 3d. This is preference with a vengeance! This is how they swell the railway returns at the expense of that easily plucked goose, the country settler. Sir Robert Peel said the science of political economy lay in plucking the goose without causing it to squeal.

"When I remarked to the stationmaster that my remedy would be to take a ticket to Mount Eden station and there purchase one to Auckland, he said the Mount Eden master would close the window and not allow such purchases till the train had gone. Would you kindly let the public know in a foot-note if he can lawfully do this? I am, etc., John Gardiner, Glorit, April 14, 1900."

The might-have-been cemetery at Waterview

For a brief time in 1862, those in charge of Auckland Province’s affairs were seriously considering sites for a new cemetery to replace the one then at Symonds Street. This was because of real concerns had by many as to the risk of contamination of ground water, then an important commodity for the survival of the young town of Auckland. So -- options for other sites were suggested. One Tree Hill, Robert Graham’s estate at Ellerslie, Remuera … and Waterview.

Yes indeed, our Waterview. Michael Wood’s 1860 sale had gone very slowly and not all that successfully. There was a tract of his land of around 26 acres still unsold by February 1862, and Auckland Provincial Council member Daniel Pollen checked it out for the Council. Pollen, in reporting back to his fellow Council members, felt that the Waterview site (known as Oakley’s Creek then) could be suitable, “but I consider the price would prevent its being purchased.”

The Council’s Burial Grounds Committee recommended in March 1862 that in replacing Symonds Street, three cemeteries be created -- Oakley’s Creek in the west, another at Orakei Point, and one at the cemetery reserve, Three Kings. It all looked set to happen, but for one thing: it appears the Superintendent did not approve. Back then, the Superintendent was the Provincial Council’s CEO. While he was supposed to be the one to carry out the councillors’ orders, in reality if he didn’t agree with a project, it was quietly shelved. This happened with Auckland’s triple cemetery project -- it was quietly forgotten in the rush of new business. It wasn’t until the 1880s (and the Auckland City Council period) that Symonds Street cemetery would be replaced by a new site to the west -- Waikumete.

Had the Waterview cemetery gone ahead in the 1860s, by the time rail transport corridors were being surveyed in the 1870s there might have been a route along Great North Road via Newton Gully (which was a route supported by John Buchanan at the time) rather than via Mt Albert, to convey the coffins and the mourners. The railway station for Avondale might then have been closer to the mainstreet area and part of it, and the current problem with the St Judes Street crossing wouldn’t exist. However, the rail most likely would have created chaos at the five roads intersection (Avondale Roundabout), just as it does at New Lynn today.

Had that idea for a Waterview cemetery gone ahead, there may well have been no such suburb known as Waterview, a different railway line to the west, and the development of both Avondale and Pt Chevalier may well have accelerated much earlier than it did in reality. In this case, a “too hard basket” kept the history on track.

Michael Wood: the man who named Waterview

Back in 2004, a family historian named Vivienne contacted me and shared information she had at that time on Michael Wood: merchant, bookseller, land agent, speculator, and publican/hotel keeper. I found her email recently, did some further digging (thanks in large part to the innovation of a searchable Papers Past) and put the following together from Vivienne’s information and my own research.

Wood is of interest to me, as it was he who named Waterview (a pretty, descriptive land agent’s term for sites he was attempting to sell in 1861), and was associated with the second (1864) Greytown sale of the central business district of Avondale (the first Greytown sale, of the same area, was that by Thomas Russell in 1863; Wood was foolish to purchase most of Russell’s land, and was then left holding baby, as it were.)

Michael Wood (1827-1869) was born in Horncastle, Lincoln, in England. He married Hannah Jones in 1853, recorded as a draper at the time. However, Vivienne thought he may have worked as an auctioneer in Spalding. Soon after he got here in 1855, he is listed as a Queen Street storekeeper.

He is recorded as giving £5 5/- to the Patriotic Fund in July 1855. (Southern Cross, 6 July, p. 4) He was a bookseller by later that year

“1500 volumes by the most popular writers of the day, also a few copies of “Household Words,” “Punch”, “Illustrated London News”, “Family Herald” etc.

(SC, 25 December 1855, p.2)

By April 1856, however, he authorised auctioneers Connell & Ridings to sell all the stock from his Queen Street shop: “About 500 volumes of new works by Bulwer, D’Israeli, Cooper etc., Stationery & Fancy Goods.” (SC, 29 April 1856, p. 2) On 10 July, he advertised that he was going out of business.

It seems that Wood, then only 30 years old, had irrepressible energy when it came to business. He apparently dusted himself off and set forth onto a new endeavour promptly, this time as a publican. The British Hotel’s license was his from April 1857 – but by April 1858, this pub was run by William Kennedy instead. Later that year, Wood was chasing another business dream. “M. Wood, House, Estate & Commission Agent, Next door to Mr. Mark Somerville” (the City Mart). (SC, 29 October 1858, p.1) According to Vivienne, he purchased land in 1859, possibly on the Kaipara river.

His brother Edward Wood (2 years older) also came to New Zealand, and married on 10th April 1860. At that time, Edward was a merchant, while Michael was a land agent, with offices in the Orpheus Hotel, in lower Queen Street.

In May 1861, Michael Wood held the first of his Waterview sales: 72 acres, 210 allotments, complete with special omnibuses from Shortland Street put on for the buyers. Along with other speculators at the time, he gambled on people wanting to buy up land as close as possible to the proposed line of the Whau Canal (which was, of course, never built).

OMNIBUS FOR WATERVIEW,
From James's, Shortland St., AT TEN O'CLOCK A.M.
Intending buyers are requested to visit the property as the whole will be sold unreservedly. TO-MORROW, at 12 o'clock.

Suburban Homes and Villa Sites.
WAT E R V I E W.
SAMUEL COCHRANE, BROTHER, & CO.
Have been instructed to sell by public auction, without reserve, TO-MORROW, the 1st day of May next, at twelve o'clock, THE WHOLE OF THE VILLAGE OF WATERVIEW, containing 207 spacious Building Sites, unsurpassed in the neighbourhood for salubrity and beauty of position. The distance from town is less than 3½ miles, and as the omnibus passes the property daily (leaving Auckland at 9 a.m., and Henderson’s Mill at 3 p.m.) purchasers will have an opportunity of forming their own opinion of the desirability of selecting an allotment in one of the healthiest neighbourhoods of Auckland. The Great North Road and all the streets are a chain in width, and none of the allotments have less than a chain frontage by an average depth of 190 feet. The land has a warm northerly aspect, and is situated about half way between the City and the Line of Junction Canal, which must, ere long, connect the waters of the Waitemata with the Manukau. The immediate neighbourhood of Oakley's Creek, with its pretty rivulet, and the never failing springs that supply the Mills of Messrs. Low & Motion, add much to the desirability of the situation. Point Chevalier selected as the future site for our Garrison Buildings, &c. closely adjoins, and in a few years must much enhance the Commercial value of the property. Situated on the main road to the Northern districts of the Province, and having in addition an extensive water frontage, there is no doubt of Waterview speedily becoming of equal importance with the villages of Newmarket, Mount St. John, and Epsom. N.B.—The Sale will be total and UNRESERVED.
Terms : — One third Cash. The balance may remain 3 years at 10 per cent., or 5 per cent, allowed for immediate payment.
Lithographed Plans may be obtained, at Mr. Brophy's, Newton Store; Mr. Edgecombe's Northern Hotel; Mr. Michael Wood's office, Queen-street, and the Auctioneers.

(SC, 30 April 1861)

As will be seen later, not all the sites were, in fact, sold. Wood’s assets did not readily turn either into cash or a profit.

From Vivienne’s email:

1861 June 11th. Michael wrote to His Honor, The Superintendent, Auckland from his office in Queen St, offering land in Freemans Bay (No1, Section 8, suburb of Auckland) as a suitable site for a new cemetery. “Believing that there is a general wish on the part of the inhabitants residing in the vicinity of the existing cemetery for its removal, and understanding that the Government contemplate taking action in the matter, I have the honor to make an offer of a piece of land in a position most suitable for a place of interment. Its advantages are being approachable by a good and level roads; and though so short a distance from town so situated as not in the least likely to affect the sanitary condition of the neighbourhood and the ground inclining towards the Waitemata (to which it has a large frontage) and away from the town. In addition to easy accessibility by land its approach by water is so favourable that a boat can be brought close to the place at any time of tide…..”. His offer was not accepted. (Copy of letter).

Later, part of his Waterview land would also considered by the Provincial Council as a possible site for a cemetery.

In 1862 Michael Wood bought land at Coromandel and laid out the town of Kapanga. This deal apparently went quite well. He followed it up with the Lake Property deal on the North Shore by December that year (SC, 30 December 1862). In January 1863, an entertainment fete was organised at Takapuna. “Enquiries to be made at “Boulters, Queen Street” (SC 22 January 1863) Joseph Boulter of the British Hotel was sole supplier of refreshments to Wood’s Takapuna shindig and will reappear later in Wood’s story.

By 1863, Michael Wood lived at Brookville, in Freeman’s Bay, according Vivienne’s research into electoral rolls. His eldest daughter Bessie, sadly, died of dysentry aged 7 years and 9 months in December. Another daughter, Nellie, died the following February, aged only 15 months. But, in September, his son James Michael Wood was born.

In late 1864 Wood may have tried to diversify, being the possible purchaser of an office in Durham St. There, a newspaper was started called the Evening Post with printer/publisher Isaac Donchaise. According to Vivienne, “George Main, a former compositor mentioned this in a pamphlet written approximately 1890s.” The enterprise was rather short-lived. The paper was defunct by April 1865, with Waymouth & Gilmer, accountants, were liquidators. (Public notice, SC 7 April 1865) This debacle cannot have helped Wood’s fortunes.

“Messrs. Jones and Co. will hold an important sale of city property to-day. It comprises a six-roomed verandah cottage and allotment in Barrack-street ; twenty valuable building sites in Lower Hobson street, adjoining St. Patrick's School, and having frontages to Hobson-street and the harbour; and a valuable leasehold property in Hobson-street, with six buildings on it, let at £2 12s. per week. We need hardly say that all of the sites named are rapidly improving ones, and that they therefore offer particular inducements to small capitalists to invest. Mr. Samuel Cochrane will hold a large land sale to-day of city and suburban property, viz., two cottages in Chapel-street ; the lease of office in Hardington's yard, now in the occupation of Mr. Michael Wood ; ten very valuable allotments in the very pretty suburb of Glenburn ; a large number of lots in Waterview and East Whau; several farms of from five to twenty acres at the Whau bridge; and thirty-six acres at Takapuna, late the property of Mr. Hawkins. Much of this property is of so valuable a description that we cannot doubt but that there will be a brisk competition for it.”

(24 January 1865, SC)

In 19 April 1865 – the license for the British Hotel passed from Joseph Boulter to John Skeats. (SC) Meanwhile, the partnership between Edward and Michael Wood dissolved.

SALE OF MESSRS. WOOD'S ESTATE.
Mr. David Nathan is to sell to-day, commencing at 11 o'clock, the valuable city, suburban, and country freehold estate, city leaseholds, gold-mining and other shares, the property of Edward and Michael Wood, who are dissolving partnership.

(20 April 1865, SC)

But, “never say die” appears to have been the theme to Michael Wood’s business tenacity. At the termination of Lake Road on the North Shore, by the beach, on the site of Mr. Beddoes’ house (who had sold much of the land around Cheltenham Beach), it was advertised in June 1865 that Michael Wood planned to build “a large marine hotel”. (SC 6 June 1865) By June 1865, Wood was also a shareholder of the Waitemata Steam Ferry Company (SC 16 June 1865) and 1866 he owned land and a house on Victoria Road, Flagstaff (Devonport).

All this really didn’t change his true situation all that much. The bubble had burst, the land wars were winding down, and Wood found himself in trouble (in Police Court) in January 1866 for non payment of rates to the City board for wood buildings and allotment in Howe Street, wood building in K Road, brick office in Queen Street, wood buildings in Chapel Street, allotments in Franklin and Ponsonby Roads. Ordered to pay £15 8d. (SC, 17 Jan 1866)

Next came another fire-sale of his assets.

EXTENSIVE LAND SALE.
We have been requested to direct the attention of our readers to the peremptory sale of city and suburban properties which will be held to-day by Mr. David Nathan, for the benefit of the creditors of Mr. Michael Wood. The sale will comprise houses and cottages in Karangahape Road, Howe-street; Day-street, Freemans Bay, Home Bay, Marston's estate, Bayfield, Richmond, Oakley's Creek, Greytown, Mahurangi, Kaipara, Takapuna, Kapanga, Devonport, North Shore, Waterview, and 180 shares in the Waihau Gold Mining Company. The terms will be found to be most liberal -- seven years' credit for the whole amount of purchase money, bearing interest at the rate of 10 per cent., payable annually in advance; the purchaser having the option of paying off at any time during the seven years. Cash purchasers will be allowed a discount of 5 per cent. A great number of these properties are desirable investments.

A substantially-built and well-arranged Family Residence, containing eight rooms, kitchen, pantry, etc etc, at present in the occupation of Mr. Michael Wood. It is situated on a valuable and large plot of ground, having a carriage entrance from the Karangahape Road, and a frontage to Day-street, commanding a splendid view of the harbour, &c. The grounds are beautifully arranged and planted with choice trees, shrubs, &c; with the usual out-buildings are a good poultry house and enclosed yard.

OAKLEY'S CREEK. Lot 18, parish of Titirangi 31 acres 1 rood bounded by the Waitemata, Oakley's Creek, and the Great North Road. For a Slaughter House a position not to be equalled in the vicinity of Auckland.

GREYTOWN. Lots 19 to 22, 27 to 30, in all, 8 acres; surrounded by 66-feet streets. Lots 33, 34, 39 to 42, 47, 48,in all 8 acres 1 rood 17 perches ; streets on three sides. Lots 35 to 38, 43 to 46; in all, 8 acres 2 roods perches; streets on three sides.

WATERVIEW: A few water frontages.

(SC, 10 April 1866)

While his assets appeared to be dwindling, Michael Wood made one last business decision, it seemed – he took up partnership with Joseph Boulter, in October 1866 – advertisements for the Orpheus Hotel, lower Queen Street, listing Joseph Boulter and Wood as partners.

Then, in December 1866 – came the Cremorne Gardens in Herne Bay. Originally known as Kemp's Gardens, these were a popular pleasure resort for Auckland's people during the 1860s. The gardens were "complete with pavilion, gardens and illuminations": “A free hand was given, drinks were sold, music was provided and the least said the better”. Later renamed “Cremorne Gardens” after the fashionable pleasure gardens in London, Kemp’s gardens boasted a “Dancing Pavilion, ten acres of walks and sports grounds” It is remembered in the name “Cremorne Street”, and the gardens were operated by Joseph Boulter down to 1871. There is a possibility that Boulter may have been set up by his partner Wood. Of the two, Boulter’s success lasted slightly longer.

Michael Wood obtained a new bush license for the British Hotel on the North Shore (he must have been quite fond of the name -- SC 18 April 1867) but by August 1867 this was up for sale or lease. In December 1867 the whole of his household furniture, etc. at his North Shore residence was sold. (SC 7 December 1867)

Joseph Boulter, meanwhile, apparently quit the hotel keeping business entirely, transferring his licence for the Orpheus Hotel to John Nolan in December 1867, and transferring the British Hotel on Pollen Street, Thames, to John Gibbons in September 1868.

Michael Wood, however, died intestate on January 22nd 1869 on the North Shore, aged 42, from organic disease of the liver. The family historian wondered if he had died from drinking himself to death. That’s possible – there were a few cases of publicans killing themselves with the occupational hazard of too many debts, and a lot of ready booze to forget them by.

His widow Hannah and the children (one born just a few months after Wood’s death) went back to England at some point prior to1881.

Now I remember why I wrote "The Zoo War"

Here in Auckland, our City Council has just approved, in principle, the spending of $13.5million on creating a "herd" of elephants at Auckland Zoo by 2016. This, in a recession. This, on the eve, so to speak, of Auckland becoming a super-city/patchwork quilt/whatever the heck they plan to do after the Royal Commission have their say to the powers that be. This, which will mean more of Western Springs Park, 22,000 square metres, locked up as zoo land. I know there's lots of people who say "But we love elephants"" and "It's a world conservation measure!" To the former, I say, "Okay, but why in a recession when we're supposed to be belt-tightening," and to the latter, I say: conservation of world zoo animal stocks, sure. Not wild elephants -- elephants bred and raised in zoos tend to stay in zoos, and I don't care how many times you say that zoos have improved, become more "natural", more like the native habitats -- they are still zoos. They are not the real habitats of these creatures, the same habitats we keep on destroying and disrupting to fuel a worldwide economy which appears, at this time, to be on the skids. Apart from people finding money to buy more captive elephants, mind you.

There ya go, I'll get down off that particular soapbox, now.

Anyway -- looking up stuff on the Web (I want to find out just where they're going to hack away land from the park for this scheme) -- I found a Wiki article on Auckland Zoo. Regular readers of this blog know that I've already had a rave about one Wiki article, the one on Weetbix and its origins (my thanks to Jayne, by the way, for following up and trying to find info on this. The upshot appears to be a lot of scratched heads over there in cereal-making land.) The Wiki article uses the Auckland Zoo site as a source of information on the zoo's history. Now, I have no quibbles with the stuff from 1922 onwards. That's fairly well documented from City Council Archives and newspaper sources.

It's the stuff on J. J. Boyd. Particularly where they say:

"In February 1912, a "zoo" opened in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga. This area belonged to John James Boyd, who set up a private menagerie consisting of six lions, a tiger, a panther, one hyena and several monkeys..."

First, the quotes around "zoo". Perhaps the authors of the website feel that a true zoological park can only be on the huge sites most folk see as zoos today. Perhaps they see theirs as Auckland's first and only zoo. Truth is, although Boyd had only a 5½ acre section, he started off at Royal Oak with:

"...21 monkeys, a kangaroo and wallaby, two French rabbits, four opossums, two lemurs, two Indian cranes, two macaws and other parrots, guinea fowls, and cassowaries ...expecting 200 more parrots from Australia, and the following from Sydney Zoo: three bears, a leopard, a pair of kangaroos, tortoises, black swans, emus, kangaroo rats, wallabies, and golden pheasants. A young elephant, two cheetahs and buffalo were expected from India and Ceylon, and a tiger from Singapore ..."

This in 1911, as well, not 1912, and as at late 1911 he not only had his zoo at Royal Oak, but the earlier (1908) one at Aramoho near Wanganui, plus another at Wainoni, near Christchurch. By 1916, when he was down to just his Royal Oak zoo, Boyd advertised:

“ZOO. ROYAL OAK. – New Additions. Bear Cubs (Russian and Himilayan), 4 Cub Lions, 9 Large Lions, 5 American Black Bears, Japanese Bears, Malay Bears. Baboons, 100 Monkeys, host of other Wild Animals and Birds. Vehicles admitted free. Adults 6d. Children 3d. Open, every day. Fed, 4 p.m.”

(Advertisement, Auckland Star, 28 July 1916)

The numbers of individual animals and birds he had on that small section in Royal Oak ran into the hundreds. It went beyond "menagerie", although that was where its roots were -- just as with Auckland Zoo.

In The Zoo War (2008) I published this photo (sadly, only in greyscale). Installed by the Maungakiekie Community Board in the 1990s, every single paragraph on the sign is historically incorrect. It's even placed outside the wrong location for the Royal Oak Zoo -- outside the present-day school, which in Boyd's time was a neighbour's cow paddock (the zoo was next door, but a hundred metres or more further up.) The 1912 date used by Auckland Zoo probably comes from this inaccurate sign. Both sign and website were and are funded, ultimately, by rates. The rates I pay towards, as a property owner in Auckland City.

Just as, ultimately, I'll be paying towards more captive elephants and more open space taken up by Auckland Zoo.

My thanks to the owner of Ematejoca

Just spotted that Timespanner is one of the blogosphere links on the Ematejoca blog: thank you! I can't understand the language, but Ematejoca is certainly a very beautiful blog to visit.

A Code of Honour for New Zealand Boys and Girls

As a New Zealander, proud of the privilege, yet humble in the enjoyment of it:

You will scorn all dishonesty, of whatsoever form or degree, as petty and mean and altogether unworthy of your family and the high traditions of your school and your Empire.

You will cherish frankness and sincerity, never committing the smallest deception of silence, word, or deed.

You will readily acknowledge your faults and resolutely fight them.

You will avoid the arch-sin of selfishness – whence spring all other sins – for under its sway Empires have crumbled to dust.



In all things you will be temperate – in eating, in play, in rest, in work, exercising always the one true discipline – discipline of self.

You will rise above intolerance and cultivate breadth of vision, endeavouring always to see both sides of a question, so guarding against the formation of hasty and uncharitable opinions.

You will regard coarseness in thought, language, or action, as belittling and degrading, and always and altogether beneath the dignity of a future citizen of this fair Dominion.

You will cheerfully yield reasonable and prompt obedience to your elders, particularly your parents; and you will show a like respect for the rules of your school, the by-laws of your town, and the laws of your country, since you know that rules and laws are not needlessly made.

You will exercise a jealous care over all property, particularly public property, protecting it from damage or disfigurement; and, loving the beautiful, you will seek to remove all unsightliness from your home, your school, and your town.



You will be punctual and orderly and cheerful. You will keep your promises. You will grudge no effort, no matter how small or how great the task, remembering that only your best is good enough.

You will be courteous, and kind, and helpful to all, remembering that all honest labour is equally honourable.

You will play for the side and play the game, always striving honourably for victory, yet taking defeat, when it comes, as part of the game. You will never add to the discomfort of a defeated opponent. Most of all you will love clean play and good play, whether it is on your own or the opposing side.

You will ever be pure and true, for there are those who daily trust you. You will remember that in the hands of the Children of To-day is the World of To-morrow and you will strive to be not unworthy of the sacred trust.

You will remember the Golden Rule, acting towards others always as it would most please you that they should act towards you.

Lastly, you will seek honour before all else, ever remembering that there is no finer aristocracy than the aristocracy of character; and you will not forget that character is built of tiny acts, small strivings, and much earnestness.

Text from "Code of Honour [Book Excerpt]." Children and Youth in History, Item #89, The New Zealand Boys' Diary: Whitcombe's New Zealand Pocket Diary for 1936. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1936, 51. Photos are mine, showing the last remaining building of the old Mt Albert School site, off School Road, Morningside. This building may date from c.1908. The school moved in 1937 to Sainsbury Road, and this building first served as an RSA building, then a Maori Kokiri school. At the moment (March 2009) it looks like this. The original school here went back to 1870.

“Someone has blundered” – the suicide of Thomas Meredith

On the 5th of November, 1897, 35 year old Thomas Meredith, a patient at the Auckland Lunatic Asylum at Pt Chevalier, slipped away from being at work in the asylum’s garden between just after 11 in the morning (when A. W. Leys, an attendant, later reported being the last to see him alive) and half past eleven when he was reported as missing. (A count of heads had been made, as per procedure, once every twenty minutes – only 12 were counted, when there should have been 13). A search was immediately organised and continued throughout that afternoon, but to no avail. A report was made that day to the police in Auckland, and nothing further was said of the matter. Meredith had been reported to have been cheerful the night before, even engaging an attendant, Mr. Meerkau, in a game of cards. There had been no indication that he would do anything untoward.

A week later, Meredith’s relatives learned that he was missing only from indirect reports that the police were making enquiries in the country districts. A cousin, Mr. Asmuss, went to Auckland Police Station to find out what was happening, then travelled to Avondale Police Station, the nearest one to the asylum. The constable there was unaware that anyone was missing from the asylum, although he’d heard a rumour of “a strange man being seen in the district.”

A search was then undertaken through the western districts, from Avondale to Henderson, following these rumours of a man acting oddly, seen at various times by the local residents in this still (at that time) thinly populated area. This turned out to be a red herring in a way – the trail led to the Oratia Bridge on 16th November, and the drowned body of John Halstead, an inmate from the Costley Home in Greenlane. Halstead had, coincidentally, escaped from Costley around the same time as Meredith had disappeared from the asylum. He was even identified, initially, as Meredith, until properly examined.

Finally, on 20 November, Meredith’s body was found, hanging by his own belt, from the limb of a willow tree near the Asylum grounds. He hadn’t wandered far away at all to put an end to his life. Two of the Walker boys, members of a Pt Chevalier family, came upon the body in an advanced state of decomposition – identifiable only by the clothing.

“Someone,” the Auckland Star said direly in their headlines, “has blundered.”

Up until 1897, the usual course of action once a patient had escaped from the asylum was for the institution to alert the city police, who would then alert the district’s police (in this case, those stationed at Avondale) so that the local constables could keep an eye open for strangers. At the same time, the city police issued a statement to the press, so those in the community could also be on the watch for sightings of the fugitives, and thus report these to the local constable as well. It seemed to be a good system, even if it did lend to the asylum the reputation of having quite a number of such escapes happening.

Then, in 1897, the procedure changed. Dr. R. M. Beattie, the medical superintendent of the asylum at that time, instituted the procedure whereby while the city police were still notified, they were expressly asked not to further divulge any information as to the escape. Concern as to privacy was the reason given by Dr. Beattie for this change – something we can indeed relate to in our own time with privacy legislation versus official information. The Costley Home, itself the keeper of a number of elderly inmates who had their own share of mental health problems and suicidal tendencies, had the same policy. The Star, however, was scathing of the policy.

“Had the facts been promptly communicated to the press and published, the settlers in the adjacent districts would have been on the lookout and given information to the police, which would have led to their speedily being traced up.”

It is doubtful, given the facts as they turned out, that Meredith’s life would have been saved. Clearly, he killed himself soon after slipping away from the gardening detail, and upon finding the willow tree. Halstead, on the other hand, may have been recaptured before he had drowned. Over and above this, the relatives of the missing men should have been informed as soon as the escapes had occurred, privacy considerations or not.

“It is understood,” said the NZ Herald at the time, “that the police authorities are in communication with Wellington with a view of getting the instructions relaxed as to withholding information on such matters from the press. There is little doubt that Halstead’s life might have been save … The police admit that due publicity to such matters in the press would save a great deal of trouble and expense; and that most of the recaptures of lunatics in former years were effected through the country settlers seeing the escapes from the Asylum recorded in the papers and furnishing information to the police.” Keeping the truth private, the Herald continued, also endangered such districts, should the escapee turn out to be a violent one.

At the departmental investigation in December 1897, the police were blamed for not passing on the information about the escapes to their outlying stations. This the police indignantly repudiated – but it seemed that, in this way, the health authorities backed away from their “don’t tell anyone” policy, and still managed to save face.

Someone had blundered, indeed – and yet, still kept their job.

Image above: one of my photos from Christchurch -- a willow by the River Avon.

Asylum Days

Auckland Lunatic Asylum, Point Chevalier, 1870s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 918-03.

Updated: 9 February 2023

The history of the Auckland Lunatic Asylum/Mental Hospital at Pt Chevalier is huge. Seriously, it is. I have four ringbinders full of copies of reports from newspapers, the AJHR, photos and photocopies of documents testifying to what an enormous undertaking a general history, both of the site and its buildings and its deep social historical associations, would be. One day, I'd like to do it. Not because my own grandfather died there (committed for senility, died from pneumonia), but because it's a hole in our region's history. It's something which, in my view, still seems to be skirted around by historians.

Recently, I was approached by a staff member at Unitec about anything I knew as to the site's history. Well, I pointed him in the direction of the three works I have published which include some aspects of the site's story: A Doctor in the Whau, Wairaka's Waters, and Terminus. But I also mentioned I'd see if I could pull together a limited chronology. Here it is -- still with gaping holes due to lack of knowledge, and by no means therefore anywhere near as comprehensive as I'd like it to be.

Perhaps, though, it might be the start of something more which is very much needed in terms of filling that gap in our history.

1841 The Queen Street Gaol is constructed. Between 1841 and 1853, cells would be set aside at the Queens Street-Victoria Street West site for those who were deemed insane, alongside other prisoners. 

In February 1843, one unnamed individual died at the gaol, and attempts were made to blame the Sheriff and his team for not looking after the person properly, including dietary needs. But, as the Auckland Times pointed out, “The Sheriff had no legal custody of the man, be it remembered, beyond what his own humanity prompted, and the turnkeys of the gaol have of course their own business to attend to. Religious feeling and common sense require alike that these things should be properly attended to. The jury returned a verdict of ‘Died by the visitation of God.’”

In 1846 Joseph Hale, “pronounced by the Medical Officer to be labouring under insanity” was lodged at the gaol, to the consternation of the Sheriff, Percival Berry. “The man is incessantly raving and requires the constant attention of a keeper. The gaol at present is so full that it is impossible to keep him apart from the other prisoners and not only is it unsafe to approach him but he keeps the prison and its neighbourhood in an uproar day and night.” Whenever the man was in a rational state, he requested that he be sent to Sydney. Unfortunately, the asylum at Sydney was too full, so Auckland’s request was turned down.

Another man in the same year, Owen Connor, required a strait jacket, and was provided with 12 ounces of beef daily. Connor, “in a state of violent madness” made his escape from the gaol on 17 May after he had been removed from his cell in order for it to be cleaned and himself washed. Appearing tranquil, he abruptly changed, overcame the keeper in charge, rushed over the debtors’ yard and went over the fence to freedom. He was recaptured an hour later.

December 1850 Plans begin for subscription drive to build Auckland’s first insane asylum.

7 January 1851 Public meeting in the Mechanics’ Institute Hall “to consider the expediency of establishing a lunatic asylum in the district of Auckland.”

17 April 1851 The Governor expresses his support for the endeavour, with the opinion “that a detached building on the grounds connected with the existing Hospital would for the present be most convenient and suitable.” Management of the asylum was to be not by the appointment of Trustees by the subscribers, but under a comprehensive plan of Executive Council control, to be vested in a Corporation once that body came into being.

April 1852 After opposition from the short-lived Auckland Borough Council (main opposing point being to the location on the Domain grounds), the building of the asylum commences.

January 1853 By now, the building is completed. The city gaol in Queen Street is no longer the only repository for those deemed to be of diminished capacity. It may be from this point that additional Asylum Endowment properties are set aside by the Governor from out of the Crown’s waste lands to provide an income for the institution.

1862 The asylum building is found to be inadequate, and requires extension. The Provincial Council Superintendent is petitioned to, instead, choose an alternative site in the region and build a new asylum there.

15 January 1863 Specifications for a proposed asylum published in the New Zealander.

September 1863 By now, imported plans from England had been submitted to the Provincial Council’s appointed architect, James Wrigley. The Auckland Loan Act and Empowering Act of 1863 are passed, giving the Provincial Council power to raise funds for capital works, including the asylum. For a time, the Meola Reef area is considered as a site, but then the site close to Oakley Creek is chosen.

1864 Work begins on the building of the asylum. John Thomas’ tender for brick supply submitted 5 January. Detail on the difficulties around his tender published in Terminus (2008).

8 March 1867 No official opening, but this was the first day patients were removed from the Domain site to Great North Road at Pt Chevalier.

"The removal of the lunatics to the new Asylum on the Great North Road took place yesterday morning, when three of Mr. Hardington's 'buses conveyed them out in two trips. The ride appeared to give them much pleasure, and the manner in which they conducted themselves was really surprising. The keepers accompanied them, but not the slightest trouble was given, and all were conveyed in safety to their new home in charge of Dr Fisher. Every praise is due to the drivers, who not only showed proficiency in the manner they conveyed the patients out, but also behaved in a most kindly manner, giving every comfort that lay in their power. The inmates of the Asylum are to have more liberty and open-air exercise in future. They will work at their respective trades, and those who have no trade will be employed in cultivating the ground." (Southern Cross, 9 March 1867)

May 1867 The main asylum building at Pt Chevalier completed. Further history of the asylum provided in Doctor in the Whau (2007) and Wairaka’s Waters (2007).

31 October 1869 Death of the first Resident Surgeon (effectively superintendent) of the Auckland Asylum, Dr. Robert Fisher.

20 September 1877 First major fire at the asylum. After the fire, the Colonial Government appointed architect Philip Herapath to plan and undertake repairs to the building so the male patients, removed to the Albert Barracks, could return in the shortest possible time. By the middle of October, the repairs were sufficient that the male patients were able to be shifted back to the asylum. Herapath was also called upon to draw up plans for the long asked-for extensions to the building, as well as the setting up of a supply connection with the Auckland City mains.

29 September 1879 The farmland immediately behind the asylum is purchased by the Crown. The Asylum’s farm begins. This process of title ownership completed 1888-1893 by extinction of the water right formerly held by John Thomas for the Star Mill operation.

1880 Extensions completed to the asylum’s main building.

1881 Tenders advertised for laundry building and boiler rooms.

1882 Tenders advertised for auxiliary asylum building and workshops. “The farm-overseer and family live at present in a very miserable wooden house, old and filled with all sorts of vermin. While erecting the proposed new buildings, a very little additional expense would enable a house to be added to said building, and supply the present want.”

1883 “The erection of the wooden building for 60 quiet male patients has just been commenced.”

1884 “The auxiliary asylum is not yet ready for occupation, the drainage not having been completed, and other necessary work remaining yet unfinished.”

1885 Drains from the asylum and auxiliary building complete and running into the Oakley Creek, “below high-water mark”. Auxiliary asylum now in full occupation.

October 1885 Death of 3rd medical superintendent, Dr. Alexander Young.

1887 New female block for 100 patients “is being built on the site of the old refractory division.” The kitchen block was enlarged, and new boiler-house erected.

1888 New wing “all but completed.” The old workshops were burned to the ground, and now replaced by a brick building.

1890 Bell, Engineer for Buildings, inspected the site, and in the wake of a typhoid outbreak made plans for reform in the sewage outfall, preferably out to the sea.

1891 Stone-crusher machine now at work, preparing metal for new airing-courts, and roads on the site. (This was likely also used by the Avondale Roads Board during later construction of Oakley Creek culvert bridge.) Stone probably came from Meola Reef area of asylum endowment.

1893 New farmsteading erected by asylum labour, supervised by C R Vickerman of Public Works Dept. Asylum still looking to establish a “gravitation system” of sewage disposal into the mouth of the Oakley Creek.

1894 “The system of sewage irrigation is nearly finished, and is already at work over a considerable area of the garden. The concrete swimming-bath is rapidly approaching completion – a very considerable work, which has been admirably carried on by attendants and patients. New workshops at the rear of the farm buildings are being put up in the same way.”

20 December 1894 The Asylum’s auxiliary building destroyed by fire.

December 1895 Tenders advertised for the supply of bricks for the new auxiliary building. This was completed in 1896.

1896 “A large number worked in the garden and on the farm, not only in maintaining the property and cultivating produce for consumption, but much has been done by them in the way of improvements. The orchard has been enlarged, and upwards of five hundred new fruit-trees planted. Unusually fine piggeries have been erected on a suitable site. Some progress has been made in reclaiming rocky ground, which forms so large a proportion of the Asylum property. The sewage irrigation scheme has also been practically completed. This work serves its purpose admirably, and very materially adds to the productive capacity of both the vegetable-garden and the farm.”

1904 A new female wing added, by altering the laundries. During the second decade of the 20th century, the Wolfe Home was erected on the other side of Carrington Road from the asylum site, to serve as another auxiliary hospital.

1927 A nurses home was built, for 60 nurses.

1929 Medical Superintendent’s residence proposed to be converted into a neuropathic unit for female patients. “A new Superintendent’s residence can be built with a view to its saleability when the evacuation of the institution becomes possible). Said evacuation was intended to be to Kingseat. 1932 By now, the old superintendent’s residence had been converted into a residential clinic for women. The new residence was completed by 1935

1934 An assistant-superintendent’s residence built.

1935 Drives on the site formed and tarsealed.

By 1936, the proposal to completely evacuate the Auckland Asylum to Kingseat was abandoned.

1962, 1 January, official renaming as Oakley Hospital.

Mid 1973, Oakley Hospital divided into Oakley and Carrington Hospitals. 10.4 hectares of the asylum farm designated as a site for a technical institute, which takes the name of Carrington as well.

1974-75 “The barn” erected to house Carrington Technical Institutes workshops. Part of the farmland leased to Mt Albert Grammar.

1975 “Carrington Village”, a collection of cottage-sized buildings, transported to the site.

Late 1980s, Titiwhai Harawira established Whare Paia mental health unit at Carrington Hospital. 

1993 Old asylum building sold to Carrington Polytechnic Today, the Mason Clinic is the last vestige of the original land use as a mental hospital remaining on the site.

Whau Canal post used on Campaign for Better Transport site

Link here. Interesting where my stuff ends up! Check out the link for an image of the other prosed canal site for the isthmus, at Otahuhu.

Pt Chevalier Times, No. 3

Latest newsletter for the Pt Chevalier History Group here.

Proximidade

Proximidade is Portuguese, and means "vicinity" or "nearness", even "neighbourhood." Jayne from Our Great Southern Land has greatly honoured me and this blog by including Timespanner on a list for this award over at her blog (thank you most deeply, Jayne). Usually, I don't accept such awards, because of my concerns that, hermit that I am, I don't know enough of other blogs to pass this on to (and, generally, those I do know already have said things). This, though, I'll accept (even though it will take some time for me to fulfill the conditions) because it came from Jayne and her wonderful blog on Australian (and a bit of Kiwi) history.

The conditions:

The Proximidade Award is described as: ‘This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!’This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog.

The Crudge family of Mt Eden and Blockhouse Bay

Recently, Blockhouse Bay's Newstalk paper asked me to pull something together on the Crudge family who settled there early last century. The folllowing text is what I sent (all bar a small bit was published). Writing up local history is usually a three-stage thing, I find. Stage 1 is the research and gathering, followed by collating and seeing if all the pieces to the puzzle, or as many as can be found, are there. Next comes the writing, which tends to be a tad more screed than proper sentences and paragraphs. The stage after that, editing and proof reading, knocks it into shape. For wee pieces in newspapers, there's a further stage, and that is deciding which sentences are absolutely essential, which aren't, and how to limit the number of words used to a target figure. Newspaper pieces like this will almost always appear to be stilted and "just the facts, ma'am, just the facts," mainly because of that last restriction. Still, the editors published it (unfortunately, my name was left off the published version due to lack of space. That's how tight things can get.)

A mural at 1 Donovan Street, Blockhouse Bay features three people walking along Donovan Street from the area now occupied by the shopping centre some time in the early 20th century. Robert Henry Crudge (senior) and his wife Janet are shown, along with another man (the Blockhouse Bay Historical Society have identified him as Joseph Morey, but he has also been identified as Mr. Oxenham.)

Details on the life of R. H. Crudge remain sketchy. It appears that the Crudge family hailed from a town called Bampton, in the county of Devon, England. R. H. Crudge was born there c.1859, but by 1881 he was already living outside his home county, lodging at Lambeth, London, before boarding the Victory in 1884. He first arrived in New Zealand at Wellington on 25 May, and by 1887 he had reached Auckland, settling at Mt Eden. In 1887, he married Janet Whytock at Mt Eden Baptist Church. Janet had arrived in Auckland with her family on the Hermione in 1881. R. H. Crudge would come to serve on the Mt Eden Borough Council from 1906 (topping the first poll), while he was a saddler operating from Symonds Street.

The Crudge family had a holiday home at the top of Lewis Street in the early years of last century, and built the brick house at 102 Donovan Street a little later. R. H. Crudge himself lived at Mt Eden until after his wife's death in 1923. He died in 1937. His sons engaged in strawberry growing on their sizeable landholdings at the Bay after World War I.

Anzac Jack and the Turkish shin bone

Once in a while, something historical will come along and make me say (usually to myself): "Huh?"

Like the reference in an email today from nzhistory.net.nz about a knife handle said (during WWI) to have been fashioned from the shin-bone of a Turkish soldier.

You'll see the knife here. The truth, however (and perhaps, thankfully) is not as grisly as the legend.

"New Zealand-born, 'Anzac Jack' served with the AIF at Gallipoli and later on the Western Front. He made the knife while recuperating from wounds received at Gallipoli and sent it home to his mother in New Zealand. Supposedly, the handle of the knife had been made from the shinbone of a dead Turkish soldier. It was enclosed in an ornate wooden case bearing the inscription 'Te Pohutukawa, Knife made by Sapper J.H. Moore. Handle from Shin Bone of Turk'. His mother used it to raise funds for war-ravaged Belgium.

In July 2007 the Army Museum Waiouru hired a forensic anthropologist to examine the knife's handle. They concluded that the bone was the wrong shape to be a human shinbone and that the light flecks of grain in the bone were more typical of horse and deer. It is most likely to have come from one of the many donkeys used to carry supplies at Gallipoli. It would have been easy for Sapper Moore to have come across mixed bones and picked up one believing it to be human."

More exhibits from Objects of War here.

Blockhouse Bay's bard, on the smells of rail travel

William Cooper, an early 20th century Blockhouse Bay resident, was somewhat of a bard and a poet in his own neck of the woods. In 1907, he turned his sights on the state of the railway service between the city and Avondale. From the Observer, 25 May 1907:

"In a letter written by me, and published in the New Zealand Herald in April, I endeavoured to express my thanks to the Railway Department for the improvements effected during the last two years between Auckland and Avondale. I proposed to follow that first letter with a second and concluding one, and did so, but, alas! that second epistle does not appear to have found favour in the editorial sight, and it has been suppressed.

"The subject, however, is an important one, and here is " The condemned thing," as a Yankee would say, as near as it is possible to reproduce it:—

To the Editor. Sir, —In my previous letter, I specied some of the improvements recently effected on the Auckland - Avondale railway, and I purposed completing the enumeration in a second letter, but I find, on consideration, that the only additional improvements consist of certain public conveniences erected at Kingsland and Morningside. In this connection, it will be gratifying to many good people to learn that the use of the establishment of this nature at Mount Eden station is regulated on strict Sabbatarian principles, it being religiously placed under lock and chain every Sunday. The ladies' waiting-room at Mount Eden appears to be so insanitary that even in the most inclement weather the ladies are constrained to occupy seats in the open portico, and frequently trespass even on the one solitary garden seat generally supposed to have been supplied "for men only," as A. J. Black says in his advertisements.

"At Avondale itself, insult is added to suffering by the frequent appearance of trucks laden with crude fertilisers, the pestilential odours of which are a sickening outrage on the nostrils of waiting passeugers, and a menace to public health. But there the trucks remain, hour after hour, while cheerful, chattering Chinkies leisurely discharge the reeking contents into their carts, apparently keenly enjoying what is to others a filthy, loathsome nuisance. Protest and complaint have been ignored by the high railway officials, with that ineffably supercilious contempt for the public, of which they are such thorough masters.

"The train service is still spasmodic, inconvenient and insufficient ; while the time-table often tells the most atrocious falsehoods concerning the arrival and departure of trains. The long-promised fast, furious and frequent motor train service has not yet eventuated, and, though there were exciting reports lately of the motor having been actually seen in the rails, it seems to have "mysteriously disappeared," as the newspapers remark, when a defaulting bank manager, sharebroker, or government official takes a sudden and regrettable departure. But "I will pursue this subject no further," as the King remarked when, after a long chase, his fugitive High Chancellor fell over a precipice. "

And so the bard continues, paragraph after paragraph, dragging Pelorus Jack into the discussion (although what a dolphin has to do with the railway, I'm not quite sure), Sherlock Holmes, St. Dunstan, Auckland Mayors C. J. Parr and Arthur Myers, and finally, after slipping from prose to poetry and back again, concluding:

"Sir, I have no wish to trespass further upon your columns," as the great Napoleon said to Wellington, after the battle of Waterloo. I am, I regret to say, still -- William Cooper, Avondale South."

No wonder the Herald refrained from publication of this piece of Cooper's creative outpouring.

A year before, however, Cooper did pen a quite good poem for Richard Seddon, published by the New Zealand Free Lance, 30 June 1906, for Seddon's birthday but, as it turned out, it became an obituary for the late Premier. Worth checking out on Paper's Past.

An Avondale memorial to Lt. Wesley Neal Spragg

I referred to the memorial, in the George Maxwell Cemetery on Rosebank Road here in Avondale, in my earlier post on such war memorials at the cemetery. As I recall, it is a raised stone monument, horizontal, with the inscription etched in stone on one of two sloping sides to the top. The plot, No. 145E, is shared by Charles Robert Dearnley Spragg, born 3 June 1892 and died 4 March 1893. This was Wesley N. Spragg's full brother (he had half-sisters by his father's first marriage).

Wesley N. Spragg's story on the Cenotaph database at the Auckland War Memorial Museum's website, along with a photo.

"He was an Armament Officer and was believed to have served operationally in France. Spragg left Heliopolis in a Maurice Farman S11 on a training exercise. The plane dived into the ground at Heliopolis after the plane's port wings collapsed while passing overhead and to the rear of the Aotea New Zealand Convalescent Hospital. The pilot, Lt A. C. Upham, was pinned under the wreckage and seriously injured. It took 12 men to lift the plane clear of him. Spragg was thrown clear but suffered a head injury from which he died a few minutes afterwards without having gained consciousness."

There is the main Spragg memorial, an obelisk at Kaitarakihi on the Manukau Coast near Huia. That's the only one mentioned either in articles on Wesley N. Spragg, or on the Museum's website. The Avondale memorial is forgotten.

The story of Wesley Spragg, his father, is summarised fairly well here.

Question is: if Wesley Spragg senior lived in Mt Albert both before and after his last son's death, (close to today's Mt Albert shopping centre, between the shops and McLean Street) and he went to such trouble and expense to erect an obeslisk memorial to him on the West Coast -- then why have a memorial stone in Avondale? He himself was buried at Waikumete in 1930.

Hopefully, more information comes to light as to the Spragg family's connections with our district.

Who invented Weet-Bix?

Image from Wikipedia. Link below.

It's a classic breakfast food here in Australasia -- but who actually invented it?

The Wikipedia article is a bit of a muddle.

"Sanitarium's wheat biscuits originated in the form of a product called Granose which was created as early as the 1900s. In the 1920s a company called Grain Products created a new sweetened biscuit by the name of Weet-Bix. In 1928, Sanitarium acquired Grain Products, which like Sanitarium had ties with the Seventh-day Adventist Church and made Weet-Bix a Sanitarium product."

and ...

"Weet-Bix was invented by Bennison Osborne in NSW, Australia in the mid 1920s. Benn set out to make a product more palatable than "Granose."

So, while something called Granose has been around for a hundred years, and a Christchurch Company named Grain Products created Weet-Bix in the 1920s (later taken over by Sanitarium -- Australian Bennison Osborne has the credit for inventing Weet-Bix in the mid-1920s? Something here doesn't quite sound right.

Neither the Aussie nor the Kiwi sites for Sanitarium mention Osborne in their Weet-Bix history. References to him in Google seem to point either to the Wiki article or just repeat the article verbatim.

What brought all this up? I'd found an article I'd filed ages ago as being from the Auckland Sun, 21 December 1921 (but, chances are high that I put the wrong year in the margin from tiredness. The Sun operated from March 1927-1930 ... so the date is more likely December 1927 or something like that.)

"TASTY BREAKFAST FOOD
WEET-BIX IS MADE IN N.Z.

"For years doctors, school-teachers and business men have been urging us to 'start the day right.' They recognise that the man or the child who has the right kind of breakfast -- is properly nourished, without being too heavy -- will do the best work.

"Two of three years ago the 'Weet-Bix' people attacked this problem and by careful work found out the right way to make wheat -- the most nourishing grain in the world -- as tasty as possible. The result is 'Weet-Bix', which contains nothing but wheat, and New Zealand-grown wheat, too, which is so tasty that everyone in the home will eat and even demand it for breakfast.

"Further 'Weet-Bix' is proved to be an ideal and pleasant food every day of the week. Young and old enjoy and clean their plates with zest. It is nourishing, too, because people last until lunch time without a worry, yet do not jave that heavy, over-eaten feeling.

"Almost every day the 'Weet-Bix' company, which is a New Zealand concern, received quite unsolicited testimonials from people telling how convalescents 'picked up' with Weet-Bix, how children like it in the hot weather, and so on.

"So, widespread is this feeling of satisfaction that the demand for Weet-Bix is growing fast and the company is making plans to double their plant! This fact surely speaks for itself."

So -- who is Bennison Osborne? Any further info on this would be gratefully appreciated, but so far, the documentation points toward a Kiwi Weet-Bix inventor rather than an Aussie one.

Update 24 September 2009: After heaps of comment discussion: the sequel.
Update 6 August 2012 - finally fixed up the error in the Sun ad date.

Signposts - a blog about Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Another NZ heritage blog, this one from Te Ara called Signposts.

Elihu Shaw: a saga from Sussex to Northland to Cabbage Tree Swamp

I first cottoned onto Elihu (pronounced e-LIE-hew, a Biblical name said to mean “My God is Yahweh”) Shaw when doing some digging for information to give to the Mt Albert Historical Society, in terms of the “Shawville” estate. Elihu himself had a fairly ordinary colonial-era career. What happened around him and on his journey from Sussex to Cabbage Tree Swamp, however, was a tad out of the ordinary.

He was the fourth child out of eleven, born 7 June 1806, to Richard and Hetty Shaw of South Malling, in Sussex, England. South Malling is a parish in the district of Lewes, located on the River Ouse. In 1830, Elihu was employed by a distant relative, Squire John Shaw of West Heathley, as a gardener. He ended up marrying the squire’s daughter, Mary, after eloping with her to Lewes, in May 1831.

After making an effort to make ends meet, the couple decided to emigrate. They boarded the Coromandel 14 June 1838 – possibly with the intention of settling in Sydney, the ship’s destination. This was a ship bearing assisted immigrants sponsored by various agents. One was John Marshall (associated by the Shaw family historian with Elihu and his family). Another was a Mr. Beanard, who was presented with a silver snuff box on the ship’s arrival at Sydney by the grateful passengers under his name. Amongst the non-assisted passengers was a trader and timber merchant named Thomas Spencer Forsaith, who apparently accompanied a cargo of trade goods and lumber making machinery on the ship. His business, it seemed, was the provision of kauri spars for the Government, and the source of these was the Hokianga in New Zealand. A partner in this enterprise may have been Rev. William White, who was also on board, with his wife, and bound for the Hokianga with the same spar-provision business in mind.

The Coromandel arrived at Sydney on 2 October 1838. While the family history states that there was a delay due to crew desertion before the ship continued, chartered by Forsaith, to New Zealand, I found by looking at the early Sydney newspapers online that the delay was likely for other reasons, one major reason being Captain Thomas Neale’s declining health. He had consumption, and was too ill to captain the vessel until 16 November when it finally left. (He died at the Hokianga 6 February 1839, and was buried at the Wesleyan Mission Burial Ground).

Along with this, there was a small desertion of crew members (two) who stole one of the ship’s boats while they were at it; Neale, operating the Coromandel on “the Temperance System”, had a shipload of crew who had not had a drop of liquor to drink from June until October, and so ran riot more than a tad once they reached Sydney ("the day after the ship cast anchor, nearly the whole crew abandoned the ship and gave way to the utmost excesses" said the Sydney Gazette); silverware was reported stolen from the Coromandel, ending up in a local hotel called the "Rum Puncheon"; and Capt. Neale warned the Sydnersiders, by public notice, that he would not be responsible for debts run up by the crew. Perhaps, tied in with the captain’s ill-health, it took a while for Neale to find enough sober crew members again to take the ship across the Tasman for Forsaith and White.

The Shaw family history says that Elihu Shaw spent the brief few weeks in New South Wales working as a sawyer. He and his family sailed on the Coromandel finally to the Hokianga on 16 November, arriving 2 December 1838. Once there, they stayed nine months at the Wesleyan Mangungu Mission Station (again, pointing to a possibly Rev. White connection with Forsaith’s business dealings). Rev. White had been recalled to England in 1836, stripped of his mission in Northland, and had been accused of business trading and adultery. Still, he returned to New Zealand regardless. From Murray Gittos’ biography on White:

“The Wesleyan authorities decided in March 1838 to dismiss White from both the ministry and the mission, on the grounds of excessive commercial activity and misapplication of mission property. These activities, although not strictly in accordance with his standing instructions, were probably those least open to criticism if regard was had to Maori interests. Criticisms of his personal temperament were endorsed; on the adultery charges the evidence was persuasive in some cases, though inconclusive.

"While in England awaiting a decision on his future, White was taken up by the New Zealand Company as an expert on emigration prospects. He warmly supported the company until he perceived what he believed was Edward Gibbon Wakefield's hidden agenda of self-aggrandisement and separation of the Maori from their land. On his return to New Zealand in December 1838 White did all he could to discourage the sale of land to the company, including an unsuccessful attempt to forestall the Taranaki purchase.

"Back at Hokianga, White took up residence next to the mission, continued to preach, and remained a figure of considerable consequence to the Maori at Hokianga and Kaipara as both consultant and trader.”

So, it is possible that Rev. White fostered Forsaith’s business, providing accommodation for the Shaw family until Forsaith and Shaw had established a trading post at Mangawhare, Northern Wairoa by 1841. A mill was erected there to produce the spars, and by 1841 Elihu had cleared and fenced 12 acres of 2 blocks purchased by Forsaith. The set-up appeared to be that while Forsaith travelled back and forth across the Tasman, handling the business from Sydney, Shaw and his family managed the trading store.

It was this store which became the catalyst for a grievance by local Maori which was to last over 160 years.

There are two near-contemporary sources for the story of the Skull in the Trading Store: Elihu Shaw’s obituary in 1895, and James Buller’s narrative from 1878, Forty Years in New Zealand. The Waitangi Tribunal in the Kaipara Report this century, also enlisted testimony from the government hearings at the time into the incident.

The Shaws themselves appeared to have a good rapport with local Maori, a vital skill to have while a trader in the area at that time. (Forsaith himself was said to be fluent in both Maori language and customs.) One time when a boat Shaw was using to ferry provisions capsized on a river, it was local Maori who came to his rescue.

The Mangawhare store had previously burnt down, according to Shaw’s obituary, but Forsaith arranged for it to be rebuilt. No one knows exactly how a skull came to be placed in the store. One story says a local Maori found it in a flax bush, and Mrs. Forsaith placed it in the store “out of pity” by hanging it in a kit bag on the wall. Another story about the incident claims the skull was spotted by local Maori in the potato store, even more injurious to the skull’s mana. How the Forsaiths, who were supposed to be familiar with Maori protocol, could have made such an error regarding the placement of so sacred a relic as a human skull has never been determined.

A Maori chief of the area, Tirarau, asked Shaw who put the skull there, and Shaw told him it was Mrs. Forsaith. A raiding party returned shortly after to carry out a taua muru, destroying everything identified with the Forsaiths, including the store itself. The Government enquiry, for what it was (the Waitangi Tribunal have since criticised it for procedural errors) was held at Rev. Buller’s station at Tangitiroria, and the Crown ordered that some of the Maori land be officially confiscated in punishment for the destruction of Forsaith’s store. This land, at Te Kopuru, was a source of local Maori grievance for the next 160 years or so, due to lack of recognition of local iwi land interests, and errors regarding the initial survey by Charles W. Ligar.

Forsaith benefited greatly from the compensation: he went to Auckland, and by 1843 had set himself up as a draper and merchant in the city. From there, he progressed to politics, almost becoming one of the colony’s early premiers.

Shaw, meanwhile, remained in Northland until the Northland War in 1845. The family left the area, travelling by boat (one for the family, towing another for their only cow) to Helensville, then walking the rest of the way to Auckland. They are said to have resided first somewhere in Avondale, then Onehunga, before Shaw finally purchased his Cabbage Tree Swamp land off Sandringham Road in 1851. He followed a number of occupations, apparently. One may have been as a road-maker, like his near-neighbour Mr. Walters at what is now Eden Park, quarrying the necessary rock out of his own landholdings. There are one or two quarry-like depressions close to present-day Shaw Street. Eventually, he turned to his first occupation – gardener – and ended his days market gardening in what is now the Morningside-Kingsland area of Mt Albert.

One of his grandsons, Charles T. Shaw, lived in the New Lynn Hotel for a time, before shifting to Avondale’s Rosebank Road. He was a musician, a member of the Oratia Band, and ran a store in Avondale with his wife for a number of years, close to today’s Ray White building (former National Bank). Another grandchild was Mrs. J. Capes, also of Avondale.

Sources:
Gwen P. Howe, The Gardener and the Squire’s Daughter, 1988
Deeds Indexes for Allotment 153 and 154, Section 10, Suburbs of Auckland, LINZ.
Obituary for Elihu Shaw, NZ Herald, 13 July 1895
Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser, 1838-1839
James Buller, Forty Years in New Zealand: Including a Personal Narrative, an Account of Maoridom, and of the Christianization and Colonization of the Country, 1878, pp. 84-88
Kaipara Report, Waitangi Tribunal