Mt Albert pig debate, 1867

Southern Cross, 18 January 1867

One of those comically-contemptible cases which frequently come before the Resident Magistrate was heard yesterday, engaging for a great part of the afternoon His Worship, counsel on each side, and a dozen witnesses.

A pig belonging to a farmer at Mount Albert had, on two occasions, rooted up some potatoes belonging to a neighbouring farmer; and on the second occasion the owner of the potatoes shot the pig. There was therefore a cross-action, one man suing for the value of his pig, the other for the damage done to his potatoes.

The case seemed to cause no small sensation at Mount Albert, for, besides the witnesses, there were a number of persons present who had come in to hear the learned counsel's pleadings. Judgment was given in favour of the owner of the pig for 14s. At the conclusion of the case about a score of persons assembled outside the Court-room to further discuss the matter, which they did with such vehemence that his Worship had to send a policeman to clear them off.

There was then an adjournment to a hotel convenient — or inconvenient to the Court — where, excited by the recollection of the eloquence of counsel, and other stimulants, the great pig case could be heard by those in the Court again being argued for a considerable time.

Street Stories 11: More on Auckland City Street Names database

Now, don't get me wrong. I think that the initiative by Auckland City Libraries to put up a database of information on Auckland City's street names is commendable, and 95% of the time very useful. But, as with all databases reliant on secondary and tertiary sources, it has errors. Here are some of the ones I've picked up for Avondale.

Cradock Street

“Formerly Craddock Hamlet around 1912”

Cradock Hamlet dates from 1903, and is the subdivision through which Cradock Street runs. Note the spelling. See the Methuen Road entry below.

Great North Road

“Previously St Georges Road part. opposite Crayford Street one way (South to North) frontage road, servicing parking area.”

St Georges Road was never Great North Road – the Great North Road angled down and westward from the Five Roads intersection (now the roundabout) from the late 1840s when it was formed. The Crown purchased the part going through J. S. Adam’s land in 1859. As to “one way” – I’m really not at all sure where the library got that from. Quite mystifying.

Methuen Road

“Also Methuen Hamlet around 1915. Off New Windsor Road, Methuen Hamlet now part Methuen Road around 1916. Previously also Methven St.”

Methuen Hamlet (1903) is the name of the subdivision, through which the original part of Methuen Road (named after the subdivision, in turn named after Lord Methuen) was named. No “Methven Street.” There has never been a Methven Street in Avondale.

It would be nice if the Library's database included mention of Methuen Road being named after Lord Methuen, but they don't. Instead, they just mention Baden-Powell for Powell Street.

Rosebank Road

“Previously Browne St (to 22/9/1932) … The top end was known as Brown Street, but was altered to make one complete street.”

No, Rosebank Road got its name from the 1880s Rosebank Estate sale by Robert Chisholm. Browne Street (upper Rosebank Road) was indeed renamed in the 1930s.

St Georges Road

“Previously Georges Road. In 1937 … named 50 years before (1887). There were previously objections to renaming this street, it clashed with others.”

I can find no record of the street being just Georges Road. Before it was St Georges Road, it was Brickyard Lane, or Riversdale Road (before the one off Rosebank Road was dedicated, this one named after Buchanan’s tannery). In the 1930s, there was talk of renaming it Taylor Street, as for some reason it was thought to be a continuation of the latter.

Wingate Street

“previously Old Windsor Road (to 8/6/1939) … Possibly named after General Wingate.”

If the street was renamed after Orde Charles Wingate in 1939, this would have been just after he’d returned from Palestine, after he had been removed from command by his superiors after doubts were raised about his work with the Jewish Haganah volunteers. I’d say it was more likely that the street was named after another English place name as was a common practice in the 1930s by Auckland City Council, Wingate in County Durham.

When I get a bit of time, I'll take a look at the Auckland War Memorial Museum's site and their street names database as well.

Herbert Smith's Supply Stores on Richmond Road, Grey Lynn

Out of the blue, Jan Tully from Melbourne sent me an email about a photograph she had come across while sorting through some family history papers. She very kindly scanned and gave me permission to post the image up here on Timespanner.

It comes from a photo-postcard, of the kind that was fairly common in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. Herbert Smith, who ran the store pictured at what was then 86 Richmond Road in Grey Lynn (the street numbering may have changed since then) wrote to Elizabeth (Hall) Tunstall, or Lizzie, who was originally from New Zealand but went to Victoria around the turn of last century. His note filled the entirety of the other site of the card, leaving no room for postage or an proper addressing! Perhaps, it was mailed in an outer envelope.

"Dear Lizzie,

Received your Healesville card many thanks. It is the prettiest bit of Australia I have seen. I had a look at those mountains -- a distant view from the main road on my Doncaster trip. No, there is nothing Maori-Eng war car line printed as far as I can find out. The only way it would be done, as I am told, is to get some reputable Maori to translate some of their warcrys for us. I received also the second "A Tale of Eternity" alright. Could you get me a time table telling when the mails leave Melb. for South Africa. I see the Bible College is in full swing at Glen Iris. You should go to the official opening on Easter Monday and give me a very full description of the place and (uncertain word). Mrs Edwards of Auckland is in Melb.

Yours very sincerely,
Herbert."

Jan has done some sleuthing, and found that the Glen Iris "College of the Bible" opened in 1910, which would make it part of the Australian Churches of Christ network. From the link:

"As far back as 1889, at the first inter-colonial conference of Churches of Christ, it was suggested that Melbourne should be a centre for training ministers for the growing work. J. K. Henshilwood, A. B. Maston and G. B. Moysey held classes under the name of the Victorian Biblical Institute. Other classes were conducted by Joseph Pittman and W. C. Morro. Eventually this work grew into the Australian College of the Bible, led by James Johnston. The classes were held in the evenings in the Lygon Street Church, and graduates became leaders or church ministers. But the need for full-time training was evident and the 1906 Federal Conference resolved that a college be established in Melbourne. The College began in Lygon Street Church, and then moved to a two-storey building in Rathdowne Street, Carlton, for a time and then moved back to Lygon Street. H. G. Harward and James Johnston were leaders, but when Johnston left, Harward continued as Principal. New premises were purchased at Glen Iris, described as a "14-roomed dwelling and stables". It was attached to 11 acres of land, and in the records of the Malvern Council of 1891 was rated on a value of two thousand pounds, which was a large sum for those days. It had been owned by a prominent Methodist and for a period is thought to have actually been owned by the Methodist Church. But in 1909 it was in the possession of R. Campbell Edwards, a member of the original Board of Management of the College of the Bible. Campbell Edwards sold it to the Board for one thousand five hundred pounds, which made it a very good buy. In 1910, the students moved into a building which must have seemed spacious after their earlier cramped quarters. The students could now live in. Smaller detached buildings were used as dormitories. However, the pressure for even more living room was irresistible and a new building with classrooms and dormitories was erected in 1912. Over the years there have been many additions and modifications but this two-storey red brick edifice is still the main college building."

If anyone has further information on this Herbert Smith of Richmond Road, or even what connections he may have had with the Australian Church of Christ, don't hesitate to let me know. Jan would be keen to find out more about this intriguing photo from out of her family's past.

Rocket Park

One of the enduring and endearing landmarks along New North Road in Auckland is the rocket in Rocket Park, close to the Mt Albert community halls complex. Constructed in 1967 by the Mt Albert Lions Club at the height of the Space Age, it reflected that age and made the surrounding kiddies' playground well-known across Auckland.

Yesterday, when I took the photograph while sheltering from a March autumn drizzle, I noticed that a sign has been placed at the bottom of the rocket, effectively saying "Danger, do not climb." The rocket is there just as a landmark now, and is no longer the cool kids' climbing frame (with two internal ladders) it once was. Even the Mt Albert Lions Club is today defunct.

I'd say there'd be an outcry if the rocket was removed, though, or the name of the playground changed.

More signal box art: Oakley Creek, at Rocket Park

Back in January, I posted about the signal box at the New North Road/ Blockhouse Bay Road corner.

Today, while hanging around Rocket Park in Mt Albert (I was waiting to hear what turned out to be two very interesting talks at a Mt Albert Historical Society event, one by Alice Wylie on the start of the Mt Albert Library, and another by Judge Mick Brown on his memories of Mt Albert), I spotted this:





I thought -- "They've put a waterfall on their signal box. It looks just like the Oakley Creek waterfall!" Then, I looked closer, and saw that not only was it indeed our waterfall, but they had helpfully put on the top of the box (where few under 5'10" could see it without tip-toes) "Te Auaunga, Oakley Creek."

Very nice -- but why put a picture of the Oakley Creek waterfall there, beside the Meola Creek? True, that spot is right beside where the creek runs. In fact, it may be over the creek, but since the latter part of last century, the creek has been channelled and piped and now flows underground in that area, beneath New North Road and beneath Rocket Park and Wairere Ave, resurfacing only once beyond Asquith Avenue or so.

This is where it flowed in the 1880s (LINZ plan, Deed 28)


The squiggly lines going across and under New North Road is the Meola Creek or Stream, named by A K Taylor, if I recall correctly, and which formed the boundary between the Parish of Titirangi and Auckland Suburbs, for the benefit of land conveyancing. See the pump mentioned? Here's where that pump would roughly be (arrowed) compared to the site of the signal box (circled):



Give or take a few metres either way, you understand.

So -- question is, why did Auckland City put a photo (very nice one, though) of a waterfall feature of the Oakley Creek which is actually around three miles away at least from Rocket Park, right next to the real site of the Meola Creek which has more to do with the history of Mt Albert than the Oakley does?

Grubb Bakery update

The information I used for the post originally written in 2002 on Grubb's Avondale bakery came from a phone conversation in 2001 with Keith Grubb. Today, I found a website which appears to have some genealogical information on the family.

David Grubb (1821-1902) came originally from Kilconquhar, Fife, in Scotland. He died 3 March 1902 in Ponsonby. His eldest daughter, among 12 children, Magdalene Webster Grubb (1865-1953), was the one Keith Grubb said married Robert Samuel Kirkpatrick, apparently around 1886 in Ponsonby. The original story said that Kirkpatrick bought Grubb's bakery around 1903. This would be after David Grubb died, but the Grubb baker in Avondale appears to have been Thomas Gourlay Grubb (1864-1912), David Grubb's second son.

David Grubb apparently arrived in Auckland around November 1865. By December 1867, his bakery in Karangahape Road was established (Southern Cross ad, 30 December 1867). By June 1882, Grubb was retiring and selling his business.

"EXTENSIVE BUSINESS PREMISES in Karangahape Road, close to Pitt-street, one of the principal outlets of the City, a position only second to Queen-street, together with the Goodwill of his large and increasing Baking and Grocery Business that he has so successfully conducted for the past 15 years. This Property has a frontage of 68 feet by a depth of 102 feet, on which are erected four Good Showy Shops, with conveniently-arranged' residences, all in first-class condition, a large portion but recently built, the whole 1 thoroughly renovated. Two are now occupied by himself as a Bakery and Grocery Establishment : the others are let to respectable tenants, There is a well-constructed Bake-house with a first-class large Oven ; Store-room for 40 or 50 tons of flour. A large roomy Stable with Loft, Store-room, men's Sleeping Apartments, &c. Gas and Water laid on, well drained in every respect. A well-arranged convenient first-class place of business, well worthy the attention of anyone who may require a good investment for capital, or a money-making business. As Mr Grubb is retiring from the BAKING and GROCERY BUSINESS, the GOODWILL of bis extensive and paying Business will be sold with the Property and every assistance given to a successor."

(Observer, 24 June 1882)

However, it seems he didn't give up the trade at that point. By June 1883, he co-managed the Newton Baths & Billiard Rooms. (Observer, 2 June 1883) A fire destroyed his block of shops in March 1889 -- where he was still operating a bakery. (Bay of Plenty Times, 18 March 1889)

In June 1889, Thomas Grubb married Rebecca McCown in Avondale. This may have been when the Grubb family association with this district began. (Observer, 1 June 1889) Thomas, his wife Rebecca, and their eldest son are buried at the George Maxwell Memorial Cemetery on Rosebank Road. Thomas died on 24 April 1912, suffering from "perforation of lung and shock of broken ribs" after a railway accident." The family home was in Walton (Walsall) Street. (source site)

David Grubb was still going strong, though, in early 1890.

"Mr Grubb, 88, Karangahape Road, has been established nearly 40 years, and has carried on a most successful trade, from which he acquired all substantial competency ; but, like many others he was over sanguine about the immediate prospects of Auckland. He speculated in building with the prevailing result. However, Mr Grubb, being a practical tradesman, and having an industrious wife and family to help him, his business goes on as merrily as ever. The bakehouse ovens and utensils are all bright and clean, and the establishment throughout is one of the best in the colony. Bread and fancy goods of the best description are the order of the day. As the wise man said (and no doubt it was a good baker he was speaking of): "This is a workman that needeth not to be ashamed."

(Observer, 18 January 1890)

Thode Brothers of Mt Albert, Avondale and West Auckland

Around 1919, the Thode Brothers (Arthur Edwin Forbes Thode and Percy Raymond Forbes Thode) ran a store at the corner of Rosebank and Great North Roads (called, by locals, “Thode’s Corner”.) Before that, they had a store at the corner of what was then Gladstone (now Carrington) and New North Roads in Mt Albert, opposite the railway station. Around 1915, the New North Road had to be realigned so that one side met up as best as possible with the other, a line was drawn through the front of their Mt Albert store. It may have been demolished soon after (it may also have been what had been Mt Albert’s only hotel, built by Samuel Stevenson in the 1880s, but unsuccessful when it came to obtaining a license.) Percy enlisted with the NZ Expeditionary Force during World War I, and served in France.

After the war, the Thodes began their move westward.

They didn’t have the Avondale store all that long, perhaps just a matter of two or three years before it became McKenzie’s Central Stores in the early 1920s, and burned down 7 June 1925.

By the way Ernie Croft, in Challenge of the Whau (1994), recalled the aftermath of the Central Stores fire:

“After the fire there were jam tins lying around, badly buckled. All of us coming home after school used to kick the tins down the road, seeing how far we could get them before they burst.”

At the time Norman McKenzie was a tenant of Charles Fearon, who owned the old wooden block at that point. McKenzie’s grocery store was the site of the fire’s start, igniting among the tinned goods apparently, then spreading to the oils and artificial manures. At that point, despite the best efforts of the local fire brigade, it was doomed. The fire was only checked just short of the offices of a land agent named George Rose.

Charles Fearon replaced the burnt-out block with the Fearon’s Buildings block which is still there to this day.

But, I digress.

By 1922, as seen by a fair-sized ad in Arthur Morrish’s News, the Thode Brothers had left the grocery business and entered the land agent business, with a main office in the city, another at Avondale and a third at New Lynn. Ultimately, Percy left the business to Arthur and headed north, becoming the owner and licensee of the Waipapakauri Hotel, then during World War II entered the service of the Marine Department as a fishery control officer, and lived at Devonport. Both of his sons served during World War II. One sad aspect is that when Percy Thode died in July 1942, he would have passed on thinking that one of his sons, Lieut. J. A. Thode, had been killed in action when the HMAS Perth was sunk four months before. In fact, Lt. Thode survived, and was a POW along with 324 others who were captured, later forced to work on the infamous Burma-Siam railway. The other son, Connel, entered the Royal Navy, serving on the corvette HMS Candytuft, and later the submarine HMS Scythian (first New Zealander to command a Royal Navy submarine) from 1944-1945. Connel Thode was awarded an OBE in 1995 for his services to yachting.

Arthur Thode remained in the real estate business, associated closely with Titirangi, where he lived, and New Lynn. He died in 1963, aged 83. Part of his property in New Lynn was gifted to the New Lynn Old Folks Association, and their recreation hall was built in 1971.

Street Stories 10: Mt Albert's Carrington Road

I spoke recently to some students at Unitec -- a really wonderful experience. One of the last questions I was asked in the session was about the origins of the name for Carrington Road. I took a breath, and advised that what I was about to say was controversial: it isn't named after the surveyor Frederic Carrington. Then, I explained why.

The Auckland City Libraries Street Names Database is littered, when it comes to any mention of Carrington Road, with the same sentence: "Frederick Carrington was the surveyor for the area." This appears to be the compiler's reason for the naming of the Auckland-Onehunga Road, and later Gladstone Road, as Carrington Road from 1938 (well, only the Auckland City part. Mt Albert steadfastly kept to Gladstone until the early 1960s.) The culprit behind this belief is John Davenport's 1990 book Streetnames of Auckland. I've already recorded an error in this book before in this Street Stories series, when it came to the Shawville estate. (Unfortunately to date, in that case, it appears that the Auckland City Libraries website database remains unadjusted, though I have informed them of the error.)

The Carrington issue is a silly one, in my opinion. For one thing, here is the man himself: Frederic Alonzo Carrington. Note the true spelling of his first name: Frederic. The Street Name Database insists that Frederick Street (now part of Benfield Avenue) may have been named for him as well -- despite the difference in spelling, and that Frederick Street was never connected with Gladstone-Carrington Road ever until made part of Benfield (formerly West Street, and originally Counsel Terrace). I'm not sure where the library got the idea that Frederick Street was associated with Mr. Carrington, even Davenport can't be blamed for that one. Frederick Street originated from a 1914 subdivision of part of Allotment 59 of the Parish of Titirangi, the land all around the street owned by Mr. T. F. Lees (I wonder if his middle name was Frederick?). The surveyor was F. V. Kelly (there's another F name ...), and the plan's reference is DP 9320, for the curious. It was always wider than West Street, and still is to this day, even though they share a new name together. This was due to West Street's origins coming from the Benfield Estate subdivision of 1884, when wide roads for motor traffic wasn't contemplated.

Mr. Carrington also had little, if any, association with Auckland. His stamping ground was the Taranaki district. He died in 1901; 13 years before Frederick Street was dedicated, and 37 years before Auckland City changed the name of their part of Gladstone Road. "Surveyor for the area?" Until someone comes up with a map of the length of the road as originally laid out, and points to his name on such a map, I will continue to be extremely doubting as to the veracity of such a claim. Around the time such maps were being drafted -- he was down in Taranaki, checking out ironsands.

So ... who could it have been named after, then?

The likeliest candidate is Robert Wynn-Carrington, 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire, prominent in British politics, and a member of one of Asquith's ministries (a British Prime Minister), after whom Asquith Ave, nearby, is named). Gladstone Road, Carrington Road's former name, was in honour of yet another British Prime Minister, as is nearby Baldwin Avenue. There is also a Carrington in England as a placename, one near Manchester; Auckland City had a penchant in the 1930s for changing existing streetnames to those that came from geographic areas of the Old Country (Avondale and Waterview are dotted with them).

As long as the libray's database continues to say that the surveyor was the one honoured, copying straight from Davenport's imperfect compilation of streetnames (often as much legend and folklore as it is from hard research), the distant Mr. Carrington of Taranaki is going to continue to be erroneously associated with the road from Pt. Chevalier to Mt. Albert. There's even a portrait of Frederic Carrington in pride of place at Carrington's, the restaurant in the old Mt Albert Pumphouse on the Unitec grounds. I look on that as a fine monument to a continuing and tenacious urban legend.

Auckland District Scholarship Exams - 1877 and 1879

I found the following couple of exam papers today in a file at Archives New Zealand. The file was about the original site of Mt Albert School (file reference YCBD/A688/633b), but in waste-not-want-not times, the local Education Board's clerk reused the backs of the exam papers to serve as something on which to glue smaller pieces of paper which formed a correspondence between the Board and a city land agent. Some would look just at the "front" of the pages in a file. I tend to notice stuff like this on the backs.

How well do you think you'd do?

Auckland Board of Education District Scholarship Exams

December 1877 – Geography

1. Describe the course of one of the following rivers:-
(a) The St. Lawrence, (b) The Ganges, (c) The Nile, (d) The Danube

2. What are the various causes which affect the climate of a place? Illustrate your answers by examples.

3. Describe accurately the position of: Hong Kong, Beyrout, Birkenhead, Cracow, Algiers, Allahabad, St. Louis, Varna, Cape Town and King George’s Sound.

4. What are the chief exports from (a) The North Island, (b) The Middle Island of New Zealand?

5. What are the principle Submarine Telegraphs now in operation?

6. Where are the rivers Spey, Nerbudda, and Sacramento; the islands Trinidad, Elba and Formosa; the capes La Hogue, Agulhas, and York; and Torres’ Strait, Palk’s Passage, and Fundy Bay?

7. Sketch a map of the North Island of New Zealand, showing the situations of the principal towns and as many of the natural features as you can.

Christmas 1879 – Laws of Health

1. How does the sun give us the carbon from which the fat is made that burns in our bodies; and how is it that the sun’s heat gives us the water we drink?

2. Describe all you can remember about the sense of hearing.

3. Why is it good to eat fruit and uncooked vegetables?

4. What people suffer very much from liver complaints, and why?

5. Describe all you can remember about the brain.

6. Why do people feel sleepy and faint who sit in a room where there are a great many candles or gaslights burning?

7.How would you try to bring back life to a person apparently drowned?

Mormonism comes to the colony

Song of a Mormon Elder in New Zealand.

Come all ye Gentile sinners
And listen to my song ;
It's for your good I speak to you,
I won't detain you long,
I'm an ambassador
From Zion — Brigham's State!
And if you'll kindly hearken,
It's glories I'll relate.

Utah ! Utah !
You tarry here too long !

There we've got no unemployed —
All are busy as bee-hives
Attending to their corn and kine,
Their children and their wives.
So if you'll be wise,
You'll come along wi' me,
And settle down in Joe Smith's land
In peace and liberty !

Chorus — Utah, &c.

In that glorious land of ours
Every man is his own boss ;
He's plenty vittles for his wives,
His children, and his hoss.
This tiny island state
Will soon bust up, I guess —
With taxes growing daily,
And with income getting less.

Chorus— Utah, &c.

Now I ask you in good faith —
Who would here consent to tarry,
When there he can have corn and oil
And twenty wives to marry ?
This land is only good for swells
Who pass time making rules,
By which themselves they benefit
At the expense of fools !

Chorus — Utah, &c.

Upon mature reflec-shi-on
My counsel to you all is —
Leave this land to the rabbits,
To the Tories and John Hall.
And in taking my departure,
Which won't be very long,
I'll leave to you as legacy
The chorus of this song.

Chorus— Utah, &c.

M.

(Tuapeka Times, 17 December 1879)

2009 appears to mark 130 years since Mormons (known today as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) began to become a real part of the religious fabric of New Zealand. Perhaps to their initial detriment, stories both factual and inflated had tumbled out from America about them, long before the church elders crossed the Pacific and decided to campaign for converts in the New Zealand colony. Stories particularly about the Mormon practice of polygamy. Especially about the polygamy. Reading the early reactions of mainly Protestant New Zealand to the coming of the new Church from Utah however tells us more about the late Victorian colonial mindset than it does about the early LDS church in this country.

To begin with, reports about the church’s progress here in 1879 were brief and matter-of-fact.

A Mormon emissary, we learn from the Rangitikei Advocate, has been promulgating the doctrines of the faithful in the Manawatu. It is said that he has not made many converts, but he announces his intention of returning to the district.

(Evening Post, 20 March 1879)

Mormon Elders are going to preach in Lyttleton next Sunday.

(North Otago Times, 1 May 1879)

It appears that there is a Mormon " nest" in the Cathedral City, of all places in the Colony. From recent disclosures in the Christchurch Police Court, it seems that; a number of the Latter-Day Saints hold service in a public hall. Whether the sealing process has been undergone by them or not has not transpired, but it is scarcely probable that in a community such as ours any attempt to spread Mormonism, and to have it flourish, will be in any way countenanced, or even permitted.

(Grey River Argus, 8 October 1879)

Two Mormon missionaries have arrived here (in Auckland), but are unable to get a hall to lecture in.

(Evening Post, 30 December 1879)

The Tuapeka Times reported a rumour in January 1880 that “one among our oldest Poverty Bay settlers” had applied to lease a block of land from the Government in order to set up a Mormon settlement. Meanwhile, the missionaries in Auckland had solved their meeting space problems, delivering “several discourses” at the Friendly Socities’ Hall in Cook Street. The Otago Witness advised that “Mormon converts are selling off right and left” in order to take part in an exodus to Utah that April. The paper went on to describe baptisms where converts “stripped to their nightdresses”.

By February, it was announced that there were three converts in Auckland, due to be baptised according to Mormon Church rites at Onehunga. (Evening Post, 9 February 1880)

The Auckland Evening Star publishers seemed to be quite beside themselves, watching the trickle become a flood. To them, it appeared that the coming of “Mormonism” was like a scourge, yet another social disease.

“Auckland is just now passing through a period of affliction. Judging from the form of various visitations it can only be supposed that we are being punished for our sins. We have had the Mormons amongst us for some time past, more recently the Communists, and now we are threatened with pleuro-pneumonia …

“Our business just now is with the Mormons. The elder who visited this city some months ago to proseletyse, after they had passed through the usual nine days’ ordeal of all wonders and novelties, settled down to business, and they have since been quietly spreading their doctrines and making converts. These are chiefly found in the homes of the poor, or amongst people whose mental condition renders them peculiarly liable to religious enthusia.

“Last evening was a memorable occasion in the career of the Mormon missionaries, being marked by the baptism of two converts, one a man who occupies a position in connection with the management of the harbour, and the other was a married woman with three children. The ceremony took place after the Mormon service, between 9 and 10 p.m. and the spot selected was the Graving Dock. It will be satisfactory to all concerned in this work that the dock has at last been turned to some more than ordinary purpose.

“The converts were attired in white smocks and took their ‘plunge’ under the gentle handling of Elder Lorenson, Elder Pearce pronouncing the benediction with outspread hands from the top of the coping stones above. The affair was witnessed by a select few. No serious consequences are anticipated, though one of the converts, the male, complained of the cold water, and the shock to his system, the thermometer being about 80° out in the shade – of the noon of course.”

(Star, 1 March 1880)

Elder Pearce at the time was about to be embroiled in just the kind of scandal the New Zealand public expected from the members of the church – wife stealing. The Star of 2 March described how Pearce had induced Mrs. Lacey, a fisherman’s wife, to agree to accompany him (with her three children) to Salt Lake City. She it was who had been one of the nighttime converts at the graving dock. But, the paper went on to report, the plan went awry when her husband found out, got a warrant, and had his errant wife forcibly removed from the mail steamer where she waited with her children for Elder Pearce. “The true outcome of these Mormon missions is now disclosed,” the Star tutted. “It is the seduction of respectable women from their husbands, and the corruption of our homes.”


The Otago Witness, 1 May 1880, summed the scandal up.

"What an extraordinary people is this !" wrote Voltaire when he came to England— they have seventy religions, and only one sauce !" The sauce was probably "melted butter," at that time the only condiment distinctively English. We have since added "Worcester" and perhaps another or two to our one sauce, but we have added at a much more rapid rate to our seventy religions. The soul, and not the stomach, you see, is the chief British concern! (Something wrong about logic if it conducts to such an inference as that.)

Here in New Zealand we are just importing a new religion from America. Two Mormon elders have appeared in Auckland as propagandists of the faith delivered to Joseph Smith, and, have prospered sufficiently to attract to their meeting such a theological and political celebrity as the Rev, Dr. Wallis, M.H.R., and to have started a vigorous controversy in the newspapers.

"As for the charge of a stealing a woman, we don't entice any man's wife or daughter away. We have, thank the Lord, plenty of our own [no doubt !] and we are not sent to steal woman, but to preach the true Gospel. . . But if a man is a brute to his woman, are the Saints to blame because the woman, embracing the gospel of truth, wants to go where she will be treated as a human being, having equal rights with men?" I can't suspect Elder Sorenson of having read Herodotus, or I should say he was paraphrasing the explanation which the Persians used to give of their habit of carrying off Greek girls. They didn't steal the girls, not in the least; they merely permitted them to sail away on board their ships. Out of women-stealing, says the Father of History, wars arose between Greeks and Persians — and between Mormons and Gentiles — he would add, if alive to write history now. Brother Sorenson should take warning … We might tolerate him in preaching additional marriage privileges to men. That is a different matter. Polygamy on that side might be worth considering. It is in applying the doctrine to women, and teaching them to insurrect and elope, that his troubles will begin.”

The 1889 Avondale Railway Station burglary

A nasty surprise awaited a diligent government servant in Avondale one October Monday morning in 1889, in the days before we had a resident police constable. It could be said, however, that a basic form of country “neighbourhood watch” had come in handy back then.

Less than two months after he’d taken up his position as both stationmaster and post master at the Avondale rail station, Mr. Amos Eyes came to work to find the premises had been broken into during the night. He quickly sent a telegram to the Auckland police, and two detectives were despatched to the distant rural railway station: a Detective Herbert immediately by horse-cab, followed closely by a Detective Ede.

The safe was found, unopened, 70 yards from the station building by Mr. Eyes. From what the detectives could piece together, here’s what happened.

The burglars may have broken into the workshop of blacksmith George Downing and taken two hammers and a plough coulter. Downing found these put back on the premises, but not where he’d left them (his smithy was located where Civic Video is today on Great North Road, next to Avondale Primary School). If this was the case, these must have been thoughtful crims indeed! Then, heading back up the hill in heavy rain around 1am in the morning, the burglars tried breaking in via the station’s door, but found that job was making too much noise. Finding a window pane which had only just been replaced, and so the putty was still soft, they removed the glass, turned back the hasp of the sash, and got inside.

With their tools, they made short work of the door’s lock from the inside, and hefted out the safe. It was while they were obviously trying to open the safe itself, outside the station, when they came unstuck; the noise finally roused neighbouring dogs, and the dogs’ owners turned on their lights to see what was causing the disturbance. The burglars scarpered, their footprints lost in the heavy downpour, but without the object of the escapade. It isn’t known whether or not they were finally apprehended.

The unpleasant surprise for Mr. Eyes didn’t put him off his duties at Avondale – he went on to be our combined stationmaster/post master for another 11 years.

Before Avondale’s Mosque: teachers, tanners and stationmasters

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Epsom Mt Eden
June 7th 1873

To The Hon Dr. Pollen

Dr Sir

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

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

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

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

Your Humble and Obedient Servant

Amos Eyes

(copy)

Epsom Mt Eden
Mar 4th 1873

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

Dear Sir

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

Your Humble and Obedient Servant

A Eyes

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

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

(Southern Cross, 1 January 1875)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


The site in 1959.


The site in 2001.

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

Weasel attack

From Weekly News, 12 January 1900.

Our Waiuku correspondent write: -- A little girl, 11 years of age, daughter of Mr. James Lowe of Packington, had rather a strange experience during the past week.

The child went to frighten some fowls out of the garden. Whilst standing in the paddock calling the dog she felt something tugging at her foot, and on looking down saw a strange animal.

The little one began to kick; and after several attempts managed to throw the brute off. The child at once began to run, when the weasel, which it proved to be, chased her. Being much frightened the little girl soon became exhausted.

Fortunately she had a stock whip handle in her hand, and on the weasel making for her she struck it, thereby killing it. Luckily the child had boots on.

Beverley Price memorial, Oakley Creek

One of the members of the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society spotted a reprinted article (originally from the Sunday Star Times) in the "Auckland Grammar Old Girls' Newsletter" recently, and sent a copy over to me. It was about Beverley Joy Price, a member of the Alpine Sports Club who was one of those who forged through the weeds and long grasses that grow verdantly beside the winding Oakley Creek in the 1970s and pushed for the establishment of a public walkway there.

Oakley Creek boasts Auckland City's only natural waterfall, a drawcard for folk from far and near. It isn't Niagara, we know, or even the mighty flows in the Waitakere Ranges, but we are rather fond of it all the same.

According to the article, Beverley Price along with a couple of friends formed an all-woman alpine team, tramping and taking on Mt. Cook, Mt. Ruapehu and Mt. Tasman in the 1940s and 1950s. She knew Sir Edmund Hillary, meeting him in a late 1940s summer in a hut on Mt. Tasman. "He was a rather gangling young man," according to her friends, "very good fun." On an expedition Beverley went on to the Himalayas, however, four climbers were killed in an avalanche.

She had attended Auckland Girls Grammar, become a teacher and head of languages at Westlake High School, and took early retirement after 30 years in the profession. At the end of her first year of retirement, in November 1979, Beverley and her mother gave each other Christmas presents (Beverley never married, and lived with her mother to the end of her life). The presents -- were tickets for an Antarctic flight on Air New Zealand TE901, 28 November 1979.

Beverley and her mother perished in the Erebus disaster, along with 235 other passengers and 20 crew.

On 2 July 1994, Auckland City Council installed a memorial plaque for Beverley Price, alongside one of the Oakley Creek walkway bridges. It reads:

"The Avondale Community Board dedicates this section of walkway in memory of Beverley Joy Price whose research, foresight, and active campaigning provided the foundation for the development of a walkway route along Oakley Creek. An accomplished mountaineer, tramper, teacher and member of the former Walkways Committee. Beverley died in the Air New Zealand DC10 plane crash on Mount Erebus in Antarctica on 28 November 1979."

Members of the Alpine Sports Club attended the dedication.

Riccarton, oh Riccarton ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to Papers Past.

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

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

(Timaru Herald, 30 July 1864)

By 1866, things seemed to have settled down.

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

(Evening Post, 19 January 1866)

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

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

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

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.