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Erratum: In Volume 7 No. 2, 2010 the caption on page 58 should read “Ian Douglas Simpson - 1922 - 2010”. The error is regretted.
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We are pleased to bring you the third Journal in Volume 7. The Journal includes seven articles, many of them produced by Society members. The article on Thomas Cawthron was written by Karamea Fossett from the Nelson College for Girls, who was the recipient of the Jeff Newport Memorial Prize.
The Society continues to have a wide range of interesting guest speakers, many of whom go on to produce Journal articles, adding to the rich tapestry of historical information contained within its pages. We would again like to thank our many contributors, who enable us to keep this valuable and interesting publication alive.
The Society has continued its support of the Tasman Bays Heritage Trust by making a donation to support the Glass Plate Negative Project. This involves the re-housing and digitising of more than 120,000 irreplaceable glass plate negatives. It will include images from the Tyree Studio Collection, which was donated by the Society in 1965. It is hoped that, when completed, the Project will enable the public to view the images and purchase copies online.
2011 sees the Rugby World Cup being held in New Zealand, with three games in Nelson. The Italian team is to use Nelson as its base, which is very appropriate given the strong Italian community here. The Society was fortunate to have Clive Akers present the biennial James Jenkins lecture, the subject of which was Charles Monro, the founder of rugby in New Zealand. This event was held at Nelson College, an apprpriate venue as a College team played in that first game. Clive’s lecture will feature in the next issue.
Society member Alec Woods has been one of the main motivators behind the installation of the History Boards commemorating the Boathouse. They were launched on the 17th of April 2011.
I would like to thank all our contributors, our editor, Dawn Smith, and Karen Price for the design and layup. I hope you enjoy the contents.
Finally, I would like to thank the Society for the privilege of serving as President. As this is my second year, our new President, Karen Stade, will take over at the AGM; I wish her and the Society well for the future.
1
The first gold rush in Golden Bay began at the Aorere Valley in February 1857, with many miners, including Maori, arriving from other parts of New Zealand. Many also came from the Australian gold fields of Victoria. By September 1857, 1,000 miners were at the Aorere gold fields. Another rush began in early October 1857 at the new Takaka diggings. Schooner operators advertised sailings to the Takaka Diggings from Nelson to Waitapu. A report by Constable Robert Taylor in the Examiner heralded the discovery of gold in the Anatoki and Takaka Rivers during the same month. He noted that the Anatoki River was flooded,
1 William Skeet’s party found gold
at Upper Takaka in November 1857.2 In May 1858 miners were reported to be doing
well in the Waitui River.3 The following month, Mr Saunders Rogers was reported
as having been prospecting in the Waikaro (sic) (Waingaro river), and the prospects
looked good for the coming summer.4
The first record of John Vittle in New Zealand appears in an account by James
Mackay Junior of his exploration of a route to the Buller River from the Takaka
River.5 He recorded that John Vittel (sic) arrived at John Lindsay’s house on the
evening of 7 December 1858. Lindsay’s house was at Uruwhenua, probably section
9 Block VII, and was the furthest house up the Takaka Valley. James Mackay and
his travelling partner, Captain Lockett, were staying the night there, having travelled
from Collingwood. Next morning the four men headed south, along a track heading
for Riwaka, but on reaching Long Ford on the Takaka River, they turned west and
went up the Takaka River. They lunched at John Vittle’s campsite, located about
Section 3 Block XI, and camped for the night by Rheumatic Creek, alongside what is
now called the Blue Pool, on the Cobb Valley Road. Next morning they climbed up
the ridge now called Kill Devil. Vittle and Lindsay headed down into the Waingaro
to prospect for gold, while Mackay and Lockett headed along the ridge to what
is now Mt Peel. Vittle and Lindsay appear to have been gold digger mates on the
Waingaro Gold Field at this time.
An advertisement in the Nelson Examiner of 21 March 1860 includes both Vittle,
miner, Takaka, and Lindsay, farmer, Takaka, in a list of those qualified to serve as
jurors in the district of Golden Bay for the years 1860 to 1861.6
In 1870 John Vittle was granted land by the Nelson Provincial Government, a farmlet
of 36 acres on section 53 Block XV7, which is at the start of the Waitui road. In the
same year he was charged two shillings and two pence for rates, plus the previous
years by the Takaka Road Board.8 In 1874 he was granted a lease over 487 acres in
the Takaka District, for which he was charged an annual rental of £7-15-0.
It is interesting to note that, in a lease return of 1876, John Vittal’s (sic) lease was
double the size of those of three other Upper Takaka residents, George Hailes, John
Lindsay and Joseph Breadmore. Six years later, in 1880, J. Vittle is listed as having
forfeited his lease for non payment, with the land now open for application. The
437 acres were described as sections 69, 70, 75, 76, square 89, and adjoined his
section 53 in a south-easterly direction, across to Aaron Creek. John Vittle appears
in the 1880 and 1890 electoral rolls as a miner in Upper Takaka, owning section
53. In Wise’s Nelson Westland & Marlborough Directory 1894-1895 he is in the
Takaka listing as Vittal, (sic) John, miner. In the 1896 electoral roll he is listed with
These photos show the miners’ accommodation of the day. The three miners
are the same in each photo and the miner wearing the boater hat possibly
resembles John Vittle. Note the dog nestled at his feet. Three different asbestos
prospecting licences were issued for the Mt Arthur area in late 1889.10
a residential qualification in Upper Takaka, while those for 1905, 1911 and 1914 list him as a miner, Upper Takaka.
In February 1883 Charles Lewis, the local surveyor, was instructed to make a trig
survey from the Tableland to the Karamea. He had three fellow travellers: Henry
Phillip Washbourn, who wrote an account of the trip, Arthur Berry and James
Hargraves 11. Washbourn noted an old digger, who may have been John Vittle,
and wrote: “Loneliness had little terrors for the old diggers as many of them
would go off alone in the back country prospecting for months at a time, but
the most remarkable case was a man in Takaka who used to be away in the very
back country for months at a time. It was not as if he were saving up for a special
purpose or making much money, but it was his way of enjoying life. For food he
depended entirely on catching eels, wekas and kiwis and lived on these without
bread or vegetables.”... ”We came across him in a gorge (Grecian Creek) of the
Upper Takaka river. He had a 6ft x 8ft tent and his bed was a few boughs on the
ground and not sufficient of them to hide the moss underneath them so he must
have been always more or less wet as he had no means of drying anything and no
sun to do so. He had been living that life a good many years then and continued
to do so till a good old age, in fact as long as he could. At least 40 years of his life
were spent in this way. Not many years ago the man was very ill and it was thought
that there was no chance of his recovery and he was always worrying very much
about a place where he thought there was a bit of gold, but he could not go to it
by himself. George Gibson (miner Kaituna), a very much esteemed man who was
talking to him, thinking to kindly ease a dying man’s mind said, when you get well
I will go with you. To the surprise of everyone the man did get better and Gibson
being a man of his word, to his dismay had to go, but before they started from
Takaka the man found that he was not up to going so the jaunt ended.”12
My guess is that the man would have been John Vittle, doing some fossicking during the warmer time of the year before going back to his hut on section 53 for the winter. A hut existed on this section in my father’s lifetime and, to his knowledge, it had belonged to Vittle. I have not been able to confirm for how long he owned the section. He certainly would have been hardened to life as a digger and was still doing it in his eighties, existing on only a loaf of bread and a bit of cheese, and in poor health when he came to grief.
There is no evidence of Vittle obtaining an old age pension, so his income was
derived solely from selling gold. The Bank of New Zealand’s Takaka Branch records
show that J. Vittal (sic) sold gold to the bank between 1885 and 1896, with Takaka
given as its origin. In 1893 he sold gold sourced from the Waingaro.13
Charles Lewis had blazed a track from Upper Takaka to the Tablelands for the
Collingwood County Council in 1882. Collingwood and Takaka were both part
of the Collingwood County between 1877 and 1904. In 1883 the surveyor,
H. A. Tarrant, defined a line of road from Upper Takaka to Grecian Creek, which
later became Barron’s Flat Track.14 Today it is known as the Upper Takaka Track.
John Vittle probably already had a digger’s track near the one which Charles Lewis
blazed, going to the ridge that looks down on what is now the Takaka River Bridge.
When we planted pines on the land facing the Takaka Bridge Flat, we discovered
a 75cm wide track going down the ridge to the flat adjoining the bridge. We also
found an old slasher there. John Vittle may have made this track, or it could have
been put in by Mr Burns, who later farmed the area, before the Cobb Road was
put in during 1937
It was on this flat that John Vittle had erected his new tent at the time he went missing in 1914. He had probably realised that, at eighty plus, he was too old to be walking up a river which he had to cross seven times. He therefore established a base where he didn’t have to cross the Takaka River, and was gathering his gear from the base up-river when he disappeared. No body was ever found, which isn’t surprising, as it was October and the spring thaw would have been in progress. The rocks would have been slippery and the water very cold for a man of his age. The search didn’t start until a month after he was last seen.
Rumours that John Vittle had been bumped off for his gold began to circulate locally. One of his neighbours, George Galey, bought a new car, and this was a time when there were very few cars about. There was speculation about where the money for it had come from, and the rumours increased when he suddenly moved permanently to Australia. George Galey, who had helped in the search, did contract work with horses and bullocks for the County Council and had been paid £108 for contracts in 1912. He had dissolved his farm partnership with his brother in 1913. People were shifting to Australia at this time, an example being my mother’s two aunts, who went to Tasmania. I doubt that Vittle would have had large amounts of gold, as the Takaka River was not considered to be a good prospecting area. I only discovered that there had been gold digging in the Takaka River while researching this story, having previously thought that John Vittle was a Waitui digger. His body was said to have been dumped in a tomo on Waitui Hill.
Iva Cameron (nee Lindsay) wrote the following in her Memoirs: “John Lindsay kept
a store from about 1860 onwards, for a number of years, to enable gold diggers
above Guards to obtain grocery supplies. When my mother (James Lindsay’s
daughter) was a school girl she and others panned for gold in the Waitui Creek
and always obtained a few colours. There were gold diggers up at the head of the
15
The following account of the search for, and assumed demise of, John Vittle was
published in the “No trace whatever has been found of Mr John Vittle, who has not been
heard of for a month, and there is no doubt he has perished from exposure or
being drowned in the Takaka river. The particulars of the sad circumstances
are as follows: “On the 28th ult, Constable Edwards received a wire from Messers Galey
and Barnett, Upper Takaka, to the effect that John Vittle, a digger, was
missing from his camp on the bank of the Takaka river, Barron’s Flat. Search
parties have been out the two previous days, a further party consisting of the
Constable, Messers Galey(2), Barnett(2) and 11 others, organised a thorough
search of the river and adjacent hills and gullies. “The missing prospector left Galey’s Upper Takaka on October 7th, taking with
him a loaf of bread and a small piece of cheese. He carried a swag consisting
of a new 6 x 8 ft tent, 1lb of tea, and a few articles of wearing apparel. The
tent was pitched on the banks of the river with all above mentioned articles
except the loaf of bread (a week old) and cheese. “He left the scene of former operations some six months ago, on account of
failing health (for which he had latterly been under the doctor’s care) and at
that time left a tent behind, which is pitched two miles from the site of the
present one. His blankets and tools having been left in the former abode, it
was apparent the missing man had not visited the same. To go there would
have entailed the crossing of the river no less than seven times, and it seems
very evident that Vittle, who was over 80, almost blind, and in feeble health
has come to grief in the river, where the stones are slippery, and been washed
into one of the deep holes which abound in the stream, in places 15 to 20
feet deep. Failing this he must have undoubtedly perished from exposure and
want of food; the chances of finding him alive are very remote. “Searchers were out on Sunday but met with no success. The search parties,
in most cases, are experienced men with a thorough knowledge of locality,
and no stone has been left unturned to elucidate the mystery surrounding
the fate of the unfortunate man. Mr Vittle was a gold digger of 50 years’
standing and was universally respected and esteemed by all with whom he
came in contact, and who will deeply regret to hear of his disappearance.”Golden Bay Times of Thursday 5 November 1914:
John Vittle’s photo was taken by Nelson
photographer William Davis, who
specialised in portrait photography in
Nelson from 1860 to 1873.16 His negatives
are now held at the Nelson Provincial
Museum. The Vittle portrait is listed as Mr
Vittle 10162/1 and has the name, spelt
Vital, etched on the negative.
Henry Washbourn gives a very good description of a typical digger’s clothing, which matches John Vittle’s appearance in this photo.
“The general dress of the digger was
moleskin trousers and blue or red serge
shirts and worn outside of the trousers. In
shape it was like an ordinary shirt, a common
head gear was a knitted woollen sort of
tight cap with the peak hanging down the
back. A coat or waistcoat was never seen,
except on a visitor. Even constables wore
the serge shirts. The hair was generally
long and the beards long and untrimmed,
making the general appearance very rough
and of course they all carried a sheath or
bowie knife. The first sign of dandyism
was seen by a few wearing a neck cloth or
tie. Later a waistcoat was worn on special
occasions under the blue shirt. Still later a
waistcoat and coat. Both were worn and
by degrees it became usual.”17
The plaque attached to its surround reads:
THIS FOUNTAIN WAS PRESENTED TO THE CITY BY MR. & MRS. B.H. MOLLER AUGUST 1940;
The story preceding its placement deserves to be told.
The citizens of Nelson were first made aware of the
offer to erect a fountain in the city when, on 18 April
1940, the Nelson Evening Mail published the following
brief notice:
Illuminated Fountain Church Hill Site Selected
The Nelson City Council has decided to install an illuminated fountain at the top of the Church Steps. The fountain was recently donated to the city by a citizen who wishes to remain anonymous. The necessary equipment is now available and the installation will be commenced almost immediately.
This was followed the very next day by a letter to the Editor signed by “Watcher”, and subsequently by two from “Another Watcher” and “Observant”, and then by many more.
All three of the first letters expressed regret at the choice of site for a fountain which, according to “Watcher”, “should be among trees and water and grassy lawns”.
Such was the interest in the location of
the proposed fountain that the Nelson
Evening Mail published seventeen letters
to the Editor in all. There were also six
articles, including a lengthy contribution
from the Bishop of Nelson, between 18
April and 8 August, when the opening
finally took place.
Public debate about a suitable site was so strong that on 6 May the newspaper published a voting form, inviting readers to participate in the Mail Subscribers’ Straw Ballot. It was noted, however, that the result would merely be an indication of the citizens’ preference, and that the ultimate decision on the fountain’s placement would be made by the Council.
The suggested sites listed were: Anzac Park, Church Hill, Haven Road, Miller’s Acre (site of the present day Information Centre and Car Park) and Queen’s Gardens, with provision made for readers to add any other site.
Although the Nelson Evening Mail does
not appear to have recorded the voting
In the interim, the Council had been advised about possible problems of spray from the fountain affecting businesses near Anzac Park. It had considered other sites, namely the Church Hill, Miller’s Section and the Queen’s Gardens. The councillors’ preferences were equally divided between Church Hill and Queen’s Gardens and, as the Mayor did not wish to use his casting vote, he decided, together with the Deputy Mayor, to discuss the matter with the donor. Before he could report back to the Council, he had received a strongly worded protest from the Bishop against the selection of Church Hill. Eventually the Haven Road site was agreed upon.
The Nelson Evening Mail report
published on 8 August states that the
identity of the previously unknown
donor was disclosed when the fountain’s
mechanism was turned on by Mrs D. L.
Moller. It occurred in the presence of a
large crowd gathered under the trees on
the reserve and on Maori Road, opposite
the fountain.
According to Mrs Moller her husband,
who had died in 1933, had always said
The following extract from the Cyclopaedia of New Zealand gives a brief biography
of Mr Moller which describes his many and varied activities in Nelson.
“Mr Bernard Henry Moller carried on business as a seed, fruit, and potato merchant, in Bridge Street, Nelson. The retail premises connected with the business were situated in the busiest part of Nelson, and were established in 1878. Mr. Moller is a strong believer in going to the fountain-head for everything, and he therefore imported direct from the growers in England, Germany, Italy, Japan and America, his stock of seeds, bulbs, plants and trees, and everything required in a seedsman’s business. He also imported oranges and lemons from Messina and confectionery from London and Paris. His seed-testing grounds were in Milton Street, and the potato grounds at Riwaka. In the spring thousands of tomatoes, cabbages, and other plants were produced and sent to all parts of the province. One special variety of potato introduced by Mr. Moller was the “Charles Downing,” which, after a severe trial of seven years against other fancy sorts, proved itself king of all early varieties. Everyone who has grown it, speaks in the highest terms of it, as an all-round potato. Mr. Moller shipped potatoes and fruit to all parts of New Zealand.
He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1851, and was for seven years at the Deutsche Schule and three at the English Grammar school. After leaving school he went into a merchant’s office (that of Noltenius and Co.), and came to Hokitika in 1867. A year later he went to Nelson where he worked with the late Mr. Burrell in the produce trade, and in four years they entered into partnership under the style of Burrell and Moller. The partnership was mutually dissolved in 1878. Mr. Moller is a Justice of the Peace, and has been a member of the Nelson City Council. He is a past master in the Masonic Order, P.Z. in the Trafalgar Royal Arch Chapter, and a member of the Wellington Chapter of the Rose Croix, No. 14; a past provincial grand master in the
Order of Oddfellows, and a trustee for the Manchester Unity in the Nelson district; treasurer of the Nelson Horticultural Society; vice-president of the Prince Albert Football Club, and member of the Nelson Bowling Club. He retired from business some time ago.”
Bernhard Moller paid frequent visits to the West Coast. Shipping reports from 1870-71 record Moller on the passenger lists. At a Horticultural Society meeting in 1897 he mentioned having recently visited the West Coast and reported on the state of the produce there.
During his time as a councillor, Mr Moller appears to have taken an active part not only at meetings, but also in a number of other activities. These included judging the Children’s Sports events during the celebrations for the coronation of Edward VII. He had also been appointed Leading Marshall for The Procession, one of many activities arranged to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
He played a major role in the Horticultural Society where, as well as exhibiting many prize blooms, he offered helpful advice to other members concerning the cultivation of fruit, vegetables and flowers.
He was listed as a new Justice of the Peace in June 1899.
Bernhard Moller died in Nelson on 17 June 1933 aged 82 years, and on 20 June
an account of his funeral was published in the Nelson Evening Mail. It records
that Archdeacon Dart conducted services at the house and at the graveside at
Wakapuaka cemetery, with the Masonic burial service being read by G. B. Fleming.
Attendees included the Mayor, ex-Mayor and representatives of various societies,
who were pallbearers. Floral emblems were received from the Masonic and
Oddfellows’ Lodges, the Horticultural Society and many private friends.
A motion of sympathy was passed by the Nelson Rugby Union Management Committee to Mrs B. H. Moller on the death of her husband, who had been a vicepresident of the union.
Dorothea Louisa Sigglekow was born on 24 September 1855, the fourth child of Johan and Fredrike Louise Sigglekow. She was apparently named Louisa after her Mother and Dorothea after her paternal Grandmother.
On 1 October 1877 the Nelson Evening Mail recorded her marriage to Bernard
Henry Moller, at the Registrar’s Office in Nelson on 24 September, which was her
In 1899 The Colonist records her as one of the nominees for Mr Graham as a
candidate for the Nelson seat in Parliament. It also reports a meeting of Mr Graham’s
Ladies’ Committee attended by seventy to eighty ladies. The large number was no
doubt a result of the increased interest taken in politics by women following the
passing of the Electoral Bill in 1893.
She had the distinction of having been appointed the first Chief Ranger of Female
Foresters in the world. The Colonist edition of 21 March 1893 recorded the event
with this delightful quote from the ‘Miscellany’:
“In Old England the Fair Foresters were for a time tabooed, but in the ‘New Lands beyond the Seas,’ where the fair ones enjoyed more liberty than in the ‘Old Countree,’ things were different. On the Pacific slope, evolutions brought forth the ‘Companions of the Forest,’ where lovely woman quickly found herself the equal of the man. Then, as if to prove that Fair Forestry was
catholic and universal, not bounded by the narrow confines of Europe and America, we find it springing up in Nelson, New Zealand where, in the year of 1892, a Court was founded, and Sister Moller was the first Chief Ranger in that far distant land ...”
Dorothea’s identity as the donor was revealed at the opening ceremony of the fountain when she turned it on and addressed those present. She died on 29 June 1944 at her residence, 58 Halifax Street, and is buried in the Wakapuaka cemetery.
Over the years the Moller Fountain has suffered marks of ageing and, sometimes, a lack of maintenance. In addition there has been the more recent unfortunate painting in various bright colours. It is pleasing to see that now, in 2010, apart from some modification to the base, the Moller memorial has been restored to the former elegance it deserves. I am sure that this is what both Dorothea and Bernard would have wished.
I have access to a painting by Henry, my grandfather’s brother, on the back of which Herbert’s daughter (my aunt Elsie) recorded a chilling story after my grandfather’s death in 1926. At an overnight stop in the 1860 two-day forced march of the Rawson family from their sacked Taranaki home, certain spine-tingling instructions were issued by my great grandfather. The two oldest boys were to shoot “Louisa and the two little ones” (my grandfather Herbert and his young brother Ernest) “in the event of falling into the hands of hostile natives”. This aunt continued: “... they were lucky as only friendly Maoris were encountered...”.
I have heaved many sighs of relief since reading that! Alarmingly, one of the firing squad would have been Henry, destined to become a celebrated painter etc. and citizen of Nelson, and the subject of my presentation to this Society in 2008.
The first Taranaki War had started, and my grandfather was six, when the Provincial Government ordered all women and children to leave the province. Maori warriors were about to attack New Plymouth and all men were called to arms to defend the town. Herbert’s three older brothers answered the call, with one, Fred, being the first to be severely wounded. All three and their Provincial Surgeon father were later awarded the NZ Medal.
Louisa, in 1892, recalled the chaos before the evacuation to Nelson: “... on March
28th, about midday, the signal cannon was fired; we were just sitting down to an
early dinner. It was as though an electric shock had passed through us; each face
was deathly-looking. Simultaneously we rose. I hurried the little ones into town.
“Fly. Children, fly; don’t wait for me!” putting tiny bundles of clothes into their
arms. We all, the W—’s and I, followed so soon as we could collect a few things
together, hurried in all our arrangements by a messenger on horseback from the
Herbert (6), together with Ernest (5), and with sister Louisa (14) in charge, were hastily evacuated on 31 March on SS Airedale to Nelson, where they remained for over a year. Louisa was not only sister but was, of necessity, also acting the role of mother. Their own mother had died the previous year “of twins” (stillborn) at her eleventh and terminal confinement.
The Taranaki Provincial Secretary had written that free passages would be provided on the Airedale and Wonga Wonga to persons “of all conditions” with the inducement of cabin berths for those who would be supported on arrival. The “poorer members of the community” were given steerage berths. He found “... great difficulty in inducing women to leave their husbands and sons in a time of trial and the first movement was made by the educated classes...”. The voyage, which must have been chaotic, included as passengers a Mr and Mrs Sharland with eleven children.
Nelson editorials show that the refugees were warmly welcomed in Nelson. The
Nelson Examiner recorded the arrival of over 1,000 women and children and the
Nelson Provincial Government provided rations and free accommodation. This
was either in homes, the Oddfellows Hall, or in six hastily constructed buildings
opposite the hospital in Waimea Road, known as the Taranaki Buildings. Others
stayed privately. We read in the Examiner: “... a committee of ladies is actively
exerting itself to lessen the unavoidable privations which could not fail to attend
such a hurried migration. Schools for the children, both male and female, have also
been set on foot...”.
Dr Sealy, with Messrs Rough, Lethwaite and Gray, was appointed to a subcommittee of the hastily formed Taranaki Aid Committee to board each shipload, and he initially took the three Rawson children under his family’s care.
Dr W B Sealy, sometimes spelt Sealey, was a medical practitioner in Hardy Street, and my further researches reveal that he had wisely left his Taranaki property for Nelson in 1859. His home and farm were near that of the Rawson family and, with some 175 others, was destined to be set on fire when overrun by the “rebels”. His advertisement in the Taranaki Herald of 25 December 1858 reminds us that transactions using the toss of a coin were as popular in Victorian times as now. It read: “Dr Sealy being about to leave the settlement is desirous of disposing of the well known bull “Samson” and cow imported direct from England by lottery”.
On 4 April 1861 my great-grandfather Thomas, Herbert’s father, wrote from New Plymouth to his sister, Elizabeth, in London: “... poor Louisa and the children have now been away from us upwards of twelve months and they are sick of the long separation...”.
He also wrote: “... I am just about sending Alfred, Arthur and Tom to boarding school in Nelson and hoped to be able to exchange them for Louisa and the two little ones but General Pratt would hear of no exchange...”. Thomas also remarked that he understood that the new general, Cameron, was “disposed to relax these orders”. This indeed came to pass, as the “exchange” took place shortly afterwards, when Louisa, Herbert and Ernest returned to New Plymouth on the same ship that had transported them south 14 months earlier.
Their brothers, Alfred, Arthur and Tom were soon to enter Nelson College as the first ever boarders. They were referred to in the minutes of 21 November, when the Board of Governors also agreed to remit 10 pounds for each boarder from Taranaki.
After the three Rawson children’s return to New Plymouth, the family was represented in Nelson not only by the three Nelson College boarders, but also Henry, the reluctant possible comurderer of his three youngest siblings and indirectly of the writer of this article. He found better things to do, as I related to the friends of the Turnbull Library and others in 2008.
Louisa returned to London, married a British diplomat and, as Louisa Rawson- Walker, sailed with him to his consular post at Manila. While there, in 1898, as an intermediary and possibly with Louisa at his side, he had the satisfaction of transmitting the Spanish surrender note to the Americans, with the result that the embryonic American-Spanish war terminated.
Ernest graduated in medicine, returned to New Zealand from England to a practice in New Plymouth and, after his father’s death, moved to Wellington about 1879. He became the “doctors’ doctor”, so we were told.
Herbert prospered as one of only two Wellington dentists, having taken over his mentor, Henry’s, practice in 1879. He was instrumental in getting a dental education vote through parliament, when not attending to Premier “Dick” Seddon’s teeth. My father would say: “after all Seddon did, not Seddon done (said and done)”. Herbert’s still-standing Woodward Street / Wellington Terrace heritage home is shown on page 30.
While researching this article, I have
speculated how the education of my
grandfather and his two siblings and
their future successes in life could have
followed 14 months of terrifying nearabandonment.
Their names are not in
the Bishop’s School roll and I wondered
where else they might have been
educated. The matter became blindingly
clear, when I received a phone call from
Anna Wilkinson, former archivist and
“... we are to take three of the “Taranaki refugees”, a Miss Rawson and her two little brothers, to relieve the overfull household of their present hosts Dr and Mrs Sealey”.
I have assumed that the Greenwood family would have provided home schooling of quality. John Danford Greenwood and his well educated wife and painter, Sarah, were some of the earliest European settlers, with John, an editor and teacher, becoming the first principal of Nelson College in 1863. He seems to have been an excellent and un- Victorian and un-Dickensian character for such an important appointment. An admirer wrote of him in 1851:
“... he promises to be a good musician, good navigator, good seaman, good linguist, good scholar indeed in most solid branches of education, and is the cleverest, most cheerful and co-operative young fellow... he is the most amusing companion and accompanies me to the native village... where if I don’t keep constantly reminding him to keep his “school face”, he plays with the children, torments the cats by nursing them and damages my character for gravity...”. (
Greenwood papers)
There is also a possibility that the three
children may have attended the special
Firstly, for a comprehensive pupil assessment report for the Taranaki Herald which included this gem, not so different from to-day: “... the more forward children appear pleased to acquire instruction, but the majority evince the natural dislike of young children to the irksomeness of learning, and the restraint necessarily imposed by school discipline... “.
And, secondly, for a local news item on 3 September 1864:
“Birth Extraordinary. — Our readers will find amongst those interesting little announcements which are the vehicles of so much happiness as well as grief, and which our sporting contemporary, Bell’s Life in Sydney, has irreverently paraphrased as “Hatched, Matched, and Despatched,” a notification which is probably without parallel in this colony:
“On the 2nd September, at Richmond, the wife of Mr. R. M. Sunley, of a triplet, two boys and a girl.” Such a wholesale contribution to our population should, we think, be made the occasion of a special congratulation, and we would suggest that Mr. Sunley should make application for the largesse invariably granted by Her Majesty in such cases.”
Personal letters, and documents, Nelson Provincial Museum staff (thanks to Dawn
Smith, Anna Wilkinson and Helen Pannett); assorted email photographic attachments
from Wellington Maritime and Waiouru Military Museums. Downloaded images
include New Plymouth and John Greenwood. Emails from England (inscribed back
of painting); plus many newspapers, mostly via www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
including the following:
“It is doubtful if Nelson’s “oldest” can call to mind a worse hail storm than passed over the town on Thursday night. The full extent of the damage was not realised till the sun rose next morning and glistened on the landscape decorated in a white mantle of hail, which covered the ground like snow to a depth ranging from a few inches outside the least affected area to some twelve or fourteen inches in the centre of the zone covered by the visitation...
“Toi Toi Valley was the heart of the disturbance, and at 10 o’clock an inky black mass loomed up over the Port hills and rolled on till its edge met a counter mass which apparently came from an opposite direction. On both sides could be distinguished the starry sky with the pall-like hail clouds between. A little rain preceded the great downfall, then came hail, huge at first, that fell with catapultic force. Some of these stones were gathered from the bottom of the hail mounds yesterday afternoon and measured 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch across.
“In the nurseries the noise arising from glasshouses resembled the firing of pea rifles through the panes, which smashed by the score. The huge stones ... descended like showers of gravel upon the roofs, almost rivalling the force of a storm felt in Canterbury some years back where the ice penetrated corrugated iron roofs. No sound could be heard save the infernal din of hail, and owners of orchards could only guess at the vast amount of damage resulting to their crops outside. To venture whither was impossible and impotent. ... Meanwhile roofs and gutters in all quarters of the town proved totally inadequate to serve their purposes, and floods of water and hail mingled found their way into many dwellings. Spoutings were torn from the walls and verandahs collapsed under the superincumbent masses. ... Cases are reported where fowls, left unprotected in the open, were battered into insensibility, and then frozen to death by being covered with hailstones, other poultry on the other hand were drowned in their runs by the flood water, which, did considerable damage in other directions, principally in stripping binding matter of roads. ... This will cost the Nelson City Council a considerable amount to repair.”
Boarding fees were only £39 ($78) per 13 week term and, consequently, facilities were basic by today’s standard. The boys themselves did most of the caretaking, inside and out, under the supervision of the three prefects.
The present Ballroom was the Common Room, with
a homework hush from 7-9pm being followed by hot
cocoa. This was prepared by Miss Gaynor, the aged
live-in matron. Her flat, in the cold south-east corner
of the main building, seemed dominated by an ironing
board and shelves of clothing. Each boy handed in one
bed sheet, three sets of underwear, one school shirt,
one white shirt and one pair of pyjamas per week,
for dispatch to the College laundry. Miss Gaynor
was adept at darning socks and the elbows of worn
jerseys. Sunday attire was a white shirt with stiff collar
and studs under a grey suit and straw boater. Just
as well the film star linings of the hats were never
inspected! We wore heavy, itchy flannel shirts all year
‘Lights out’ was 9.45pm, with no talking. Twelve juniors slept in the present Gallery Room in a dormitory of white counterpanes, bedside cabinets and verandah lockers. In my first year I joined this room of mainly Preparatory pupils, who attended the small private school of Forms I and II at the College (now years 7 and 8).
Everyone else was housed in an unusual building on the hillside behind. Unusual in that the long wall facing the sea was incomplete. It reached only half way to the overhanging eave, with the open-air gap able to be partially closed by shutters, pulled up in stormy weather. If there was wind with the rain, some moisture blew inside. Some resorted to warming their beds in winter with a tomato sauce bottle. We couldn’t boil water, so used the hot tap water instead. No wonder we called it the Fowl House. It burnt down around 1979.
The building was really one long room with 10 open cubicles of three beds each,
one of which was underneath the ‘window’. There was another closed cubicle
at the far end for the prefects. They, of course, could turn their lights off when
they wished, and had the luxury of a two bar heater for warmth and toast. The
Third and fourth formers (years 9 and 10) were rostered onto boiler duty after school. Prefects supervised bed-time showers for half the boys each night. Two minutes, then a compulsory plunge into a cold bath ‘to close off the pores’. Leafraking, push lawn-mowing, path sweeping and wood splitting were done each week as punishment for minor infringements of house rules. Often, when I was a prefect in 1953, there were insufficient noticed misdemeanours for this system of ‘fatigues’ to work, and the ‘goodie-goodies’ were roped in, much to their annoyance. Spring-cleaning and tasks like cutting fennel with a sickle were handled by periodic working bees.
All our meals were at the College, over half a kilometre away downhill. The brick
path through the trees to the head of Endeavour Street was called the Burma Road,
as it was very dark at night. The Nelson Resident Magistrate lived in the first house
on the right and to steal a carrot from his garden was quite a dare. Ralph Lilly, the
music master, lived half-way down. In 1949 Ralph asked his Cathedral Choir boys
to write to their parents for one petrol coupon each for the annual choir picnic. We
felt cheated when the destination turned out to be the Maitai Reserve. The last
On week days we left Fairfield by 7.30am, not returning until 6.30pm. In spring months we had to be at College by 7.15am for P.T. on the terrace. Those heavy flannel shirts were an ideal insurance if the weather changed during the day. On Saturdays and Sundays there were extra trips for lunch and tea. After football practice mid-week, and after Sunday games, there would be another trip back for a shower. In the five years, I would have made the journey over 3,000 times.
Our unfettered, unsupervised domain was the wooded hillside, where there were banana passionfruit to peel and chestnuts to roast. We physically excavated a tennis court, behind today’s Meeting Room, and constructed cycle tracks. We made homebrew from rose-hip berries and sugar smuggled from the dining room. We stored it in a deep post hole, with a decoy undrinkable bottle for the prefects closer to the surface. We built a waterproof hut looking out over Melrose, (no Melrose Terrace then), with hazardous reading platforms high up in trees. The hut had a pot-belly stove and cockpit bucket seats.
One drizzly Sunday afternoon a stray white leghorn wandered into a clearing. A group of 10 decided to make a meal of the poor creature. In recognition of his father’s occupation as a poultry inspector, Paul Goldsmith was given the honour of wringing its neck. After flexing his biceps in anticipation, he pulled so hard the neck and body parted company. The headless chook managed to fly quite a distance purely on its nerves. We found the plucked carcase did not have enough time on our smouldering campfire to make the flesh chewable, and we departed for College tea instead.
Our greatest freedom, by today’s standards, was our free range over the Nelson countryside. As long as we were back at Fairfield by 5pm, we could roam far and wide by bike and boots. Wooded Peak, Dun Mountain, The Doubles, Jenkins Hill and the Roding Dam were all popular goals. On one memorable day we made a return trip to the upper Pelorus, below Rocks Hut. We left so early that we had breakfast on the Mineral Belt beyond Third House at 7.15am, and left the river at 10.45am to beat the curfew.
Other times we cycled to Motueka on the old gravel coastal route and back by
Moutere Highway. We even attempted Blenheim, but had to turn back at Renwick
on our heavy, un-geared bicycles with back-pedal brakes and fat tyres. We also
explored the tributary valleys of the Maitai River. Fairfield boarders were the only
Pocket money was the equivalent of 10 cents per week, plus five cents for church collection. We picked outdoor tomatoes for five cents a kerosene tin at Appleby, having been transported there by open truck deck. Broken biscuits were 25 cents a tin from K. M. Black’s in Bridge Street. On one occasion, a can of condensed milk being boiled to make caramel exploded in one of the huts. We took the face-burnt victim to the College sanatorium with the excuse that one of the water-heating boilers had blown back.
Every Sunday evening we had to hand in a letter home in an unsealed envelope, so that its contents could be censored before mailing! Because of travel distances, most of the boys did not return home for Easter or mid-term. Boarders from Nelson College for Girls travelled the day before the boys at term end. Surprisingly, there was no such rule after the holidays. Perhaps we were still under parental responsibility until we arrived back at school.
The House-master and his family lived on the top floor of Fairfield House. He came down at 9pm each night to say the Anglican benediction - lighten our darkness - but, apart from a Tuesday Assembly at College House, we seldom saw him at all. It was nick-named the Tin Wing, now the site of Roundhay, and was where the other half of Fell House lived then. For my first three years the House-master was A.J. (Jigger) Gray. He then left to become rector of Gisborne High School. I proofread his history of Kati Kati, An Ulster Plantation, while he was in residence. He was followed by the somewhat sarcastic Bernard (Bernie) Brown, and then the arty Norman (Norm) Banks.
Our deepest friendships were amongst those at the same form level. Social interaction above and below that layer were much less common than the norm these days. We inherited and developed our own patois, and had to make a mental effort to go back to standard English when at home on holiday. A mild form of fagging was forced on juniors by seniors, imitating an English public school. For instance we had to wash seniors’ football clothing, clean their football boots and make the prefects’ beds. Our generation decided that, when it was our turn, we would quietly drop the tradition, as we didn’t approve.
The most extreme form of the practice was caning by seniors in the College locker
rooms after Sunday breakfast. One stroke on principle, and one for each mistake
Butter was rationed in 1949, and we had to bring our individual ration books from home. By about the 20th of each month, the pile of coupons was exhausted. For the next 10 days, all 274 boarders went without butter on their bread or toast. Kirkpatrick’s “K” jam came in half gallon tins and was spread liberally, even on slices of sausage. The total length of a year’s supply of cans appeared in the Nelson Evening Mail. The favourite was Pie-Melon, nicknamed green back by the boys.
We ate at long tables, 24 each side on forms, with a chair at each end. The chair person had 12 others to share his tiny slab of butter with. The surface was scratched into 13 segments, and woe betide any lad who did not cut down absolutely on the vertical. There was no tablecloth. The original dining room burnt down in a fat fire in the last week of one term. We ate in shifts at The Ritz in Trafalgar Street for a day or so, before being sent home early. The old gym was commandeered and converted during the holidays.
Rudimentary gas cookers were installed, and we made allowances for the circumstances, but the quality of cooking did not improve. One lunch time all the dessert was returned in silence, uneaten. The Headmaster over-reacted, imposing a three day group punishment - you couldn’t have the prisoners running the gaol. The prefects were in extra trouble for not giving warning of the obviously planned mob-rule action. The punishment was gleefully accepted, as the food standard improved overnight!
My five years at Fairfield were a wonderful experience. Its distance from the other boarders, far from being a hardship, was more than compensated for by the smaller numbers and space for unsupervised recreation in a world of our own.
In his death he was named “the Grand Old Man”, in life
“the personification of compound interest”. No matter
the label he was given, when Thomas Cawthron passed
away, the entire city of Nelson mourned for him.
When Thomas Cawthron was born in Newington, Surrey, on May 25th 1833, Britain was in the midst of an economic slump. This could have been the determining factor in his father, James Cawthron’s, decision, in 1849, after the death of his first wife Sarah, to move his six children and new bride to Nelson, New Zealand.
Although his father had worked hard to send him and his siblings to a good school in England, because of his age (15) when he arrived in New Zealand, he was required to start work immediately. Thomas began his life in Nelson as a farm worker, but soon found that he was not cut out for the physical labour required in this job. Thomas was not one to give up easily, however, because of the strong work ethic that had been embedded in him from a young age.
Thomas Cawthron journeyed to Wellington in July 1849
to work in the office of a distant relative, Mr William
Barnard Rhodes, who was involved in the merchant
and trading industry. After the 1851 discovery of gold
in Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria, Australia, he left
After the copper mines on Dun Mountain and the coal mine in Enner Glynn opened in 1856, Thomas Cawthron began contracting work with the miners. He was a clever economist and soon began building his fortune by loaning “sums of money (at appropriate rates of interest) to his less thrifty workmates”.
By 1859, Cawthron had begun a new, long-standing career in shipping at Port Nelson. He was in charge of a number of shipping companies over the next 25 years, and in 1876, when the Union Steam Ship Company bought out the company he was working for, he “acquired a monopoly of shipping agencies in Nelson”. He also controlled overseas interests, most prominently the shipping of coal between the West Coast of New Zealand and Australia. These business successes were not, however, the root of his substantial fortune, rather this came through wellplaced investments in property, shares, mortgages and other institutions from 1860 onwards.
It was not until his retirement, in 1884, that Cawthron began thinking seriously about the ways in which he could use his money to benefit his community. He had a great deal of money and relied upon his close friends, F. G. Gibbs and J. H. Cock, to suggest various ways of spending his money to aid the whole of Nelson.
Thomas Cawthron was known around Nelson as being a recluse, but because Gibbs and Cock were so prominent in the community, they were able to encourage him to invest his money in projects for the benefit of many future generations of Nelsonians. These projects included the financing of the Church Steps in 1912-1913, costing £1800; the gift of an £1800 organ to the Nelson School of Music in 1913 and the 1913 purchase of over 2000 acres near Dun Mountain for a nature park, to be named Cawthron Park. He was also very willing to help people in need, but did not appreciate begging letters and often put conditions on his gifts. For example, in his will Cawthron provided a monthly sum for a young woman for life, provided that she did not marry, at which time the “last payment shall cease forever”.
Thomas Cawthron died in his home at the age of 83 on October 8, 1915. In his
will, he left the city of Nelson over £200,000 for the “purchase of land and the
It will never truly be known exactly how much Thomas Cawthron contributed to Nelson’s economy, community and lifestyle. There are many people of Nelson who appreciate his various contributions every day, but do not know that Cawthron was responsible for them. He was a driven, but responsible and caring individual, whose philanthropic nature created a legacy that will last a long time into the future.
The Takaka district was first settled at Motupipi by white settlers James and Ann Lovell, in the latter part
of 1842, near the 200-300 strong Maori pa at the mouth of the Motupipi river. In 1843 their second daughter, Mercy Ann, was the first pakeha baby to be born in Golden Bay. In those days Golden Bay was known as Murderers Bay. James, who also initially had land in Motueka, had the early company of his brother, Benjamin Lovell, his wife Esther and their children. Benjamin and Esther moved back to Motueka in later years. While in Motueka, James had met Joseph Packard and had talked him into coming to Motupipi with his wife Eliza and their children.1 This is why the two Lovells and Packard appear as the first three names on the central panel of the monument.
It was a year or two before these first settlers were joined by a few others, men who had been attracted by the possibilities of coal seams and lime deposits found at Motupipi. Now and again, a sailing vessel would call there to pick up coal or lime, and the occasional consignment of flax which had been dressed by Maori. All other communications with Nelson and other local towns was undertaken by whale-boats, cutters and Maori waka. The first inland route over the Takaka Hill to Riwaka was a horse track built in 1856, and it was not until 1870 that a decent road was formed.
An increasing number of settlers arrived between 1855 and 1865, as the possibilities of the district became more widely known. The Takaka Valley, with its great areas of heavy forest, drew the sawmills, which were soon producing vast quantities of sawn timber. This was taken down to the coast for shipping to Canterbury, Wanganui, Nelson and elsewhere in New Zealand. Soils in the first area settled are some of the best in New Zealand, especially at Motupipi and Clifton, and settlers grew crops such as cereals and potatoes.
In February 1857 the Aorere gold rush began, with many miners arriving from other parts of New Zealand, and a large number from the Australian gold fields. Further gold was discovered in the Takaka Valley, at Anatoki, Waingaro, Upper Takaka and Waitui, in September 1857. This attracted miners from the Aorere gold fields and further afield.
In the middle of this period two wharves were built, at Motupipi and Waitapu,
which survived because of the Takaka Valley timber resource. The Takaka Tramway
ran between Waitapu wharf and East Takaka from 1882 to 1905. Once the timber
had been cut out, the sawmills closed and so did the tramway. The Motupipi wharf
fell into disuse due to silting, and it initially appeared that it would become a thriving
boat building centre. This possibility ended when a large shed which served the
boat building industry was all but swept away in a flood.2
Settlers used the half-yearly meetings of their Motupipi and Takaka Association
to lobby the Provincial Government for facilities such as schools and roads, and
for general representation of their interests.3 This was important in ensuring the
development of such a geographically isolated community.
The idea of erecting some lasting memorial to the pioneer settlers of the Takaka
Valley was first mooted by John Joshua Langridge. A committee of locals was
formed in May 1906 to raise the necessary funds to erect a memorial. Committee
members were John Joshua Langridge (Secretary), John Frederick Rose (Chairman),
Maurice Hunter, William Charles Baigent, James Packard, John William Moulder,
4
In June 1906 The Colonist newspaper
office announced the receipt of a
circular from Mr Moulder intimating
the intention to erect a memorial, in
commemoration of the early settlers of
the Takaka District. Subscriptions were
being sought, and their Nelson office
had a subscription list that would be
forwarded to the committee. When
sufficient subscriptions had been
received, the subscribers were to be asked
to decide on the form the memorial was
to take and its site.5
John Langridge’s father, also John Langridge, had been born in Sussex in 1834, where he served an apprenticeship in the building trade. He emigrated with his wife in 1858 by the ship Indiana and landed in Lyttelton. He followed his trade in Christchurch until 1864, when he moved to Temuka where he combined building with farming for many years.
John Joshua Langridge was born in Temuka in 1864 and, at the age of 14, began working at Mr J. Mendelson’s general store in the town. He moved to the West Coast after Mendelson’s death and, after a year or two, set up a retail store at Brunnerton with Lees and Masters. After Mr Lees retired, Langridge and Masters carried on the business for a further seven years. The business did well until the Brunner Miners’ strike of 1890 which hit it very hard.
John Joshua Langridge married 18 year old Elizabeth Ruth Heley in 1890 and the couple moved to Takaka in December 1892.
Langridge had been held in high esteem at Brunnerton, where he had been Captain of the Brunner Rifles and a Justice of Peace. He had also been active in music, football, swimming and the church, and was well respected for his business acumen. He was heralded as a most desirable resident on his arrival in Takaka, where he took over the 30 year old business of Mr T. A. Cook. Three years later James Sadd joined him in what was the largest general store in the district, known as J.J. Langridge and Co.
Gatherings were held in May 1908 to farewell Mr and Mrs Langridge, at which he was praised as a promoter and hard worker in all things for the good of Takaka and the surrounding districts. It was said that he would be much missed, as he had probably done more for the place than any other one man in it.
The Colonist of 13 May 1908 reported a description of him as being possessed
of unbounded energy and taking an active and leading part in almost everything
that was going. It listed a few of his honorary positions, such as Arch Druid,
Worshipful Master of Masonic Lodge, Past District President and Senior Trustee of
the Druids, Superintendent of the Sunday School, Choirmaster at the Church of
England, Secretary of the Library, Secretary of the Miners’ Association, founder of
the Sovereign Butter company, Treasurer, director and founder of the Golden Bay
Bacon Company, member of the Lower Takaka School Committee, Vice-President
of the Athletic and Cycling Club, Justice of Peace, Secretary to the Pioneer Memorial
Fund, Captain of the Takaka Mounted Rifles, and other offices too numerous
to particularise. He was also a member of the Nelson Chamber of Commerce6.
Langridge admitted that he could not lead an idle life, and always felt on better
terms with himself when pushing forward any undertakings likely to benefit the
district and community.
The Langridges left the district because of Mrs Langridge’s ill health.7 They moved
to Stoke where he was active in church life and music. In November 1909 John
Langridge moved to Kaikora North in Hawkes Bay, now known as Otane, where
he bought another general store business, in partnership with Mr J W Barrie. He
served on the Otane Town Board and the Napier Harbour Board in 1910 and was
also involved in farming. In 1922 he unsuccessfully contested the Waipawa seat for
the Liberal-Labour party.
He died in Otane on 20 February 1931 at the age of 67.
So where did John Langridge get the idea of a Pioneers’ Memorial? It appears that
the whole project was a copy of a similar undertaking proposed in June 1897 in
Temuka, his home town. The monument there had been unveiled in December
1897, with settlers, including his father, being individually named. Settlers were
listed under settlement dates, which would have been a most useful inclusion on
the Takaka Memorial.8 The unveiling coincided with Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and
the 50th anniversary of Temuka’s settlement. The names on the monument covered
the years from 1847 to 1867. In February 1868 a flood caused considerable loss and
damage in Temuka.
By July 1908, £27:10s had been raised from the proceeds of entertainment promoted
by John Langridge. It was deposited in the Post Office Savings Bank on trust, in the
names of Mr Rose and Mr Moulder. Having been the moving spirit in this enterprise,
Langridge was now about to leave Takaka. He intended to canvass Takaka, asking
for donations from relatives of pioneer settlers, friends and sympathisers in person
or by post. Contributions needed to reach him at Takaka within the following
14 days. He pointed out that the Memorial was a worthy project, and £100 was
required to obtain a really good monument.9 Langridge returned to Takaka at the
end of July to make a house to house canvass for funds, having £70 in hand from
all sources, with the target still £100.10
I came across a postcard from the time showing a spoof memorial in the form of a cairn of rocks with a wooden cross supporting a bottle of beer and a cup. It appears to have been mounted at the junction of the East Takaka and Glenview roads, with the main road from Takaka to Riwaka. It has a sign on it which, as I can best read with enhancement, states:
THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED IN MEMORY OF THE PIONEERS OF TAKAKA (Augu?)ST 16 1908.
Mr Moulder, Secretary of the Takaka Pioneers’ Memorial Committee, requested
assistance from the Takaka County Council in a letter received on 19 September
1908. He asked permission for the Committee to erect the memorial at the junction
of roads near Otto Haase’s Hotel (Telegraph Hotel). In addition, he asked the Council
to purchase a piece of land at Mrs Prebble’s corner, near the Church, and hand it
over to the Committee for the site. It was resolved, on the motion of Crs Reilly and
Frank Page, that the Council give up to £5 towards the purchase of sufficient land
at Prebble’s corner for the purpose of improving the road and providing a site for
the memorial. The Chairman, Cr William James Reilly, Crs Frank Page and John
George Page, voted for the resolution and Cr George Winter Jnr was opposed.11
A further request was received on 1 November 1908, asking if the Council would give a site opposite Haase’s hotel for the proposed memorial. The Committee had had a quotation from Mr George Miller, Nelson, for a stone erected on a site, 18ft high with a 5ft base, with a drinking fount attached and a lamp fixed on top for £50. The lamp would show along the three roads from the site. The letter also asked for a donation towards the memorial.
It was resolved, on the motion of Crs Frank Page and George Winter Jnr, that the site
be granted, subject to the overseer marking off and approving it. On the motion of
Crs John G. Page and William C. Baigent, however, it was resolved that the Council
could not see its way, under existing financial circumstances, to contribute towards
the cost of the erection of the monument.12
It is interesting that Mr Moulder noted that the lamp would provide light along the
three streets. It would appear that there was no substantial street lighting in the
Takaka township at that time. The Council was asked to consider lighting the town
of Takaka in May 1909. Its response was that it was prepared to do its bit to light
the town, if the residents were prepared to do theirs.13
In early December 1908, the Pioneers’ Memorial subscribers met and came to a
definite decision about the form the memorial should take. It was stated that the
fund now amounted to some £41, with a further £29 having been promised. The
monument, designed by Mr Miller of Nelson, was to be erected at the junction
corner, opposite Haase’s Hotel, and was to cost £60.14
On 27 March 1909, at a special meeting of the Takaka County Council, an invitation
to Council members to be present at the unveiling of the memorial was received
from the Memorial Committee. It was received by the Council with thanks.15
The important function at which the much talked of Pioneers’ Memorial was unveiled took place on the afternoon of Friday 31 March 1909.
The Nelson Evening Mail reported: “The monument is about 7ft square at the
base, and 19ft high overall. It is erected at the junction of three roads near the
Takaka Recreation Ground, and it is constructed with reinforced concrete, cement
plastered. It consists of three bases from which a horse drinking trough projects,
supplied with water by means of a pump. The die has three large marble tablets
let in on the front, and two sides, containing the inscription and names, cut in and
leaded as follows: “Erected in commemoration of the Early Pioneers of Takaka....”
Surmounting the die is a circular fluted column with a massive Corinthic cap, and
plinth, upon which stands a large ornamental lamp supplied with acetylene gas.”16
The Mail also reported that the work had been carried out by Mr G. Miller of Hardy
Street, Nelson, who had turned out an excellent piece of work and deserved to be
complimented on it. The memorial had cost about £70, which was being raised by
public subscription.17 The water for the drinking trough attached to the memorial
was provided by a pump supplied by the County Council, and the lamp was lit by
acetylene gas supplied gratis by Mr Haase, and laid on from his generator across
the street.
In the unavoidable absence of Mr Langridge, the duty of unveiling the Pioneers’
Memorial devolved onto Mr W. J. Reilly, Chairman of the County Council. The
proceedings commenced with a parade of the old settlers of the district, headed
by the Brass Band and with the High School cadets bringing up the rear. Owing to
the showery, unsettled weather, the attendance was nothing to what a fine day
would have seen, but on the whole everything passed off well. Mr Rose, Chairman
of the Memorial Committee, was Master of Ceremonies, ably seconded by the
Secretary, Mr Moulder. Among the speakers were the ministers of each of the
three local churches, and several old residents. After the proceedings were over, the
pioneers present and their friends were regaled at a solid tea provided by the ladies
18
When the Governor General, Lord Plunket, reached the end of his five year term, he undertook a farewell tour of New Zealand, including a visit to the district of Nelson. His wife, Lady Plunket, is remembered for her patronage of the Plunket Society, which was named for her. She had sailed for England ahead of her husband. Lord Plunket left Wellington on 14 February 1910 for Nelson. On the 15th he proceeded by coach to Motueka, where he stayed overnight, continuing the next day via Takaka to Collingwood. On the following day he was driven round the Collingwood district, before being entertained at a conversazione in the evening. On the 18th he returned to Motueka, stopping at Takaka for a short time, where he was presented with an address. At Motueka he was entertained by the residents at an evening banquet, and on the following day he continued his journey to Nelson. He stopped at Richmond to receive an address from the Borough Council, and arrived in Nelson in the evening. After visiting various parts of Nelson on the 21st and 22nd, he departed for Wellington on Wednesday the 23rd.
This was the first time Takaka had ever been visited by the Governor General of
New Zealand. The new Pioneers’ Memorial provided a focal point at the south end
of Commercial Street, and this was where the Governor General was received. The
following is an account from the Colonist of what happened when Lord Plunket
came to Takaka, and the cover photograph depicting the reception, was taken at
the Pioneers’ Memorial by Mr Darcy L. Manson. The camera was probably set up
on the balcony of the Telegraph Hotel:
“Friday 18th February 1910, will long be remembered by young and old in Takaka as a real red letter day. The day broke fine and clear, and bright sunshine prevailed throughout the day. The decorating committee was astir very early, and by 9 a.m. the township was gaily decorated with strings of flags at intervals across the road, the business places all beflagged, and nikau palms everywhere. The platform at the Pioneers’ Memorial was covered in palms, and surmounted by a staff bearing the British ensign, while a triangle of flags crossed the two streets facing the platform, all together a very creditable display for a town of our size.
“The Chairman and County Councillors set out early in a conveyance to meet his Excellency at the county boundary on the Collingwood road (at McArtney’s Hill), and the escort of Takaka Mounted Rifles soon followed.
“By 10.30 a.m. the main street was lined from end to end with an immense crowd of sightseers, the gay summer costumes and hats of the ladies making a great show among the more sombre garbed men. The school children from all the side districts were drawn up in order along the route, each beneath its own school banner, and the High School Cadets, armed and in uniform, completed the line. The Takaka County Band, resplendent in their new uniforms, looked really well as they marched through the lines and took up their stand on the right of the reception dais. At 10.30 a.m. a cloud of dust heralded the approach of the Vice-Regal party. The coach a fourin- hand containing the Governor, and the two succeeding, containing the Hon. R. McKenzie (Minister for Public Works and member for Motueka), and the County Councillors, accompanied by the mounted escort, came along through the lines of children and citizens, and pulled up at the platform.
“As the Governor and party ascended the dais the band played the National Anthem, and excitement was then intense. Takaka does not entertain a real live lord every day, and this is the first occasion the public have been asked to turn out and welcome a Governor of New Zealand. Mr J. G. Page, the County Chairman, in a few well chosen words introduced Lord Plunket to the inhabitants of Takaka, and then called on the County Clerk, Mr William Baird, to read the address of welcome, which was done by him clearly and distinctly. The address was as follows :
“To His Excellency the right Honourable Baron Plunket, Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over his Majesty’s Dominion of New Zealand and its Dependencies.” May it please your Excellency on behalf of the inhabitants of the County of Takaka, we, the undersigned, Chairman and Councillors, desire to tender you a hearty welcome to our County.
“Wishing you a safe journey home, and every happiness and prosperity in your future life.
“We beg to subscribe ourselves your Excellency’s most obedient servants, “J. G. Page, Chairman. W. C. Baigent, A H Barnett, Frank Page, George Page Junior, W. C. Reilly, Councillors. Clerk. William Baird.”
The County Clerk then handed the address to the Chairman, and he presented it to Lord Plunket.
“We are pleased to have had the opportunity of seeing your Excellency once before you leave New Zealand, and thank you for the honour you have conferred upon us by your visit. We regret the shortness of your stay will prevent us from showing your Excellency some of the many beauty spots of Takaka, but trust you may have a pleasant drive through our little valley, and carry away pleasant recollections of this remote portion of, his Majesty’s dominions. We beg to assure your Excellency of the sincere loyalty of the inhabitants of Takaka to their most gracious Majesties the King and Queen and on our great love for the mighty empire over which they reign”.
Lord Plunket, in reply, thanked the people of Takaka for their very hearty welcome and for their expression of loyalty to their Majesties the King and Queen. Concluding his formal reply, Lord Plunket spoke on his own behalf, regretting the shortness of his stay, preventing him from seeing more of the place. He thanked the people for the heartiness of his reception, and for the very evident trouble they had taken in his honour. He stated that, he was at the moment a sort of wandering Jew, going hither and thither through the country, seeing all he could of New Zealand during the short time at his disposal ere leaving for the Old Country.
He made special mention of the great number and sturdy qualities of the array of children then before him, and expressed a wonder as to where they all came from, adding that apparently the people of Takaka were like himself and Lady Plunket, possessors of at least eight children apiece. His Excellency then stepped down and was introduced to Mr W. H. Boyes, the head master of the Takaka District School, and was by him conducted through the entire line of children, making kindly remarks here and there to the children and their teachers. The children then sang the National Anthem, accompanied by Bandmaster Bensemann on the cornet.
The Vice-Regal party were then conducted to the Junction Hotel, where a splendid
cold luncheon was prepared for the distinguished visitor. The room seated some
sixty people, and was filled to overflowing, every district being well represented.
The chair was taken by Mr J. G. Page, County Chairman, he having Lord Plunket on
his right and the Hon. R. McKenzie, member for the district, on his left. Mr Thomas
J. Baigent occupied the vice chair. The tables were tastefully laid out, and altogether
the rooms looked very nice in every way. Grace was pronounced by the Rev. H.
Pepper, minister of the Church of England, and then full justice was done to the
many good things set out on the menu. During luncheon the band played several
selections outside the hotel, which helped to the general success of the function.
When the sweets were disposed of the chairman proposed the toast of the King,
and those present sang the National Anthem. The second toast came from Mr T. J.
Baigent, the vice-chairman, that of the guest, Lord Plunket. Mr Baigent spoke of the
Lord Plunket replied in a very happily chosen speech, that at once made him popular with his hearers. Alluding to the expressions of loyalty made use of in the address and by Mr Baigent, he expressed the opinion that loyalty was hardly the word to use, but rather, the highest and most noble common sense and gratitude of the people. His Excellency spoke of the noble and spontaneous gift of a Dreadnought (HMS New Zealand) by New Zealand to the Mother Country, and the effect it had on English speaking people all over the world, and on rival nations. He said that England was at all times capable of defending herself, but the task of doing so to her many scattered colonies, was a far bigger undertaking, and it was right that these colonies should share the burden of general defence. His Excellency asked pardon if he trespassed into the realm of politics by touching on the system of universal service (Territorial Volunteers) now to be introduced by the New Zealand Government. He called this the most noble act of self sacrifice and patriotism ever done by New Zealand, and likely to be productive of great good. Lord Plunket facetiously remarked in passing that he was from his position, perhaps, one of the very few who always agreed with every-thing done by Parliament in this country. His Excellency, in conclusion, made feeling reference to the heartfelt and sincere expressions of the very highest loyalty to sovereign and country that he met with on all sides.
His Excellency’s speech was listened to most attentively by all present, and made
a profound impression on every man in the room. The toast following was in the
hands of the Rev W. A. Kyd, Presbyterian minister, “Imperial Unity.” This gentleman
alluded to the late Mr R. J. Seddon’s prompt action during the late South African war
in offering and despatching with such promptitude, contingent after contingent to
the help of the Home Country, and said that Sir J.C. Ward was following faithfully
in his predecessor’s footsteps by his gift of a Dreadnought, and a promise of more
if required. Mr Kyd concluded by quoting from a speech recently delivered in
Wellington, and finally wound up a stirring appeal for increased Bible teaching as
an incentive to loyalty and patriotism by singing a verse of Robbie Burns’ “For a
that.” Lord Plunket then briefly proposed the chairman’s health, and all then rose
from the table. His Excellency spent half an hour in conversation with various of the
Lord Plunket took special interest in chatting to a number of our very old settlers who were present, and a Crimean war veteran who was brought to him gave him special interest. The coach then drew up, and his Excellency and party drove off at 1 p.m. on their journey to Motueka amidst hearty and continued cheers from the, immense crowd gathered at the starting place. The band again played the National Anthem, and the children lined along the route, gave but cheer upon cheer. The Mounted Rifles again escorted the party out of the township.
During the luncheon the school children, who numbered in all some 540, were
marched to the orchard adjoining the hotel, where luncheon on a large and generous
scale was provided, by the parents and by public subscription. A goodly collection
of silver coin was taken up among the crowd assembled, and the committee in
charge, assisted by a number of parents, got off a lot of races and amusements for
the children, lasting the best part of the afternoon. All the business places closed
for the day, and after the Governor had gone, bowls was the order of the day, the
local green being crowded till dark. All Takakaites were thoroughly satisfied with the
proceedings throughout. All arrangements were well made, and well carried out,
and the various members of the local committees are to be heartily congratulated
on the great success that crowned their efforts”.19
In the various early photos of Takaka from 1909 till the 1960s, the memorial is prominent in street vistas. In 1942, student Beryl Hitchcock (Rodgers) completed a school project on the history of Takaka. The project included a photo of the monument in 1942 and shows that the monument has a circular white glass globe, instead of the original gas lantern.
In September 1977, Takaka’s new square face town clock was installed on top of the
old settlers’ memorial. Its installation was the idea of the Deputy Chairman of the
Golden Bay County Council, Cr Pat R. Reilly. He had made enquiries of an Auckland
firm in December 1976 and ascertained that a suitable clock would be available at
a cost of $438. Cr Reilly canvassed the descendants of the early pioneers named on
the memorial and the full amount was subscribed, with no other charges needing
to be met to have the amenity installed and working. The clock had a built-in
system of batteries which took over if there was a power failure. It was erected by
Jim and Tom Bickley of Takaka, who offered to look after its maintenance. There
were plans for a concrete base to be placed around the memorial.20 The clock was
later damaged irreparably by a vandal and was replaced by an ornamental lamp
similar to the one that had originally been on the monument.21
At the Golden Bay County Council Meeting on 15 February 1984, Cr Bob Taylor
expressed concern about the Settlers’ Memorial and suggested that it be removed.
It was resolved to remove it to the triangular section owned by Council at the corner
of Reilly Street and Commercial Street. Proposed by Cr Taylor seconded by Cr Pat R.
Riley.22 The Memorial needed to be removed to allow access from Motupipi Street
to a proposed bypass road between Willow and Reilly Streets.23 On 23 February
1984 the Takaka Pioneers’ Memorial was successfully shifted to its new site at
Pioneer Park, without a hitch. The monument was now one month short of its 75th
year in Takaka. The Golden Bay County Engineer, David Miller, explained that the
base had been excavated around and underneath, and a crane had lifted the entire
nine tonne structure onto a truck. It was then driven down Commercial Street and
carefully lifted into a prepared hole at Pioneer Park.
The removal stirred up unexpected controversy, with County Clerk, Warwick
Bennett, receiving a call about every ten minutes on the afternoon of the move.
The first couple of hours on the following day were just as busy, and he received
about 30 calls in all, berating the Council for moving the memorial. No one gave a
reason for their objection, but Mr Bennett felt a petition on the matter may have
been in the offing. The Golden Bay Promotion Association also had its say on the
issue at their Monday night meeting. Members commented favourably on the new
position of the memorial and voted to congratulate the Council on moving it to a
more suitable site.24
Vandals smashed the glass globe on top of the monument in December 1988,
leaving the structure chipped and pitted. Some of the damage appeared to have
been the result of some fairly determined missile throwing. A concrete corner was
broken off right at the top of the tall structure, which indicated a considerable
amount of force had been used, and the monument was chipped on all four sides.
Acting County Clerk, Noel Riley, appeared in a photograph with the damaged
monument. He felt the damage reflected badly on the community at large and
the matter had been reported to the police for investigation. The light at the top
of the memorial was replaced at some cost, but those responsible for prising the
lettering away had caused irreparable damage. Initial inquiries had indicated that
repairing the marble plaques might not be financially possible.25 The ornate broken
glass globe was replaced with a lamp of modern design, as a similar one could not
be sourced.26, 27
On 11 September 1990, at a meeting of the Golden Bay Community Board, Mrs
Castle of the Golden Bay Historical Society asked whether the lettering on the
monument could be restored. Cr Lewis said that the possibility had already been
looked into, but the cost was prohibitive. The Area Manager said that the Takaka
Lions were looking at it as a possible future project. Mrs Castle said that some
The Golden Bay Community Board meeting on 13 February 1996 was told that prices were to be sought for new lettering for the Pioneer Park Memorial. In late June 1996, Henk Visker, Builder, Brick and Blocklayer, replaced some of the lead letters of the names on the memorial. About half of the 400 letters on the marble plaques needed replacing, with each letter taking about half an hour to do. Weathering had caused the letters to deteriorate over time, with moss growing behind them contributing to the displacement. Little human hands had completed nature’s work, with a quantity of lead having been picked out of the holes. The $1,300 restoration was funded by the Tasman District Council. Mr Visker put a seal over the letters, which it was hoped would protect the names for another 40 years.
On 20 May 1997 Golden Bay County Councillor Leetch asked the County Clerk to
further pursue the matter of getting power to the Pioneers’ Memorial, so that the
light at its top could be operated.28 At a meeting on 10 June 1997, a member of the
Community Board asked when the painting and cleaning of the Settlers Memorial
would be done. The Area Manager was to follow the matter up with Community
Services.29
In April 2005 Brian Petterson wrote to the Tasman District Council requesting that
some research to be done on the Pioneers’ Memorial. It appeared that the names
of some early settlers were missing, which could be included on the fourth side of
the monument.30 Mr Petterson offered to liaise with Pat Timings about appropriate
additional names. Mr Timings had published Golden Bay grab bag a miscellany of
local history in December 2002, which contained biographical information on each
of the 69 names on the Memorial. In June 2005 the Golden Bay Community Board
advised Mr Petterson that it supported his request in principle. It suggested that he
research and verify the names from three different sources, before coming back
with the proposed additions. The Board would then undertake public consultation
on the matter.31
From my research, I conclude that people paid a subscription to have their names appear on the monument. The cut off date for arrival/settlement in Takaka may have been the mid 1860s, with 1867 being the 25th anniversary of settlement. There are certainly settlers who are not listed who fit the dates and remained in the district. A complication is that some settlers arrived with teenage sons, who were pioneers in their own right, but who probably deferred to their family patriarch ahead of themselves.
Barry Cashman described the Pioneers’ Memorial as being run down at a Community
Board meeting on 11 April 2006. He asked that a small fund for refurbishing
monuments be used for cleaning, painting and replacement of missing lead letters.
The Council’s Kathie Tohill was to investigate the matter.32 In July 2006 Barry
Cashman reported that the approximate cost of replacing lettering on the Pioneers’
Memorial would be $275.33 In October 2006 Patrick Day, of G. Miller and Sons, was
contracted by Tasman District Council to complete further lead lettering repairs on
the monument.34
Similar styles of monument exist in the Main Street of Havelock and at the old Motueka wharf. They both still have an original style of lamp on top of them, in contrast to the modern, cream, squat, cylindrical glass light, that appears on the Takaka Pioneers’ Memorial today.
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