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Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, October 1974

Reminder of a Bygone Era

Reminder of a Bygone Era

Extract from the Nelson Evening Mail Motueka News, 12th April, 1972

Was that once a tobacco or hop kiln?

How many vistors to Motueka have asked that question in reference to the remains of an old brick kiln seen from the road when travelling north along High Street, prior to reaching the Motueka bridge.

The old kiln was once part of a brewery. John Staples, one of Nelson's earliest settlers, arrived in the Fifeshire in 1842, settled in Motueka and established a successful brewery round about the years 1852 or 1853. The remains of the kiln are the only parts left.

Our cover photograph, taken in 1860, shows the imposing building that once stood upon the site. On the right can be seen the toolshed, the cooperage where the beer barrels were made, and the kiln where the hops were dried. The beer was brewed in the section on the left. This larger building was stoned up with river stones (not large enough to be called boulders) all the way round, nearly three feet above ground level, and allowed for a cellar of standing room height. From the rear of the building the cellar was downstairs and there was plenty of cellar space at both back and sides of the building. It is recorded that the late David Drummond rowed the late Tommy Rowling across the Motueka river each morning to erect the stone work of the page 22brewery, but it is not known who erected the wooden or the brick parts of the building. The roof was covered with totara shingles, all split by hand and sewn. Instead of nails, wooden pegs were used in the major part of the building.

In the days when the brewery was in full production all sections of beer making were carried out in Motueka, both hops and barley being grown in the district.

The Motueka Brewery was abandoned in 1866 when John Staples and his two sons departed for Wellington where they started the Thorndon Beehive Brewery which they operated till 1899 when it was taken over by a company with fifty thousand pounds capital. This was a solid sum for those days and was an indication both of the progress that Staples had made and of the fact that the time had come for the investment of large scale capital in brewery enterprise. The Red Band label for bottled beer was introduced by the company—the idea coming from the red bands which the brewery then had on all of its casks.

As far as Mrs Phyllis Wilkins, Motueka, a descendant of John Staples is aware, the brewery at Motueka was not used as such after he left for Wellington. In the early 1930s the kiln was used for air drying tobacco, and at one time Mrs Wilkins' father stored grain and chaff in the building.

Information regarding Staples family, Motueka, original brewers in the district—supplied by Mrs Phyllis Wilkins, Birdhurst, Motueka on 7th July 1972.

As told by Misses Fanny and Florrie Staples about 1950

Mr John Staples and his wife and three children, John William, and a daughter who died later, came from England to New Zealand in the ship Fifeshire in 1842.

The family settled in Motueka and lived in a cob two storied house in High Street, opposite the Court House. Later they moved to the farm by the river and lived in a one storied house built of English timbers on the site where the present two storied house stands.

Mr Staples started his two elder sons in a brewery business in Wellington but the business began in Motueka in the old hop kiln, still standing on the side of the road, which was then the malt house.

Right from the beginning, crops of wheat, oats and barley were grown. Old Mr Limmer, a very stout man, always cut Mr Staples' crops with a sickle and the grain was threshed out with a flail.

Maori men assisted with the harvest and Maori women assisted Mrs Staples (Mrs Robert Staples) with the dinner. She would place their cooked food in a milk pan and they would eat it under the trees.

Beautiful bush of titoki trees stood where the Anglican Church now is. Mr and Mrs Staples would walk from their home through page 23a track in the bush to the church at the old churchyard in Thorp Street. The singing of the birds in the bush as they walked through was wonderful to hear.

Sheep were kept in the early days and a short time before shearing commenced, the Maori workers would wash the sheep in the river, dry them, and then drive them into clean pastures. Wool was shipped to Nelson when baled.

Robert Staples grew hops for many years and Richmond Hursthouse of Motueka and William McLean of Riwaka dried them in the malt house which was later turned into a hop kiln.

The sons of great grandfather John Staples were: John, William, Robert, Henry and Jim.