Peace Garden at Hopukiore – Mount Drury Reserve

From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

The original peace garden at the junction of Maunganui Road and Grace Avenue, beside Hopukiore - Mount Drury, was a joint project between Altrusa Club of Mount Maunganui and Tauranga District Council. 

75th Anniversary of Altrusa International, Inc. club community milestone project. Tauranga City Libraries Ams 291.

The project that celebrated both ten years since the Mount Maunganui group chartered to the women’s civic organisation, and 75 years of Altrusa International’s commitment to ‘improving economic well-being and quality of life’ through community service and literacy. Ams 291, in the Tauranga City Library Archives, contains plans, planting schemes and clippings about the peace garden.

The Mayor Keith Clarke, was invited to the birthday dinner on Monday 13 April 1992, with publicity releases sent to Mount / Pāpāoma Times, Bay of Plenty Times and Bay News, and Annabelle White, food columnist, confirmed as the after dinner speaker.

Plans for the peace garden were drawn up with Roel Koopman, from the Tauranga District Council, and featured cobble stone areas, seating and garden planting.

Plans for Peace Garden, 75^th Anniversary of Altrusa International, Inc. Tauranga City Libraries Ams 291.

In June an update on the project was submitted to the International Anniversary Chairman District Fifteen Governor. Periodic Detention workers, under council supervision, had erected the timber pergolas, and the peace roses were on order. The “plans are nearer to completion”, although the raffle with a diamond theme to raise funds hadn’t sold out but was “a really good start of our fund raising”. Club members and local residents were “enthusiastic” to see the garden completed.

On 1 November 1992 the newly completed Peace Garden was dedicated. A Mount and Papamoa Times article from the following Thursday included pictures of Altrusa members and painting of the fence (but unfortunately no view of the pergola and paving). Speakers included Mrs Gail Gerrand, President of the club, Christine Mora, chairperson of the project committee, and Mayor Clarke, who all agreed that the garden was a ‘lasting and meaningful gift to the community for years to come’. 

The archive collection includes annual reports and public relations scrapbooks for the Altrusa Club of Mount Maunganui, and their last project in March 2007, ‘Magic Mums’.

But what happened to the garden after that? Sandra Simpson wrote in the Bay of Plenty Times, 27 August 2010, that Tauranga City Council were ‘reclaiming’ the site to extend the children’s play area, and members of the disbanded Mount Maunganui branch were “thrilled” Ned Nicely, the council city parks co-ordinator, offered a new site on the ocean side of the reserve. Gail Gerrand, is photographed sitting next to the new Marine Parade garden of native plants – the peace roses deemed unsuitable for the more exposed site. A rata tree was to be planted in the centre on Saturday by Tauranga MP Simon Bridges.
Thoughts from Altrusa Tauranga president Fern Nielsen conclude the article “the first garden was a “much-used oasis of peace and pleasure”, and hopes the new one will achieve the same ambience, with its backdrop of pohutukawa, the green slopes of Hopukiore and the sound of the ocean.”

Sources: 

Altrusa International. (2018m July). The history of Altrusa. https://www.altrusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/The-History-of-Altrusa.pdf

Simpson, S. (2010, August 27). Opening ceremony marks return of floral ‘oasis’. Bay of Plenty Times. p. 28. 

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This archival item is on our schedule for digitisation, and will be added to Pae Korokī once digitised. For more information about other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Kate Charteris, Heritage Specialist at Tauranga City Libraries.

The Foresters’ Hall

Foresters’ Hall, Spring St, Tauranga
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection. Photograph by and with permission of Alf Rendell

The Foresters’ Hall at the Historic Village in 17th Avenue originally stood in Spring Street as Tauranga Court Royal Oak No.6497 of the Ancient Order of Foresters. The earliest records of the “Royal Foresters” in Britain date from 1745, and from 1834 they adopted the name of “Ancient Order of Foresters.” The principles of forestry are considered akin to the deeds of Robin Hood and his merry men in Sherwood Forest with the emphasis on helping the less fortunate.

Ladies’ Restroom, Spring St, Tauranga, 1958
Image courtesy of Tauranga District Libraries. Ref. 99-369

The Lodge in Tauranga was first established in 1880 as a Friendly Society to provide against hardship in the days before social welfare commenced as a government function. There was both a Grand Templars’ and a Manchester Unity Lodge in Tauranga for some years. A Masonic Lodge was founded in Tauranga in 1902 and in Mount Maunganui in 1951.  All held to the principles of Friendly Societies.

Court Royal Oak in Tauranga flourished and in 1908 built the hall. It was described at the time as being 36 by 18 feet with a 12 foot stud and divided into two rooms.  The interior décor included an elaborate floral stencilled frieze below the cornice and a colourful centreflower in the ceiling.

Foresters’ Hall relocated to Historic Village, 17th Avenue, Tauranga
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

By the 1930s the lodge as an organisation was defunct and the Borough Council, in whom the hall had been vested, took over the hall. In 1934 the Council moved it to the back of the Spring Street section and had a ladies’ restroom erected at the front. St. John’s cadets and the Municipal Band used the hall, and in 1989 the Council moved it to the Historic Village.

Foresters’ Hall, Historic Village, 17th Avenue, Tauranga
Imaged courtesy of Heritage New Zealand. Photograph by Janet Hetherington

The exterior of the hall is unaltered with the arched entrance to a porch opening matching two arched windows on each side. The façade also has an arch in the centre. The front wall is weatherboard while the sides and rear are clad in corrugated iron. Wooden pilasters stand at each corner of the building supporting a cornice across the front suggesting a classical style. The centreflower remains in the ceiling and the doors, architraves and skirting appear to be original. Attached to an interior wall is a cabinet from the Te Puke Foresters’ Lodge that includes a lodge document and list of members.

Source: Arabin, Shirley. Heritage New Zealand file. Reg.no.4566

The Te Puna Patriotic League stands up for itself – Mary Munro and Florence Lochhead

Plummers Point. Image courtesy of WBOPDC

Uncertainty, fear and controversy characterised not only military issues during World War I.  They were at work on the Home Front as well.

Men of the Farmers’ Union, galvanised by Te Puna settler Tom Lochhead, were not slow to review their stocks of “waggons, horses, and forage” [1] in August 1914. The townspeople of Tauranga, however, seemed reluctant and slow [2] to commit to putting civilian society on a war footing. Ad hoc activities – local committees [3], private donations [4] - got under way, but it was not long before these voluntary efforts came under scrutiny from central authority. Against a background of increasing pressure to recruit volunteer soldiers, and then conscripted ones, the powers that be also bent their attention to the proper regulation, control and “unification” [5] of volunteers running patriotic funds. The War Funds Act 1915 constituted the National War Funds Council to supervise the process.

While the realities of war became starker [6], so the practical energies of the community gained focus. As another Te Puna settler, Mary Munro, was later to say in public, the work of the patriots at home came to be a curious mixture of jollity overlaying more sober emotions, including the constant threat of bad news. In July 1916, the same month that Mary’s son Niol was wounded and her second son Robert went to camp, the Te Puna Patriotic League announced its intention to have regular socials, “as near as possible to the full moon each month”.

Mary became President of the League. The socials took place in the Te Puna Schoolroom, by permission of the School Committee (Tom was its Chairman). Tom’s daughter Florence, known to her family as Flo, became League Secretary. Two of her brothers were now at the Front. And due to the status of the Lochhead home as Te Puna’s Post and Telegraph Office, Florence and her mother Elizabeth were always the first to know of telegrams. The solid community network that existed in Te Puna was put to work, not only on the emotional drain of sustaining morale among its families, but also on maintaining the League’s independent existence.

For the forces of centralised bureaucracy were gathering. In November 1916 a charm attack from a pair of Auckland ladies - Mrs Gunson, Mayoress of Auckland and President of that city’s Patriotic League, and Secretary Miss Spedding - had their invitation to ‘affiliate’ the Tauranga League as a branch of a larger, Auckland, whole accepted after some misgivings [7]. But the Te Puna League was less easy to convince. They were in any event deeply involved in organising their first, very successful, Monster Picnic and Sale of Work on Mr Plummer’s paddock at Te Puna Point (now known as Plummer’s Point). It will have done their cause no harm to show that they were capable of a feat of organisation on a scale that involved stalls, games, raffles, competitions, refreshments, at least one bag-piper, and a launch service from and back to Tauranga [8].

Pressure to ‘affiliate’ continued through 1917. Poor Florence battled gamely on, sometimes calling Te Puna a branch league in advertising its meetings and fundraisers, other times not; a third brother, Tom Junior, went to war in April. By August she had had enough. Te Puna farmer A D Bear took over as secretary of the League.  But by then the implications of s. 40 of the War Legislation Amendment Act had filtered out to Te Puna. This allowed the Minister of Internal Affairs to approve separate, stand-alone funds rather than compelling them to be part of a larger whole.

No doubt impressed by the joint efforts of Mary, Florence, and possibly Mr Bear, the Minister issued the Te Puna Patriotic League with just such approval in October 1917. This was in good time for the organisation of a second Monster Picnic six months later, along similar lines to the first, but bigger and brighter than ever.

Image courtesy of Papers Past

At some point during the tumult and the shouting, Mary Munro was invited to speak. With still a trace of a Tyneside accent [9], she thanked “those present both for their attendance and for the manner in which they had contributed to the sale. All had hoped last year that it would not be necessary to hold another sale, but unfortunately it was still necessary, and maybe again next year. They had to blend pleasure with duty and she felt sure all would help to make the effort a pronounced success.”

Mary’s point was entirely lost on the editor of the Bay of Plenty Times. Without apparent irony, he congratulated her League on exceeding the total raised at the previous event, abjuring them: “Keep at it Te Puna! Next year we shall not let you off with less than £150, so save up your pennies.

It proved, after all, to be unnecessary to hold another sad gala. About June 1919 the Te Puna Patriotic League wound up, as all the other Patriotic Leagues were doing. Work on hand went to local hospitals and homes for the returning servicemen. Niol Munro’s wounds never healed, and both William and Tom Lochhead died in France.  Both Niol and Norman Lochhead died young. Robert Munro was not demobilised until 1920, and he stayed on the farm at Te Puna for the rest of his life.

Florence married George Chapman at the Te Puna Memorial Hall in 1931. Mary Munro was a wedding guest; A D Bear played the music for the ceremony.

References

[1] Meeting at the Farmers’ Trading Agency,  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19140812.2.6
[2] Letter to the Editor, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19151014.2.6
[3] Tauranga Ladies Hospital Ship Committee, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19160117.2.15
[4] Close Bros of Te Puna’s donation of horses, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19160122.2.4
[5] Speech by J H Gunson, Mayor of Auckland, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19151027.2.13
[6] Letter from hospital ship “Lan Franc”, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19160422.2.5
[7] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19161117.2.14
[8] Advertisement, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19161120.2.3.6
[9]  Mary was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 26 June 1865.  She died in Tauranga in 1951.

Mary Wharton Christian (nee Parkinson)

Mary Wharton Christian
Photo collection and courtesy of Julie Green

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England in 1879, the eldest of 16 children, she could "simultaneously read a book propped on the mantle, knit a stocking and rock the baby’s cradle with my foot" when she was about nine years of age.

Molly became a teacher and also toured the world with the Sheffield Choir around 1912. She had previously met Mr Christian from New Zealand whilst he was working and studying Marine Engineering near her family home and they had an ‘understanding’.

From 1911 Frederick Christian ran an engineering and plumbing business in Lower Devonport Rd and later became the Ford agent for this area. Molly and he married in Wellington in 1913 when she emigrated after a 3 year courtship by letter.

Fairlight
Photo collection and courtesy of Julie Green

They purchased “Fairlight”, a 6-bedroom house in the early avenues and had four children (one of whom was Lyn Harpham, benefactor of the Tauranga Historical Society in 2011)

Once her family were older Molly was ‘a leading light’ in the Tauranga Borough with involvement in Country Women’s Institute, Maori Women’s Welfare League, Girl Guides (Fred was in the Scouting movement) and other community organisations. She was involved in many activities at the Methodist Church and supported many musical and drama events. Their two-acre property was extensively used for hospitality and accommodation needs for many of these groups.

Lyn Harpham, Molly Christian and Isobel Christian at Government House, 1975
Photo collection and courtesy of Julie Green

In 1975 Mary was awarded the MBE for services to the community and passed on one month short of her 100th birthday about 3 years later.

Armed Constabulary Roads

We take the roads we drive over every day for granted – unless they are badly congested or have a poor safety record, in which case we complain. But usually we are too busy concentrating on the roads themselves to think about their history. As we drive through Judea, Oropi, or Welcome Bay, we could spare a thought for the members of the Armed Constabulary and their Māori helpers, who built at least part of these roads in the first instance.

Armed Constabulary, 1870. Bartlett Photo (from a Copy).
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Ref. 01-128

Artillery detachment of the Armed Constabulary with two six-pounder Armstrong guns, c 1870. Captain Crapp standing on right. Other constables from left are identified by S. Crowther as Sergt Russell, Sergt Mason, Const. Campbell (Hospital Dispenser), Const. Reymer, Const. Mathias, Const. Redmond, Const. Daveron, Const. Skilton, Const. Cochrane, Const. Walker, Const. Elliott, Const. McCallum, Const. Adams, Const. Batty, Sergt Major Harper, Const. Land, Const. Ryan. Front sitting, Const. Crowther lying down, Const. Keep standing by gun wheel, Sergt Putnam and Captain Crapp in the right foreground. Two figures on extreme left in the background and the one looking over the wheel between Campbell and Reymer unidentified.

The Armed Constabulary, precursor to the modern police force, was established in 1867, as the land wars drew to a close. Staffed by men from the former militia units such as the Waikato Regiment, it was meant to keep the peace and protect the civilian population from attacks by disaffected Māori. As that threat receded, work was found for the men to do, and one of their most useful jobs was road-making. In 1869-70 they began forming the road through Judea to the Wairoa river crossing, a task that involved shifting some 5,454 cubic yards of soil. In 1875 men from the Ohinemutu constabulary post started work on the ‘back road’ from Tauranga to Rotorua, which in those days went through Oropi.

In the late 1870s or early-to-mid 1880s – there seems to be conflicting information as to when this actually occurred – the Armed Constabulary was restructured. In general, police forces took over the towns, and a ‘Field Force’ the rural areas, but the Armed Constabulary was still referred to as an active force in newspaper articles well into the 1890s. In 1880 members were engaged in building the road at Welcome Bay, in order to connect Tauranga and Te Puke. Swamps and gullies made the work arduous. It is easy to understand why earlier settlers preferred to travel by sea.

Sources
Hansen, Neil. Highways and byways of the Western Bay of Plenty. [Tauranga] : N. G. Hansen, 1999.
Rorke, Jinty. Policing two peoples : a history of police in the Bay of Plenty, 1867-1992. [Tauranga] : J. Rorke and New Zealand Police, 1993.

Agnes Faulkner

Agnes Faulkner. Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library Ref. 99-1339

 Agnes Faulkner (nee Davies) was born in Opunake 1891 and died in Tauranga 1986, aged 95

Agnes was one of a family of 13 and it was her dream to become a teacher, but shortly after their arrival in Tauranga she began work at age 13 as a tailoress. Married in 1912 to “Barley” Faulkner she barely left her home for the next 20 years as she raised children and acted as bookkeeper and telephonist for her husband’s ferry business.

Finally in 1932, under doctors orders, she attended a Country Women’s Institute meeting and from that day her world opened up. She became involved in The St John’s movement, and during one period was giving up to nine lectures a week in first aid or home nursing. She was one of the first women to act as an ambulance attendant and eventually became the Superintendent of the Nursing Division.

Bay of Plenty Times, Image courtesy of Papers Past

From 1934 -1977 she was heavily involved in health services and served as only the 2nd woman on the hospital board. She was a prime mover in the establishment of the maternity annexe. In 1953 The Queen bestowed her with a Coronation Medal and an MBE in 1958.*

Agnes was also involved in the Road Safety Council and The Tauranga Historical Society das well as being a JP. In her latter years she continued to lecture on Maori medicines and cures and was a volunteer at The Tauranga District Museum.

* Some sources say 1950

Sources

Biographical Sketches of The Centennial Mural (Artist Elizabeth Grainger and Editor Ernest E. Bush), Feb 1982
Tauranga 1882-1982;The Centennial of Gazetting of Tauranga as a Borough (Edited by A.C. Bellamy) TCC 1982
Manuscript 43 in Vertical Files, Heritage Research Room, Tauranga Library; From interview with Agnes in 1981

Girl Peace Scouts in Oropi

Girl Peace Scouts, Oropi 1923
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection

While cataloguing photographs recently at the Tauranga Heritage Collection as part of my volunteer duties, I came across this intriguing snapshot of a group of Girl Peace Scouts in Oropi, dated 1923.

Reverse of vernacular photograph, 80 x 55mm
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection

The reverse of the photograph has all of the individuals identified:

Back row: Daisy Dunn, Mrs Rogers, Eileen Wilson, Esther Parkinson, Mrs MacPhail, Liny Fugill, Mrs Hodges, Miss Woods
Front: Gwyn Aldiss, Gwen Heap, Doreen MacPhail, Clarice Hodges, Lorna Heap ... Dick Aldiss

As a local resident, several of these names are still familiar to me.

The Girl Peace Scouts were formed in New Zealand as a separate organisation to the Boy Scouts.  The Tauranga company's first camp in a paddock in 1925 is recorded as proceeding well, although the latrine pit was dug 2 feet deep and 4 feet wide instead of vice versa.  They traded in their khaki uniforms for Girl Guides Association blues in the mid- to late 1920s.
- extracted from ‘Making happy, healthy, helpful citizens’: The New Zealand Scouting and Guiding Movements as Promulgators of Active Citizenship, c.1908-1980, a 2012 Ph.D. thesis by Helen Alison Dollery

On this day in 1872

Cricket on the Tauranga Domain, 1900
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Ref. 99-349

2 November 1872 - First meeting to set up a Cricket Club

On this day in 1937

Lyceum Club ladies doing The Mikado, 1949
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Ref. 06-525

22 October 1937 - Lyceum Club formed

On this day in 1920

Yachts on Tauranga Harbour, c.1930s
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

20 October 1920 - Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club formed.

On this day in 1914

Highland Pipe Band members, undated postcard
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Ref. 03-420

30 Sep 1914 - First practise of pipe band

On this day in 1932

St John Ambulance, Tauranga, undated
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Ref. 00-100

10 Sep 1932 - St John Ambulance Branch formed