Remembering The 1901 Royal Visit to Auckland, New Zealand

"Welcome" : Flags and the Royal Coat of Arms atop
the Landing Arch on the Queen Street Wharf, Auckland.
[Photographer RA Cook]

This is a companion piece to my previous blog relating to the visit of [the then] HRH Prince George, Duke of Cornwall & York and HRH Princess Mary, Duchess of Cornwall & York (later King George V and Queen Mary) to New Zealand in June 1901. This blog specifically features the visit of the Royal couple to Auckland, using a number of unique photographs in my collection.

The Duke & Duchess of Cornwall and York, 1901
[Source : The Auckland Weekly News]

Those photographs attributed to Mr RA Cook are from my own collection. To the best of my knowledge these have never been seen before and are unpublished. We shall see more of Mr Cooks photographic work in future blogs. I have been unable to ascertain anything more about Mr Cook other than that he appears to have been an employee of "Smith & Caughey Ltd" in Queen Street Auckland, a member of the West End Rowing Club, and possibly residing in Ponsonby. There appears to be no record of his burial in Auckland. I would be interested in any further information on Mr Cook.

The Royal Yacht "Ophir" pictured in the Waitemata Harbour,
having carried the Duke and Duchess to New Zealand.
[Source : The Auckland Weekly News]

The Royal Yacht 'HMS Ophir" (actually the Orient line passenger steamer 'S.S. Ophir'), conveyed the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York on their tour of the British Empire, visiting Gibralter, Malta, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Canada.

The Auckland Wharf at the foot of Queen Street
decorated for the Royal Reception
[Photographer RA Cook]

Above we see pedestrians promenading along the Auckland Wharf at the very foot of Queen Street which has been decorated with various flags to welcome the Royal guests.  

The Auckland Harbour Board Arch
[Photographer RA Cook]

During the Royal Reception the Duke and Duchess would "progress" through a series of these celebratory arches. This image, taken looking south from the base of Queen Street Wharf, shows pedestrians walking through the nautically themed Auckland Harbour Board Royal Reception Arch. The words on the arch read (in Māori) "Haeremai", meaning "Welcome".  To the right can be seen Mrs H. Spargo's "Gladstone Coffee Palace" with the "Waverley Hotel" visible directly through the arch.

The Royal Reception, Lower Queen Street
[Source : New Zealand Electronic Text Collection]

A view of the large crowds gathered in front of the dais and Government platform at right, taken in Lower Queen Street Auckland during the Royal Reception, 11th June 1901

Another view of the Royal Reception, Lower Queen Street
[Source : Ed Kruger]

Two views of the military guard of honour and large crowd gathered in Lower Queen Street during the Royal Reception. The large building to centre left is the Waverley Hotel.

The Duke and Duchess were welcomed onto the dais by the Mayor of Auckland, Dr Logan Campbell; the Governor of New Zealand, Lord Ranfurly, the Prime Minister, Richard "King Dick" Seddon; and Pa Maretu Ariki, a Sovereign Chief of the Cook Islands. Unfortunately the rain came down during the reception and umbrellas promptly appeared amongst the crowd.      

Auckland Troops at the Royal Reception
[Photographer RA Cook]

The Friendly Society [a Masonic order] marching
along Queen Street during the Royal Reception
[Photographer RA Cook]

The Municipal Arch, Wellesley Street East
[Photographer RA Cook]

The Auckland City Municipal Arch on Wellesley Street East. The City Coat of Arms can be seen at the top of the arch. At left can be seen part of the Auckland Free Library building (now the Auckland Art Gallery). 

The New Zealand Government Reception Arch
[Photographer RA Cook]

The classically New Zealand Government Reception Arch, complete with Ionic columns. The wording on the arch reads in English and Māori : "Welcome - Aroha Tonu, Ake Ake Ake", meaning literally 'with continuing affection always', with "Cornwall" and "York" above the side arches.

Queen Street Auckland decorated for the Royal Reception
[Photographer RA Cook]

Queen Street Auckland festooned with flags, a profusion of greenery, and what appear to be floral ropes, for the Royal Reception. The large building to left of centre and surmounted with the small round tower is the Victoria Arcade Building, being on the corner of Queen Street and Fort Street. This building included 'George Fowlde Ltd', Outfitters, on the ground floor.

Smith & Caughey Ltd Department Store in Queen Street
[Photographer RA Cook]

Next to Smith & Caughey's at centre right is 'WC Dennes' selling pianos, organs, knitting machines, mangles & perambulators, and on the right is Rendell's Ladies' Warehouse.

The Duke and Duchess passing along a rather wet Queen Street
in an open horse-drawn carriage during the Royal Reception
[Photographer RA Cook]

A military Guard of Honour lines the route as the Royal part pass by. While the Duchess is using an umbrella (along with many in the crowd), the Duke is showing that stoical British spirit and braving the winter elements!

The Duchess is reported to have been "...simply dressed in a black cloth gown with a black fur about her throat, and a small black tulle toque." The Duke wore a Naval uniform, "The Duke's handsome Admiral's uniform was hidden under a great cloak. He smiled and doffed his cocked hat in response to the cheering".     

New Zealand Militia firing a 'feu de joie' in Auckland during the Royal Tour
[Source : National Library of New Zealand]

A 'Feu de joie' is a progressive firing of guns, literally the 'Mexican wave' version of firing off a volley of rifle shots into the air. I believe this may have taken place at "Potter's Paddock" in Remuera during a review and march-past of 4,000 troops in front of 20,000 people, being attended by the Duke and Duchess. Rain is reported to have fallen at times with the ground being "wet and muddy".

Not Forgotten

South African War veterans also attended the review, "some of them lame, and others apparently not quite robust, but the crowd had not forgotten the service they had rendered to the Empire; and the Empire had not forgotten it either, for later on they received their medals at the hands of the Duke."

Somewhat Upside-down

But an embarrassing faux-pas took place prior to the review. The grand stand had been decorated with flags "stretched from gable to gable.. [but] ..The principal flags had apparently been hoisted by some amateur, for the lions of the Royal Standard above the Ducal pavilion were on their backs, and even the Union Jack at the saluting base was upside down. There was something decidedly funny about this, but it must be remembered that we are at the antipodes, and naturally things are somewhat upside down. The Royal Standard was turned the other way around after the Duchess had taken her seat, but the poor, unoffending Union Jack fluttered to the end as it had been originally hoisted."


Bibliography :

- Papers Past
- Those images attributed to Mr RA Cook may be freely copied for personal, academic and non-commercial use provided a link is given back to this page. 

So What Do You Think of New Zealand?

Lake Ada, Milford Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand

For almost 150 years practically the first question asked of visitors to these fair isles has always been "So what do you think of New Zealand?" By and large, most early visitors were indeed impressed but for others the vast distance from their own homeland, the lack of familiar surroundings, the relative lack of cultural pursuits and amenities, and the absence of close friends and family obviously influenced their enjoyment of a visit "down-under". Perhaps our intense loyalty to New Zealand but also our relative insecurity as a young and sparsely populated sovereign nation, at least by European standards, has meant that we have not always appreciated - or expected - a negative response.

A shearing gang, along with the property owner and his wife,
William & Agnes Watson of "Mayfield" Heddon Bush, enjoying
a tea break. All are of Scottish or Irish descent. Taken circa 1915

My own Great Uncle, Jack Watson, and upon his arrival in New Zealand from Scotland in July 1910, wrote to his Sister in Scotland :

"Almost the first thing that strikes the new chum on his arrival is the open, free and easy nature of the people and the almost total absence of that class distinction so marked in the old country. Here everyone is alike socially; more like a member of a great family than an individual in a civil community."

So, let us now read some of the comments made by others after having visited or arrived in this far flung and loyal outpost of the [then] British Empire. Interspersed with these comments are some early postcards and photographs which portray something of the still young and emerging nation of New Zealand. All images are from my own collections.

Cranmer Square, Christchurch with the English Gothic styled
Christchurch Normal School in the background

“The great drawback to New Zealand – or should I more properly say to travelling in New Zealand – comes from feeling that after crossing the world and journeying over so many thousand miles, you have not at all succeeded in getting away from England” – Anthony Trollope, English Novelist (1815-1882)

A Māori Village, Rotorua. I do believe the top-hatted
European gentleman at right is preaching to the group.
Photographer : Mr R.A. Cook, taken c.1900-1901

“I am persuaded the inhabitants of New Zealand will become a great and powerful nation when once the Light of Divine Revelation begins to dawn upon them.” – Samuel Marsden, English Missionary (1764–1838)

"A Māori Wahine [woman]"

“New Zealand, my Dear Father and Mother, and the natives thereof, remain much the same; savage warlike disposions [sic] are the predominant features of a New Zealander” – George Clarke, CMS Missionary and founder of the Waimate Mission (1798-1875)

The Postmaster at Paterson's Inlet Post
Office Stewart Island, the southernmost
Post Office in New Zealand, takes time
out to greet the local dogs. Note the
 "VR" [Victoria Royal] enamel sign

“Well, to tell you the truth, I never was in a place where they talked more about work and did less of it” – Rudyard Kipling, English Writer (1865-1936)

"The Remarakables", as viewed from Frankton on Lake Wakatipu

“The trouble with New Zealand is that it is rather too pleasing a place. There is a danger of it being over-run by the riff raff of Europe. I suggest it might be a good idea to instruct the Tourist Department to say something about the horrors of New Zealand” – George Bernard Shaw, Irish Journalist, critic and playwright (1856-1950)

The southernmost gas lamp and omnibus in the world,
South Invercargill New Zealand

“I suppose they are happy. I couldn’t bear it” – Lady Diana Cooper, Viscountess Norwich, English Socialite (1892-1986)

Larnach Castle, Otago Peninsula, built 1871-1887, has 43
rooms and required 46 servants. Taken during the Castle's
 revival under the Purdie family. The building at right
is the ball room, now the castle tea rooms. c.1930's

“This was my first visit and extraordinary is the only word I can find for the country and its people. Everything appears to be marvellously well done. Whether it is from a sense of conscience or perfection I don’t know” – Baroness Philippe De Rothschild, French Aristocrat (1908-1976)

A mountain & forest scene

“It’s a beautiful place, you must go” – H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900-2002)

A group attired in fancy dress during the Lacrosse
Games, Auckland. Taken circa 1901.
Photographer : Mr R.A. Cook

“I thought, that if you put a selection of people from the British Isles into antipodean cool-storage for a century and a half and then opened the door, we are what would emerge” – Dame Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand Novelist (1895-1982)

Mitre Peak in the famous Milford Sound,
Fiordland, New Zealand

“It appears to me, too, that the national name which New Zealand bears is a very mean and sorry name. No man ever did less for any country he discovered than the Dutchman Tasman did for New Zealand. He came, saw and left it…” – Charles Flinders Hursthouse, English writer (1812-1876).

Lower Queen Street Auckland, pre 1910

“Being an old Victorian, am much more at home here than in London. You are quite natural to me, but to the English visitor born after 1900 you probably appear quaint, foreign and incredible” – George Bernard Shaw, Irish Journalist, Critic and Playwright (1856-1950)

The Kelburn Cable Car and Tea Kiosk (with fanciful towers)
overlooking the capital city of Wellington

“My Dearest Mother, … You will wish to know what this place is like and I will try to describe it, though as I know of no part of England at all like it, it will not be easy to give you a clear notion of it” – Thomas Arnold, English Educationalist (1823-1900)

Washing the dishes after an outdoors summer Christmas
picnic lunch at Heddon Bush in Southland, 25 Dec 1916

“You can never make New Zealand like Britain. The difference in the vegetation and seasons prevents it, and it is not to be desired. Eating plum pudding and roast goose, with thermometer 100 in the shade, simply because it is Christmas is nonsense…” – Charles Edward Douglas, Scottish Explorer, Naturalist and Surveyor (1840-1916)   

Mt. Egmont / Taranaki, North Island, New Zealand

“A mountain here is only beautiful if it has good grass on it. Scenery is not scenery – it is ‘country’… If it is good for sheep it is beautiful, magnificent, and all the rest of it; if not, it is not worth looking at” – Samuel Butler, English Explorer, Sheep Farmer & Author (1835-1902)

The evidently quiet "one horse town" of Paeroa
in the Northern Waikato of the North Island

“Welcome to purgatory!” – Rev James Watkin, English Wesleyan Missionary and the first European Preacher in the South Island (?-1886)

A canoe on the Waikato River at Ngaruawahia

“Farewell, New Zealand! I shall never see you again, but perhaps some memory of my visit may remain… Every man looks on his own country as God’s own country if it be a free land, but the New Zealander has more reason than most…” – Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, Scottish Writer, Doctor and Spiritualist (1859-1930)

Lower Queen Street Auckland with the new Chief Post Office at left.
This building now serves as the Britomart Transport Terminal

“It is apparent from reading these papers, as from a thousand other signs, that it is London which is the true capital for New Zealanders and that they derive thence their ideas, their fashions and their catchwords” – André Sigfried, French Political Scientist (1875-1959)

The famous White Terraces on Lake Rotomahana
were unfortunately  obliterated in 1886, not by
the hand of man but by the forces of nature 

“I have never ceased to be thankful for two things. One is that I was born with an intense love for the beautiful in Nature, and the other that I came to New Zealand before the hand of man had spoiled most of its natural beauty” – Charles Blomfield, English Landscape Artist and Explorer (1848-1926)

Dunedin in 1859. The 'first' First Presbyterian Church
is at bottom right, being now the Dowling Street car park

“I believe we were all glad to leave New Zealand. It is not a pleasant place” – Charles Darwin, English Naturalist (1809-1882)

The Boer War Memorial, Invercargill,
unveiled by the Premier, Sir Joseph Ward,
on the 3rd June 1908

“This is a wonderful country – or would you call it an archipelago? ... You see a lot of beards and knee socks. And sweaters. You also see an awful lot of war memorials” – Paul Theroux, American Author (1941-)   

The suspension bridge over the Kawarau River in Central
Otago, having been built in 1880 and now used
 as a platform for bungy jumping

“I had the impression that it [New Zealand] was close to Australia or Asia or somewhere, and that one went over to it on a bridge” – Mark Twain, American writer and Novelist (1830-1910)

Moray Place Dunedin and the imposing Gothic styled
First Church of Otago [Presbyterian], c.1910  

“Such nice people! And the civilisation they represent, that’s nice too. Nothing very exciting or spectacular, of course… And everything in a quiet provincial way, thoroughly cosy and sensible” – Aldous Huxley, English Novelist (1894-1963)

Part of a tinted black and white panorama photograph of sheep
at "Mayfield", the property of William Watson, at Heddon Bush
in Southland, taken by RP Moore of Wellington, 1920's
[The original negative for this image is held by the
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington , Ref 30652875]  

“…Where men but talk of gold and sheep and think of sheep and gold” – William Pember Reeves, New Zealand Barrister, Journalist, Sportsman and Politician” (1857-1932)


Use of Images :

All images are from my own collection  and may be freely copied for non-commercial use provided a link is given back to this site. If you require high resolution copies of any images please contact me using the email link in the right-hand menu bar.