The cutter Janet, a typical coastal trader from
Auckland. Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 110, 5 November 1938, Page 24
Beyond the
white
Of Maria
Light
Where the
long, green seas go tramping in,
And the red
of Columbia Shoal,
Tramping in,
stamping in,
With slow,
resistless roll —
W Lawson
|
Beating the Coastal Route
Despite of the lack of roading on the Eastern Seaboard of the Coromandel, settlers soon adapted. Just as always from when the first peoples came to this area, the sea and coastal transport was turned to. By the early 1900's coasters had become a lifeline for those farming on the coast.
A stone wharf was built at Whitianga thought to have been built way back in about 1838 and recorded by IPENZ Engineering Heritage NZ as being the oldest wharf structure in New Zealand. It is said that Gordon Davis Browne ( AKA Brown), an early merchant of Sydney was placed by Captain Ranulph Dacre to supervise the cutting of spars to fill a contract for the English Navy. Browne built a stone wharf and established a timber mill. The stone wharf from local material aided loading and unloading of cargo. The wharf is still there today in 2014 - used by the local ferry to pick up and drop off passengers - now called Ferry Landing.
Ferry Landing ( Early Stone Wharf ) Whitianga ( also called Mercury Bay ) - Photo by CRB 2012 |
By mid August 1865 another large saw mill was newly opened at Tairua. During the first seven months of that year the 21 ton cutter, Ringdove, Poulgrain her master, beat the coastal sea route to and from Auckland carrying cargoes of mill machinery, bush tools for the new mill being built and passengers. The return cargoes from reading the shipping lists (papers past )were gum, beef and passengers. From accounts the owners of the sawmill were up to date with the latest (for 1865) of mill machinery -
"These mills, the property of Messrs. Seccombe and Bleazard, were opened
at Tairua about two months ago, and promise to become one of the leading mills
in the province. The spirited proprietors have, at a great outlay, imported
machinery on the newest principles, the most useful of which is the band saw,
and we think it deserving of a few remarks. This saw is of unusually large
size, in one entire piece, and in the, short space of twenty minutes will cut
550 feet, or at the rate of 2000 feet per hour, any size from up to 60 inches in
width. The boiler attached to the mill is one of Harrison's patent, of 60 horse
power, and takes up 8 feet square room. The bush surrounding these mills abound
with the finest description of Kauri trees, and of easy access to the workmen.
Yesterday we saw some specimens of timber from Tairua, received by the Mapere,
and it now lies on the Company's wharf, Custom-house-street. It is from 1 inch
in thickness up to 12 x 36, and it is certainly some of the best we have seen.
Mr. T. W. Brown is agent for this Company, and he announces the timber for
sale."
THE TAIRUA SAW MILLS. New Zealand Herald, 19 October 1865, Page 4
Not long after the Tairua Saw mill opened, Captain White of the schooner Mapere reported the "commencement of the Tairua Wharf."
Looking towards Tairua and current wharf - photo by CRB 2014 |
The cutter Ringdove was typical of the coasters of the era - under sail and dependent on wind, sea and current. With the saw mills opened the coast saw cutters, schooners and brigantines beating their way to the small eastern seaboard Coromandel Peninsula settlements with cargoes.
Coromandel Kauri gum was also considered good quality and in the early days saw the cutters amongst them Mary Jane - Captain De Thierry; Tamatuiana - Captain Tamaki; Kate - Captain Nicholls; Margaret - Captain Kennedy; Ringdove - Poulgrain. Amongst the schooners were Boyd - Captain Neil; George - Captain Ngakirikiri; Mapere - Captain White with cargoes of gum. The kauri gum coming from the valleys of Whangamata, Wharekawa and Tairua.
Whangamata had no wharf built in those early days even though coasters were bringing cargoes of kauri gum from Whangamata and the first Whangamata store was opened in 1873. The Whangamata Goldfields opening date declared for 1873, saw enterprising
J.S. MacFarlane, Agent for the Steam Packet Company announcing a special
Anniversary Day trip of p.s. Enterprise
up the Waihou River from Thames for the opening of the Whangamata Block.
Throughout this year, J.S. MacFarlane also advertised that the steamer s.s. Southern Cross (by now doing a regular run Auckland, Whitianga (Mercury Bay), Tauranga, Opotiki
return) would call at Whangamata (“if sufficient inducement offered “ )
Page 1 Advertisements Column 1 Daily Southern Cross, Volume
XXIX, Issue 4811, 27 January 1873, Page 1
courtesy Papers Past, National Library New Zealand
His deal must have
been taken up for there are oral and written stories of the area passed down of the goods,
machinery and passengers unloaded on the beach near the harbour entrance ( still no wharf
then). From there it is said they were taken up to the gold mining and logging settlements up the Wentworth and Wharekawa Valleys.
Whangamata From the Air 1988 photo B Williams |
James and Andrew Stewart, invited guests of George Fraser aboard the steamer Rotomahana attended the new and upgraded Mercury Bay Saw mill opening, end of March 1883. By then regular steamer runs along the eastern seaboard coast were the norm.
The NZ Kauri Timber Company Prospectus of July 1888 reflected the mix of types of coasters part of the purchase from the various New Zealand timber companies:
From Auckland Timber Company Limited, the steamers Terror, Yankee Doodle and Hokianga along with the schooners Mariner, Kauri and Rata.
From New Zealand Timber Company Limited, the cutters Fanny, Nellie and Gypsy, the barges Progress and Waitemata along with some punts and boats.
From Union Steam Saw, Moulding and Sash Door Company Limited. the brigantine Aratapu.
From Messrs David Blair & Son the barques Grassmere and Killarney along with several boats, punts and rafting gear.
Steamers continued to make regular calls to
Whangamata dropping machinery, supplies
and passengers, their entry into the Harbour dependent
on the tide. During this decade of great interest, out at sea, off the coast was the
reported in the Bay of Plenty times of “the somewhat unusual sight of a waterspout was this
morning witnessed by those on board the Waiotahi
when opposite Whangamata.” Fortunately the Waiotahi
was not in its path. (Bay Of Plenty Times, 6 October 1897, p2)
Into a new century and a railway was opened at
Waihi in 1905. This gave settlers and itinerants on the other side of the ranges a choice
(still no roads). Either pack horse to Waihi and the railway, or use what had now become a
regular coastal steamer call to Whangamata and Tairua. These were the steamers of the Northern
Steamship Company and amongst those calling were Ngatiawa, Waitangi, Waipu, Waiotahi, Chelmsford and Daphne.
Schooners and cutters were being superceded and
steamers well established, by the beginning of this new century. Other coasters
appeared as regulars along the east coast - the “workhorses” of the coast (their sails giving
way to motors).
Over the 20th Century these scows, able to haul heavy freight, carried cargo of logs, shingle, sand,
machinery and livestock. Leyland & O Brien who had a contract up the Wharekawa Valley found the scow useful for their needs.
Rangi - One of three owned by Leyland & Obrien |
The bar at the entrance to Tairua Harbour was treacherous at times, Whangamata little better, especially in stormy weather, bringing high swells crashing against the rocky cliffs.
Looking toward Entrance to Tairua Harbour across the bar. In centre rear of photo Motuhoa ( Shoe ) Island photo by CRB 2014 |
Cliffs Northwards of Whangamata Harbour Entrance - Photo by H M Stewart 1988 |
The 1860's saw the sea claim at Whangamata - the cutter Annie Laurie, at Tairua -the schooner Mapere.
The sea continued to claim on this coast in the 1870s - the cutter Eclair, schooner Onwards, cutter Brunette, brig Syren, cutter Glance at Tairua.
The 1880's saw the sea claim the cutter Half Caste at Boat Harbour near Tairua, a boat said to have delivered illicit liquor to Port Charles and Opotiki.
Into the 1890's it was the Kauri Timber Company's cutter ( AKA ketch ) Nellie wrecked at Whenuakite ( Hot Water Beach ) 4th August 1894 along with the brigantine Aratapu in May 1898 ashore near Whangamata.
Whenuakite - Hot Water Beach - Photo by CRB 2012 |
The sea was to claim the scow Surprise in 1907 with the loss of life and one survivor, who
scrambled up the cliffs at Ohui to be rescued (exhausted) by local farming
family, the McGregors’. Later years (1976) were to see the wreck of the scow Hipi at Papakura Bay (a rugged area between Whangamata and Whiritoa).
On 3 February 1919 Captain Edward Sellars and his crew of six landed ashore safely but the s.s. Wairoa, a small steamer was run aground on the bar at Tairua. Newspapers noted that the bar was "at all times treacherous." The engine block from s.s. Wairoa, today in 2014, remains at Royal Billy Point, Pauanui - a reminder.
Engine block of s.s. Wairoa wrecked on Tairua Bar 3 February 1919 - Photo by CRB 2014 |
In March 1926, the “locals “of Tairua awoke to find
the biggest ship yet, run fast aground on The Slipper Reef. This was the s.s. Manaia, said to
be 1100 tons. Shortly after this there was a change on this stretch of coast.
Farming began to take the place of gum and gold –
in the beginning days farmers using both the road/rail transport and sea
transport for their produce. My own memories are of the farmers of Slipper Island (Normans followed by
the Needhams) ran a barge backwards and forward ferrying livestock and supplies
to and from Tairua.
Another group of settlers established themselves at
Whangamata and Tairua, lured there by the bounty of the sea – fish. These harbours were
to see in the place of schooners, cutters and steamers - fishing boats, the wharves (now
there) useful places to unload the catch and bait up for the next trip. Many of these fishing
boats, although a more recent coastal heritage of this area, in fact had a long heritage of their
own and that is another blog.
Wharf, Whangamata Harbour 1970's - Photo by J M Stewart |
Reference Source:
- Cory Wright, Phyllis, “Jewel by the Sea”, Printcorp Ltd, Tauranga, 1988
- Ingram, Chas.W.N. and Wheatley, P Owen. Shipwrecks New Zealand Disasters 1795 - 1936. Dunedin: Dunedin Book Publishing Association, 1936.
- Williamson, Beverley M, Whangamata – 100 Years of Change, Goldfields Print Ltd, Paeroa, 1988 Boat Day
- The NZ Kauri Timber Company Prospectus of July 1888
- Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 7, May 1967 Whangamata Stores by Jack and the Late Harry Watt Ohinemuri Journal
- Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 1, June 1964 WAIHI TO WHANGAMATA "LUCK AT LAST", WHANGAMATA -- By the late Mr. Ben Gwilliam Ohinemuri Journal
- MERCURY BAY TIMBER COMPANY. New Zealand Herald, 3 April 1883, Page 6
- Page 3 Advertisements Column 1 Auckland Star, 16 July 1888, Page 3
Papers Past National Library New Zealand
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