Wednesday 26 December 2018

Bagnall Family and Turua - Timber town of Yesterday Year

Te Waihou River up river from the jetty, Turua  near Kopu  2014 - photo courtesy Chris Ball

Turua in the second half of the 1800's could be said to be  a Timber town for from 1877 the Bagnall family operated a timber mill in this place until the early 1900's. That was a part of New Zealand history before the nearby first Kopu bridge opened in May 1928. When the Bagnalls'  operated the timber mill there was no bridge across the Te Waihou river at Kopu and there was a reliance on shipping to load  the timber and transport it to other ports of New Zealand and across the Tasman to Australian Ports.


The Wenona in unidentified port approximately 1877 - Wenona often visited Turua to load timber for Melbourne and Newcastle ) Part of A D Edwards Collection
photo courtesy state library of South Australia, Australia 

The journey to their Turua home 

Originally from Prince Edward Island, Canada , George Bagnall and wife Martha Bagnall ( nee Stevenson) left for New Zealand in December 1863. Passengers aboard the brig Pakeha, along with their children - eldest son Lemuel John and new wife Sarah ( nee Wallace),William Henry, Albert Edward, George Edwin, Richard Wellington, Elizabeth Cantelo, Horatio Nelson, Margaret Ann, and Charles Louis Bagnall. Via South Africa where more passengers boarded, the brig Pakeha arrived at Port of Auckland NZ on 26 May 1864.

Previously involved with sawmilling and shipbuilding on Prince Edward Island, George Bagnall and his family headed for Matakana, north of Auckland. Working with John Darrach- who was regarded as a fine ship builder and having built the brig Pakeha. The first vessel Bagnall was involved with on New Zealand shores was Black Hawk - a 44 ton schooner in 1865. This was followed in 1966 by Black Swan - a top sail schooner of 90 - 100 tons register.

By 1869 the partnership of Darrach and Bagnall had dissolved with Darrach continuing shipbuilding at Matarangi and Bagnall and family moved to Thames- a newly established gold mining town on the Coromandel Peninsula.


Looking across Te Waihou river from jetty Turua near Kopu 2014 - photo courtesy Chris Ball 
The timber years


Eight years later saw the Bagnall family at Turua - once a pa on the Te Waihou river until raids from the North in the 1820's. Turua was near the large Turua forest. Lemuel Bagnall a member of the Auckland Institute was to write and read a paper in which he described the Turua forest, writing:-


"The Turua Forest lies between the Waihou and Piako Rivers, and consists chiefly of kahikatea. A few trees of rimu and matai are occasionally met with, and two or three young kauri-trees, measuring about 30in. in diameter, have been found. The kahikatea-trees are generally large, some of them attaining to 8ft. in diameter, while many measure from 4ft. to 6ft. "  ( L.J. Bagnall, 1896

In this paper in which Bagnall discussed the presence of Kauri gum in the Turua forest, was also reference to kahikatea Captain Cook had found and measured.

 Five of George's  sons, Lemuel John Bagnall in charge, took over firstly the lease of the Hauraki saw mill company in 1877 , acquiring ownership a few years after. The Thames Advertiser reporting on Bagnall's sawmill in 1877, wrote:

" Mr. L. J. Bagnall is the business member of the firm, and conducts the correspondence. He also supervises the planing department, and it is his duty to make frequent tests of the tongued and grooved stuff to ascertain that it is smoothly planed and accurately matched, which enables the carpenter to maintain his equanimity and to execute his work expeditiously. Mr W. Bagnall keeps the whole of the saws in order, and effects repairs when required. Messrs Albert and Nelson Bagnall are in charge of the  bush, to ensure that it is properly worked, and that a plentiful supply of logs are always available, and forwarded to the mill; and Messrs R. W. and Charles Bagnall superintend the shipping of the timber and look after the stores. The  portion of the bush adjacent to the village is connected with the mill by a substantially erected and serviceable tramway, and tho timber is dragged to it by bullock teams, and thence to the mill along the tramway by horses. " ( Thames Advertiser 15/12/1877)


-Bagnall Brothers* Mill and Timber Yard, Turua, Thames, with Te Aroha Mountain in distance. Stacks s of white pine being seasoned Courtesy Trove newspapers National Library Australia  Australian Town and Country Journal Sat 28 Sep 1895   Page 21 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71222986/5243533

Nine years later in 1886 Lemuel Bagnall wrote and read  to the Auckland Institute on Kahikatea as a building timber. Writing:-

" Sawn kahikatea presents a nice appearance. It is clean, and generally straight-grained, and, when dressed and polished, looks well in ceilings and for other indoor purposes. It takes a greater strain to break it than kauri, and does not shrink end-ways. Apart from the question of its durability, it is otherwise equal to any of our other timbers used for building purposes." ( Bagnall ,1886)

Contrary to a 2018 modern idea that Kahikatea was used mainly for butter boxes, it in fact had many uses back in those days. As Lemuel Bagnall wrote it was used for indoor interior work. Bagnall was also to discuss the properties of kahikatea with Thomas Kirk, a botanist and later  first secretary of the Auckland Institute in 1868 along with  first curator of the Auckland museum for five years,  and in December 1885 appointed chief conservator of forests.  Kirk in Forest Flora 1889 was to describe the properties of kahikatea floating in water: -

" Many logs have the same specific gravity as water , and will only float when fully immersed; others will not float at all, and are termed " sinkers" by the bushmen." ( Kirk 1889,p42 )

Further on uses of Kahikatea, Kirk wrote:- 

" While readily admitting that kahikatea is greatly inferior to kauri, totara, and matai in durability, I am fully convinced that its actual durability is much greater than is generally supposed. At the Turua Sawmills on the River Thames, where kahikatea is the only timber converted, Mr. J.L. Bagnall drew my attention to several cottages erected in 1868, in which kahikatea was exclusively used for the framing and weather boarding: at in which kahikatea was exclusively used for the framing and weather boarding: at the date of my inspection they had been standing sixteen years, and had never been painted, but ground plates, studs, and weatherboards sound and in good condition: so fat as could be seen there was no reason why they should not last for many years longer." ( Kirk 1889, p43)


Bagnall's Mill at TURUA - photo prior to 1898 courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, NZ

The 28 March 1886 census recorded the following for Turua Mills,  Thames River showing the extent of employment in this mill town:- 
Total :   86
Male:     51
Female: 35

The census was the year following a fire at  the mill in March 1885, causing extensive damage. It was also in the early 1880's that the Bagnall Brothers diversified into beehive manufacture. Into the 1900's and this operation was to move to Auckland. Isaac Hopkins, a leading New Zealand apiarist published an extensive Australasian bee manual discussing the various beehives and their benefits and uses. Bagnall Bros & Co.  advertised that all the articles illustrated in the manual were available from their Auckland Branch - the manager by then Harold Carleton Bagnall, Lemuel's son.


In Hopkins, Isaac. 1911. The Illustrated Australasian Bee Manual. Wellington: Gordon & Gotch.

In the second decade of the 1900's timber gave way to dairy farming  on the plains. Much of the large forest of kahikatea had disappeared to extensive logging, milling and exporting. In it's place came cleared swamplands and dairy farming on bought in farmland and paddocks of grass.  The timber ships no longer visited Bagnall's wharf to load with timber for other places in New Zealand and further afield to Melbourne and beyond.  Stanley Wellington Bagnall who farmed until depression years, missed those timber ships and wrote the following poem:-

TIMBER SHIPS 

O the river now is empty,
And the brave old days are done,
When the timber ships came sailing
Up the channels, one by one;
And the little town is lonely
For the ships and for the men
That went sailing to the northward
And ne'er came back again.
But if you know the secret,
If you love the little town,
You will see the deep-sea sailers
Come drifting slowly down:
You will hear the burly seamen
Tramping round the capstan bars,
And the wailing wind a whistling
Through the rigging and the spars.
You will hear the anchors rattle,
And the pilot's lusty shout
As the tugs draw up beside them
And the sailing ships go out.
You will hear the Old Mill whistle
Shrilling out a last good-bye,
As the last of all the sailers
Goes sweeping grandly by;
You will see the strip of bunting
Flutter gaily from her mast
As her flag dips thrice in answer
When the last old ship glides past.
But the river now is silent,
For the timber trade is done,
And the sailing ships have vanished
Down the channels, one by one;
And the little town is lonely
For the ships and for the men
That went sailing to the northward
And shall ne'er come back again. 

                                                         S. W. BAGNALL, Opaheke. 

  Yes those timber ships, amongst them, Jessie Craig , a three masted barque are but a memory of a time long ago on Te Waihou River. In those days before the Kopu Bridge ( firstly named Hauraki Bridge) was constructed across the river. Bringing with its opening in 1928, road vehicles and less and less shipping vessels up the river.                         


ONYX & JESSIE CRAIG. [picture] : at Tangowahinnie Mill. Timber Port.[between 1885 and 1946] Brodie Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. courtesy State Library Victoria, Australia
Footnote:
Into the early 1900's and 1901 saw Harold Carleton Bagnall ( eldest son of Lemuel John Bagnall, who had become Managing Director of Bagnall Bros ) and my second cousin Mary Morton Gorrie married. Harold , born in Turua and a former Thames High School pupil was manager of the box factory in Freeman's Bay. Harold was to die in 1918 - the year following his father, Lemuel.  My cousin Mary moved overseas.

 Reference Source:

  Hopkins, Isaac. 1911. The IllustratedAustralasian Bee Manual. Wellington: Gordon and Gotch
   Kirk, Thomas. 1889. Forest Flora of New Zealand. Wellington: George Didsbury, Government Printer.
   Art. LXXII.—Kahikatea as a Building Timber. By L. J. Bagnall, from Volume 19, 1886, NZ Institute
   Art. XXXIII.—Notes on the Occurrence of Kauri-gum in the Kahikatea Forest at Turua. By L. J. Bagnall, from Volume 29,1896, NZ Institute
   Dorothy Bagnall, Childhood at Turua Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 45, September 2001
   Turua - The Saw Mills -Kahikatea or White Pine Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 6, October 1966    
   New Zealander, 28 May 1864, Page 4 New Zealander, 28 May 1864, page 4  
   New Zealand Herald 1 November 1866, Page 4  
   Thames Advertiser , 15 December 1877
   New Zealand Herald 14 March 1883, Page 6
    NZBDM
    Family papers








 
    .










 














                            





Tuesday 9 October 2018

Early Polynesian Waka Voyages of New Zealand and Pacific

Vaka - photo courtesy Te Ara - Cook Islands Museum of Cultural Enterprise, Muri Rarotonga,  2017

When at school, I was taught the" great fleet scenario " It was enshrined in the learning culture  at school and throughout New Zealand. Great pictures were conjured up in my child's mind of canoes, filled with paddlers, frantically paddling to reach distant shores, thousands of kilometres away.. Never did I dare to question what other methods of navigation, did these people of the  eight canoes use. I puzzled and puzzled, where this place Hawaiki was ( modern scholars are now of the thought that Hawaiki might just be Tahiti).

My education on the " Great fleet scenario" was on the cusp of change, when there was another " great migration" taking place in New Zealand  - when rural communities were seeing their communities  experience, their people moving to the cities and the large housing areas, for work in the cities. Even a song was written about it and can be seen on John Archer's " the New Zealand  Folk Song"

 It was not until going on to University, out to work and finally in later years travel across Asia and the Pacific, that it was suddenly realised the myth of the " great fleet scenario" Now in 2018 it is a generation of genealogy, finding one's roots and the answers in DNA for everything. During travel across and around the Pacific and hearing stories from many different peoples of their ancestors journeys across the seas and from continents way, way back in time.   Visiting the new Te Ara -Cook Islands Museum of Cultural Enterprise at Muri, Rarotonga  in 2017, suddenly there came, a eureka moment.

Sign at Muri Te Ara - Cook Islands Museum Cultural Enterprises - photo Chris Ball 2017

There was not one " great fleet scenario" coming to New Zealand. There were in fact a number of visits of canoe to and from New Zealand  by people who knew what they were doing with navigation. Their stories were passed down verbally and in whakapapa or genealogy.  Yes there were some historical facts in the stories, including that of Kupe said to have visited about  925 AD. Kupe is said to be a Chief of Hawaiki ( Tahiti)  whose father was from Rarotonga, and whose mother was from  Raiatea   There is an island in Tahiti said to be called  Raiatea. Kupe is said to have voyaged to New Zealand aboard the double canoe, Matahourua. Kupe is attributed within stories passed down among Iwi for generations, with having visited  the south Wairarapa, Cook Strait, Northland regions, Arahura on the South Island’s West Coast, and to the Coromandel Peninsula -  Taputapuātea and Te Whitianga-o-Kupe  ( Kupe's crossing place).

North end of Buffalo Beach, Whitianga not far from Taputapuātea Stream and looking out toward cliffs where Captain Cook observed transit of Mercury - photo August 2015 courtesy Chris Ball


Today in 2018,  we know this place - Te Whitianga-o-Kupe on the Coromandel Peninsula ( Te Tara-o-te-Ika a Maui )  as Whitianga.  Taputapuātea Stream  flows into the Northern End of what is known as Buffalo Beach. On the island of Raiatea there is Taputapuatea marae - "tapu" meaning sacred and "atea" faraway. This marae was a special place for polynesian voyagers for it was a place of learning. Navigators from all over the Pacific would gather to share their knowledge of the genealogical origins of the universe, and of deep-ocean navigation. Note on map below that "Havaii" was the ancient name for the island of Raiatea.

In Handy, E.S. Craighill. 1892. History and culture in the Society islands. Honolulu: Bernice P Bishop Museum no.79 1930. Hathi Trust


Even  Captain Cook of the HMS Endeavour,  when he visited  Te Whitianga-o-Kupe in 1769 to observe the Transit of Mercury at  Te Whanganui A Hei, (the Great Bay of Hei) was to bring a link to this place in forward years -  in the person of Tupaia.  Also from  Raiatea  Tupaia - navigator and map maker -who encouraged by Joseph Banks, joined Endeavour in July 1769. Banks was appointed to a joint Royal Navy/Royal Society scientific expedition , on HMS Endeavour. Tupaia it is said, proved to be of great value, despite being overlooked and with little to say by Captain Cook. Able to understand and speak the language of Maori met, Tupaia was able to act both as an interpreter along with a mediator role, helping to avert what may have proved disastrous for Captain Cook and the  crew of the HMS  Endeavour.

 Cook recorded in his log about  the first map of Aotearoa being  drawn on the deck of Endeavour by Ngati Hei ancestor Toawaka. Ngati Hei are said to be descended from Hei - a navigator aboard the canoe Te Arawa.The tribe took its name in the 13th Century from Hei, the elder brother of Tama Te Kapua, Captain of the Arawa canoe.

Purangi Estuary off Cooks Beach - photo courtesy ASB 2012

Other stories and histories have been passed down of  other canoe and people arriving in New Zealand. Debate amongst scholars continues over the exact date that Maori arrived in New Zealand  with varying opinions. It is said that between  1000–1100 AD, the Polynesian explorer Toi arrived in New Zealand. Also from Tahiti as Kupe was, Toi is said to have  met the tangata-whenua in  the Hauraki Gulf. Intermarriage took place and Toi finally settled at Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty.

At Entrance to Whakatane  November 2015 photo courtesy Chris Ball


At Tairua on the Coromandel's Eastern Seaboard, a fishing lure was found in an Archaeological site  in 1964. The significance of this fishing lure made from th black lipped oyster shell is that it is thought to have been bought to New Zealand by  Polynesian arrivals to this shore.  The lure thought to be around to be around 1250 - 1300 A,D  gives support to the theories which tell of migrations from the islands of the Pacific to New Zealand.


Tairua Harbour  - where the tree Tutuaki is said to be standing guard over the place where the pearl shell fishing lure was found - photo 2018 courtesy Chris Ball


Not far from Te Ara Museum at Muri, Rarotonga is a place marking the spot,  said to be where seven vaka ( canoe) left in about 1250 -   1350 A.D from the bay of  Ngatangiia. This was a favoured location for there is a gap in the reef which fringes the widest part of the island's lagoon. It is said these vaka  voyaged to Aotearoa ( New Zealand)


   In the Bay of Ngatangiia, Muri , Rarotonga - photo 2017 courtesy Chris Ball


The seven vaka leaving  the Bay of Ngatangiia, were Takitumu, Te Arawa, Mataatua, Aotea, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru and Tainui.  Whether these seven left at the same time or over a period of time  is still a point of conjecture and debate amongst scholars of  polynesian migrations.


Modern Day Vaka anchored in the Bay of Ngatangiia - photo 2017 courtesy Chris Ball


After visiting the Te Ara museum at Muri, Rarotonga, another " eureka moment" gave realisation that these early polynesian voyagers to New Zealand were in fact great navigators. It was not paddle, paddle, paddle.  A  vast knowledge about currents, winds, seasonal weather changes and the stars enabled these  navigators to move across the vast Pacific Ocean (  Te Moananui-a-Kiwa ). Te Moanui - a-kiwa said to be 70 million square miles of ocean.


The stars - photo courtesy Andy Holmes

On the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand those stars that helped guide those early navigators. Guiding their  canoe to the coastal places of the Coromandel Peninsula: Te Tara-o-te-Ika a Māui (the jagged barb of Māui's fish), It is in the Maori place names of the Coromandel Peninsula and oral stories and song passed down thorough Iwi and whanau that is found those of ancestor navigators who came and travelled back home in many waka ( canoe) over several hundred years. Or settled in place enjoying the bounty of land and sea.

Many of those stories are now being written and recorded - a very relevant part of the past New Zealand history that marks a long history of many canoe rather than one great fleet coming to the shores of New Zealand.

                            Tairua / Pauanui shores looking out to Whakahau - photo 2015 courtesy Chris Ball 

Reference Sources:
  • Best, Elsdon. 1934. The Maori As He Was : A Brief Account of Life as it Was in Pre-European Days. Wellington: Dominion Museum.
  • Hiroa, Te Rangi.( Sir Peter Buck) 1949. The Coming of the Maori . Wellington: Māori Purposes Fund Board.
  • Smith, S Percy. 1904. Hawaiki: The Original Home of the Maori, With a Sketch of Polynesian History. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs Limited
  • Howe, K. R. The quest for origins: who first discovered and settled New Zealand and the Pacific islands? Auckland: Penguin, 2003.
  • Reed, A. W. Treasury of Maori exploration. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1977.
  • Simmons, D. R. 1976. The great New Zealand myth : a study of the discovery and origin traditions of the Maori. Wellington,NZ: A.H and A.V Reed.
  • Sorrenson, M. P. K. Maori origins and migrations. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1979.
  • Rushforth, David. 2015. "The Lures of Tairua." In True Tales of the Coromandel's Eastern Seaboard, by Anne Stewart Ball Compiler /coordinator for TCHT, pp 8 - 11. TCHT The Coromandel Heritage Trust.
  • Best, Elsden. 1915. "Art. XLVII.—Maori Voyagers and their Vessels: How the Maori explored the Pacific Ocean, and laid down the Sea Roads for all Time." Transactions & Proceedings New Zealand Institute, November 8thKupe Te Matorohanga, recorded by H.T. Whatahoro, and translated by S. Percy Smith; from the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 4, 1913,http://archive.hokulea.com/ike/moolelo/kupe.html
  • KUPE The Polynesian Navigator and Explorer by T. V. Saunders - in Te Ao hou The Maori Magazine No. 66 (March 1969)http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/issue/Mao66TeA/c13.html
  • In Handy, E.S. Craighill. 1892. History and culture in the Society islands. Honolulu: Bernice P Bishop Museum no.79 1930. Hathi Trust



Thursday 26 July 2018

Williamson Park reserve ,Whangamata, Coromandel Peninsula

Williamson Park  31 January 2009 - before the changes - photo courtesy Chris Ball

"Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artefacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations……"Whatever shape they take, these things form part of a heritage, and this heritage requires active effort on our part in order to safeguard it."
            From Forum 2014 Minmar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey " Preserving Culture and Heritage Through Generations"
 
Often in New Zealand we tend to think about Heritage buildings or heritage structures, often overlooking that intangible heritage - our cultural heritage - which is often reflected in place with stories  Williamson Park Reserve, Whangamata on the Eastern Seaboard of the Coromandel Peninsula is  one of those places.

 I am of the  view, that due to the recent changes to Williamson Park in the last two years  since 2016, that we are in grave danger of losing a part of Whangamata's intangible cultural heritage, along with the very reason we had this Park in the first place.  Especially if we ignore the stories and  special things about this park, passed down in our family stories to future generations.

  The very fact that we, as people on the Coromandel Peninsula, inherited from past generations, who lived at Whangamata in the early 1900s, this park. That because of the generosity of the Williamson family we were bestowed this park as a gift in 1929 for the benefit of future generations. 

The Gates of Williamson Park Reserve - constructed and opened in 1970  to acknowledge the gifting of this park - photo HMS Stewart ( my mother)

I  am of the view that active effort is required ,on the part of many, who have enjoyed the benefits of this park, to safeguard it for future generations - along with the stories and the intangibles, before they are lost, forgotten or trundled over by those with little regard to preserving cultural heritage.  Who would, in fact, bring to this park, an imported culture, not necessarily chosen by the majority of the ratepayers and residents of Whangamata.


Williamson Park Reserve in 23  September 2016  -  the start of major changes to Williamson Park - photo Chris Ball

With part of the past of our New Zealand history I  research and write many stories for this blog.  The following is how this  park  came to be - the stories and words passed down by dear friends - the Williamsons. A park that over many decades for me has seen many of those intangibles - enjoying the surf club ( started by family member - Matt Whyte) and  the adjacent beach; marriage at the park for family and friends; lots of walks, picnics; enjoying the free events on offer over the years with others - surf carnivals, whanga week, the Summer Festival and in recent years Brits at the Beach and Beach Hop - all very much what I regard as some good cultural heritage of Whangamata and the Coromandel Peninsula.  This was a gift given to all of us,  by the Williamsons in 1929 and has been passed down, by many for decades until now.

Williamson Park 2014 before the changes - looking out toward Hauturu ( Clark Island)
and  Tuhua (Mayor Island )in distance - photo Chris Ball


 Williamson - past history in Whangamata


 In early 1919, there arrived in the small community of Whangamata, one, Philip Williamson and his wife Madeline. Whangamata back then was a community of farmers, fishermen , a storekeeper and hotel owner. Unlike today in 2018, there was no electricity and no roads in. Travel to and from Whangamata was via a six weekly steamer bringing supplies or horse along  bush tracks. 

With no electricity. cooking on a coal range or wood stove and light from a kerosene lamp or candles, was the order of the day back then. Philip and Madeline soon settled in to this small community and with the arrival of daughter Beverley in 1920 were involved in daily living.  By 1921 Philip was reported as being Chairman of the Whangamata Settlers Meeting and attending a meeting of the Thames County Council. With a delegation and a petition asking for completion of the Waihi - Whangamata road and a wharf at Whangamata. The following year, 1922, Philip Williamson was appointed a Justice of the Peace, a welcome role in this rural area. By 1923  Philip was soon to realise that rather than farming, more chances lay in forestry  and beach front sections ,so turned attentions towards those visions. In 1935, immersed in the subject of pinus radiata and timber treatment, Philip wrote a letter to the British Wood Preserving Association who published this in their journal which ended: -
 
"Vast areas of trees, particularly Pinus radiata, have been planted in New Zealand during the last four years, and this timber is one which should respond readily to preservative treatment. The principles and economic value of such treatment should be thoroughly understood by those interested before the trees reach maturity. Many of the plantations are now ready for a first thinning, and these thinnings would, if properly treated with creosote, be very valuable for fencing posts, building blocks, light telephone poles, etc., provided some simple and economical means could be devised for removing the bark. This seems to present rather a difficulty at the present time." (Editors A. H. LLOYD, M.C., AND R. C. B. GARDNER. 1935)

Whangamata area in the 1930's was  a trial area for forestry and gave employment to those out of work in planting projects in the newly established Tairua State Forest. In 1946 Philip began construction of a sawmill. By the beginning of 1947, felling of the pines and processing of the wood at the sawmill , provided timber for baches being built in what was the beginning of Whangamata as a seaside resort. My cousins each bought a section from Madeline Williamson in 1946 opposite Achilles Store  and both built baches.

Aerial view of Whangamata, looking southwest towards hills in the background. Photograph taken January 1953 by Whites Aviation. Photo courtesy Whangamata. Ref: WA-31979-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22891112
(See pine forest and the mill in Whangamata photo  1953 above  mid right.)

It was also in the 1930's that Philip was elected member Tairua Riding, Thames County, throwing in his energies for an upgrade of " Pipi" Bridge at Tairua in 1938  and improvement of all roads and bridges in the Tairua Riding. Tairua Riding then included the townships of Tairua, Whangamata and the  settlements of Hikuai and Wharekawa (including Opoutere). There was no settlement at Pauanui or Onemana in that era - just farms. Philip as member of Tairua Riding, followed in the footsteps of Harold Cory Wright, James Prescott and Ernest Niccol who had also represented the area, as councillors on the Thames County Council. Ernest AKA Ernie was nephew of George Turnbull Niccol, shipbuilding and who sold his subdivided farms at Hikuai  to the New Zealand  Government in 1921 for Rehabilitation Scheme farms by ballot. 

THE BEAUTIFUL STRETCH OF COAST-LINE AT THE MOUTH OF THE TAIRUA RIVER, ON THE EAST COAST OF THE NORTH ISLAND: A STRIKING VIEW SECURED LAST WEEK FROM PUMPKIN HILL 1928  courtesy  
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19280209-49-2

With the outbreak of World War II, Philip found himself involved again in the war effort. This time enlisted as Captain with the home guard based in Paeroa Army Office. Also from the Whangamata/ Opoutere area in the Home Guard  were Statham, Willetts and Widdison.

Following World War II, Philip and Madeline Williamson saw new changes at Whangamata, as sections were bought and people looked towards this new "beach resort" as offering summer holidays. A surf club, a fire station and engine - " old heartache", Whangamata community church - both volunteer work and money were donated by them to see these community necessities established and of course Williamson Park reserve - a very special gift in 1929.

Williamson Park Reserve - Gifted forever:


Auckland Star   23 May 1929   Page 5

Following the meeting, Philip Williamson received a letter from the Thames County Council clerk, accepting the " generous offer" 

On 11 April 1933, Madeline Williamson signed a Memorandum of Transfer, witnessed by the Postmaster of Waihi. The particulars are said to have been entered in the Register Book , Vol 616, Folio 284 on 2 May 1933. The Transfer "  in good consideration to the Chairman, Councillors and Inhabitants of the County of Thames. "  The land was described  " to be held by the Transferee as a Public Park and  Recreation Reserve for the use of the Public forever."

Yes - a forever document and now in 2018  a number of ratepayers and residents are looking to Save Williamson Park. http://savewilliamsonpark.org.nz/

 To  value the intangible cultural heritage that is Williamson Park - the people's park.  ( a part of the past New Zealand history )

Whangamata Main Surf Beach 1970's - looking toward Williamson Park and Surf Club centre middle top photo - photo
JM Stewart friend of Philip Williamson and County Town Chairperson Whangamata early 1970's

Reference Source: