Coastal Shipping Tairua 1840 - December 1865

Wharf at Tairua March 2015  - original wharf in 1865 was in this location also - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2015

Shipping Lists provide good sources for immigration, emigration, occupation and movements along a country's coasts. These lists provide a good source for finding family in genealogy and family history.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, areas of New Zealand continued to be reached by shipping vessels. Just as they had by Maori and early European Settlers 1814 - 1840. On the Eastern Seaboard of the Coromandel Peninsula  New Zealand outlying rural areas - up rivers, harbours and small inlets were reached  by shipping vessels for there were no roads and only original tracks across the ranges.

Those early shipping vessels were known as coasters - cutters, schooners, brigantines  and later years steamers. Tairua was a relatively large harbour on the Eastern Seaboard. However the bar at the harbour entrance gained a reputation for being treacherous. This stretch of coast saw a number of cutters and schooners wrecked.

Those coasters bought cargos of stores, machinery and camp gear. Cargos from Tairua  in those early days were , in the main , gum and timber. By mid 1865 sawmill was opened at Tairua.

Across many reference sources are found the names of the Captain/ master of  these coasters and sometimes names of passengers. The coasters collecting cargo at  Tairua travelled to many other parts of New Zealand, including Timaru and the West Coast ,even over to Australia and to the  Islands of the Pacific often with cargoes of timber.

This database in several parts, was  developed over several years and has the names of many people who came to Tairua -  sometimes from other parts, along with coasters , cargo shipped and passengers. 

Coastal Shipping Lists Tairua, Eastern Seaboard Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand
  @Researched, Transcribed, and checked by Anne Stewart Ball 2012 - 2016

Tairua Harbour from Marina in October 2015 - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2015

Notes : Sources

• Newspapers from Papers Past New Zealand National Library ( DSC is Daily Southern Cross ) and Trove Australia
•  AJHR ( associated Journals House Representative)
•  NZ Gazette
•  The Register of Australian and New Zealand Shipping

From Rarotonga to New Zeland about 1300 AD.

Historical and cultural site at Muri  on Rarotonga, Cook Island - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2017

Part of the past of our New Zealand history is linked to that of the Cook Islands. Way ,way back in the timeline of history, it is said seven vaka ( canoe) left the shores of the Cook Islands. The seven were Takitumu, Te Arawa, Mataatua, Aotea,Kurahaupo, Tokomaru and Tainui. That was back about 1300 AD - the migration from near Muri on Rarotonga, Cook Islands,  to New Zealand.

In 1964, a  pearl fishing lure was found at Tairua. A significant find, for it has been said that this lure, came on a waka and had been made in Eastern Polynesia back about early to mid 1300 AD ( dated by radio carbon.) Now that has just got to be a special story and a significant find, in our New Zealand history.

A view from Tairua Marina to near where the fishing lure was found - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2017

We have travelled to many  places across the Pacific Ocean. On sailing vessels and met many people who have passed stories down in their culture ,which tell of migrations to New Zealand. At school I learned about a fleet coming from an opposite direction - seems now myths, that have developed of our past. Well before Captain Cook and further back to Abel Tasman and even Spanish Seafarers, were these fore runners of navigation, of the Pacific, going backwards and foreward to other Pacific Islands including New Zealand. These people were skilled navigators of their time - using stars, winds and currents to guide them. There was no written word, by these people back then - only the oral word and stories passed down from generation to generation. Along with the material heritage items to substantiate the stories.

Footnote: There are no references except the photos. There  will be a follow up on this blog of our journey over a number of years across the Pacific - listening to the stories of other cultures in other places and seeking the truth of the journey to New Zealand - a very relevant part of the past New Zealand history.