Heritage et AL

If you haven’t had a chance to see the exhibition Don’t leave town till you’ve seen the country on Level 2 of Tāmaki Ngā Pātaka Kōrero Central City Library, we recommend you go to enjoy its visual richness. In the meantime, we offer you an opportunity to listen to a selection of exhibition interviews in the comfort of your favourite chair, or on your commute.

The first track is an interview with Principal Curator Georgia Prince giving a background to the exhibition content and selection process.

Georgia shares with interviewer Haunui Royal a couple of highlights including Cecil Burleigh’s diary. The diary begins in 1932 when he was 22, and records his regular holiday trips around New Zealand. The hand drawn map charts three road trips he took with his mother in 1948 and 1949. In March 1949 they travelled from Auckland to Waiouru and back, before he returned to sea as a chief engineer.

‘The whole trip was pleasant and interesting.’ Cecil Burleigh. Diary. 1932-1987. NZMS 1450.

Georgia Prince looking at Cecil Burleigh’s diary. Photograph by Sue Berman 2018.

The second track is an interview with Oral History curator Sue Berman who discusses a couple of tracks from the collection which give voice to people’s memories of their holiday times and destinations.

The remaining tracks on the podcast include memories of beach and bush, the state of the roads for travelling and much favoured lodges and locations.

Juliet Batten conveys her deep sense of connection and love for tramping and spending time in the Waitakere Ranges and her yearning for this wilderness while overseas.

Ref: J.T. Diamond. The Auckland Tramping Club bus, 1953. Research West, Auckland Libraries, JTD-14M-00614.

Ian Bolton describes his father’s preparation for their annual camping holiday to Long Bay Camp ground and the journey there from Mt Albert.

The next track is from an interview with Dorothy Butler who owned and restored the popular holiday destination Winchelsea House in Karekare. In this extract Dorothy recalls her family’s earliest experience of going to Karekare about 1960.

Accommodation Houses in the Waitākere Ranges by Ben Copedo is a recorded talk delivered to the West Auckland Historical Society in 1984. In this extract Ben shares his research on accommodation houses in the Whatipu area.

Ref: Isobel Hooker. Tennis courts at Whatipu Lodge, 1940. Research West, Auckland Libraries, JTD-06K-03061-1.

Mary Woodward remembers taking picnics on the north end of the beach at Te Henga [Bethells Beach] while on holiday at the family cottage.

Olive Ashby describes going to Beach Haven from Birkenhead for holidays in the 1920s.

Birkenhead wharf, about 1930. Research North, Auckland Libraries, N0110016.

And finally a collaboration with Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision sees some wonderful curated content available both at the Central City Library and the Ngā Taonga website, highlighting New Zealanders on Holiday - including the 1980s tourism board advertisement Don’t leave town till you’ve seen the country.

Author: Sue Berman, Oral History Curator, Archives and Manuscripts

Those three words are sung before every test match that the All Blacks play—in grounds throughout the rugby-playing world. Many New Zealanders have sung them more than once themselves. What exactly do they refer to? Let’s begin with their author.

Born in County Meath, Ireland, in 1841, Thomas Bracken spent most of his life in New Zealand, where he became a Member of Parliament and the popular poet who wrote the verses that are now our national anthem, ‘God Defend New Zealand’. The Auckland Central City Library’s Sir George Grey Special Collections contains the only manuscript in Bracken’s own handwriting of this ‘National Hymn’, as he entitled it. It is dated 9 July 1876. Also in the Grey Collection is the sole surviving autograph manuscript of John Joseph Wood’s musical setting of the anthem. Bracken's manuscript and Wood's sheet music, held by Auckland Libraries, are inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World New Zealand register.

Ref: Original words and music to God defend New Zealand, 1878,
GNZMS 296, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

The history of ‘God Defend New Zealand’ is entertainingly told in Max Cryer’s meticulously researched 'Hear our voices we entreat: the extraordinary story of New Zealand’s national anthem'. Cryer corrects previous accounts of Bracken’s date and place of birth. The wrong date, 1843, was even inscribed on his tombstone. Cryer devotes a chapter to ‘one abiding mystery’. That is the meaning of ‘Pacific’s triple star’ in the lines:

Guard Pacific’s triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.

The topic has aroused a good deal of debate. Cryer lists thirteen explanations of the phrase that have been put forward at various times, most of them connected with stars on flags. In particular, in Bracken’s day three stars featured on prominent Māori flags and on a coat-of-arms devised by Bishop Selwyn.

Ref: Thomas Bracken. Musings in Maoriland, 1890.
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

Nobody, however, seems to have approached the problem with Bracken’s special characteristics as a poet in mind. They can best be gleaned from his 'Musings in Maoriland' of which Sir George Grey Special Collections has several copies. The volume contains illustrations and a preface by Sir George Grey himself. But although he gained applause while living, Bracken was not a very good poet and ‘God Defend New Zealand’ is not a very good poem. 'Musings in Maoriland' and Bracken’s other books of verse do, however, display some distinctive tricks of style. One of these is periphrasis, a roundabout way of referring to things that was favoured by the English ‘Augustan’ poets of the eighteenth century. They would notoriously call fish ‘the finny tribe’. When Alexander Pope wrote ‘The wooden guardian of our privacy / Quick on its axle turn’, he meant ‘Shut the door’. Bracken revelled in this poetic device. The sun, for instance, may be ‘glorious king of light’, ‘the golden shield of God’, ‘day’s bright pendant’, ‘old Sol, the gilder’, or ‘God’s golden limner of our planet’s days’—a ‘limner’ being one who paints or draws. When it is just the sun, it ‘climbs up the mountain side at morn, / To ope the lily’s breast with golden key’. The sky is ‘the azure arch’, ‘yon starry slope’, or ‘the jewelled dome / Which frames the world’.

‘Pacific’s triple star’ takes its place in this repertoire. It is clearly a periphrasis for New Zealand. God is entreated to guard her from strife and war, to make her praises heard afar, and defend her. This much has been generally recognized. But crucially, the ‘triple star’ that is New Zealand is ‘Pacific’s’. It belongs to the ocean. So it can only be the North Island, the South Island, and Stewart Island, which several nineteenth-century writers called the Northern, Middle, and South Islands, as Cryer notes. Bracken’s phrase cannot stand primarily for any sort of insignia. Suppose the silver fern were now adopted as our sole national emblem and featured on a flag, it would make no sense to ask God to ‘Guard Pacific’s silver fern’. We might use ‘the silver fern’ as metonymy for (as something ‘standing for’) New Zealand, but we would not speak of ‘Pacific’s silver fern’.

Ref: Thomas Bracken. Musings in Maoriland, 1890.
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

We can find traces of the ideas behind ‘Pacific’s triple star’ in some of Bracken’s other poems. They provide significant clues to correct understanding of the phrase. In ‘Hurrah for New Zealand’ Britain, as mother land, tells Freedom to pick ‘loyal hearts’ who will ‘make my fair daughter a Queen of the Sea’. In his ‘In Memoriam’ Bracken stellifies this daughter and potential queen: New Zealand is ‘Star of the South – our dear adopted land’. And in ‘Address’ he evokes ‘Proud Australasia, cluster of fair isles / And favoured islets in Pacific set’. In the anthem these images merge. It was the combination of New Zealand as ‘star’, ‘of the sea’, and ‘isles . . . in Pacific set’ that created the periphrasis ‘Pacific’s triple star’.

Baptised a Catholic, Bracken would have known that the Virgin Mary was ‘Stella Maris’, Star of the Sea, and, writing a ‘National Hymn’, would have approved of any religious overtones contributed to his phrase in this way and through vague suggestions of the ‘triple’ godhead of the Christian Trinity. Cryer points out that, according to historian Judith Binney in her book 'Redemption Songs' the three stars on Te Kooti’s flag symbolized the three islands. So the existence of such flags may conceivably have helped provoke Bracken’s periphrasis of New Zealand as ‘Pacific’s triple star’. But what the phrase ‘means’ is the three islands themselves. At a time when writers could allude to the Northern, Middle, and South Islands, no inhabitant of Waiheke Island or Sir George Grey’s Kawau Island, for example, would have complained that Bracken had miscounted.

Author: Mac Jackson

Sāmoan Language Week (Sunday 27 May to Saturday 2 June) is an opportunity to acknowledge and support the Sāmoan language and its use in New Zealand.

We celebrate the languages and cultures of our diverse nation, to connect people back to their roots but also to teach other people about a different culture.

In the Central Auckland Research Centre, on Level 2 in Central City Library we are proud of the diversity of our international family history collection. Our Pacific Island collection is big part of this - and the Samoan collection is very strong.

People use our family history collections to trace their family, but also to reconnect with their culture and their heritage.

If you search our catalogue by typing: 3 SAM BDM in the search box for example you will find a whole host of resources on microfilm for births, deaths and marriages in Samoa:

Birth registers for Savai'i, Western Samoa, 1905-1993
Death registers for Savai'i, Western Samoa, 1923-1992
Death registers for Upolu, Western Samoa, 1923-1993
Delayed registrations of births for Western Samoa, 1948-1993
Marriage records for Upolu, 1919-1993
Birth registers for Upolu, Western Samoa, 1905-1992
Probate case files, 1920-1978 [microform] ; Probate registers and index, 1920-1978
Births within the British military occupied territory of Samoa, v. 1-8, 1917-1961
Birth registers, 1876-1920
Births registered at the British consulate, ca. 1869-1915
Births within the district of the British Consulate at Samoa, 1852- 1915
Deaths within the district of the British consulate at Samoa, 1875-1913
European birth registers, v. 1-55, 1920-1962
Record of birth and death certificates, Western Samoa, 1962-1963
Records of births in the outer districts of Western Samoa, 1961- 1964
Register of births within the British military occupied territory of Samoa, 1917-1920
Vital records, ca. 1917-1920
Register of British subjects residing in the Samoan Islands, ca. 1878-1915
Death certificates, 1900-1972
Registers of deaths, 1900-1938
Marriage licenses and certificates, 1900-1968
Birth certificates, 1850-1972
Affidavits of delayed registration of births, 1962-1972
Register of births, 1900-1928
Marriage registers, 1900-1912

These records are in a mixture of languages: Sāmoan, English and German, according to when in history the records were created.

So if you want to celebrate your Sāmoan heritage, come in and research with us anytime.

Happy hunting

Tōfā soifua

Seonaid

Among the databases available for FREE at Auckland Libraries is the British Newspaper Archive. This is the British Library’s version of PapersPast. If you subscribe to Findmypast you may have access to this already as part of your subscription. Otherwise you can use the British Newspapers Archive at any Auckland Council Library. all you have to do is register – provide an e-mail address and password and "Bob’s your Uncle!"

The site includes newspapers from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and the articles can be something of national interest and much better, of local interest.

A quirky example you may find are the results of ploughing contests that may name the person and their employer. The best of course, are those articles that are a little scurrilous. I have incidents that have caused me to sit down and research who the parties involved are and how they are related.

However, all articles have added insight into how my families lived, property owned and what their character was like. It may be that your temperament has not only come from your father/mother but great-great aunt Frances.

Croydon Advertiser and East Surrey Reporter 25 Jul 1885 (part of article)
You can read the full articlehere:

The British Newspapers Archive is just one example of heritage newspapers that Auckland Council Libraries provide free for customers - but it is a fabulous resource and has so many titles not covered by others!

Happy hunting

Marie

In the days prior to the Auckland City amalgamation of 1989, the Borough Council building held a significant place in the community. One went in to pay the rates, pick up rat bait (issued free upon request), and maybe even caught a glimpse of the mayoral robes. This month, one of those buildings returns to new life after a controversial few years. The Mt Roskill Borough Council Municipal Building at Three Kings – the Metrowater building to locals – is back in use after the discovery of toxic black mould saw it in limbo. With rumours of a push to demolish, the local historical society petitioned for it to be saved and now, renovated in all its pink-peach glory, it is once again the home of the Local Board.

Image: Mount Roskill Borough Council Chambers viewed from
Mount Albert Road, 1975. Auckland Council Archives, MRB 009/633

Built in 1956, the complex was considered by then MP John Rae, a ‘dream home’ for the council. He had called the previous Roads Board offices down the road a ramshackle collection of corrugated iron sheds. They had been in use since 1903.

Image: Payout - unemployed relief workers outside Mount Roskill Road Board office, 1931.
Auckland Council Archives, MRB 027/1g

A new municipal centre had been on the drawing board as far back as the 1920s with plans to build on the corner of Mt Albert and Three Kings Roads. It was a decade before a proposal was prepared, and it was ambitious. There would be not only a municipal building, but a 600-seat hall, shops and later, a cinema. However, the loan application was declined.

In 1937 two options came before the Roads Board: either add on to the existing offices, or construct a new building on the site at Three Kings. Again, the proposal fell through. Two years on, a new building was back on the table. A design was chosen, but with the advent of the Second World War, the project was abandoned. The photo below shows where Three Kings Road meets Mt Albert Road, and the designated site opposite Three Kings School.

Image: James Richardson, Looking south from Three Kings towards Mangere Mountain and
Manukau Harbour, 18 September 1920, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 4-5664

In 1945 architects Gummer and Ford were selected to design something new. Their plan included shops, a Post Office and a bank branch. There would be a hall to accommodate 450 people complete with an orchestral pit, large stage, a dance floor for 250 couples, clubrooms and showers. The plan allowed for the municipal offices to be upstairs with a caretaker’s flat at roof level. Plunket rooms would be set in the gardens and would include an extensive veranda where perambulators could be parked. The estimated cost was 50,000 pounds. Application was made to the Local Government Loans Board, and it was referred back to the ratepayers for approval. It was rejected due to the expense. Two years later another scheme was proposed and yet again, fell through.

Finally, in 1954, the Borough Council proceeded with the plan that resulted in the current building.

Image: Mount Roskill Municipal Chambers, 1965.
Auckland Council Archives, MRB 027/2aj

Designed by local architect, Stephen George Wright, it is now considered an example of the development of Modern architecture in this country. The “ramshackle collection of corrugated iron sheds” 300 yards down the road were subsequently designated as community rooms, and demolished in the 1970s. The new building opened in 1957, with Mt Roskill Borough mayor Keith Hay presiding, and for the next 30-odd years was the municipal home of the borough. That community ideal was in its prime at Christmas, with lights decorating the pine in the carpark, and Carols by Candlelight held on the reserve below.

Image: Carols by candlelight, no date. Auckland Council Archives, MRB 111/1-6-3 box 19

At the 1989 amalgamation, the building became the headquarters of Metrowater. At the 2010 amalgamation, the Puketapapa Local Board and other council entities were housed there - until the discovery of the toxic mould in the circa-1990 additions. Now headquarters once again to the Local Board, it’s an inspiring tale of how a local community can fight to retain a significant, local landmark, and succeed in preserving local heritage.

Author: Joanne Graves (Central Research Centre)
With thanks to Lisa Truttman and John Adam for their research assistance.

Jack Diamond was a thorough collector of everything West. He not only took his own photographs and acquired gifts of photos, but he also took photos of photos, before there were scanners or copiers, from both personal collections and collections belonging to institutions.

In each image in this small sample there is a car, the photos dating from 1919 to 1974. A number of the photographs here were taken by Jack himself, as a record of events and scenes in the time in which he lived.

Photograph dating is an interesting study, clothing and hairstyles are frequently quite reliable indicators of the season and decade, or even year, in which a photograph was taken. However vehicles were often a big investment and we Kiwis tend to keep them until they fall to pieces perhaps making them an unreliable indicator of photograph dates, but still very interesting!

Please let us know if you are able to clarify details of the make and model of any cars which are unidentified.

There are a surprising number of other vehicles in our photograph archives. Search for them here: Auckland Libraries Image Databases.

1919

Read this wonderful clipping from Papers Past on the French Generals’ visit to the Waitakere Ranges in 1919:
Our French Visitors. Auckland Star, 27 January 1919.

It sounds like there must have been quite a caravan of vehicles to transport 50 people! Here are the French Generals arriving in a motor car at the hauler site at the top of the Anawhata incline on the Anawhata Road.

Auckland War Memorial Museum (Pictorial Collections), 1919. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-03K-05304-1.

1920s

Automobiles, including two Model T Fords (middle) and a Douglas motorcycle, are parked outside the Station Garage on West Coast Road in 1926. The man in overalls is the garage proprietor Charlie Martin. The garage was in the Glen Eden railway station yard with a frontage to West Coast Road almost opposite Glendale Road. It might be more familiar to readers as Martin and Halliday's Garage in the 1950s.

Click here for shocking photo! - Petrol Pump Knocked Over By Milkman!

Station Garage, Glen Eden, 1926. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-12A-01538-1.

1937

Born in 1890, Steve Ozich emigrated to New Zealand from Dalmatia in 1906, only 16, to dig in the gum fields. He became a carter of metal and bricks and a railway worker, then a land agent, owner of the Henderson Hotel (now The Falls Hotel) for 60 years and the Ozich Buildings on Station Road (now Railside). He also ran a taxi service in Henderson. Here he is standing beside his U.S. built Hupmobile taxi adorned as a wedding car, parked outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Auckland.

You can listen to the Oral History of Mr Ozich at the West Auckland Research Centre at the Waitakere Central Library in Henderson.

Steve Ozich and his taxi outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, 1937. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-14M-03977.

1950s

Do you remember Glen Eden’s post office, milk bar and dairy? Routley’s Buildings are still there, with the name and date of construction (1927) still clearly seen on the facade.

The car in this photo is a Ford Zephyr, described as having a license plate from the period 1956-1961. Are you able to identify the exact year this model was made? It’s parked outside Routley's Buildings on West Coast Road in the late 1950s.

John Thomas Diamond. Routley's Buildings, Glen Eden, 1950s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-12A-01492.

1957

This photo is packed with partially identified cars parked along West Coast Road outside Oratia School during the 75th jubilee celebrations. Car makes include, from left, a Morris, Standard 10, Citroen, Chevrolet(?), Austin, unidentified, Vanguard, and on right, a Vauxhall.

John Thomas Diamond. Cars parked on West Coast Road, 1957. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-13K-01031.

Jack Diamond took several photos of the Jubilee event, which was held on Easter weekend that year: Oratia School Jubilee, 1957.

Oratia School was first planned by the Education Board in 1882, however classes for the children of Waikumete residents were held in the hall near the present Oratia Church before this date.

c1965

There have been three hotels on this site on the corner of Great North Road and Wingate Street, between 1870 – 1967. The old Avoncourt Hotel was the last, built in 1889 and demolished to make way for an arcade and a supermarket. Apparently the building was very well constructed, it stood for 78 years and still looks a bit grand in this photo. There’s no information about the car or the exact date the photo was taken. Can you help?

Peter Brennan, Avoncourt Hotel, Avondale, about 1965. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-24A-03985-1.

You can find a number of photos of the old hotels in Avondale here: Digital NZ.

1969

Of course, everywhere we now know as suburbs of Auckland, were once empty of houses and even lacked roads. Glendene, near Henderson, was once Glendene Farm owned by Percy Jones, with cowsheds, milking shed, sheep, cows and a piggery. The farm was subdivided and the suburb of Glendene was created between the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s. Here in 1969 Jack Diamond’s Triumph Herald car is parked at the end of a newly formed road overlooking the site of earthworks for a new housing development. Any thoughts on the year of the car?

John Thomas Diamond. Manhattan Heights Estate, Glendene Farm subdivision, Henderson, 1969. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-14N-03732.

There used to be lots of cows and sheep, but unsurprisingly elephants were infrequent visitors to Glendene: Local History Online.

1970

Jack Diamond documented the burnt-out shell of the Dutch Kiwi restaurant on Scenic Drive after the fire that destroyed the old boarding house building in January 1970.

John Thomas Diamond. The Dutch Kiwi restaurant after the fire, 1970. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-13A-04091-2.

Once named Nihotupu, the area became known by The Waiatarua Boarding House which was built by W. Frederick Judson in 1906. It provided accommodation and refreshments for weary travellers to the ranges and spectacular beaches of Auckland’s West Coast. In the 1940’s it was converted to flats, then in 1960, The Dutch Kiwi restaurant was opened by new owner Mr. R. Feijen and became a popular place to dine and dance.

The car is a 1966 Chevrolet Impala.

Would you like to read more about Waiatarua? Song Of Two Waters - Jeanne Wade.

1974

Do you remember summers driving to the beach sitting on the hot sticky vinyl seats in your family’s car? Any thoughts on the date of this Cortina parked near the driveway to the Piha camping grounds?

John Thomas Diamond. From store at Piha view over camping ground, 1974. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-04N-04895.

There’s a long history of day-trippers, tramping and camping in and around Piha, which became increasingly popular after the Duke of Gloucester surfed at Piha on Christmas Day 1934. Early subdivision plans by landowners included most of the Domain, luckily in the 1930’s the Rayner estate gave the land to the Crown as a public reserve to make up the Domain as we know it today.

Have a look at more wonderful images: Piha.

Author: Liz Bradley (West Research Centre)

In May 2018, Auckland Tramping Club donated a fascinating map of the Northern Slopes of Mount Ruapehu to Auckland Libraries. Notes on the map indicate the survey was done by C.W. Stewart and J.C.McComish, and it was McComish himself who compiled and hand drew the map, and signed it with the date of October ’57.

Further handwritten notes on the map note that it was restored in June 1972 by D.B.F. Brown, which is possibly when the map was laminated.

Ref: Auckland Tramping Club, Map of the northern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, 1957. Auckland Libraries, Heritage Collections, NZ map 9151

The map covers the area from the Upper Scoria Flat to the Crater Lake and it really is a work of art – mainly black and white, it has roads, streams, huts, ski patrol bases, chair lifts and power lines in colour, although very faded after sixty years of use. As well the map, there is information on safety, distances and the locations of the three telephones on the mountain - essential information in the days before mobile phones.

It is easy to see why the map was so useful to the tramping club, and why, according to Auckland Tramping Club President Tony Walton, it had probably been up on the wall of their Ruapehu Lodge since it was first created. However, in March 2018, the club handed ownership of the Lodge over to the Central Plateau Schools Mountain Lodge Trust, and so felt that something as unique as the McComish map should be removed for preservation. They did leave a copy of the map in the lodge, and Auckland Libraries has given a digital file of the map to Auckland Tramping Club for their records.

Ref: Retrieved and used with permission from Auckland Tramping Club website, 17 June 2018

One of the intriguing things about this unique map is the fact that Auckland Libraries already have an almost identical version, purchased at auction in 2017 (NZ map 9045). We did think that the map we had bought was an original, hand drawn one, but since we have received the Club one, we are not certain. The 2017 purchase has a hand drawn note on the back – ‘Mr L.M. Lennad Ski Grounds’. Perhaps Mr Lennad, seeing the splendid map produced for the Auckland Tramping Club, asked if he could have a copy for his own use, and McComish produced another, and had a copy made using the sepia diazo process. The map done for Mr Lennad is much clearer than the original and has slightly more detail – perhaps McCormish took the opportunity to make an even better job of it the second time around. But this is all speculation. If anyone does know the story of the two almost identical maps, we would be very happy to have more information about them. Please feel free to email the team at: specialcollections@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Ref: R. Lyons, Auckland Tramping Club. A group of climbers from the Auckland Tramping Club nearing the summit of Mount Ruapehu, 1931. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Heritage Images 282-373

As well as the Ruapehu map, Auckland Tramping Club has made other donations to Auckland Libraries. We have their Minute Books from 1928-1975, an interesting selection of early photos of club activities and a wonderful collection of lantern slides – a search for Auckland Tramping Club on ‘Heritage Images’ on the library website, will bring up a selection to view.

We have two histories of the club – founded in 1925 with a meeting in the crater of Rangitoto – and runs of several of their publications, including the long –running newsletter Wanderlust. The image below is of the masthead they have used since July 1941, although the magazine has been published since 1936, which is an impressive record. And if you should want to read any of those issues, just ask for them at the Research Centre desk at the Central Library.

Ref: Auckland Tramping Club. Masthead of Wanderlust magazine, Vol 92, no 10, November 2017.

Author: Katrina Laan, Map Librarian, Heritage Collections

We invite visitors to Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero | Central City Library to call in to the Sir George Grey Special Collections Reading Room on Level 2 to view our treasure – no mining picks required.

In 2007 the book Real Gold: treasures of Auckland City Libraries was published by AUP and the library with support from the Auckland Library Heritage Trust. The treasure book with insightful text by Iain Sharp and luscious photographs by Haru Sameshima keeps on giving.

Not only can you buy the book ($20) here but you can see the essays online through our website.

To continue developing the gold nuggets in the book we have begun a display programme in the Reading Room where items from the book and the Sir George Grey Special Collections will always be on display. We invite you to visit the Reading Room to sample Real Gold originals. The display will change every month for your delight and to minimise the exposure to light levels for these valuable works.

July starts with letters to Grey from Charles Darwin, 1846-1855. Darwin had visited the Bay of Islands in 1835 and was interested in the possibility of moa fossils in the limestone caves. He also asks after local pigeon fanciers and requests some skins to compare with European pigeons which might show signs of ‘variation’.

He concludes with the statement,
“I have during many years been collecting all the facts and reasoning which I could, in regard to the variation and origin of species”

Charles Darwin’s book with something like that title came out in 1859.

Ref: Charles Darwin. Letter to Sir George Grey. 9 December 1855 (GL:D8-3)

You can read all the letters from Darwin to Grey – along with transcripts - on our database Manuscripts Online (Ref: GL D8). Take a look at Darwin’s handwriting in the Real Gold case and here:

Ref: Charles Darwin. Letter to Sir George Grey. 9 December 1855. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, GL:D8-3.

In August we will feature Henry Purcell’s The harpsichord master published in London in 1697. This is thought to be a unique work. It features two compositions by the baroque composer not found anywhere else.

Ref: Henry Purcell and others. The harpsichord master. London: I. Walsh, 1697. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 7-C1921.

If you visit the Library for our Spring Series of Thursday heritage concerts you can hear Peter Watts (harpsichord) and Katharine Watts (soprano) explore the music of this rare book. We plan to record this recital to develop a Real Gold podcast series so that you can explore our library treasures from home.

Author: Jane Wild, Manager, Heritage Collections

In 1984 an end-of-school-year rock concert in Aotea Square turned into a youth riot that caused over $1 million worth of damage. Starring DD Smash and billed as “Thank God It’s Over,” the Friday night concert soured after riot police tried to arrest youths urinating off the Wellesley Street post office verandah. Spectators resisted and police closed down the concert because they couldn’t hear radio signals from their control room while the band performed. DD Smash singer Dave Dobbyn was charged with inciting the riot and was eventually cleared of all charges.

Dave Dobbyn. The Auckland Sun, 1980s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1329-11.

Around 10,000 people and 20 police were present in the Square at the time; then around 3000 young people swarmed down Queen Street merging with late night shoppers and traffic. The riot lasted for two hours and by the end of the evening 400 police were involved. Sixty three shop windows were smashed, cars overturned and set alight. Acting district police commander Graham Perry said “at one stage a police van containing 18 prisoners was surrounded by a mob brandishing firebombs and handkerchiefs dipped in petrol.” The officer in charge released the prisoners rather than risk their being burnt. He was attacked by the mob, and taken away on a stretcher. Forty two police were injured by flying glass, bottles and rocks.

Photograph of the crowd taken through a shattered window. Auckland Star, 8 December 1984.

Earlier, a power cut had shut down DD Smash about one minute after they began playing. The power cut lasted 20 minutes and during this time the crowd became restless. When the band started up again, Dobbyn said he noticed a disturbance by the post office but they continued playing, completing two more songs before police shut down the concert. A witness at Dobbyn’s trial said Dobbyn had tried to generate a jovial mood amongst the crowd and there was no need for the riot police to be present.

Mark Scott discussed police brutality during the riot in a NZ Listener article. He saw a policeman hitting girls with a baton. “Unbelievably, he [threw] them backwards off the wall onto the concrete four metres below,” Mr Scott wrote. When he approached the policeman, he got batoned on the elbow and in the back as he ran away.

One of the most iconic images of the riot shows Māori Warden Hine Grindlay marching down Queen Street with members of a peace group. They formed a human chain between police and rioters, ignoring their own personal safety, and tried to persuade youths to leave. Mrs Grindlay later received a Queens Service Medal for bravery.

Hine Grindlay and others forming a human chain. New Zealand Herald. 10 December 1984.

Meanwhile, Mr Scott wrote, “Every window in Woolworths [was] smashed and kids who normally have only a few dollars to spend … [were] sauntering in to come out with armfuls of their hard currency – chewing gum, cigarettes. They give it away to passersby, go back for more.”

Ramming plate glass windows with a light cover. Auckland Star, 8 December 1984.

The government appointed a three-member Committee to investigate the riot. This was chaired by High Court judge Peter Mahon. They met within a week of the event and reported back to the government ten days later. They considered key causes were the ease of access to alcohol for young concert goers, and poor planning for the scale of the event by police and the Auckland City Council. Another key cause was police shutting down the concert once trouble began. “In our view 95% of the crowd … would have stayed exactly where they were and concentrated their attention on the ‘DD Smash’ band,” they reported.

Some blamed inner-city hotels for selling alcohol to teenagers during the afternoon. This prompted the Hotel Association of NZ to run a newspaper advertisement stating none of their members knowingly supplied alcohol to under-age drinkers, and therefore did not contribute to the riot.

Metro magazine asked nine Aucklander’s for views on the riot. Julie Roberts was a 16 year old student at that time. She had been enjoying listening to DD Smash when suddenly she was shoved forward. She turned to see eight police in riot gear, batons extended, approaching the crowd. Audience members started throwing beer cans, bottles and rocks at the police. She witnessed many injuries including a girl with her head cut open by a flying bottle, and a child of about eight running past in a very distressed state. “He only has four fingers. Blood is everywhere… Little kids are crying because they’ve lost their parents or, like me, are just plain scared,” she wrote.

Auckland Star, 8 December 1984.

Many of the Metro respondents were keen to understand underlying causes for the riot, including then Mayor of Waitematā City, Tim Shadbolt. He compared the riot to numerous free rock shows he had attended in the 1960s “at which alcohol and drugs were consumed in large quantities, and there was almost inevitably a bunch of yahoos somewhere in the crowd who would throw cans and urinate in public.” But none of these events had erupted into a full scale riot. “Not once did I ever see a policeman draw a baton,” he wrote. He was struck by the historical precedent set in 1932 when a crowd of unemployed relief workers and Post and Telegraph Association members rioted down Queen Street, smashing windows and fences, and police used batons on the crowds. Similarly, he thought unemployment may have been a factor in the 1984 riot.

Race Relations Conciliator Hiwi Tauroa considered the 1981 Springbok Tour demonstrations had created a rift between police and youth. “Parties which are distrustful of each other will clash and riot gear is, purely and simply, a threat and a challenge,” he wrote in Metro. He felt unemployment, and an opportunity to challenge authority, were also contributing factors.

However, the Mahon Committee concluded that, “In our view, it is clear beyond doubt that this was a riot without racial or social motivation.” Metro columnist Bruce Hucker documented the riot’s arrest statistics which suggested these very issues may have played a part. Of the 120 people arrested; 42 were unemployed (35%), 12 were students, and 58 had low status jobs such as labourers, cleaners or process workers. Of the 120 people arrested; 55 were Caucasian, 44 Māori and 21 from Pacific Island backgrounds. Mr Hucker recommended a second, wider government enquiry be undertaken, similar to the 1981 Scarman report about rioting in the London suburb of Brixton. This report considered the deeper factors that may have fed into the event.

A group of Auckland community workers, probation officers, university lecturers and civil liberties organisations also thought a second enquiry would be beneficial; but the government did not agree. South Auckland community worker Poumau Papali’i said the Mahon report was of little value if not put into a wider social context, and that its limited scope left most people comfortably stroking their pet prejudices. “Instead they just blame it on booze and leave all the difficult questions unanswered,” he said.

Police procedures and underage drinking laws were subsequently rewritten after this event.

This was the second riot in Queen Street. The first occurred over 50 years earlier in 1932. Police drew batons on unemployed relief workers and union members attending a meeting at the Town Hall to protest at starvation rations. Over 15,000 people attended the meeting but the doors closed on 2000 and many of those left outside smashed their way down Queen Street. The following night, a similar riot erupted in Karangahape Road. We will cover the 1932 riot in a subsequent blog.

Author: Leanne, Research and Information

Serials

Auckland Star, 8 December 1984.
Metro, February 1985.
New Outlook, January/February 1986.
NZ Listener, 19 January 1985.
NZ Herald, 8 and 10 December 1984.
NZ Herald, 5 December 2009.

Book

Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Riot at Auckland on 7 December 1984.

In 1932 unemployment riots swept through the country as the Great Depression intensified. The worst occurred in Auckland on 14 April, over 200 people were injured and 250 shop windows were smashed along Queen Street. Broken glass covered footpaths and looters grabbed whatever they could: shoes, jewellery, clothing, cigars. There were 45 arrests.

Thousands of unemployed assembled at the Auckland Town Hall. Auckland Weekly News, 20 April 1932. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, AWNS-19320420-46-1.

Earlier in the day, Postal and Telegraph Employees Association workers had marched to the town hall to protest a second 10% wage cut. All pensions had also been reduced and the family allowance terminated. Marching columns of jobless men and women joined the protest and the crowd grew to 15,000. Around 2,000 people were allowed into the town hall before police barred further entry. Scuffles broke out between police and those left outside.

Jim Edwards addressing demonstrators. Auckland Weekly News, 20 April 1932. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, AWNS-19320420-46-2.

Unemployed workers leader Jim Edwards rose to speak, a policeman struck him down with a baton and the crowd erupted. Police batoned protestors who armed themselves with fence palings from the Methodist Central Mission in Airedale Street, and stones from a mini golf course in Civic Square. Methodist missioner C.G. Scrimgeour was looking directly at the town hall and watched “Men [come] across to get the pickets from my cottage fence to defend themselves.” He went down Queen Street urging people not to loot and on his return home found Jim Edwards waiting with a scalp wound requiring 30 stitches. The next day Scrimgeour said, “If this trouble gives publicity to the plight of the unemployed, then my church will have rendered its greatest service to the community in a hundred years.”

Pickets from the fence of the Methodist Central Mission. Auckland Weekly News, 20 April 1932. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, AWNS-19320420-38-1.

Jim Edwards’ son, James, said “to appreciate what… brings normally law-abiding people to the point of desperation that rioting implies, you must consider the background of these hard times.” He was 14 in 1932, moving around a series of rented inner-city Auckland houses with his family. In one, his pregnant mother’s bed was a broken door placed on a couple of apple boxes. The family relied on the Salvation Army’s horse-drawn soup kitchen for their evening meal.

There were over 21,000 registered unemployed at the beginning of 1931 and this figure more than doubled to 52,000 in a year, with 70,000 expected by winter 1932. These numbers did not include women, Māori employed on Native Department schemes, and men under twenty. Women were not eligible for relief payments even though they had contributed 500,000 pounds from their wages to the Unemployment Fund; and married men were being sent to relief camps where they lived in primitive conditions and earned a pittance. Jobless were dependent on private charity or hospital boards for help. They had no representatives on the Unemployment Board and the government frequently ignored attempts to meet with them.

Scenes at the headquarters of the Auckland Unemployed Women's Emergency Committee in Newton East School. Auckland Weekly News, 29 June 1932. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, AWNS-19320629-48-4.

Scenes at two new relief camps in Auckland. Auckland Weekly News, 28 October 1931. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, AWNS-19311028-37-1.

The day before the Queen Street riot, a procession of 2000 unemployed men and women marched to the town hall to protest against relief camps. The Auckland Star belittled the march with a billboard implying only a few unemployed were involved. The demonstrators responded by marching to the Star offices, and a riot was narrowly averted after a truck driver tried to force his vehicle through the angry, densely packed crowd.

The following day, the demonstration in support of the Post and Telegraph workers proceeded up Queen Street with men and women carrying banners saying “Free milk for the schools” and “Close the slave camps.” Jim Edwards’ son was on the march, too. He lost sight of his father when they reached the town hall, then heard someone shout, “They’ve batoned Jim Edwards. They’ve killed him!” James tried to push his way through the mass of people but “… a mounted policeman spurred his horse through the crowd almost knocking me to the ground when the horse wheeled in fright and hit me with the weight of its flank.” He glimpsed his father standing on the balustrade of the town hall and then lost sight of him again. Pitched battles began and James escaped up Greys Avenue – he could hear the “terrible roar of the crowd” nearly a mile away.

Looking east towards Queen Street showing crowds gathered during the riots. Auckland Weekly News, April 1932. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 7-A4325.

A thousand “Specials” (volunteer police constables) joined up the next day and that night protestors massed again, this time on Karangahape Road. A further 50 people were injured and 50 plate glass windows were broken but there was no looting. The Herald reported that mounted special constables rode through crowds who packed K Road from the corner of Ponsonby Road to Grafton Bridge. As they passed “they were received with a chorus of hooting and shouting.”

Montage showing the results of the riot on Queen Street. Auckland Weekly News, 20 April 1932. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, AWNS-19320420-43-1.

The Mayor of Auckland, Mr G.W. Hutchison, said he would have no hesitation reading the riot act if the disturbances continued – every rioter would be liable to two years in prison with hard labour. This was the sentence Jim Edwards later received on a charge of inciting the Queen Street riot.

Julia Yates had a hat shop opposite the town hall and her shop was cleaned out during the riot. She said some on the march couldn’t even afford to wear shoes. In 1989 she recalled how “lawyers, dentists and doctors numbered in the unemployed who blistered their hands building Chamberlain Park, Western Springs, Scenic Drive and Waterfront Road…. They did a lot of good work for next to nothing but they still lost their homes.”

Shop windows on Queen Street. Auckland Weekly News, 20 April 1932. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, AWNS_19320420_p038_i002_vx

It wasn’t until 1938 that the Social Security Act provided income support for families.

Author: Leanne, Research and Information

Serials

Auckland Star, 15 and 16 April 1932

Auckland Weekly News, 20 April 1932

New Zealand Herald, 15 and 16 April 1932; 1 April 1989

Auckland – Waikato Historical Journal, April 1996, No. 67
Auckland Anecdotes by Keith Dawson

Books

The Penguin Eyewitness History of New Zealand
Ed. Bob Brockie

Riot 1932
James Edwards

Break down these bars
Jim Edwards

This little advertisement appeared in the London newspaper The Post Boy, 21-23 October 1697. It is actually a transcription of the title page of a collection of keyboard pieces called The Harpsichord Master by Mr Henry Purcell and others, published in that year. It was the first of a series of instructional books published by John Walsh, and his successors, to meet a growing demand from the public as the harpsichord became more and more popular as an instrument. During this time the harpsichord underwent considerable development and became one of the most important European instruments eventually evolving into the pianoforte. Often it is only the advertisements like the one above that give evidence of the existence of these books.

Ref: Henry Purcell. The harpsichord master. London: I. Walsh, 1697.

The Harpsichord Master had been referred to in several written works about Purcell but no one really knew exactly what it contained. In fact, no copies were thought to have survived. When this unique volume of The Harpsichord Master was discovered at Auckland Public Library in 1978 by library assistant Robert Petre, there was much excitement in the musicological community around the world. The item was donated to Auckland Libraries by Mr Claude Philip Gyon Purchas in March 1937. However, we do not how it ended up in New Zealand, 300 years after it was first published. A very exciting part of the discovery was that it contained two otherwise unknown works by Purcell. Also represented are pieces by some of the less renowned English composers of this time: Jeremiah Clarke, Thomas Morgan, John Barrett and Robert King.

Subsequent to the Auckland Public Library’s unique discovery, a new edition of the book was compiled by Petre and published in 1980. In his introduction, Petre describes the first piece in The Harpsichord Master as one of the most interesting because it appears to have Purcell’s own fingerings which are quite different to current practice. Also, there are quite a number of annotations throughout the book which all have some sort of nautical association. It seems natural to think that one of the book’s owners had a strong connection to the sea. Perhaps the notes and tunes were added on board ship at some time?

Auckland Central City Library is pleased to announce that on the 23 August 2018 maestro Peter Watts will give a performance of The Harpsichord Master as part of the Library’s Thursday Heritage Concerts – Spring Series. Peter will be performing on his own harpsichord and talking about the instrument, its development and The Harpsichord Master. The score will be on display for the month of August in the Sir George Grey Special Collections Reading Room at the Central City Library.

Peter’s instrument was made in Wellington and is a copy, by Zuckerman, of an early 17th century Flemish single manual harpsichord after the design of Ruckers. Andreas Ruckers, based in Antwerp, was one of the most important Flemish harpsichord makers.

Heritage concert: Harpsichord master

When: Thursday 23 August, 12.10pm – 1pm

Where: Auckland Central City Library, Level 2, Whare Wananga

For further information about the Thursday Heritage Concerts series please go to the Auckland Libraries website

References:

Real Gold: treasures of Auckland City Libraries/ by Iain Sharp; Auckland University Press, 2007

The Harpsichord Master: containing plain and easy instructions for learners on ye spinet or harpsichord / written by ye late famous Mr H. Purcell……./printed and sold by Walsh and Hare 1697

The Harpsichord Master: containing plain and easy instructions for learners on ye spinet or harpsichord / written by ye late famous Mr H. Purcell……./ Price Milburn Music, 1980

Author: Marilyn Portman, Senior Librarian Music

C’mon back to a decade that rocked the status quo long before Madonna reinvented road cones. In Auckland Central Research Centre’s 'Sounds like the sixties' display we look at the 1960s pop music revolution through a local lens. A wave of bands and artists with names like Invaders, Typhoons, Tornados and Meteors would help permanently reshape the entertainment landscape. The climate was about to change and the radio dial was turned right up to cool.

Ref: Murray Freer. Mayfield Primary School music festival Otara. 1968.
Stuff Limited / Footprints, Auckland Libraries 02781

The 1960s were a transitional time for New Zealand society. World War Two was still relatively recent history and a generation who had lived through the horrors of that conflict were invested in maintaining economic stability and enjoying relative post-war prosperity. Before long however this sense of security was about to be shattered.

The arrival of a shaggy haired band from Britain, while an innocent enough event in itself, was something of a portent of things to come. Rock ‘n’ roll was soon to become the soundtrack to a decade which would again be in part defined by war, both at home and abroad. By the decade’s end and going into the 1970s people were no longer standing for the Queen when they went to the movies and, as if to reinforce the decline in familial affection, Britain would soon drastically reduce its consumption of our dairy exports.

Auckland became the local centre of the new music scene, particularly with the commissioning of a large television studio in the NZBC building on Shortland Street. It was from here that super smooth Peter Sinclair would soothe over troubled waters like a Rawleigh’s balm. The radio broadcaster turned slick TV frontman hosted a slew of popular music programs throughout the decade. He is possibly most well-known for ‘C’mon’: a variety show propelled by local talent mixing the latest international hits with old favourites presumably to satisfy the musical tastes of almost anyone who chose to tune in to the country’s fledgling television offering.

Ref: Alton Francis. Two guitarists waiting backstage at NZBC studios, Shortland Street. 1964.
Stuff Limited / Footprints 02518

Sinclair can be seen herehard at work on the set of 'C’mon’s' predecessor 'Let’s Go'. 'C’mon' would effectively provide a national showcase for some of the decade’s top acts including Lee 'Boggers' Grant. It was decided that his given name; Bogdan Charis Kominowski, was an insufficiently catchy moniker for the Polish Palmerston North-based teacher trainee turned pop star. A ‘Mr.’ was added to avoid confusion with an actor. Despite achieving nationwide fame on 'C’mon', New Zealand’s answer to Elvis Presley was not long out of Studio One’s bright lights when his star quickly faded. Failing to make it on the international stage, Grant reverted to his original name and pursued acting.

Ref: Portrait of Lee Grant taken from C'mon souvenir programme.
Ephemera Collection. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries

Also rocking the charts were Ray Columbus’s Beatles look-a-like band the Invaders. From humble beginnings as an ice-cream boy at Christchurch’s Avon cinema, where he perhaps got a feel for public attention, Columbus was spotted by Howard Morrison and whisked away to Auckland. Blazing a trail through New Zealand’s Big Smoke, the Invaders claimed to be the first band in possession of Fender Stratocaster guitars and amps, made in America and seen as the best quality at the time and able to produce the right sound. That the “real” thing needed to be imported gives a second-hand feel to the local rock scene. It is perhaps then not entirely surprising that the Invaders short reign ended not long after that other shaggy-haired band arrived on our sunny shores in 1964.

Invader’s frontman Ray Columbus did however manage to survive the demise of his band and when producer Phil Warren was scouting a line-up for the 1968 relaunch of C’mon, Columbus had successfully carved out a niche for himself in the American market. According to promotional material for the stage tour “A telephone call to ‘Frisco, some correspondence, and it was on – Ray would return to New Zealand.”

If anyone could work magic with his fingers it was Phil Warren. From an early age he appears to have had an instinct for business – he saw his first opportunity to enter the music recording scene while working as an errand boy at Queen Street’s Begg’s music store. Warren’s dynamism evokes an earlier era in entertainment when New Zealand’s number-eight-wire mentality still prevailed. But people in his position also arguably had greater power in a pre-digital world; they were the gate-keepers of their product and could control who got how much exposure and where.

Ref: Unknown photographer. Oriental Ballroom, Symonds Street, Auckland. 1960s.
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 488-22

Warren shuffled between the recording business and artist promotion. He saw a need, as the 1960s dawned, for venues that could accommodate the new scene. Old Auckland social spots from the big band era such as Mt. Eden’s Crystal Palace and the Oriental Ballroom were re-purposed as dance clubs serving ‘American coffee’ – coffee laced with alcohol – and providing a place where the youth of the day could jive their nights away.

Not one to shy away from dregs, Warren took on a wide variety of artists. Amongst these were Auckland based group 'The House of Nimrod'. Essentially a one-hit-wonder, they were nonetheless bread and butter for Mr. Warren as he put in place the building blocks of a successful career in the fickle entertainment industry. When 'C’mon' had hit it’s stride there were signs that mercury of the local scene was on the rise. Ian Frykberg reviewing the stage tour of 'C’mon' for the Auckland Star said: "And there were even screams – usually reserved for overseas pop shows."

Ref: Phil Warren was able to organise distribution of some of his artists through Australian owned Festival Records. Festival Records letter. Phillip Reece Warren papers, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries NZMS 1214

So we invite you to come back and remind yourself that it grooved, it shook, it shimmied – that it was real and that it sounded good, it sounded like change: it sounded like the sixties. No one understood the ephemeral nature of entertainment better than consummate performer Peter Sinclair, master of smoke and mirrors who for a bright flickering moment gave form to our innermost desires. He told the Woman’s Weekly in 1978: "In show business, the image is often completely different from the person behind it...in my private life I certainly wasn’t raving around in tight pants and glitter jackets." But you have our permission.

Ref: Pete Sinclair returns to his roots on radio for New Year’s Eve 1965, NZ Listener, Dec 24 1965

References:
Serials

Auckland Star 9 September 1967

New Zealand Listener 24 December 1965

New Zealand Woman’s Weekly 14 August 1978

Ephemera

C’mon 68 stage tour programme – September 1968

Phillip Reece Warren papers, Auckland Libraries NZMS 1214

Books

Hostage to the beat: the Auckland scene, 1955-1970 by Roger Watkins

Stranded in paradise: New Zealand rock and roll, 1955 to the Modern Era by John Dix

Websites

Audio Culture – The noisy library of New Zealand music

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/

NZ On Screen

https://www.nzonscreen.com/

The 'Sounds like the sixties' display is currently on in the level two atrium space at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero (Central City Library).

Author: Mark, Research and Information

Gareth Shute is one of the Auckland Library Heritage Trust research scholars for 2018. His project is an online map of all the music venues that have existed in Auckland since the early 1900s. He hopes to find both information about and images of these venues through his time researching at Auckland Libraries.

We would love some of our readers to help him locate venues and try to identify some images.

Can anyone identify the locations and people shown in these images below?

Unless noted the bands are also unknown, so please let us know if you spot anyone you recognise. Our wish in displaying these photographs is for the people in the images to be reunited with their family, extended family and other people known to them.

There are a number of ways you can provide us with more information about these images. You can comment at the bottom of this page. You can click on the Heritage Images link which is included in the captions below many of the images. Please note, not all the photographs shown below have been digitised, when there is no link in the caption, it means there is no record on Heritage Images. When you are on the Heritage Images website you can comment by clicking on the 'Tell us more' link on the right hand side. You can also comment by emailing specialcollections@aucklandlibraries.govt.nz

Ref: Rykenberg collection, Unidentified musicians at an unidentified location,
19 December 1961. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1269-E136-10

Ref: Rykenberg collection. Quin Tikis playing at which location? 21 December 1961.
Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1269-E139-12

Ref: Rykenberg collection. Reg Gould on clarinet, but playing with which other musicians and atwhich venue?
31 December 1961. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1269-E162-24

Ref: Rykenberg collection. Mauri Chan’s band are playing in the background, while these dancers perform
but which venue is this? 1950s. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries,1269-E146-9

Ref: Rykenberg collection. What is this venue where Gene and the Dynamites are setting up to play?
Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1269-X422-9

Ref: Rykenberg collection. What venue is this with the distinctive writing above the stage?
Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1269-K146-9

Shute is also looking for the location of venues from this era (and slightly earlier). So if you can answer any of the following questions then it would be a great (even if it’s a rough approximation - e.g., “On Karangahape Road near Pitt Street”).

Where as Carlton Cabaret located - somewhere on Karangahape Road?
Ghandhi Hall (circa 1958) - is this the same as the Mahatma Ghandi centre that is now on New North Rd?
Metropole - somewhere on Upper Queen St?
Was Bali Hai in the same location as Embers?

Here’s how Shute’s map for the 1960s is looking so far. Do let us know if you spot any errors or can think of anywhere that should be added:

Author: Gareth Shute

West Auckland was settled by many migrants from a variety of countries. One of those families was the Semadeni family from Switzerland who have lived on Te Atatū peninsula since 1910. Antonio Semadeni emigrated to New Zealand in 1860. One of the earliest mentions of him in records is in the Waipu area in 1864.

Te Atatū North 1910s. From material lent by Mr Conrad Cass in January 1986, J. T. Diamond Collection. Garriock, Barbara, “Early Te Atatū,” West Auckland Historical Society newsletter 72 (July 1985), West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries.

One of Antonio’s sons, Edward Adam Semadeni (1870 – 1931), a wood turner from Mount Eden and his wife Ethel Cozens (nee Probert) (1874 – 1933) acquired land in Harbour View Road seeking a rural farming life style in 1910.

Photographer unknown. Edward and Ethel Semadeni, date unknown. Semadeni Family Collection.

Edward and Ethel completed building the brick house that was already on the land. The bricks came from many of the brickworks that existed in Te Atatū at that time giving it a patch work effect.

Edward Semadeni and his wife were devout Methodists. He was the Superintendent of Sunday School from 1910 - 1931 and his wife played the organ. The church services were held in the local school originally, until the old Methodist Church was built (the building next to the present church) in 1924 by local residents on land donated by Mr Thomas. The bricks came from the Hartshorn Brick Works chimney.

Photographer unknown. Te Atatū Methodist Church, 1926, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Te Atatū Print Collection.

To find out more about the history of the Te Atatū Methodist church view the Te Atatū Methodist Church in Te Atatu Union Parish (Methodist Presbyterian) : centennial, 1910 – 1920 edited by Barbara Sedon.

This photo of Edward Adam Semadeni was taken later in life at Bethells Beach while camping with his son Casper and catching lots of fish.

Photographer unknown. Edward Adam Semadeni at Bethells Beach, date unknown. Semadeni Family Collection.

In 1933 after the death of Edward and Ethel Semadeni the red brick villa and the land it stood on were sold. The house known as the “Historic Brick Villa” and the land surrounding it became the property of the Auckland Harbour Board in 1951, and was passed into council ownership as part of the Harbourview-Orangihina reserve on the waterfront.

For more information about the history of the “Historic Brick Villa” go to the Local History Online database and search the West Auckland Newspapers Index. Newspaper articles in the Western Leader can be viewed at the West Auckland Research Centre on Level 2 of Waitākere Central Library, Henderson.

Support your community

In the 1970s and 80s women inspired by the second wave of feminism took action to respond to other women’s needs, creating support services that still exist today. Many of these originated out of women’s centres.

Image: Feminist festival. 1976. Ephemera Collection.

This poster advertises a celebration of the first anniversary of the Auckland Women's Centre. The centre opened in its first location at 125 Ponsonby Road in 1975, calling itself “a feminist centre for all women”. Groups that operated there included Rape Crisis, the Women’s National Abortion Action Campaign (WONAAC), and one of the first women’s refuge organisations, Auckland Halfway House.

Start a feminist press

Women’s independent publishing flourished in the 1970s and 80s. Women circulated newsletters to spread ideas and share information, started magazines to debate issues and celebrate new ways of living, and published books to educate and inspire others.

The Auckland Women’s Centre was a focal point for lesbian life in the city. By the early 1990s it held a substantial archive, including a large collection of lesbian magazines and newsletters which were donated to Auckland Libraries in 2001 and catalogued with the aid of the Auckland Library Heritage Trust.

Lesbian lip. May-June 1982. From: Auckland Lesbian Archive. Records. NZMS 1184.

"We had a library of lesbian books because you couldn’t get them at the library – lesbian love stories, that sort of thing, and women would lend copies to other women because they were so hard to get."

Jan Tan, quoted in Margie Thomson’s A proud herstory: a celebration of the Auckland Women’s Centre 1975-2010.

Mana wāhine

The effects of colonisation led to high profile protest movements which were often led by strong Māori women.

In 1993 Māori women lodged a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal that has become known as the Mana Wāhine Claim. The claim alleges that the Crown’s actions and policies have discriminated against Māori women and failed to meet its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi to protect and ensure rangatiratanga of Māori women.

The original claimants were the Māori Women’s Welfare League, Dame Miraka Szaszy, Lady Rose Hēnare, Dr Irihāpeti Ramsden, Mabel Waititi, Dame Whina Cooper, Rīpeka Evans, Donna Awatere and Pāpārangi Reid. Hilda Harawira and others continue to drive the work for the claimants and future generations.

A prince and his people, Pakuranga, 1981. Stuff Limited, Footprints 00378.

This photograph shows Dame Miraka Szaszy with Prince Charles and Sir Lloyd Elsmore, at Lloyd Elsmore Park in Pakuranga on 3 April 1981.

Be visible

Rosettes and sashes, badges and banners, placards and and poster are all ways to express solidarity, to take a stand and be visible. Graffiti painted on walls or billboards brings a feminist message into the public domain. Some of these photographs show words added to advertising billboards in order to counter messages considered sexist or patronising to women.

Graffiti photograph. 1980s and 1990s. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Make art

Crafts like weaving, sewing, quilting, and basket-making have traditionally been associated with the domestic sphere and women. This photograph shows Faithlyn Palalagi watching Mana Palalagi weave at a Niuean handicrafts group in Ōtāhuhu.

Manukau Courier Collection. Learning how to weave, Ōtāhuhu. 1993. Stuff Limited, Footprints 03590.

Write a letter

Letter writing campaigns can be an effective protest action, as well as a means of securing support. Amey Daldy became president of the Auckland branch of the Women's Franchise League in 1892 and was a driving force behind the suffrage campaign in Auckland. She wrote this letter to Sir George Grey the day after New Zealand became the first self-governing nation in the world to give women the right to vote. In the letter, Amey Daldy expresses gratitude for Grey’s sympathy towards their cause and invites him to attend a meeting to celebrate the victory.

Amey Daldy. Letter to Sir George Grey, 20 September 1893. GLNZ D1.1.

In turn, Amey Daldy supported Sir George Grey in his own political campaign for the seat of Auckland City in the November 1893 election. She acted as chairperson at Grey's political address on 23 November, and it was at this meeting that she delivered her famous speech urging women to use their new voting privileges, reassuring them that women would be in attendance at polling booths and could look after any babies that voting women might bring with them. In her words: "Let not babies, the wash-tub, or even dinners prevent women going" (POLITICAL ADDRESSES., New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9365, 23 November 1893 and AUCKLAND CITY ELECTORATE., Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 278, 23 November 1893).

This is just a taster of what you can see and hear in this diverse and engaging exhibition. We’ll be publishing more blogs over the next few months, plus hosting a series of curatorial tours and other events in the Wāhine Take Action series. Join us to celebrate Suffrage125 at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero!

Author: Renée Orr and the Wāhine Take Action curatorial team.

After my father came to New Zealand in 1955 he worked in New Zealand Shipping Co Ltd’s Auckland office. Part of his job was overseeing the provisioning of the company’s ships after they had docked in Auckland. New Zealand Shipping’s fruit and vegetables were supplied by C. W. Wah Jang and Co. Ltd of 31 Queen Street. Strategically located near the wharves and just across from the Chief Post Office, Wah Jang’s did a prosperous trade in fruit and vegetables with most ships floating around the South Pacific. During the Second World War, Wah Jang’s apparently provisioned every United States Navy vessel passing through Auckland!

Ref: Henry Winkelmann. Looking north west from the Waverley Hotel along Queen Street,
11 November 1919. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W1675

Helene Wong’s Heritage Talk at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero (Central City Library) earlier this year on the history of Chinese families in Auckland helped clear up some of the mysteries about Wah Jang’s. Her talk also highlighted the racism with which New Zealand’s Chinese have always had to struggle. The tendency for Pakeha New Zealanders’ to show Anglocentric superiority created a hostile environment where Chinese had to close ranks and defend themselves just to survive. Consequently most New Zealanders did not get (or take) the opportunity to understand Chinese social networks and business structures like Wah Jang’s emporium. The inevitable outcome was cultural confusion.

With the end of the New Zealand gold rushes in the 1870s, many Chinese miners moved into the cities or came north to Auckland. They usually established themselves in occupations without need for large capital investment: itinerant fruit sellers, market gardeners or small greengrocers.

In the early days of colonial Auckland there were market gardens all around the city where land had not yet been settled. One of the first Chinese to start a market garden near Auckland was Chan Dah-chee. Although Chan was his family name, ignorant customs officials decided his surname must be Ah Chee. By the 1880s Ah Chee had established his market garden behind Stanley Street in lower Parnell. It became known as the Tanyard Gully garden. On George Treacy Stevens’ 1886 aerial map Ah Chee’s garden can be seen at centre right behind the trees in the Domain and bordered by Donaghy’s rope-walk in Stanley Street.

Ref: George Treacy Stevens. A birds-eye-view map of Auckland, 1886.
Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, NZ map 374

Prejudice against the Chinese meant the early market gardeners were not allowed to buy land. Their market gardens were always leased. Leasehold was always a temporary tenure. In Ah Chee’s case, his lease on the Tanyard Gully garden expired about 1916. Although he applied to renew his lease, wealthier and more influential Pakeha wanted the land for rugby league. The inevitable decision was that Carlaw Park would be developed on the land where Ah Chee’s garden was located. Ah Chee’s heart went out of market gardening and vegetable selling. After winding up his business, he left money to his sons who continued market gardening in Eastdale Road, Auckland. Then Chan Dah-chee went back to China. He never returned to New Zealand.

Following are two photographs showing the development of Carlaw Park. They were both taken in 1921 and show the clearing and harrowing of the rugby league fields adjacent to Chan Dah-chee’s vacant and disused market garden.

Ref: Unknown photographer. Looking west over farmland, now Carlaw Park, 1921.
Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A13263

Ref: Unknown photographer. Looking west over farmland, now Carlaw Park, 1921.
Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A13262

Because Auckland’s suburbs still contained large areas of undeveloped land in the late nineteenth century, Chinese could lease land and establish market gardens in many areas. The photograph below is a panoramic view of Newmarket looking southwest towards Mt Eden and showing large Chinese market gardens in the foreground.

Ref: Unknown photographer. Looking southwest from the roof of the Captain Cook Brewery
towards Mount Eden, 1890s. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A4653

The two following photographs were also taken from the roof of the Captain Cook brewery in Khyber Pass. The first looks west towards Symonds Street, and the second northwest towards Carlton Gore Road. Both show large areas cultivated by Chinese market gardens.

Ref: Unknown photographer. Looking west from the roof of the Captain Cook Brewery towards
Symonds Street, 1890s. Auckland Libraries, Heritage Collections, 7-A4654

Ref: Unknown photographer. Looking northwest from the roof of the Captain Cook Brewery
towards Park Road, 1890s. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A4655

But in the same way that Chan Dah-chee lost his lease, so these market gardeners would lose theirs as Newmarket suburb grew and the Captain Cook and Lion Breweries amalgamated and expanded their plant along the northwestern side of Khyber Pass and up towards Park Road.

Ref: Henry Winkelmann. Showing buildings from 29-39 on the west side of
Queen Street, 1922. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-AW1774

Returning to Wah Jang, who exactly was he? Wah Jang and Co. was started in 1913 by Wong Yee Chong (or Wong Yi Cheung) and Henry Chin (also known as Chan Gau, and perhaps Chen Jiu?). Two other Chinese, Jee Kai (or Kwang Tzje Kai) and Ah Wah, also joined the partnership.

On 28 October 1922 a confusing public advertisement in the New Zealand Herald listed the original partners of the firm as Wong Chong (possibly Wong Yee Chong and perhaps Huang Erchang?), Henry Chin (or was that Chan?) and Ah Wah. There was another partner known as Wah Jang, however he also went by the name of Jee Kai (or perhaps Guan Zikai.)

Shortly after the advertisement was published the original partnership was dissolved when ‘Wah Jang’ and Ah Wah retired. Henry Chin and Wong Chong now formed a new partnership, and this continued for the next nine years as C.W. Wah Jang and Co; with the ‘C’ standing for ‘Chan’ and the ‘W’ for ‘Wong’.

Then finally on 3 October 1931 the firm became an incorporated company called C.W. Wah Jang and Co. Ltd. But then further adding to the confusion, the Auckland Star for 15 November 1941 said the director of Wah Jang’s was Andrew Chong, who was also called Wong Wing Yee! Many years later a Chinese Times correspondent recalled that others who worked at Wah Jang’s were Huang Chunchun, Guan Ziyu, Huang Shengchun and Huang Yuchun.

Ref: New Zealand Herald advertisement, 28 October 1922, Papers Past.

Helene Wong told us that Wah Jang was not, in fact, a real-live person. Instead she said that the Chinese character ‘wah’ means peace, while ‘jang’ means both trading and hotel, so the phrase ‘Wah Jang’ suggests a peaceful trading house and hotel.

While Wah Jang’s was primarily a fruit and vegetable retailer and grain wholesaler, the shop was also a community centre where Chinese people could get legal and business advice and negotiate business insurance. In romanized Chinese characters, C.W. Wah Jang and Co. Ltd was known as ‘Chen-Huang Hezhan.’ ‘C’ is for ‘Chan’ (or ‘Chen’) and ‘W’ is for ‘Wong’ (or ‘Huang’.) Romanized ‘Hezhan’ seems to refer to a station. In the essay ‘Qiaoxiang and the diversity of Chinese settlement in Australia and New Zealand', H.D. Min Hsi Chan suggests Wah Jang’s shop was a way-station where travellers could rest. Wah Jang’s provided communal meals and a dormitory for travelling Chinese, together with a booking agency arranging travel for those arriving in New Zealand looking for work or returning to China.

Other Chinese businesses established themselves between Greys Avenue, Victoria Street and Hobson Street. This area unofficially became Auckland’s Chinatown. There were other well-known businesses like the grocery merchants and importers Soung Yueen and Co. Ltd in Greys Avenue. But those looking there for someone called Soung or Yueen would be further confounded because the shop was managed by the Fong family.

Ref: Alton Francis. A view of Greys Avenue, 1940s.
Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 02487

Greys Avenue was also an area of seedy dosshouses, Chinese gambling dens and rumoured opium joints and brothels. Eventually the towering police station was built on the corner of Vincent Street overlooking this hotbed of supposed vice and iniquity, and making sure everyone ‘behaved.’

Ref: Unknown photographer. Looking along Greys Avenue with the corner of
Yelverton Terrace, 26 February 1964. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A1055

Ref: Unknown photographer. Showing the premises of the Auckland Chinese Masonic Society,
the premises of Wah Lee, grocer, and Golden Dragon Cafe (left) in Greys Avenue,
15 August 1964, Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A921

Further up Greys Avenue were the premises of Thomas Doo, whose family also owned the neighbouring Golden Dragon Café. Above the café was the Chinese Masonic Society. Next door to the Doos was Wah Lee’s grocery shop.

Thomas Wong Doo’s Cantonese name was Wong Kwan Doo. He was another Chinese person to be re-surnamed by ignorant customs officials. But Thomas had the last laugh. By the 1940s he and his family established a successful import and distribution business in Hobson Street. Thomas Doo is best known to generations of New Zealanders, young and old, as New Zealand’s fireworks king.

Wah Jang’s Queen Street store disappeared when downtown Auckland was developed in the early 1970s, but many other old Chinese family businesses are still with us today. The Fruits of Our Labours: Chinese fruit shops in New Zealand by Ruth Lam, Beverly Lowe, Helen Wong, Michael Wong and Carolyn King details the history of just some of them. The photograph below is a tribute to their gardening ancestors.

Ref: Ernest Charles Binns. Showing three unidentified gardeners in Great North Road,
Western Springs, 1900s. Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries, 80-BIN185

There are a number of talks during the Auckland Heritage Festival (29 September to 14 October 2018) which relate to the history of Chinese families in Auckland: Pukekohe: Working the land, Remuera presents: Chinese fruiterers of Remuera, 'Looking for a Better Life': Early Chinese settlement, From Arch Hill to the table: Chinese market gardens, and Avondale's Chinese market gardeners.

With thanks to Margaret Lay of Auckland Libraries and Barry Wah Lee of Wah Lee Co Ltd for advice about the intricacies of the written Chinese language.

Author: Christopher Paxton, Heritage Collections

As part of our Wāhine Take Action programme celebrating the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage in Aotearoa, we recently held two suffrage story research workshops at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero (Central City Library). The aim was to uncover stories of women who signed the 1893 women's suffrage petition - many of whom we know little about. By researching and telling their stories we celebrate the action they took in signing the petition - an individual act that helped bring about a huge change for the wāhine of Aotearoa.

Beattie and Sanderson. Lady voters going up to polling-booth in Rutland Street, election day, Auckland. 1899. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 7-A12353.

This is the story of Harriett Garland, written and researched by Donna Salmon, one of our workshop participants. Harriett's biography is also now part of the interactive display at the He Tohu exhibition and on the suffrage petition database at NZHistory.

Harriett Garland, sheet 390

Harriett Threader was born in 1854 in Brentwood, Essex, the daughter of Thomas Threader, hairdresser, and Harriett Threader (nee Girling). As a teenager, she worked as a shop assistant in Brentwood. In 1876, Harriett married Thomas Henry Garland, a grocer. Thomas was the son of a prominent Methodist, Thomas Charles Garland, who ran the City Mission for Sailors at Limehouse in London's East End docklands.

The first four children were born in England, before the family emigrated to New Zealand in 1883. Harriett and Thomas Garland, with their son and three daughters, left Plymouth in March that year, on board the steamship British Queen. They arrived in New Zealand in May, disembarking in Lyttleton.

By1890 the Garlands had settled in Ponsonby, Auckland. Thomas became a manufacturing grocer, running as a family business one of the four baking powder factories in Ponsonby at the time. When Harriett signed the suffrage petition in 1893, she and Thomas were living in Lincoln Road, now with seven children. Their youngest child, John, was born three years later, in 1896.

Harriett, like many of the women who signed the suffrage petition, was a Methodist. The Garland family was very active in the Methodist Church. Harriett’s brother-in-law was Rev C.H. Garland, Minister at Pitt Street Methodist Church from 1901 to 1906. Harriett’s eldest son, Thomas Threader Garland, led the Sunday School music at the Pitt Street church in the early 1900s. Later he became a well-known broadcaster in Auckland; he was one of the founders of the ‘Friendly Road’ non-denominational radio church in the 1930s.

Henry Winkelmann. Looking north east from the Brigade Station Tower showing the Pitt Street Methodist Church. 1903. Sir George Grey Special Collections, 1-W1052.

Harriett was Auckland Secretary of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) from 1897-99. She was WCTU delegate to the first Auckland meeting of the National Council of Women, in 1899.

Group portrait of the National Council of Women of New Zealand 1899. Mrs Garland is on the left of the front row. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-18990421-8-1.

Harriett Threader Garland died from diabetes in April 1901, aged 46 years. She is buried at Purewa Cemetery in Auckland.

Author: Donna Salmon and Renée Orr

Sources

Harriet's signature on sheet 390 of the Women’s Suffrage Petition.

Patrick Day. 'Garland, Thomas Threader', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1998. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4g6/garland-thomas-threader (accessed 16 August 2018).

‘By 1901 there were no fewer than four baking-powder manufacturers in Ponsonby’ p344 of Carlyon, J., & Morrow, D. (2008). Urban village :The story of Ponsonby, Freemans Bay and St Mary's Bay. Auckland, N.Z.: Random House.

Hames, E. (1970). 100 years in Pitt Street : Centenary history of the Pitt street Methodist Church, Auckland. Auckland, N.Z.: Pitt Street Methodist Church Trustees.

Mrs Garland is elected as recording secretary for the WCTU: MEETINGS AND ENTERTAINMENTS., New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10627, 16 December 1897.

In this article, Harriett is referred to as corresponding secretary for the WCTU: CHARITABLE AID., New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10773, 7 June 1898.

Mrs Garland compelled to resign as secretary, due to illness: ENTERTAINMENTS AND MEETINGS., New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11246, 15 December 1899.

WCTU members attend funeral of Mrs Garland, and send a wreath: ENTERTAINMENTS AND MEETINGS., New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11638, 27 April 1901.

DEATHS, New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11633, 22 April 1901.

Group portrait of the National Council of Women of New Zealand 1899. Mrs Garland is on the left of the front row. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-18990421-8-1.

Today is the 125th anniversary of the day the Electoral Act was passed into law, making Aotearoa the first self-governing nation where women could vote in parliamentary elections.

The 1893 women's suffrage petition was a huge part of the successful campaign for the vote. Over 30,000 women signed the petition - a small individual act that helped bring about a huge change for the wāhine of Aotearoa. In 2018 we celebrate the action they took by researching and telling their stories.

Below is the story of Mary Ann Gunson, who signed sheet 21 of the petition. Her signature is fourth from the top in the image below. Her biography was written and researched by Judith Corbelletto-Thompson, who attended one of our Wāhine Take Action research workshops at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero (Central City Library) last month.

Sheet 21, Women’s suffrage petition. Image courtesy of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga.

Mary Ann Gunson, sheet 21

Mary Ann Gunson (nee Bryne) was born in Glasgow about 1843. She arrived in New Zealand in 1874 aged 31 and the same year married James Gunson. She lived the rest of her life in Auckland and was in Onehunga at the time she signed the Petition.

W. Stevenson. Looking south east from the vicinity of the junction of Grey and Hill Streets, Onehunga. About 1890. Sir George Grey Special Collections, 957-80B.

It is not known if Mary Ann was active in the suffragist movement, but she had good reason to support women’s rights.

Mary Ann’s married life was marked by domestic violence and poverty. Court records show that James assaulted her on many occasions, with the violence commencing soon after they married. In August 1876, only about two years after the marriage, James was charged with ‘knocking his wife down and beating her on the head’. This was noted as the seventh such incident. Mary Ann had four sons - George (b. 1875), Samuel (b.1877), John (b.1880) and William (b.1886) and between 1876 and 1896 James appeared in court numerous times for failing to provide financial support for her and the children.

POLICE COURT.—This Day., Auckland Star, Volume VII, Issue 2030, 11 August 1876.

POLICE COURT.—This Day., Auckland Star, Volume VII, Issue 2032, 14 August 1876.

Despite her immensely difficult circumstances, there is a sense that Mary Ann was a strong-willed woman, prepared to testify against her husband in court and stand up for herself and her four children. One of the many times when James was charged with failing to provide for his family, he offered to pay 30s a week for Mary Ann and two of the children and to take the third child himself. Mary Ann is reported as responding “No. You won’t take a child of mine. I would rather suffer”.

Mary Ann Gunson died on 28 May 1897 aged 54. At the time of her death all four children were alive, her youngest son William only 10 or 11 years old. She is buried in the Catholic part of Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.

Author: Judith Corbelletto-Thompson

Sources

Birth, Deaths and Marriages Online. Mary Ann Gunson Death Certificate

Birth, Deaths and Marriages Online. Mary Ann Byrne Marriage Certificate

Records. Papers Past, National Library https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers

Birth, Death and Marriages records. https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz

Women’s Suffrage Petition https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/petition

Ancestry Library https://search.ancestrylibrary.com.au

Auckland Libraries and the Genealogical Computing Group of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists held the third Auckland Family History Expo at the Fickling Convention Centre, Three Kings, this year, 10-12 August.

Sponsors this year were Auckland Council, Genealogical Computing Group, Puketāpapa Local Board, Ancestry, MyHeritage, LivingDNA and Family Tree Maker.

We had twenty-eight exhibitors, three streams of seminars with 17 speakers giving 38 seminars; and four computer workshops in Mt Roskill Library, with members of the public also joining in on their laptops.

Exhibitors:

Ancestry;
Auckland Libraries;
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph ADU;
Beehive Books/HOG Tours;
Chinese Poll Tax Trust;
FamilySearch;
FamNet/Jazz Software;
Family Tree DNA (FTDNA);
Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS);
Head to Head Productions;
Indian genealogy
(Research West, Auckland Libraries);
Mentis;
Memories In Time;
MyHeritage;
New Zealand Fencible Society Inc;
New Zealand Micrographics/Recollect;
New Zealand Society of Genealogists Inc. and
NZSG Interest Groups:
* New Zealand * English * European
* Irish * Māori * Pacific Island * Scottish
NZ Military History Society;
Wales Family History Society.

The star of the show this year was our youngest ever Expo presenter: 11-year-old Bradley who had made himself an expert in using Family Tree software by learning how to use it so he could teach his grandmother and provide her with tech support. He stood and showed a class of approximately 50 adults step-by-step how to use the software and get the most out of it.

Our key note speakers were:

Kerry Farmer using case notes to demonstrate
using DNA with traditional research

Kerry Farmer (Australia), professional family historian and genetic genealogist;
Jason Reeve (Australia), Content Manager for Ancestry, New Zealand and Australia;
Russ Wilding (US), Chief Content Officer, MyHeritage;
Diane Loosle (US), Director of the Family History Library and Senior Vice President of Patron Services, FamilySearch Salt Lake City.

Friday night's opening event was a keynote by Kerry Farmer on how to use DNA and traditional research together, demonstrating the research processes using case studies. This was followed up by panel discussion between Jason Reeve, Russ Wilding, Diane Loosle and Kerry Farmer - with contributions from the audience.

Saturday was extremely busy – the seminar rooms were fairly full (sometimes packed out) and the exhibition hall was full practically all day. The Auckland Libraries staff were kept extremely busy.

Jan Gow presenting an attendee with a raffle prize
- the Auckland Libraries Heritage pack

Sunday was a bit quieter, although still very busy. Probably about 50% of the people who attended on Saturday, also attended on Sunday.

We estimate somewhere around 950 attended over the course of the whole weekend.

Our sponsors gave us over 100 raffle prizes valued at over $9000. Prizes included picture frames and hairdressing appointments through to subscriptions to our sponsors websites and DNA kits!

The talks were wide and varied, and well attended.

DNA and genetic genealogy was the hot topic again this year and accounted for eight of the seminars held. Strong emphasis was given that DNA was not a replacement for traditional research, but an additional tool to assist with brick walls or to prove/disprove the paper research.

Local history librarian, Joanne Graves gave a talk on “Old Auckland, not just digital” to show off our collections, and myself and Marie Hickey did most of the beginners’ talks.

We had whakapapa talks and workshops both days provided by Raniera Kingi, Jacqui Snee and Dena Jacobs, (nga Poukokiri Rangahau Māori, Auckland Libraries) and a Pacific peoples talk provided by researcher Christine Liava’a. As well as our Auckland Libraries table, the NZSG Māori Interest Group and Pacific Islands Interest Group were in attendance and kept very busy.

Once again the Chinese community table was well visited, where they displayed their local and family history books, with their stories of early Chinese New Zealanders. Ruth Lam also gave a well-presented talk on the research into early Chinese families and how Chinese fruit shops flourished in the 1950s-60s, based on her research for the two volume book Fruits of Our Labours.

Diane Loosle, Director of the Family History Library
and Senior Vice President of Patron Services,
FamilySearch Salt Lake City, US

One of Diane Loosle’s slides really resonated with me. It was a quote from a survey done by Emory University after 9/11, which said: “ The more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functions. The “Do you know?” scale turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness.
They explained that “. . . the ones who knew more about their families proved much more resilient, meaning they could moderate their levels of stress.”

Rowan Carroll, Director of the National Police Museum

I was very pleased that Rowan Carroll, Director of the National Police Museum, accepted our invitation to come up from Wellington and give us a talk on The New Zealand Police Gazettes, and we really appreciated her case studies that told stories of individuals to be found within the Police Gazettes.

Of course the gazettes have been available for a while on Archway, Archives New Zealand’s website – however, they are now also available on Ancestry and are now keyword searchable.

People attending were from all over New Zealand, not just Auckland (Kerikeri, Whangarei, Bay of Plenty, New Plymouth, Hamilton, Wanaka, Christchurch etc).

We’re very pleased to say that we will be holding another Auckland Family History Expo in 2019 – watch this space!

To see more photos of the event please look at the album in our Facebook page.

Some of the speakers' notes are available on the Expo page.
Please note that some of the speakers were unable to share their notes for commercial and/or copyright reasons.

Or you can download them direct from here (CTRL click on PC - if that doesn't work, copy and paste the link into the address bar of your browser):

Christine Liava’a

Pacific Island Research

Diane Loosle

Are you your own brick wall? 1 of 5

Are you your own brick wall? 2 of 5

Are you your own brick wall? 3 of 5

Are you your own brick wall? 4 of 5

Are you your own brick wall? 5 of 5

Are you your own brick wall? notes

FamilySearch MobileApps - 1 of 5

FamilySearch MobileApps - 2 of 5