Traditionally, nothing conjures up more delight to the palate than the succulent taste of the oyster, and of course one musn't forget their assumed aphrodisiac properties, as an after dinner benefit. Oysters have also been immortalised in literature, 'The world is my oyster", a famous quote by William Shakespeare. But one piece of New Zealand's oyster story has been forgotten. Oysters were first harvested and traded in the Nelson and Marlborough area, with great relish, as early as the 1850's.

Most people identify with Foveaux Strait or Stewart Island oysters. Only since the 1960's, with the rediscovery of Tasman Bay oysters, have local oysters returned to prominence in our minds.

Somewhere along the course of history, the existence, from early times, of oysters in the top of the South Island was forgotten. In fact, oysters played such an important part in the early market place that special shops, known as 'oyster saloons', were of prominence in Nelson from 1858 until 1907.

So, to retrace our local oysters, let us go back to the very start.

Oysters occur, fossilized, in the limestone rocks of Tata Island, off the Abel Tasman coast. Today, there are three species of oysters in New Zealand: two native oysters, known as the 'dredge oyster' and the 'rock oyster', plus the recently introduced 'Pacific Oyster', which arrived here in the 1970's and subsequently spread widely over New Zealand.

The rock oyster occurs naturally on both coasts in the top half of the North Island. Confusion does exist, in that rock oysters only attach themselves to rocks, or mangrove tree roots, while dredge oysters, which normally live on the surface of mud, will also attach themselves to rocks. So, in some cases, reference has been made to rock oysters in the South Island, but these are, in fact, dredge oysters.

In a few sites, the earliest inhabitants of Tasman Bay and the Marlborough Sounds have left behind, amongst their midden (food refuse tips), discarded oyster shells (1) . The evidence, deposited well before European arrival, indicates that the Maori collected oysters in selected sites and ate them locally.

Oyster placenames in Nelson and Marlborough.

Andrew Andersen's Nelson Oyster Saloon, now 75 Bridge Street. 1902. Tyree Collection. Nelson Provincial Museum.

The Maori name for oyster is Tio, and at the head of Tory Channel is a bay known as Te Tio. In 1838, Captain Chetwode sailed into this bay and, upon discovering the oysters, re-named it Oyster Bay, as it is known today (2) .

In the New Zealand official place name register, there are twelve place names featuring oyster, with six of them in the top of the South Island. There are three oyster bays: one in Tory Channel, one in Port Underwood and the other in Croisilles Harbour. There is an Oyster Island in the Waimea Inlet, an Oyster Point in Wanganui Inlet and an Oyster Stream in the headwaters of the Acheron River. Now tell me that there wasn't an early preoccupation with oysters in our area!

European settlers were familiar with oysters, as they were harvested off the coast of Great Britain, France and in the Mediterranean. One such settler, John Waring Saxton, a gentleman who was most certainly used to the finer tastes of life, was both an astute recorder of the day, as the Saxton Diaries testify, and a fanatical gourmand, who seldom missed the chance to comment on food. In his 1849 Diary, he mentions collecting oysters from Oyster Island and, upon his return to a friend's home, a magnificent oyster supper being prepared that evening (3) . Incidentally Oyster Island, which is still known by that name, was once called Grossi's Island. From 1878 until their home was burntout in 1885, Biaggio Grossi, an Austrian fisherman and oyster dealer, lived on this island with his large family.

The Nelson Examiner newspaper of 1845 lists oysters, on the Nelson retail market price list, at nine pence per hundred. The same paper, in 1859, announced that J Mead of Bridge Street, opposite the Trafalgar Hotel, had a large quantity of fine quality oysters for sale (4) . This was the start of the Nelson Oyster Saloons.

Oyster saloons, today's mystery, were dining rooms which offered oysters for sale in every possible form: in the shell, raw, tinned, bottled, cooked in every conceivable way from soup, stewed, escalloped to fried etc. These saloons also sold fish of every type and, occasionally .rabbits, hares and poultry.

Many of the saloons retained the same locations for fifty years and were occupied by successive oyster dealers. One such location in Nelson is at 75 Bridge Street, near the north-eastern corner of the Bridge Street-Trafalgar Street intersection. The former 'Cafe 75', in Bridge Street, was once an oyster saloon and is probably the only remains of such a shop.

It was popular to frequent oyster saloons in the evening, and newspaper advertising invited customers to try delicious oyster suppers.

Fresh oysters every day was the normal promotion line for oyster saloons. This was achieved by using storage beds inside the Nelson harbour. They would load these up and collect quantities, as required, for each day. In 1902, there was a big scare in Nelson when typhoid broke out. All the saloons made it known that they had moved their beds to outside the boulder bank, to retain fresh clean oysters. (5)

These saloons weren't confined to Nelson. They also occurred in Blenheim, Picton, Westport, Greymouth and Hokitika.

Gradually, the oyster saloon title was superseded by a succession of trend-setting titles. They went like this: oyster and supper rooms, supper rooms, dining rooms, cafe and, finally, the fish supply – cum – fish and chip shop that we all know.

So where did they get their oysters? New Zealand oyster history invariably quotes the industry starting at Stewart Island in approximately 1860, while our own oyster dealers were up and trading at least the year before.

In 1859, a Wellington newspaper described an excursion to Queen Charlotte Sound and quotes, "the oysters which furnish our citizens with many a supper are dredged in the sound" (6) .

When Nelson settlers first examined the Marlborough Sounds, during exploratory trips, they mentioned oysters (7) and, in one instance, being given oysters at the Te Awaiti whaling station in 1845 (8) . So they had local oyster beds in the Marlborough Sounds and Waimea Inlet.

Local traders also imported oysters. In 1858, fifteen boxes of oysters were imported, via a sixteen day journey from Sydney (9) . Oysters continued to be imported to Nelson from Sydney and Melbourne until 1867, when Australia was forced to ban exports, due to dwindling supplies. From 1858 until 1909, rock oysters were imported from the Manukau harbour. These were named 'Auckland Rocks' and were considered sweeter than the local, coppery tasting, oysters (10) .

The earliest evidence found of Stewart Island oysters being imported was 1877 (11) , however, as our local supplies dwindled in the 1910 to 1915 period, Foveaux Strait oysters became our only supply until the 1960's.

Early local oyster beds were located at Port Underwood (12) , Queen Charlotte Sound, Endeavour Inlet, Pelorus Sound (13) , Forsyth Island (14) , New Harbour (Port Hardy, D'Urville Island) (15) , Croisilles Harbour (16) , Port Nelson (17) , Waimea Inlet (18) , Abel Tasman Coast (19) and Golden Bay (20) .

As well as supplying local markets, oysters were exported to the West Coast (21) , especially during the gold rush years, Taranaki (22) and Wellington.

In the early years, oysters were harvested and sold without any control.

However, as had been experienced in England and Australia, oyster fisheries were being destroyed by over fishing. It was therefore not surprising that, in 1865, the Right Honourable Mr Sewell moved that parliament set up a select committee, to consider the protection of the fisheries of New Zealand, especially oyster and herring fisheries (23) .

In October 1866, the government passed the first ever law to protect the fisheries of New Zealand, called The Oyster Fisheries Act 1866.

The all too familiar saga of today's fishing industry including licences, seasons etc. to prevent depletion of the resource, was started over one hundred and twenty four years ago, with the introduction of this Act

The Act made provisions for a licence fee of two shillings and sixpence, a season from April to October and the ability to form artificial oyster beds. Only dredge oysters were covered by the Act.

A regular succession of acts followed, with a gradual attempt to close loopholes that were discovered, and rock oysters were soon included in new legislation (24) .

In 1869 (25) , provision was made for individuals to obtain exclusive rights to natural beds and, in 1873, William Williams and E. Davidson separately advertised their intentions to seek exclusive rights to beds off Puponga, Golden Bay (26) . This legislation was further changed to close the bed for six months, to prevent it being stripped, while exclusive rights were sought (27) . Such closures were sought in 1894, for beds three miles off Cape Campbell (Cloudy Bay) (28) , and 1903, for Anakoa Bay (Outer Sounds) (29)

The new laws were occasionally broken in the rush to meet the market on season opening day. In 1871, a local fisherman, James Stringer, collected oysters from the Waimea River six days before opening day. He was approached, near the Custom House wharf, by Police Sergeant Nash, who discovered Stringer's sack of oysters. They returned to Stringer's boat where more sacks were observed. Stringer knocked Sergeant Nash into the tide and rowed off towards the beach, with his boatful of oysters. A constable was summoned to follow Stringer's progress from land and he observed him dumping the sacks. These were recovered at low tide as evidence, and tasty evidence at that James Stringer was fined five pounds and warned that, if he broke the law again, he would lose his licence for three years (30) .

Several people took up the opportunity to form artificial oyster beds between 1895 and 1898 (31) . They were: Henry Baxter and William Davenport – Arrowsmith Bay, Tory Channel; Alexander Maule – Black Point, Pelorus Sound; Peter Ewing – Hitaua Bay, Tory Channel; Percy Neame-Mahau, Pelorus Sound; E O'Hara Canavan – Motueka. Most of these people never got started, but the ones that did weren't successful. Experimentation in farming continued between 1904 and 1920, including attempts to seed oysters in Cook Strait. In 1918, for example, 80 sacks of Foveaux Strait oysters were seeded in Cook Strait, at Clifford Bay near Blenheim (32) . In 1922, an attempt was made to plant rock oysters in the Marlborough Sounds (33) . Despite initial signs of promise, all these attempts ultimately failed.

Legal provision was made to close natural beds, to allow them to recover. The first beds to be closed were, in 1872, at Stewart Island. Our beds were also closed. Oyster Bay, in Tory Channel, was closed for two years in 1882 while, in 1895, parts of Queen Charlotte Sound and Endeavour Inlet were closed for four years. The Waimea Inlet was closed, initially for two years, in 1886 and later, in 1911, for four years, including Nelson Haven. Parts of Pelorus Sound were closed in 1898.

Even with attempts to create artificial beds and spell other beds, the decline in oysters continued. Other catastrophies may also have contributed to this decline. Periodically our sea is plagued with a phytoplankton bloom, referred to as 'slime', (first recorded in Tasman Bay in the 1860's) which suffocates fish and shellfish. The great slime of 1901 was observed, by a fisherman named Westrup, to have seriously destroyed oyster beds in Golden Bay (34) .

Over the years of gradual depletion, some of the beds disappeared completely, while some still exist today, with small quantities of oysters.

In 1900, the Marine Department initiated an experimental trawling, throughout New Zealand, with the steam trawler Doto, to assess the potential of our inshore fisheries. In Tasman Bay, they encountered the most plentiful supply of fish in the entire voyage, and noted considerable numbers of oysters (35) . Perhaps these newly discovered oyster beds were also over exploited, and didn't recover until their rediscovery in the 1960's. The Tasman Bay beds continue to support a dredge oyster industry that is second only to Foveaux Strait.

Over the years, the oyster season has periodically changed by a month or two but, as with all seasonal foods, we fondly await the opening day. In fact, seasonal food provides some expectation in an otherwise mundane diet.

Pacific oysters, which were first discovered in Pelorus Sound in 1977, have spread widely throughout Nelson and Marlborough. In 1981, local MAF scientists predicted that it was possible to start farming these oysters in our region (36) .

Last year the first applications, followed by more this year, have been lodged to set up Pacific oyster farms at Uruti Bay (Port Underwood), Ohinetaha Bay and Okiwi Bay. Better results are expected with the use of the new vigorous Pacific Oyster, rather than our own native oysters.

With our mussel farms and scallop enhancement already proven, the Pacific Oyster farms may really promote the top of the south as a seafood gourmet's paradise. Who knows, once again there might just be a niche for seafood saloons.

References Aidan J Challis 1978 P25 P87 H.A.H. Insull 1952 P54 1849 (IV) P103 20 September Nelson Provincial Museum 11 May 1859 19 May 1902 28 January 1859 6 January 1855 29 March 1845 Colonist 5 January 1858 P2 8 April 1880 Epicures 12 May 1877 18 May 1869 30 May 1862 5 November 1864 27 April 1880 P140 Map P165 5 November 1863 24 September 1859 P4 2 April 1868 P2 22 February 1888 16 February 1889 31 January 1865 18 June 1867 18 August 1865 P326 31 August 1874 3 September 1869 4 April 1873 Advertisement 3 April 1873 23 October 1894 P1772 1894 P1038 1903 25 and 27 March 1871 1894 H-18 1896 H-15 P3 1897 H-15 P3-4 1898 H-15 P2-3 P573 Volume 2 Plan No 5028 "Foveaux Strait Oysters in Cook Strait". Plan showing locality (White Bluff – Clifford Bay) 10.3. 1919. 1921–22 P361 13 February 1901 25 May 1900 28 November 1981

Francis Dillon Bell first came into my consciousness as "…a pair of white trousers on someone reclining by her." This came from Nelson's well-known diarist, John Saxton, in September 1845.

The wider extract reads, "On my return…along the cart road, I saw a female with a parasol sitting on the bank above a steep cutting and a pair of white trousers on someone reclining by her. On coming nearer I saw it was Miss A[bsolon] who began reading her book and Mr B[ell] reclining …P[riscilla (Saxton's wife)] said they had come up the Valley together, he assisting her over the bridge and carrying her parasol…" (1)

Francis Dillon Bell was then nearly 23. The nature, or rather the speculation of the nature, of his relationship with Adeline Absolon, then an attractive woman of 26, is not relevant to this article.

Bell first came to Nelson late in 1843, not long after his arrival from London in the Ursula in September. An employee of the New Zealand Company in London, he had been appointed just prior to his departure in May, to be the Company's Immigration Agent at Nelson. The appointment was subject to the discretion of the Principal Agent, Captain Arthur Wakefield. (2) Wakefield was killed at the Wairau Affray, whilst Bell was en route to New Zealand.

Francis Dillon Bell. 1860. Bett Collection. Nelson Provincial Museum.

It would appear that Bell stayed only a few weeks on that first visit, but took up residence in March 1844 and remained for two years. Later, in 1846, he was appointed a magistrate for Nelson, but his other duties seem to have kept him in the North Island for large stretches of time, until 1848.

Bell returned for a second major period in 1848, to take over from William Fox as Resident Agent for the Company. With various trips away, principally to Wellington, Bell remained in Nelson until July 1851. During this period, he married Margaret Hort of Wellington and their first two children, Jessie and Harry (the latter to become a Prime Minister of New Zealand) were born.

So what was the background of this man, who was one of Nelson's earliest settlers and leaders?

Seven years after the Battle of Waterloo and three years after the birth of the young princess destined to become Queen Victoria, Francis Dillon Bell was born, on 8 October 1822. His father, Edward, has been described as a merchant and, two years before Francis' birth, he was commissioned as British Vice Consul (an honorary position) in Bordeaux, France. Although an Encyclopaedia of New Zealand says Francis was born in France, (3) I have not yet been able to prove this; he may have been born in England.

The Bell family was an interesting one, with a strong Quaker background. One of Francis Dillon Bell's ancestors was the Great Quaker apologist, Robert Barclay of Urie. One of Robert's sons, David, went to London from Scotland in the early 18th century and founded the Barclay banking business. David's daughter, Katherine, married another Quaker, Daniel Bell of Tottenham, then a village outside London.

Daniel and Katherine had a number of grandchildren, one of whom was the great prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry. But of more relevance to this story was their daughter, Priscilla, who married Edward Wakefield. Priscilla and Edward were the grandparents of Edward Gibbon, William and Arthur Wakefield. Francis Dillon Bell was, therefore, a second cousin, although many years younger, of Edward Gibbon, the great colonial theorist, of William, the leader of the Wellington settlement, and Arthur, the leader of the Nelson settlement

Edward Bell, Francis' father, came from Hornsey, which is now a northern suburb of London. Little is known of his mother's family. She was Fanny, a daughter of the Rev J Matthews of Cirencester. Edward and Fanny are reputed to have made a runaway marriage.

When Edward and Fanny went to live in Bordeaux is not clear. Their daughter, Frances Katherine, was baptised in St Mary's, Hornsey, in 1818. (4) Almost certainly, she was the eldest of the family. Then came Edward, then Francis. There were four more sons and four more daughters, three of whom were reputed to have become nuns. The only one of Francis' siblings of relevance to this story was his brother, Henry Angelo Bell. Henry was appointed clerk to Captain Arthur Wakefield and travelled to New Zealand with Wakefield in the Whitby. He died of typhoid just a few months after arrival in Nelson, and was buried in the Haven cemetery.

The Bells seem to have continued living in France right through Francis' childhood and teenage years. He was educated privately in Bordeaux and Auteuil. The latter is now a suburb of Paris, but was formerly a country village, at the entrance to the Bois de Boulogne. Francis grew up to be fluent in English, French and Italian and also had a sound knowledge of German. This language facility was to prove very useful to him later in his career.

Bell was a talented watercolourist, was an enthusiast for Italian music and sang well. A man of "slightly over middle height" (5) David (later Sir David) Monro described Bell in 1845 as being "exceedingly good looking with long and straight legs". (6)

By the age of 17 the need for employment became of importance. What better source than his Wakefield relations and, in particular, Edward Gibbon who was, by 1839, deeply involved with schemes of emigration to New Zealand.

The London which Dillon Bell came to was a city which had developed rapidly over the previous 20 years or so, to incorporate more and more of the surrounding villages. Its population was close to two million. The superb Regency building era, and its prime architect John Nash, had given way to such people as Thomas Cubit, who had developed much of Belgravia and Pimlico from 1827 onwards.

The growing population had necessitated new forms of transport. London had had its first regular horse-drawn omnibus service since 1829. But what was to be the most far-reaching development were the railways. The first railway within London had been opened in 1836. Euston Station was opened a year later, as the terminus for the first main-line railway between London and Birmingham. Parliament had passed 39 more bills for new lines during 1836 and 1837. Many of the great London docks had been built in the early pan of the century.

Great social and political changes were taking place, Britain was no longer an agricultural nation, ruled by the wealthy landowners, squires and clergy, but one which was now dominated by the new classes formed by commerce and industry. The spectacular Reform Bill of 1832 had changed the electoral basis of Parliament The Georgian era had come to an end in 1837, and in 1839 the young Queen Victoria was 20.

The economic upheaval and social distress, caused through the change from an agricultural to an industrial society, still continued to affect large segments of the population.

Emigration had developed as one of the ways to relieve this distress. Before 1830, the highest number of emigrants in any one year had been 30,000, in 1832 it was 130,000.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield's theories of colonisation, and the events which lead to the formation of the New Zealand Company, are sufficiently well known to followers of New Zealand history not to detail here. Suffice it to say that the decision to form the New Zealand Company was taken at a dinner hosted by banker John Wright, at his home in Hampstead, on 20 March 1839. Just under two years previously, the New Zealand Association had been formed, with the objective of establishing a New Zealand colony on Wakefield's principles, but circumstances had proved this particular vehicle not to be the one able to take the action necessary. The prospectus for the New Zealand Company was issued on 2 May 1839. Ten days later, the Tory sailed for New Zealand, with the advance party commissioned to buy land for the first settlement, the settlement that was to become Wellington. (7)

Exactly when, in 1839, Francis Dillon Bell joined the staff of the New Zealand Company, I have not yet been able to discover. To have been there from the very earliest days certainly must have been stimulating and exciting. His first position was as Assistant Secretary.

The operating structure of the Company was surprisingly similar to a business of comparable size today: a group of directors, a series of sub-committees and a small, structured, paid staff. To quote from Michael Turnbull's thesis. The Colonization of New Zealand by the New Zealand Company: "The Company's office was divided into two departments, the Secretary's and Emigration, the former being the overall responsible authority…the departments were…small and were located in the same building. The Secretary's Department had about three clerks, there was an accountant and a book-keeper, and the Emigration Department had two." (8)

The Emigration Department dealt, virtually exclusively, with the recruitment of, and arrangements for, the labourers and their families, who received assisted passages. The Secretary's Department dealt with everything else: correspondence with the land purchasers, emigration arrangements for those of the purchasers and their families who actually emigrated, chartering of ships and their provisioning etc etc.

The office was very understaffed as a result of the reluctance of the Company to spend anything more than the bare minimum in this area of the operation. The organisation was fully extended in launching the first expedition to Wellington. Only the freshness and enthusiasm of the staff ensured that all the necessary preparations were made. At the same time, the public relations aspects were not overlooked. The expedition caused quite a stir. Michael Turnbull sums it up, though, by saying, "Throughout [the Company's] proceedings were characterised by what one of the Wakefield group called 'hury scury [sic]'." (9)

I shall not attempt in this article, to cover all the aspects of Bell's work for the Company in London, but will focus on the period relating to the Nelson settlement.

By 1841, the Company's activities had grown enormously. They had the ongoing matters relating the Wellington settlement, the intensive arrangements for Nelson, including negotiations with the British government, the merger of the Plymouth and New Zealand Companies and the proposals for a secondary Wellington settlement – Wanganui.

At the beginning of April, the Company firmly advised the British government of its intention to form the Nelson settlement. The advance party sailed in the Will Watch and the Whitby on 27 April 1841.

In early March, Bell had been appointed Secretary, pro tem, on John Ward's resignation to take up another position. This increased his responsibilities, and workload, enormously.

Remember, he was only 19! Working through New Zealand Company papers, I found him writing despatches to William Wakefield in Wellington, drafting the Company's written representations to the Government and dealing directly with the new group of land purchasers. Bell had an easy, fluid style and, for a 20th century researcher, thank goodness, a very legible hand. His language was simple and direct.

The days immediately prior to the departure of the Will Watch and Whitby were overwhelmingly busy. Bell "…work[ed] through two whole nights running and [was] proud of, rather than disgruntled with, the fact" And he "…personally delivered land orders to anxious purchasers already embarked on the emigrant ships." (10) .

Bell's annual salary as secretary was set in April at £150, but raised several days later to £250. This compared to a Principal Agent (William and Arthur Wakefield) at £1,000 and the Second Clerk at £100. In October he was paid an extra £50, as a gratuity for extra services. (11)

By August, he was completely exhausted and wrote that "I go to Boulogne for two or three days tomorrow to recruit my health which hard work has quite knocked up…" At the same time, he declined an invitation from another person to visit Oxford, on the grounds of pressure of work, but promised to visit in October. (12)

John Ward returned to the Company, as Secretary, in October that year and Bell resumed his Assistant Secretaryship.

As well as actually working from the office in London, Bell, of course, visited the emigrant ships prior their departure. He also seems to have made several trips to further farewell family and friends at later stages, whilst ships were still on the English coast. One such trip, on 19 December 1841, was to see his young cousin, Emily Wakefield, daughter of William Wakefield, then aged 15, who had embarked for New Zealand on the Clifford. Bell's account, given to John Saxton three years later in Nelson and recounted in Saxton's diary reads, "…his coming on board…was quite an adventure. He arrived at Deal before the ship. He then went by gig to Margate and seeing a ship approaching towed by a steamer very rapidly, guessed it was the Clifford, and started in a 4 oared wherry and got on board late at night. He left at 6am with the Pilot at Deal." (13)

When Bell actually decided to emigrate to New Zealand is not clear, but there is evidence to suggest that this had been regarded as a possibility right from 1839. The first definite record I have been able to find was of an undated meeting with Edward Gibbon Wakefield "…who appointed an interview in Finsbury Square, where having walked in silence for some time contrary to his…usual chatty manner, he suddenly turned round to [Bell] and proposed [Bell going] to New Zealand." (14)

By early 1843, Bell's plans to emigrate were being finalised and passage was booked on the Ursula. A ship of 600 tons, she was not a New Zealand Company charter, but a legal agreement was entered into with her owners for her to sail from London to Wellington and Nelson. Some of the conditions which had related to the emigrant ships prevailed: a surgeon/superintendent, food and accommodation standards. Bell was charged by the New Zealand Company to "…examine into the treatment of theemigrantson the voyage a) in reference to Surgeon Superintendent's Certificate and b) against ship owner's potential monetary claims." He also carried a steel-engraven seal of the Company's arms for the Agent at Nelson. (15)

The Ursula carried a total of 37 passengers: 11 cabin, 12 intermediate and 14 in the forecabin. Only six of these were assisted emigrants, a family by the name of Trotter. Initially at St Katherine's Dock, the Ursula sailed from Gravesend on Wednesday 17 May. Detained at Portsmouth for two days, due to adverse winds, she finally quit England on 22 May and arrived at Wellington four months later, on 13 September 1843. Francis Dillon Bell was a month short of his twenty-first birthday.

References , Vol II, p46 , NZC 102/11. , Vol I, p188 , Vol I, p191 , Rex E Wright-St Clair, p70 , Patricia Burns (ed Henry Richardson), pp11–17 The Colonization of New Zealand by the New Zealand Company, thesis Michael Turnbull, pp97 and 98 , p86 , p96 , NZC 31/3 , NZC 18/2 , Vol I, p112 and New Zealand Journal, 21 January 1943, p19 , Vol II, p73 , NZC 102/11 and NZC 202/3

The Local Store

The local storekeeper who sold groceries is now a figure in history.

It is so easy, in our modern consumer society with Supermarkets and pre-packaged foods, to forget that this is a development of the postwar years. The cash economy has brought many changes.

Many of us, especially those from country districts, remember the grocer who sold a great variety of merchandise.

He really conducted a local trading post, buying in such things as eggs, buuer and sheepskins. There was little specialisation and, as well as groceries, such items as footwear, clothing and farm necessities were available for sale.

The storekeepers received their supplies in bulk, with sugar in 70 pound (32kg) jute bags, while flour arrived in 100 pound (45kg) calico bags. Flour could also be bought in 200 pound (90kg) sacks. For those customers who required flour of sugar in smaller quantities, these items were weighed out into brown paper packets. Many customers bought by the bagful.

Country store. Stewart Collection. Nelson Provincial Museum.

Bags and Sacks

In the now unbelievably hard times between the two World Wars, when depression and then slump conditions prevailed, there were great problems for much of the country's population. But it was a 'Waste not want not' society, so the empty flour and sugar bags were washed and made up into a great variety of articles. As the flour bags were made of good quality calico, it was a really good material for clothing and household purposes. They served as pillowcases, tea-towels, aprons, tablecloths and, Joined together, as sheets. Sugar bags came in for an even greater variety of uses on the farm, in the garden and in the home. After being washed, they could be used for making many different articles. Some of the women's groups had competitions, where people displayed things which they had made from the bags. These included aprons, towels for drying feet, kits, kneeling mats and so on. Oatina (porridge meal) bags were like fine linen. When washed and crocheted round the outside, they made lovely handkerchiefs.

The re-use of sacks and bags was normal practice on the farms. The writer grew up in a country district which was not a particularly prosperous mixed farming area. Times were hard but, when motor transport became available to and from the railway, farmers grew many acres of potatoes, which were railed to the city merchants. Grain sacks were used to hold the potatoes and held about 200 pounds (90kg). The full bags were not easy to manhandle. I was involved in a country carrying business and handled thousands of them. A change came after World War II, when fertiliser bags were available. These did not hold as much and were far easier to handle. A further development was the use of Cental bags, an overseas product. Originally intended to hold 100 pounds (45kg) of corn, they had been used in this country for handling bulk vegetables. They held 55 to 60 pounds (say 26kg) of potatoes and were easy to handle.

With the use of smaller bags, potatoes were often sold to retail outlets, or direct to householders. Sugar bags were a similar size and, until they became scarce, were the usual containers. Multiwall paper bags are now in regular use right from the grower to the consumer.

Kerosene and Petrol Tins

Sometimes on TV, or in magazines, we sec pictures taken in Third World countries of people carrying water in four gallon tins, sometimes balanced on their heads. It would scarcely be a comfortable load, but possibly the people in such places do not have wire to make handles.

With the fairly general use of plastic products, including buckets, it is hard for people to visualise the old square kerosene and benzine tins.

Before electric power was introduced, kerosene was in fairly general use for house lights. When petrol became an everyday requirement, it also was sold in tins.

Country stores kept limited petrol stocks to supply their clients. Motorists travelling long distances normally carried additional petrol but, unfortunately, some drivers just discarded their empty tins at the side of the road. As well as being unsightly, they sometimes caused accidents. Horses would take fright when they saw the strange shiny articles, which reflected the sunlight.

There was soon a surplus of tins and, naturally, they were put to many uses.

The old square buckets were very much in evidence around homes, in gardens, and on the farms. When used for milk buckets, wise people ran solder round the inside seams, to make them quite sterile, while some tins were cut down to a lower height, for feeding calves. One of the most obvious uses was for carrying water and, when potatoes were picked up by hand, what better container than a bucket. Contract picking of green peas was paid for at the rate of so much a bucketful. The tomato growers picked their fruit into buckets. Raspberry growers painted inside the tin buckets, which were used to collect the fruit from the smaller containers carried by the pickers. On farms, tins were used for the rendered down fat from the home killed mutton sheep. Country stores bought the full tins at prices which varied at different times, from say five shillings, down to one shilling.

The sheet metal from the tins was also used for a great variety of purposes. Sheds were sometimes walled with flattened out sheets of tin and, where a wall was tarred, it lasted fairly well, but otherwise it soon rusted badly. It was not a lasting material for roofs, but was an easy material to work with, and could be made into many different usable articles for house and workshop, including bowls and trays.

Tins cut in half lengthways were used as seed boxes in nurseries, and plants such as tomatoes were often sold in these containers. When my own people were buying their bulk supply of petrol in cases of two tins each, we saved the tins and sold them to the State Forest Service for one shilling each, for use in their nurseries. Possibly one of the more unusual practical uses, was filling tins with concrete, to produce lasting piles when house building. Tins were not particularly good for toilet purposes and, when used for dunny buckets, they soon rusted out.

It is correct to say that many good uses could be made of what was an otherwise waste product. Perhaps one could make some comparison with modem times, when we see the great many uses that oil drums are put to. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but the convenience of a readily available article leads to invention.

Unlike plastic, tins did not lead to the waste disposal problem that we now have, as they were easily crushed down flat, and rusted away in a few short years.

Country stores installed petrol pumps when bulk petrol was introduced, but this meant that the pumps were locked when the stores closed up. Some storekeepers could be persuaded to supply out of hours, if the need was urgent. Eventually, country hotels also installed petrol pumps.

When the petrol came in tins there was not a great deal of competition, but the big companies each turned out a cheaper grade. Shell, who also supplied Big Tree, had Power in petrol, while Vacuum supplied Kalif, in addition to their high grade Plume brand. Of course, motorists had their own preferences. The Tadmor store had one of the few Big Tree bowers, and one man drove past the Shell and Plume pumps to buy Big Tree at Tadmor. He believed that his car ran better on that brand!

As time went along, Atlantic and other brands appeared and competition became more keen.

Store Vans

Store vans, four-wheeled vehicles pulled by two horses, travelled round the valleys making weekly visits to peoples' homes. The travelling storeman carried most essential requirements to supply to customers, and bought the eggs, butter and other thing which people had to sell. Sheepskins were loaded on the rack on top of the van, while poultry cages were slung underneath.

Butter

The farms were small in our district, so there was a variety of activities. Most folk hand milked a small herd of cows and provision of fresh milk and butter was an aid to the rearing of healthy families. My own folk owned a small, hand-turned Alpha Laval cream separator, but some neighbours used the wide milk pans to set the milk and then skimmed the thick cream, when it rose to the surface. We also had a small steel chum, which rotated at speed when turned with a handle. There was a beater inside, but I do not remember whether it turned in the opposite direction to the chum, or stood still. We used to like to have a drink of fresh buttermilk, when this was drained off the butter. The fresh butter had to be worked, to get all the buttermilk out, and then the right amount of salt worked into it.

The butter would be weighed either in single pounds (.454kg), or in a lump of greater amount, say ten pounds (4.536kg) or more. The pounds were wrapped in paper, while the larger lumps were wrapped in muslin. I well remember my mother being very hurt when the store owners sent out a letter to their suppliers, to say that some butter was under weight. My poor mother was scrupulously honest and always put a little extra on the pat as she weighed the butter out. The return for all this work was only a few pence per pound, but it was done to counter the cost of our household requirements.

Sometimes butter had to be kept for use through the winter. There was no refrigeration and extra salt was added, which enabled it to keep for some months.

Home Remedies

Every household kept a number of different medicines and remedies for most ordinary problems. One thinks of Senna leaves for Senna Tea, of Castor Oil, Perry Davis Painkiller, Epsom Salts, Kruschen Salts, Beecham's Pills, De Witt's Pills, Aspros, Lane's Emulsion, Bonnington's Irish Moss, Doan' s Ointment, Vaseline, Cuticura Ointment, the list goes on and on. No doubt there were plenty more preparations for home treatment of all ills. With no local doctor or chemist, people did their own prescribing. The local stores would be required to keep a large stock of their requirements.

Soap

No doubt there were many different brands of soap available, but the two that I best remember were Lifebuoy and Sunlight. Soap was also sold in long bars. I remember that my Mother always used St Mungo powder for her copper washing.

From time to time, a supply of home made soap was boiled up in the copper. Freshly rendered down tallow was readily available on the farms, where mutton was butchered on the premises. This tallow became the main ingredient, but folk had recipes to tell them what other ingredients to use to produce a satisfactory product. I haven't a recipe to refer to, and the only ingredients which I remember were borax and caustic soda, obtained from the store. After boiling, the mixture was cut up into bars and squares, while still warm. When kept, it became very hard and was not suitable for personal washing, but was ideal for scrubbing and various other purposes.

Home Butchering

On the farms we were used to seeing the butchering done at home and even looked forward to the pig killing, which produced bacon. Of great interest, on the occasional trips to town, was seeing the butcher's shops with carcasses hanging up. Customers chose the joint of roast they wanted, and the butcher then cut it off on his large wooden block.

Bread

The weekly baking was one of the routine jobs for the homemaker, but it was a job which took a great deal of time. A really lengthy process produced good bread. Experience was required to know the right temperature to get the dough to rise and just when to punch it up again and put it into the tins for baking. Fortunately, we had a brick oven, which was heated by a wood fire inside. When sufficiently heated, the fire was drawn, the filled tins were slid in, and then the door was closed and sealed with clay mud. As far as I can remember, it took about one hour to cook the bread and there was a wonderful smell when the oven door was opened.

People made their own barm, as the yeast, or leaven, was called, which induced the dough mixture to rise. Hops bought from the store and potatoes were used in the process, and each week some barm was kept to get the next mixture to mature. My mother normally had two bottles filled, with the corks tied down very firmly with string. Sometimes one bottle would work too well, blow the cork, and the mixture would froth up and waste. Why did these bottles always choose to blow, with a loud bang, in the middle of the night?

A wonderful change took place when cakes of compressed yeast came on the market, and could be obtained from the storekeepers.

Eventually, baker's bread was delivered to most folk who were not too isolated. At first by horse vehicle, and later by motors. The loaves at that time weighed the full four pounds (1.814kg), but they were not wrapped. Wrapped bread is a much more recent development, made much easier with the adoption of light plastic bags. Ready-sliced bread was not available prior to their use.

Fowls

There was always a flock of fowls, which ran loose, which lead to the problem of finding the eggs. Our home rested on river boulders for piles and fowls sometimes laid their eggs underneath. One of the worst things I had to do was to crawl under and find the eggs. I was rather a bulky lad and it wasn't always easy to get under the bed plates of the house foundations. Sometimes, I seemed to be stuck getting through and naturally I howled. It is only correct to say that I developed a phobia about confined spaces and, although I have been in caves and mines over the years, I have never felt comfortable about it.

It was easy to tell the fresh eggs from those which were not. The good eggs were sold to the storeman at so many pence a dozen, but it was never a great price.

Household Water Supply

To collect water for household use, most homes had a red iron tank, with a capacity of four hundred gallons (1,818 litres), to store the rain water which drained off the roof. These square tanks, which were in general use, came into the country as safe containers for the shipment of crockery, or other fragile imports. As well, most homes had a hand operated lever pump, to lift water from an underground well, Even when a few odd windmills dotted the countryside, the red tanks were still in evidence.

With no running water, it was natural that bathing took place in a large oval tub, which was moved into the house for the occasion. Water had to be specially heated for the purpose, but bath time in front of a winter fire was quite an event. There may have been a mineral deficiency in our district's water, as many of us had rotten teeth as children.

Boots

As children, most of us walked to school on gravel roads, which meant having to wear boots, although we preferred bare feet in summer. The country storekeepers always stocked boots, but usually we each had one pair at a time, as we soon grew out of them. With the gravel roads and muddy playing grounds, the boots got pretty grimy, but these same boots had to be cleaned and blacked on Saturdays, to be ready to wear to Sunday School or Church on Sundays. There were two brands of blacking available, Radium and Nugget, and we always used Radium polish.

My folk were never well off, but they lived simply, paid their way, and provided us with a stable, Christian home.

Presbyterian marriage registers, which commence in 1853, tell us something of Nelson society. This is only a small sample, and other studies of marriage characteristics in New Zealand have been conducted on larger samples. It is possible to make some comparisons, however.

The first surviving register of the Nelson Presbyterian Church commences with the following entry:

On 3 February 1853 John Francis Lake, a shoemaker and a bachelor of full age, married Mary Jane Jeffrey Durrant, an underage spinster. Mr T.D. Nicholson married them at the residence of R.J. Durrant of Milton St. The witnesses were Robert Jeffrey Durrant and James Hargreaves.

In the following fifty years, there are 615 marriages recorded in Nelson's Presbyterian Marriage Registers. This averages one per month, but they occurred quite irregularly, as in 1857 there were no marriages at all, whereas in 1867 the number was 25.

Three ministers conducted the marriages over the fifty years. They were the Rev. T.D. Nicholson [1849–1857], Rev. Patrick Calder [1857–1891] and Rev. J.M. McKenzie [1892–….], with a very occasional ceremony conducted by another minister.

Unfortunately, Mr Calder's writing is often difficult to read, making spelling of names uncertain. Sometimes the register is completed solely by the minister, while on other occasions, the signatures of the participants are there. When this happens, we can see which grooms and brides could not write and had to sign by using their mark – X. Also, it is useful to see how the bride and groom spelled their own name, which is not always the same as the minister's version. The spelling of the name may still be uncertain, as some participants appear to be able to do little more than trace their own name. Some of the young women acting as witnesses describe their status as "spincer", rather than "spinser". As time passed, the level of literacy rose and there were more fluent writers. Then the opposite problem occurred, when clerks used so many flourishes that the names became illegible once more.

The extent of entries in the registers is determined by different "Marriage Acts". In 1880, a new Act resulted in much fuller information being recorded. The first marriage after this new Act came in to force gives the following information:

On 13 Oct 1880, Charles Henry Dement born in Adelaide, a 26 year old bachelor of Hardy St, bricklayer, married Ann Watson Henry of Collingwood St. She was a spinster of 22, born in Aberdeen, a dressmaker. The parents of Charles were Wm Dement, another bricklayer, and Mary Ann Dement nee Samways. The parents of Ann were Archibald Henry, a steward, and Jessy Henry nee Milne. Witnesses were John Barr, a telegraphist and Elizabeth Alice Carr, a spinster.

Prior to 1880, the age is generally given as Full, and Under or Minor. For a few brides there is no age entry. Was the clergyman forgetful, or was the bride determined to keep it a secret? The most usual age for the groom was 24 and, for the bride, 21. Pickens, 1980, found the usual marriage age in Canterbury, for brides' first marriages in the 1850's, was 21. Later in the century it became 22. Canterbury brides, like the Nelson Presbyterian brides did not commonly marry before the age of 18. Very few grooms in the fifty year period are underage, only about 11, whereas about one quarter of the brides are. Some clusters of underage brides occur, for instance in 1853, 1855, and 1864. On the other hand, it is not unusual to find that the bride is slightly older. At other times there are many widowers and widows, was there an epidemic about two years previously?

The registers do not indicate whether parents were still alive at the time of the marriage, except where they clearly sign as a witness, or the ceremony is conducted in their own home.

Christian names show definite patterns, with John, William, Mary Ann, Mary Jane, Sarah and Elizabeth sufficient for a great proportion. "Gentlemen" often have several much grander names, and one more creative family had given their daughter five Christian names-Olivia Rosina Blanche Maud Henderson Archibald. People of German origin often have three first names. Later in the period, it became more common to have two or more second names, frequently the mother's maiden name, or other surname is used.

In the whole fifty years, only one person is recorded as "legally divorced" and, in one other case, the husband had been missing 12 years, otherwise all were bachelors, spinsters or widowed. Among the 615 couples there are 68 widowers and 75 widows. Widows tended to be more numerous, due to men being killed in accidents such as horse accidents, river drownings, and other accidents and violence. By the New Zealand censuses of the 1880's and 1890's, the number of widows was considerably greater than widowers.

Marriages only occasionally took place in the Presbyterian Church, although the church in Nelson had opened in December 1849. The ceremony took place in private homes, sometimes the bridegroom's, sometimes the bride's, often a friend's house, or a hotel or sometimes the manse. Some were in the country, most were in the town. The minister's daughter is so often one of the witnesses, she could almost be called a professional witness. The ceremony might be in the home of the bride's parents but, in the early decades, this often was not the case. It seems the bride may have had no family in the town. By the 1880's, witnesses were much more likely to be of the family of the bride or groom than in earlier times.

The occupations of the grooms make interesting reading. Here are the most common occupations:

Farmers 78 Sheep/flock owners/graziers 18 Blacksmiths 13 Mariners 51 Clerks 16 Drapers/clothiers 13 Carpenters/builders 47 Shoe/bootmakers/cordwainers 14 Painters 12 Labourers 46 Butchers 14 Bakers 11 Miners 20 Storekeepers 14 Engineers 10 Carriers/carters 10

Many others are given, and often there is only one example of these less common occupations. Occasionally there is a gentleman. The range of shopkeepers becomes much broader over the decades, with butchers and bakers early on and fancy types, such as confectioners, later. Then there might be an artist or vocalist. By the twentieth century, blacksmiths, wheelwrights and coopers became much fewer, and bootmakers became machine attendants. Overall, unskilled groups shrank and white collar workers grew. After 1900, when the occupation of the fathers is given, it often happens that the men of the bridal group, groom, parent and witnesses have a common occupation.

At first, no bride is assigned an occupation then, from September 1897, there is an occasional dressmaker, servant or teacher and just one "lady". From January 1900 most have an entry, such as household or domestic duties, with a few more dressmakers and an occasional shop assistant.

Some people are interested in the entries of the Marriage Registers as a source of details for the family tree. In addition, the pattern over the years shows interesting social trends regarding age of marriage, occupations, place of marriage and number of family involved in the ceremony. Wouldn't it be interesting if the register also had a photo of each wedding group?

References Ault, H.F. . Nelson, 1958. Allan, Ruth. Nelson. Wellington, 1965. Miller, R.S. Christchurch, 1959. Oliver, W.H. & Williams, B.R. [ed.] Wellington, 1981. Pickens, K.A. Summer, 1980.

In an unpublished thesis on the exploration of Nelson, J. D. Overton states that, in addition to the well-known journeys of men like Heaphy, Brunner, and Rochfort, much exploration was done by lesser known and forgotten men. Among others, he mentions Henry Handyside. Though his name does appear on a small bridge near the Hanmer turnoff, on the Lewis Pass road, few people would have any knowledge of who he was, or why his name should be there.

Henry Handyside left England after his father's death and arrived at Nelson, on the ship Persia, on 24 July, 1852. He was described as a surveyor and engineer. It is not known why he emigrated, nor why he came to Nelson. It seems that he spent some time in the Moutere district and, in 1856, he married a widow, Mrs Burnside, at St. Thomas Church, Motueka. About this time, he started working for the Nelson Provincial Government. He was in charge of the construction of the Picton-Blenheim road, a road skirting the swamp and crossing the dangerous Wairau River. A son was born in Picton in 1860.

The next we hear of his activities is the reports he sent to the Provincial Council, of his surveying work in the rough back country between Tophouse and Canterbury. A track between Tophouse and Hanmer had been established, but there was still much country to be surveyed. The source and direction of several large rivers, in particular of the Wairau, the Waiau and the Grey, had not been defined.

Travers, a lawyer and explorer, had named the Spenser Mountains and the Anne, Henry and Alfred Rivers. He, with surveyors Lewis and Maling, explored and named the Boyle River, which they thought flowed into the Grey. When they followed its tributary, the Lewis, they felt sure they had found the source of the Grey. The next year, Handyside was in the same area with Maling, and it was he who took Maling to the top of a high hill, from which they could see Lake Christabel and the Grey River flowing from it. The Boyle River turned and joined the Hope, and later the Waiau. During his time in the inland area, Handyside sent reports to the Provincial Council. These were printed in the Nelson Examiner and it was noted that the reports were accompanied by sketches of the various features. Overton, who visited the same area and took photographs, remarks on their accuracy.

The most important work that Handyside undertook, was the building of a bridge over the Waiau Gorge, near Hanmer. The South Island had been divided into provinces by drawing lines on a map, with no regard for the topical features, or the interests of the inhabitants. All the top of the South Island was in Nelson Province. The people of Amuri were demanding that some of the money they paid in rates to the Nelson Provincial Council should be spent in their area, on a bridge over the Waiau River. After much deliberation by the Council, the District Engineer, John Blackett, drew up a plan and specifications, and tenders were called. The successful tenderer was Handyside. It was a difficult task in those days. Getting the material to the site was the first hurdle. The bridge was built entirely of black birch timber, which was all shipped from Nelson to Salt Water Creek. It then had to be carted to the site by horse or bullock wagons. There were no proper roads and many unbridged rivers.

In spite of this, the bridge was built with no mishaps. In his history of the Amuri region, W. J. Gardner gives a full description of the early bridge and its building. It was what was called a 'horse bridge', to be used by pedestrians and horse riders. Wagons would still have to use the ford. It was completed in 1864 and was described as being a triumph both for its designer, Blackett, who later became New Zealand's Engineer in Chief, and for its builder, Handyside. It was sad that the bridge did not have a long life. One stormy night in November 1874, a nor' west gale blew the whole structure down the river. It was ten years before another bridge was started and another four before it was opened.

Waiau Gorge Bridge constructed by Henry Handyside. 1864.

Handyside made a model of the bridge. We read in the Nelson Colonist of 40 October 1864, under the heading Wai-au-ua Bridge: 'Mr Handyside, the builder of this light, large and graceful bridge over the Wai-au-ua River in this province, has just finished a beautiful model of the bridge which is to be sent to the New Zealand Exhibition in Otago. Steep banks of the river are shown and the great span and side works with jointings and boltings are exhibited in a miniature one fortieth the size of the actual structure. Every bolt, nut and screw, each iron knee and keeper fixed with molten lead into the solid rock and holding the timber firm, every spar of timber used in the bridge itself, has their parallel in this model.

The bridge itself, designed by Mr Blackett, Provincial Engineer, has a length of roadway from bank to bank of 320 feet and its breadth is 7 feet. The span of the arch above the river is 120 feet. The size of the model is one-fortieth of these dimensions, a minature horse of the same proportion to actual life is placed on the bridge and shows the great size of the building which consumed 30,000 feet of timber, 10 hundred weight of ironwork and one hundred weight of lead and cost the very moderate sum of 2,200 pounds. The model we venture to say will form one of the greatest ornaments of the Exhibition, besides being a most useful specimen of how to bridge New Zealand rivers.'

In the official catalogue the model is listed, also a painting by the artist John Gully of the bridge, and various other products of the Province. It is not known what became of the model, but the picture is in the Suter Gallery, waiting cleaning and restoration. For many years it hung in the old public library.

In 1866, Handyside was working with Blackett on a reservoir just below the Brook dam. This was never used, as it was cracked by an earthquake soon after it was finished, and it was found that the water supply was satisfactory without it. About this time, Handyside injured his elbow while working. He must also have displeased the Provincial Government in some way, as he was dismissed and refused compensation. In the rather pathetic petition which he presented to the Provincial Government, he reminded them of his years of faithful service and, in particular, that he had saved them a thousand pounds in the building of the Waiau Bridge. The Council allowed the petition to 'lie on the table', but there was no other result.

In the meantime, Brunner had surveyed the Hampden (Murchison) township sections. These, and the surrounding farmland, were offered for sale. Most buyers were speculators, who did not settle in the area, but Grigg, in his book Murchison, notes that 'an early settler was Handyside who bought land in July 1866, 230 acres, to the west of the Matakitaki River, near its junctions with the Buller'. Here, Handyside intended to farm beef cattle, as there was a demand for it from a number of gold-diggers in the district.

Arthur Dudley Dobson, who was then doing country work for the Provincial Government, wrote in his Reminiscences that after the works in the Brook were finished "Handyside took his wife and family to the Upper Buller Valley where Murchison now is and commenced farming. I do not think he made good, for he turned his attention to mechanical invention, and patented an engine that was to revolutionise the present style of railways for new countries. The tracks were to be laid down on any road, irrespective of steep grades. On arriving at a steep grade, the engine was to go up the grade a suitable distance unwinding a wire rope from a drum attached to the engine, then on arriving at a good position, the engine was to drop two levers on to the road which fixed it firmly in position, whilst it wound up the rope, and dragged the train up to the engine. The brakes then being put fast in the train, the engine went on ahead again. How the train was to go down hill and how the rope was to be worked on a winding road, was all left to future development. However Handyside persuaded a few speculators to form a little company to patent the invention and to send him to England to get the plans taken up. He had a small engine constructed with the proposed fixing levers, and it was tested pulling trucks out of a gravel pit. Then unfortunately he contracted typhoid fever and died."

Dobson did not hear what happened to Handyside's wife and family, but there is an unconfirmed report that some of his family returned to New Zealand and settled in Auckland.

Sources Dobson, A. D. , 1930 Gardner, W. J. , 1965 Nelson Provincial Council. , 1865, Dunedin. Official Catalogue Overton, J. D. Thesis, 1978 , The Nelson Examiner.

The Waiwhero was the site of the first Nelson gold rush in about 1854–55. In the early part of this century, the residents of the area had memories relating to the gold rush, and today there are still a few people who remember hearing about the event.

The site is more correctly described as Pangatotara, but the diggers had to approach by the Waiwhero Road, there being no road along the Motueka River, and they had some accommodation near the Waiwhero road. A short walk through bush and scrub took them to the little streams which drained into the Motueka River. The bigger Waiwhero Stream does not have gold in it but, just upstream, are the two little streams which do have gold. They cross the road by Durrant's farm, and are named Tin Pot Gully and Golden Gully or Durrant's Gully. I wonder how many Golden Gullies there are in New Zealand? Between these two streams is a ridge, which is the site of two shafts about one hundred feet deep and six by eight feet at the mouth. They are open now, but about 1910 a little boy nearly went down the shaft and at that time they were covered by rotting boards. There are other smaller excavations near the stream. The whole area is now part of Baigent's forest, with pines, manuka and scrub growing over it.

Few people recorded this particular gold rush. Judge Broad mentions the discovery of gold in the Motueka district in 1856, Nolan says gold was discovered in 1856 within seven miles of Motueka and towards the Batten (Baton). H.P. Washbourn says "about the year 1855 people were very much excited about gold digging, as the report of the richness of California followed by that to Australia made people very keen on the idea of finding gold… In that year there was a small rush to Motueka, gold having been found at Waiwhero, Ngatimoti way, but it was not in payable quantity, and they soon returned". Washbourn, who went gold digging in the Collingwood area at that same time, describes a gold rush as like a "large camping picnic with everyone in the highest spirits as if they had just come into a fortune or were just about to do so". The numbers who arrived at Tin Pot Gully are variously said to have been 150,300 or 500. As it is a very small area, it must

Waiwhero, Motueka Valley.

have been a very gay scene, with 500 men there in picnic mood. They soon moved on to better prospects in Collingwood and, later, the West Coast. Gold obtained in Tin Pot was fine gold. One who obtained gold here much later was Mr Adam Knowles, who lived on the edge of Tin Pot Gully on the family farm. His father, Joseph Dale Knowles, had bought the property about 1855/6 and, as he did not speak of any involvement in the gold rush, his family assume that it was over by the time of the purchase.

Raspberries were grown on the Knowles' properly and, in 1911, the pickers camped on the banks of the Tin Pot where, they noted, "gold was first found in Nelson province".

Washbourne describes diggers in the 1850's as wearing moleskin trousers, blue or red shirts worn outside the trousers, knotted capes with a peak hanging down the back, and finished off with sheath or bowie knives. The hair and beard were generally long and untrimmed.

Another local digger was a Mr Parsons, who lived in the remains of a gold digger's hut on what may have been the site of the original diggers' settlement, opposite the Waiwhero Cemetery. It was on a small flat, about a quarter of a mile from the Waiwhero Road, where there was a spring and some old walnut trees. About 1910, elderly Mr Parsons lived there, with his eight dogs. As the hut was not weatherproof, he actually lived in a tent inside the hut. His cooking was done in the remains of the corrugated iron fireplace, which was outside the tent, but under the remains of the hut. One day, as he was cooking his food in a frying pan, a visitor came by on horse-back. Grass sometimes grew inside the hut and the horse put its head in, looking for a mouthful.

A gust of wind blew the little half door, which caught the horse's neck. Thence started a tug of war between the horse and the hut, with Mr Parsons and his frying pan in a situation of some danger. Every time the hut rocked, Mr Parsons and his frying pan could be seen for a brief period, until the horse eventually freed itself and the hut stopped rocking. Mr Parsons did a little farming and grew raspberries, Victoria plums and a few old fashioned gooseberries, red and yellow and very sweet. This was not his main income, however. He had his gold ripple in Tin Pot Stream, to keep him in stores. Nobody was allowed to know the whereabouts of this gold. The eight dogs kept Mr Parsons company, and it appears that he was not a good housekeeper. Once a year, his niece from Motueka descended on the hut for spring cleaning. It took six months before poor Mr Parsons could find everything again. Two who farmed the area later, and maybe owned Mr Parsons' property, were Mr Jim Rankin and Mr Richards. A Mr Bannister owned the accommodation house for a time about 1910.

One further relic of the gold diggers was an old accommodation house, built of 12 inch wide pit sawn timber. It was sited by the Waiwhero Road, above and north of the stream, overlooking the cemetery. Apparently Mr Parsons and his father ran it, and it was still there about 1910. Rats had taken matches into its nooks and crannies and, because they were not safety matches, fires broke out. So many fires that the house was unsafe and had to be demolished. Since then, another house or houses have been built in front of the original one. Big oak trees mark the position of the accommodation house.

Today, the open shafts and a little gold in the streams are the remnants of a short and exciting period in the life of Motueka Valley.

Sources: Broad, L. Nelson, 1982 Greenwood, Miss Eleanor. Heath, E. E. H. Knowles, E. Nolan, Tony. Reed, 1976 Salisbury, J. P. . London, 1895 Vickerman, Trix. Dairy 1910/11 Washbourn H. P. Nelson, 1933

Footprints Farewell Footprints Farewell by Jeff Newport.

Published by Nikau Press, P O Box 602, Nelson.

Printed by Stiles Printing Ltd. 236 pages, illustrated $40

Footprints Farewell is the latest and, as author Jeff Newport has intimated, the last book in the highly acclaimed Footprints series, which has dealt with the history of the Nelson back country, primarily between the Waimeas and Lake Rotoiti. This well produced and illustrated history is, in reality, two books. In the first part, Jeff further develops the theme of the settlement of Nelson's hinterland. The remainder of Footprints Farewell presents the edited reminiscences of Alex Kerr, a member of a well known pioneering family, that did much to open up the country in the Motupiko and upper Buller valleys.

While Jeff continues the history of the back country settlements, the format is a little different. Instead of covering one or more districts in some detail, Jeff Newport has successfully, and in a straight forward manner, portrayed the major changes that have occurred over the past century. He shows how some of the major technological advances, such as the motor car and electricity, have profoundly altered the peoples attitudes and the way they live. By drawing on his wealth of knowledge and personal experience of the country, he illustrates theses changes.

One of the themes developed is improvements in transport, and how these led to the demise of the accommodation houses. These necessary establishments, each with its own character and resident characters, were widespread. They were situated at strategic locations along the barely adequate, and often muddy, main roads and byways, and also were the first buildings to appear in any new farming, mining or sawmilling settlement The advent of the internal combustion engine accelerated the need for better roads, which shortened the travelling time between localities, leading to the demise of the accommodation houses. The book describes some of these accommodation houses, and abounds with descriptions of the trials and tribulations of the early motorist. Also chronicled are more important, broader, social changes the motor age induced, by reducing the dependence of the settlers on their own resources.

The introduction of electricity is another major theme which Jeff develops. The demand for electricity, first in the towns and then, progressively, in country districts, saw the building of small hydro stations, from the Waihopai in Marlborough, to the biggest of them all, the Cobb Scheme in Northwest Nelson. The changes that electricity brought to domestic life were far reaching, but now commonly overlooked. Refrigerators, washing machines, electric stoves, adequate lighting at night and the radio, gave more time for leisure. However, more income was needed to pay for such things and, as a consequence, many small, subsistence farms, tucked away in side valleys, slowly disappeared. Time became an increasingly dominant factor in daily life. For example, during the era of the accommodation houses, anyone setting out on a journey was never sure how long it might take, because of weather or state of the roads or fords. This, being regarded as nothing out of the ordinary, was readily accepted. Now that we know, to within a short period of time, how long a trip should take, we soon become frustrated if, for any reason, it takes longer. With the increase in the pace of life we have, compared to our forbears, become more out of touch with ourselves, our neighbours and our environment.

While documenting these changes to the way we live, Jeff has not entirely abandoned his earlier approach to describing the country districts. In Footprints Farewell, he provides further information on Tapawera and the Motupiko Valley, districts he has much personal experience of. The upper Motupiko Valley is rich in history, being close to Tophouse. This great saddle in the main divide provided, prior to the present roading system, the most practical overland route between Nelson and the east and west coasts.

Within the upper Motupiko Valley is the once extensive Blue Glen Station, where Alex Kerr was born in 1912. Alex describes the everyday, but necessary chores, as well as the highlights and the personalities. The introduction of such things as electricity and the motor car, give added emphasis to the broader picture conveyed in the first part of Footprints Farewell. The two parts are therefore complementary and, although dealing with a diverse number of subjects, Jeff has avoided the pitfall of a disjointed account, all too common in a number of recent New Zealand histories.

The standard of publication is very high, it being a hard bound, well laid out volume, with easy to read type and high quality reproduction of figures. My only complaint is that more maps, showing the location of many of the places mentioned in the text, were not included. On a more positive note, however, is a good index. Whether to include references is always a vexed questions. For many, the inclusion of references makes the reading difficult and, considering the wide appeal of this book, this would have been a pity. For those wanting more information, the lack of such references can be frustrating. Unfortunately there is no easy answer, although some references are provided. With Jeff's reputation as a meticulous researcher, we are at least assured of the authenticity of the information given. Great credit must go to Barney Brewster of Nikau Press, who guided Jeff's manuscript into print Thanks must also be given to the printers, Stiles Printing Ltd of Nelson, for a very handsome finished product.

Finally we, and future generations, are profoundly in Jeff's debt, for he has recorded many details and facets of our history that were known to an increasing few. This has now been reversed and, consequently, Footprints Farewell will be a valuable reference book. No doubt, like its predecessors, it will soon be out of print and much sought after at auctions, or in secondhand bookshops.

Mike Johnston.

Unpacking Model T Fords from wooden packing cases at Eckford's Wharf, Opawa River, Blenheim. 1915. Marlborough Historical Society Archives Collection. Unpacking Model T Fords from wooden packing cases at Eckford's Wharf, Opawa River, Blenheim