Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Whangaroa

Whangaroa.

Whangaroa is the seaport of the county bearing the same name. It is about 150 miles north of Auckland, and is one of those picturesque harbours rarely to be met with, and probably has no equal in the whole of the colonies, except Sydney, as for safety it is unsurpassed, for beauty it cannot be exceeded, and it has room to hold the whole of the British navy. Its history is a mixture of many sad and pleasing reminiscences. It was here the crew of the ill-fated ship “Boyd” was massacred in 1809, and the Rev. Samuel Marsden established his first mission at Whangaroa in 1814. Amongst the picturesque objects connected with the harbour there is the rocky prominence called the Duke of Wellington's profile, the majestic solid granite dome known as St. Paul's, and another, less conspicuous, named the St. Peter's, of Whangaroa. All round the harbour there are many remarkable rocks, and very many sequestered nooks where the picnicker and the tourist can enjoy the serene and pleasant prospects of the place. Whangaroa has a population of about 170, all apparently comfortable and happy. There are two large sawmills, which employ a goodly number of men. Lane and Brown's shipyard, the largest in the colony, is at Whangaroa, and in March, 1901, the firm was building an auxiliary oil-engine schooner for the New Zealand Government. There are two public schools, four stores, three places of worship, and also many nice private dwellings. The County Council Chambers are situated in the township, and the Council meets on the last Monday in every month. Anyone wishing a pleasant trip and a week's rest can have it assured by leaving Auckland by the s.s. “Clansman,” which
Mill Bay, Whangaroa.

Mill Bay, Whangaroa.

page 580 steams from Auckland on every Monday at 7 p.m., and arrives in Whangaroa on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Mr. Gothard, the hotelkeeper, provides an excellent table, and lays himself out to make tourists feel at home.

Whangaroa County was formerly a riding of Mongonui County and is one of the smallest counties in New Zealand. It is bounded on the north by Mongonui County, on the south and west by Hokianga, and on the east by the Bay of Islands. There are 260 ratepayers, with 450 ratable properties valued at £50,634, on which a rate of 1d in the £ is levied; unoccupied Crown and native lands are valued at £2,797. The annual income is about £450, to which Government grants are added for special works from time to time. The control of the public wharf is vested in the Council, and the dues received are expended in keeping the wharf and goods shed in repair.

Whangaroa County Council. Members for 1901: Mr Joseph Hare, junior, chairman; Messrs James Christie, T. M. Lane, John G. Shepherd, T. G. Hayes, C. Nisbet, and W. H. Saies; with Mr. John Begg as clerk and treasurer.

Mr. John Begg, County Clerk, has resided in the district since 1863. He landed in Auckland by the ship “Nimroud” in 1863, and after a short stay there, went to Whangaroa. He has held the position of clerk to the County Council since its inception in 1896.

The Whangaroa Post And Telegraph Office is situated 168 miles north of Auckland and six miles from Kaeo. The postmaster is also registrar of births, deaths, and marriages, agent for the New Zealand Government Life Insurance Department, and conducts money order and savings bank business. The telegraph office does a fair amount of transmitting work for the Kaeo, Totara and Sales stations with which it is connected by telephone, but the postmaster's residence attached is certainly not in keeping with the times.

Mr. Joseph Francis Fabian, Postmaster at Whangaroa, was appointed to his present position in April, 1895. He was born in Jersey in 1843, and followed the sea from the early age of twelve, being engaged in trading to England, France, Spain, Portugal, America, and Russia. He then joined one of the Royal Mall Company's steamers running to the West Indies. After trading to India, China, and Australia in Dunbar's employ and rising to third officer when only eighteen, he went to San Francisco in 1862 and in the following year came to New Zealand viã Australia. Mr. Fabian spent several years in the coastal trade, during which time he was captain of the “Amateur” and mate on the “Falcon” and “Stormbird,” but he gave up seafaring life in 1870 and in the same year joined the Post and Telegraph Department. He was appointed to the Castle Point station in 1874, and was afterwards in charge at Tenui and Takaka (Nelson). On leaving the last-named place, Mr. Fabian was presented by the residents with an illuminated address. He has been associated with the Masonic fraternity for some years and has given his assistance to Sunday school and Church work, wherever he has resided.

View From Jones' Island, Showing Hay Stack and Peach Islands, Whangaroa.

View From Jones' Island, Showing Hay Stack and Peach Islands, Whangaroa.

Campbell, Robert, Licensed and Authorized Surveyor, Whangaroa. Mr. Campbell was born in Canada West, below Toronto, and came to Melbourne in the ship “Crystal Palace” in 1855, and thence to Auckland in the schooner “Grafton.” The family had an interest in 1500 acres of land in Oruru Valley, near Mongonui North. After remaining on the land for some years, Mr. Campbell joined Mr. Richardson, Government surveyor, and remained with him about two years, afterwards going to Australia. On his return he spent three years on the Thames goldfields, then came back to Mongonui and joined his brother Mr. S. Campbell, a Government surveyor, with whom he remained about four years, since which time he has been surveying on his own account.

page 581

Shepherd John Goodwin, Native Interpreter, Whangaroa. Mr. Shepherd was born at Kirikiri, Bay of Islands, in 1838, and is a son of the late Rev. James Shepherd, one of the early missionaries who landed in 1819. Mr. Shepherd was educated at Wesley College, Auckland. He went to Australia in 1858 and was employed with his brother in an orange orchard at Ryde, on the Parramatta river. Returning to New Zealand two years later, Mr. Shepherd entered upon the work of a settler at Inumia, near Kaeo, till the death of his father in 1881, and after the death of his brother, Mr. S. E. Shepherd in 1882, he took over the old homestead and its hundred acres of land, to which he has added by purchase, and most of which he has cleared and grassed and on which is a large dwelling partly erected by his father in 1838. In public affairs he has always taken a leading part, having been a member of Whangaroa County Council since 1890, and for many years a member of the old Kaeo Roard Board. Mr. Shepherd was also one of the first members of the Mongonui County Council. He is a Past Master in Freemasonry, and the portrait produced herewith shows Mr. Shepherd in the regalia of a senior warden.

Mr. J. G. Shepherd.

Mr. J. G. Shepherd.

The Kauri Timber Company's Sawmills at Whangaroa (Mr. Robert Pengelly, manager) cover an area of three acres on the foreshore which is leased from the Government. The mills were originally owned by Messrs. Wigmore and Co. and were afterwards purchased by the Whangaroa Sawmills Company, but when the Kauri Timber Company came into existence the property was taken over by it with others. The main building has a floor space of nearly 14,000 square feet, whilst there is a large drying-shed with 3000 square feet of superficial space, besides offices, blacksmith's shop and other buildings. The machinery includes a forty-five horse-power engine with a Cornish boiler, vertical saw, travelling circle bench saws, drag bench, small benches for box-making, and cut and rip saws. Seventeen men are continually employed and the monthly output averages 220,000 feet of sawn timber. The wharfage and shipping accommodation cannot be excelled, there being seventeen feet of water at low tide. The company's “booms” at the months of the Kaeo and Pupuke river are very massive, and the logs are brought down from the bush at the periodical “floods”; they are then formed into rafts containing from 100 to 200 logs and towed to the mill by the sturdy steam paddle-boat “Yankee Doodle.” This steamer acts also as a tug for towing vessels in and out of the harbour.

Mr. James Thwaytes Bramley, Bush Manager for the Kauri Timber Company's Whangaroa and Mongonui branches, residing at Totara North, was born in Whangaroa in 1862, his father being Mr. William Bramley, now a resident of Kaeo. From his youth Mr. Bramley has been familiar with the timber trade and was appointed to his present position in 1895. He has always taken part in matters affecting the welfare of the district, is a Freemason and a member of the Oddfellows (Star of Auckland lodge).

Mr. J. T. Bramley. Mr. R. G. Bramley.

Mr. J. T. Bramley. Mr. R. G. Bramley.

Mr. Curtis Moore, formerly manager of the Kauri Timber Company's saw mills at Whangaroa, was born in New Hampshire in 1839, and throughout his life has been associated with the timber industry. At an early age he was in charge of a mill in the United States turning out 40,000 feet of sawn timber per day. Leaving America in 1862, Mr. Moore was wrecked on Baker's Island and was brought on to New Zealand in an American whaler, and since that time he has spent forty years in connection with kauri timber. After being a while in Auckland he started a mill in the Kaipara district and in 1864 took charge of Mr. McLeod's mill at Helensville for three years. Mr. Moore was engaged in mill work on the Thames goldfields for nearly four years, and after being at the Shortland Sawmills for eleven years, he returned to Helensville and again took charge of what are now the Helensville Timber Company's Mills. Five years later he returned to the Shortland Sawmills, remained in charge of them after the Kauri Timber Company took them over, and was some time after removed to Whangaroa. Mr. Moore had the misfortune to lose three of his fingers by an accident at the Manukau in 1863, and has met with other painful accidents. Public affairs have always found in him a sincere worker. He has been associated with road boards and school committees, was instrumental in establishing a lodge of the I.O.O.F. at Helensville and has been a Mason for fifteen years. Mr. Moore was for a time chairman of the Whangaroa School Commissioners, and whilst at the Thames he was superintendent of the local fire brigade for several years. Some time ago he was transferred from the management of the Kauri Timber Company's Whangaroa mills to that of their mills at Aratapu.

Mushroom Rocks.

Mushroom Rocks.

page 582

Shepherd, Henry George, Farmer, “Tauranga” (six miles distant from Whangaroa). Mr. Shepherd has 900 acres of freehold property, besides 500 acres which he leases from the Natives. The land is for the greater part broken, but there are about 200 acres of level alluvial country, and 1200 sheep and 130 head of cattle are depastured on the property. About 500 acres have been cleared of the titri and fern which are so frequently a source of annoyance to the farmer in the district, and the land so cleared has yielded as much as forty bushels of wheat to the acre. Mr. Shepherd was born at Waitangi, Whangaroa, in 1843, and is a son of the late Mr. James Shepherd, and has been all his lifetime in the district. He is married to a daughter of Mr. Hooker, of Auckland, and has a family of six sons, all of whom have helped in no small degree to make the farm a decided success. A fine ten-roomed house has been erected, with complete outbuildings. Mr. Shepherd was for a time a member of the Whangaroa County Council.

Horeke, Hokianga.

Horeke, Hokianga.