The Prow 10 Most Recent Added Stories

Wiremu Kingi Te Koihua

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:11:31 +1200

Te Koihua, who was the chief of Pakawau, Mohua, spanned the decades between authentic Maori lifestyle and the new society, which resulted from colonisation and European settlement. He remained a traditional chief long after fellow rangatira modified their behaviour to accommodate European laws and expectations.

Pakawau beach. Tasman Discrict Council

Te Koihua, son of Tohikura and Hurirangi, was born at Onaero, North Taranaki; he was of Mitiwai or Kaitangata hapu of Te Atiawa iwi. He migrated to Kapiti with Te Heke Niho in 1824, and was a leader of the Tainui Taranaki alliance which conquered Te Tau Ihu in 1828-89. From approximately 1830 Te Koihua resided at West Whanganui and from the early 1840s at Pakawau.

Te Koihua killed the Ngati Kuia high chief, Pakauwera, at Hikapu in Pelorus Sound¹, and with Mauriri captured another important chief, Whioi at West Whanganui.² Te Koihua and Te Puoho of Ngati Tama remained to control northwest Nelson, while others battled south into Te Tai Poutini. In 1836 Te Koihua defended local villages against Te Puoho's ill-fated warparty on its way to Murihiku. He returned to Kapiti to support Te Atiawa in the battles of Haowhenua in 1834 and Kuititanga in 1839, although on the latter occasion he arrived too late to fight.

Three days before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, Te Koihua sold a large tract between Cape Farewell and Aorere (variously described as thirty miles or 201 acres) to James Coutts Crawford via Arthur Elmslie, for which he was paid with goods. Crawford never pursued his ownership of the land. In 1852 the chief received most of the Pakawau Purchase money (£550) and negotiated for himself Te Rae ; a promised town section at Pakawau (his pa site) never eventuated.³

Te Koihua fascinated Europeans and was treated with deference and respect by Maori. He was baptised Wiremu Kingi (after King William IV of England) in 1845, identified himself as "Native Chief" on the 1857-58 Massacre Bay Electoral Roll (when other chiefs chose "farmer", "sawyer", "carpenter" etc.) and was remembered by Pakeha as an early breeder of roan horses, an enterprise funded by selling pounamu.

Noble, D., fl 1847 :The Louisa Campbell, 26 Feb[ruar]y 1847. Alexander Turnbull Library: E-004-027 http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=4396
Permission of ATL must be obtained for futher use of this image

In 1857 he travelled south with James Mackay Junior's three-month expedition to the West Coast, to get pounamu.⁴ Several Europeans recall his loving transformation of the rough slabs into beautiful taonga. That same year he was involved in an angry confrontation with Ngati Rarua at Motupipi over the ownership of slaves.⁵

Te Koihua's main wife, by whom he had four or five children, was Rangiwhakapikia; his two youngest drowned in a boat capsize off Pakawau. When the ownership of his land was investigated in 1892 all his children and grandchildren had died without issue;⁶ his sister's children inherited.

Te Koihua's son, Matarua, was baptised Hemi Kuku (James Cook) in 1844,⁷and married Ruhinara Ngakori in 1846.⁸ Matarua hired one of his slaves, Tau of Ngai Tahu, to Brunner and Heaphy as porter on their 1846 West Coast expedition.⁹ He was appointed one of the first Native Assessors (1847), was a leader in the salvage of the Louisa Campbell wrecked on Onetahua (1847), and registered the Lucinda, a 37-foot schooner later that year. Matarua took gunpowder obtained from the Louisa Campbell to fight Government troops at Taranaki, where he was killed at No. 3 Redoubt in January 1861.

This colourful whanau then became extinct, a sad loss to our community's history. Billy King Stream at Te Rae commemorates Te Koihua.

Takaka Hill tracks and roads

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:21:14 +1200

This story provides additional information about early access over Takaka Hill.

Climber: Takaka Hill Road by chillicheese (Flickr image)Click to enlarge

The first Pakeha track (Pikikiruna track) was formed in 1857 before Upper Takaka was surveyed. The same year, the Government set the rules for the Collingwood gold fields. This track was too steep for horses. The mailman used a donkey.

Upper Takaka settlers Daniel and Henry Bate agitated for a trap track (bridle track). The Takaka Rd Board asked the Bate brothers to cut a line of road further south of the Pikikiruna track.

They accepted the offer and cut a line of road from Upper Takaka to Kairuru. The 2.1 metre bridal track was surveyed and formed by 1878. Mud in the winter was still a problem.

The Bate brothers then wanted a coach gravelled road over the hill. In 1886, they went to see the minister of the Public Works Department in Wellington. He told them he had been over the line of road and was pleased with what he saw.

The Bate brothers' line of road was used but the gradient on the Takaka side was reduced from 1 in 12 to 1 in 16 which lengthened the road and only about one fifth of the bridle track was widened. The rest was new excavations.

Mac Harwood is collating a history of roads in the Upper Takaka area.
2009

Kupe and the Boulder Bank

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:51:21 +1200

The distinctive Boulder Bank protecting Nelson Haven, known to Māori as Te Taero o Kereopa, was named to commemorate exploits during Kupe's visit to Aotearoa in about 1350.

Kupe pursued a giant octopus, scourge of Kupe's fishing ground in Hawaiki, across the Pacific to Aotearoa, finally dispatching it at Whekenui Bay, Tory Channel. Before returning home Kupe visited Nuku-waiata to gather fish, shellfish, and birds for the long journey north. Two of Kupe's men, Pani and Kereopa, who wished to remain with tangata whenua , absconded in canoes after kidnapping Kupe's daughter.

Kupe's pursuit of Pani and Kereopa. From Mitchell H & J. Te Tau Ihu o Te waka v.1.(Topo data Eagle Technology & Linz and cartography Moira Jackson Assoc). Permission must be sought for further use of image.)
Click image to enlarge

Nelson's Boulder Bank. Image courtesy Nelson City Council
Click image to enlarge

Kupe launched his waka in hot pursuit, dashing through Aumiti and into Tasman Bay. The fugitives threw Kupe's daughter overboard, forcing him to divert to rescue her, prayed for currents, whirlpools and storms, and created reefs and rocky headlands. Nevertheless, Kupe's Matahourua steadily gained on them until the runaways separated as they coasted towards Whakatu.

Kupe first pursued Kereopa who paddled towards the shore. Kereopa offered karakia, which caused boulders at the foot of Horoirangi¹ (Mackay's Bluff) to fall into the sea and create a barrier between his waka and the Matahourua. No matter how hard Kupe's crew paddled, Kereopa's boulder bank grew apace, and they could not outstrip it. Kereopa landed and fled inland.

Kupe then turned his attention to Pani who had circled back towards Rangitoto. Pani also invoked deities and taniwha to whip up storms and violent currents to impede Kupe, but without success. When Pani's party swung around the northern tip of Rangitoto into the passage between it and Takaporewa their canoe was overwhelmed in rips and all drowned. Kupe witnessed the tragedy and named the passage Nga Tai Whaka Hoki Hoki a Pani, or the wild seas which caused Pani's canoe to overturn, and now known as Hell's Gate.

The overturned canoe became a rock formation named Te Waka a Pani; Pani's daughters became an unusual large split rock, Nga Tamahine (the daughters) a Pani, and his slave (mokai) also became a rock known as Te Mokai a Pani. In a cave nearby, Te Ana a Pani, Kupe trapped Pani's spirit forever; a loud moaning noise can be heard when tides surge into it - Pani's eternal grief over his downfall.

Kereopa escaped. His name is perpetuated in senior lines of Ngati Kuia and other South Island tribes; some southern Maori claim descent from Kereopa through his marriage to a Waitaha woman.²

Many other features of Te Tau Ihu , especially in eastern parts, were named for events during Kupe's visit. Naming or renaming the landscape was a sign of taking possession in Maori tikanga.

Whakapapa

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:42:21 +1200

Whakapapa is the bedrock of Māori society.

In mid-1995 a hui of kaumatua from throughout Aotearoa considered commonalities and differences between tribes in matters of tikanga regarding customary rights to land, fisheries and forests. They were unanimous about whakapapa:

Whakapapa was paramount to everything in the lives of the tupuna (forebears, ancestors) of Maori. It was the determinant of all rights, and the mechanism by which membership to any particular, and/or to a number of kinship groups, was determined.¹

Whakapapa underpinned creation stories, especially the genealogical progression from Te Kore, through countless aeons of Te Po to Te Ao Marama, when the Void or Darkness began to take form or shape, and Te Io Matuakore established descent lines to Rangi and Papatuanuku. Rangi and Papatuanuku's offspring were the gods, with specialised powers over the natural and spiritual world; Tane, eldest son of Rangi and Papatuanuku created humankind. The relationship to the gods by whakapapa determined the tuakanatanga of contending chiefs which, within iwi communities "mirrored the mana and tapu" of those of most direct descent from the Gods, "as being greater and more intense that those of the teina lines"; Thus, tuakanatanga determined rangatiratanga.

Rauparaha. Chief Capiti. [Coates, Isaac] 1808-1878 : Principal chief of all New Zealand. [1843?], Alexander Turnbull Library, A-286-012 [permission must be sought from ATL for further use of image] Click image to enlarge

Groupings within tribes were also determined by genealogy. The whanau was the family which, over time, grew to include several generations. Lateral relationships formed through marriage, and the whanau could become a hapu. Whanaunga were the genetic members of such groups, linked by whakapapa to each other and sharing descent from a founding tupuna, preferably one of high mana. That tupuna might become the group's eponymous ancestor - i.e. his/her name could be taken by the iwi, whanau or hapu.²

Rank and status within kin groups was determined by whakapapa, although in rare instances individuals of great personal prowess might attain mana above their genealogical station. Te Rauparaha was one such: although fifth-born of his father's second wife, by his prowess, strength, intelligence, cunning, single-mindedness and determination, skills of diplomacy, and strategic marriages, Te Rauparaha rose in rank to tuakana fighting the chief of his tribe, Ngāti Toarangatira.

Each whanau had distinct territories and boundaries; this was their manawhenua, manaawa, manamoana, their turangawaewae. Within these localities rights and responsibilities of occupation, use and protection of specific resources and assets was determined by whakapapa. Tauiwi or rawaho had no such rights, unless granted, usually temporarily, by the manawhenua group or its rangatira. In-laws were whanaunga but their rights still belonged to their spouses' core group.

Whanaungatanga often extended beyond one's immediate kin-group through ancient marriages between rangatira of tribes now distantly separated. Although it may be rarely invoked, such whanaungatanga "never grows cold ... rather it is always there, and it comes alive when it is exercised".³ Initial exchanges on meeting strangers often involved searches for linking ancestors, the outcome of which might determine subsequent relationships, negotiations, partnerships.

Whakapapa determined marriage partners, more often arranged by the couple's kaumatua than the couple themselves; choices were made to strengthen ties within the hapu, to establish or strengthen ties to outside hapu or iwi, or to ensure land and other resources remained within the whanau/hapu and were not dissipated to outsiders; thus many marriages were between second-, third- or fourth- cousins. Whakapapa often determined whangai relationships for similar reasons.

Customary beliefs and practices regarding whakapapa are as strong today as in 1840. Board members of iwi authorities, land trusts, incorporations and other Māori organisations invariably whakapapa directly to the resources they administer. As in the past, members can attain responsibility through special skills and knowledge, but most positions of authority, though filled by democratic vote of members, are still determined by whakapapa.

The Brownlees enterprise

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:36:55 +1200

William Brownlee, and later his son John's, sawmilling enterprise was far more of a struggle than most reports suggest. The Brownlee family, with a number of close relatives, who all hailed from Carluke in Scotland, came to Mahakipawa from Otago, after the tragic drowning of two of their young men, and lived initially for a time under canvas. There were already mills in the area, taking their timber from land belonging to the first settlers there.¹

William Brownlee, Marlborough Historical Society Collections -Marlborough Museum. Click image to enlarge

Over the ensuing years, the Brownlees team operated in various places, especially in the Kaituna. In the late 1870's, they joined forces with a number of other millers to build a tramway up the Pelorus Valley, but the consortium went bankrupt at the onset of the 1880s depression.

Brownlees took the great risk of buying up the consortium's assets in 1881.² They persevered with the tramway, extending it over the next 25 years or so as far as the Ronga and Opouri Valleys, an effort which entailed building a number of big bridges over the rivers, as well as baulkways over the numerous gullies. Again, they milled timber from private properties, or land they progressively acquired themselves.

It was a long and arduous gamble, in the face of very difficult terrain, floods, fires, and accidents³ and Brownlees were, more than once, close to bankruptcy. But Scottish cussedness, audacity, sheer nous, excellent management and engineering skills got them through.

They, with the other mills, were among the few sources of jobs in the area, and employed a whole range of loggers, millworkers, teamsters, tramlayers (known as ‘doodads') and seamen.⁴

They pulled out of the area in 1915, not because the forests were by any means worked out, but because of an act of government bad faith. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the government began to open the vast forests it controlled to milling on contract, and pressured the Brownlees to build a larger mill in Carluke than they had planned, on the understanding that they would be awarded the contracts for both the Ronga and Opouri forests. In the event, once the Ronga contract was completed, the government awarded the Opouri contract to another firm, locally known as Craigs, and Brownlees had to pack up⁵.

Sawmilling continued on a considerable scale in the area, and involved a number of mills, until after the second world war.⁶

Nola Leov has her roots in the Rai Valley area and is an author and historian .

Fishing in Nelson

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:49:34 +1200

Sealords trawler “Will Watch" 4 May 1987. The Nelson Provincial Museum, The Nelson Mail Collection: 4676A
Click to enlarge

A short history of fishing in Nelson

Fish bones in middens around Nelson testify that pre-European Mäori were into seafood as a protein source, while stones used to weigh beach seines show the sophistication of their catching methods. Once the settlers arrived, fish and oyster saloons were common until these shellfish became the first victim of over-fishing.

Commercial fishing was limited by difficulties in storage and transport until 1900, when the Nelson Fishing Company was formed and installed freezing machinery at its new premises at the port. New technology went hand in hand with other changes, such as the development of trawling, as oil-fired vessels became more efficient and replaced coal burning steamers.

Wharf, Nelson. The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection: 178493
Click to enlarge

Until the Second World War the New Zealand fishery was characterised by little fleets of small owner-operated vessels, supplying local markets from the inshore fishery. As well as supplying local shops, fish from Nelson was shipped to Wellington on the overnight ferry that ran right up until 1953, often with an even fresher catch slung aboard in large baskets at French Pass.

By 1960 there were 21 fishing boats registered in Nelson and 33 full time fishermen. Snapper and Tarakihi, Gurnard and Trevally dominated the catch, as they did in New Zealand's other inshore fisheries. In the mid-60s the way was open for expansion into deeper waters, and the newly reclaimed land around Port Nelson was just the place to site a fish factory. New Zealand Sea Products Export Ltd was formed in 1965 and was poised to revolutionise fishing in Nelson and beyond. The Harbour Board pulled out the stops to get the reclaimed site ready for the building and even agreed to remit part of the lease until the business was established.

Part of Nelson's fishing fleet at rest in what they call "the Frog Pond", behind the northern end of the old Main Wharf. c. July, 1974. Port Nelson
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Noleen Burton who worked at the factory recalls: "We all stood on the wharf and watched the two big Sea Harvester trawlers, which had originated in Trondheim Norway, arrive at different times ready to begin. After the arrival of the trawlers, the whole operation began to mushroom, with jubilation at the first overseas sales. All factory staff were allocated a free half pound of fish per family member per week. Smoked fish and fishmeal production began also. The future looked rosy." But the firm went into receivership in October 1968.

One of the trawlers was bought by the government and became the James Cook research vessel; the premises and equipment were sold to a consortium and one of the trawler skippers, Charles Hufflett, became the managing director of a new company, Sealord Products Limited.

In the mid-1970s government export incentives stimulated the industry, which invested in more and bigger boats. Depth sounders, radar, sonar, and advances in fishing gear added to the size of the catch and the number of fishing companies in Nelson grew.

In 1978 a storm arose over the government decision to put a catch limit on Tasman Bay snapper - these had been pair-trawled by Sealord's Whitby and Fifeshire, and Skeggs' Waihola and Hawea, gathering quantities that would today be remarkable for the level of exploitation. By the early ‘80s a crisis had developed in the coastal fisheries, but two developments opened up a way forward: the move into deepsea fisheries and the establishment of a quota management system.

Amaltal Voyager arriving in Nelson, October 1983. The Nelson Provincial Museum, The Nelson Mail Collection: 5304
Click to enlarge

Over the next 20 years the fishing industry became one of New Zealand's biggest export earners and one of Nelson's biggest employers. Right now (2009) times are tough for the inshore fishing fleet, with diesel prices and the demise of the Tasman Bay scallop enhancement scheme adding to their woes. However, the ability to diversify between tuna, oysters and wetfish on a seasonal basis helps to keep them afloat. Deep-sea fishing remains a mainstay of the industry, with the hoki season its busiest period.

Sealord still has its processing headquarters and most of its administration based in Nelson. Skeggs has now left town, though they still have an interest in aquaculture through Pacifica Seafoods. Other major players are Amaltal and Solander, NZ King Salmon, Talleys in Motueka and Sanford in Havelock. Nelson is still the biggest fishing port in Australasia, but the growth today is towards aquaculture, particularly in the processing of farmed salmon and mussels.

This article was first published in RePort (Port Nelson news), August 2009

Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:20:52 +1200

Marlborough's Sacred Mountain

Mount Tapuaenuku (2005) Phillip Capper
Click image to enlarge

The peak of Mount Tapuae-o-Uenuku, which can be seen from all over Marlborough - and from parts of Christchurch, Taranaki and Wellington on a clear day, is New Zealand's tallest peak (2885 m) outside the Southern Alps.¹From the earliest days of European settlement, the summit has attracted mountaineers, including Sir Edmund Hillary.

Located in alpine reserve in the Inland Kaikoura ranges, Mount Tapuae-o-Uenuku, is the sacred mountain of the Kurahaupo tribes of Marlborough. The story of its origins dates back to AD825, when two chiefs, Makautere and Tapuae-o-Uenuku, were searching for food-gathering places along the Kaikoura coast and inland. The Waiau-Toa and Waiau-Uwha Rivers reminded Tapuae-o-Uenuku of the tears of his wife, left behind in Hawaiki. The mountain near where the two rivers meet during the spring thaw, bears the chief's name.²

Marlborough's Rangitane also have a tradition that an earthly chief sought his spiritual wife and child by climbing up to heaven via the rainbow of their ancestor, Uenuku, a tribal war god. Nga Tapu Wae O Uenuku are ‘the sacred steps of Uenuku'.³The mountain's name has often been incorrectly written as Tapuaenuku.

In 1859, eminent geologist, Dr. Ferdinand Hochstetter gave a public lecture: "It is well known that the high peaks of the Kaikoras, covered with perpetual snow, are of volcanic origin. My friend Haast describes the aspect of the three gigantic cones visible from the Awatere valley as most magnificent ; three Mount Egmonts, one behind the other ; the first one, Tapuaenuku (or Mount Odin) 9,700 feet high, a closed and rounded dome similar in shape to a cupola......." ⁴

Tapuaenuku ("Mt Odin"). 1874. [Weld, Frederick Aloysius] 1823-1891 Alexander Turnbull Library, A-269-004. Ther permission of ATL must be obtained for further use of this image.
Click image to enlarge

In fact, the range consists of cretaceous greywackes and associated volcanic rocks, which have been rapidly uplifted to form extremely steep and highly dissected mountains with many gorges and peaks.⁵

The first written reference to the mountain was made on February 7, 1770, by Captain James Cook as he sailed through Cook Strait: "Over this land appeared a Prodigious High Mountain, the summit of which was covered with snow." ⁶

On November 12, 1849, Edward John Eyre (the Governor of New Munster) and W.J.W. Hamilton, seeking a stock route through to Canterbury, made the first known European attempt on the summit of the mountain. Accompanied by seven Maori, they turned back 15 minutes from the top. On the descent, Wiremu Hoeta slid to his death on the ice. The Maori climbers refused to go any further and the attempt was abandoned.⁷

It was not until April 1864 that a party of three, led by Nehemiah McRae, made the first known complete ascent. They left a bottle with a £5 note at the summit, which was ‘claimed' 10 years later in April 1874.⁸

Annie and Florence Parsons of Kaikoura were the first European women to reach the summit. They ascended from the Clarence River side, with a party of climbers which included George McRae (eldest son of Nehemiah) in February 1890.⁹

In the winter of 1944, when training for the RNZAF at the Delta Camp, a young Edmund Hillary was fascinated by the snowy summit he could see from the camp.¹⁰ One weekend, he set off at 5 am from Shin Hut for the summit, reaching it by midday: "A strong, cold wind had sprung up and I worked my way very slowly up to the Pinnacle at 8,800 feet....I was in a spectacular position. To the west above heavy clouds towered a range of snow capped peaks....To the east was the blueness of the sea stretching all the way to Wellington." On his return to the Delta Camp, he was tired, dirty and unshaven but happy: "I'd climbed a decent mountain at last." ¹¹

The inland and seaward Kaikoura ranges support a large number of threatened plant species, endemic flora and indigenous animals.¹²

Mount Tapuae-o-Uenuku and surrounding peaks have continuous snow cover in the winter which may persist into summer. The area is steep and dissected and gales are frequent. But the distinctive peak still attracts climbers, with an average of 1.5 attempts made on the summit each week. ¹³

New Zealand's Most famous Mountaineer Remembered his first Mountain

Throughout his life Hillary remembered the first mountain he climbed, the 9,645-foot Mount Tapuaenuku -- "Tappy" as he called it -- in Marlborough on New Zealand's South Island. He scaled it solo over three days in 1944, while in training camp with the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II.

"I'd climbed a decent mountain at last" he said later. Like all good mountaineers before him, Hillary had no special insight into that quintessential question: Why climb? "I can't give you any fresh answers to why a man climbs mountains. The majority still go just to climb them." ¹⁴

2010

A more recent pictorial record of a climb (2004) of Mount Tapuae-o-Uenuku can be seen on the Ferguson family website

Rakaia and the Cut

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:56:39 +1200

Cutting a Swathe

SS Rakaia entering harbour April 1909 . The Nelson Provincial Museum, Print Collection: 308041
Click image to enlarge

Nelson had a significant centenary in recent years. April 19th 2009 marked 100 years since the SS Rakaia steamed through the Cut. It was Nelson's first major overseas cargo ship and the biggest ship to come through the Cut since its completion three years before.

The Rakaia's visit dominated the news in the Nelson Evening Mail for three days, with headlines that told of the crowds visiting the wharf, a social function for the officers, a dance for the crew, and the loading of frozen meat wool, tallow and horns. The arrival on the ‘crisp early morning of a beautiful autumn day would long be remembered in the annals of Nelson.'

Because the vessel was the first big ship to come through the Cut, there was a certain amount of relief that the manoeuvre was completed successfully. The Harbour Board had no tug at that stage, so the Anchor Company's coastal steamer Alexander helped the Rakaia make the turn towards the Main Wharf:

‘The curve was gracefully negotiated, the slew was perfectly made and the great vessel swung and rested quietly against the wharf without even a bump. Bystanders remarked that even if the fenders had been made of eggs they would not have been crushed,' said the Mail.

The Harbour Board Chairman, Mr J. Graham, addressed the crowd on the wharf from the deck of the ship, and called for three cheers for the pilot, Captain Collins. He said Nelson was now on a par with the other important places in the Dominion and spoke of the advantages to farmers and importers in not having to pay an extra pound per tonne to freight via Wellington. Later in the day, the Rakaia officers were hosted by the Nelson Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber President Mr H.R. Duncan said the arrival of the Rakaia was 'a harbinger of increased prosperity for Nelson', making it viable to open up ‘some thousands of acres of idle land' and to increase rail connections to the port. Mr L. J. Frank from the shipping agents E. Buxton and Co. said the ship's visit endorsed the vision of the people who had worked to build a freezing works in Nelson. He said already more farmers were turning to breeding lambs for export,and he noted that the manufacture and distribution of ice in the summer months should help to make the works pay.
Over the two days of the visit crowds thronged the wharf, coming from as far as Golden Bay. The Mail reported: ‘...motor omnibuses and cabs did a roaring business. The officers and crew were most obliging and showed visitors all over the ship. The engines etc. were a special joy to the younger folk.'

Port Nelson today prides itself on its speedy stevedoring services: what our crane and forklift drivers don't know is that this tradition dates from the Rakaia's visit. Trained stevedores were brought from Wellington, but the Nelson men soon became acquainted with the work. By 6pm on the 20th, 14,000 carcases had been loaded, which the Mail reported was a great credit to all, especially as freighting frozen mutton was new to both the local railway officials and the wharf hands. The Rakaia took stores on board, and 6200 gallons of water, seen as a potential money-maker for the city council if Nelson were to get more visits from large steamers.
On day two of the visit the officers of the Rakaia entertained the city fathers on board. Captain Bone, the Marine Superintendent of the New Zealand Shipping Company told them he would be giving a favourable report on the port, but suggested the wharf should be enlarged, more storage was needed and there would have to be further work outside the Cut to make it easier for ocean-going steamers to come in ‘without anxiety'. Almost 100 years on, and after millions of dollars worth of development, the issues remain much the same!
Finally the Rakaia left Nelson, farewelled by a crowd of several hundred, with tug duties this time performed by the Koi, which had just arrived with passengers from Motueka. Three cheers from the crowd were returned by the crew and the excitement was over. The Mail's final note was that the crew had taken away gifts of peaches, apples, pears and grapes - the 'first direct fruit shipments from Nelson'.

Local photographer F. N. Jones had photos mounted by 3pm on the afternoon of the Rakala's arrival, (commended for ‘quick work; by the Nelson Evening Mail) and postcards went on sale from a Hardy Streetshop on the same day.

This article first appeared in Port Nelson Report, June 2005.

Stranding of the Lutterworth

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:36:17 +1200

Lutterworth on Rocks. The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection: 180994
Click to enlarge

The threat of losing our famous Tahunanui Beach has people scurrying for ways to save the sand. Imagine the consternation in Nelson 100 years ago when the sand movement threatened the harbour entrance - at a time when passengers and all of life's essentials came and went by sea. From 1842, when the Fifeshire ran aground on what was then called the Arrow Rock, there were numerous strandings until The Cut opened in 1906. When the Lutterworth hit the rocks in 1904 the citizens of the town knew it was time to act.

The Lutterworth had attempted to leave Port Nelson under sail when she came to grief on the morning of January 19th 1904. A large crowd watched from the shore as the afternoon tide went out and The Nelson Evening Mail reported the next day:

'much interest was manifested as to whether the vessel would go over, but the ballast kept her upright As the tide came in the Mail continued: ‘At about eight o'clock there were some thousands of people along the Rocks Road awaiting developments. At nine o'clock the tide had made sufficiently to allow the Lady Barkly (a coastal scow) to come alongside and make fast. When the tide suited the Lady Barkly went ahead and strove to move the vessel but her efforts to tow off the barque were unsuccessful. Continued attempts were made up to near midnight but without success.'

In the morning greater towing power was called out.The Anchor Company steamer Charles Edwards and ‘Mr Burford's steamer Tasman' had the advantage of a higher tide, as the Mail stated:

‘The Charley went ahead, towing easily, and the barque moved away amidst enthusiastic applause from a large number of people on the shore...The Lutterworth was towed to the outer anchorage and will await a favourable wind prior to sailing to Oamaru.'

Sailing ships and the harbour entrance
Under this headline the Mail made editorial comment on the ‘extremely unfortunate mishap' and the worry that it would ‘give the port quite undeservedly a bad name. The editor suggested the stranding would never had happened if the Lutterworth had been towed out rather than leaving under sail and suggested towing be made mandatory. When Nelson was settled there was a deep anchorage at the foot of what is now Richardson Street, but this started to silt up from 1876 when the Waimea River mouth shifted north from where it used to come out at the beach - near where KFC (at the junction of Beach Road and Tahunanui Drive) is now, the editorial noted the changed conditions:

‘Not only are the vessels larger and heavier, but the bar has changed so greatly for the worse that the entrance itself has become more tortuous (and) sailing ships over a certain tonnage should be compelled to employ a tug...'

There was an important lesson to be learnt from the Lutterworth, according to the editor: ‘that the improvement of the entrance to the harbour by an entirely new channel is more than ever justified... and if the public ...do not place unnecessary hindrance in the way, there is no reason why in the course of the next two years there should not be an improved harbour entrance with the regular arrival of tramp steamers doing away with the need for sailing vessels. The grounding of the barque Lutterworth is not an unmixed evil if it has convinced certain sections of the community that wrangling and delay are dangerous."

Why Lutterworth?
In northern England, Lutterworth is an old market town with two famous sons. In the 14th century John Wycliffe made a famous translation of the Bible and, more than five hundred years later, Sir Frank Whittle developed the jet engine at the Ladywood Works. There's a kiwi maritime connection here: the John Wycliffe was one of Otago's first settler ships. The sailing ship Lutterworth was built in Durham in 1868 and came to Nelson several times after 1876.The ship was hulked at Wellington in 1912 and finally sunk by the airforce in 1950. A barque has three masts, two square-rigged and the mizzen with fore and aft sails.

This article first appeared in Port Nelson Report, March 2006

Rocks Road

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:06:57 +1200

Rocks Road, The Basin, High Tide. The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection: 179915
Click to enlarge

In a line of five o'clock commuter traffic, listening to drive time radio, it's hard to imagine the days when Rocks Road was a narrow, precarious, wave-swept walkway between the town and the beach. The seawall itself is often ignored, but was much in the news from 2000, as the Council looked at ways to control erosion at the Tahunanui end of the road, while at the port end the granite wall was rebuilt as part of the Wakefield Quay Millennium Project.

In a 2002 article in the Nelson Historical Society Journal, architect and writer Grahame Anderson took a look back at the origins of Rocks Road and the seawall, and made a case for it to be given heritage protection. It was 1891 (almost 50 years after the European settlers arrived) before Nelson City and Waimea County agreed to jointly build a road along the foreshore. That seems a long time, but the inland road over Bishopdale provided access to Stoke and the Waimea Plains, there were also scows plying the Waimea River to Richmond, and the rocky nature of the coastline was a deterrent, especially at the steep cliffs at Magazine Point. Tahunanui Beach was only in its formative stages as a leisure venue and the Victorians were not the enthusiasts we are today for lazing in the sand and lolling in the water.

Sam Jickell's curves

"Any fool can make a straight road, it takes a good man to put the curves in," said Sam Jickell, the engineer responsible for the design of Rocks Road. Born in Stockton on Tees, Jickell was 29 years old when he completed his design for Rocks Road in 1885, but it was another six years before work began. The very early parts of the wall, around where the first wharves were built, are of granite from Tonga Island on the Abel Tasman coast, but most of what is taken for granite in the block construction part of the wall is actually concrete, thought to have been cast near the Albion Wharf and taken to the site by sea.

Convict labour was used on the western end of the wall - marching to work from the Shelbourne Street jail in their prisoners' stripes they were known as Sam Jickell's football team. The prisoners were criticised for being slow workers, but one reason they were kept on (rather than hiring staff) was the danger from waves and rockfalls, with looped ropes and lifebuoys in place for rescues. Explosives were used to reduce the overhang of cliffs and to blast through the rocky outcrop at Magazine Point.

Nelson benefactor Thomas Cawthron often gets all the credit for the stanchion and chain fence along the seawall, but the first section up to the Basin Reserve was donated by settler John Tinline and his English friend James Tytler.

In 1899 Prime Minister Richard Seddon opened the new road at a ceremony held at the Basin Reserve, where the county boundary met the city, and dignitaries from both sides gathered under an arch of flowers and flags.

The original wall was unchanged for half a century, but from the late 1950s improvements were made to remedy the effects of wave erosion and to add protection for traffic. Construction was staged through to the mid ‘60s and the wall is unusual for employing a variety of techniques to minimise wave action: sloping face, horizontally facetted vertical section, outward projecting top and vertically ribbed surface. Grahame Anderson says there are examples of all these profiles in other places, but he doubts that the four occur together anywhere else in New Zealand.

"The more I have found out about the wall's origins, design, development and purpose, the more convinced I have become that it is a truly great wall, as grand as any seawall in New Zealand, and as important to Nelson as any six historic buildings" he wrote in an article published in the Mail in 1979.

Mr Anderson is convinced that the whole wall, both its 19th and 20th Century sections, deserves heritage protection.

This article was first published in Port Nelson Limited Report, March 2004