Writing Local History (Part II)
by Graeme Lay
by Graeme Lay
This is the second of a three part series by author Graeme Lay. An abridged version was published in the Sunday Star-Times on 30/8/09.
Part one was published on this blog on Tuesday 8 September and can be read here.
The Whangapoua history project was instigated by the beachside settlement’s ratepayers’ association, who had accorded the writing of the settlement’s history top of a priority list of its long-term aims, the rest being environmental protection concerns. Finding a writer had not been straightforward, though. Those previously approached had either been too costly or had not been able to complete the work within a reasonable period of time. I undertook to write the Whangapoua story. Although not a trained historian, I have a keen interest in New Zealand history, and had written several books of non-fiction, as well as historical fiction.
Whangapoua resident Judy Drok had been accumulating material for some time, from people who had lived or holidayed at Whangapoua, and she handed me over several file boxes of notes. I took them back to my home in Devonport, where even a cursory reading of the material suggested that Whangapoua’s history was full of fascinating stories. There were personal reminiscences and unpublished memoirs, along with a list of people whom I might find it useful to interview.
Whangapoua resident Judy Drok had been accumulating material for some time, from people who had lived or holidayed at Whangapoua, and she handed me over several file boxes of notes. I took them back to my home in Devonport, where even a cursory reading of the material suggested that Whangapoua’s history was full of fascinating stories. There were personal reminiscences and unpublished memoirs, along with a list of people whom I might find it useful to interview.
I started with Whangapoua’s Maori history. The district’s tangata whenua is the Mangakahia family, their tribe the Ngati Huarere, who had suffered grievously in pre-European times from incursions by Tainui and Ngapuhi war parties. In the early 1960s the family had been obliged, for financial reasons, to subdivide and sell their remaining foreshore land. In the 1990s the Mangakahia family had lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal for compensation for land alienation after a succession of allegedly unjust deals with timber merchants and the Crown during the nineteenth century.
I read the published testimonies of Mangakahia family representatives, and they made informative reading as they recalled their materially deprived but not unhappy childhoods at Whangapoua. I contacted the family’s legal counsel, Charl Hirschfeld. In 2006 the tribunal had found in favour of the Mangakahia claim, Charl told me, but a counter-claim meant that no compensation had yet been paid.
Timber milling played a huge part in Whangapoua’s past. All over the district there had been stands of kauri trees. From the 1860s onwards Pakeha timber merchants sought to fell the trees and sell them, but disputes arose over cutting rights. Some Maori sold the rights when they weren’t entitled to do so; some payments were manifestly inadequate. In the 1870s the disputes spilled over into what became known as the ‘Log Wars’. In spite of this the trees were felled and milled in their thousands and the forests were annihilated. A mill complex was built at Opera Point, on Whangapoua harbour, to process the logs. From there they were rafted to the Kauri Timber Company’s yards, in Auckland.
As early as 1868 the land in Whangapoua’s hinterland had been found to be ‘auriferous’ (gold-bearing). But it was quartz gold, meaning that substantial capital was needed to crush the rock and process it, to extract the bullion. A company was formed, the Kauri Freehold Gold Estates, and a share issue floated in 1896. The driving force behind the company was newspaper entrepreneur Alfred Horton, founder of The New Zealand Herald. The share float was successful, the shares rocketed in value. Mine shafts were sunk, and a large stamper battery built at Te Rerenga. In the Opitonui valley a boom town sprang up, including hotels, stores and a school. But the rock-to-bullion ratio proved uneconomic, a bust followed, and by 1903 the company’s shares were worthless. Opitonui became a ghost town, then vanished altogether.
I found that all these events had been fully reported in the newspapers of the day, such as The Daily Southern Cross. The website http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz proved a tremendous help by throwing up the stories. There were also illuminating photographs in the Auckland Weekly News, held in the Special Collections Room at the Auckland Central Library. There was tragedy in some of the reports. A bushman was swept to his death when a kauri dam collapsed, another man had both arms torn off in mining machinery, two men drowned when their launch capsized on the harbour bar. Early life at Whangapoua, I realised, had been shortish, and often brutish.
I read the published testimonies of Mangakahia family representatives, and they made informative reading as they recalled their materially deprived but not unhappy childhoods at Whangapoua. I contacted the family’s legal counsel, Charl Hirschfeld. In 2006 the tribunal had found in favour of the Mangakahia claim, Charl told me, but a counter-claim meant that no compensation had yet been paid.
Timber milling played a huge part in Whangapoua’s past. All over the district there had been stands of kauri trees. From the 1860s onwards Pakeha timber merchants sought to fell the trees and sell them, but disputes arose over cutting rights. Some Maori sold the rights when they weren’t entitled to do so; some payments were manifestly inadequate. In the 1870s the disputes spilled over into what became known as the ‘Log Wars’. In spite of this the trees were felled and milled in their thousands and the forests were annihilated. A mill complex was built at Opera Point, on Whangapoua harbour, to process the logs. From there they were rafted to the Kauri Timber Company’s yards, in Auckland.
As early as 1868 the land in Whangapoua’s hinterland had been found to be ‘auriferous’ (gold-bearing). But it was quartz gold, meaning that substantial capital was needed to crush the rock and process it, to extract the bullion. A company was formed, the Kauri Freehold Gold Estates, and a share issue floated in 1896. The driving force behind the company was newspaper entrepreneur Alfred Horton, founder of The New Zealand Herald. The share float was successful, the shares rocketed in value. Mine shafts were sunk, and a large stamper battery built at Te Rerenga. In the Opitonui valley a boom town sprang up, including hotels, stores and a school. But the rock-to-bullion ratio proved uneconomic, a bust followed, and by 1903 the company’s shares were worthless. Opitonui became a ghost town, then vanished altogether.
I found that all these events had been fully reported in the newspapers of the day, such as The Daily Southern Cross. The website http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz proved a tremendous help by throwing up the stories. There were also illuminating photographs in the Auckland Weekly News, held in the Special Collections Room at the Auckland Central Library. There was tragedy in some of the reports. A bushman was swept to his death when a kauri dam collapsed, another man had both arms torn off in mining machinery, two men drowned when their launch capsized on the harbour bar. Early life at Whangapoua, I realised, had been shortish, and often brutish.
(To be continued)
Footnote- the beautiful photograph on the book cover at the top of this story is by Judy Drok Photographydrok@clear.net.nzPh. 07 8668 345
2 comments:
When might we expect to read part three of Graeme Lay's excellent series on writing local history?
Should be on the blog in the next 2or 3 days Ken.
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