Auckland Anniversary Day

Welcome to a New Year and Auckland Anniversary weekend 2018.
Today we take a look at Auckland Anniversary celebrations from early in Auckland's history.

DSC 28 Jan 1864

 In the 19th Century Aucklanders joined with visitors in jostling for the best vantage points from which to view the races, just as we do today. They lined the shores on both sides of the harbour and established theselves with picnic gear, hats and binoculars. Those well practicsed in the art took their stand on a favourite headland or elevated verandah, such as Bastion Point and Mt Victoria - both well aspected for shade, viewing range and ventilation.

Our ancestors expected to make a day of it too. Extra licenses were issued for pop up stores selling snacks and meals, bars were open all day on both land and sea.

Looking over Queen's Wharf from the western side at the Regatta entrants on the Waitemata APL4-RIC-154

DSC28 Jan 1864

Ibid

The North Shore specialised in festivities and special events during the 19th century. This popular destination for outings and day trips hosted a special Anniversary Day extravaganza every year. Action centred around Takapuna's Lake Pupuke. Ferry passengers arrived early and stayed late to make the most of a full programme.

Ibid

Crack shots competed at a rifle range for prizes, horse racing was on the cards, with fresh water racing on the Lake itself. In the evening the Grand Marquee on the Promenade provided an open air ball room.

Ibid

Takapuna Beach provided a perfect Harbour view of the main Regatta and was renowned for the relaxed and sociable atmosphere. Ferries came and went during the day with special night sailings for the last of the party goers making their way home.

This image shows the same occasion 35 years later in 1899. The Promenade was aptly named. AWN 3 Feb 1899

Our 21st century Auckland is a world away from our settlement days but we can still keep our heritage in mind.  If you are interested in celebrating our city's origins in 1840 the Maritime Museum has a full programme of activities on offer, including the opportunity to sail out on some restored colonial period craft. You find details of sailing times here. Other activites and events are highlighted here. Enjoy.

Pioneer Boat Builders in Devonport

Looking across Torpedo Bay to the Masonic Hotel, 1879. Image SGGSC APL 4-2979

When we visit Devonport in Auckland today it is hard to visualise it as a vital centre of industry, but it was. The 1850’s through to the late 1880’s were a peak time for ship building. Devonport was a major hub for this boom in maritime construction and the associated trade services. This post looks at three of the earliest ship yards in Devonport with a focus on community and connections.

Torpedo Bay was the area where the bulk of early boat building was carried out. Alex Alison was one of the first to set up a boat building yard in Devonport. He purchased property on the foreshore. King Edward Parade follows his seaward boundary, which extended to just east of where the Masonic Tavern was to be built.

Torpedo Bay Devonport about 1870 Image BFA

The Alison home was one of the earliest wooden dwellings in Devonport. At that time the area was characterised by Maori settlement with only a few scattered settler farms. About 1854 he moved his boat building operation from Official Bay across to Devonport.
At Torpedo Bay he continued to specialise in smaller craft which he built for sale, rather than the more conventional practice of building to order.

DSC 27 Jan 1854

 Alison's ‘Foam’ was a clinker built copper fastened boat launched 2 April 1855 whose construction included some of Duder Bros cement between skins. Could that be a first in New Zealand boat building? She made a good showing in the Auckland Anniversary regattas.

DSC 30 Jan 1857

 His sons Alex and Ewen, in particular, left an indelible mark on Devonport and Takapuna. Their involvement in local politics, racing, ferry services is legendary on the North Shore. The pioneering contribution of the Alisons is remembered in the clock tower at the base of Victoria Rd. Alex’s grandson Ewen later married Freda Bartley, daughter of Clement.

George Beddoes set up his boat building yard at the North Head end of Torpedo Bay in the late 1850’s, until his remove to Fiji around 1872, in the midst of a Supreme Court Appeal concerning the Devonport wharf.
 Alex Alison’s son Ewen was apprenticed to him. For a short while he was in partnership with John Holmes, who came to New Zealand via Melbourne. Later he moved further along the Bay to build a slip near where the Rowing Club is based. Beddoes’ yard is credited with building the first composite iron and wood vessel constructed in Auckland. This was the ferry ‘Devonport’ launched in 1870.

 John Holmes was soon joined by his brothers James and William when fundamental differences led to the partnership with Beddoes being dissolved.
Holmes Bros, as their business became known, built a slip at the bottom of Victoria Road near the landing reserve, where the wharf buildings are today. There the first North Shore built steam ferry – the ‘Waitemata’- was constructed. Their first ferry services company Waitemata Steam Ferry Company did not prosper and folded in 1867. The steamer was transferred to a new company- the North Shore Steam Ferry Company and renamed.

The remodelled 'Waitemata' renamed 'Enterprise II' constructed 1865 Image SGGSC APL

Another Holmes Bros paddle steamer 'Enterprise 1' Image SGGSC APL c 1867

Like the Bartley’s, the Holmes family came from St Helier, Jersey. After leaving the Channel Islands, their family moved to Sunderland, England and Australia. In Auckland they were able to re-establish their close connection with the Bartley brothers, Robert and Edward, who had moved to New Zealand in 1854.
John Holmes daughter Polly (Mary Elisabeth) married Arthur Bartley, son of Edward.

The family home of William Holmes on the foreshore at Devponport. Image SGGSC APL c1880

There was close cooperation between these early settlers at Devonport, but they were also highly competitive. Not only Anniversary Day Regattas were fiercely contested. Competition to control North Shore ferry services was cut throat, particularly between the Holmes brothers and the Alisons. Disputes arose as to the best placement of passenger facilities and various other commercial concerns. Local body affairs were sometimes coloured by the factions formed around business these concerns. The 1870 dispute over Alex Alison’s shoreline wall is one example. It took nearly twenty years and the Supreme Court to resolve this issue.

Conversely, it was that same single minded commitment and investment which led to the rapid development of the district. Improvement in ferry services was a key factor in opening up the North Shore for residential settlement. Edward Bartley was just one who delayed his move across the harbour from Auckland until 1870. Anyone with business interests in Auckland required a reliable commuter service. Anyone producing goods and services on the Shore for Auckland markets was equally dependent on steady freight services.
The personalities, prosperity and development associated with the boat building industry contributed immeasurably to the development of Devonport in social as well as economic terms.

Searching for more on Edna Witheford

This post is in response to a request for more information about Edna Witheford, daughter of J.H.Witheford. If this is your family line and you have more detail to share please link up here or at the main Witheford page http://localhistorybartley.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/joseph-witheford-member-of-seddons.html

Edna was born on 17 July 1889.[i] She was the youngest of her family. When she was little she was sometimes under the guardianship of her brother in law Ted Barber, Ida’s husband. Her father’s political career and her mother’s health made this arrangement necessary.

Despite moving between Northcote and Ellerslie schools, Edna was an able student.  Later she is listed with her cousin Myrtle Rountree as a prize winner at ‘The Willows’. This school was a select private college run by Mrs Williams in Wynyard St, Auckland.[ii] Edna continued her education at Victoria College in Wellington, being listed there on the 1919 electoral roll.

In 1923 Edna married Ernest Hansch, a son of John and Louisa Hansch of Alfriston. This family is remembered in the district by Hansch Rd, as they were early settlers there. Three sisters and a brother are included in Ernest’s family plot at Christ Church Anglican Cemetery in Clevedon.

Their name was well known all over New Zealand because of a tragedy which occurred in 1918. Ernest’s sister Freda was the victim of a savage attack. Her father saved her life, but they were both wounded and her home was damaged by fire. This tragic but sensational event was reported widely in New Zealand and Australia.[iii]

Ernest and Edna lived at Alfriston, on family property. This was a farming district in the early twentieth century. Their first child, born in January 1924, was a son who did not survive. Margaret Edna came next, on 12 January 1925.[iv] A second daughter, Mary Elizabeth, arrived on 25 November 1928.[v]

It had not been an easy few years. Ernest’s father died in 1926 and part of the property was sold. Mother, Louisa, died in December 1928, a month after Mary was born. Brother Carl lost his home in a house fire in February 1929. This event was almost an exact replication of a fire in 1899 in which their original family home had burned to the ground.[vi]

Edna was not happy in her marriage. When her father died in 1931 she was living in Glenfield with her children. Their 200 acre block at Tomarata, north of Auckland, was sold in 1932. Ernest filed for divorce in 1934, on the grounds of desertion.[vii]

Edna continued to raise her daughters on Auckland’s North Shore, in the Birkenhead area where she had a good network of family and friends.

The Children's page AkStar 13 June 1936 - Edna's daughters Margaret and Mary amongst friends

Edna died in Auckland in 1967.

Research by M Bartley

---

[i] NZRBDM 1889/3336

[ii] Auckland Star 15 Dec 1904

[iii] North Otago Times 8 Oct 1918

[iv] NZ Herald 15 Jan 1925

[v] NZH 29 Nov 1928

[vi] NZH 21 Oct 1889

[vii] Refer National Archives; NZH 17 August 1934

Auckland Savings Bank in Devonport - Edward Bartley

Front Elevation ASB Devonport

I hope readers will enjoy this set of plans for an ASB branch building, now demolished. 

The original site was on Victoria Road, Devonport, Auckland almost opposite the council chambers.

Edward Bartley had to wait until the end of his career to design a bank building for his home suburb of Devonport, on the North Shore of Auckland. 

Local residents were forced to petition and lobby in order to get a branch at all, coming in well behind Onehunga, Newmarket and Surrey Hills. Building began in Devonport in 1901.

At this time it was still traditional for the manager to live on the premises. It may seem strange to us now, but a practical set of apartments was an important aspect of the design of bank buildings.
At Devonport the ground floor of this brick building was divided into banking room, dining room and kitchen, with a connecting hall and side door. On the first floor four bedrooms supplied the sleeping accommodation.

Back Elevation ASB Devonport

First Floor Plan showing Manager's Accommodation

Cross Section ASB Devonport

Cross Section ASB Devonport

Fortunately a good number of the heritage buildings along Victoria Road are still used and maintained today. There is a special ambience to Devonport which greets the ferry traveller from central Auckland. Everything seems to slow down to the more leisurely pace of a gentler time. No bad thing is it?

Street frontages of heritage buildings on Victoria Rd Devonport. Image BFA

Bertha Bartley - fifth child of Edward Bartley and Elizabeth Hannken (1869-1944)

Emily Bertha Bartley (Tottie)

Emily Bertha Bartley was born at home in Union St, Auckland on May 9, 1869.[i]

She was the fifth child of the family and the eldest surviving daughter. She was known to family and friends as Tottie.

When she was still a toddler the family moved to Devonport on the North Shore, where the Bartley children enjoyed a seaside environment away from the public health issues of Auckland itself.

Devonport was a fledgling rural community at that time, but still a commutable distance for her father’s work and social engagements.

Like her siblings, Tottie was a talented musician. She enjoyed performing, was a gifted soprano, and was often in demand as keyboard accompanist or for string ensembles with her violin or viola.

---

[i] Daily Southern Cross 7 June 1869 page 10

Tottie photographed by her brother Fred, about 1890

In February 1884 SS Doric berthed in Auckland. Amongst the new immigrants on board were Philip Hawe MASON and his wife Martha ROBINSON. Coming from Swindon, Wiltshire in England, they brought all their surviving children with them. The Masons settled at Kerr St Devonport where their similarity of social circumstances, religious and political views laid the ground for a solid and lasting friendship with the Bartley family. Their ninth child was Frank Ernest Mason. He was three years older than Tottie Bartley and a best friend of her older brothers. Frank was especially close to Fred Bartley, sharing his interest in the new dance music and new technology of photography.

Frank Mason about the time he arrived in Auckland, aged 17, in 1884

NZ Herald 2 March 1891

Frank trained as an accountant. From the beginning of his adult life and continuing into old age, he was active in church, school and district affairs. Both he and Tottie were so community focused there was hardly an organisation, interest group or charity in Devonport deprived of their energy. In this they were following the example of their respective parents, who were of a generation to whom community service was grounding principle of daily life.

Devonport School Committee Meeting Auckland Star 28 April 1891

Tottie and Frank had five children, all born at Devonport. They were Bertha Eileen 1892; 
Dorothy Hazel 1894; Marjorie Estelle 1897;  Norah Kathleen 1903 and Philip Hawe 1909.

Tottie died 27 May 1944 and was interred in the Mason family plot at O'Neills Point Cemetery, North Shore, Auckland.

Hazel photographed by her cousin George Bartley about 1913

Hazel in costume as an Egyptian Princess, from the album of George F Bartley

Marjorie Mason photographed by her cousin George Bartley about 1913

Marjorie Mason, from the album of George F Bartley

Nora Mason about 1913 from the album of George F Bartley

Frank's sister Ada married Bill Barrach in 1890

Frank's sister Ellen married Samuel Craig in 1889

the Mason plot O'Neills Cemetery North Shore Auckland New Zealand

Devonport, North Shore Auckland

The BARTLEY families in New Zealand all have a strong connection to Devonport, North Shore, Auckland. Edward BARTLEY settled there in 1872. He moved his growing family first to a rented house on the Strand, later building his own home in Victoria Road.

Edward participated energetically in local affairs, serving first on the Flagstaff District Highway Board and, with his friend William PHILCOX on the later Devonport Roads Board. Politics was a serious matter in Devonport in the early years. It was not unknown for animosity between factions to be expressed in both physical and verbal assaults, as the parties held to their firm opinions on the future development of the district. Progressing from the Roads Board to the inaugural Devonport Borough Council, Edward somehow managed to steer a path between opposing parties, exercising diplomacy as he went.

Professionally Edward's contribution to the built environment of his home suburb was considerable. His active involvement in the arts, photography,technical education and music involved his whole family and the Devonport community as a whole.

Foreshore with Mt Cambria behind approx mid 1870s

Boat building on the foreshore approx mid 1870's

Devonport about 1880 taken from a position above the Calliope Rd intersection

In 1880 a fund was started to cover the costs of a larger church of Holy Trinity at Devonport. Fundraising was very much a community affair involving any number of entertainments and fetes. The eldest Bartley children were now young adults and willing musical performers. With their Hannken cousins, Edward's eldest sons formed a popular string orchestra which was much in demand.

Cover of programme Fund Raising Concert September 1880

Programme inner, pages 2 and 3 September 1880





May 1880 Swainson contract

Henry PITTS was a well known builder in Devonport. He worked with Edward on the Holy Trinity Church. Here he lists specifications for amendments to the standard contract to erect a small villa for Mr SWAINSON.

Devonport had the greatest concentration of Bartley designed family homes in Auckland, with the possible exception of Surrey Hills subdivision. Some of these are his simple "copy book" cottages and small villas for working people. These were constructed in multiples during the boom years of the 1880s.

"copy book" workers cottage in Devonport

The most basic were kauri construction with two or four rooms under a hipped roof. The simplicity was often relieved by features such as decorative mouldings at the top of verandah posts. 

In the next price bracket came the single storey villa, of timber usually but also produced in concrete and brick. The interior was dissected by a passageway from front door to back. Two rooms either side of the passage provided the basic living and sleeping quarters. These homes were easily extended with the addition of a lean-to at the back as the need arose. Some sported a filigree valance on the front verandah, with decorative eaves brackets which were picked out in a light colour to enhance the shadow pattern effect.

By the 1880s the bay villa was the last word in modern housing. The basic villa was now modified by the addition of a projection forward- a bay- in one or both of the front rooms. The verandah now protected a smaller porch and the decorative potential of the street frontage was considerably enhanced by the opportunity to include decorative fretwork, bargeboards, finials, brackets and more. This elaborate ornamentation was increasinly emphasised by dark colour such as maroon or green against a lighter weatherboard colour. The verandah roof was often fashionably finished in multi-coloured stripes to match.

At the other end of the market Edward was designing large residence for professionals and the well to do, such a Judge MacDonald's home at Devonport in 1883. The Bartley home was built in 1879 on a lower storey of concrete construction and upper storey of kauri. It was sparsely decorated, as compared to the prevailing fashion, with the enclosing verandah offering the only ornamental feature on the Victoria Road frontage. On the seaward side a single bay extended two storeys, with the verandah returning to allow the best of the views from the elevated site.

Bartley Home corner Calliope and Victoria Road. Image 1879

Premises of R & R Duder corner Church St & King Edward Parade Devonport

The Duder brothers were long term associates of Edward Bartley. They shared a common interest, amongst others, in developing concrete technology in Auckland. The first concrete lighthouse was completed at La Corbiere, Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1873. Local pioneer lime cement was produced at Mahurangi by Wilson and Co. Edward had used their product to erect three concrete villas by 1880. Wilson's agents on the North Shore were the Duder brothers.

Some public projects for which Edward Bartley was commissioned as architect were never constructed, for various reasons.

Edward Bartley's 1902 design for Devonport Borough Council incorporating Post & Telegraph Offices, library and council offices is one such case. 

At a special meeting of council in September 1902 Mayor Ewen ALISON and councillors signed and approved the design shown here. It provided for two storey brick council chambers, incorporating post office, telephone exchange and public library in a T shaped plan.

The building plans were then sent to Wellington with the condition and terms of leasing the reserve vested in the Council for the erection of public builidngs. The Council needed to move quickly to have the Government determine the rent before the final parliamentary session in October. The postal authorities also had some say in the final design of their facilities.

By July 1903 Ewen Alison was in Wellington visiting the Postmaster General and looking for a final decision. There was also local and regional opposition to the principal of a Borough Council seizing a recreational reserve for building purposes.

The plans for the civic centre were never realised, nor was the Post Office successful in its alternative plan of acquiring part of the reserve for its own use. When funding finally came for new postal facilities in Devonport it was for comparatively moderate premises in Victoria Road.

1902 Devonport Council Buildings with Post and Telegraph Office

In 1913 a Stanley bay resident Mr A Lloyd brought his proposal for swimming baths before the Devonport Borough Council. The complex he proposed was designed by Edward Bartley. He offered to personally subscribe one third of the cost and suggested a public share issue to raise the balance. A site near the Esplanade was most favoured. 

The idea was scuttled by the old issues of cost and site. There was no position available on the foreshore which would not interfere with the established uses of commercial and leisure craft.

Proposed Devonport Baths 1913

Interior plan of Devonport Baths proposal

The original plan for both men's and womens baths of equal size has been amended to a larger pool for men, leaving the architect with that difficult space "for Future Expansion". This reworking more accurately reflected the sensibilities of the majority of adults of the time. Sixteen private bathing cubicles were provided for each gender for those uncomfortable with communal bathing. Lloyd had visions of completing the complex in time for the Auckland Exhibition opening in December 1913.