The Emergence of the Postal Service in Tauranga

On 15 December 1857 Archdeacon Alfred Nesbit Brown was gazetted as the first Postmaster under the Local Posts Act of the previous year. Having a postmaster did not yet guarantee a regular service, and in those years communication was sporadic, dependent on local stores, runners and occasional coastal vessels. In March 1859 the Reverend Seymour Mills Spencer, his wife Ellen, the Reverend Thomas Chapman, and Henry Bennett offered to subsidise a semi-monthly mail service at twelve pounds a year. The effort came to little when none of the proposed postmasters was willing to take the position, and the Colonial Secretary insisted that future petitions come directly from the settlers themselves.

Through the 1860s the position changed hands frequently. John Faulkner, a trader, was listed as postmaster between 1860 and 1863, and Brown briefly resumed the role in 1863. During the colonial invasion of Tauranga in 1864, Sergeant Charles Neville of the Armed Constabulary was appointed Postmaster in May 1864 and under his administration Tauranga gained its first Money Order Office and Post Office Savings Bank. He was followed by Joseph Bliss, Ebenezer Norris, and William Ball. The service remained fragile, relying on coastal steamers and mail runners, and the dangers were real: in 1866 the Arawa mail carrier Wi-popata was killed while carrying government mail between Tauranga and Ōpōtiki. 

A greater degree of stability arrived in 1871 with the appointment of James H. Sheath, who served for more than two decades. His salary rose to £265, reflecting the growth of the office. Sheath presided over the first substantial government buildings in Tauranga, constructed in 1874, which housed the post office along with the telegraph, customs, and local government. In November 1872 the Post Office supplied the public with the new stamp-duty issues, and in January 1873 Sheath was instructed to close on Sundays. Through 1873–74 Tauranga ratepayers repeatedly petitioned for a town letter-delivery, a step up from counter service only.

From 1880 the service began to extend into the streets. A network of receiving boxes and licensed stamp sellers was created at local stores—first at Crabbe’s on Cameron Road, later at Quarter Acres/Val Marino and G. Gardener’s on The Strand. In 1881 an Ōpōtiki mail arrived Tuesdays and Thursdays, with settlers urging a coach drop at Ōropi to spare a 12-mile trip into town. Postal links with Te Puke were noted that same year.  In February 1882 Tauranga’s first door-to-door postmen took up their rounds: W. Walmsley briefly, followed by J. J. Redmond, and in 1883 J. J. C. Larke. 

Sheath retired in October 1892 and was replaced by John Bull, who transferred from Cambridge and Hokitika. Bull held the post until the mid-1890s, when he was succeeded by Ernest Northcroft, recorded as postmaster from 1896 until 1899. Ernest Northcroft succeeded Bull and is recorded in Tauranga through July 1902, when he transferred to Blenheim; by October 1902 Mr Halliday was postmaster. Disaster struck in November 1902 when fire destroyed the government buildings and all local records. Postal work was carried out in temporary quarters until a new brick post office and courthouse was completed in 1906. Charles Edward Nicholas was postmaster during this transition, serving nearly six years before being transferred to Stratford in 1909. He was remembered not only for his postal work but also as a lay preacher at Gate Pā and Te Puna. By 1912 the Rotorua–Ngawaro–Tauranga service was set to run three times weekly

1909 - 1914 ?

 In 1914 Frederick John Robertshaw was appointed but soon retired, his brief tenure coinciding with the laying of underground telephone lines that brought a new dimension to communications.

By 1916 Tauranga’s postal service had expanded considerably, with a new mail room, a relocated telephone exchange, retiring rooms for female clerks, and electricity throughout the building. The interwar decades brought further gradual improvements, including the construction of a retaining wall on Willow Street in the 1930s and, more significantly, a new post office building at the corner of Grey and Spring Streets, opened on 1 December 1938.

The postwar years saw Tauranga integrated into the national and international network more closely. In 1946 an airmail service was inaugurated, and the following year an Auckland–Tauranga–Gisborne route began operating. On 1 November 1975 the Post Office was officially upgraded to Chief Post Office status (announced by the local member of parliament, George Walsh). The designation reflected Tauranga’s rapid population growth, over twenty-eight thousand in the city and another nine thousand in Mount Maunganui, and established a new postal district stretching from Katikati to Pukehina and including Matakana Island. The Tauranga Chamber of Commerce, through its secretary I. D. Crawshaw, hailed the change as the result of a fourteen-year campaign, described as a “holy war.” Support came from both former postmaster J. A. R. Kirkwood and the serving postmaster A. S. White, who had allied himself closely with the Chamber. The upgrade shifted administrative responsibility from Rotorua back to Tauranga and promised more efficient service for the whole district.

Succession of Postmasters (selected)

1857 — Alfred Nesbit Brown
1860–1863 — John Faulkner
1863 — Alfred Nesbit Brown (again)
1864 — Charles Neville
1865 — Joseph Bliss
1866 — Ebenezer Norris
1867 — William Ball
1871–1892 — James H. Sheath
1892–c.1896 — John Bull
1896–1899 — Ernest Northcroft
Oct 1902 — Mr Halliday (in office at time of fire/temporary relocation)
c.1903–1909 — C. E. Nicholas

1909-1914 - F.K. Robertshaw?
1914 — F. J. Robertshaw retired?

Missing portions, let us know if you can fill in these gaps

1970s — A. S. White (during Chief Post Office upgrade)
1977 — E. H. McElhinney (Chief Postmaster; retired 1978)
1978 — C. D. McLeod (Chief Postmaster)