Remembering Alick, 1878-1972

Alexander James Mirrielees, generally known as A. J. or Alick, was born at Riverton, Southland, in 1878. He was the youngest son of William Phillip Mirrielees and Ellen Lyon. Daughter Joan Mirrielees, writing about her family in 1979, traced the family back to Aberdeen, Scotland, and placed her father in a line of mobile, practical people: merchants, miners, contractors and settlers. After attending Riverton District High School, Alick was apprenticed for four years to C. F. Whitford, chemist, Riverton. He was also active in the Riverton Rifle Volunteers and became a skilled shot. He later moved north to Wellington, qualified as a chemist, and worked for Kempthorne Prosser until its warehouse burned down.

In 1902 he married Violet Mary Ada Sheath, daughter of Ada Cope-Dowsing. Violet came from a musical family and was herself a pianist. Alick bought a pharmacy at Johnsonville, where the family lived for seven years. During that period he helped found the Johnsonville Bowling Club, became its first champion, and was also a foundation member of the Johnsonville Rifle Volunteers. Joan recorded that he won the Service Championship Belt at Trentham several times and handwritten notes add the Challenge Cup at Trentham.

In 1910 Alick received Colin Norris’s promotional pamphlet Beautiful Tauranga. He visited, liked the town, bought R. J. Allely’s Strand Pharmacy and moved his family north. Tauranga was still small. Joan remembered it as a town of about 2000 people: grassy streets, cows, willows, dusty or muddy roads, Māori with moko and veterans of the New Zealand Wars sitting along the Strand seawall, horse-drawn coaches, steamers, and shopkeepers able to leave their doors ajar and go fishing when business was quiet.\

Alick and Violet in their mid 30s a couple of years after arriving in Tauranga. 
Restored portion of Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-856 with original portion inset.

The Strand pharmacy placed Mirrielees in the centre of town life. In a 1989 interview with James Hartstonge, Joan described the range of work expected of a chemist in those days;  doctor, physician, veterinarian, optician and photographer. He sold cameras, processed photographs and used the chemical skills of his trade for photographic work. He also cycled into the country to attend patients. The pharmacy opened from seven until eight each evening, including weekends and Sundays. Prescriptions were made up by hand, and the Mirrielees children helped deliver bottles when their father came home with them.

The family home was at 30 Cameron Road, on the corner with Monmouth Street, opposite the Domain. Joan wrote that her parents bought sections there about 1914 for £200 and built their house for £3275. In the 1989 interview she recalled the land as open ground running down the Te Papa peninsula, with old trenches on the section that had to be levelled before building. She remembered knives, metal and other objects being found during that work. The house was built by Jack Danes. After Violet’s death in 1928, Alick remained at 30 Cameron Road and later converted the house into two flats.

30 Cameron Road from Monmouth Street in 2015 (Rodney Giddens)
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 15-334

Alick’s military service continued after the move to Tauranga. Joan wrote that he transferred from the Johnsonville Rifles to the 6th Hauraki Regiment and retired after the First World War with the rank of Major and the long and efficient service medal. During the war he acted as recruiting officer for the district. In the interview she remembered him arriving from Johnsonville as a captain in the mounted rifles, later becoming a major, helping gather men for service, and sometimes accompanying recruits when they left Tauranga early in the morning for Frankton to meet the train.

In the uniform of the 6th Hauraki Regiment 1926
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-934

His interests widened into most parts of public and recreational life in Tauranga. Joan’s 1979 account lists the Bowling Club, Rifle Club, Fire Board, Chamber of Commerce, Golf Club, Yacht and Power Boat Club, Deep Sea Fishing Club, Tauranga Club and Harbour Board.  Another written account adds the Tauranga Big Game Fishing Club. He was president of the Tauranga Rifle Club for ten years, until 1938. He was a foundation member of the Yacht and Power Boat Club, first secretary, and later commodore. The family boats included Rainbow, Kotahi and Kingfish. Joan’s memories of early Tauranga boating are detailed: boats moored near Devonport Road, dinghies pulled up on the beach or near the wharves, family trips around the harbour, and excursions toward Bowentown.

An outing of the Mirrielees family on the launch "Rainbow" on Tauranga harbour, c. 1911
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-298

His Harbour Board work gave him a lasting place in the development of Tauranga’s waterfront. He chaired the Tauranga Harbour Board from 1935 until April 1944, resigning because of failing hearing. His daughter Joan recalled him encouraging pine planting at Pane Pane and securing Sulphur Point from the Rifle Club for Harbour Board use. In the 1989 interview she remembered his strong support for Sulphur Point reclamation, though she herself had argued with him over it because she valued the old Spit as a scenic place. Mirrielees Road, formerly Spit Road, records that association. She also recalled his unrealised wish to develop the Waikareao estuary as a place for sailing, rowing, swimming and housing.

Alick at centre, Members of Harbour Board, 1958
Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-854

Mirrielees was also connected with the shaping of Tauranga’s golf course. Joan wrote that a plaque at Tauranga Golf Club commemorated his term as president, during which more than 30,000 trees were planted on and around the course, largely through Government Scheme 13 during the Depression. He was appointed to the Fire Board in 1931 and chaired it from 1938 to 1941. He also served as president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Alick aged 22 and 90 from 99-935 and 99-855 (portions with original inset).

Violet Mirrielees was part of that public life. Joan remembered her mother’s work with tennis, croquet, bridge, the Patriotic Committee, Red Cross fundraising, Plunket, Holy Trinity Church and concerts by visiting commercial travellers. She also described the domestic side of Alick’s working life: Violet preparing the midday meal at home and taking it down to the Strand pharmacy because he could not leave the shop. The family had three children: Joan, born in Wellington in 1903, and twins Ronald and Elsie, born at Johnsonville in 1908.

Alick Mirrielees died in 1972, in his ninety-fifth year. Joan ended her 1979 account by listing his life memberships: Tauranga Club, Bowling Club, Rifle Club, Deep Sea Fishing Club, Fire Board and Tauranga Golf Club. He was also a Justice of the Peace. Her summary is plain: these honours showed the esteem in which he was held.