Ken and June Bonniface

June, a teacher, is a member of the Tauranga Lever family and Ken, a marine engineer, is a Londoner.

They are now, at the time of writing, in their late eighties.


1. June’s family:

Great grandparents James and Elizabeth Lever arrived in Tauranga in 1884, aged 57 and 46, on the ‘Northumberland’ from England. James was a tenant farmer from Guildford in Surrey.

Bay of Plenty Times, 23 October 1907, page2

They lived for a time on the corner of Willow and Harrington Sts before purchasing farmland land in Greerton. This farm was managed by son Henry (Harry) Graham and was around the area where St. George’s church now stands.
It was sold in 1910. Graham spent a short time in Auckland, and returned to buy a 62 (52)? acre of developed farm from Nathaniel Dickie, at the end of Matua peninsula. The farm included the Matua-Iwi Pā site.

“It went back to the line of trees which are still there”, said Ken. “The Tilbys came next door in 1914”.

Much food was grown here for the World War 1 effort. James died in 1907 and Elizabeth in 1918, at Harrington St.


James and Elizabeth’s other family
(in addition to Henry Graham)

• Harold Tennant Lever married Eleanor Esther Brain - Brain Watkins House connection. They moved to Papatoetoe.
• Florence Mary Lever known as Queenie, married Herbert Pasquale Clarke of Te Wairoa Farm, Te Puna. The Clarke connection.
• Isobel Daisy Lever was a World War 1 nursing sister, who owned Hui private hospital in Auckland.
• Francis Alver Lever (Fenton) was an adopted son who died in France in World War 1. He is known to have worked on the Matua farm.
  
  2. Son. Henry Graham Lever
  14 years of age when he arrived with his parents and two sisters and a brother in New Zealand, did a variety of work including working on farms in Te Puna, Hawkes Bay, Auckland and Canterbury before returning to Tauranga. He married Alice Francis Gray in Katikati in 1901. Alice was the daughter of William Gray, early pioneer and builder in Katikati. The Gray connection. They were June's grandparents.
  
  Their four children, all born at Greerton, were Charles Graham Lever (June’s father), James Lobo Lever,
  Bessie Rata Lever (Roden) and Henry Rangitira Hugh Lever. Hugh Lever is listed as an orchardist, Matua.
  
  Henry (Harry) Graham, known as Graham, and Alice farmed 62 acres at the end of the Matua (known then as Otūmoetai), purchasing his farm from Nathaniel Dickie. He concentrated on growing lucerne, maize and oats with only a small herd. He was one of the largest growers of lucerne in the district on his Huia farm. He was an innovative farmer and brought stud stock to build up his flock, winning awards for his cattle, Pedigree Jersey cows. He had pedigree pigs and Shropshire sheep, and researched the pines and Douglas fir to be grown on Matakana Island, travelling to California in the process.
  He also is known to have travelled to London and Scotland to further his knowledge and was a director of the Tauranga Dairy Company, a member of the Tauranga Electric Power Board for 15 years and the Harbour Board for 12 years. Graham died in Auckland in 1957. Alice died in Rotorua 1956.
  
  
  
  James and the Scottish manager of Foley's
  
  
  The Graham Lever family. From left: Alice, Jim,
  Rata. Charlie. Graham. Hugh sitting.
  Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1078
  
  
  Graham Lever’s farm Matua, from the eastern side of Levers Rd.
  Homestead to the right. Idesia Grove entrance.
  Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1085
  
  
  Harvesting oats on the Lever’s farm at Matua. Graham second left. 1918.
  Tauranga City Libraries Photo 99-1079
  
  
  Lever's road 1940 or 1941
  Tauranga City Libraries Photo 05-052
  
  
  3. Graham and Alice’s son Charles Graham Lever was born in 1902 and grew up on the Levers Rd farm. He worked for some time in Canterbury before returning to farm in Bethlehem where he bought land in Carmichael Rd “Across the road from the Carmichaels”.
  He married Mildred Elaine Von Sturmer, born in 1931. Mildred is descended from Austrian Spencer William Von Sturmer of Hokianga fame. These are June’s parents.
  
  This was a dairy farm, and later, when some land was sold, Graham farmed sheep. The driveway to the farm house, now gone, was at the very end of what was Carmichael Rd at the time, just beyond Ken and June’s present home. This farm extended along Bethlehem Rd as far as the Hungarau marae land.
  A block was sold off to the O’Connors who developed a subdivision towards the end of the road.
  
  
  
  The Charles Lever family. From left, June, Graham, David (who died at an early age), Mildred and Daisy (who at time of writing lived in Australia new family).
  
  
  4. June, their second child, born in 1934 and a teacher, married Ken Boniface, a Londoner and a marine engineer. June was left half of the Bethlehem property and they purchased the other half from her sister Daisy. Ken and June planted the 40 acre block in avocados. They developed a high producing orchard and won ‘a couple’ of grower prizes. They sold out to Fraser Sanderson, of the Bethlehem Country Club, in 2004 and today, 2021, continue to live in their pleasant retirement home built on the remaining acre of land at 123 Carmichael Rd. They have kept just three of their avocados and surrounded their home with lovely trees.
  
  
  
  Ken and June Boniface, copy photo taken during an interview by Bev Corbett in 2020.
  
  
  They are philosophical about their remaining land and home being surrounded by houses, and of their lost Mount Maunganui view as new owners, Arvido, continue to grow the retirement village around them. June and Ken have no children - June has three nieces and nephews, Daisy’s children, in Australia, and Ken has three in Europe.
  
  An aside: When June was travelling in America she taught for a year in an Indian reservation school - despite being advised not to. She enjoyed her year there. At the time the Indians were repressed and the schools despised. When she left June wrote a letter to the Provincial Authorities stating that the school principal was the finest man she had ever met.