Wharf Street, Tauranga in the early years

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AuthorTe Ao Mārama - Tauranga City LibrariesTauranga City Libraries Staff - Harley CouperTauranga City Libraries Staff - Stephanie SmithType of ContributionLibrary storyTaxonomyStories | Places

Published November 2, 2021 on the Tauranga Historical society blog.

A Henry Winkelmann (1860-1931) Tourist Series postcard featuring Wharf Street in the 1910s (Image 03-429) typifies many of the historic images within our Heritage and Research collection. Wharf Street on a scale of ‘bustling’ to ‘abandoned’, looks closer to the latter.

Wharf Street, Tauranga (Image 03-429)

There is technically a crowd, three people, gathered by the roadside. A further two individuals talking by a car and four people walking are spread evenly throughout the scene. The image is described simply as “showing Hartley’s drapery”. This is no one-horse town, but you might be forgiven for imagining “one horse town” to be at least a distant cousin.

Viewing this image on Pae Korokī with the “Zoom to 100%” tool reveals a lot more detail.

The cables running the left-hand length of Wharf Street may still be telegraph lines, though the righthand pole shows a power cable running down into an electric light. 1915 was the year the town moved from gas street lights to electric street lights (October 2nd), though in this photograph I can only see a single electric street light. Perhaps the rest were still being installed?

Portion of Image 03-429

Wharf Street in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was one of those town and country streets that changed in character as it crept up the hill away from the commercial Strand end toward Cameron Road. Yes, it had the imposing Bank of New Zealand (built 1876) and the Bank of Australia (1914) as well as the Town Hall (1914-1916). But it also had at various times, a shooting gallery, an electricity substation, a livery stable for horses and at the western end, open paddocks with overgrown Macrocarpa hedges and gorse. "Country" came right into town too, in the form of roaming cows, bringing complaints about blocked doorways and produce munched right from within their display shelves. It was roving cows that inspired our wooden cages, and that were eventually out-(by)lawed in 1932.

Cows on Cameron road in the 1920s (Image 99-740)

Solicitors, architects and dentists resided on Wharf Street, and operated businesses. In the 1910s you could have your suit altered at Mr Lyford's the tailor's, then get it dyed 'to look like new' at Tauranga Dyeworks. You could book your place on a service car to Rotorua or Matamata with Mr Baigent the agent. You could shop for plants and 'fancy goods', have a singing lesson with Mr Meadows (a former opera singer you know), and buy chocolate from Mr Whitaker. You could alter your will at Sharp, Tudhope, and have your teeth fixed by Mr Poole the dentist. Then if your jaw wasn't hurting too much afterwards, you could partake of refreshments at the Windsor Tearooms (later the Empress). Finally, you could round off the day by going to the pictures at the Town Hall: the films were all silent of course, enlivened by the music of the hard-working Borough Council pianist.

Clipping from the 1907 District Electors' Roll for the Borough

Such variety in one short street speaks of a small, hard working population (just 1346 in 1911) building a modern and prosperous commercial town that included community facilities and connected with other centres in our region.

Sources

Bellamy, A.C. (1982), Tauranga 1882-1982

District Electors' roll for the Borough of Tauranga (1907, 1911, 1913, 1916, 1919, 1923, 1933)

Paperspast (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers)
Tauranga City Council information panels, text provided by Stephanie Smith, former archivist at Tauranga City Library

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Wharf Street, Tauranga in the early years