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Howick Welcome Guide Headlines
Welcome...
History of Howick, Pakuranga and surrounding areas
Historical Places of Interest
Dining, Entertainment & Community Notices
Howick Welcome Guide
History of Howick, Pakuranga and surrounding areas
Monday, 11 April 2005
Howick Beach
HOWICK
is named after the third Earl Grey, formerly Lord Howick, who was Secretary for the Colonies in the British Parliament and was responsible for the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps immigration scheme. His family home is Howick Hall, Northumberland, England.
There were about 250 Fencibles in Howick.
The tangata-whenua (people of this land) were the Ngai Tai people of Tainui descent. They had lived here for over 1,000 years with pa (fortified villages) at Ohuia Rangi (Pigeon Mt), Te Waiarohia (Musick Point) and Tuwakamana (Cockle Bay).
The Howick, Pakuranga, Whitford areas were part of the Fairburn claim. William Thomas Fairburn, with his wife and family, established a Church Missionary Society Mission Station at Maraetai in 1836.
The local Maori insisted they buy the 40,000 acres between the Tamaki and Wairoa Rivers to prevent attack by the Ngapuhi and Waikato tribes.
As an act of Christian peacemaking, Fairburn reluctantly bought the land with his life savings.
In 1840, following the Treaty of Waitangi, the Government took 36,000 acres which it used for the Fencible settlements of Otahuhu and Howick and sold most of the remaining land to settlers, as well as paying Maori and returning most of the Wairoa Valley to them.
The Maori welcomed the Fencibles to Howick and recognised the advantages of co-operation and trade. Maori labourers built the Fencibles cottages under Royal Engineers supervision.
Howick's links to Auckland’s pioneering and Fencible past has influenced its development and is also evident in the names of many streets. Others are significantly named for British military heroes or battles.
Bleakhouse (as in Bleakhouse Rd) was the name given to a Fencible officer’s house built in Bleakhouse Rd for Surgeon-Captain Bacot who became a magistrate in Howick.
Later, in the hands of the Macleans family it became the heart of the social scene in the 1850s and ’60s. The house was burnt down in 1910 but gave its name to the street.
Other roads such as Bacot, Bell, Fencible Drive, Montressor Place and Sale St, plus many others, also have Fencible links, eg Sir Robert Sale was one of the ships which brought the Fencibles to Auckland in the 19th century.
Montressor Place was named for Captain Charles Henry Montressor-Smith who arrived in Howick with the First Battalion of Fencibles in 1847. He later moved to a property in neighbouring Pakuranga, where his house, known as Bell House, still stands at the end of Bell Rd next to the Howick Historical Village.
Moore St was named after General Sir John Moore, a British military hero, who lived from 1761-1809. General Moore fought against Napoleon alongside Sir David Baird for whom Baird St was named and he (Moore) died at Corinna during the Peninsula Wars whilst serving under the Duke of Wellington. At Corinna he was attended by Dr J. Bacot, father of the Howick Fencible doctor, who lived in Bleakhouse.
Moore St was part of the original Fencible village and was sub-divided into one acre allotments down to Rodney St. People will, no doubt, recognise that Wellington and Nelson Sts spring from the most famous of British war heroes, Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington and that Selwyn St takes its name from the first and only Bishop of New Zealand.
Then there are streets such as Granger Rd named for John Granger, manager of the brick works, which once stood at Bucklands Beach before moving to Whitford; or Litten Rd named after a former farmer and landowner.
Settlement in Howick centred around the domain, and the village developed as a service centre for the prosperous farming community. It later became popular as a retirement and seaside holiday location.
From the late 1940s to the 1970s the Howick area experienced rapid growth, and in 1990 the re-organisation of local body government in New Zealand saw Howick become a ward within Manukau City, with its Borough Council being replaced by a Community Board and Councillor representation.
Pakuranga, 1950
PAKURANGA
gained its name from a legend about a battle between the 'turehu' night-dwelling creatures of Waitakere and Hunua over a maiden.
The battle raged fiercely near Pigeon Mountain until the Hunua tohunga (priest) caused the sun to rise prematurely.
The red-hot fiery rays caught the Waitakere turehu by surprise and caused them to perish. It is said the "turehu" came out only at night and withdrew back to the forests before sunrise.
Hence the name of the battleground – 'battle of the sun's rays' or Pakuranga, as we know it today.
The first European settlers to move to Pakuranga were Fencibles from Howick. They established themselves in Pigeon Mountain and Bucklands Beach – feeling an affinity to the countryside that reminded them of home. This fact is reflected in the names of areas such as Bleak House, Butley Manors and Sorrel Hill.
Pakuranga developed to become a rich farming district and few were more successful than the Maclean brothers. They farmed a large area stretching from Bucklands Beach to Butley Manor and across to Bleakhouse.
Cattle sheep, horses and pigs were bred, and many settlers were employed to help on the farm. Crops also flourished in the favourable growing conditions, with much of the produce consumed by residents of nearby Howick. The surplus was sent to the markets in Auckland.
In 1866, in an attempt to improve travel from the eastern districts to the rest of Auckland, a bridge was built spanning the Tamaki River from Pakuranga to Panmure. This signalled the end of 15 years of service by a leaky punt that had previously ferried people, carts, stores and stock across the river. At the Pakuranga end a swivel attachement allowed a 40-foot section of the bridge to open and permit large vessels up the river. The current Panmure bridge was built in 1959.
From the 1860’s to the 1940’s there were few changes in Pakuranga. The farms remained modest holdings changing from crops of wheat, oats and potatoes, to cattle, sheep and particularly dairy cattle for town milk supply, butter and cheese. The “commercial centre” of Pakuranga was near the Pakuranga College of today.
Pakuranga in 1947 had a population of 277 and Howick 1000.
In the 1950s Pakuranga started to change from a farming community to a residential suburb of Auckland. Today Pakuranga is an attractive residential suburb of Auckland with a few pockets of light industry.
In 1965 the Pakuranga Town Centre and Ti Rakau Drive were established.
By the 1980s Pakuranga had virtually ceased to grow as very green field sites were available for development, however a recent rend for infill housing has led to a slow population increase over the last decade.
History of Bucklands Beach and Eastern Beach
THE Ngaitai Pa at Te Waiarohia (Musick Point) or East Head as the first European settlers called it, is now occupied by the Howick Golf Club and the old radio station.
This headland provides extensive views of the Waitemata Harbour, Tamaki Strait, and Hauraki Gulf.
The Tainui canoe is said to have stopped here on its voyage from Hawaiiki to Kawhia and Mokau on the West Coast over 1000 years ago.
The pa was occupied until 1821 when Hongi Hika with his musket-armed tribe threatened attack.
After Fairburn, William Mason, New Zealand’s first architect, bought 350 acres in 1851.
Alfred Buckland, the stock and station agent, bought the farm in 1861 for 2500 pounds, plus an annuity of 150 pounds “payable to William Mason and his wife, Sarah Mason during their lives and that of the survivor”. He lived for another 35 years, so did well from the agreement.
The Bucklands home was at “Highwic”, Newmarket, but his family (of 22 children) spent holidays here on their farm. Eastern Beach (the back beach) was then called Masons Beach.
In 1916, the Bucklands subdivided their farm, planting phoenix palms on Eastern Beach frontage to give it a tropical appearance. This fashion continues today.
The thick cockle shell deposits on Eastern Beach were quarried until the 1940s for road metal, and for burning for lime mortar for brickwork. John Granger operated a brickworks on the point between Little and Big Bucklands Beaches in the 1870s.
In early times, Maori brought basalt boulders from Motutapu Island and had adze factories on the beach.
Half Moon Bay was formerly Hancocks Bay (when the Hancocks farmed here), Camp Bay when the King George V Health Camp was established here but changed when the marina was developed in 1967.
History of Whitford
Whitford was named after Richard Whitford who had a flax mill on the Waikopua near Housons Creek although some believe Whitford referred to the White-ford over the Turanga Creek at the end of Sandstone Road, where the salt dries when the tide is out.
The first European settlers were George and William Trice who started farming “Poplar Farm” in Clifton Road in 1843.
Most settlers (such as the Emblings, Doidges, Broomfields, Wades and Kellys) arrived after the mid 1850s. Their descendants still live in the area today.
Ostriches on Nathans “Whitford Park” estate provided feathers for the fashion trade from 1869 until the 1920s. They also trained racehorses, which is still an important activity today.
Trices goldmine later became the Whitford landfill and metal is still quarried from this early, rather unproductive venture.
Whitford provides firewood, post and rail timbers, as well as butter, eggs and cheese to the village shopkeepers in Howick. Granger’s brickworks operated from the 1870s until 1920.
Water transport was the preferred method until the 1920s when roads and motor transport became more reliable.
Today, Whitford has its own shops and industries in a bustling centre including a real estate agent, accountant, dentist, service station, restaurant, gift shop and furniture restoration.
Lifestyle blocks for city workers have taken over some farms, although beef, sheep, dairy and timber are the main activities.
History of Somerville
In 1863, Thomas Brady, the publican at the Howick Arms Hotel sold 103 acres of land at a reputed cost of one pound per acre to the Somervilles.
The family used the land to build a cottage, and then a two storied homestead at Cream Stand Corner where the Howick, Whitford and East Tamaki roads meet.
The Somerville farm was always called "Paparoa", after the district – the valley from Paparoa Road, Somerville Rd to the Whitford Rd. It was initially scrub and native grasses, but was soon producing wheat and oats The last crop was 1930, when they turned to dairy, sheep and beef.
Their 12-byre cowshed can now be seen at the Howick Historical Village.
Fencible solider John Nicholas bought a farm in Somerville Road in 1851. His was was the Howick midwife during the 1850s and it was often customary to name babies after the midwife when no other was immediately available, hence many Howick newborns were designated with the name Nicholas.
Archive Somerville sold his farm in 1988, and in the years that have followed, Meadowlands has been transformed into an exciting new residential area, with an increase in population in the order of 200% since 1991.
The Somerville shopping area is the hub of this attractive suburb having an exciting array of over 80 shops, with more to open, catering largely for the well-established Asian community.
Clevedon - a major rural link in region
Clevedon Ward, at over 37,000 hectares makes up more than two thirds of the entire land area of Manukau City, yet its population accounts for only 4% of all city residents. The ward, which is linked to Howick and Pakuranga in so many ways, is predominantly rural with a series of coastal and inland settlements including Whitford, Beachlands, Maraetai, Clevedon, Kawakawa Bay and Orere Point.
Known as Te Wairoa by the Ngai Tai and Ngati Paoa people, Clevedon has had a chequered naming history since European settlement. Early pioneers generally referred to the area as Wairoa South, however in 1886, to avoid confusion with several other towns in New Zealand, also named Wairoa, an English settler from Clevedon, England, renamed the area. This was said to upset the locals who were predominantly Scottish immigrants, as it was felt that the name did not reflect their Scottish heritage.
In 1852, one of the first European settlers to arrive in Clevedon was Mr Duncan NcNicol and his family. Later, in 1865, a further 150 new immigrants arrived from Scotland on the boat "Viola". These people decided to settle in the Clevedon Valley and the surrounding districts.
Originally covered in thick native bush, the settlers cleared the land and, as a result, many were involved in timber milling and gum digging activities. After clearing, the land became used predominantly for pastoral farming, with some horticultural development in prime soil areas.
The Wairoa River played an important part in the development of the Clevedon township and provided a vital transport service to and from Auckland. From early on, a variety of cutters plied the waters around Clevedon, ferrying passengers and cargo.
Unfortunately, the service provided by these boats was often erratic, which prompted the settlers to band together and form the Clevedon Steam Navigation Company in 1896. Funds were pooled, and the SS Hirere was built to service the river on a more regular basis.
The main cargo for the SS Hirere was the products manufactured in the town's butter factory. Built in 1884, the Wairoa South Butter and Cheese Factory, played a significant role in Clevedon's development with dairying forming the backbone of the district until the early 1900s. The butter produced from the factory was ferried to Auckland, with some of it being transported further afield, putting Clevedon on the world export map.
It was not until after World War Two that Beachlands and Maraetai began to develop as popular beachside resorts and weekend escapes. More recently, Beachlands and Maraetai have experienced another surge of popularity with many people choosing to live permanently in these communities and commute to the city for work. Whitford and the surrounding areas have also become very popular with those seeking 'lifestyle block' living.
The population in the Clevedon Ward is predominantly European (84%) and 13.6% of residents are aged 60 and over. Clevedon also has a large proportion of residents working in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors, reflecting the unique lifestyle and employment opportunities of this ward.
