Photograph of a portrait by G F Watts of Lord Russell.

Since first appearing in Russell Lights on the 16 September 2004, Heritage Corner has enlightened readers about Russell’s unique and considerable history.  For its 100^th Heritage Corner article we thank Russell Realty for their continued support and revisit the beginnings of our town, Russell.

When Governor Hobson was looking for a site for a temporary capital in 1840, he chose Okiato in the Bay of Islands.  Purchasing the land from James Reddy Clendon, who was running a trading station there, he renamed the place “Russell”.  New Zealand’s first capital had a short life, as a second capital was founded when Hobson removed to Auckland in March 1841.  In January 1844, Russell’s boundaries were extended to include Kororareka and “His Excellency the Governor” directed that Kororareka be henceforth designated by the said name of Russell.” Russell” of today was Kororareka of yesterday.

Russell was named in honour of Lord John Russell who was Britain’s Colonial Secretary at the time.  The younger son of the sixth Duke of Bedford, although not in line to inherit his father’s vast land holdings and family estates, was entitled to a seat in the House of Commons.  Politics became his calling.  A Whig, Lord John Russell went on to become Prime Minister of Great Britain twice, once in 1846-52 and later in 1865-66.  He was created Earl Russell in 1861.

It was in 1844 when Lord John Russell served as Colonial Secretary that the town adopted his name although it never was the capital, as many people claim that it was.

History provides some quirky stories and the tale of how an early cooking utensil got its name could be one of them.

Small, with a handle each side and a rounded bottom, such pots were ideal for cooking over an open fire.  These three-legged cooking pots were very much coveted by early Maori, who had no metal cooking utensils at all. The first ships to trade in New Zealand waters disposed of many such cooking pots in exchange for timber, flax or provisions. Sometimes, if supplies of pots were limited the Maori overstayed his welcome on the ship because he refused to move until he got one. Finally his exasperated hosts gave in, thrust the iron treasure into his hands and said, “There.  Now go ashore!” Thus the cooking pots came to be known as “Go-ashores”. This battered and ancient specimen, minus lid, handle and two of its legs, was dug up in a Russell garden.

Today, food, clothing, furniture, transport and shelter are just a short trip to the shops, internet order or, telephone call away.  In the late 17 & early 1800s, new arrivals to Kororareka faced a different reality. Long voyages exhausted provisions and many landed hungry and undernourished.  Replacement stores on arrival could not be guaranteed however a shortage of supplies could.  Compared to today some were of the more unusual kind.

Women available for marriage: According to a report in the Observer, when Bishop Pompallier arrived in Kororareka in 1839, there was only one white woman there.  Mrs. S. A. Wood was married.  The single respectable mission ladies at Paihia and Kerikeri were “secluded from the vulgar gaze of the unpolished barbarians on Kororareka Beach”.

Black coats:  When Governor Hobson held his first levee, (public court, a reception for men held in the early afternoon), there were “not more than a dozen presentable black coats in the whole community” and many who arrived in blue serge jumpers were refused entry.

Teeth:  European teeth were often decayed from a diet of sugar, flour and rum.  Old timers particularly felt the need for teeth and referred to it as “a long-felt want”.  Dr. Moffatt looked to Māori who had “handsome white teeth” and purchased them for extraction.

Cattle:  In 1817 Rev. Samuel Marsden wrote “I have resolved to introduce a number of cattle into New Zealand and let them take their chance.  The males may be killed to supply the English whalers or any other vessels with fresh meat if no Europeans should settle there…”

References:

Papers Past: No. 27. An Old Identity of 1839. Observer, Volume 3, Issue 55, 1 October 1881, Page 40 I Whiringa-ā-nuku, Pen and Ink Portraits.
Elder, J. R. (1932). Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden. Pub: Coulls Somerville Wilkie, Ltd: Dunedin.

Although James Busby, the British Resident, lived just across the Bay at Waitangi, lawlessness in the early 1830s was rife in Kororareka.  To be fair, the British Government didn’t exactly give him support.  The British Government didn’t quite know how to justly apply laws to regulate their subjects for at that time New Zealand belonged to Maori.  Instead, they directed him to entreat with local Maori Chiefs to track down offenders and escort them to British ships waiting in the Bay.

In the “absence of Magisterial authority”, 21 plus pioneer male residents and visiting ships Captains formed the Kororareka Association.  Meeting in ex-convict Ben Turner’s house on the May 23, 1838, residents subscribed £10 a head and visitors gave donations. The Association set 15 regulations which framed New Zealand’s first law.  Ben Turner sent a copy to the New South Wales government noting the area enforced by the Association was “from Matawai, Blind Bay, in a straight line across the Oneroa, on the long sandy beach, and all the land bounded by the coast from the beach to the Bay”.

Interestingly, “no lawyer could be a member; every member had to provide himself with a musket and bayonet, a brace of pistols, a cutlass and 50 rounds of ball cartridge” with the “Horsewhipping and Tar and Feathering laws” proving particularly useful.  Ben Turner explains.  “We had no other way of punishing offenders than only by horsewhipping or tarring and feathering them with three coats and drumming them off the beach, and never allowing them to return to Kororareka.  A good few underwent this punishment”.

Who owns our cannon? Since about 1840, when Ben Turner did – no-one has owned it. Or perhaps everyone has. Every child that sat on it for a photo, every local who told its story to a visitor, everyone who wondered when, where and what damage its cannonballs had done to ships or buildings had as much claim to it as the next person. Russell Museum wishes to change its ownership status but not without first consulting its other de facto owners.

The Russell Centennial Trust Board is assuming ownership of the Cannon on the Russell waterfront under their Mission Statement to protect Russell’s Heritage. Please advise within 14 days of this notice if there are any objections. Urgent repairs are required. Dianne Davey, Russell Centennial Trust Board, 2 York St. Phone 403 7701. ( This advertisement was placed in the New Zealand Herald 4^th June 2011)

Russell Museum trustee Reg Mogford, Trevor Sowry and other local volunteers repaired the barrel and constructed a new carriage in 1992. Similar work needs to be done again and trustees intend to initiate this work once ownership is established.

Photofile no. 4036 shows the cannon with the Pacific Hotel/Hananui behind.

Correction: Heritage Corner 108 in the last issue, “Under The Gables’ Wallpaper” should read: ‘There were newspapers below them, some still legible, dating back to 1885’, not 1825.

Did you think the drag race was a 21^st Century phenomenon in Russell- Kororareka? That it originated with the Birdman Festival? Not so! Similarly, for many Russellites and visitors the recent performances by our World-Famous-in-Russell Ukulele Orchestra were the first time they’d heard that instrument in the bar of the Duke. But no, even that is not a first. It has all been seen before, done before, heard before. Lurking in the photo collections at the museum was this gem. Taken by Ian Hanlon, probably sometime in the 1960s, this image reminds us that we are no different from those men and women who walked these same streets in those days, danced barefoot or sang along to someone strumming a song. Fun is still fun, whenever and wherever it’s found.

…with a colourful past. George Calcutta became his name. No-one in Russell ever knew his real name or where he was from. But he told them stories. He came to New Zealand as a body servant to a Captain Johnson, who took the young orphan on as a ‘body servant’. How old was he? George said he had no hairs on his face when the captain wanted to leave India and come to NZ. George was reluctant, but finally agreed. It took them a month to travel down the Ganges, sometime in the 1850s. Calcutta gave George “the fright me life”. They sailed to Auckland and the Captain acquired land in Raglan. They travelled there by canoe and by walking. Then his master got married to a “bad-tempered red-haired Irish woman”.  George left, saying “If I stay there I kill that woman, then my master not then like me perhaps, so I go quick.” He ended up in Russell and worked for various people – then a man hit him and George took him to court. George said he was “a free man and nobody’s slave. English man in India not do that, he not work for that man again, he starve first.” George had a hut in Matauwhi Bay called the “Willow Walk” and became a shepherd, with a dog named “Tenei”. Later he lived in a bach at the north end of town and worked cutting kindling or gardening for board and a shilling a day. Louisa Worsfold remembered him as quite a philosopher in his own way, a friend of generations of Russell children and an honest advisor to those who liked to listen. He used to say “I never tell lie, only if man going to hit me I tell lie quick enough.”

Source: 97/190 Louisa Worsfold’s letter of May 23 1944. Photofile No. 2006