This is how Selwyn Deeming remembers it, when as a young slip of a boy he accompanied his father John through rough waters on a 15 mile boat trip, from Russell to Deep Water Cove.  The unreliable engine, which ran the electric light for the fishing camp, had failed again and owner Puke Cross needed it fixed, quickly.

Built by Puke Cross and his brother, Deep Water Cove fishing camp consisted of a lodge and two cabins which could accommodate up to twelve anglers at one time.  Deep sea anglers fishing adjacent to and around the Cape Brett area in the early to mid 1900s stayed there.  Although it is said author and angler, Zane Grey used the camp, he never did.  Being an independent fellow, Grey decided to set up his own fishing camp at Urupukapuka.

Some anglers had a soft spot for the camp and returned each season.  Mrs Cross cooked on a wood fired range and always had a kettle of strong hot tea and baking at the ready.  Each night anglers gathered and shared fishing stories in an atmosphere of friendly rivalry, in the dining hall which had been built around a large puriri tree Puke Cross was loath to cut down.  “Deep Water Cove was a rough place, I loved it” said Francis Arlidge.

Those who know their stuff about quilts will be acquainted with their amazing history, which shows, they date back to early Egypt and Mongolia, to an ancient time when quilts not only kept one warm but were also used as carpets.  Quilting is a relatively simple process of stitching layers of fabric and padding together; but it takes time to make a quilt.  Perhaps time and history inspired these local women to reinterpret familiar “Russell scenes” as works of patiently crafted art.  Presented by members of the Russell Arts & Crafts Group at the opening of Russell Museum’s Marie King Gallery on the 17 December, 1967, the Heritage Quilt is seen above with the women who created it.

Left to right:  Marjorie Malone – Swordfish;  Helen Fitchett – Pompallier House;  Pat McIlvride – Christ church;  Margaret Brightwell – Marsden Cross;  Shirley Hill – Flagstaff;  Rona Nightingale – Custom House;  Joan Collie – Penguin. The Heritage Quilt was lettered by Joy Pivac and framed by Helen Fitchett.

Photofile no. 22-063
Copyright: Northern Advocate

On Sunday 9 August, Te Paparahi o Te Raki (The Northland Inquiry) facilitator Barry Rigby and Registrar Tina Mihaere met with the Russell Museum trustees and staff in order to give special  acknowledgement of Russell Museum’s recent exhibition “An Unsettled History”.  Barry Rigby expressed an appreciation for the timing of “An Unsettled History” as a means of informing the public about the Waitangi Tribunal’s role and the historic Treaty Claims currently taking place in Northland.

Stopping off in Russell on their way to the opening of the third week of judicial hearings at Panguru in the Hokianga, Barry Rigby and Tina Mihaere  viewed “An Unsettled History” and took time to discuss with museum trustees and staff how the exhibition followed in the footsteps of other “resistance” exhibitions such as Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance (2001), which explored the impact and repercussions of the storming of Parihaka Pa and “New Zealand Māori Culture and the Contemporary Scene” (1966) in which contemporary Maori art was contextualised by historical objects.

Te Paparahi o Te Raki is an inquiry in to He Whakaputanga o Rangatira o Nu Tireni (The Declaration of Independence, 1835) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840).  The third week of hearings started at Panguru on Monday 9 August and finish Friday 13 August. They are open to the public.  The fourth week of hearings in which Crown evidence will be presented may be held in Whangarei in September 2010.   Russell Museum chairperson Lorraine Hill presented Barry Rigby and Tina Mihaere with a special booklet of “An Unsettled History” in honour of the occasion.  Barry Rigby hoped claimants would come and view the exhibition before it closes in two weeks on Monday 23^rd August.

During the 19^th century hundreds of American whaling barks set sail from New England for foreign seas.  In December 1844, lured by the news of great fortunes being made in the Pacific whaling grounds, Captain Ichabod Handy sailed the Belle out of New Bedford harbour.  His wife, Mary Warren, did not see him again until 1852.

For nearly a hundred years whalers visited the port of Kororareka / Russell for supplies, repairs and to give the crew time ashore.  Captain Handy was one of them.  Sailing into the Bay of Islands in 1846 he found a “hellhole” of whalers, traders, grog shops, trading posts, and brothels.  Ichabod took a beautiful local Maori girl as a ‘season’ wife but left her that same year to continue his Pacific venture.

In 1857, eleven years on, Captain Handy returned to Russell and sought the whereabouts of his Maori ‘season’ wife.  Instead he found a daughter from their union living with an aunt who had married an English settler.  Ichabod promptly named his ten year old daughter, Alice Henrietta Handy and made arrangements to take her back with him.  Still married to Mary Warren, Ichabod placed Alice with his two aunts, both captains’ widows, who lived just eighty kilometres north of New Bedford in Boston.  Alice Handy was Captain Handy’s only child.  She received an education and at twenty-one married William Vincent.  They had two children, Alice and William.  Alice Henrietta Handy died of consumption at the young age of twenty eight.

Built at the back of the Russell Town Hall in 1932 for the Russell Guides and Brownies Association, the Russell Scout Hall, as it was known in our community, served as the Sea Scout, Scout, Brownies and Cub Den, for many years.  Interest waned, the hall fell into disrepair and the Russell Community Board eventually pulled it down in 1984.  During its “active years” the Scout Hall was regularly filled with Russell youngsters keen to learn valuable practical and social skills from early community leaders such as Marie King, Captain Blomfield and Miss Holt, to name a few. Under supervision our youngsters learned skills such as team work and self reliance, boat building, sailing theory and knots, dancing, singing and public speaking.  Some lessons, however, were learned in the school of life, according to Scout Ron Brooker.

 “I remember once we had a Scout camp ‘cause it was a combined camp over at Waitangi and one dreadful incident that frightened a lot of people. It happened in one of the Kawakawa tents. We had candles, everybody had candles and we also had sheath knives and one of the boys, the Kawakawa boys did a silly thing, it was time to have lights out and instead of getting up and blowing the candle out he got his sheath knife and threw the knife at the candle. It missed the candle and stabbed one of his mates in the forehead. There was a knife sticking in his head. Right up in the forehead there. I can’t remember what happened after that. It was pretty scary. Blood all over the place and a bit of a panic and just about finished the camp for the rest of the week.”

Early schooling in Kororareka was a religious affair with Māori children receiving the first lessons from Marist Brothers on Pompallier Mission Station grounds in 1839.  After a Catholic chapel was built in 1840, the Brothers offered weekday classes to European children.  At times up to forty children attended.   It seems “the want of the means of education” was still being expressed by concerned parents, for, in September 1840, Rev B. Quaife announced his intention to start a school in the Spring quarter while in December 1840, Mr. Gibbs proposed opening a “commercial school”.

Shortly after 1842 the Church of England built a school on their land.  So it seems at one time there may have been four schools in Russell.  After Russell’s sacking and evacuation on 11 March 1845 and the following war, residents were reluctant to return to Russell.  Sadly, the Catholic Mission was moved to Auckland forcing the closure of their small school and, without clergymen, schooling came to a standstill.  Although the Church of England schoolhouse survived it remained empty till 1854 when it reopened as a boys’ school.  A former member of Sir George Grey’s staff became its first headmaster.   Mr. Gould, married to Fanny, James Ready Clendon’s daughter, was an exemplary teacher.  Word spread of his teaching style and Auckland parents enrolled their children in Russell School. During this time Russell girls attended a small school at Tapeka.  After Mr Gould left in the 1860s schooling continued under a steady stream of teachers.  In the 1870s the price of an education was one shilling a week.

Under the Education Act in 1877, Russell School became a state school and the old schoolhouse was later removed.  For ten year Russell children attended a temporary Education Board school erected at the north end of Russell Beach.  In 1892 the present Russell School was ready for use.

Bay of Islands College recently held their Year 11, 12 and Senior Graduation prize giving and a number of ex Russell Primary School pupils, Ashe Cooper, Judy Elliot, Jack Blomfield, Jonty Hooson, Tyrone MacInnes, Hayley Jenner and Andrew Frankum were recognised for academic, leadership and sporting achievements. Although scholastic attainment is individual, teachers play an important part in guiding a pupil’s desire to make the most of education.  According to our museum records, Russell Primary School teachers have a history of doing this as Clive Arlidge, an ex pupil remembers.

“We only had one exercise book so all subjects went into this one exercise book, history and geography were very strong part of education in those days…because when we went to Kawakawa District High School from that little one exercise book we kept a record of all we had done in [Mr. Lindauer’s] classes.  When we got there, to grade you into A form, which was the academic form and B form which was called commercial, and I think the C form which was mainly woodwork and apprentices sort of class, and so through Lindauer’s good teaching… reinforcing us with dates etc and facts and figures [it] kept us in the A form and that was interesting for all of us, as we didn’t think we were that bright. I can remember about the third day after they had ticked and marked the form, one of the big fifth form boys… came round and stood in front of us, the boys of Russell, little third formers eating our lunch, and he got down by us and said “How come you Russell kids are so brainy?” We said, “How do you know?” and he said “I’ve just marked your papers and you think you are smart don’t you?”  We… felt very good about that.”

It’s coming up to silly season again when the symbiotic relationship between holiday makers and Russell’s economy hopefully reaches its potential.  Locals become good ambassadors guiding tourists to our historic spots, appropriate shops, restaurants and galleries.  Russell has always been a tourist town; if the notebook of sayings kept by James and Pauline Yearbury of the Colonial Gallery (1967-1976) is anything to go by, things may not have changed much.

1. Young couple from across the street to another young couple peering through window, “Are they open?” “Nah! There’s a lady in there but the old &#@*% won’t open up!”
2. “I think your designs are just lovely dear. Have you ever thought of getting them printed on tea towels?”
3. Tourist who has come over from Paihia by launch, “Are we still in Noo Zealand ma’am”?
4. Triumphant gent seeing initials on wood panel, “There you are J-P-Y” – Made in Japan.
5. Looking at panels, “My word, aren’t these Maoris clever with their hands”.
6. While gallery was closed, “They shouldn’t have places like this unless they’re prepared to open to the public.”
7. “Don’t go in there, it’s only art.”

I wonder what this summer will bring.  Are you keeping a notebook?

Past events and our knowledge of them are more often than not lost to the mists of time but sometimes a link is made and history is hauled into the present for a new generation to carry forward our precious stories.  Such is the case of the Lane Oar.

At the turn of the century, Tom Joyce of Paihia had two whaling boats, Hinemoa and Tutanakai, until, when the whaling industry declined Myra Larcombe’s grandfather, Henry Lane of Te Wahapu, who owned the sawmill at Koutoti, purchased the Hinemoa.  Tom fitted Tutanakai with a motor in 1910 and as Paihia had no school, ferried children to Opua.  The oars were also put to different use.

Myra remembers as a child on the farm in the Waikare, the oar having been passed on to her father Edmond Lane. “It was hung under the boatshed to sling fishing net over to dry and when Dad bought the Owaka, it was transferred and lashed under the sundeck in case of emergencies”, she explained. That emergency occurred in the late 1950s.  “After unloading a barge load of sand at Derrick Landing we were running the tide down river with the barge alongside. You have to get speed up to maintain steerage. Suddenly the launch hit a snag and the rudder sheared off. Dad quickly leapt up and grabbed the oar from under the sundeck and lashed it to the stern railing and steered back to Opua berthing the launch and barge at the wharf.   The steering oar performed perfectly.”

“When we sold Owaka the oar went with it”, says Myra.  “It was a bit sad because we lost track of it”; that is, until recently when Lindsay Alexander, while researching the whaleboats, made a connection between the Lane Family and an oar with the letters H. Lane carved on it, hanging in the Russell Boating Club.  Myra recognised the oar instantly and, although the blade now sports a coat of red paint, her grandfathers initials are still there, in history’s memory.

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.