Clevedon Sustainable Development Plan Project European Historical
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Clevedon Sustainable Development Plan Project European Historical Assessment Jessie Munro for Clevedon and Districts Historical Society McNicol Homestead 12 McNicol Rd Clevedon RD 5 Papakura 2585 January 2010 1 28/1/10 Contents We are presenting in this report an account of Clevedon‟s European heritage in a timeline format covering three time spans: Part 1 Te Wairoa / Wairoa South: Settling and growing, 1840–1900 Part 2 Clevedon, a confident, stable rural community, 1900–1970 Part 3 Clevedon, a lifestyle and commuting community, 1970–2009 This is followed by: Part 4 Recommendations on the preservation and promotion of Clevedon’s cultural heritage Also available is: Supplementary material, retained by Clevedon & Districts Historical Society For a considerable time now the Clevedon and Districts Historical Society has been accumulating research material and in 2008 commissioned Jessie Munro to research and write for publication a history of the Clevedon area. For more detailed background and greater insight and analysis, we are also making available a preparatory brief version of the projected book as we consider that this material, also presented here in three parts for the same three time spans, will be invaluable information for those involved in planning the future of Clevedon. 1 A preparatory brief version of the projected book, presented in three parts for the same three time spans as above (copyright Jessie Munro and Clevedon and Districts Historical Society) 2 Location map and historical background to Clevedon village buildings and other sites. (from F. Murray, Yesteryears, ed. S. Gorter, Auckland 2009 (copyright Clevedon and Districts Historical Society) 3 Clevedon 150th Anniversary Heritage Walk (copyright Clevedon and Districts Historical Society) 4 Summary of archives held by the Clevedon and Districts Historical Society (copyright Clevedon and Districts Historical Society) 2 28/1/10 Introduction In Manukau City Council‟s District Plan (6.1), heritage is defined as: „those attributes, from the distant or more recent past, that establish a sense of connection to former times, contribute to community identity, sense of place, and spirituality, that people have a responsibility to safeguard for current and future generations.‟ The brief given to the Clevedon and Districts Historical Society is Clevedon‟s European history and cultural heritage. The history and heritage of iwi is in another assessment. The rich accretions of these dual and joint heritages accumulated over 150 years are handed on to current and future generations for safeguarding with responsibility and respect, caring and kaitiakitanga. Most Päkehä who have lived more than fifty years in the Clevedon area will have shared experiences with Ngai Tai and Ngäti Paoa neighbours and companions in school, work, sports and leisure. In the 1950s, after the closure of outlying schools, between a quarter and a third of Clevedon School classes were Mäori. There were kainga both in the Umupuia area and in Kawakawa Bay, while the stretch of road between Luke‟s Bridge and the Ness Valley turn- off had very significant Mäori land ownership and occupation. As Päkehä, we were brought up to recognise the import of the World War II memorial monument to Pat Reuben on the Thompson farm, the cemeteries at Waitarata (we did not use „urupa‟ then), the award of the Bledisloe cup to the Brown family dairy farm, the Mataitai Te Tokotoru Tapu Church and the awe-inspiring trenched outlines of the pä at Turei‟s Hill (though few of us would have known its name, Päwhetau); and to respect the knowledge and mana of people such as Rachael Zister, Harry Turei and George Brown. Despite this overlap of school, work, sports and leisure, we nevertheless lived parallel lives in the main. Mäori held considerable bicultural knowledge of our farms, homes and customs, but there was little reciprocity in domestic socialising. We did know of the standing certain people had in the Mäori community, but most of us knew them by their English names and we did not then have a true comprehension of „kaumatua‟ or „kuia‟. Typically – with a few notable exceptions – most Mäori worked for Päkehä: „you had the money; we had the time‟. Farm cashbooks document this relationship. Many farmers did, however, honour the importance of tangihanga. In the 1960s, the growing industries of Auckland, the condemnation of some housing conditions, and the rates burden on land took many of Clevedon‟s tangatawhenua population away, both as residents and landholders. This more recent alienation from the land echoes that set in train in the nineteenth century. 3 28/1/10 The mention of Umupuia, Kawakawa Bay and Ness Valley is a signal that this study will reach out further than the delineated zone of the Clevedon Sustainability Plan Project. The village of Clevedon has, and always has had, an interwoven relationship with the micro- communities of the many roads converging at either end of the street. They include the valley and almost sea-level estuary families and their Devon, Shorthorn, Jersey and now Friesian cows on the one hand; on the other, the marginal bush families on 45 degree-ed slopes up the surrounding hills with their Romney-Southdown sheep, their poll Angus or Hereford cattle; they include the drovers, roadmen, scowmen, timbermen, shopkeepers, carters, builders and all who would keep a farming district viable; the women and children in milking sheds, sheep yards and hay paddocks; the many community organisations from the earliest times pulling in people to meetings and socials from far afield; they include Anglicans and Presbyterians; Mäori and Päkehä. Clevedon‟s heritage is the sum of all these. 4 28/1/10 Aims and methodology The brief given to the Clevedon and Districts Historical Society was to provide a European historical assessment for Clevedon, and give recommendations for the preservation and promotion of its cultural heritage. Three distinct periods are covered in timeline format and in supplementary full documents: „Settling and Growing, 1840-1900‟; „A stable rural community, 1900-1970‟; „A lifestyle and commuting community, 1970-2009‟. Recommendations, with context and explanation, are presented in Part 4. Parts 1 and 2: Information for the periods covered in Parts 1 and 2 has been gathered mainly in local archives and from personal contributions, in particular the primary sources of the archival collection held in the McNicol Homestead, supplemented by my ongoing research for the book: local histories, manuscript records such as minute books, oral history transcripts, family survey documents, and records contributed by families such as diaries, farm ledgers, letters. As well, material from national and municipal archives and from web-based sources such as PapersPast has been consulted. Bruce Ringer‟s „Manukau‟s Journey‟ from Manukau City Research Library and Graeme Murdoch‟s reports for ARA/ARC have been valuable resources.1 Published works of history have given important information on both local context (such as Fraser Murray‟s historical columns over a twelve-year period, now available in Yesteryears, edited by Sandra Gorter, 2009) and on wider contexts (for instance Paul Monin, This is my Place, Hauraki Contested 1769-1875, 2001, and Wood, Brooking and Perry‟s recent paper, „Pastoralism and politics: reinterpreting contests in territory in Auckland Province, New Zealand, 1853-1864‟ in the international Journal of Historical Geography, 34, 2008.) Part 3: Historical analysis and archived records have, however, been lacking in the main for the recent period of Part 3, „A lifestyle and commuting community, 1970–2009‟. As well as accessing available records, we therefore consulted widely among Clevedon‟s community, with six meetings out of which often came additional important information. The meetings were organised to enable people to share and discuss varying facets of experience across this forty-year span, and to contribute to recommendations. Participants were mainly people who had grown up here, except for the essential last group of those who chose during this time to come and live here. 1 Graeme Murdoch, „Historical Perspectives on the Southern Kaipara, Lower Waikato and Wairoa Valley, ARA 1988; „A Brief History of the Human Occupation of the Hunua Catchment Parkland‟, ARC 1993; „A History of the Human Occupation of the Whakakaiwhara Block‟, ARC 1996. 5 28/1/10 The aims were to: • Gather views of those who in the main have grown up in Clevedon, on how they have experienced/contributed to change • Gather information on milestone events c 1970-2009 affecting their life patterns Topics discussed here included: – The creation of Manukau City in 1965 and the implications for the almost wholly farming community of Clevedon – Local body and national legislation affecting farming (land use, land subdivision and amalgamation, building construction, rating and rating relief); affecting homes and housing, commercial activity, transport. – National/international/ political developments affecting the economy and life pattern of Clevedon (Britain fully joining the European Economic Community and the impact of this on dairying and sheepfarming; the oil shock of 1973; Muldoon‟s subsidies; the removal of subsidies in 1984…) – Societal/economic changes (such as a family expectation to continue farming; „the return to the land‟ of 1960s/1970s idealists; 10-acre blocks; the later attraction of Clevedon to wealthier purchasers (horse estates, pilots…); town supply supplanting cream; women in paid work of choice