ITINERARY n.46 WAIMATE 2 9 KERIKERI 1 4 12 RUSSELL 5 7 8 13 6 11 10 3 14 15 WAITANGI Te Waimate Misson House Pakeha Settlement in Northland Biography: New Zealand does not have a lot of Georgian architecture for the reason that our colonisation in 1840 Many of New Zealand’s oldest coincided with that movement’s fall from fashion. Thus, most of our Georgian buildings pre-date colonisation, surviving buildings were built in being built in the 1820s and 1830s, and most are in Northland. In Britain, Georgian architecture is associated and around the Bay of Islands with the period 1720 to 1840, approximately the years of Britain’s first four King Georges (although not quite, by London’s Church Missionary as the King Georges actually reigned from 1714 to 1830). Georgian architecture is often described as a Society (CMS). The CMS was restrained form of classicism (the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture adds that it had a ‘sensible plainness’). founded in 1799 with a view to In Australia and in particular in New Zealand, the Georgian was even more understated, with classicism’s ‘educating’ indigenous peoples axiality, symmetry and regular fenestration still present, but its ornamentation and orders mostly gone. in British colonies around the world. The CMS was active in Our Georgian buildings tend to have rectilinear footprints; a main entrance on the line of symmetry on New Zealand from 1814 when the one of the two long elevations; hipped roofs with tightly cropped eaves; and – more Australian than British Rev. Samuel Marsden conducted – ground floor verandahs, often wrapping around the front and two sides of the building. The main entries a Christmas service in the Bay lend themselves to central hallways with rooms opening off either side. It was a case of front rooms on the of Islands. Marsden continued entry side of the house and service spaces out the back. Small budgets and limited skillsets meant that the to visit New Zealand regularly, interiors of these buildings were mostly utilitarian. while other missionaries settled here and ran the new mission In pre-colonial times, sealers, whalers and church missionaries of a range of denominations all contributed stations. In 1823, this included to Pakeha settlement. Pubs and brothels for the whalers and sealers, and mission houses and churches for Rev. Henry Williams, who led the the missionaries were notable building types. Other than Christ Church, Russell, however, the churches from missionaries at Paihia, and three early Pakeha settlement tend to have been replaced over time: the original ones had not been built to last. years later, his brother, William Many of the replacement churches date from the 1870s. Advocated by A. W. N. Pugin for Catholic churches Williams, who helped to translate and then by the Ecclesiological Society for Anglican churches, Gothic Revival was increasingly the language the New Testament into Maori. In used for the replacement churches, and all the churches in this itinerary follow that movement’s forms and the 1830s, the CMS expanded details, adapted for construction in timber. This includes steeply pitched roofs to allude to the verticality of its operations beyond the Bay of the Gothic, pointed and/or lancet windows, articulation of the different functional parts of the building, and Islands, gradually heading south. increasingly asymmetric planning. Internally, high ceilings follow the profile of the steep roofs, with structural It reached its peak in the 1840s timbers expressed, particularly posts, rafters and any related roof structure. Most interior timbers are clear- and 1850s, with mission stations finished, although, perhaps surprisingly, the sarking is in some cases painted white. throughout the North Island. Negotiations for its withdrawal The New Zealand Historic Places Trust owns many of Northland’s key buildings of early Pakeha settlement from New Zealand began in 1854 and runs them as museums, open to the public. Access is free with Historic Places Trust membership or and the arrival of new missionaries charged at a nominal rate for non-members. Exploring these museums makes for a great driving holiday ceased. A New Zealand branch up north. For those who demand accommodation of a certain standard, there are Copthorne hotels on of the CMS was then formed both sides of the island (in Omapere on the west, overlooking the Hokianga Harbour, and the former THC in 1892, to send New Zealand Waitangi on the east). There are plenty of other sites to visit, including the Waipoua Forest’s giant kauri tree, missionaries overseas. The CMS tane mahuta, and numerous sites of Maori cultural heritage value. Julia Gatley still functions today. Reference as: Julia Gatley, “Pakeha Settlement in Northland”, Itinerary No. 46, Block: The Broadsheet of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, No. 9, 2012. 1 1821-22 2 ca. 1831-32 3 ca. 1833-34 4 ca. 1832-36 Kerikeri Mission House Te Waimate Mission House Treaty House Stone Store 218 Kerikeri Road Te Ahu Ahu Road Tau Henare Drive 248 Kerikeri Road Kerikeri Waimate North Waitangi Kerikeri Te Waimate Mission House is New Zealand’s second oldest This is New Zealand’s oldest Also known as Kemp House, the extant building, and the only The Treaty of Waitangi was extant stone building and also Kerikeri Mission House is New survivor from this CMS mission signed here on 6 February 1840, its oldest extant warehouse. Zealand’s oldest extant building. station. It is again Georgian, but the house was built earlier, for It was built by the CMS as a It was the CMS’s second New this time single-storeyed with the British Resident James Busby storage facility for food and other Zealand mission house and has dormer windows to an attic level and his family. Sydney architect resources. It is another Georgian survived because it was built using above. It allowed genteel living, John Verge produced the initial building, two storeyed with an quality materials including native incorporating a dining room and design. This was modified by the attic above, but minus the ground timbers and Australian timber a parlour space. The building NSW Colonial Architect, Ambrose floor verandah seen on most shingles for the roof. It is two- was occupied by Bishop George Hallen, before construction of New Zealand’s Georgian storeyed and Georgian, and was Selwyn and his wife in the early began. The house was largely buildings. It was designed by a originally only one room deep. The 1840s and was then used as prefabricated in Australia. The Wesleyan missionary, Rev. John eaves are very tightly cropped and a British military encampment original portion includes the Hobbs, and utilised local basalt as with the comparatively small first during the first of the New Georgian front, while the back is well as Sydney and Parramatta floor windows, give the house a real Zealand Wars (1845-46). It a series of additions. In 1932 the sandstones. It operates as a austerity. A single-storey addition struggled as a mission station, Governor-General Lord Bledisloe warehouse museum (as distinct was built at the back, meaning the becoming instead the vicarage of and his wife gifted the house to from a house museum) and ground floor is no longer of single- the nearby Church of St John the the nation. It is administered by shop, with exhibits including tools, room depth. Baptist. a trust. crockery and fabrics. 5 ca. 1835-36 6 ca. 1838-39 7 ca. 1841-42 8 ca. 1870 Christ Church Mangungu Mission House Pompallier Customhouse 1-3 Church Street 107 Motukiore Road 5 The Strand 37 The Strand Russell Mangungu Russell Russell Pompallier was built by Marists Christ Church is New Zealand’s – French missionaries from the Russell was a base for whalers oldest surviving church Society of Mary – and is one of and sealers and was known – transformed, though, by New Zealand’s oldest French as the ‘hell hole of the Pacific’ alterations in the 1870s. It is an Built by the Wesleyan Missionary colonial buildings. It takes its because of the extent of the Anglican church and was built by Society (WMS), Mangungu was name from the founder of the partying. The Customhouse was George Mair, a ship’s carpenter. a Methodist mission house and mission, Bishop Jean Baptiste designed by the only person Mair was probably responsible is New Zealand’s oldest surviving Pompallier, and was a focal point to hold the position of Colonial for the design as well as the Methodist building. It has a for spreading the Catholic faith Architect, William Clayton. It is construction. It started out as a spectacular site at the top of a rise among Maori. It accommodated a Gothic Revival building, with small rectangular box of a building overlooking Hokianga Harbour. a printing press, to print religious steeply pitched gabled roofs, with a hipped roof. The latter Like the Stone Store, this literature translated into Maori. shaped brackets and upstairs was replaced by a gabled roof in Georgian building was designed The two-storey building, with an windows which taper to allude 1871. The porch, buttresses and by Rev. John Hobbs. It is thought attic lit by dormers, utilised French to the pointed windows of the belfry were all added later. It has to have been built of kauri. After vernacular building techniques, Gothic. It comprised both the the pointed windows of Gothic the closure of the mission in including rammed earth walls for customs office and the residence Revival architecture, although 1855, the building was moved to the lower level, timber-framed of the customs officer. The unlike many Gothic Revival Onehunga, in Auckland, and was walls above and a distinctive building was taken over by the churches, it has no distinct returned to Mangungu, close to its hipped roof with eaves supported police in the 1890s and is still chancel.