"Disgusting, indecent, and a standing disgrace."

Excerpt from the Wairarapa Daily Times, dated 31 October 1893:

"The Tenui bridge again calls for immediate steps being taken either to thoroughly repair it or erect a temporary span suitable for pedestrians. It is really disgusting, indecent, and a standing disgrace to those responsible for the delay. Ladies journeying to and from Castlepoint, may, at any moment, be confronted by a naked man just emerging from the river as he has waded across. The other day two or three men, in primitive dress, were seen running about the banks driving horses across, and some females were stopped just in time to avoid the unseemly sight. If some unfortunate swagger is drowned, or the mails lost then perhaps the bridge will be repaired."

Manly Affections

In the 1880s local chemist London-born Robert Gant was a prominent member of the theatrical community in Masterton, his high tenor voice being in demand for concerts and other musical entertainments.  He often performed in female roles, and frequently appeared under his stage name of Cecil Riverton.

He was also a keen photographer and some of his albums have survived in archives and in family collections.  And what remarkable volumes they are, filled with images of local young men, many of them in theatrical dress, some of them even in drag.

Associate Professor Chris Brickell, of the University of Otago and himself with Wairarapa antecedents,  has drawn of Robert Gant's work previously, with images from the albums featuring in his award-winning work Mates and Lovers,and has now turned his attention to more closely examine what happened when an artistic 'new chum' and his camera met the rugby- and cricket-playing locals.

The new volume, Manly Affections, the photographs of Robert Gant, 1885-1915, will be available later this month.  Here is a sneak preview.   http://www.manlyaffections.co.nz/

Gathering places were important institutions in the small towns of the Wairarapa when they were first settled in the 1850s.  The small farmer settlers needed a place they could hold church services, town meetings and, in most cases, school classes.  Small buildings quickly sprang up in the centre of each of the villages.

But the limitations of these small buildings quickly became obvious.  As the population grew it became clear the towns needed bigger halls, where more inhabitants could meet, and where entertainments could be held.

In Masterton, the Trust Lands Trust came to the rescue, building a combined library/town hall in the early 1870s, at the Queen Street end of Lincoln Road, then known as Hall Street in honour of the building. It became the gathering point for the community, with balls and dances always popular. 

It was after one such ball, held by the local Maori community, that the town hall disappeared from the townscape.  The dance, held on October 9 1882 had lasted until about 1.00 the following morning.  At 1.30 passersby noticed smoke coming from the building and raised the alarm but it was too late – the building was ablaze and was quickly razed.  The custodian James Brown managed to wake his wife and children, and the family escaped from the inferno.  They lost all their possessions in the conflagration, and the hall, which was owned by the Masterton Trust Lands Trust, was not replaced for fifteen years.

The Masterton Theatre Royal Company swung into action within days, buying a building in Queen Street, and converting it into a hall.  The building was erected in 1879 as the ‘Empire Store’, no doubt named after the Empire Hotel, directly across the road.  The store proprietors prided themselves on their supplies of groceries, draperies and ironmongery.

The newly formed company planned alterations totally ₤480, including an extension to the back of the store which would hold the stage and dressing rooms – two for the women and one for the men.  They planned enough seating for 300 people – three times that of the old hall – and built a large double door ‘to afford easy egress’ in case of fire.  A special committee of J H Corbett, publican from the Empire Hotel, across the road from the hall, and Thomas Wrigley, a noted amateur thespian, was delegated to negotiate with the building’s previous owners.

The scheme’s promoters were sure the theatre would be a great advance on previous buildings, saying it was centrally located and admirably adapted for theatrical, operatic and musical performances, balls and mass meetings.  They also claimed it would allow the best metropolitan companies to visit the town.

They were especially proud of the décor.  ‘The new theatre will be decorated in the highest style of art, fitted with the best scenery and all the accessories for producing effective scenery displays.’

The new theatre was quickly renovated and a grand opening performance held on March 19, 1883, when the lessee, local painter, café owner and amateur actor George Coker arranged for Stanley and Darbyshire’s Juvenile Opera Bouffe and Pantomime Company to come to the town – a company composed almost entirely of young children.  Juvenile opera companies were very popular in the 1880s, many troupes of young performers travelling the country.  Perhaps the most popular was Tom Pollard’s.  Not everyone approved of juvenile performers though.  The Evening Post had this to say after an 1881 production of HMS Pinafore –

Can nothing be done to put a stop to the employment of children of tender years on the stage? The law is very strict in prescribing the number of hours adult women shall be employed in factories...However, there seems to be absolutely no protection for the poor little babes who are collected night after night before the garish footlights...Who does not remember the pathetic story of the poor little fellow at Sydney, whose unnatural exertions, night after night, in Pinafore, cost him his life, and who died singing, in his delirium, the ‘Captain's Song’.

The Wairarapa Daily was more impressed with the juvenile company, and the new hall they performed in.  The theatre managed to hold some 700 spectators (not all seated) without a crush and the interior, if not brilliant, was well lit, and the ventilation worked well.  Local artist Tom Donnelley’s painted scenery was claimed to be the equal of that seen in any provincial theatre in the country.

The young performers entranced the audience and the critic alike.  When the curtain rose on HMS Pinafore four and twenty juvenile mariners and marinesses were placed against a backdrop of the British fleet.  Their opening chorus brought the house down, and by the end of the performance the crowd was well pleased with the spectacle.  The following night the troupe performed Les Cloches de Cornville to equal praise.  As the Daily put it : ‘The audience separated well satisfied with the first season of the Masterton Theatre Royal.’

All sorts of entertainers were hosted in the hall.  Professor Lichtwark, the famed horse breaker from Hawera, lectured on his new methodology; “Professor” Richards advertised himself as a “medical electrician”; the Reverend Isitt lectured on prohibition; blind musical students travelled from Melbourne; boxing tournaments were held, and the theatre also operated as a roller skating rink.  It was a popular destination for touring companies.

If only it was built well enough to stand the large crowds that gathered there for their entertainment, but it was not - it had some major problems.  The corrugated iron walls and roof made performance almost impossible on a rainy night, and the ventilation, which was satisfactory on a cool March evening, was not so useful on a hot February night.

By the early 1890s there was widespread discontent with the facilities on offer.  The town’s Member of Parliament, Alexander Hogg, was scathing, saying the Theatre Royal was simply a disgrace, while the newspaper editor Joseph Payton was sure the old frail building would not see the century out.   He reported that a man who had helped with the renovations said that both the floor and the roof were unsound. When the Theatre Royal opened again after closing for a few months in 1894, he said the seats were covered with dust and the dirty-looking and the ill-lighted theatre was an embarrassment to the town.  Payton believed the town needed a new, purpose-built hall.  He suggested the Trust Lands Trust could assist and have a substantial brick building erected.

After rancorous debate, and more than a little heat at the Trust’s meeting, they announced they would step into the breach and build a new Town Hall for the town, in Lincoln Road, just up the road from the first town hall’s site.  Payton was jubilant, saying the town was discredited with the number of “shedifices” doing duty as public buildings.  “The awful structure called the Theatre Royal is somewhat unsafe and must be very shortly be condemned by the authorities.”

In fact, the old Empire Store/ Theatre Royal was to have another renovation, and a new lease on life.  It was to be “renovated and renewed out of all recognition.”    James Elliott bought the old building, taking away the old iron clad wooden-framed walls that held up the roof, and replacing them with substantial brick structures while renovating the roof at the same time.  Elliott kept about one third of the shop for his own business, and let the other portion to John Graham and Co., the general storekeepers, who moved down from their Bannister Street site.  Elliott bought the building for ₤1000 and spent another ₤700 renovating it, employing his friend C E Daniell to plan and carry out the alterations.

Grahams opened their new premises in late December 1896.

The building settled down to a long period of little change, but that changed following the Pahiatua earthquake in 1934, when some alterations were made to the high stud in the shop front area. 

Those renovations proved very useful in the much larger Masterton earthquake in 1942, when large parts of the side walls collapsed, but the roof remained in place.  The old building was renovated once again, and continues to operate as a commercial building, housing a hunting and outdoors supplies retailer, and, until recently, a $2 shop. Customers trying out hiking boots must have little idea of the many entertainers, of all sorts, who tramped across the boards of the old Theatre Royal, nearly 130 years ago.  The only hint of the advanced age of the building can be seen when the rear of the building is seen from the side, when the roofline can be seen to droop from old age.

Eels of ANZAC Bridge - Inspiring

Our recent publication, and our first picture book for children, The Eels of ANZAC Bridge, has been a runaway success, and we are already looking at a third printing - not too bad for a book that has been in the market for a little over six weeks.

Our friend and colleague at the Greytown Library, Jannelle Preston-Searle, took the book home and read it to her children, partly as her eldest, Charlie, has been interested in soldiers since Anzac Day. The kids loved it  - here is some of what Jannelle had to say on her wonderful blog Heartfelt, 

It's a thoughtful but beautiful tale of a young man who leaves his home and family and travels far across the seas as a soldier in the Great War.  His journey entwines with another great journey of a local eel as it too travels far to it's breeding grounds in the Pacific Ocean ~ both eel and soldier never to return.
While the baby eels made their way back to the river of their parents a memorial bridge was erected in memory of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the war ~ and was named 'Anzac Memorial Bridge'.
The story stirred thoughtful contemplation within both Sadie and Charlie with them both agreeing that (in Charlie's words) "everything has a life cycle".

Jannelle and her family went out to the bridge so they could see where the story came from - this is Charlie looking over the book to his father Ian on the bridge.

Ian also went hunting and managed to find Sadie a eel-like piece of driftwood!

It is very exciting to get such good feedback from a reader and even more heartening to see that our books have led to other exploration and learning.

Safe Haven - the untold story of New Zealand's largest ever military camp, Featherston 1916-1919

Wairarapa Archive's military expert Neil Frances has launched his third volume of military themed books, Safe Haven.   This tells the fascinating story of the construction, running and eventual closing of the country's largest ever military training camp,  on the Wairarapa plains just to the north-east of Featherston.  Well illustrated, and packed with information this is a book for anyone interested in the nations role in World War One.

Available from all good booksellers, and from the Wairarapa Archive.

The Eels of ANZAC Bridge

The Wairarapa Archive has branched out into another area with the publication of its first picture book.  Ali Foster and Viv Walker, the successful author and illustrator of the book Elwyns Dream  have produced another gem, this time based on the migration of the eels who live in the Makakahi River at Kaiparoro, and the war experiences of a soldier from the district who lost his life in World War One.  It tells of how his daughter played in the ANZAC bridge, built to honour the war dead, and continued to keep an eye on the eels in the river.

A great story and a great launch at Pukaha.

Copies of the book are available at all good booksellers, and at the Wairarapa Archive.

2012 - A new world - perhaps

2012 promises to be an exciting year for us here at the Wairarapa Archive.
It seems we will be switching computer systems during the year, with our providers CIVICA using as as the beta testers for their new EXHIBIT programme. We have had some involvement with the development of the system and are looking forward to having as new and clean look to our database.

Our long promised revamp to our home pages should also be happening this year - keep an eye out for new designs and plenty of new features!

On the publishing front our we will be releasing the newest book from staff member Neil Frances, whose string of military themed histories continues with the definitive history of the Featherston Military Training Camp from World War One.

Our other author, Gareth Winter, has contributed a chapter to our upcoming Wairarapa Moana book, as well as the text for a largely pictorial book outlining the history of the Beetham family and their Brancepeth Station.

All in all, a busy 2012 lies ahead.