James Morgan (Ex Editor in Chief at Hawke’s Bay Herald Tribune)

James Morgan well versed in community service. Retired newspaper editor, farmer, forester and administrator. Life member Hastings Group Theatre; producer Napier Operatic Society; director Hastings-Guilin Sister City Board; founder-chairman Flaxmere Licensing Trust 1975-90; foundation director Trust House Ltd; national administrator NZ Sister City Board 2000-2002.
A Brief History of Newspapers in Hawke’s Bay
James Wood was the beginning of the Newspaper era in Hawke’s Bay New Zealand. His imprint is still with us today. James wood was instrumental in the formation of Hawke’s Bay and the establishment of Hawke’s as a Province. James Wood arrived in Hawke’s Bay in 1856 armed with a case of printers type and an Albion Press. He was warned to keep it under lock and key as the Maoris would love the lead in the letter types to make musket balls.
The Albion Press was a slow laborious procedure involving the grouping of letters together to form words.but the words were made and stacked in reverse and upside down. A good type linker would managed 150 words per hour. It was a slow process publishing the written word.
Mr. James Wood, an Auckland journalist, was induced to start' the “HB Herald and Ahuriri Advocate,” in Ahuriri the first number of which appeared on the 24th of September, 1857. It was a very small sheet, issued weekly at first, but soon afterwards was published twice a week.
In Auckland Willis met James Wood, sub-editor of the Southern Cross newspaper. Having tested his capabilities, Wood persuaded the young printer to accompany him to Napier, where they started the Hawke's Bay Herald. The little paper made good progress. About two years later, much to Wood's regret, Willis returned to Auckland and from there travelled to Wellington, taking a post as compositor to the New Zealand Advertiser
The standard of publishing was not very good and after a few weeks the type face was getting blurred. William Colenso was the only other person in the district with an Albion Press and who new how to use it. Wood invited William Colenso over to his workshop.He removed his jacket on arrival and promptly started to show James how to wash the rollers and type heads.
Within a year of Mr Wood campaigning for Hawke’s Bay to become a separate Province from Wellington, he succeeded. Published in the paper on Saturday 13 November 1858 Hawke’s Bay Had been officially proclaimed a Province of New Zealand.It was a very small sheet, issued weekly at first, but soon afterwards was published twice a week. Early in the year 1871, Mr. Wood ventured to issue a daily half-sheet, Mr. W. W. Carlile being appointed editor.
Willis moved on to Wellington to go Printing, he was printing Government Publications.
Willis went onto publish several books including the “Williams & kettle “ book,
Soon after the Herald Office was moved to Tennyson Street in Napier what is now the corner of Tennyson Street and Cathedral Lane. The business prospered and the building expanded and grew until 1886 when the wooden building was burnt to the ground by fire.
This was replaced by a stronger red brick building but this was only going to last until the 1931 Earthquake, when it was severely damaged. The old Albion was replaced by a Rotary Flatbed Motorised Albion which was considerable faster and type setter had improved.
The HB Tribune was severely damaged in the 1931 earthquake, however Mr Whitlock had builders on the case and within hours the building was restored sufficiently and the printing press up and running that they could print the news, and earthquake bulletin was printed on the same day as the earthquake.
A new Brick and stone premises replaced the old building at a cost of £5000. This was now the tallest structure in Hastings at the time.
In 1937 WA Whitlock was made editor replacing his father WC Whitlock and soon after the rotary flatbed Albion was replaced with a lithographic press with curved plates on a rotating press. A vast improved, utilising engrave plates to print from, faster clear and much quicker.
The present handsome brick and stone premises were suitable to all the requirements of the town and district. The quality of lithographic, job-printing, and book-binding work issued from the “Herald” office will compared favourably with that executed in much larger towns.
WA Whitlock was using teleprinters to get up to the minutes news and photos from around the country and few months later from all around the world. WA would then on sell this news to other major newspapers. The HB Herald Tribune was now an international newspaper.
As far as international news went there was a lot of English news and royalty. WA Whitlock as loyal to his homeland. England was New Zealand’s “Mother country.”,
As picture engraving was expensive WA tried engrave those pictures that he could re use, e.g. famous people, royalty, Buildings, etc they he could get repeated use from. Other would have to be important to the news e.g. floods earthquakes etc.
The Whitlock’s profound motto was “We provide depth and quality printing, we are here for the truth, not self interest” The strong maxims of the Whitlock’s was to provide an emphasis on “Local news, immediacy, and the now as it happens and unfolds as well has History and the community”
On local race day a full page on stories on the days racing was provide with pictures. A flood and they were there in hours reporting it up to the minute. An earthquake in and they travelled the miles through rubble police barricades to get it to you the same day it happened.
WA Whitlock was fantabulous with words and would wander round the building checking stories and articles looking for grammatical, punctual or factual errors. He would change articles or stories if the were not to his liking or standard.
He took history seriously, when HB Province was celebrating 100 years as a province, WA asked Lewis Knowles to write a 100 page history of Hawke’s Bay celebrating 100 years of HB as a Province. James Morgan himself compiled it, checked it and rewrote it if not completely satisfied. He had a great knowledge of the district history.
Tony Whitlock introduce the breaking news box creating the excitement of immediacy with his “fudge box” printing creating a box of space for late breaking news. Or “Stop Press”

James Morgan & Hawke's Bay Herald Tribune

Come and here james Morgan talk about the history of the HB Herald Tribune and his time there as editor of the HB Herald Tribune.
Hastings Library 11 August 2009 at 5.30pm

Thomas Tanner

Thomas Tanner (known as the “Father of Hastings”)
Thomas Tanner was born in Wiltshire, England, probably in 1830, and was baptised at Devizes on 31 July 1831. He was the son of Mary Pontin and her husband, Joseph Tanner, a landowner. After studying medicine briefly, he started work as an analytical Chemist. Thomas Tanner came to New Zealand in 1849 on the Larkins.He made his way up to Wellington and onto Wanganui while aged only 19 years and worked as a cadet on a Wanganui sheep run. There he acquired a knowledge of Maori culture and a Maori version of his name, Tanera.
In 1853 Tanner took up a large run, Milbourne, on the Ruataniwha plains, Hawke's Bay. He promoted horse-racing, and selected the course at Clive for Hawke's Bay's first formal race meeting in 1856. After a few years he returned to England and married Julia Denton daughter of John and Caroline Denton at Hartlepool, Durham, on 5 May 1859. There is little evidence to indicate whether this was an arranged marriage or whether he had made her acquaintance as a teenage boy before leaving England. One suspects there was a connection with the two before he left with his parents and family to move to new Zealand. He returned to New Zealand with Julia. There were to be eight children of the marriage. The couple came out to New Zealand about 1862 on a chartered ship with furniture, books, servants and pedigree animals including a Stallion, pheasants and rabbits.
Tanner took an important step in 1864 when he obtained an illegal lease on the Heretaunga block, then a swamp but today one of the most valuable pieces of land in New Zealand. A few years later Tanner tried to buy the land but was not prepaped to pay what the Maoris wanted. Some years later a syndicate was formed to try and buy the land from the Maori. He divided the land into twelve shares, and, retaining four for himself, distributed the rest among six of his associates: J. N. Williams, A. H. Russell, T. E. Gordon, J. D. Ormond, T. P. Russell and J. B. Braithwaite. These men became known as The Apostles. In 1867 a Crown grant was issued on Heretaunga in the name of 10 Maori owners and Tanner obtained a legal lease. Heretaunga Block was secured by seven people who had 12 shares in the purchase of the land.These people are often referred to as the “Twelve Apostles”. The purchase price was stated to have been about 30s. an acre, and payment was made by £16,000 in cash, with the balance liquidating debts which had been incurred by the Maoris.
Here the first settle was established with apostles building on the land. In 1873 Francis Hicks (one of the syndicate) presented the Government with a section of land for the site of a railway station and decided to lay out 100 acres near this site for a township to be called Hastings. James Boyle later sold some of his land to the government to create the greater Hastings area north & South of Heretaunga Street.
A total of 144 sections were offered, the average price per acre being 56 pounds
Many local people firmly believe that Hastings was originally named Hicksville, after Francis Hicks, who bought a block of land, which now contains the centre of Hastings, from Thomas Tanner. However, this story is apocryphal. The original name of the location which was to become the town centre was Karamu. In 1871, the New Zealand Government decided to route the new railway south of Napier through a notional Karamu junction in the centre of the Heretaunga Plains. This location was on Francis Hicks's land. The decision on the railway route was based largely on two reports by Charles Weber, the provincial engineer and surveyor in charge of the railway. Karamu junction was re-named Hastings in 1873. (On 7 June 1873, the Hawke's Bay Herald reported: "The name of the new town is to be Hastings. We hear it now for the first time.") Exactly who chose the name has been disputed, although Thomas Tanner claimed that it was him (see Hawke's Bay Herald report 1 February 1884) and that the choice was inspired by his reading the trial of Warren Hastings. Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of Bengal, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but acquitted in 1795..... In any event, the name fitted well with other place names in the district (Napier, Havelock and Clive), which were also named after prominent figures in the history of British India.
Tanner also bought land on the Ahuriri plains, and the Endsleigh and Petane runs.Thomas Tanner settle in Hastings building Riverslea Homestead where he raised his family.

Tanner became established as a dominant figure in Hawke's Bay affairs. He named his 5,332 acre portion of the Heretaunga block Riverslea, and built a 22-roomed mansion there. A landscape gardener was brought from England to lay out the grounds and an architect designed all the buildings, including the stables. The Tanners proceeded to show Hawke's Bay what gracious living was all about. Only one other family could boast gold plate on the table.
When war spread to the East Coast in 1868 and 1869 Tanner raised his own fighting force, the Hawke's Bay and Waipawa Yeoman Cavalry. He was commissioned captain and supplied his men with uniforms, mounts and arms, hiring the Oddfellows Hall in Napier as his private drill hall. The cavalry saw action at Gisborne in 1868 and at Mohaka in 1869.
Tanner was not simply a land speculator: he was committed to the idea of scientific farming. In order to drain and clear his Riverslea estate he needed both labour and capital. First he leased portions of his land and after obtaining the freehold, in 1871 he advertised for sale sections at Karamu. This area became closely settled. After 1873 small farmers subdivided their land into town sections and from the settlement of Karamu grew the town of Hastings. Tanner later called himself the town's father, because he owned the land in the first place, and its godfather, because he chose its name. He bought a section for an Anglican church and he gave land for a school and a public park. He also set aside two sections for a municipal building, for which he guaranteed building costs.
In 1873 the Heretaunga purchase was the subject of a commission of inquiry presided over by C. W. Richmond and F. E. Maning. There was an outcry: Tanner and The Apostles were attacked as instigators of grog mortgages and forced sales. However, fraud charges were not proved. Tanner survived the scandal because of his character and his ability as a businessman. During the inquiry Richmond wrote in his journal, 'I must say I like Tanera: He is no doubt a self confident little man - some might say conceited, but I don't give it that name: he is thoroughly self reliant & avows it'. Settlers in general did not like him but they eagerly followed his lead. Maori continued to co-operate with him even when he was found to have manipulated them because he understood their customs and always worked through the chiefs.
By the late 1870s Tanner's fortunes were on the wane. He had borrowed at high interest to purchase land and, as economic depression deepened, he was forced to subdivide and sell large areas of the Riverslea estate, in 1879, 1885 and 1889. He turned his attention instead to schemes for developing industries. This interest was not new. When leading the Hawke's Bay cavalry into action, he had been given a piece of coal picked up by a trooper at a stream crossing. After the emergency was over he had sent a coal prospector back to the area. He was one of the directors of the Hawke's Bay Goldmining Company which unsuccessfully prospected near Taupo in 1869, and was later, in 1880, a leading investor in the Mohaka Goldmining Company.
Tanner searched for ways of enriching himself and, at the same time, providing opportunities for small farmers. During the 1870s and 1880s he tried sugar-beet and tobacco growing and failed. In 1883 he invested heavily in hop growing and set up a processing plant at Riverslea as an outlet for small hop growers. However, his attempts to ship hops failed and he lost heavily. He set up a syndicate to promote a woollen mill in Hastings in 1887 and gave 6½ acres of land for the project, which did not eventuate. Although these schemes were largely unsuccessful, they illustrated Tanner's energy and his confidence in the potential of Hawke's Bay.
His sense of commitment was reflected also in his involvement in public affairs. He helped found the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Association in 1873 and was a long-standing member of the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, the Hawke's Bay Education Board, and numerous other organisations concerned with cultural and social life. A devoted member of the Church of England and a friend of Bishop G. A. Selwyn, he was present at the signing of the Constitution of the Church of the Province of New Zealand. He was the principal benefactor of St Luke's Church in Havelock North, and its vicar's warden and synodsman. Tanner signed the contract and contributed financially to the building of the church. Many of the trees of Hastings and Havelock North were planted by him and the pin oak outside St Luke's Church is known as Tanner's Oak.
Tanner was at various times a member of the Heretaunga Road Board, the Hastings Town Board and the Hastings Borough Council, and was a Hawke's Bay county councillor between 1878 and 1893. He served on the Hawke's Bay Provincial Council from 1867 until 1876 and was member of the House of Representatives for Waipawa from 1887 to 1890. He died at Havelock North on 22 July 1918

Shirley McKay Talks on Thomas Tanner

Tanner, Thomas 1830 - 1918Runholder, land speculator, farmer, entrepreneur

Thomas Tanner was born in Wiltshire, England, probably in 1830, and was baptised at Devizes on 31 July 1831. He was the son of Mary Pontin and her husband, Joseph Tanner, a landowner. After studying medicine briefly, Thomas Tanner came to New Zealand in 1849 on the Larkins and worked as a cadet on a Wanganui sheep run. There he acquired a knowledge of Maori culture and a Maori version of his name, Tanera.
In 1853 Tanner took up a large run, Milbourne, on the Ruataniwha plains, Hawke's Bay. He promoted horse-racing, and selected the course at Clive for Hawke's Bay's first formal race meeting in 1856. After a few years he returned to England and married Julia Denton at Hartlepool, Durham, on 5 May 1859. There were to be eight children of the marriage. The couple came out to New Zealand about 1862 on a chartered ship with furniture, books, servants and pedigree animals.
Tanner took an important step in 1864 when he obtained an illegal lease on the Heretaunga block, then a swamp but today one of the most valuable pieces of land in New Zealand. He divided the land into twelve shares, and, retaining four for himself, distributed the rest among six of his associates: J. N. Williams, A. H. Russell, T. E. Gordon, J. D. Ormond, T. P. Russell and J. B. Braithwaite. These men became known as The Apostles. In 1867 a Crown grant was issued on Heretaunga in the name of 10 Maori owners and Tanner obtained a legal lease.
In the next few years Tanner obtained freehold title for the Heretaunga block, in the face of opposition from some Maori owners and from Europeans who deplored the control of large areas of land by a few. Using persuasion and sometimes force, he pressured the grantees until one by one, they sold. By 1870 Heretaunga was freeholded. Tanner also bought land on the Ahuriri plains, and the Endesleigh and Petane runs.
Tanner became established as a dominant figure in Hawke's Bay affairs. He named his 5,332 acre portion of the Heretaunga block Riverslea, and built a 22-roomed mansion there. A landscape gardener was brought from England to lay out the grounds and an architect designed all the buildings, including the stables. The Tanners proceeded to show Hawke's Bay what gracious living was all about. Only one other family could boast gold plate on the table.
When war spread to the East Coast in 1868 and 1869 Tanner raised his own fighting force, the Hawke's Bay and Waipawa Yeoman Cavalry. He was commissioned captain and supplied his men with uniforms, mounts and arms, hiring the Oddfellows Hall in Napier as his private drill hall. The cavalry saw action at Gisborne in 1868 and at Mohaka in 1869.
Tanner was not simply a land speculator: he was committed to the idea of scientific farming. In order to drain and clear his Riverslea estate he needed both labour and capital. First he leased portions of his land and after obtaining the freehold, in 1871 he advertised for sale sections at Karamu. This area became closely settled. After 1873 small farmers subdivided their land into town sections and from the settlement of Karamu grew the town of Hastings. Tanner later called himself the town's father, because he owned the land in the first place, and its godfather, because he chose its name. He bought a section for an Anglican church and he gave land for a school and a public park. He also set aside two sections for a municipal building, for which he guaranteed building costs.
In 1873 the Heretaunga purchase was the subject of a commission of inquiry presided over by C. W. Richmond and F. E. Maning. There was an outcry: Tanner and The Apostles were attacked as instigators of grog mortgages and forced sales. However, fraud charges were not proved. Tanner survived the scandal because of his character and his ability as a businessman. During the inquiry Richmond wrote in his journal, 'I must say I like Tanera: He is no doubt a self confident little man - some might say conceited, but I don't give it that name: he is thoroughly self reliant & avows it'. Settlers in general did not like him but they eagerly followed his lead. Maori continued to co-operate with him even when he was found to have manipulated them because he understood their customs and always worked through the chiefs.
By the late 1870s Tanner's fortunes were on the wane. He had borrowed at high interest to purchase land and, as economic depression deepened, he was forced to subdivide and sell large areas of the Riverslea estate, in 1879, 1885 and 1889. He turned his attention instead to schemes for developing industries. This interest was not new. When leading the Hawke's Bay cavalry into action, he had been given a piece of coal picked up by a trooper at a stream crossing. After the emergency was over he had sent a coal prospector back to the area. He was one of the directors of the Hawke's Bay Goldmining Company which unsuccessfully prospected near Taupo in 1869, and was later, in 1880, a leading investor in the Mohaka Goldmining Company.
Tanner searched for ways of enriching himself and, at the same time, providing opportunities for small farmers. During the 1870s and 1880s he tried sugar-beet and tobacco growing and failed. In 1883 he invested heavily in hop growing and set up a processing plant at Riverslea as an outlet for small hop growers. However, his attempts to ship hops failed and he lost heavily. He set up a syndicate to promote a woollen mill in Hastings in 1887 and gave 6½ acres of land for the project, which did not eventuate. Although these schemes were largely unsuccessful, they illustrated Tanner's energy and his confidence in the potential of Hawke's Bay.
His sense of commitment was reflected also in his involvement in public affairs. He helped found the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Association in 1873 and was a long-standing member of the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, the Hawke's Bay Education Board, and numerous other organisations concerned with cultural and social life. A devoted member of the Church of England and a friend of Bishop G. A. Selwyn, he was present at the signing of the Constitution of the Church of the Province of New Zealand. He was the principal benefactor of St Luke's Church in Havelock North, and its vicar's warden and synodsman. Tanner signed the contract and contributed financially to the building of the church. Many of the trees of Hastings and Havelock North were planted by him and the pin oak outside St Luke's Church is known as Tanner's Oak.
Tanner was at various times a member of the Heretaunga Road Board, the Hastings Town Board and the Hastings Borough Council, and was a Hawke's Bay county councillor between 1878 and 1893. He served on the Hawke's Bay Provincial Council from 1867 until 1876 and was member of the House of Representatives for Waipawa from 1887 to 1890. He died at Havelock North on 22 July 1918.
KAY MOONEY

Shirley McKay Talks on Thomas Tanner

Come along and hear Shirley McKay Talk on Thomas Tanner his family tree his life and more...
Don't miss it!!
Thomas Tanner was born in Wiltshire, England, probably in 1830, and was baptised at Devizes on 31 July 1831. He was the son of Mary Pontin and her husband, Joseph Tanner, a landowner. After studying medicine briefly, Thomas Tanner came to New Zealand in 1849 on the Larkins and worked as a cadet on a Wanganui sheep run. There he acquired a knowledge of Maori culture and a Maori version of his name...

John Buck History of Te Mata Winery

Te Mata Estate Winery originated as part of Te Mata Station, a large pastoral land holding established by English immigrant John Chambers in 1854. John's third son, Bernard had the original vision for wine production off the north facing hillside slopes bordeing Havelock North. Bernard was well travelled and had observed similar, successful wine growing conditions in France. When John formalised the division of his estate between his sons, Bernard retained the 1,960 hectare Te Mata Estate homestead block. A French vistor to Te Mata Homestead in 1886 kindled Bernards interest in wine and vineyards. The surrounding slopes and sunshine was ideal for wine grape sto grow. After visits to deveral French and Australian Wineries this motivate d Bernard even more. In 1892 cuttings of Pinot Noir were obtained from the Society of Mary's Mission Vineyards at Taradale and the first vines struck root at Te Mata Vineyard. He went onto plant grape vines on three parcels of hillside land above the homestead. (Today, Te Mata Estate still utilises those three original three vineyards to produce its most famous wines; Coleraine, Awatea and Elston.) The business flourished. Chambers converted a brick stable into his cellar and by March 1895 the first wine was flowing. 'My wine is turning out very well', he wrote in 1898. 'I made claret and chablis and have given a lot away. I won't begin selling for another year, until the wine is more matured.' By 1900, on 5,430 acres of freehold land, Bernard Chambers had 10,328 sheep and six acres of grapevines. Among the stream of eminent visitors to the vineyard were the premier, Richard Seddon, and the governor, Lord Ranfurly.
By 1906 Te Mata Vineyard had spread to 26 acres. Three years later, with Australian wine-maker J. O. Craike at the helm, production was the highest in the country, with an annual output of 12,000 gallons of claret, hock and Madeira from the 35 acres of Meunier, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling and Verdelho vines. Craike won gold medals for Te Mata overseas. In 1914 Sidney Anderson, the government vine and wine instructor, wrote that Te Mata Vineyard 'is now the leading one in the Dominion' and that the wines 'are commanding a large sale'.
However, not all was plain sailing. The prohibition movement peaked in the second decade of the twentieth century, forcing many wine-makers out of business. From 1909 onwards Chambers did not extend his vine plantings. Birds, mildew, frost (which in 1914 irretrievably damaged 16 acres of vines) and labour posed further problems. Chambers wrote in 1916, 'the vines are in a disgraceful state, unhoed under the rows, and generally neglected'. Meanwhile, some of his employees were 'in the cellar doing talking principally.
In October 1917 Bernard Chambers, now 58, sold his winery, wine stocks and part of the vineyard to Reginald Collins Limited; Chambers retained a minority shareholding. Five months later he sold most of Te Mata station, retaining 129 acres for himself. By 1923, when Reginald Collins sold its interests to TMV Wines, the vineyard had shrunk to 10 acres.
It had various owners until it was acquired by the current owners in 1978. Both vineyards and winery were run down, although still making wine. The opportunity to purchase brick cellars, dating from 1872, and two wonderful vineyard sites were irresistible to the Bucks and the Morris's, the two families behind the current company. A twenty year development programme was commenced, beginning with a restoration and re-equipping of the original building. More land was acquired by ownership, lease and management contract. All the original vineyards were replanted and viticulture underwent a further detailed review when Dr Richard Smart was engaged as a consultant in 1989. Peter Cowley joined as winemaker in 1984 and is now Technical Director in the company. Under his direction, all our winemaking techniques are monitored and kept in tune with our policy of producing small lots of high-quality wine from our own properties. In 1994 we appointed a viticulturist, Larry Morgan, a close associate of Richard Smart. Larry has put in place all the monitoring and review systems to further enhance the quality of grapes arriving at the crusher, and has also steadily advanced our move into sustainable viticulture. Te Mata Estate currently produces 35,000 cases of wine and is at full production. Sixty percent of this is red.

ARCHITECTUREAnother feature of Te Mata Estate is its architecture. Incorporating the original winery building, Wellington's famous Athfield Architects have created a modern complex using local materials and limewash colours. Apart from the restored original building the rest of the premises have been progressively built since 1987. Both the winery buildings and the Buck family home, Coleraine, across the road from the winery, were designed by Wellington architect lan Athfield. Athfield's brief was to create a New Zealand winery environment which did not copy the traditions of other winemaking countries. Local materials were to be used. Circular and square forms and the use of a range of limewash colours chosen.

John Buck Te Mata Winery

Come and listen to John Buck talk about the history of Te Mata Winery...
Te Mata Estate Winery originated as part of Te Mata Station, a large pastoral land holding established by English immigrant John Chambers in 1854. John's third son, Bernard had the original vision for wine production off the north facing hillside slopes bordeing Havelock North. Bernard was well travelled and had observed similar, successful wine growing conditions in France. When John formalised the division of his estate between his sons, Bernard retained the 1,960 hectare Te Mata Estate homestead block. In 1892, he went onto plant grape vines on three parcels of hillside land above the homestead. Today, Te Mata Estate still utilises those three original three vineyards to produce its most famous wines; Coleraine, Awatea and Elston.