Ngatimoti's first Anzac Day, 25 April, 1921.

Returned servicemen fire a gun volley into the air at the close of Ngatimoti’s 

first Anzac Day service.

. 

The sound of rifle fire echoing around the valley at the close of the service was for many years as much an integral part of the Anzac Day ceremony as the bugler’s Last Post and the parade of old soldiers from Ngatimoti’s now defunct Returned Servicemen's Association marching to a brass band past our home on Waiwhero Road as they made their way down the hill to the memorial at St James Church.

The official unveiling of their newly completed Takaka marble memorial by the Rt. Rev. William Sadlier, Bishop of Nelson, was a deeply moving experience for the Ngatimoti community, many of whose sons, brothers and cousins lay in unmarked graves far from home. They were joined by a crowd of between 600 to 700 people from all over the Nelson district, including the mayors of Nelson and Motueka, Mr R.P. Hudson, M.P. for Motueka, and a large contingent of veterans.

A brass tablet inside St James Church inscribed with the names of local men lost to the war was unveiled at the same time. A list of names of all those from the Ngatimoti area known to have served during WWI is also held inside the church.

Behind the memorial stands a woman in black - bereaved mother Mary Strachan, supported by two relatives as she mourns the loss of her only son Frank at the Somme in 1916. The woman standing on her righthand side is her sister-in-law Kathleen Strachan nee Robinson, who in 1900 had married Mary's brother John (Jack) Strachan, owner of the "Meadowbank" farm at the foot of Church Hill. 

Kathleen's brother John (Jack) Robinson, who worked at "Meadowbank" before WWI, was left totally blind after being gassed during the war and learned to type as part of his rehabilitation post-war. He is mentioned in the "Nelson Evening Mail" article below as "the soldier who lost his sight while on active service who typed up the hymn sheets for the dedication service for the War Memorial". Keeping it in the family, in 1922 John Robinson married Dora Beatson, only daughter of John Strachan's older sister, Mary Sclanders Beatson nee Strachan.Through their father, Edward (Ted) Robinson, Kathleen and her brother John were grandchildren of John Perry Robinson, who served as the 2nd Superintendent of Nelson Province from 1856-1865.

Looking up Waiwhero Road, standing at centre rear is "Sunny Brae", the home of John Guy, farmer and local postmaster, who donated family land for the memorial site on Church Hill, adding to the area donated in the 1880s by his father Walter Guy as the site for St James Church. Following the service, the Guys entertained the Bishop and other dignitaries, plus close friends and relatives, to a spread at their home. John Guy and his wife Lily nee Strachan had two daughters, Margaret (Daisy) and Ruth, and three sons, Walter, Hector and Arthur, who all served overseas during the Great War. However, only Arthur came home - both Walter and Hector were killed in action at the Western Front. Their names are recorded on the memorial, along with that of their cousin Frank.

The Guys’ daughter Daisy, wife of Lt. Col. Cyprian Brereton, commanding officer of the 12th (Nelson & Marlborough) Company of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion during WWI, spearheaded the highly effective Ladies’ Committee which so successfully facilitated the memorial project. The local menfolk were meant to be in charge but faffed around so much that their wives took over and swung into action. I suspect that these formidable ladies would have probably made short work of the war given half a chance!

Along with nearly every chimney in the Motueka Valley area, the Ngatimoti War Memorial collapsed on 17 June 1929 during the Murchison earthquake. Because of lengthy ongoing tremors, it took quite some time before it could be repaired, however the pieces were eventually carried by cart to Nelson, where stonemason Mr Simpson put it back together again and sent it back to be erected on site once more. Lines of the repaired cracks can still be seen if you look carefully, but it has remained sturdily in one piece ever since that time.

Further Information

War Memorial at Ngatimoti - an article covering the Dedication Service

"Nelson Evening Mail", 26 April 1921, pg 4.

For more information, including a list of names of the men recorded there, see 

"Ngatimoti War Memorial" at the NZ History website’s Memorial Register.

See also: The Ngatimoti Memorial Minenwerfers

for the history of the Memorial's WWI trophy guns.

Photograph of the first Anzac Day service courtesy of Kate Speer - click to enlarge

New Zealand's "Blackest Day" of World War One

October 12, 1917: One Hundred Years On

 Jacking up a field gun stuck in the mud at Passchendaele

“Hell on Earth” was what they called Passchendaele in Flanders (today Belgium), and its name has long been a byword for the horrors of the First World War on the Western Front. For New Zealanders, though, it has also become synonymous with what is thought to be New Zealand’s greatest miltary disaster in terms of the number of lives lost in a single day.

As part of a failed attempt by II Anzac Corps on 12 October 1917 to capture Bellevue Spur during the First Battle of Passchendaele, the advancing Kiwis soon found themselves in trouble as they encountered fierce enemy resistance and swampy terrain transformed by previous battles, mass troop movements and relentless driving rain into a churned-up quagmire. They struggled to make headway in the deep, clinging mud, unable to stabilise their field artillery or bring forward heavy guns for cover. Shells fired from behind in support either sank deep into the muffling muck, exploding ineffectually in fountains of ooze, or fell short, doing more damage in "friendly fire" to Allied troops than to the Germans. Trapped by barbed wire and exposed to raking fire from German machine-gunners in fortified pillboxes on the ridge above, they had no shelter but the water-filled shell holes in which many men drowned. Another push had been planned for to take place at 3.00 p.m, but by then the magnitude of the failure  had become clear and the Allied offensive was mercifully called off.

Stretcher bearers at Passchendaele

Although the Germans called an informal truce and refrained from firing on stretcher parties, conditions were so atrocious that it took two days to retrieve the wounded lying in the half frozen mire between the lines. It took 4 to 5 hours to get each casualty to safety, and at times the stretcher bearers themselves had to be rescued after sinking up to their armpits in the morass while carrying their burdens.

The toll was horrendous. Among the New Zealanders alone there were about 2700 casualties.These included about 950 men who were either dead or mortally wounded; 842 men are officially listed as dying on 12 October, and the rest succumbed to their wounds in field ambulances and hospitals behind the lines in Belgium, France and England, some many weeks later. 

The wasteland that was Passchendaele
Amidst the detritus of war the bodies of horses,
mules and men lie half-buried in the mud.

Among those casualties are two commemorated at the NgatImoti War Memorial. Les Green and Hector Guy were both grandsons of English settlers who came in the early days to live at Motueka. Their fathers had taken up land at Ngatimoti, and both worked on their parents’ farms. They went to local schools, hunted in the hills, mucked around on the river. They worked hard but were always up for a bit of fun, and trained together with their local Territorials’ unit  - the 12^th (Nelson & Marlborough) Infantry Regiment - captained by Ngatimoti man Cyprian Brereton.

Both jumped to enlist in August 1914, when hostilities with Germany broke out.  Now members of the 12^th (Nelson) Company, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, commanded by Major Brereton, on 16 October 1914 they were among the group of Ngatimoti ‘s first volunteers who sailed off to the war from Wellington on the troopship “Athenic”, with the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Both took part in the campaign on Gallipoli and were hospitalised in England as a result before being deployed to the Western Front.

One hundred years on, let’s spare a thought for these two high-spirited young men who would never return to their friends and families in our peaceful Motueka Valley, but remained among the countless lost dead whose names are recorded at the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing at Zonnebeke in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Second Lieutenant James Leslie Green (1891-1917)

Known as “Les”

Son of Charlie & Jennie (nee Mickell) Green

WWI serial no 6/239

Canterbury Infantry Battalion,

Main Body, NZ Expeditionary Force.

Company Sergeant Major Albert Hector Guy (1890-1917) MSM

Known as “Hector” or “Hec”.

Son of John Arliss & Elizabeth (nee Strachan) Guy

WWI serial no 6/244

Canterbury Infantry Battalion,

Main Body, NZ Expeditionary Force.

And a shout out to another "Blackest Day" casualty at Passchendaele from the Canterbury Infantry Battalion whose name is also recorded at the Tyne Cot Memorial: Private James Daniel "Dan" Tomlinson (1876 -1917). A carpenter from Waimea West commemorated at the Brightwater War Memorial Gates, as a relative-by-marriage to the Grooby family who still farm at Greenhill Road, he nonetheless counts 
as a Ngatimoti connection.

 

Note: Although the official number of those New Zealanders actually killed in action on 12 October 1917 is given  by the NZ Ministry of Heritage & Culture as 843,  you'll notice if you read different accounts that this number is given variously as being between 842 and 846. This discrepancy is due to the difficulties in establishing exactly who died during the offensive itself and those wounded who died in the field before they could be rescued.

References

WWI00: Counting the cost of Passchendaele
Military historian Ian McGibbon explains how he came up with the number 843 currently accepted as the official number of NZ deaths on the "Blackest Day"

"Utter desolation": An eloquent eyewitness account. Transcript of a letter written by Private Leonard Hart to his parents on 19 October 1917 which pulls no punches, describing in graphic and gripping detail his impressions of the Third Battle of Ypres at Passchendaele on 12 October 1917.
NZ History website

1917: Arras, Messines and Passchendaele

NZ History Online, WWI, the Western Front

NZ Ministry for Heritage & Culture.

(See links to sources of further information below article) The History of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion, N.Z.E.F.

WWI returned servicemen talk about their experiences at Passchendale

RNZ: Jesse Mulligan, 27 September 2017.

Photos and recordings courtesy of Nga Taonga Sound & Vision.

Options to play or download

Passchendaele.

Ch 10, "The History of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion, N.Z.E.F, 1914-1919"  (pub. 1921)

Author Captain David Ferguson

Passchendaele Centenary:New Zealand's blackest day in Flanders Fields

"Noted"  (the "NZ Listener") .25 April 2017 Author: Matthew Wright,

James Leslie Green

Rustlings in the Wind blogspot

From Cairo to Ngatimoti (Hector Guy)

The Prow: Stories of people and places from the Top of the South

Cyprian Bridge Brereton

WWI: Their Stories

Nelson Provincial Museum

Ngatimoti War Memorial.

NZ History Online, Memorials

NZ Ministry for Culture & Heritage

Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing

NZ Wargraves Project

Image credits

Jacking up a field gun stuck in the mud at Passchendaele

National Army Museum archives

Stretcher bearers at Passchendaele

Wikimedia Commons

Les Green

"Auckland Weekly News" 1917

Auckland Libraries Heritage Images Online

Hector Guy

"Auckland Weekly News" 1917

Auckland Libraries Heritage Images Online.

Ngatimoti Co-operative Apple Packhouse

Ngatimoti Co-operative Apple Pack house (1916 -ca. 1925)

Apple picking at Ngatimoti

 The first farmers in the Motueka Valley planted orchards for their own use with a wide variety of fruits such apples, plums, pears and peaches, the excess often being traded in exchange for grocery items with  Motueka retailers like Manoys and Rankins, who did regular deliveries with store carts around Ngatimoti. Early varities of apples grown  were Sturmers, Cox's Orange, Washingtons, Epp's Seedlings, Dunn's Favourite, Rokewood and Lord Wolseleys. (1)

By the turn of the 20th century commercial orchards were well-established in the area, however transport to markets was a major issue and pests like codlin moth and woolly aphids were a real problem - codlin moth was reported as creating havoc in apple crops as early as 1892. (2) Growers tried a number of remedies including mixtures of tobacco and soap and also placed lamps in trees. Some removed grubs form the trees by hand, a very time-consuming task. James Chapman from Pangatotara, one of the biggest local orchardists, grew Siberian Crab and kept an accurate account of the large number of grubs he caught in one season. (3)

Loading boxes of apples into
a cart at Ngatimoti.

In the Lower Moutere, farmers and orchardists gathered in June 1896, with John Guy as president, to discuss establishing a marketing agency in Wellington to sell their produce. They proposed to follow up with a meeting at Ngatimoti. John Guy had ties to both Lower Moutere, where his father Walter had a farm on Central Road, and ran his own farm on Waiwhero Road at Ngatimoti. He also served as the local postmaster for many years., running it from a room in his home at Ngatimoti which was known as "Sunny Brae".

In September 1906 the Motueka Orchardists Association arranged distribution of a paste of arsenic of lead in 3lb lots to Association members. This could be obtained from Ngatimoti farmers Barty Lloyd and Herbert Thomason and others. Another method used to control disease was the spraying of apples with arsenate of lead, lime-sulphur and Bordeaux sprays. Fruit was graded by hand and packed in 40 pound cases, the cases being made up on wet days. The fruit was mainly shipped to Wellington but any profits were swallowed by costs. 

Orchard inspector Mr Hallam visited Ngatimoti in March 1910 to describe packing techniques. The Ngatimoti Association fruitgrowers marked their cases "One Bushel Choice Apples Grown by Ngatimoti Association, Nelson, New Zealand", plus the growers' initials. (4)

Jonathan apples being packed for export beneath under the old oak tree planted by Christopher Remnant, grown from one of the acorns brought out from Guildford, England, on the ship "Anne Dymees" in 1864. Taken before World War One at "Roseneath", Ngatimoti. L-R:-James Remnant, Clara Rankin, Rosa Remnant and Doris Remnant (stamping papers). Hector Guy picking in the orchard, the photographer being his brother Walter Guy. Very likely taken in conjunction with the first ever export trial from Nelson to England in 1910. 

By January 1910 there were six canning factories operating in Motueka, and March that year saw a trial shipment of apples for England loaded onto the "Paparoa"- the first direct export of fruit. The fruit included apple varieties Scarlet Permain, Pippin, French Crab and Prince Alfred. The first ocean-going steamer to visit Nelson, the "S.S. Paparoa" arrived in England on 10 May 1910 and not surprisingly, some of the fruit was reported as over-ripe. (5) Among the local growers recorded as sending fruit were:

J. L Whelan, Ngatimoti, 20 cases 

                                                                                             

J. Chapman, Pangatotara, 30 cases

J.G.Beatson, 30 cases 

                                                                                               

 B. Lloyd, 500 cases

J.E. Hill, 10 cases 

                                                                                          

Chas. R. Heath, Ngatimoti, 30 cases 

                                        
R. Croudis, 10 cases

                                                                                              

 J.W.G. Beatson, Ngatimoti, 30 ases
H.H. Beatson, 50 cases 

                                                                                                                                                           
James Remnant, 50 cases

                                                                                               
Thomas Thomason, Ngatimoti, 100 cases 

                                                                                                
H. Thomason, 50 cases 

    

  J.W. Ngatimoti, 40 cases. 

E.Holyoake, Ngatimoti, 10 cases

B.L. Lloyd, Motueka Wharf, 500 cases

J.D. Knowles, Pangatotara, 50 cases

J. Green, Ngatimoti, 10 cases

J.A. Guy, Ngatimoti, 40 cases

An account of the annual Nelson District Fruitgrowers Association meeting for 1910 shows that Ngatimoti growers played an active part in the organisation.  (6)

The Fruit Industry

Colonist, 11 0ctober, 1910.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&dTC19101011.2.87

Tissue-wrapped apples packed in boxes
ready to be closed up and transported.

In 1911 Mr H. Haycock picked 92 cases of apples from 11 trees, with two trees yielding 32 cases. James Remnant from "Roseneath" farm on Waiwhero Road, was one who exported apples on the "S.S. Rimutaka"; Jonathans and Munro's Favourite. The condition of the apples after the voyage remained a concern.

James Remnant's apple crop was badly damaged during a violent hailstorm on 29 December 1912, the fruit suffering perforation and pitting as a result. This would have represented a significant loss.

Mr Thorpe, Ministry of Agriculture expert ,
demonstrates apple packing at Mr Izard's 
Stoke orchard, February 1912.
Nelson Provincial Museum:
F. N. Jones Collection      

In May 1913, Mr Thorpe, a Government fruit expert, gave a demonstration of apple packing in Jim Remnant's orchard to a number of interested spectators, with Mrs Remnant supplying afternoon tea afterwards.  

By 1914 the Nelson district, including Ngatimoti, was described as having extensive plabntings of apple trees.                                                                                                   

The idea of setting up a local pack house at Ngatimoti was first mooted at a meeting held at Ngatimoti in July, 1916 , under the auspices of Nelson District Fruitpackers' Ltd, with a special committee formed to look into finding a suitable site and possibilities for building a local packing shed. The committee appointed consisted of Neville Pownall, Albert Leslie Cederman, George & Guthrie Beatson, Tom Strachan and Herbert (Bert) Canton. A possible site at Pangatotara was discussed.

The Fruit Industry: Meeting at Ngatimoti

"Nelson Evening Mail", 6 July, 1916.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NEM19160706.2.27

A further meeting devoted to the subject of a Ngatimoti packing shed was held in early July, 1916.

Jim Remnant's apple orchard at "Roseneath",
Waiwhero Road, Ngatimoti
Nelson Provincial Museum: Guy Collection, ref. 315074

To the Fruitgrowers of Ngatimoti, Pokororo and Orinoco: Special Meeting to be held at the Schoolroom, Ngatimoti, 5 July, 1916.

"Nelson Evening Mail", 29 June, 1916

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NEM19160629.2.51.2

A  rough and ready grading and packing shed was ultimately set up on the flat on the foot of Church Hill, almost opposite the site of the former Ngatimoti creamery, close to the Brethren Meeting Hall which was situated in a layby near the foot of the hill. The land on the flat then belonged to James Remnant. He had an apple orchard on his property at the top of Church Hill on the Waiwhero ridge, so it would probably have been in his own interests to have a packing shed nearby. The land on which the packing shed stood remained in Remnant’s hands – perhaps a rental was paid by the growers who used the packhouse?  


Local orchardists took turns working at the packhouse and it appears to have been in operation until around 1925, but apples were soon superseded by a much more profitable and reliable crop; tobacco, which remained the Motueka Valley's horticultural staple from the late 1920s until the 1990s.                                                                  

Pat Beatson, whose father George had a farm at the Ngatimoti Peninsula,  noted:

“A good many local farmers were caught up in the orcharding movement and a co-operative grading and packing shed was built at Ngatimoti near where the Brethren Hall then stood. The shed was built under the shady side of the hill, making it a cold place to work.

                

Only known photograph taken of the Ngatimoti apple packhouse
from the inside. Packers not identified. Date probably ca early 1920s.

                                     

Alas, for many farmers in the district this new venture was fairly short-lived, at least in the outer fringes of the fruit-growing area. The first great enthusiasm was waning: many growers found there was no golden bonanza. The export marketing organisation was slow in becoming firmly established and a good many growers depended on local markets. I’ve no idea what happened to the Ngatimoti packing shed but as far as I know there is now no sign of its former existence”.

Although the old Brethren Hall still stood in situ when we McFadgens came to Ngatimoti in 1980 (on what is now the site of Graham & Jenny Grant’s house), there was no sign then of the pack house on the flats below Church Hill, which were at that time part of our farm. It has been established since that Fred Biggs demolished the old packing shed around 1945, soon after buying Jim Remnant’s farm.

 Local carrier Arthur Berkett’s truck loading packed apple cases at Ngatimoti. 
The man with the hat standing in front of the truck is almost certainly
James Remnant, owner of the land where the packhouse stood
and the packhouse is probably the building shown in behind.

References

1) Whelan, Helen. Ngatimoti is in the News: Part One. Apple Orchards. (Unpub. ms)

2) Ngatimoti Correspondent, 26 January 1892

"Nelson Evening Mail" 27 January, 1892, pg 2

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM18920127.2.6?query=apples

3) "Colonist" 4 April 1892, pg 3 Correspondence

4) Apples for Export

"Colonist" 22 March 1910, pg 1

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TC19100322.2.5?query=mr%20hallam

5)  Export of Apples

"Colonist" 9 March 1910, pg 2  

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TC19100309.2.22?query=paparoa

6) The Fruit Industry

Colonist, 11 0ctober, 1910

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&dTC19101011.2.87

Sources

Whelen, Helen. Ngatimoti is in the News. Part One. (unpub. ms) 

Copy held by the Motueka & District Historical Association

Beatson, C.B. (Pat) (1992) The River, Stump and Raspberry Garden: Ngatimoti As I Remember. Nelson, NZ: Nikau Press. Ch 9 Early Fruit Growing, pp 69-72

Photo credits

Apple picking at Ngatimoti

Nelson Provincial Museum: Guy Collection ref. 315078

Packing apples at Remnants' "Roseneath" farm, Waiwhero Road, Ngatimoti

Nelson Provincial Museum: Guy Collection, ref. 315080

Details supplied by Mrs A. Clarke, granddaughter of Doris Gray nee Remnant, who was the young girl shown in this photograph,

Tissue-wrapped apples ready to be closed up and transported

Nelson Provincial Museum Guy Collection ref. 315079

Mr Thorpe, Ministry of Agriculture expert, demonstrates apple packing at 

Mr Izard's Stoke orchard, February 1912.

Nelson Provincial Museum, F.N. Jones Collection, ref. 321246

Note: this instructor was very likely to have been John Herbert Thorp, a fruit inspector who took a job with the NZ Agricultural Dept around 1900/1905. He moved to Nelson in 1912 to support the rapidly  expanded fruit industry there and became the first manager of the Government Research Orchard at Appleby.  

See:

"Nelson Evening Mail", 25 Aug 1937, pg 4

Transfer of Orchard Instructor: Mr J.H. Thorp Leaves Nelson.

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM19370825.2.38

Jim Remnant's apple orchard at Ngatimoti (today 864 Waiwhero Road)

Nelson Provincial Museum, Guy Collection, acc. no. A4033.

Berkett's truck loading packed apples at Ngatimoti

Nelson Provincial museum, Guy Collection, ref 315134

Inside the Ngatimoti apple packhouse, packers not identified.
Date ca 1916-1922
Photographer: John Edward Salisbury (1861-1924), a man of many interests
who ran a 650 acre farm known as "Middlebank" at the junction of the Lloyd Valley and Thorp-Orinoco Roads.