Establishment – British Control

The first whalers, missionaries, traders, and adventurers of the early nineteenth century had to depend on chance ships for communications. Because trade was developing between Australia and New Zealand the Postmaster-General of New South Wales in 1831 deputed a Bay of Islands merchant, William Powditch, “to receive and return mail”. J. R. Clendon, another local merchant (and United States Consul), also established a mail depot.

Captain Hobson, the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor, brought with him in 1840 a number of officials chosen mainly by his superior, Governor Gipps, of New South Wales. One of these men, William C. Hayes, was made Police Magistrate's Clerk and Postmaster. For the convenience of traders Hayes handled the mail, not at Russell (Okiato), the seat of Government, but at a store in Kororareka, then the most important business centre. Hayes was dismissed for dishonesty and drunkenness in less than six months and another official, S. E. Grimstone, became acting “Postmaster of New Zealand”. Grimstone's salary was 20 per cent of postal receipts in the office under his immediate control.

Shortly after Hobson had transferred the seat of Government to Auckland, early in 1841, he received a royal charter establishing New Zealand as a Crown Colony independent of New South Wales. An ordinance covering postal matters was soon issued, but Hobson was to learn some 18 months later that the British Government had retained control of postal matters, insisting on the adoption of its decisions about postage rates and subordinating the head of its postal service to the British Postmaster-General.

The infant Post Office faced formidable difficulties in establishing overseas postal services. Early letters from New Zealand, such as those of Constantine Dillon and Charlotte Godley, show how irregularly and slowly mail travelled. Hobson himself knew the frustration of poor postal services. But New Zealand, 1,200 miles from the nearest overseas trading centre and 12,000 miles from “Home”, could do no more for many years than use such ships as called to carry mail. Long delays and irregular services were inevitable.

Internal Postal Services

The need for postal services within New Zealand was even more pressing, particularly when the settlements of Wellington and, later, of Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago were established. Communications between the settlements, each with closer ties with Britain than with one another, were needed to encourage commercial activity and to assist in preventing the settlements from developing, in Acting Governor Wynyard's words, into “insignificant, divided and powerless petty states”. New Zealand's geography, however, did not facilitate postal communication. Long coastlines on both Islands, high mountain ranges, thick undergrowth in the forests that covered much of the land, and innumerable rivers and streams presented formidable obstacles not lessened by intertribal strife among the Maoris and by war between Europeans and Maoris.

In the early years ships, although subject to innumerable delays, were the most reliable means of postal communication. Yet on occasion there was no communication for months on end between the seat of Government at Auckland and the southern settlements. Internal services were established in spite of the obstacles. The overland route between Auckland and Wellington was at once the most important and the most troublesome. It followed the west coast to New Plymouth, went overland to Wanganui, and then along the coast to Wellington. Though delivery at times took less than three weeks, those who undertook the various sections of the route, both Maori and European, faced extreme hardships and dangers, and there were long periods when the service was suspended. But the Wellington to Wanganui section was fairly constantly maintained, and an alternative route through Napier was experimented with. The west coast route was later revived when a regular service was established by ship from Manukau Harbour to New Plymouth and overland to Wellington. This service continued until the completion of the North Island Main Trunk railway in 1908.

By 1845 only eight post offices were open – Russell, Hokianga (Rawene), Auckland, New Plymouth, Petre (Wanganui), and Wellington in the North Island, and Nelson and Akaroa in the South Island. Port Chalmers and Dunedin followed in 1848 with the arrival of the Otago settlers, and Lyttelton in 1850 with the arrival of the Canterbury settlers. In 1848 control of postal services in New Zealand was transferred from the British Postmaster-General to Governor Grey and his Legislative Council.

Overseas Mail Postal Services

The first regular overseas mail service took shape in 1854 when the Auckland Provincial Government established a monthly shipping service to Sydney, the William Denny exchanging mails there with ships on the Sydney-London run. It is indicative of the infrequency and irregularity of interprovincial communications that this service was of little value to the other provinces, and although Wellington and Otago followed Auckland's lead it was not until the sixties that services regularly connected all the main provincial ports with one another and with ships to Australia. There was still room for complaint, however, with New Zealand at “the fag end of an imperfect chain”, and the Government was soon looking wistfully to Panama, which by 1866 was to be the route for a more direct and faster service with Britain.

Local Posts Act of 1856: Post Office Act of 1858

When New Zealand in 1852 obtained a considerable degree of self-government and held its first General Assembly in 1854, it had fewer than two dozen post offices to serve some 40,000 people. But years of expansion and innovation came with the Local Posts Act of 1856, under which Provincial Councils were authorised to establish new post offices and mail services, and with the passing of the Post Office Act of 1858, under which the Post Office was reorganised and power taken to appoint a Postmaster-General. This title had previously been used in New Zealand, but it had then meant the administrative and not the political chief, and the position had often been held by the Collector of Customs. Henry Tancred was the first to hold office under the new Act, and the appointment of a departmental head (G. E. Elliot) followed in 1862.

The new Act and the discovery of gold in the South Island led to growth in the Post Office. By 1860 there were 107 post offices and receipts were about £10,000. But the improvements were costly and expenditure reached almost £40,000, much of the deficit being caused by the high cost of sea mails. Nevertheless expansion continued. Postmen's deliveries and private boxes were first provided in 1860, a money-order service began in 1863, and the Post Office Savings Bank opened in 1867. By 1880 there were 856 post offices. The amalgamation of the Post Office and Electric Telegraph Department in the following year set the pattern for future development.

Twentieth Century

In 1900, when the population was about 800,000, the Post Office had 1,700 branches, and handled annually about 70 million postal articles, 3·5 million telegrams, and 250,000 telephone toll calls. It had 7,150 telephone subscribers and more than £5 million at credit in its savings bank. Receipts and payments made by the Post Office for the 33 agency services undertaken for other State Departments and local bodies totalled almost £3.5 million. Growth was very rapid in the first decade. By 1910 postal and telegraph traffic and savings at credit had more than doubled and there were three times as many telephones and six times as many toll calls as there had been in 1900. This public demand and consequent growth of services has continued to the present day.

The Post Office is now a complex structure combining the characteristics of a Department of State and a large business enterprise – one of the largest and certainly the most widely spread in the country. It provides communications and other services closely bound up with New Zealand's political, economic, and social life. Its annual revenues, which at first were less than £150, are now more than £35 million.

Organisation –1964

The Postmaster-General, a member of Cabinet, is the political head of the Post Office. Under him the Director-General (the administrative head) is responsible for the general administration and control of the Post Office. He is assisted by two deputies, an Engineer-in-Chief who controls telegraph, telephone and radio plant, and workshops, and a Director of Accounts who controls the accounts of the Post Office and the Post Office Savings Bank. New Zealand is divided into 21 postal districts, each under the control of a chief postmaster. Engineering works are separately controlled through 17 district engineers who are responsible to the Engineer-in-Chief. Engineering work is coordinated by three regional engineers, two in the North Island, one in the South.

In 1964 there were 1,590 post offices. Improved telephone and rural delivery services are gradually making smaller country offices redundant. The Post Office employs about 26,500 people. Moreover, there are 458 postmistresses in small post offices and about 730 country postmasters and telephonists who give post office services as part of their private business. About two-thirds of the total staff works on telecommunications.

The Post Office not only buys its own equipment and stores but also buys for other State Departments. Its annual purchases amount to about £11.5 million. It has more than 2,350 buildings, ranging from small rural post offices and telephone exchanges to large metropolitan post offices, telephone exchanges, workshops, stores, and garages. It also leases about 300 buildings for particular needs where suitable buildings are available. It spends over £1.5 million a year on new buildings.

The Post Office controls 3,078 motor vehicles. Many of these are stationed at the smaller centres – mainly for line-construction and maintenance work. It also controls the Public Service Garages, which make up a fleet of vehicles for use by State Departments in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. It has its own workshops to maintain the motor vehicles and to manufacture and maintain other plant and equipment.

(Physalia).

This beautiful bright-blue member of the jelly-fish family is an immigrant from more tropical waters and is often washed up in large numbers on our northern west coast beaches. Unlike the common jellyfish, it is not a single individual, but a colony of organisms up to 6 in. long, the whole group floating by means of an air-filled bladder on the upper surface. From the under surface hang a number of long tentacles armed with powerful stinging cells which can paralyse quite large fish, and can also give human beings a very painful sting. Above the water surface projects a diagonally placed crest, very like the sail of a yacht and serving the same purpose. The sail may be either left- or right-handed or in yachtsman's terminology the man-of-war may be on either the “starboard or the port tack”. It is believed that the direction of the sail is related to the prevailing wind; thus it will usually be in opposite directions north and south of the equator. A similar but smaller species is the “By-the-wind-sailor” (Velella) which also has a raft and sail.

by Richard Morrison Cassie, M.SC.(N.Z.), D.SC.(AUCK.), Senior Lecturer in Zoology, University of Auckland.

Within the entrance the harbour extends about 12 miles and at its head stands the city and port of Dunedin. About half way lies the port of Port Chalmers. The majority of large vessels are berthed at Dunedin. The tidal range is 4·2 ft neaps and 57 ft springs.

The maximum size and draught permissible for negotiating Victoria Channel, which runs from Port Chalmers to the city wharves, are as follows: length, 540 ft; beam, 72 ft; draught, 25 ft. The maximum for Port Chalmers are: length, 800 ft; beam, 90 ft; draught, 32 ft. Total berthage is 8,594 lineal feet. Most wharves are linked with the national railway system.

There are two electric cranes serving one berth at Port Chalmers. In addition, three serve two berths at Victoria wharf and two serve two berths at Birch Street, Dunedin. There are no wharf sheds at Port Chalmers, but at Dunedin there are 18 sheds with a maximum capacity of 2,812,248 cu. ft. One tug is available. The port has two graving docks at Port Chalmers for vessels of 530 ft and 300 ft length respectively. These are adjacent to ship-repair workshops. Most of the trade is handled at Dunedin, but final loading of large overseas vessels must be done at Port Chalmers.

by William Alexander Cullen, Executive Officer (Shipping and Harbours), Marine Department, Wellington.

The port of Tauranga has recently been developed to deal mainly with the export of pulp and paper from Tasman Pulp and Paper Co. It is now the fourth largest port in respect of the quantity of cargo handled, and the second largest in respect of the volume of outward overseas cargo. A bar with a least depth of 23 ft over it lies at the entrance approaches. Tidal range: neaps 5 ft, springs 7 ft. The maximum size for vessels entering the port is 560 ft, and the maximum draught in approach channels is 24 ft at high water.

At Mount Maunganui there is a maximum overall berthage of 2,000 ft, with depths ranging from 25 to 32 ft. At Tauranga the Railway wharf has berthage accommodation of 541 ft and a least depth alongside of 16 ft at low water. A mobile crane is situated on Railway wharf, with a maximum lift of 4½ tons.

Cargo sheds at Mount Maunganui have a floor area of 38,325 sq. ft., but 24,825 ft of this is used only for the products of the Tasman Pulp and Paper Co. In addition there are two open-storage areas of 28,500 and 112,000 sq. ft. respectively. At the Railway wharf there are two sheds of 650 and 250 tons capacity. Two dry-cargo lighters of 60 tons capacity are available.

Lyttelton is the third port in New Zealand. For exports it serves the great primary-producing plains of Canterbury Province. The port is connected to the City of Christchurch through a 1¾-mile tunnel through the Port Hills. A dredged channel of about 2½ miles in length and 600 ft in width has a depth of 32 ft at low water and is maintained by the suction dredge. Canterbury. The inner harbour is situated about 4 miles from the entrance and is formed by breakwaters. Inside the breakwaters, depths vary from 20 to 38 ft at low tide. Tidal range is 7 ft springs, 5 ft neaps.

The total effective berthage is 10,338 ft, and this will accommodate 10 overseas and six intercolonial or coastal ships. All wharves except the oil wharf are connected to the national railway system. Coal and oil bunkering service is available. There are 28 cranes: 24, 5 ton; and four, 3 ton. Electric capstans facilitate the moving of railway wagons. The floating crane Rapaki has a lifting capacity of 80 tons. The graving dock will accommodate a vessel 462 ft by 52 ft by 18 ft draught, and a patent slip takes vessels of 250 tons dead weight and maximum length of 115 ft. Two steam tugs are available.

Wellington Harbour contains an area of about 20,000 acres, having depths varying from 6 to 14 fathoms. The entrance varies from 7 to 8 fathoms with a deep-water channel 1,000 ft wide. The current never exceeds 2½ knots and the tide varies from 2 ft 6 in. to 4 ft 6 in.

The harbour board has 10 wharves directly alongside the city business centre, with total lineal berthage of 23,616 ft and with depths alongside varying from 16 ft to 41 ft; 8,481 ft of berthage is linked up with the national railway system. There are seven other wharves in the harbour with 3,712 ft lineal berthage. Miramar (coal) and Burnham (oil) wharves are in Evans Bay, and the Point Howard (oil) wharf is at the northern end of the harbour. Overseas berths are generally served with four to six electric cranes per berth. There are 33 cargo stores with capacity of approximately 64,000 tons and all are equipped with overhead lifting gear with capacities of from 30 cwt to 5 tons. A coal berth has six 4½-ton grabbing cranes for delivery of coal to road and rail transport through four 60-ton self-propelling hoppers. One fixed 10-ton hydraulic crane and a floating crane with lifting capacity of up to 80 tons are available for heavy lifts. There is a floating dock with lifting capacity of 17,000 tons. Two privately owned tugs are available at the port.

More than half of New Zealand trans-shipment trade takes place at Wellington mainly on account of its geographical location.

Auckland Harbour can be entered by a vessel drawing up to 33 ft. In the inner harbour there is anchorage in depths of from 5 to 12 fathoms. There are four channels of approach to the port, but Rangitoto Channel is the only one suitable for deep-draught vessels. The total length of berthage available in the port is 27,301 ft, 12,512 ft being devoted to coastal shipping and 14,789 ft to overseas vessels. All berth-age for overseas vessels is served by railway sidings; 11 berths are suited to the loading of refrigerated cargo. With the exception of the Chelsea sugar wharf on the North Shore, all wharves are concentrated in the Quay Street area.

Calliope Dock is 605 ft long and 65 ft wide at the blocks. The harbour board also operates two slipways which can accommodate vessels of 600 tons and 200 tons. The 80-ton self-propelled crane Mahua has sufficient height and radius to enable it to serve the largest ships. Three powerful twin-screw tugs are available.

Total shed cargo space is approximately 950,000 sq. ft. Few ports in the world enjoy better cargo-handling facilities. Cranes average four per berth, and at seven of the berths there are five per berth. Twelve lighters are provided to assist unloading of vessels. Stevedoring strength is 1,700 men.

Most harbours with any volume of commercial activity are controlled by harbour boards whose constitution, functions, and powers are set out in the Harbours Act 1950, supplemented by such local Acts as are passed in respect of each board and such general legislation of the country as affects them. A harbour board (other than those whose members are members of a local authority) consists of elected members. One or more members of each board represent one or more constituent districts, with the district represented by the total membership having some relationship to the sphere of influence of the imports and exports of the port. There are 33 harbour boards, 23 of which are autonomous bodies and 10 whose members comprise the members of the territorial locality authority.

Under the Harbours Act the Minister of Marine and the Marine Department are responsible for the administration of harbours where there is no harbour board. Until 1959 the Department operated the port of Picton, and it still carries out the full functions of a harbour board at Westport.

The years since the Second World War have seen substantial development of ports in New Zealand to make good the leeway lost in that period, and to keep pace with the expanding economy and with the increase in size and number of ships, both in the coastal and overseas trades. This development has occasioned healthy rivalry between ports, each seeking naturally its full share of the trade. Since 1945 harbour boards have been authorised to borrow about £40 million for development. As a consequence of the centralisation of shipping during the war, numbers of the smaller ports let their port facilities deteriorate and in the immediate post-war years they found great difficulty in re-establishing the port and the trade, with the result that several of the boards were dissolved. The trend today is for fewer harbours, each, however, equipped with modern facilities to obtain a better turn-around of ships.

A number of the country's non-capital ports are associated with special industries: Tauranga, pulp and paper and log exports; Westport and Greymouth, coal; and Whangarei, oil refinery.

Although New Zealand possesses a very lengthy coastline in proportion to its area, it is not well endowed with natural harbours. In the North Island, Auckland and Wellington are the only two safe natural harbours of which the fullest commercial use can be made. On the east coast of the North Auckland Peninsula several deep and sheltered harbours exist, but as the surrounding country is comparatively undeveloped they are of little economic consequence at present. In the South Island the Marlborough Sounds and the West Coast Sounds form perfect land-locked harbours, but owing to their situations and to the rugged nature of the terrain they have, with the exception of Queen Charlotte Sound, little or no commercial utility. Where vital localities have not been endowed with ideal harbours, it has been necessary to improve existing facilities by dredging and breakwater construction. In this manner efficient ports capable of accommodating overseas vessels have been formed at Lyttelton, Otago, and Bluff.

On the west coast of both islands the strong ocean drifts and high seas cause shoaling at river mouths and harbour entrances, while on the east coast of the South Island similar circumstances prevail due to the large quantities of shingle brought down by rivers being spread along the coast by ocean currents. The mountainous nature of the country makes the haulage of goods to and from the better-equipped natural harbours both costly and difficult, and the construction and maintenance of further ports at various points along the coasts of both islands has been necessary either by dredging river mouths or by harbour construction work.

In the early history of New Zealand, ships were the main form of transport of passengers and goods from one part of the country to another. The development of the railway and roading systems of New Zealand has gradually reduced the volume of coastal shipping, which has now also been encroached on by air transport. The volume of the coastal cargo trade is nevertheless still substantial and there is no sign yet that its days are numbered. Known developments in air transport are unlikely to displace shipping between New Zealand and overseas ports.

Of the numerous New Zealand rivers few are of sufficient length or volume to be navigable; moreover, owing to the high relief of the country, they are mostly swift flowing, while nearly all are obstructed at their mouths by bars. For the purpose of internal communication, therefore, they are of little economic utility and only in two or three isolated instances have they been thus consistently used. With improved roading conditions their traffic has become negligible even in these cases.

The Bay of Islands was the first New Zealand port used by commercial shipping, but port development soon followed in other northern harbours such as Hokianga, Mangonui, and Auckland. Wellington came later, followed by New Plymouth. With settlements becoming established in the South Island, shipping was next recorded at Nelson, Akaroa, and Port Chalmers. By 1853, 11 ports were receiving shipping direct from overseas. The number of ports in use by overseas vessels increased during the goldrush period of the sixties, but later decreased to a number which has not changed greatly during the past 50 years.

The geology of Wellington is complex, and that of the harbour no less so. The western half of the harbour is a continuation of the Hutt Valley and is a fault angle depression in the downthrown eastern side of the Wellington Fault. The eastern side of the harbour appears to be the continuation of a buried north-south valley system with Somes Island as a remnant of the ridge between the fault angle depression and the valley. The outlet of the shallower water-bearing beds of the Lower Hutt Valley Artesian System, lies in the area between Somes and Ward Islands. The deeper beds of the Artesian System, which has a total thickness of 1,000 ft at the western Petone foreshore, in all likelihood continue seawards under the harbour and may well lie at depth in the Rongotai-Kilbirnie isthmus. The very straight line of the western side of the harbour has long been recognised as having been formed by movement on the Wellington Fault which probably lies not far off the rocky points dividing the shallow embayments of the line of the Hutt Road. In the Lambton Quay area the Lambton Fault, a splinter of the Wellington Fault, formed the cliffs which lay behind what was a narrow shingle beach when the first settlers arrived in the area. The whole of the land seawards of Lambton Quay and Wakefield Street has been reclaimed from the harbour.

The large movement on the Wairarapa Fault which occurred in 1855 lifted the Wellington Harbour area some 6 ft and the small town of Wellington was severely damaged. Plans for the construction of a shipping basin in the saltmarsh estuary of the Basin Reserve were abandoned; the area between Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai, and Miramar, which contained numerous lagoons and salt marshes in a sand-dune area, was largely drained and the beach on which the Hutt Road is built became much wider. Petone was uplifted, and flooding of the Hutt Valley decreased.

On the northern shores of Wellington Harbour and on the site of the present borough of Petone was Britannia, the first European settlement in this district. East of the Hutt River, in the Gracefield area of the City of Lower Hutt, are extensive areas of reclaimed land. This work has been done largely by the Wellington Harbour Board which was given sole reclamation rights over an area of 140 acres of harbour by an Act of Parliament.

by Thomas Ludovic Grant-Taylor, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

• The Great Harbour of Tara, Adkin, G. L. (1959).