The Archive Project has the following aims:

• the preservation of existing material
• provision for improved public access to existing material
• future research and presentation

so that material and information relating to the environment and human activity of the Katikati area both past and present can be gathered, stored and presented in ways easily accessible to members of the public.

Introduction Ellen McCormack
It is not until you leave a town that you have grown up in that you really appreciate the history and the great times that you have left behind.

Such a town is Katikati where I spent my first twenty years of life and where three generations of my ancestors had lived since 1882.

The history of Katikati is absolutely unique - nowhere else in the world has one person encouraged over 4000 people to leave their homes and loved ones to travel to the other side of the world and take on the back breaking task of bringing in land from fern and scrub, with the only transport available being by horse or boat.

George Vesey Stewart had the vision and the settlers had the good sense to see a better life for themselves and their families. Times were more tough in the early days and many walked off the land - but those that stayed enjoyed the fruits of their hard work in later years.

Ellen McCormack
Ellen was born at Tauranga in 1935. At this time there was no hospital in Katikati. Ellen says, 'My mother had boys at home and girls in the hospital strangely enough. She was a wise lady'.

She was educated at Katikati District High School and left school to work at the Katikati Post Office as both a telephone operator and a clerk on the counter. In these days the Post Office sent telegrams and cables, registered vehicles, and gave out all benefits including superannuation. Morse code was the means of communication to ring party telephone lines, and telephone accounts were hand written.

Leaving Katikati to join the staff at the Auckland branch of the Farmers Trading Co, Ellen eventually went to Tokoroa to work. Marriage and two children followed. Ellen became involved with the Plunket, Kindergarten (life membership), Brownies, Rakanui Womens Group, Bridge, League of Mothers, Tokoroa East School committee and the Tokoroa Intermediate School Committee.

After returning to work in her husband's business in Auckland in 1970 Ellen became then became a non-qualified accountant and Office Manager for a firm of accountants. In 1976 Ellen returned to Tauranga to look after her parents and continued her business interests there.

Ellen joined the New Zealand Society of Geneology in 1972 and is a life member of the Te Puke Branch. She took over the Family Histories section of the NZSG Library in 1989. She was responsible for the postal borrowing system for books as well as other duties.

Ellen has written three family histories, one of which won an award, and organised numerous family reunions, and is currently involved with the Athenree Homestead restorations and the Katikati Archives.

Letters of support for the Archives Project or any historical information you would like to share are welcomed.

NEW
John Noble JOHNSTON, of Edengole, Omagh, Co. Tyrone], his wife, Eliza, and 5 of their then 9 children sailed from Belfast, Ireland on 8 June 1875 in the 1st Party, Special Settlers, on the Carisbrooke Castle to a new life in New Zealand.
This is our first genealogical link to the website of one of Katikati's pioneer families. To access the site click here.

Letters from Ellie No 1.
Katikati history is my hobby and I copy anything and everything to do with the people and the events that shaped the town to its great success today.

All this material is on files at the Katikati Library.

I go to Katikati one day a week to keep the files up to date at the library. I also like to spend another another day of the week at the Tauranga Library reading through the micro film records of the early Bay of Plenty Times.

There are some absolute gems of information in these early papers and I would like to share a few of these treasures with you.

On the 30 December 1880 the B.O.P. Times announced the Annual Race meeting of the Katikati Jockey Club. This meeting to be held on Friday 11 February 1881 - Place _ not mentioned - because apparently it was held on the road just south of Katilati. The track crossed the road here and there and a person was stationed to hold up traffic (which was probably only spectators).

There was a judge, six stewards, a starter, a clerk of the course, handicapper, clerk of scales, treasurer and secretary. A list of rules and regulations which would do justice to the Elleslie races or the Grand National.

The programme consisted of eight races including hurdles, pony race, hack race, a race for horses that have never won a race, and a Maori race to be ridden and owned by Maori with the last race being for all beaten horses.

The prize money ranged from 10 to 30 shillings and most of the races were for a distance of 1-2 miles.

As you can see in 1881 the Katikati Jockey Club's annual race meeting was no country hick affair. What a shame we have no photos, but it was obviously a grand event with no doubt a sumptuous feast to follow. There was no time listed for each race. This was also of interest. The race probably started when the settlers managed to travel the distance and recuperate their horses.

Letter from Noel Mitchel, Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University

I am delighted to hear that the Western Bay of Plenty District Council has formally acknowledged the Katikati Archives, the compilation of which owes so much to my good friend Ellen McCormack.

Here in Ulster we are very much aware of out Ulster/New Zealand links. Two premiers, John Ballance and Bill Massey are well remembered. The restored Ballance House is now the home of the Ulster New Zealand Trust (and the Honorary Consul, Mrs Jill McIvor) which was set up in 1991 with the help of funds from many sources, including a substantial contribution from the New Zealand Government. The House has become an important visitor centre not only for local people but for overseas visitors, not surprisingly New Zealanders much to the fore. Since opening, we have had visits from your Premier, Mr Bolger and Mrs Bolger, and the All Blacks. The Katikati story is beautifully presented in it as part of the story of the many links we have. I am particularly pleased with the large prints of some of the murals and the emphasis on the restoration of Athenree which we see as very much the equivalent of our Ballance House – also in ruins when we took it over in the late 1980s. As you will know George Vesey Stewart, who is so closely associated with Katikati, came from County Tyrone.

The house is also important for educational purposes: many local schools use it for project work. You would be surprised to know how widely the Bay of Plenty is now known throughout the countryside here. Mind you I would like to see more direct contact between schools here and Katikati, perhaps by e-mail. By the way, Lisburn Borough Council is much involved in the running of the House: they pay the Curator’s salary.

My personal interest in Katikati began when I was a Visiting Lecturer in the University of Canterbury in 1966-67. The then Chairman of the District Council, Mr C A Moore, was most helpful in arranging contacts for my interests in researching Ulster emigration to New Zealand. I was fortunate to get to know Arthur Gray who joined me in Katikati for a time to discuss links. I was able to produce some papers for example in the journal of our Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and in the edition of Familia focussing on emigration to New Zealand. I am glad to report they started off other studies on Katikati. Perhaps you are aware of an excellent M A thesis, The Katikati Settlement 1875-1895, written by Thomas L. Stevenson in 1975 for the University of Otago. That is but one of other studies now made or under way by students in New Zealand universities. Little need for me to stress the importance of the Archives for such research work.

I would also like to draw your attention to the work already carried out by a most distinguished Canadian historian, Professor Donald Akenson of the University of Toronto. His book – Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand 1860-1950 – contains an entire chapter on Katikati, namely Chapter Five, Katikati: A Wee Ulster Plantation. This excellent chapter was much aided by archival material. You also have two distinguished American anthropologists, John and Betty Messenger, at present carrying out studies on an annual basis, which are based on Katikati. I know they also find the Archives valuable. So you see you are very much on the academic map.

I was on the staff of the Department of Geography in Queen’s University for many years and am now an Honorary Fellow in the Institute of Irish Studies there. So I can say with assurance that Katikati does have a special place in studies of emigration because it is the only Irish planned in New Zealand and for that reason will always hold much interest for research workers both here and in New Zealand. I have also been very fortunate in that I was asked by the Ulster-New Zealand Trust to organise study tours of New Zealand. As a result I took two large parties to New Zealand in 1994 and 1997 and on both occasions was able to introduce the Katikati story to our groups. We stayed overnight in Katikati and were received with great hospitality. Indeed the visit was one of the highlights of the whole tour. Even now I am asked to talk about the story, for example a broadcast about Katikati on our local BBC radio only a month ago. So you see you are part of a wide community and the Archives are a very important asset in furthering even closer links.

With best wishes,


N.C.Mitchel
16 August 2001