16
COROMANDEL LIFE
SUMMER 2014
sand near the water. We even tried with horses and a road scoop,
but only made a small lake. There would have been a small fortune
in this covered gum if it could have been worked years ago.
The end of Robert Wigmore was very sudden. A cow persisted in
getting into his plantation of young pines so he decided to shoot
her. The family heard a shot and later found the old man dead half
way to the plantation. Through too much excitement his heart
must have stopped and apparently the gun had gone off as he
fell.
The family eventually scattered. The daughters all married and
one son went into the police force while two [Robert Jr & Henry
aka Harry} carried on the farm for some years until it was sold to
us; when one [Robert] went to Auckland and the other [Henry]
bought a small property nearby. My sister Kate Harsant married
Henry.
It is said that Sir John Logan Campbell had given Robert
Wigmore a library of books worth nearly a thousand pounds
when it was intact. It was comprised of early complete editions
of early authors, but the family divided it and have now lost trace
of some of it.
Unless a headstone is erected as a memorial, all trace will soon be
lost of the grave of Robert Wigmore the most notable man of his
time in this area – indeed the father of Hahei.
Harsant’s memioir continued...
WIGMORE AND HIS DRINK
One story I heard, he and another man were drinking in Tairua and
the policeman arrived. Wigmore saw him coming and got out of
sight, but the other man was had up for being drunk.
When he came before the magistrate, who was Mr. Wigmore, he was
fined. The defendant protested, “You were as drunk as I was.”
Mr. Wigmore replied, “I might have been, but I was not caught.”
The fine was possibly half a dozen bottles of beer, which they would
no doubt have drunken together.
THE LOVELY LONGDROP LOO
The late Mr. Wigmore was a big man, and did things on a massive
scale as evidenced by the huge outside toilet which he had built to
serve the comfort of he and his family. The spacious two-seater toilet
was near a fig tree, close to the old site of the Hahei restaurant, The
Grange [current location of Coromandel Brewing Company].
Going to the loo tended to be quite social at the Big House. The
boys often went behind a silky oak at the end of the path, while the
women usually travelled in convoy with a lantern to the long drop
standing at least 100m from the house. Inside the latrine, the walls
were decorated with some fine charcoal sketches of sailing ships,
and there was a long shelf encrusted with wax from the many candles
that had burnt there.Who the artist was no one seems to know for
sure. Wigmore himself perhaps?
“The kauri toilet seats were clean and polished from long years of
use. The old two-seater was a great place to catch up on the news
because there was always a stack of newspapers ready for use,”
remarked Charles.
One evening the women were standing for some time, waiting
outside the toilet. Strange snuffling noises could be heard. Growing
impatient, they tapped on the door. The response was rather guttural.
Tentatively, one woman lifted the latch. Out trotted an old sow!
IN A ‘CLOUD OF BEES’
The Wigmore brothers never had much of an interest in farming and
after the death of their mother, Robert Jr and Harry (aka Henry) sold
their interest in the farm to the Harsant brothers.
Robert (Jr) then moved to Auckland, while Harry decided to pursue
Stranger than f iction
Excerpts from
Island View
, a book by Maria de Jong as related by Horace Harsant
his dream of establishing an orchard and an apiary. He had inherited
his father’s interest in horticulture and was obsessed with bees. In
1915, Harry and Kate shifted to a section next to the Purangi River.
They travelled by boat with all their belongings, plus Harry’s beloved
bees. James Hamilton used his launch to tow a barge carrying about
80 hives of bees with Harry on board. Following the barge, and
attached by a rope, was a small boat carrying Kate and the small
children. The night before Harry had stuffed rags into the opening of
the hives, but during the voyage some of these rags were dislodged.
A number of bees escaped forming a dark and agitated cloud over
the barge. Hamilton put as much distance between the launch and
the barge as possible by lengthening the tow rope, but poor Kate
and the children were stuck behind the barge. They were all badly
stung, while Harry was unharmed. For many years it was said that
“Harry Wigmore left Hahei in a ‘cloud of bees’”.
Harry’s favourite saying was “By heavens, bees make my jam”. Most
of his honey was manuka and in those days it was considered too
dark and was of little value.
Harry retained a life long interest in horticulture. When he was well
into his 70s he still walked over the hills each winter to prune the fruit
trees growing next to the big house in Hahei.
A present day photo of the old Wigmore homestead in Hahei,
sometimes called ‘Sunnyside’ or the ‘big house’ – built to last from
kauri by Robert Wigmore from 1868-1874 for his large family.
Henry (Harry) Wigmore, son of Robert, married Kate
Harsant. They owned 28 acres at Purangi, where they
had a large orchard and many bee hives. Harry was
responsible for developing the Captain Cook strawberry.
