The Cunninghams of Hikurangi - A Happy-Go-Lucky Town

INTRODUCING THE NORTHLAND CUNNINGHAMS

For some time I have felt that there is an imbalance in the stories that I have prepared for my younger two sons Sam and Theo and my almost complete silence on the family background of my two older sons Matthew and Peter. The following stories aim to correct this omission by providing insights on their Cunningham and Joll families, both of which have been long established in northern New Zealand.

In the absence of preceding family histories based on oral history and family records, researching New Zealand families is challenging because it is not possible to search decennial census entries – either manually or online - as the records have been destroyed. This meant that I had little information about the Cunningham family readily to hand.

Fortunately, a speculative inter-library order from Whangarei has more than filled the gap, with the receipt of the fine local history by Madge Malcolm ‘Hikurangi: The Story of a Coalmining Town’ (1997).

I had known a little of the Cunninghams long association with the Hikurangi-Kamo-Whangarei area having spent a wonderful day touring the Northland family heartlands (or ‘turangawaewae’) with my father-in-law Denis back in 1981/82. As Denis was at pains to point out along the trail of Northland pubs that we visited, the family was now well represented in every field of endeavour from policing to horse breeding to other less worthy pursuits.

But Madge’s wonderful book includes oral history interviews with two of the old-timer members of the family, Harriet and Dick and this gives me a real handle on the past. I trust that Madge (who died in 2008) would have approved of me making this material more widely available. And I have added to it from my own research.

The write up is also dedicated to Denis who died in 2005. I hope also that he would have approved. Looking at the photograph that Madge provides of Denis’ uncle Dick, I see a better likeness of Denis the man than is given by the personal photographs that I have been able to put my hands on. Both were hardworking, hard-living but generous and warm-hearted men – the very stuff of all that is best about New Zealanders.

So let’s start.

The founder of the family in New Zealand was Joseph Cunningham who was born in Jamaica in 1828 and came to New Zealand in 1844. He was obviously highly educated for the times and in 1855 he was appointed Clerk of the Magistrate’s Court at a yearly salary of two hundred and forty pounds. In 1869 he was appointed Clerk of the Petty Sessions.

His marriage is recorded as follows:

Joseph Cunningham Esq., R M C (Registered Magistrate’s Clerk) was married to Annie Elizabeth Witherden on the 11th August 1864 by the Right Reverend Bishop Pompallier, at his Chapel, Hobson Street, and by the Rev D Jones, at St Matthew’s Church. Annie Elizabeth Witherden was the daughter of the late Henry Witherden Esq., of Hythe, Kent.

My family connections are through my two elder sons Matthew and Peter Johnson through first wife Dianne Glenise Cunningham [born Whangarei 1955].

Dianne is the daughter of Denis Edward Cunningham [1930 – 2005] and Noeleen Joll. Denis was one of the four children of Edward [Adam Edward] Cunningham and Lillian A’Claire Rouse [the others being Glenise, Keith and Maxwell]. Edward who was born in 1900 was the son of Edward Arthur Cunningham [b 1872] who in turn was one of the 9 children of the original ancestors Joseph and Annie Elizabeth Cunningham.

SETTING THE SCENE IN HIKURANGI

The small town of Hikurangi is 17 km north of Whangarei nestled on the flanks of Mount Hikurangi which rises to 365m to the west of the town. The population was 1,422 in the 2006 Census, unchanged from 2001. Hikurangi is now largely a service centre for the local dairy industry and a residential outlier for commuters to Whangarei. There is also a limestone quarry that has been operating since the early 1900s.


An area of 12,000 acres (49 km2) of land at Hikurangi was purchased from local Maori by the District Commissioner of Lands, John Rogan, in 1862.

The land was considered desirable because it contained mature timber and high quality flax, and when a road south was opened in 1875 the area became a timber milling centre, with kauri gum-diggers soon following.

Coal was first discovered by Maori gum-diggers in 1863 but it was not until 1889 that the first mine was opened. By 1890, two small mines were operating and a 5-horse team was used to cart the coal to Kamo. Things changed rapidly when the railway was extended from Kamo in 1894.

Hikurangi had between 60 and 70 mines in its heyday but, as will be shown, the Great Depression, seam exhaustion and flooding gradually killed the industry. In all about 4.2 million tons of coal were extracted with the Hikurangi Coal Company, the Wilson Colliery Company and the Northern Coal Mine Company being among the biggest.

The town was held in great affection by its residents. But, as described by Dick Cunningham: ‘In the early 1920s more than 300 men were employed in the mines. There were good rugby, soccer and league teams but after the mines closed, Hikurangi ebbed away’.

HARRIET CUNNINGHAM/LAYBOURN’S MEMORIES OF LIFE IN HIKURANGI

Harriet Laybourn [born 1908, died 1997], who was Joseph’s grand-daughter and one of the daughters of Edward Arthur Cunningham [b 1872] told her family history in the following interview with Madge Malcolm, as written up in her book ‘Hikurangi: The Story of a Coalmining Town’ (1997):

‘My Dad Edward Arthur Cunningham [b 1872] was one of nine children and after attending business college, he became manager of the Taheke Hotel near Rawene, as well as the store and Post Office. My two eldest sisters were born there.

‘When he 22 year old Dad married my mother, 19-year old Fanny Girven. Fanny had been born in Kawakawa and had worked for the missionary Revered Williams and for the Salvation Army.

‘The family then moved to Kaihoke and again to Hukerenui before settling in Hikurangi in about 1903. Dad ran a hardware store in Hikurangi but when the local coal met fierce competition from Huntly coal, his trade contracted and he had to close the store. He then went ‘farming’ up Valley Road – but he was not a farmer – and it became basically a place to live when he was employed by the Northern Coal Company.

‘We milked about 25 cows and always had plenty of milk, cream and butter from what was left over from deliveries to the dairy factory. Altogether there were 13 children in my family (I had 7 brothers and 5 sisters). [NZ DIA Birth Records have Annie Edith 1894, Annie Evelyn 1895, Elizabeth Jane 1896, Joseph 1898, Adam Edward 1900, Cecil George 1902, Richard William 1904, Edward Arthur 1906, Harriet Rebecca 1908].

Times were hard but we never went to bed hungry – partly because throughout the year Dad used to gather kauri gum and clean it for sale.

‘With the kauri gum money he would buy us Xmas presents. However, one Xmas he was so disgusted seeing all the toys lying around the place, he said to our mother: ‘that’s the finish of buying Xmas presents – in future we’ll go to the beach in Whananaki instead’. And that is what we did. He would buy us hats etc. as Xmas presents but we really loved going to the beach. It used to take anything from 8-10 hours to get from Hikurangi to Whananaki in the old chain-driven truck. Dad built a bach there - and I have one there still and have never missed a Xmas at the beach for over 80 years!

‘Dad was pretty strict with us - his people were very strict. I remember how he would call out to us when we went to bed. There were 3 girls in our room and Dad would call out: ‘You girls said your prayers?’ ‘Yes, Dad’, we would answer as we stuck our heads under the blankets and said our prayers. Then: ‘You girls put light out?’ ‘Yes, Dad’, we would say – when we hadn’t at all – but we’d soon blow out our candle!

‘We didn’t have much with 13 kids but we had a great life really. We had a marvellous mother. She used to play the piano for us singing, and on Sundays we would have hymns. Her parents lived up at Waro where the lime-works are. Grandma Girven was the midwife at Hikurangi. She delivered a lot of babies amongst the women, including me. They used to have their babies at home in those days.

‘Himkurangi was a mining town – a happy-go-lucky town with lots of houses and kids and we had a great time. All the boys played football (Rugby). There were dances, socials, pictures on a Saturday night, and church on Sundays. All the churches were full – Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians. The Catholic Church wasn’t built as early as the others and the Catholics had to use the Hall. One of my friends said that for confession they had to go to the back of the stage. Then there were Scouts and Girl Guides – one of my brothers was assistant scout master.

‘I remember the pictures (movies) and how we let the poor kids in – those who couldn’t pay. There was a hole under the stage and they used to come up through that and we would let them in through the trap door.

‘After about 14 years or so, Dad left the Northern Coalmine Company – and with some mates Dick and Joe Hamilton, Tom Dunn, Jock Rogers, R. Cherrie and Jim Boyd acquired the rights to work leases abandoned by the large coalmining companies (mainly in the Marua hill area). They called themselves the Valley Syndicate. Dad also mined with some of his brothers using the opencast method. They didn’t make a fortune but they did make a living.

‘All my brothers worked as miners and all left school early, usually when they were 12 years old but one brother Cecil left school at 11 – and also stopped smoking at 11!

‘In 1928 I married Treston Laybourn who was a miner from Kiripaka. He was born in Waihi where his father was a gold-miner, We built this house here in View Road but when the mines flooded and he was out of work, we lost it because we couldn’t keep up the payments. For four months we had to live in a tent at Whananaki before we could rent a house. Eventually, some years later, we were able to buy our house back again – and here I am still living in it!

‘Treston was mine deputy at the Shaft and the Kamo Mine but later became a truck driver – and then, before he died, in the Hikurangi Dairy Factory. My sister Mabel and I started the ‘Hikurangi Caterers’ and we ran the business for 33 years. My brother Edward and his wife Clair ran another catering business ‘Cunningham Caterers’.

‘We had four children but they are not miners – the mines have been closed around here since 1937. This is still a happy town for us who were born here. We seem to be related to everyone and to know everyone. We all help each other and now that my husband has died I am never lonely as friends and family are dropping in all the time’.

FOR DENIS CUNNINGHAM (1930 – 2005)

REMEMBER

You cannot say the fire is out, while there is still an ember,
And nothing can be really lost while we can still remember.
Ties are broken, and along strange paths we are led
But while a friend returns in thought, no friendship can be dead.

While the lavender of love retains a faint perfume,
While one rose of recollection from the past can bloom,
While one note can still be heard, one echo linger on,
The song is not forgotten though the singer may be gone.

Whilst the names of those whom God has called are written
In our hearts, they cannot pass, they cannot die.
Though death turns laughter into tears, and June into December
Our dear ones walk here at our sides, as long as we remember.

Anon (quoted by Madge Malcolm)