If any of the following are your ancestors, and you have photos of them you would like to share, please let me know. Also, please feel free to contact me if you believe any of my information is incorrect or needs changing. Most information is from Papers Past - online copies of old New Zealand newspapers - and the search facilities of Ancestry.com. Please note there will be random spelling of the place name, depending on the context of its use at the time.
I'm trying to find out who were the first European settlers to Karioitahi. Here's what I've discovered so far.
From early 1865, those eligible to vote in the 1866 election were exhorted to register at the earliest opportunity. See this article, from The New Zealander, 25 February, 1865, for example.
In the 1866 election, Kariaotahi was part of the Raglan electorate - with the eastern part of the area being in the neighbouring Franklin electorate. With the area south of Auckland sparsely populated, electorates were huge, and it must have been nigh on impossible for any candidates to travel to the smaller and more remote settlements. The southern boundary of the Raglan electorate was the Mokau River, and Raglan town had the only polling station between the southern boundary and Waiuku, with the rest being in the Auckland suburbs. The northern boundary of the Raglan electorate was close to the centre of Auckland and bordered the Newton district.
To be eligible to vote in the 1866 election, a person had to:
- be a male, 21 years or older and
- own a property of at least £50,or
- own a leasehold with a yearly value of at least £10, or
- occupy a tenement of a yearly value of at least £10 in town or £5 in the country, or
- hold a miner's right
(There were time period qualifications for the property / miner's rights eligibility.)
To be registered to vote, a person had to send an application to the registration officer of the electoral district, and this had to be attested by another householder or freehold land holder. In the previous election of 1860, a Justice of the Peace was the only person allowed to attest the application, and many men could not register as they lived too far away to travel to the nearest JP.
From New Zealand and Auckland papers published on April 19th, 1865, the following Kariaotahi residents or landholders had registered to vote in the 1866 election. Note the differences in spelling, taken directly from the application forms. Whoever deciphered the handwriting could have, understandably, misread some of the writing also (in the absence of an established form of spelling the location).
Snapshots taken from newspapers published 18/19th April 1865:
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| Buckley, James, Waiuku, freehold allotment 39, Kariotahi, Waiuku West, attested by Archibald Campbell. |
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| Costar, Charles, Pura Pura, freehold allotment 15, Kariotuia, Waiuku West, attested by Archibald Campbell. |
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| Fuller, Stephen, Waiuku, freehold, allotment 24, Kariotuhi, Waiuku West, attested by Archibald Campbell. |
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| Passmore |
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| Marshall, George, Pura Pura, freehold, allotment 18, Kariotahi, Waiuku West, attested by Archibald Campbell. |
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| Munro, James, Waiuku West, freehold, section 4, 23 allotment, 10 acres, Kareoatahi, Waiuku West, attested by John T Mellsop |
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| Pain, Charles William, Waiuku, freehold, allotment 27, Karoitahi, attested by Archibald Campbell. |
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| Stebbings William, Waiuku, freehold, allotment 3, Kariotahi, Waiuku West, attested by A. Camppbell. |
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| Waldrom Thomas, Waiuku, freehold, allotment 9, Kariotahe, Waiuku West, attested by Archd. Campbell. (Note: written Waldron elsewhere) |
Archibald Campbell emigrated from Scotland in the early 1850s and leased the Kentish Hotel from Edward Constable from 1857 until at least the mid-1870s. He also started his own hotel on the corner of Kaiwaka Road and George Street in 1876. He was a well-known and well-respected identity and an obvious choice to attest the applications of intending electors. He ran a bookshop in Auckland for a while also, and died in Waiuku in 1891, aged 68.
I wonder if the Alexander Campbell attestation of William James Casely (above) is actually an error and should be Archibald Campbell? I can find no Alexander Campbell in Waiuku at the same time.
John T. Mellsop (John Thomas) also attested those claiming qualification for voting registration. He was born in Ireland and came to New Zealand at age 22 with his family. He was a secretary for Major Speedy at Mauku so obviously had the administrative qualification s to attest those claiming eligibility. He eventually settled at Glenbrook and raised a family of ten. Interestingly, his grand daughter married into the Costar family, mentioned below.
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| John Thomas Mellsop |
In 1869, he took out a lease of Crown land on behalf of the "Peruvian Gold Mining Company" for gold mining. The lease was cancelled in 1870 on account of non-execution.
James Buckley had sold his property at Karioitahi sometime before April, 1874, as his name was objected to being kept on the electoral roll on account of his freehold property being sold. He had probably not lived there for some time.
By 1874 it appears as he was farming near Kauaeranga as he complains about logs being floated down the Kauaeranga River as they would stop the crossing and prevent him driving his cattle to Puriri.
William James Casely, wife Mary and daughter Annie arrived on the Matoaka. He also had interests in gold mining leases in Thames in the late 1860s and early 1870s. He was a lieutenant in the Hauraki Rifle Volunteers in 1870 and saw active service. Described as a carpenter, he was declared bankrupt in 1870 when he was living at Shortland (Thames). His Waiuku property had been sold by 1873, when Casely's eligibility to remain on the (by then) Franklin electoral roll was acknowledged. In 1900, William James Casely was awarded a pension of £18. A William James Casely died in 1910 and is buried in Purewa cemetery. It looks like his connection to Kariaotahi was fairly fleeting.
Charles Costar was born in 1805. His wife, Eliza, nee Hardes, was born in 1825. They were married at St. Alphege Church in the parish of Greenwich, Kent, in 1857. Charles was a widower, and a coach painter - as was his father William. Eliza's father, Richard, was a bricklayer. They arrived in NZ on the Matoaka in 1865, along with their children Martha, Christopher, Alice and Emily. Matoaka Atlantic Costar was born on the sea voyage.
It seems the family lived at Pura Pura (bewtween Waiuku and Aka Aka /Otaua) and did not settle for long at Karioitahi.
Charles is still registered in the Raglan District for the 1870-71 electoral year, and is living at Pura Pura, with allotment 16 at Karioitahi his land ownership qualification for eligibility. Note his 1865-6 electoral year qualification was lot 15. Not sure if this is an error, of if he increased his land.
The National Archives (Auckland branch) hold records in the Land Information NZ Department for Charles Costar of Papatoitoi [sic] of allotment 20 in the settlement of Karioitahi (1876). There is also a record in the National Archives Auckland Land Titles Office of Mortgagor Sarah Mason Speedy - Mortgagee: Charles Costar. Allots 52 & 20 of the settlement of Kariaotahi parish of Waipipi, also from (1876 -1879).
Charles died in 1879, at Paptoetoe, aged 74. Eliza died at her daughter's house in Manurewa in 1895.
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| From Waiuku Post, 17 March 2015. |
Stephen Fuller: There was already a Stephen Fuller in New Zealand by 1863, believed to be in Gabriel's Gully, as his sisters in Dunedin advertised searching for his whereabouts . Another Stephen Fuller arrived on the Matoaka in 1865, and this is likely to be the same person of allotment 24 in Karioitahi. Interestingly, other Fullers on the Matoaka (but listed separately) were Sophia and Louisa Fuller and Ada Maria Fuller. They may or may not be related to Stephen Fuller, but I can find no more information about them apart from shipping information that accounts for Sophia Fuller leaving Auckland in 1866 for New South Wales. There is, however, quite a bit of interesting information about Stephen - assuming it is the same Stephen.
It seems he retained his land - if perhaps not his residency - in Karioitahi - when he was confirmed as remaining on the electoral roll in 1869, and again in 1871 when his qualification to vote was his freehold ownership of lot 24, Kariaotahi, Waiuku West.
In June 1869, if this was the Matoaka Stephen Fuller, he was located at Thames (Shortland) and was a shareholder in the Sea Lion Gold Mining Company. In August 1869, his address was given as Auckland (although this could be the Auckland Province)when he was advertised as being a shareholder in the General Saint Ruth Goldmining Company, By February 1870, he was recorded as living in Shortland (Thames) again, when he bought shares in the Erromanga Goldmining Company, and in Grahamstown (also Thames) in 1871 when he bought shares in the Cock-a- Doodle Goldmining Company.
In the 1870 - 71 electoral year, Stephen Fuller was registered to vote in the now Franklin electorate, and he gives his address as Waiotahi Creek (Thames). In the 1875-76 electoral year, he was registered at the same address. This means a double up of Stephen Fullers in 1871 as he would have been registered in two electorates. (Could mean the Thames one is not the Karioitahi one, but the following story is too interesting not to tell.)
(Again, if this is the Matoaka Stephen Fuller) his private activities while at Grahamstown unwittingly became public knowledge following the newspaper publication in 1873 of the details of a court case involving the theft of his US $20 coin. The details reveal that the coin was stolen by an acquaintance, one Robert Hagan, while Stephen was in a drunken state. Further details involve a scuffle with a Mrs Winepress, and that he had been on "terms of close intimacy" with both her and a Christina Wilson - who were also known to Robert Hagan.
Hagan is described as a "man of fair education and abilities, and [occupying] a respectable position in society . . ."
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| Auckland Star, 9 April, 1873 |
Further and more in depth details of the trial can be found here. Interestingly, the judge pronounced that the offence did not call for an extreme sentence, so imposed a lighter sentence of six months imprisonment on Hagan.
It is difficult to find anything more about what happened to Stephen Fuller after this event - but it is clear his association with Karioitahi was brief and far less eventful than Stephen Fuller's associations with the Thames gold fields.
By the time the 1873 electoral roll was being updated, Stephen Fuller had sold his property at Waiuku, and his ineligibility to remain on the local electoral roll was published in a list of others who had also been removed.
There are several references and records of Stephen (and Steven) Fuller in Papers Past and Ancestry.com; however, they are either clearly the South Island Stephen Fuller (the one sought by his sisters in 1863) or without enough supporting evidence to be the Karioitahi Stephen.
I wonder what ever happened to him after he sold his property?
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