William Henry Rogers

When William Rogers died at Maketu on 5 November 1874 at the age of 65 the Weekly News, 14 November, stated that he was a universally respected settler of 40 years standing. This probably meant that he had been in New Zealand for that length of time but not necessarily all of it at Maketu. His descendants understand that he was born in Massachusetts, U.S.A., and was a shipwright by profession, and that he spent some time in the Pacific islands, including Hawaii and Rarotonga, before coming to Hokianga, New Zealand. His association with William Mayhew (see below) suggests that he may have been connected with the whaling industry at one time. From Hokianga he is presumed to have gone to the Bay of lslands, where Mayhew was stationed, and afterwards to the Bay of Plentv. He is first mentioned by name as a trader at Maketu in the journal of Mr. J.J. Symonds, who spent some months there from July 1843. Mr. Symonds also recorded a visit to Maketu, in November 1843, of Mr. Rogers' "old servant" Mr. Dally, who came up from Matata. (The journal of John Jermyn Symonds, younger brother of Captain William Cornwallis Symonds, is held by the Hocken Library, Dunedin.) Early in 1843 Dr Edward Shortland (for whom Symonds was a temporary replacement as Sub-Protector of Aborigines and Police Magistrate) had recorded in his journal that there were only two Europeans living at Maketu. They were "engaged by Mr. Mayo, American Consul at the Bay", to procure pigs and potatoes. Shortland received "much civility" from the men, whom he did not name. Almost certainly they were Messrs. Rogers and Dally. The pigs and potatoes from Maketu would have been intended for sale to whaling vessels calling at the Bav of lslands. "Mr. Mayo" was of course William Mayhew Junior, an American whaling captain who in 184O leased and in 1842 purchased - in the form of a 999-year lease - Gilbert Mair senior's trading station at Wahapu, Bay of lslands. (See Andersen and Petersen, The Mair Family) He had evidently intended originally to establish a flax mill at Maketu or nearby at Waihi. In an undated letter, apparently written about March-April 1842, the Rotorua missionary Thomas Chapman informed his colleague the Rev. A. N. Brown, at Tauranga, about Mayhew's reported plans: Mr. Mayhew is talking of a flax mill either on the Waihi or Maketu river - and that he is expecting settlers from America to the number of two hundred men - surely this must be ariari. What inducements can New Zealand offer to an American apart from trading. I had this today from a native from Maketu who says he (Mr. M) has brought down two Mechanics who are gone up....The rest of Chapman's letter is missing, but the two mechanics referred to may well have been Messrs. Rogers and Dally. (William Mayhew left New Zealand in 1846. See L.M. Rogers, The Early Journals of Henry Williams) Although the flax trade was no longer what it was in the boom years of the early 1830s when Phillip Tapsell was at Maketu, some business was still being done when Mr. Symonds arrived there in July 1843, and on 30 October he noted: Schooner at anchor to take Mr. Rogers' flax to Bay of lslands bearing the pleasing and very witty name of I Don't Know. Some flax had earlier been taken, on 20 September, by a cutter belonging to Mr. White, of Matata. Noticing the large area of flax on the banks of the Kaituna river, Symonds recorded that it was being worked by the natives, who were "receiving a fair payment in blankets and trade from the European stationed here". These "fair payments", however, whether for pigs, potatoes or flax, had only recently been at the centre of a dispute as to when they should be made - before or after the above commodities were delivered - involving Dr Shortland, the "European" (Mr. Rogers) and the "natives" (the Maketu people). In his .journal, 10 April 1843 (copy in Auckland Public Library), Shortland remarked: A bad system of trading has prevailed here between the Europeans and natives, very much to the disadvantage of the former and very injurious to the improvement of the natives. When the trader receives his goods, the natives assemble and by dint of persuasions and importunity (tohe) obtain the whole in a few days on credit. A Mr. Tapsell agent for Mr. Jones of Sydney" introduced this system. The result of his trading was a loss of about e 1400 for his employer. Since that time but few have traded with them with the exception of Mr. Mayhew of the Bay of lslands, who kept a native woman belonging to this country and sent her down with a great deal of property to buy pigs and f lax. This property as was natural was dissipated among the natives and but few returns received. The European now living at Maketu has involuntarily pursued the same plan. By my advice he has put a stop to it, very much to the dissatisfaction of the natives. who refuse to trade with him on any other terms. They have had several talks, or as they called it 'Komitis' with me on the subject and are much displeased with the advice I have given the European. There appear to have been no such difficulties when Symonds was at Maketu. Symonds, who stayed in Shortland's house at Wharekahu, got on well with Mr. Rogers and procured pork and potatoes from the trader, to whom he gave seeds and plants. It was almost certainly William Rogers who was the American at Maketu mentioned by Thomas Chapman in his journal on Sunday 1 September 1850: Held morning service and school, and our English service - attended by an American - the only resident here - save ourselves - not native. This man was formerly a largish dealer in Flax - but this branch of the native trade has almost dwindled to nothing. He is regular in his attendance and the' the only one, it is a satisfaction to have that one with us on Sunday services. Doubtless it was the same man who was still a regular attendant at services seven years later. After recording that he had held morning service and baptisms for a very attentive Māori congregation of 80, on Sunday 14 June 1857, Chapman continued: "English service, with my usual congregation of two - Mrs. Chapman and a trader!" Evidence of William Rogers' shipbuilding activities comes from M.N. Watt's index to the N.Z. Section of the Register of all British Ships 184O-7 95O, which records that he built and owned the schooner Mary at Maketu and registered it at Auckland on 22 November 1848. The vessel is stated to have been lost some time before 1853. But he probably also built other ships or boats, as he is presumed to have been the European "who builds vessels for the natives and lives close to the pa" referred to by T.H. Smith in a letter from Maketu dated 2 September 1845 (see Stafford, Te Arawa. Mr. Rogers was almost certainly the "shipbuilder here" mentioned by Thomas Chapman in his journal, 11 July 1853, and from this it can be assumed that he had been for some time and was still engaged in the trade. His customers are presumed to have been Maketu Māori who wished to transport their produce to market in Auckland in their own vessels. Mr. Rogers' store is shown on an 1845 plan of Maketu prepared in connection with the Government Grant of land f or the Wharekahu mission station. The plan was probably drawn from surveys made by J.J. Symonds in 1843. The location of the store was near the waterfront of Maketu Harbour, north of the present township and west of Maketu Pa. The land it stood on was called Otairoa. Mr. Rogers is shown as a resident of Maketu in an electoral roll of 1855 and again in rolls of the late 1860s and early 1870s. In the latter instance his dwelling was stated to be at Otairoa. He was the first Postmaster at Maketu from 1860 to 1 862, when he appears to have moved to the Matata district f or a period. According to a list of European occupiers of Māori lands published in 1863 (A.J.H.R., 1863, E.16) he had been occupying 314 acre of land there since 1861. Before long, however, he returned to Maketu, and was there at the time of the Tai Rawhiti forces attack on the settlement in April 1864. On the night of Saturday, 23 April, when it was rumoured that an attack would be made on Mr. Rogers' store, a detachment of Forest Rangers was stationed in his house (see Daily Southern Cross, 29 April 1864, o.4]|. The late Mr. Norman Steele, of Rotorua, who was a descendant of Mr. Rogers said that when he was a youngster an elder relative, Mrs. Ernie Montgomery, told him that the old two-storied building then standing on the waterfront at Maketu was formerly William Rogers senior's store. The building referred to was for long a landmark in the settlement. lt is shown in an 1886 photograph, and in later photos taken circa 1917 and 1931 a pine tree is seen growing on the beach in front of it. The late Mrs. Dorothy Forrest (q.v.), who was born in 1905 and grew up in Maketu, said, however, that when she was "very small" the house was the residence of "people named Smith". This is supported by some of the older generation at Maketu, who believe that the house was built by a Mr. Smith (presumably Thomas Hawkins Smith the builder - he constructed the Whakarewarewa hotel - and flax-miller who came to the Bay of Plenty about 1868 and died at Paengaroa in 1925). Mr. Smith is said to have lived in the house and afterwards his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. J. Hodge, resided there. Later it was tenanted by a number of families. Another old resident, the late Mr. L. Singleton, who came to Maketu as a boy in 1921, remembered the building being referred to as "the storehouse", although he had no idea why. Mrs. Francis Kenny, of Te Awamutu, who stayed in the old house when she was a girl during the holidays in January 1931, says she understood that it was owned by the Tapsells at that time and "that they had vacated it and moved across to a larger place". Another view of the building's past is recalled by Mr. Amyas Ringer, of Auckland, who grew up in Maketu in the 1920s and 1930s. He always understood that it had once been a hotel. Eventually, he says, it became derelict, and he remembers being "tumble-down, no windows or doors", then sometime in the 1930s it was destroyed by f ire. It is possible that Smith built the store, or house, for Mr. Rogers in the late 1860's to replace an earlier building. or buildings, on the site and in later years lived in the house himself, but this seems unlikely. Whatever the truth of the matter, though, H.G. Robley's watercolor view of Maketu from Pukemaire Redoubt in 1864- 65 appears to show two whare-style, single-storied houses close together near the site of the later two-storied building referred to above and another whare a short distance inland from them. The first two whares, which were by the beach, were probably owned by Mr. Rogers, as no other buildings ate shown on the waterfront and no two-storied buildings anywhere in Maketu, William Rogers' children by his marriage with Kataraina Rangikawhiti were his sons William and Charles (both later storekeepers at Maketu) and his daughters: Raiha, who married firstly T.J. Bennett (one of their sons was the Rt Rev. F.A. Bennett, first Bishop of Aotearoa) and secondly W.A. Butt (one-time storekeeper at Maketu); and Mariana, who married a Mr. Clayton. Footnote: The descendants of William Rogers believe he was at various times in other Darts of New Zealand besides those mentioned here, including the East Coast. Source: Early Maketu Storekeepers by Alister Matheson, Tauranga http://www.lowerkaituna.co.nz/cmsAdmin/uploads/Vol-44-No-2.pdf