A Tribute to George Herbert Stubbs
Mr. Stubbs came to Mangatangi in l9l2 to take up his block of land, an area of 7213 acres.
Aoturoa Tamati Ramanui was born in 1868 at Whakatane and moved to Mangatangi with his wife and six children in about 1922.
Aoturoa Tamati’s sister married a great Maori chief named Te Kooti and Aoturoa was one of his few body guards. He settled on a farm at Mangatangi now owned by Messrs. Henry Bros. and Edgar Smith and later in 1927 moved across the road to the farm now owned by Graeme Yern. Aoturoa had a family of seven children altogether, one dying at a very early age and two others at five and seven years old. The others were Peter Tamati, Joe Hokari, Annie and Mac Rotohiko. Annie and Mac both went to Mangatangi School.
My father, Joe Hokari Ramanui, was born in 1906 and took over the Monument Road farm from his father who died in l962. He had nine children altogether. Three from his first marriage and six from his second marriage. Many will remember his second wife, Polly. My sister Joyce (Mrs. Stephens) and myself, Wally Ramanui, remain from the first marriage, while Murline (Mrs. Karipa), Maywin (Mrs. Seymour), Glenda (Mrs. Tuhoro), Gloria (Mrs. Simmonds), Wayne and Tom Ramanui are all from the second Marriage.
I took over the farm from my father after he passed away in l962, and continued to farm until I sold it to Yern in l970. The family maintains an urupu on the old farm in Monument Rd.
I now live at Mangere with my wife, Charlotte, and our three sons, Takawai and the twins Joseph and Riki. They all attended Dilworth School.
Rotohiko, known as Mac, lived with his brother Joe and family and he worked at the Cunningham Brothers coal mine for 21 years. Mac remembers as a small boy collecting kauri gum which was sold at a shop somewhere on the hills near the Findlay farm at Miranda. A profitable sideline, fetching 2/6 ~3/- a pound.
Wally Ramanui,
Exploring the journey: a comprehensive look at our origins, key milestones, and evolution through the years, celebrating the stories and achievements that have shaped our legacy.
Mr. Stubbs came to Mangatangi in l9l2 to take up his block of land, an area of 7213 acres.
Little did I think at the time that I would be returning in 1924 and spending most of my life…
ln the early 1930’s an attempt was made to establish a Tennis Club in Mangatangi.
Captain William Field Porter arrived in Auckland in 1841, having embarked with his family in his own brig, the “Porter”…
In December l927 we did our first shearing at Mangatangi. In those days we relied on the Maori.
Maori had long used the gum for making torches, lamp black for tattoo pigments and mixed it with sow thistle…
In 1957 the Smith family purchased from Mr. Ted Waller, a block of land comprising 956 acres of hill country…
John Cummings was born in County Antrim, Ireland in 1869 and came to New Zealand in 1874, on the ship…
Richard A Henderson was the sole charge teacher at this (Mangatangi) school when it opened in July 1923.
The Barton family arrived from England in 1885 and after a period in Auckland, farmed in Onewhero and Pukekawa before…
A virgin country such as ours in the l9th Century had to rely on its natural resources. Our district was…
In 1915 Mr. George S Johnston, set off from Auckland with a wagon drawn by two horses to Mangatangi.