Chapter V.
THE OLD BEACH-ROUTE—1867 to 1874.
THE SECOND STAGE—TAURANGA BAY, TOTARA, NINE-MILE BEACH, LITTLE BEACH, CHARLESTON.
TAURANGA BAY.
THE Maori name for the Cape is Tauranga, meaning a resting-place for canoes, or a fishing-ground—Tauranga-ika. As the Maoris valued a bay more highly than a cape, it is probable that the cape took its name from the bay, instead of the bay adopting the name of the cape in pakeha fashion.
The Half Way House Hotel, licensee S. W. Nicholls, stood at the northernmost edge of the Tauranga Bay Beach, the Half-mile Beach. The date of its erection is not available, but an advertisement in the Westport Times of 14th September, 1867, shows that the house was then in business, and it is believed had but recently been opened. With Nicholls were his wife and a young daughter, Sally. They and Loring were then the only white inhabitants.
S. J. Loring’s Wayside Room, unlicensed, was erected about the end of 1866, at the southernmost end of the beach, on the heel of The Point, Rocky Peninsula. A letter written by him from Soldier’s Gully, Inangahua, on 26th August, 1866, advises his intention of proceeding “to the Cape, where it is rumoured, gold has been found.” He found the rumour incorrect, but established the small room to cater for the many who were passing en route to the Pakihi, Charleston. In 1867 he established a ferry at Totara River about four or five miles to the south and built a similar room there. Apparently the two rooms were run concurrently.
65
