Ministry of Transport Files - Kawhia

These files from the Ministry of Transport deal mainly with the administrative aspects of structures, reclamations, power, telephone, and pipeline crossings of waterways around the marine foreshore and in navigable rivers and lakes. There is not a lot of environmental information in these files but occasionally there is a copy of a report that deals with the environmental aspects of a structure. In about 1964 the Ministry of Transport (MOT) took over the role of licensing structures on the foreshore from the Marine Department (MD) and employed the Ministry of Works and Development (MWD) as its environmental advisers. Reports from the MWD therefore contain much of the environmental information available in these files. Purpose: This dataset provides a brief discussion of coastal information contained within historical Ministry of Transport files, collected during a review commissioned by Environment Waikato as part of the Coastal Database project. The Ministry of Transport (MoT) was responsible for the administration of structures in the CMA and in navigable rivers and lakes from 1964 to 1997. These files are now held in Environment Waikato’s archives. These files contain useful information on the history and legal status of existing coastal structures.

54/4/493: Road realignment Kawhia 1985. Kauri Road. No environmental information. 54/4/470: Kawhia Reclaimed land 1962. Original reclamation approved 1915 but not completed. In 1978 were applying to complete work. 54/14/36: Control of Foreshores Waitomo District 1962. Kawhia Harbour was originally controlled by Kawhia County Council. This was merged with Otorohanga County Council and now Waitomo District. No environmental information. 54/14/114 Control and Endowment of Foreshores Kawhia Harbour 1984. Control of Kawhia Harbour vested in Otorohanga and Waitomo District Councils. They made one set of rules to cover the whole estuary. 54/14/101: Control and endowment of foreshores Waitomo District, volume 1 1981. No environmental information. 54/16/0: Reclamation, West Coast 1985. Proposed replacing of the Puti Bridge Kawhia with a culvert. Opposed by Wildlife Service as environmentally unsound. Spoil was being dumped on the embankment, presumably to be used as fill around the culvert later. 54/16/1 Reclamations, Aotea Harbour 1914. The first part of this file is about reclaiming a small bay next to the wharf in Kawhia harbour provide a site for the Council chambers. The remainder of the reclamation was to be endowed with the Harbour Board. The reclamation commenced in 1914 but was still not complete as at 1985. 54/17/39: Roads. Kauri Road, Kawhia, Otorohanga County Council 1973. A reclamation over a section of mudflats was proposed to enable the construction of a road to the Maketu Marae. Negotiations took place from 1973 to 1986. 54/27/122: Power line crossing Waiharakeke Stream Kawhia harbour 1976. Nature conservation council objected as cable crossed part of a reserve. 54/27/250: Proposed Telephone Cable Kawhia Harbour 1985. Application to construct a new telephone cable from Kawhia to Oparau. No further details. 54/44/696: Marine Farm, Usher, Kawhia Harbour 1988. Nothing detailed. Volume 1 commenced 1982. MAF file 10/1/1, Otorohanga DC 10/6/0. 43/40/3: Kawhia Harbour By Laws 1909. No environmental information. 43/40/6: Endowments Purchase and reclamation 1921, Kawhia. Early endowments were uneconomical. By 1937 the need for a port was being reviewed because of the improvements in roading. It was concluded that Kawhia still needed a port. No environmental information. 54/1/398: Te Waitere Wharf Kawhia Waitomo County MWD Te Kuiti file 6/68, Waitomo C.C. file 78. 54/1/625: Kawhia Harbour Floating Pontoon Jetty. Boating and angling club. Otorahanga County Council forwarded plans for floating jetty January 1979. Were freehand sketches not approved by MoT. Wharf was to be 61 m long but anchorage methods were not explained. Not approved. No environmental data. 54/1/751: Wharf, Kawhia, Oparau Landing file starts 1960. MoT file Auckland 34/814. Extract from a report by R. A. Squire, MoT Wellington (Marine Department file number M4/262 (1960). Auckland file 13/1455 (1963): Oparau Landing closed by 1967. Only a few piles remained at that time. File contains photographs of Oparau wharf and Kawhia wharf as at February 1967. No environmental information. 53/3/376: Kawhia Wharf. Contains a set of plans that were drawn in 1967 but there is no other information. 54/3/1033: Te Waitere Wharf. South arm of Kawhia Harbour, commences 1973. The local boat club were seeking assistance from the government to build a boat ramp and wharf to cater for club members and the local coastal trade in supplies around the harbour and to the then developing Taharoa sand mine. There was also a proposed interest in forestry in the area to try to remove Australian sedge which had infested the sand hills along the southern side of the harbour. MWD file Te Kuiti 6/68. Waitomo County files show that the original design was rejected and the final structure was locally funded and for recreational use. 54/2/707 Jetty, Oparu River. No environmental information. 54/44/486 Maori Trust Board 1982: west coast harbours such as Kawhia, Aotea and Whaingaroa were regarded as being under the authority of the Board. A report was produced by the Centre for Maori Studies, University of Waikato titled “Maori Trust Board Cultural and Ethnic attributes”. This document is a detailed discussion of land rights of the Maori people and the importance of some locations to the tribal history and religious beliefs. This discussion is followed by a discussion of the west coast harbours. MAF file 7/6/30 contains an envelope with 15 photographs of Kawhia harbour from the wharf dated 1982. The first application for a marine farm was turned down 1982 and a second application for a smaller area was applied for 1983 (two photographs with application). Tainui Maori Trust Board made objections to this application. There are a number of reports on Maori connections in the Waikato and west coast harbours. This application raised the question as to who controls the harbours and why should the Maori Trust Board be the controllers. MoT explained (February 1983) that Maori did not own the sea-bed. (that riparian rights do not mean ownership of the seabed). Also the Board did not have wide enough representation to accommodate community needs/concerns.

Kawhia Harbour and adjacent coast

1960 to 1984 with earlier notes.

Frequency of collection: Infrequent/irregular

Many files and pieces of information from the files are missing. Many engineer's reports are missing from the files held by Environment Waikato. Data quality is variable Only includes information available on specific files. Important to note that Ministry of Works files contain further environmental information relating to these files.

Physical files Digital Format: n/a

Background information about Kawhia harbour and its environs. Also a section of control of marine farms on west coast.

Freely available from EW archives. Some files attached. No confidentiality, public information

Files closed. Include a note where this record continues after end date of file where possible – e.g. Dept of Conservation files. These files have been continued where appropriate but have been amalgamated and given a new file number by DOC making sourcing more recent information difficult.

Additional comments: By-law Development and the County Councils Control of the foreshore, lakeshore and riverbeds was vested in the Marine Department (MD) and then later in the Ministry of Transport (MOT). As roads improved access to the coast and lakes increased and the MOT vested its powers in the local County Councils to enable them to create by laws to control the use of these areas while the MOT retained overall control and was responsible for vetting any proposed by law. Jetties and Wharves There were two types of jetties and wharves; those built for catching Whitebait, and the fishing boat jetty. As the local fishing industry developed, there was a steady increase in requests for licenses for jetties to load and unload fishing boats. Records in the files indicate that there was either a shortage of hardwood for jetty piles or the locals preferred to rely on piles made from Manuka or Kanuka. This is especially noticeable of the piles used for fishing boat jetties. As the fishing fleet grew so did the demand for fish processing facilities on shore. The increased number of requests for jetties for commercial fishing probably reflects the increased government investment in the fishing industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Boat ramps These appear associated with two activities. Commercial fishing or the storage of a boat used occasionally. As roads improved and boat-building materials became lighter the trailed boat became more popular. This in turn put pressure on local County Councils to either build boat ramps or license boat ramps to be built by for fishing or Boat clubs to access the water. After a burst of activity in the 1960s and 1970s many clubs were wound up leaving the structure the responsibility of the local Council. Bridge Construction The notification of many new bridges built on the roads of the Coromandel indicates the slow but steady improvement of roading on the Coromandel Peninsula. There are a series of files that examine bridges as they might affect a waterway for navigation. This demonstrates the importance placed on sea compared to road transport. The second aspect of the bridge construction is the development of better roads and therefore the less importance of the coastal trade to the development of the country. Note that up to the 1970s, fertiliser was barged to Whitianga but after that time it was more common to truck the material in. Marine Farming The Marine Farming Act was passed in 1971 but it was only towards the end of the 1970s that marine farming began to be developed in the area around Coromandel Harbour. Early applications were met with strong resistance by Auckland boat users who thought that marine farms would interfere with their recreation along the Coromandel west coast, especially within Coromandel Harbour. As the development of marine farms became accepted there were fewer objections and the industry became well established. The Thames Coromandel District Council (TCDC) commissioned a study to determine sites suitable for marine farming. This report also indicated where marine farming should not take place and became the main planning document for further coastal development. Related information: All these files are related to Ministry of Works and Development files as the MWD was the adviser to MOT.