The Totara Cemetery on Totara Point was officially gazetted / opened as a cemetery 22 April 1932. Burials however had taken place within the cemetery boundary for over a decade during the period of laying out the plots, constructing a road and completing land conveyance requirements.
Changing Views:
The cemetery has been built adjacent to the area reserved as a urupa, the layout has stretched further east over the years as more ground has been made available for interments, cremations and memorials.
1898 Totara Point.
[Totara Point, Thames],Hammond, Thomas William George Howard, 1868-1967, photographer,ca.
1898,PH-ALB-357-3-P6-1 Auckland War Memorial Museum Collection
1950 view of Totara Cemetery - enclosed within the white line. Graves centre right.
Part of Thames, Thames-Coromandel District. Whites Aviation Ltd: Photographs. Ref: WA-24880-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23163339
Google maps view looking south over Totara Park Memorial Cemetery.
The Urupa block centre right; then moving left the old section; past the RSA Lawn cemetery to the other blocks with in the cemetery.
European Section within the Te Totara Urupa
How could this be? A question pondered for many months - headstones existed but why were these European burials within the sacred urupa section.
There are a few European burials quoted in the newspaper that do not occur on early council records, the possibility of them being interred before paperwork for the new cemetery undertaken or whether allowed to be part of the urupa was unclear. The largest group belonged to the Tizard family - the location referred to as the Tizard Block, Maori Urupa. WHY are they here? Finally the answer came in a newspaper report New Zealand Herald 7 December 1895. (right and transcript below)"An interesting incident is told in relation to the burial of the late Mrs. Tizard, wife of Mr. Tizard, ex-Collector of Customs, Thames, which is honourable alike to the deceased and to the Maoris. When dying, the deceased lady expressed a wish to be buried at the native burial-place at Totara Point, a beautiful place, enclosed with karaka trees.
The natives heard of her request, and as they highly esteemed and respected Mrs. Tizard, they removed the tapu from the burial-place, and assisted in digging the grave; so that her last wish might be carried out.
"While the gazetted school at Kopu started in 1883, it was in existence long before that date. Pre 1900 there was also a private school in Tizard’s Cottage, which was later moved to the local hall. Around 1900 the two schools amalgamated, the families of the two schools having apparently reached some agreement over the running of the ‘combined’ school. The teacher was Mr Hall until Mr James Renwick (a noted disciplinarian) arrived in 1902. Over the following years the school roll was over 100 pupils." (Thames Goldfield Schools, A Barker.)
So there she rests, in that quiet, romantic spot, awaiting the resurrection morn. The incident is 'the one touch of nature which makes the whole world akin." The Thames Maoris have always been averse to the white people having anything to do with Totara Point, as it was there that the famous Hongi in a murderous engagement slaughtered the Thames tribes."
There are three monumental inscriptions on the faces of the spire. Frances Walker Tizard's reads:
The Tizard Family
During the research for this article on the cemetery, it soon became apparent that here was a very special Thames family.
Edward Fawconer Tizard's obituary described him as "very popular and widely esteemed, being a fine type of the early colonist," Edward had arrived on the ship Ashmore, joined the New Zealand Customs Department in Auckland. Served as a sub-collector on the West Coast Goldfield then at Thames. He was also a member of the Thames Stock exchange.
In the Auckland Council Libraries photographic collection there is a photo of Lucy and Hetty Tizard that sheds more light on the family from Kopu. (photo right)
The Auckland Library has this information on the Tizard Family:
"Edward F. Tizard was a descendant of the Huguenot family. The Huguenots had fled Provence to live in Plymouth. They were tea merchants increasing their profits by exchanging tea in the English Channel for French Brandy and smuggling it into the South Coast. Edward Tizard worked in the Custom's Office in Auckland, trading with the Hokianga district. He married Frances Brassey and lived on what became known as Tizard's Point, Birkenhead. Tizard appeared on the first Electoral Roll for Birkenhead. Tizard moved to Thames where he worked as customs officer. His daughters, Hetty, Lucy and May, remained in Birkenhead with their grandmother where they later formed a small private school of six or seven Birkenhead children within the iron roof shanty behind their house." (For more information McClure, M (1987) The story of Birkenhead. Page 29.)
The Tizard Block on the Te Totara Urupa.
There are also four burials / plaques on the left out of view.
There are three monumental inscriptions on the faces of the spire. Frances Walker Tizard's reads:
In
Sacred Loving Memory
of
FRANCES WALKER TIZARD
The Dearly Beloved Wife of
EDWARD FAWCONER TIZARD
at Pukewhau, Kupata, Kopu;
Only Daughter of
GEORGE ASHBURNER and
MARY ANN ROLLETT BRASSEY
She Rested From Her Labours On
Sunday the 24th Day of Nov 1895
In the 45th Year of Her Age
Born June 25th 1850
Died Nov 24th 1895
(?) A dutiful daughter a devoted wife a loving mother "I will shew thee my faith by my works Christ your passover is Sacrificed for us."
Other Tizard family members interred / remembered in this block are:
- Edward Fawconer Tizard 9 September 1914. (Frances' husband)
- Frances Tizard 19 December 1927. (Daughter of Frances & Edward F Tizard)
- Mathias O'Sullivan 16 April 1948. (Husband of Mary B Tizard)
- Mary Beata O'Sullivan nee Tizard 11 February 1958. (Daughter of Frances & Edward F Tizard)
- Lucy Norrie Tizard 2 April 1958. (Daughter of Frances & Edward F Tizard)
- Charles Stuart Munro 15 January 1964. (Husband of Henrietta Russell Tizard)
- Thomas Gordon Tizard 3 January 1965.(Son of Frances & Edward F Tizard)
- Henrietta Russell Munro nee Tizard 2 July 1968. (Daughter of Frances & Edward F Tizard)
- Grace Isabel Tizard 7 May 1972. (Daughter of Frances & Edward F Tizard)
- Helen McGregor Tizard 14 September 1981. (Daughter of Frances & Edward F Tizard)
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Lucy & Hetty Tizard
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections B0679
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Another of Edward and Frances sons is interred within the Totara Cemetery boundary: Edward Brassey Tizard 1 September 1969.
During the research for this article on the cemetery, it soon became apparent that here was a very special Thames family.
Edward Fawconer Tizard's obituary described him as "very popular and widely esteemed, being a fine type of the early colonist," Edward had arrived on the ship Ashmore, joined the New Zealand Customs Department in Auckland. Served as a sub-collector on the West Coast Goldfield then at Thames. He was also a member of the Thames Stock exchange.
In the Auckland Council Libraries photographic collection there is a photo of Lucy and Hetty Tizard that sheds more light on the family from Kopu. (photo right)
The Auckland Library has this information on the Tizard Family:
"Edward F. Tizard was a descendant of the Huguenot family. The Huguenots had fled Provence to live in Plymouth. They were tea merchants increasing their profits by exchanging tea in the English Channel for French Brandy and smuggling it into the South Coast. Edward Tizard worked in the Custom's Office in Auckland, trading with the Hokianga district. He married Frances Brassey and lived on what became known as Tizard's Point, Birkenhead. Tizard appeared on the first Electoral Roll for Birkenhead. Tizard moved to Thames where he worked as customs officer. His daughters, Hetty, Lucy and May, remained in Birkenhead with their grandmother where they later formed a small private school of six or seven Birkenhead children within the iron roof shanty behind their house." (For more information McClure, M (1987) The story of Birkenhead. Page 29.)
Tizard's school at Kopu
It was interesting to see mention of Mr Tizard's interest in education in Auckland, after they left Thames. While Mr E F Tizard was at Kopu, he was instrumental in ensuring the children of Kopu / Kirikiri received an education.
Tizard Family Generosity
Thames Hospital Photograph collection
Frances Walker Tizard
Back to where we started this journey and the reason the Tizard plot is on urupa land - the wish of Mrs Frances Walker Tizard was granted by the local iwi. Research possibilities for the family are endless and there are resources available online.
There is also a painting available at the National Library of New Zealand of the Tizard homestead in 1880 done by Frances Walker Tizard herself.
Tizard, Frances Walker, 1850-1895. Tizard, Frances Walker, 1850-1895 :Homestead in Thames. [ca 1880].. Ref: A-358-004. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23124067
"Artist, flower painter, she emigrated from Australia to New Zealand in 1874 to marry Edward Fawconer Tizard (who purchased the 500 acre Tizard farm at Kopu, according to Dunbar Sloane auction catalogue for 28-29 April 2004, page 11), and had eight children. She was the only daughter of Mrs Brassey, and wrote a letter from Thames in 1887. She competed in Australian art competitions, winning a bronze medal for wild flower painting in the 1880-81 Melbourne International Exhibition. She is also said to have been knowledgeable about homeopathic remedies."
The collection at the Alexander Turnbull Library includes botanical paintings, which were Frances' specialty. An example below,
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| Tizard, Frances Walker, 1850-1895 :Ngaio. [ca 1880].. Ref: A-376-037. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23008404 |
Frances Walker Tizard nee Brassey, was an amazing identity of early Thames, and it is only fitting that she was granted her wish and given a very special resting place at Totara Point.
Tizard Plot at Totara Point, Thames.
