Michael Fowler: The fine Heretaunga homestead that burned to the ground

The Riverslea homestead in 1890. Photo / Robert Flanders

One of Hawke's Bay's finest homesteads was owned by Thomas Tanner, on his large Riverslea estate and part of the original 19,385-acre (7844ha) Heretaunga block, bordering Havelock North.

His Riverslea homestead block was not far from Havelock North, on the Hastings side of the now Karamu stream (then old Ngaruroro River).

The Heretaunga block was first leased from Maori in 1864 and was divided up into 12 blocks and leased by seven men, including Thomas Tanner.

When these men gained freehold ownership of the Heretaunga block from Māori in 1870 (a large and complex story), the 22-room Riverslea homestead was built around 1871. The rooms included a ballroom, 12 bedrooms, five bathrooms, smoking room, large dining room and parlours.

Only the finest fittings of the day were used in the homestead – silver gilded tapware, marble baths. Food was served on gold gilt-edged china.

The nearby coach house apparently had Turkish carpets on the harness-room floor and also silver gilded tapware.

The three-acre (1.2ha) homestead grounds (as pictured) were kept by a gardener Tanner had bought over from England. The gardens included a tennis court and croquet ground.

Trees planted on the homestead 150 years ago remain on the property today.

Tanner built a ford by dumping shingle in the old Ngaruroro River bed and would travel across this and then on to St George's Rd.

Thomas Tanner built the 22-room Riverslea homestead around 1871. Photo / Hastings War Memorial Library

Living close to Havelock, and a devout Church of England follower, Tanner was instrumental in 1874 in getting the first St Luke's church built.

Tanner was driving in his upmarket Canoe-Landau carriage in April 1885 from St Luke's church to the Riverslea homestead with his wife Julia, and Mrs and Miss Lambert.

Coming towards the horses was a bicycle, and being startled by the bicycle, the horses bolted, and the carriage overturned, throwing out the occupants. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but the carriage was wrecked.

As Tanner was a member of the Hawke's Bay County, he brought up the accident with them, believing those on bicycles should dismount upon horses approaching.

Chairman Sutton agreed and asked the county solicitor if a bylaw could be made to regulate bicycle riding.

Sutton argued, "Country-reared horses are not used to bicycles, and it cannot be suffered that people driving are to have their lives and limbs endangered for the sake of pleasure of others."

The cyclist in question, GA Chissell, stated that he came across the carriage as he rounded a bend and applied his brakes "to stop my machine, but without effect, as, being worn smooth it did not grip the wheel".

He then said he ran off the road, just as the carriage passed him and the horses "shied" (startled at the movement of the bicycle).

He said he went back and assisted the occupants, and held the horses' heads to stop them further, and offered an apology to Thomas Tanner.

It was not true, he said, that he was a cause of other such accidents: "I am only riding my bicycle once a week, and then to Napier."

The county council solicitor said it was not possible to make cyclists get off their bikes when they approached horses. The only thing they could make them do was carry a light with them while riding at night.

Thomas Tanner intended to farm all of his Riverslea block, but only three years after the lease of the property from Māori in 1867 he ran into financial problems.

Hastings was essentially a swamp and the expense of draining and developing for farmland was costing him dearly.

A number of 100-acre blocks were created and leased by him, with the promise they could be owned in freehold by the lessees when the Heretaunga block was purchased from Māori, which occurred in 1870.

Francis Hicks was the first to subdivide his land into sections for public auction in 1873, and the others followed. And so a small settlement of Hastings began east of the railway line (opened in 1874).

Tanner, due to his mounting financial pressure in 1879, auctioned 1200 acres on the Havelock side of Hastings into 240 quarter-acre sections and 66 suburban sections from three-quarters of an acre to 17 acres, and 14 farm allotments from 20 to 64 acres.

A further land sale occurred in 1885 to try and rescue Tanner from his difficulties but only gave a temporary reprieve.

In 1889 he was in arrears for mortgages to the Northern Investment Company.

A forced mortgagee sale by them occurred in 1889 of the remaining land Tanner owned in Riverslea of 2389 acres and the unsold sections from his 1885 sale.

Almost made bankrupt from his financial troubles, Tanner managed to keep the Riverslea homestead block.

He would suffer further financial troubles, and if it wasn't for his son-in-law Frank Gordon of Clifton's financial assistance, Thomas would likely have lost the Riverslea homestead block.

A few years later, he would lose the homestead, but not by a forced sale.

In December 1896, in what was held as being unexplained, a fire broke out early in the morning, with the occupants barely escaping with their lives. Everything was lost - all of Thomas Tanner's private papers and the homestead furniture.

John Flanders, in the employment for 17 years for Thomas Tanner, then purchased the homestead block.

Thomas and wife Julia then moved to a more modest homestead called Endsleigh in Havelock North (which still exists today).

After Thomas passed away in 1918, Julia sold the house in 1919 and went to live with her daughter.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Hastings' establishment in 2023, Michael Fowler will release "Father of Hastings. The life of Thomas Tanner". To register your interest in the book planned for early 2023, please email Michael mfhistory@gmail.com

Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history.