Page 27 - Kamo

The information we had started with was that Adam was awarded two allocations of land. Page 110 also says Application No 1202 on 20th April 1877 Adam Girven, Kawakawa, Engine Driver. Ship Dauntless arrived 15th May 1865. Town Allotment No 14 Kamo, Surveyor of Allotment 241. Also Suburban Allotment 127 10 Acres at Maungatapere Tokitoki.

During my visit to New Zealand we made two discoveries about Adam and Kamo. While at the Auckland Record Office at Mangere we found that the two allocations of land, one a suburban allotment and the other a town allotment were made in 1867, rather than the 1877 we had been told. Adam was listed in 1867 as a Engine Driver at Kawakawa and we believed that he had been allocated land at Maungataperere. The town allotment was at Kamo and the suburban allotment was bounded by Tokitoki Creek, we are not sure where this is. Today there is a Tokitoki Creek opposite the Portland Cement Works in Whangarei Harbour, but names have changed and this seems to be too far from Kamo?

In the late 19th Century Kamo was possibly bigger than Whangarei, it had Coal Mines and this would have been the main employment in the town. I have a book called “The Histoty of Kamo”, this is written by “ “ from Hikurangi and it has a good description of the early days in Kamo. I had found this book at a Bookshop in Kamo, I had visited Joanne Dyson in Hikurangi and she rang several bookshops in Kamo for me, looking for old books. The Bookshop called “ “ is opposite the Kamo Hotel and that bookshop was selling the Kamo Book.

In this book it shows on page 193 that Adam was allocated plot 14 in the town and it shows a map. Plot 14 in bounded by the Bay of Islands Road and by Ruatangata Road. The lady in the shop looked at the map and said that the “Bay of Islands Road” is now called “Kamo Road” and “Ruatangata Road” is now called “Three Mile Bush Road”. The bookshop is now located where Adams Town allocation was, now that was a bizarre coincidence for someone who did not have much time, to find the location and to be standing on the spot when I found it!

Earlier that afternoon I had visited Adrian Moyle and family at Esma Moyle (his Mothers) house. Esma lives at Kamo just off “Three Mile Bush Road”. Esma had moved up to Kamo from Papatoetoe in Auckland to be near her daughter in Kamo. Esme is the wife of Evan Henry Moyle, youngest son of Molly Moyle (nee Girven, 1890 - 1973), and she has numerous photos of Adam and Harriet Girven including a large framed painting of them. Esma said that Molly was the favoured daughter of Harriet, she lived next door to them in Sackville Street in Grey Lynn Auckland in the later 1920’s. Esma’s husband “Evan Henry Moyle” was named after Mollys brother Evan, (my Grandfather) and Evan Henry was the favoured son of Molly, so Evan Henry therefore had many of the family photo’s.

Esma also mentioned that Adam and Harriet had a 50th Wedding Anniversary at Evan Girvens house in Webber Street, that would have been in August 1927 and all the family were present, now that would have been a big party. Evan and Hilda had recently moved from Sackville Street to Webber Street (called Wilson Street in those early days) Grey Lynn, it would have been a new and convenient location. Adam died at Sackville Street the year later in 1928 and Harriet died at 22 Webber Street in 1929. It does seem that the hand of our ancestors was guiding me to find all this out, on the day that I met Esme and Adrian plus I saw all the family photos and painting.

The attached files are pages that I have scanned from the book, pages that are relevent to Adam Girven and his town allocation of land at Kamo. He also had a suburban allocation at Maungatapere, this was for 10 acres at a place called Tokitoki Creek. Maungatapere was the area we believe in those days, and we suspect that Tokitoki Creek is where the Portland Cement Works is located these days at Whangarei, but we have yet to confirm that.

I have also uploaded some more files of the actual land deeds, these can be found at the Auckland (Mangere) Record Office.