The cataloguing of the collection at Pompallier is still a work in progress, but so far most items appear to be associated with the earliest period of the site. The building has also benefited from the generous donation of artefacts which once belonged to the original inhabitants of the property, donated by their descendants.
Religious items, most of the photographs and drawings, printer’s accessories and tools relate to the history of the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand. Other items relate to the Callaghan tanning business of the 1860s.
Most of the collection has been recovered during the conservation work in the 1940s and the extensive restoration project in the late 80s and early 90s. Many of the objects, especially the early building components and tools (e.g. nails, bricks, boards and tiles) were found during archaeological digs and restoration. The collection also bears an extensive series of early bottle and ceramics fragments, beads and buttons.
Ratification
Pompallier's stinking tannery in the busy Bay of Island port lured ship rats ashore and its rammed earth walls cinched their decision to stay. Those walls were not just easy tunnelling and nest building but also created the perfect conditions for preserving their dead. Historic Places Trust work has uncovered mummified rats and their burial offerings covering every generation since the building’s first occupation in Treaty times.
The Pompallier rats give a unique insight into the changing uses of the property, whether mission or domestic residence. Lining their nests with the plunder of night raids, the rats became mini archivists of their life and times.
The three pictured here – a mouse, a Norwegian rat and a kiore - date from the 1840s French Catholic mission. They have collected pieces of tannery leather, priest’s clothing, a mission medicine bottle, and pieces of paper printed in Maori, Tongan, Latin and English.
Photo credit: Lindssay Charman
The Gaveaux press at Pompallier is one of New Zealand’s most interesting and important historic artefacts, with more than 30,000 books printed on it between 1842 and 1850. These were not only some of the first books made in New Zealand but also some of the first books in Maori.
The press continued to print Catholic literature till the Northern War broke out in March 1845, when the printing equipment was moved for protection. At the conclusion of hostilities the following year printing resumed at the Kororareka/Russell printery.
In 1850 the missionaries were relocated to the new colonial towns of Wellington and Auckland. The printing equipment was packed up and eventually sold or given away.
In 1857 Waikato Maori asked Bishop Pompallier to send them a printing press. The Gaveaux press was despatched, but exactly when, and how, remains unclear.
King Tawhiao used the Gaveaux press when he began publication of Te Paki o Matariki in 1891. After 1933, when commercial printing of this newspaper began, the press remained in the Waikato as a taonga. From 1950 it was stored in a special building on Turangawaewae Marae. In 1967 Queen Te Atairangikaahu gave permission for the Gaveaux to return to its own turangawaewae at Kororareka/Russell.