Manukau Heads
The Manukau Heads is the name given to the two promontories that form the entrance to the Manukau Harbour - one of the two harbours of Auckland in New Zealand. The southern head is termed "The South Head", whereas the northern head is named "Burnett Head". Both heads are hilly areas of land that rise steeply from the water to over 240m within less than 400m of the shoreline. There is a pronounced sand bar across the harbour mouth which has limited shipping into the harbour since European vessels arrived in the area which had enough draught to be affected by such shallows; this limitation, was no barrier to early success of shipping to local ports in the harbour - but meant that the Waitematā Harbour overtook the Manukau Harbour in prominence as a port location. New Zealand's worst maritime disaster occurred just offshore in 1863 when HMS Orpheus ran aground on the Manukau Bar and sank with the loss of 189 lives; the area remains dangerous for watercraft, with one death each in 2005 and 2010 when pleasure craft capsized or were swamped near the bar.
The Manukau Harbour Bar was first crossed in a surf boat by a crew from Piha Surf Life Saving Club who rowed from Onehunga to Piha in over five hours in high swells and stiff winds in 1992. A crew from Piha had attempted this row in 1971 but was caught out by rising swells closing out the northern channel and after attempting to catch a "smaller" wave into the beach lost their boat when it was smashed on to the beach by a dumping wave; the Brambley Collection in Auckland Museum has been described as the most important collection of Maori artefacts in the Auckland region. It came from the Matatuahu archaeological site, which lies at the foot of the South Head cliffs
The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers in New Zealand, peaking at over 200,000 copies in 2006, although circulation of the daily Herald had declined to 115,213 copies on average by December 2017, its main circulation area is the Auckland region. It is delivered to much of the north of the North Island including Northland and King Country; the New Zealand Herald was founded by William Chisholm Wilson, first published on 13 November 1863. Wilson had been a partner with John Williamson in the New Zealander, but left to start a rival daily newspaper as he saw a business opportunity with Auckland's growing population, he had split with Williamson because Wilson supported the war against the Māori while Williamson opposed it. The Herald promoted a more constructive relationship between the North and South Islands. After the New Zealander closed in 1866 The Daily Southern Cross provided competition after Julius Vogel took a majority shareholding in 1868.
The Daily Southern Cross was first published in 1843 by William Brown as The Southern Cross and had been a daily since 1862. Vogel sold out of the paper in 1873 and Alfred Horton bought it in 1876. In 1876 the Wilson family and Horton joined in partnership and The New Zealand Herald absorbed The Daily Southern Cross. In 1879 the United Press Association was formed so that the main daily papers could share news stories; the organisation became the New Zealand Press Association in 1942. In 1892, the New Zealand Herald, Otago Daily Times, Press agreed to share the costs of a London correspondent and advertising salesman; the New Zealand Press Association closed in 2011. The Wilson and Horton families were both represented in the company, known as Wilson & Horton, until 1996 when Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media Group of Dublin purchased the Horton family's interest in the company; the Herald is now owned by Entertainment. That company is owned by Sydney-based APN News & Media and the Radio Network, owned by the Australian Radio Network.
Dita de Boni was a columnist for the newspaper, writing her first columns for the NZ Herald in 1995. From 2012 - 2015 she wrote a business and politics column until – after a series of articles critical of the Key government – the Herald discontinued her column for financial reasons. Gordon Minhinnick was a staff cartoonist from the 1930s until his retirement in the 1980s. Malcolm Evans was fired from his position as staff cartoonist in 2003 after the newspaper received complaints about his cartoons on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Laurence Clark was the daily political cartoonist from 1987 to 1996, continued to publish cartoons weekly in the Herald until 2000. On 10 September 2012, the Herald moved to a compact format for weekday editions, after 150 years publishing in broadsheet format; the broadsheet format was retained for the Saturday edition. In April 2007, APN NZ announced it was outsourcing the bulk of the Herald's copy editing to an Australian-owned company, Pagemasters.
In November 2012, two months after the launch of its new compact format, APN News and Media announced it would be restructuring its workforce, cutting eight senior roles from across the Herald's range of titles. The Herald is traditionally a centre-right newspaper, was given the nickname "Granny Herald" into the 1990s; this changed with the acquisition of the paper by Independent News & Media in 1996, today, despite remaining free enterprise oriented on economic matters such as trade and foreign investment, the Herald is editorially progressive on international geopolitics and military matters, printing material from British newspapers such as The Independent and The Observer but more conservative newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph. It regularly reprints syndicated material from the and politically conservative, right-wing British tabloid the Daily Mail; the Herald's stance on the Middle East is supportive of Israel, as seen most in its 2003 censorship and dismissal of cartoonist Malcolm Evans following his submission of cartoons critical of Israel.
On domestic matters, editorial opinion is centrist supporting conservative values. In 2007, an editorial disapproved of some legislation introduced by the Labour-led government, the Electoral Finance Act, to the point of overtly campaigning against the legislation. In July 2015, the New Zealand Press Council ruled that Herald columnist Rachel Glucina had failed to properly represent herself as a journalist when seeking comment from Amanda Bailey on a complaint she had made about Prime Minister John Key pulling her hair when he was a customer at the cafe in which she worked; the Herald published Bailey's name and comments after she had retracted permission for Glucina to do so. The council said there was an “element of subterfuge” in Glucina's actions and that there was not enough public interest to justify her behaviour. In its ruling the council said that, “The NZ Herald has fallen sadly short of those standards in this case.” The Herald's editor denied the accusations of subterfuge. Glucina subsequently resigned from the newspaper.
In 1998 the Weekend Herald was set up as a separate title and the newspaper's website was launched. A compact-sized Sunday edition, the Herald on Sunday, was first published on 3 October 2004 under the editorship of Suzanne Chetwin and for five years, by Shayne Currie, it won Newspaper of the Year for the calendar years 2007 and 2009 and is New Zealand's second-highest-circulating weekly newspaper after the more established and conservative broadshee
Otahuhu
Otahuhu is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand - 13 kilometres to the southeast of the CBD, on a narrow isthmus between an arm of the Manukau Harbour to the west and the Tamaki River estuary to the east. The isthmus is the narrowest connection between the North Auckland Peninsula and the rest of the North Island, being only some 1,200 metres wide at its narrowest point, between the Otahuhu Creek and the Mangere Inlet; as the southernmost suburb of the former Auckland City, it is considered part of South Auckland. The suburb's name is taken from the Māori-language name of a volcanic cone known as Mount Richmond; the name refers to "the place of Tāhuhu" -- Tāhuhu-nui-a-Rangi, who settled the area. In colloquial speech, locals sometimes shorten the name to "Otahu"; the suburb was established in 1847 as a fencible settlement, where soldiers were given land with the implied understanding that in wartime, they would be raised as units to defend it. Most early features from this time have disappeared, such as a stone bridge built by the fencibles that had to make way to a widening of Great South Road.
Otahuhu was home to the country's first supermarket, Otahuhu College, to which several famous personalities went, including heavyweight boxing champion David Tua, former prime minister David Lange, ex-Manukau City Mayor, Sir Barry Curtis. Otahuhu had a local government just like other suburbs of Auckland at that time; the local government was called Otahuhu Borough Council, which started in 1912 and merged into Auckland City Council in 1985 amalgamated into Auckland Council in November 2010. Alfred Sturges, 1912–1915 James Atkinson, 1915–1917 Alfred MacDonald, 1917–1921 Robert Black Todd, 1921–1929 Hubert Thomas Clements, 1929–1935 Charles Robert Petrie, 1935–1944 Albert Murdoch, 1944–1950 James Deas, 1950–1954 John "Jack" David Murdoch, 1954–1962 Robert G. Ashby, 1962–1965 Aubray Thayer Bedingfield, 1965–1970 Claude H. D. Handisides, 1970–1977 Niall Frederick Burgess, 1977–1985 Otahuhu, in its position on a narrow section of the Auckland isthmus, is an important part of Auckland's southern transportation approaches for both road and rail, containing a combined bus interchange and Otahuhu railway station.
The new bus-train interchange opened on 29 October 2016 as a joint Auckland Transport and New Zealand Transport Agency initiative costing NZ$28M."The station is at the heart of the Southern New Network", said Auckland Transport’s Chief AT Metro Officer, Mark Lambert. “Auckland is moving towards a more connected network of local feeder services connecting with frequent bus and train services. Bus and train transport hubs like Otahuhu are at the heart of this transformation." The old bus interchange, badly neglected, had received increased attention from early 2011 on for vandalism/graffiti prevention measures is now closed and a smaller bus stop has been installed on the main road near the town centre. The importance for transportation extended to pre-European times; the aptly named Portage Road runs across the isthmus in Otahuhu and was used by Māori to move their waka between the Manukau and Waitemata harbours for raids and trading. In fact, the area known as Te Tō Waka, was considered the most important portage of all of New Zealand.
Otahuhu nowadays is synonymous with industry and along with its neighbouring suburbs Favona, Mangere East, Mt Wellington and Westfield forms an industrial conglomerate zone that spans much of the Mangere Inlet. The community and town centre flourishes as the crossroad to Central and South Auckland and is home to a sizable Pacific Island populace. Otahuhu is home to the Otahuhu Leopards rugby league club. Photographs of Otahuhu held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections
Mangere
Mangere, is one of the largest suburbs in Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau City Centre and 15 kilometres south of the Auckland city centre, it is the location of Auckland Airport, which lies close to the harbour's edge to the south of the suburb. Mangere has two major sub-areas: Mangere Bridge and Mangere East, with Favona sometimes counted as part of Mangere as well; the suburb is named after one of Auckland's largest volcanic cones. The cone's name comes from the Māori phrase hau māngere, meaning "lazy winds", after the shelter the mountain provides from the prevailing westerly wind. Mangere is described as a multicultural area, with Europeans, Māori, Pacific Islanders and Asians living in the area with large families. Houses are a mixture of villas and bungalows located on former farms or market gardens developed by the state in the 1940s to 1960s. Mangere's most famous son is David Lange, the Member of Parliament for Mangere from 1977 until 1996 and Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Another local personality is former heavyweight boxing champion David Tua. William Sio of the New Zealand Labour Party has been the member of Parliament for the Māngere electorate since 2008. Mangere has two marae. Makaurau Marae and its Tāmaki Makaurau meeting house are affiliated with the Waikato Tainui hapū of Ngāti Paretaua, Te Ākitai and Ngāti Te Ata. Pūkaki Marae and Te Kāhu Pokere o Tāmaki Mākaurau meeting house are affiliated with the hapū of Ngāti Pare Waiohua from Te Ākitai Waiohua, the hapū of Te Ākitai, Ngāti Te Ata and Ngāti Paretaua from Waikato Tainui; the original Mangere Bridge was built to link Mangere with Onehunga to its north while the isthmus of Auckland reaches its narrowest point, further to the east at the former Auckland City suburb Otahuhu. It provided a more direct route for traffic to and from Auckland Airport. Construction of a new bridge was the subject of one of New Zealand's longest-running industrial disputes, from 1978 until 1980; the bridge was completed in 1983.
The Southwestern Motorway, one of the two motorways running south from the isthmus, runs across the bridge and through Mangere. Passenger train Southern and Eastern Line services run along the eastern edge of Mangere, stopping at Middlemore Railway Station. Further north at Massey Road is Mangere Railway Station, closed in 2011. Frequent bus services connect Māngere Town Centre to Sylvia Park via Otahuhu Railway Station and to Botany Town Centre via Papatoetoe Railway Station and Otara; the Mangere East Hawks rugby league club is based in Mangere at the Walter Massey Park. The Manukau Rovers RFC rugby union club is based in Mangere and competes in the Auckland Premier Competition; the Mangere United football club is based in Mangere and competes in the Auckland Football and NZ Football National League Competitions. Valerie Adams – Olympic shot put champion Frank Bunce – rugby union Mark Hunt – mixed martial artist David Lange – former Prime Minister Jonah Lomu – rugby union Colin Moyle – politician Joseph Parker – boxer Pene and Amitai Pati – tenors Sol3 Mio Jason Taumalolo – rugby league David Tua – heavyweight boxer Roger Tuivasa-Sheck – rugby league Photographs of Mangere held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections
Mangere Bridge (bridges)
Mangere Bridge also called the Manukau Harbour Crossing, is a dual motorway bridge over the Manukau Harbour in south-western Auckland, New Zealand, crossing between the suburb known as Mangere Bridge and the suburb of Onehunga. The older portion of the bridge, completed in 1983, carries a four-lane motorway with a cycle and pedestrian path suspended under the western side. By 2000, this bridge had become prone to congestion. In 2010, a duplication of the 1983 bridge was opened on its eastern side; this doubled the number of general traffic lanes to eight and provided an additional two for buses, for a total capacity of 10 lanes across the harbour. The project had been delayed by disagreements over design and funding, over the scope of the bridge project and an associated interchange – with the interchange being scaled down after concerns from the local community. Initial bridgeThe initial bridge in this location was built of timber and opened in January 1875. Rather narrow, it soon began to be attacked by shipworms, in 1910, more than 30 of the piles had been replaced, as well as the decking.
The bridge was single-lane, so narrow pedestrians could pass a vehicle safely. The bridge was considered structurally unsound and closed in 1914, before being demolished. Old Mangere BridgeIn January 1914, a 246-metre long replacement bridge was opened. Designed by R. F. Moore, the designer of Grafton Bridge, it was built by the same company, the Ferro-Concrete Company of Australasia; this ferro-concrete bridge with driven concrete piles was considered a substantial engineering achievement in its time. With a width of 11.6m, it allowed for a double tram track. The bridge however did not provide for enough clearance to let anything but small boats pass under it. In World War II, an anti-tank road block was erected on the bridge near the middle of the spans, with a small sentry shelter close by; these structures were removed, it is unclear whether the bridge had been mined. However, the bridge soon proved to have too little capacity, sinking foundation piles created issues; the bridge was closed in 1983 to motor vehicles and is deteriorating after it sustained damage when a ship accidentally rammed it some years ago.
A second ship, the 300 ft container transport Spirit of Resolution crashed into the bridge on 8 October 2005 as it attempted to leave a nearby Port of Onehunga berth during winds estimated as being between 30–40 knots and against a strong incoming tide. The collision occurred despite the ship's bow thrusters working at full power and a small harbour tug assisting. Due to problems with the quality of the concrete and steel, it was envisioned that the bridge would be dismantled and replaced by a newly designed footbridge. Due to complaints about this course of action, plans for its removal were not finalised until 2012. Construction of a replacement structure, designed for walking and fishing, was scheduled for 2015, the centenary of the opening of the old bridge. On 25 November 2018 the bridge was permanently closed by the New Zealand Transport agency due to safety concerns about its deterioration; the walk and cycle-way under the motorway bridge was repainted and had new lights installed as an alternative route for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the harbour.
Council workers were in place to ensure the safety of people using the underpass. Old Mangere Bridge Replacement Plans The New Zealand Transport agency is planning to begin construction on a bridge to replace the Old Mangere Bridge in 2019; the new bridge will be built on the same abutments as the previous bridge however it will be built further from the port and allow enough clearance for small boats to pass underneath. The planned bridge will be at least eight metres wide and up to 12 metres wide in some bays to enable fishing activities. Motorway BridgeThe older portion of the current Mangere Bridge was opened in 1983, now carries 80,000 vehicles a day; this motorway bridge took 8 years to build, including a 2-year stoppage due to industrial action and other delays. A duplication of the 1983 structure, to increase capacity, was completed in 2010 at a cost of $230 million, it is 650 metres long and provides four southbound lanes, two bus lanes. One of the lanes is dedicated to local connectivity between Onehunga and the Mangere Bridge suburb only.
The total capacity across the harbour is 10 lanes. Initial fundingOn 17 May 2006, Finance Minister Michael Cullen announced in the Budget that funds were being allocated to Land Transport New Zealand, to help the National Land Transport Programme accelerate certain projects; that included funds to its east. The programme indicated that only $2.78 million funding was approved for investigation of the project, though Transit New Zealand might apply for additional $1.5 million for further investigation of the project. The bridge was at that time expected to cost NZ$330 million. Wider areaAs a wider part of the Manukau Harbour Crossing Project, the motorway was to be widened between Walmsley Road in the south and Queenstown Road in the north from four lanes to six lanes; this widening was to predominantly take place to the east of the existing motorway. The Onehunga interchange was to be reworked, to provide a more logical link with the motorway, to ease congestion along Onehunga Harbour Drive. A standard diamond interchange was in
Waikato River
The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for 425 kilometres through the North Island. It rises in the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake, it drains Taupo at the lake's northeastern edge, creates the Huka Falls, flows northwest through the Waikato Plains. It empties at Port Waikato, it gives its name to the Waikato Region. The present course of the river was formed about 17,000 years ago. Contributing factors were climate warming, forest being reestablished in the river headwaters and the deepening, rather than widening, of the existing river channel; the channel was eroded as far up river as Piarere, leaving the old Hinuera channel through the Hinuera Gap high and dry. The remains of the old river path can be seen at Hinuera where the cliffs mark the ancient river edges; the river's main tributary is the Waipa River, which has its confluence with the Waikato at Ngaruawahia. The name Waikato translates as flowing water.
The Waikato River has spiritual meaning for various local Māori tribes, including the large Tainui, who regard it as a source of their mana, or pride. The respected marae of Tūrangawaewae is close to its banks at Ngaruawahia. For many years Tainui tribe have sought to re-establish their links to the river after the New Zealand Wars and the subsequent confiscations of the 1860s, are continuing negotiations with the New Zealand government; the Tainui iwi was advised not to bring a case for the river before the Waitangi Tribunal as they would not win. An out of court settlement was arranged and the deed of settlement signed by the Crown and Waikato-Tainui in August 2008 settled the raupatu claim to the Waikato River, although other claims for land blocks and harbours are still outstanding. Waikato-Tainui now have joint management of the river with the Waikato Regional Council; the ancestral Waikato River flowed from an ancient lake in the centre of the North Island through deep gorges of welded ignimbrite and rhyolite, northward through the Hinuera Valley and Hauraki Basin into the Thames Estuary.
It is possible that the river flowed through the Waikato Basin about a million years ago before returning to its Hinuera course. After the huge Oruanui eruption 27,000 years ago ignimbrite was showered all over the North Island to a thickness of 200 metres. A new lake was formed - Lake Taupo; the water built up until a new outlet was forced 120 metres above the present level near Waihora Bay. Over the next few thousand years the bed of the river was raised by large amounts of eruption debris; the original blocked entry gave way. The Hinuera Gap and Waitoa River are evidence of the river's former course; the water level dropped and the river stayed in this new course through the Maungatautari gorge and Hamilton Basin. Deposits show that the Waikato River was in the Waikato Basin 21,800 years ago; the river starts in the form of many small streams on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu. The Mangatoetoenui Glacier is one of the principal sources; the southernmost tributary is called the Upper Waikato Stream.
The Waipakihi River joins the Waikato from the Kaimanawa Mountains to the west. From the point where the river meets the Waihohonu Stream, down to Lake Taupo, it has been formally named the Tongariro River since 1945; the Poutu Stream joins from Lake Rotoaira to the east, as a tributary of the Tongariro, which flows northward, with State Highway 1 in parallel, through the town of Turangi, into the southern side of Lake Taupo. Extensive engineering of lakes and canals are used to generate hydroelectric power in the Tongariro Power Scheme; the Waikato River flows out of Lake Taupo at the town of Taupo in Tapuaeharuru Bay at the northeast end of the lake. It flows northeast past the town, alongside State Highway 1, to the Huka Falls. State Highway 5 runs less parallel to the river as it flows further northeast. About 40 kilometres from the lake, the river into the southern end of Lake Ohakuri, it exits from the northwest end of that lake and flows west through the small Lake Atiamuri and into the long east–west oriented Lake Whakamaru, with State Highway 30 following its course.
It passes northwest through Lake Maraetai and Lake Waipapa, where it is joined by the Waipapa River north through Lake Arapuni and into Lake Karapiro. Pokaiwhenua Stream joins the river in Lake Karapiro. Nine hydroelectric power stations at eight dams extract energy from the river between Taupo and Karapiro. All the lakes in this stretch of the river are artificial; the river leaves the Volcanic Plateau at Karapiro, where it emerges from the Maungatautari Gorge, flows northwest into the Waikato Basin, flowing through the towns of Cambridge and Ngaruawahia. It is joined by the Waipa River, at Ngaruawahia, it flows north through the Taupiri Gorge to enter the lower Waikato region. Further north is Huntly and Meremere, where the Whangamarino and Maramarua Rivers join it. From Mercer, where the Mangatawhiri River joins it, the Waikato flows southwest. Just before its mouth at Port Waikato, the Araroa River joins from the north. Numerous small islands lie in the long, thin delta of the river as it passes through low-lying swampy land between Meremere and the coast, the largest of, Motutieke
HMS Orpheus (1860)
HMS Orpheus was a Jason-class Royal Navy corvette that served as the flagship of the Australian squadron. Orpheus sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand on 7 February 1863: 189 crew out of the ship's complement of 259 died in the disaster, making it the worst maritime tragedy to occur in New Zealand waters. HMS Orpheus was a Jason-class corvette, a screw-driven vessel built in Chatham Dockyard in Kent, England, in 1861, she was owned by the Royal Navy, was 69 metres long with a crew of 259. Orpheus was commanded by Captain Robert Heron Burton, she displayed a broad pennant to indicate that Commodore William Farquharson Burnett, senior officer of HM ships and vessels on the Australian and New Zealand Stations, was on board. She was wrecked when delivering naval supplies and troop reinforcements to Auckland for the New Zealand land wars. Orpheus's first journey was in December 1861 flying the pennant of Commodore W Farquharson Burnett CB, she sailed from Plymouth Sound for convoy duty off Canada, which delayed her voyage to Sydney.
On 31 January 1863, Burnett set out on a mission to New Zealand. The mission was not to reinforce the British ships taking part in the New Zealand Wars, but to arrange for the withdrawal of two Royal Navy sloops – Miranda, stationed in Manukau harbour, Harrier, they were to rendezvous in the Waitematā Harbour. Orpheus was behind schedule, Burnett decided to save some time by cutting through Manukau Harbour rather than going by the intended course of rounding North Cape and sailing down the East Coast of Northland. Orpheus left Sydney, Australia, on 31 January 1863, her approach to Manukau Harbour on 7 February ran near Whatipu beach, through a series of dangerous sand bars. The weather was sunny. Although the bars had been charted twice, in 1836 and 1856, a revised pilotage guide from 1861 was available that indicated that the middle sand bar had moved northwards and grown in the intervening time. Orpheus carried both the out-of-date chart and the updated guide, the sailing master William Strong used the updated instructions for entering the harbour, but he was over-ruled by the commodore and the ship proceeded according to the 1856 chart.
As the ship approached the submerged bar, a navigational signal from nearby Paratutae Island was received instructing her to turn north to avoid a grounding. Soon after, Quartermaster Frederick Butler alerted the senior officers to the improper course they were taking. Despite attempting to correct their course, a few minutes at 1:30 in the afternoon, Orpheus hit the bar in an approximate position of 37°04.1′S 174°28.3′E. The force of the surf soon caused Orpheus to swing around. Considerable damage was sustained: the hatches burst open, cabin windows were shattered, Orpheus began to take on water; the crew attempted to abandon ship, but the power of the sea's surge made escape difficult, many sailors were swept away. Meanwhile, the harbour pilot and signalman of Manukau Harbour on duty was Edward Wing who was, at that time guiding the steamship Wonga Wonga out of the harbour; when it became apparent that Orpheus was in trouble, Wonga Wonga approached the beached ship and attempted to pick up survivors, many of whom had climbed into the rigging as the deck became submerged.
At 8:00pm, the masts began to break, killing most of the crew who remained on board. Wonga Wonga remained in the area overnight looking for survivors, buried what dead could be recovered in the sand-dunes on shore. An information board located at Kakamatua Inlet on the Waitakere Ranges, near Titirangi to the west of Auckland, indicates the approximate area, now overgrown, where some of the victims were buried; the survivors were transferred from Wonga Wonga to HMS Avon and taken to Onehunga. Three inquiries were held after the shipwreck, but due to the unwillingness of the Royal Navy to admit an officer's culpability much of the blame was laid on Edward Wing for not guiding the ship into the harbour and for failing to maintain the signalling station on Paratutai Island. In all, 189 people died in the wreck of HMS Orpheus, including Commodore Burnett and Captain Burton, giving it the highest casualty rate for a shipwreck in New Zealand waters; the survivors were taken to HMS Miranda and split into three groups.
All the officers and 10 hands were sent to Portsmouth to appear before a court martial. Most of the sailors who drowned were young, some being boys aged 12 to 18 who were still "learning the ropes" to become able seamen; the average age of the crew was only 25. The cause of this disaster is disputed after the Admiralty laid the blame on Edward Wing; the local Maori interpreted it differently. In Manukau Harbour some distance from the scene of the disaster lies Puketutu Island. On the extreme western point of the island there grew a puriri tree, the tree was considered sacred and "tapu" to the Maori people; the day before Orpheus was wrecked a pakeha settler felled the tree and used the wood for fence posts. Hence, Maori linked the disaster with a violation of tapu. Orpheus Island off the coast of Queensland was named after the corvette by Lieutenant G. E. Richards in 1887 in memory of the loss of life; the wreck of the Orpheus is scheduled for preservation in the Auckland Regional Plan: Coastal an
