Maurice Claude Kelly 1872-1962
The Waima House (built 1920)
“The house, although he would never admit, even to himself, was the realisation of his dreams. With the drain on his pocket of putting his children through school and university, although they lived comfortably, Maurice had no chance to build up a cash reserve. Now with the children’s schooling completed, Maurice was going to build the house which would state to all Hokianga, his financial soundness and his rightful place in the community.
It would state to all his cousins and inlaws in the south that he was not just “poor Mossie” who had made an unfortunate marriage, but Maurice who with Sarah had produced a family accepted and respected in the county, and now they would be installed in a house superior to the ones possessed by those he would have called “The Auckland Gang.”
It would have a large, a very large sitting room, richly furnished, it would have a large and comfortable kitchen, with all the gadgets and fittings that Sarah could desire, it would have at least four bedrooms. It would have a dining room where he could display to his friends Sarah’s cooking talents and would have an entrance, imposing and spacious…….It had all those things! It also had large lawns, surrounding flower gardens, ample vegetable gardens and orchards stocked with apples, pears plums, peaches and quinces, subtropical fruits, citrus of all kinds, grape vines, and a host of small fruits. It must be emphasised that every plant and tree was the result of Sarah’s work alone, as Maurice was completely useless as a gardener.
Above all, this house would be made of the most superior materials, Kauri for the framing & floors, Rimu for the joinery and trims, Totara for the cladding, and all the plumbing and kitchen fittings would be of the finest quality…..And they were !”
Sarah Kelly 1884-1967 (Great grand daughter of Eru Patuone)
“Her housekeeping skills were legendary. She made all the clothes for her children and herself, her baking of all pastries, cakes, pies, puddings and all things good to eat, was beyond compare, although it is recorded by her daughters that her own high standards did not extend to passing on her knowledge, impatience at their incompetence and stupidity would usually end with her snatching away the task involved and doing it herself. Sometimes when her impatience with Maurice was stretched a little too far she would proceed to address him by his second name Claude, which she knew he hated and was secretly ashamed of, because he thought it was “sissy”
She also, when I knew her, had gardens of about an acre. The vegetable garden took up the major part, and in full summer at the house in Waima, one descended the back steps, down the path between the grapevines dripping with fruit, through the back gate and into the vegetable garden proper. with row upon row of head high corn, with melons twining in and out of the stems, then, a half dozen rows of potatoes, a patch of kumera, odd rows of cabbage, beet, and carrots……in a damp corner a patch of Taro and in this mid summer, the rows of strawberries only hinting at their earlier abundance.
And in all sorts of corners were small fruits, and in every vacant fence line you would find a peach tree, not one of these tasteless highly coloured peaches of today, but a white peach, or a white fleshed nectarine, an odd fig, two or three plums, half a dozen apples, a little grove of tree tomatoes. Past the tank stands clothed in purple passion fruit and onto the lawns surrounding the house with every few yards an orange tree, a grapefruit, a mandarin, lemon trees….. I have not invented any of the plantings, I have missed out dozens.
Of course we have overlooked the flower gardens. Every boundary and house wall had its borders planted with whatever had taken Sarah’s fancy…..for all this was the result of her planning, her planting, her cultivation and her harvesting…..”
Excerpt quoted verbatim from “ They Were New Zealanders” A history of the Kellys of Waima, Hokianga written by Trevor Bayliss, ( Son in law of Maurice and Sarah Kelly ) for the Kelly family. Self published,
Auckland 2001.
The Big House at Waima, for most of the locals now, Waima Lodge, has remained a symbol of European influence in the South Hokianga district.
P.W. Hohepa obliquely refers to it as one of the “superior houses” the unfurnished valuation of which in 1955 was ten thousand pounds (and connected to the electrical grid!) in his 1961 thesis “A Maori Community in Northland” on the social structure of Waima in the 1950’s.
“The House” is also the realization of my dreams.
I feel as if some of the design and location ideals and values that I hold were shared by Maurice Claude. We were also in similar stages of life, Maurice was 48 years old when he had the house built by McMillan in 1920. I was 48 when I bought the house with Julie in 2005.
Although I am clearly a more practical person than Mossie (as he was affectionately known) Maurice loved and demanded quality. I’m glad he did.
I have now completed the restoration of 3 villas. Of the two previous, one was in Helensville and the other in Grey Lynn, both were box villas of the type sold in kit set form by the Kauri Timber Company prior to the First World War.
Harmen R Hielkema.
