remembering miss newey

8/3/2019 Remembering Miss Newey

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/remembering-miss-newey 1/4

e ee e xÅxÅuxÜ|Çz xÅxÅuxÜ|Çz xÅxÅuxÜ|Çz xÅxÅuxÜ|Çz ` `̀ ` |áá |áá |áá |áá a aa a xãxç xãxç xãxç xãxç

Lisa J Truttman

January 2012



At the time of writing, a 90-year-old cottage which was

removed from Henderson in 1987/1988, relocated at Western

Springs on land leased from Auckland City Council to the

Auckland Horticultural Society to serve as a “caretaker’s

cottage”, then removed again in September 2011, is inHobsonville awaiting either sale or demolition.

It would be beneficial to the community memory

remaining if one of Henderson’s 20th century identi-

ties of the cottage could return to the district in which

it was built.

Eileen Rosie May ewey, described in 1987 as one of

Henderson's oldest residents when she died, left the Hender-

son Borough Council her land at the corner of Edmonton andGreat North Road as a reserve, establishing Newey's Corner.

Edges of the property were used to widen the intersection,

with Miss Newey's approval. The Council advised the

Western Leader at the time that the house "will be made avail-

able free for removal to an approved community group." The

mayor ofHenderson at the time, Assid Corban, described Miss

Newey as a school teacher of many years, who took great in-

terest in the Henderson community. "She taught me at school, and many generations of Henderson

people, she went beyond the bounds of a normal school teacher in the area."

Memories of Miss ewey (gathered by Trevor Pollard)

Chris Tunks (Oratia) delivered the paper ( Herald). He would roll it up tight and try to throw it down

on to Miss Mewey’s verandah. She was his teacher at Henderson School.

Jack Morris said Miss Newey, a lovely lady, lived with her parents on the corner of Great North

Road and Edmonton Road. She asked him once to go from school to Henderson Village to buy her

lunch. Her umbrella turned inside out, and he feared punishment but Miss Newey just patted him on

the head and said, “It’s all right, just an umbrella.”

Lionel Fuller said his 5 older brothers were taught by Miss Newey. She was greatly respected.

Mary McIntosh (nee Corban), volunteered to go down to Miss Newey’s cottage. This was keenly

sought after as her mother would give you a sweetie or cake. She was also Mary’s Sunday school

teacher at St Michael’s, as well as an accomplished lawn bowler. Well-respected and kind — Miss

Newey also taught several of the Corban family.

From Henderson Primary School Centenary (1873-1973) booklet, page 31

“Miss Newey, who still lives in Henderson, has in her own words, “Taught two generations of chil-

dren.” Hers has been a long association with Henderson School, as pupil 1920-1925, probationaryassistant 1931, assistant teacher 1936-1937 and 1943-1947 and as infant mistress 1959-1963. In all

Detail from DP 7645, LINZ records, crowncopyright



Miss Newey has spent eleven years of her teaching career at the school, which is a fine record in-

deed.

“The children she taught, now grown to adult-hood, may be in all parts of the country, but they will

never forget their early days at Henderson School under Miss Newey’s expert guidance. They all say,

with one voice, “Oh yes, we remember Miss Newey, she was one of the best teachers WE had.”

The eweys of Henderson

The Newey family arrived in Henderson in 1920 from the city of Coventry in Warwickshire, Eng-

land. They purchased the corner site beside the Oratia Stream from Mrs Annie Elizabeth Roberts in

November that year, so the cottage is likely to date from around this time. Ernest Newey (c.1880-

1958) was a turner and engineer. His wife Sarah Anne pre-deceased him in 1946, and his son Phil

was married and living with his wife and daughter at the time of Ernest's death. Eileen Newey re-

mained with her father from the 1940s until his death and inherited the property and the cottage from

him.

On two occasions, in the late 1950s, and again in 1974, the local authorities made efforts to have the

Newey’s property rezoned and taken for planned widening of Edmonton Road. In the last case, Miss

Newey appealed against the Henderson District Scheme (Second Review, 1974) on the grounds that

taking part of her property would mean possible limitations on sale, devalue her property, and that

the road already came very close to her cottage. She had asked for compensation so she could live

elsewhere, and the construction of a neat stone wall to give her privacy, but the matter eventually

went to the Town and Country Planning Appeal Board.

She must have won, to a certain extent. She remained in place, there by an increasingly busy corner,

until her death in 1987 at the age of 75. In her will she wrote:

“I give my property at 331 Great North Road, Henderson, to the Mayor and Councillors for the time

being of the HENDERSON BOROUGH COUNCIL and express the firm wish but without creating a

binding trust that in accepting this gift the Mayor and Councillors arrange for removal of the dwell-

ing and retain the land as a reserve and name it “Newey’s Corner.” I acknowledge that the Council

could require a small portion of the land for roading purposes.”

Sources (other than those already stated:

Death certificates for Ernest Newey and Eileen

Death notice, Z Herald , 27 October 1958

Electoral Roll information

“ERM Newey—Proposed public open space and road widening”, file ref. 36/2/8/11a, Auckland

Council Archives, West Auckland

Images: Front cover: (top) Western Leader 28 September 1987, (bottom) L Truttman, 2011.

Back cover: (top and middle) Trevor Pollard, 2012, (bottom) L Truttman, 2010

remembering miss newey

Documents