NZ sternwheelers

[Tony Mattson]

G'day Leighton,

tks for the greeting.

I have next to nothing in my files about the New Zealand stern
wheelers. I know that during the Waikato Land Wars of 1863-66 some
coastal trading vessels were purchased by the New Zealand Government
and refitted for the campaign. In addition, three gunboats were
specially designed and built in Sydney. They were all shallow draught
stern paddle-wheelers and were manned by a mixture of personnel from
the Royal Navy, the Waikato Regiments and some civilians. After the
cessation of hostilities they were all sold but I haven't been able
to find out to whom.

I had two direct ancestors (a Gtgtgt grandfather and a Gtgt
grandfather) in the 4th Waikato Regt., and it is quite possible that
both worked on these river boats at some stage of their time in the
Waikato.

The only other sternwheeler I know of is/was PS Manuwai. She was a
105 ft stern wheeler built in 1894, failed her certificates in 1939.
She used to work the Whanganui with up to 400 passengers, was sold in
1922, and travelled up to the Waikato. You can still see her remains
on the west bank of the Waikato river just south of Mercer.

You're probbaly already familiar with Cameron McNeil's site
http://www.riverboats.homestead.com
He has some great early photos of side paddlers and sternwheelers in
the Whanganui.
There's another picture of the Manuwai at
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tonyf/wanganui/wanganui.html

I'm not aware of any sternwheelers operating on Auckland Harbour - I
think they were all side paddlers - but I've been proven wrong before!

Cheers for now
Tony