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Otago Witness, Issue 3828, 26 July 1927, Page 76

Writing in the Auckland Star, “Shellback” says: T was during the timber boom of North Auckland many years ago. The sawmills at Ngunugru closed down for Christmas. Most of the men went overland to Whangarei, and caught the old steamer Wellington for Auckland, but some of the younger and more eager ones decided to travel in a schooner that was leaving the night before Christmas Eve, expecting to do the trip in about 15 hours. Christmas morning broke to find the schooner rolling lazily in the swell, with nothing to disturb the stillness except the occasional flap of a sail or the croak of the boom-jaw on the mast. Throughout Boxing Day the schooner was still becalmed, and the passengers thought of the six-horse brakes with full loads of passengers on the way to Ellerslie races. It was close on the New Year before the 'schooner crept into Auckland with a very hungry and disgruntled crowd on board.”