IN WRECKERS’ HANDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 445, 29 August 1928, Page 1

IN WRECKERS’ HANDS

NORTH SHORE’S OLD POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED IN 1863 The first post office building on the North Shorrf, dating from 1863, is being pulled down to make room for a petrol station. It is opposite the present pavilion of the Yacht Club, and was a shop formerly occupied by the late Mr. Oliver Mays, who came out to New Zealand as a school teacher in 1862 under contract, to the New Zealand Government. He was appointed to Devonport, by arrangement with the Anglican Church, which had established a school in 1854. In 1863 Mr. Mays was appointed first postmaster on the North Shore, and his store, which he had established to help mitke a living, was used. In 1869, the official designation of the office was changed to Devonport: In the middle ’7o’s, Mr. Mays moved his business, including the post office, to Victoria Road. To establish the store which later was to have the distinction of being the Shore’s first post office, Mr. Mays sold his grant of 80 acres of ti-tree land near the Wade.