AT THE BAY

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 2, Issue 1, 1 April 1969, Page 22

AT THE BAY

Comment by the Editor

In welcoming Mr Newlove’s commentary on the article by Mrs Morris I should like to make a few points. Firstly the editorial choice of the 1902 photograph of Muritai facing p. 23 of the November issue, or at least the caption to it, was unfortunate and, quite unwittingly, a disservice to Mrs Morris’s thesis. A local authority, Mr H. G. Lawrence of Eastbourne, has pointed out that the Martin and Jones store discussed in the article was not opposite the Puriri Street extension but some hundreds of yards along the road to the south at what is now No. 374 next to the turnstile mentioned by Mrs Morris. The store opposite the the Glen as shown in the photograph may not have been there at the time of the Beauchamp holidays but was the one later known as the Muritai Park Store.

Secondly, Mr Newlove has referred to the fact that the Barraud title mentioned in Note 4 (for which, again, the editor was responsible) of Mrs Morris’s article dates the ownership of the house only from 1903 when Kathleen Beauchamp had left New Zealand for school in London. A complete search of the title shows that the Barraud interest in the section dated at least from 18 August 1897 1 when a small area of one rood twenty-two and a half perches was purchased from the Camerons of Gollans Valley who owned most of the block. This was extended in February 1902 2 to a larger area of 3 roods 31.24 perches. Barraud could therefore have erected a house on the property at least in 1898. Mrs Morris in the penultimate paragraph of p. 21 refers to a house ‘Wood Glen’. This is perhaps a slip for ‘Glen Wood’, the name of the second house on the adjacent property at the back of the section. This house, a still prominent building with a tower and a much more pretentious structure than the Glen, is known to have been built in 1904 and has also been suggested locally as the centre for Beauchamp holidaying. It can be seen above and behind the Glen in the photograph facing p. 237 of the November issue.

But there are two stronger reasons than a whole series of inferences for assuming a later ‘turn of the century’ association with Muritai, rather than an earlier one. Mrs Margaret Scott has drawn my attention to the typescript carbon of an article Incidents in the childhood of Katherine Mansfield by Marion C. Ruddick, in the scrapbook recently donated to the Library by Mrs Mackintosh Bell. Mrs Ruddick and her daughters on their way from Canada to New Zealand had travelled from Vancouver on the Warrimoo with Mr and Mrs Beauchamp on their return from a trip to England. Marion became very friendly with Kathleen Beauchamp who she later recalled as being ‘about nine years old’ at the time and ‘spent some glorious weeks with the Beauchamps at their

Island Bay cottage in the summer. A quiet place then and a veritable paradise for children . . .’ A little further on in the article she states ‘I vaguely remember Christmas at the Bay . . .’ The children’s main pastimes seem to have been shrimping in the rock pools and pretending they were sea gardens. There were no sandhills or at least no mention of them. Taking our cue from Marion Ruddick’s recollection of Kathleen’s age it is clear from Beauchamp’s Reminiscences . . . 3 that the return to New Zealand would have been in November 1898, which is confirmed by the listing of both parties in the vessel’s passenger list. 4 But the point is that at least in 1898-9 the family spent a holiday at Island Bay. The reference to ‘their cottage’ implies possibly a more enduring association than a single season. Nevertheless we are equally clear that ‘Day’s Bay’ in the widest sense of the term as the eastern bays of the Harbour served by the Day’s Bay ferries was the setting. Middleton Murry always understood that this was the case, although of course he had no personal knowledge of the area. 5 Which brings us to the final, probably decisive reference. In a letter dated 10.7.1921 to J. C. Squire, editor of the London Mercury in which At the Bay was first published, Katherine Mansfield writes: ‘. . . I am delighted that you care to publish my story. I feel very lucky. I hope you like it. For a week after it had gone I was lost. Perhaps that sounds absurd about one short story, but to have been back to the Bay after 21 years - no less - was a joy.’ 6 The quite precise reference to ‘2l years - no less’ which takes one back to 1900 will be noted. If she had meant Day’s Bay in the strict geographical sense of the area today she could only have said fourteen years. 7 Island Bay is clearly another childhood locale but only one possible reference in the story could refer to it. Nineteen hundred would seem finally to rule out Day’s Bay and to date firmly Sir Harold’s recollection of Muritai which was after all the starting point of the whole enquiry. 30ni 10 *$ Anm A final comment by Mrs. Morris will be published in the October issue.

:■ NOTES YiGiilSViTI 013 V 1 Deeds Register 121/650. 2 Deeds Register 135/552. 3 Beauchamp, Sir H. Reminiscences and recollections, 1937, p. 65-6. 4 New Zealand Times, 15 November 1898. aiHT t 5 Mansfield, Katherine. Letters . . . edited by J. Middleton Murry. London, 1951. Footnote to p. 56. 6 The Library of Stanford University has recently kindly copied its own typed copy of this letter for Mrs Scott to whom I am indebted for this most important reference. 7 See note 2to Mrs Morris’s article. ;; : . .0 . ‘ - - > : ?