The following photographs were taken by Grahame
and Rossie Thom during a recent holiday in the North
Island of New Zealand.
*****
Grahame has being
trying to find out more about the naming of the bridge. In
2012 the National Library of New Zealand advised that
they could not establish who the Bridge was named
after, but consider its likely to be after an early
whaler Joseph Toms/Thoms. It is said that Joseph was born on
20 April 1798, possibly in England, and that he first married
Te Uatorikirike Nohorua in 1829 in Wellington, New Zealand,
then second to Maria Boulton in 1838 at St Phillips Church,
Sydney. From the early 1820s Joseph had established himself as
a leading whaler in New Zealand and was the only European
(other than officials) to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1841.
He died at Cloudy Bay, New Zealand in 1852.
COMING
SOON
