Page 19 - rigneymaster

One Man’s Goldfield: the story of the Horseshoe Bend Diggings, William Rigney and Somebody’s Darling

the office by Hugh Craig the carrier. To collect their mail the residents of the Bend,
most of whom lived on the east side of the river, had to cross the river and the hills to
the main road.

The Horseshoe Bend Post Office, and the other buildings which appear in early
photographs of it, have gone.

Post Office Archives provide the following list of the office's postmasters and
postmistresses:

15
Table 2 Horseshoe Bend Postmasters and Postmistresses
Date Name Salary
1.6.1867 Thomas Evans £6.00.00
1.2.1874 Anthony Knowles £6.00.00
1.2.1883 Robert Stewart £6.00.00
1.10.1904 Isabella Stewart £5.00.00
1.4.1908 Isabella Stewart £8.00.00
1.7.1914 Adam Pringle £8.00.00
11.1.1916 Margaret McGonigal £8.00.00
1.5.1916 Arabella Peek £7.00.00
1.2.1917 Lucy Olive Smith £6.00.00
2.6.1917 Office permanently closed.

The Island Block Post Office, a wooden building beside the State Highway at the base
of the Island Block hill, has only recently been demolished.

Figure 9 Island Block Post Office

Photo from NZ Post Archives.

15 Original postal records, Archives and Museum Section, New Zealand Post Office. 1987

© Jeff Robertson 19