Commercial Hotel Dargaville

Ripe and ready for the revival of tourism and business in the north is the Commercial Hotel Dargaville.

Actually at Mangawhare, on the south side of Dargaville township, this grand old old lady is a valued heritage icon, trading as a bed and breakfast until the next upward wave takes her back to the heights of hospitality for which she was designed.

Very much in keeping with many other Northland Hotels, The Commercial was constructed of Kauri in proud two storied, double verandah style in the 1880s. A fire razed the building in 1886 but the rebuild was to the same plans.

Also like many small town hotels, the walls have seen and heard a fair amount of shenanigans, the most serious being when Police Officer Constable Neil McLeod became New Zealand's first serving officer to be shot and killed. This happened at the Mangawhare wharf, directly outside the hotel and owned by the hotel. McLeod wasn't even on duty, he was travelling on a steamboat to Auckland with his family. A passenger named Henry Funcke was also supposed to be on the boat but was left on the wharf after a dispute over whether he could carry his rifle. Funcke was on the wharf and fired his pistol at the vessel as it left, the bullet taking McLeod's life.

Lighter moments include the following excerpts:

On Saturday night last some mean sneaks entered the servant's bedroom at the Northern Wairoa hotel, and annexed two new dresses. They then paid the Mangawhare Hotel a visit, and after killing all the fowls belonging to the landlord in a brutal fashion, entered the girls' bedroom while they were asleep and went off with all the clothing, boots, etc they could lay their hands on. On Sunday morning, when what had occurred was known, the police were communicated with. Upon making a search to find a clue that would lead to the arrest of the offenders, pieces of the dresses, the boots cut into bits with some sharp instrument, and the umbrellas torn to atoms were found strewn along the side of the road leading towards Mount Wesley. The girls' losses are about £ l2 to.£ 15.

- Thames Star 29 March 1897

While some cattle were being landed from a steamer at Mangawhare, in the North of Auckland, one night last week, one of them, a bull, got loose, and wildly careered round the neighbourhood of the wharf, until the light in the bar-room of the Mangawhare Hotel attracted its attention.

It then madly charged in the open door, and one man there just managed to climb up the iron bars across the window and escape the beast's horns. In coming in, somehow, the bull dosed the door as it entered, and there being no means of getting out, it attempted to jump the bar counter, and failed to do so, but in the attempt swept glasses, bottles, etc., in all directions. Finally the door was opened, and the bull withdrew. The Dargaville correspondent of the Auckland " Herald," who relates the incident, declares that the method of landing the cattle was cruel.

- Wanganui Chronicle 7 September 1898

Business in Dargaville has turned from riverside trading, to gum, to kauri, to kumara, and the nearby dairy factory has had it's last day. But the Commercial is still here, her classic lines remain as does the magnificent view of the wide Wairoa river.

If you happen to be in the area, please feel free to send us an image.

Image Credit: Google Maps