Isaac Coates

Isaac Coates
Isaac Coates in 1901
9th Mayor of Hamilton
In office 1888–1893
Preceded by	Charles Barton
Succeeded by	John Parr
Personal details
Born	7 April 1840 Richmond
Died	1 May 1932 Hamilton, New Zealand
Spouse	Alice Coleman ​ (m. 1874)​

Isaac Coates (1840–1932) was mayor of Hamilton, New Zealand, from 1888 to 1892, a farmer,^[1] flax-miller,^[2] and a drainage^[3] and railway contractor.^[4]

He was born on 7 April 1840,^[5] to Samuel Coates.^[6] a tenant farmer at Gayles, near Richmond,^[7] who died in 1863.^[8] His younger brother took on their farm, when Isaac chose to emigrate to New Zealand in 1867.^[5] His sister and brother-in-law, Thomas Dinsdale, after whom Dinsdale is named, came to work for Isaac^[9] in 1869,^[10] working on flax cutting at one stage.^[11]

Isaac Coates was a relatively common name. Thus a 1942 Waikato Times obituary for Jane Meadway asserted that she was a daughter of Isaac Coates, "one of the best-known of the early settlers in the Waikato", though she was born at Akaroa in 1862, five years before the future mayor emigrated.^[12] Possibly she was related to Isaac Coates, an artist, who was living in Nelson in the 1840s.^[13] Another Isaac Coates was a US Army Surgeon in the 1860s.^[14]

Isaac arrived at Lyttelton, on the Quebec-built^[16] clipper ship, Lancashire Witch, which had been carrying emigrants from England since 1856.^[17][18] Isaac's recollection of the voyage was that he arrived on 21 July 1867, paid £30 for a second class berth, was seasick, short of water and that the food was "almost uneatable".^[19] A report by the Immigration Commissioners confirmed problems with water and flour.^[20] There was also a fight on board.^[21] However, other second class passengers (there were 12, none of them named,^[22] and many government assisted migrants)^[23] wrote to thank the captain for their voyage and the captain reported that they left East India Docks on 2 April 1867 and anchored at Lyttelton on 29 July.^[24] Their first sighting of land was the Snares Islands / Tini Heke on 24 July.^[25] The immigrants reached Christchurch on 30 July.^[26]

Isaac had a letter of introduction from a brother of his local MP, Sir F. Milbank, to Joseph Tetley, of Marlborough. He walked north up the coast from Christchurch to Tetley's sheep station,^[27] taking several days and fording,^[28] or taking a ferry across, several rivers.^[29] He left the Tetleys,^[30] but continued working on stations,^[31] doing a variety of jobs, including rick building^[32] and wool handling with Merino sheep.^[33]

In 1868^[4] he rode to Riccarton, took a coach to Christchurch, sailed to Wellington^[34] and took the steamer Taranaki to Auckland,^[35] arriving on 13 March.^[36] He took a short trip to Thames to look at the goldfield^[37] and spent about a year prospecting for gold at Kennedy Bay,^[4] where he worked with fellow Yorkshireman, Frederick Atkinson.^[38] They panned some gold, but gave up when their dam was washed away.^[39] He also met up with other Yorkshiremen.^[40]

Isaac got another letter of introduction, this time to Captain William Steele,^[41] whom he later described as 'Father of Hamilton'.^[42] Isaac took a coach to Mercer, a steamer from there to Ngāruawāhia and then walked to Hamilton,^[43] where he met Captain Steele and looked at several farms.^[44]

He bought 400 acres (160 ha),^[45] at Ruakura,^[4] including 200 acres (81 ha) each from Dr Beale (£200)^[38] and Ensign John Crawford (under £300, including a house),^[9] the latter being first of the troops to land at Hamilton during the Invasion of the Waikato.^[46] Isaac later extended the farm to 700 acres (280 ha) and had drains dug to convert the wetland to farmland.^[47] Isaac was one of the first Waikato farmers to mechanise, getting a steam thresher in 1874^[48] and also mowing, reaping, binding, and chaff-cutting machines.^[4] After being refused a mortgage in 1895,^[49] he sold the farm in about 1901, when flax prices were low. It was then sold to the Government^[50] to create what later became Ruakura Agriculture Research Centre.

In 1875 Isaac had a contract to build a road into the Piako swamp.^[51] In 1878^[52] and 1879 he and Angus Campbell were in partnership as timber merchants.^[53] From 1878^[54] to 1880^[55] he was also trading in Hamilton East^[56] as Small & Coates, grocers and agricultural merchants.^[57] In 1880 he sold his own crops^[58] and then started on his own account as an agricultural merchant.^[59] In 1878^[60] and 1881 he had contracts for swamp drainage.^[61] He and civil engineer, Henry Hulbert Metcalfe,^[62] also had a flax mill,^[63] at least from 1886 to 1905,^[64] where the Memorial Park now is, and others at Morrinsville and Maketu.^[2]

Isaac and Henry won the contract to build the Te Awamutu to Ōtorohanga section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway^[65] and in 1886 they won the contract to extend it to Te Kūiti.^[66] They also worked together building Palmerston North waterworks,^[67] in 1889,^[68] which they extended in 1891.^[69] However, their tenders were too high to get the 1887 Ohinemuri contract for the Hikutaia to Paeroa section of the Thames Branch,^[70] the 1890 Helensville to Makarau contract for the North Auckland Line,^[71] or the 1893 contract for the Rotorua Branch.^[72]

Isaac had a Hamilton cottage burn down in 1903,^[73] the year he started a brickworks in Collingwood Street.^[74] He moved the brickworks to Huntly in 1905.^[75] It was still running in 1908,^[76] but seems to have been sold to a newly formed company that year.^[77] Coates Street in Hamilton East^[78] was built by Isaac in 1908,^[79] and some buildings had been erected by 1910.^[80] He was also a director of Hamilton Flour Mill,^[81] was in the gum trade.^[4]

His first recorded interest in Hamilton politics seems to have been in 1870, when he was on a list of supporters of Waikato MP, Captain Macpherson.^[82] Isaac's first election was as a lieutenant in the Waikato Rifle Volunteers in 1871. He was elected as a trustee of Hamilton East Highway District in 1874^[83] and became its secretary.^[84] He was elected to the Hamilton parish vestry committee, when it was formed, in 1876^[85] and to the newly formed borough of Hamilton on 7 February 1878.^[86][87] In 1877 he was elected to Kirikiriroa Road Board,^[88] was chairman of it in 1893^[89] and resigned from it in 1897.^[90] He was elected to the Hamilton East School Committee in 1878.^[91]

Isaac nominated his mayoral predecessors, William Australia Graham^[92] and Charles Barton.^[92] Isaac was mayor from 1888^[93] to 1892. In 1891 he was elected unopposed,^[94] but did not stand for mayor in 1892.^[95] He was also on Waikato County Council,^[96] from which he resigned in 1894,^[97] the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board,^[4] the Waikato Licensing Committee from 1894^[98] for 13 years,^[45] was one of the original members^[99] and became president of the Waikato Agricultural and Pastoral Association^[100] in 1902^[101] and chairman of South Auckland Racing Club for nearly 20 years.^[45] In 1893 he lost a Waikato Parliamentary election on a platform of opposing graduated tax and cooperative contracts,^[102] by 76 votes to Liberal MP, Alfred Cadman.^[103] In 1905 he was elected back to Hamilton Borough Council,^[104] until replaced in 1907.^[105]

On 18 April 1874 he married Alice Coleman, a daughter of Peter Coleman.^[106] Their children were -

• Margaret Gillett, eldest daughter, born on 28 May 1878,^[107] married in 1905 to John Arkle Gillett, of Epsom^{[108][109][110]}
• Alberta Ethel Kensington, 2nd daughter, married in 1904 to Norman Charles Kensington, of Dunedin^[111] She was living at Taumarunui in 1917^[112]
• Lilian Heddon, 3rd daughter, married in 1912 to Robert Heddon of Te Akatea^[113] and later living on a farm at Pukeatua^[8]
• Ethel Hughes, of Papakura^[110]
• Ernest Coates, surveyor, who died of fever in North Borneo in 1921^[114]
• H. Arthur Coates, who ran the Morrinsville flax mill,^[115] Hamilton brickworks^[74] and then moved to Thames^[116] and then Rotorua^[110]
• Alfred Hamilton Coates,^[4] who moved to Melbourne about 1908^[117]
• Harold F. Coates, an architect, who moved to Melbourne in 1914^[118]
• Violet, who died when she was pushed out of a window,^[119] when aged 6 in 1897.^[120]

Isaac returned to England in 1872.^[121] The family also visited England^[50] and Scotland in 1904,^[122] 1912^[123] and 1915.^[124]

In 1873 he bought a riverside section for £10.^[125] Until selling the house in about 1912 to Henry Greenslade, who built Greenslade House,^[126] Isaac Coates, lived at 'Wairere',^[108] 1 Wellington Street, Hamilton East.^[27] He had moved there when he married in 1874, and sold it when its kahikatea timbers were suffering from borer.^[49] In 1922 he moved to live with his son, Harold,^[127] in Canterbury, Melbourne,^[128] but returned in 1924^[129] and was at 9 Wellington Street in 1927^[130] and 1928.^[131]

Isaac died on Sunday 1 May 1932.^[4] His wife, died a week before him.^[132] They were then living with their eldest daughter at Pukenui Rd, Epsom and were buried at Hillsborough Cemetery.^[133]

Photos -

• probably flax mill wharf and Union Bridge in 1906
• Isaac Coates' flax mill in 1908