History of the Pig n Whistle building

The Red Brick Building

This post is a historical snapshot of a brick building on the corner of Tutanekai and Haupapa streets, Rotorua, New Zealand. The building presently houses the Pig & Whistle restaurant and bar, and wasn’t always a cosy place where you can get a delicious bite to eat. In fact, its origins had nothing to do with the hospitality industry. The Pig ‘n’ Whistle used to be a police station.

Rotorua as a police station was first recorded in 1886 with two constables. By 1921 Rotorua became a part of the Hamilton Police District with 3 constables and Senior Sergeant William John Quinn was given command of the station. In 1966 the Bay of Plenty area separated from the Hamilton Police District and became its own police district, with the district headquarters located in Rotorua. 

Timeline

Former police reporter Keith Johnstone shared many memories of what went on in, the Red Brick police station. It was a two-storey building with a tiled floor in the tea room (a converted toilet). It was a place where staff did ‘long, tiring searches for people lost in the Ureweras, long days in court and have a quiet cuppa in the team room’. Johnston recalls a time when he went to Hinehopu in the work vehicle, a Ford Anglia, narrowly missing a black heifer in the dark and when he arrived, ‘…nothing had happened…’ He also remembers a particularly elusive fugitive named George Wilder who was difficult to capture. There were many long cold nights out with police staff on Wilder-type patrols and stakeouts.

Jack Lander told the Daily Post in 1994 that the only transport available to the police were pushbikes. However in other parts of the country a 1955 Ford Consul, capable of up to 60mph was being used.

A 1929 annual report of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts recorded two thefts in Rotorua. The first incident was the theft of 40 towels from the bathhouse laundry. The second theft recorded that 41 fowls were taken from the departmental poultry-yard. In both cases the culprits weren’t caught.  The station and gaol adjoined the courthouse. There were five rooms in the residence area and two cells behind.

This post was written by Ani Sharland. My thanks to the Rotorua Daily Post, Papers Past and Faeryl Rotherham. (2019, July 26).