Grey's Folly by Alan La Roche

THERE’S no official confirmation, but information gathered by a local historian provides compelling evidence that a Japanese submarine cruised off Auckland’s eastern beaches during World War II.

Alan La Roche, author of a book widely regarded as an historical reference bible for Howick, Pakuranga and surrounding districts, has done it again, with his new book Grey’s Folly being launched at Howick Historical Village tonight.

It isn’t a reprint of the 1991 publication, The History of Howick and Pakuranga (Whitford, Bucklands and Eastern Beaches and surrounding districts), but he has selected the most interesting parts of that.

Mr La Roche says: “There are a lot of new stories in this book that have never seen the light of day. The story of the Japanese submarine was the most exciting I worked on.”

He was alerted to the event when a former Qantas pilot approached him after a Probus Club meeting and told him of Lieutenant Susumo Ito, a former Japanese pilot who owned a fishing tackle shop in Iwakunui, near Kobi, Japan. He told the Kiwi, “I flew over Auckland during the war”.

A few years ago the veteran of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, revisited Auckland and told his story.

Mr La Roche interviewed people who spoke to him and those who said they had seen the spotter aircraft and the submarine it was launched from in 1942.

David Gillard was fishing off Howick Beach and maintains he saw the submarine.

Shirley Watson, whose husband worked at the Magazine Bay ammunition store near Maraetai Beach, tells the story of two Japanese men in civilian clothes asking about the magazine. They were told it didn’t exist. Later the submarine was sighted.

“I talked to the Navy about the plane and submarine, but they said they would never let one near Auckland,” Mr La Roche says.

“It’s amusing that Hobsonville air base turned on its runway lights in case the plane wanted to land.

“The same submarine went to Sydney Harbour and let a torpedo go with loss of life on a ship it hit.

“By sheer chance there were no naval ships in Auckland’s port the day the plane flew over.

“We were so lucky.”

Mr La Roche has called his new book Grey’s Folly because Governor George Grey chose the site Howick is now on for the Fencible pensioners, retired soldiers brought from England to help defend Auckland.

The land became valuable, with one acre in Selwyn Road going for £40 an acre, the same as for downtown Auckland at that time.

But the Fencibles considered it a long way from Auckland and wanted the site to be abandoned.

“Governor Grey realised the economic advantages of Howick,” Mr La Roche says.

“It was a smart move by him, although it was not popular with the Fencibles, so I decided to call the book Grey’s Folly.”

It has taken seven years of 10-hour days to write the book, which is based on interviews with more than 300 people.

“A lot of it is my life story, I remember the changes,” he says.

“I came across a lot of surprises from early times, geological information I hadn’t used before.”

Another new story is about the 27 Howick Fencible soldiers who arrived in Howick suffering from malaria because their ship had been berthed beside the marshes at Tilbury, England. Local doctors were able to save them. The same ship, the Sir George Seymour carrying Fencibles bound for Howick, was sailing down the African coast when a pirate ship sidled up to it. Women and children were sent below, and the soldiers paraded up and down the deck in uniform carrying their rifles.

“But the pirates didn’t know the captain had the pay for the 830 Fencibles for the next seven years on-board,” Mr La Roche says.

“The money was eventually deposited in Auckland to pay for the soldiers and infrastructure.

“The pirates stayed for three days, but finally gave up because they could see it was a military boat.”

Plenty of local-body change history is found in Grey’s Folly.

“I went through all the minute books of the old Manukau County and Manukau City councils, and Howick Town Board, and picked out the best stories I could find.

“It is timely to write a new history. There have been rapid changes with immigration and its effects on the area, and political development such as boundary changes.”

Mr La Roche’s next project is a children’s book, which will be  based on historical stories.

Grey's Folly has 540 illustrations spread over 336 pages.