1929 - 1940's The "Hay Day" The opening of the Tolaga Bay Wharf in December of 1929 enabled larger coasters to load alongside and for many years the Richardson and Company coaster Kopara (1938) called regularly. Tolaga Bay's wool dumping plant and wharf were used by coastal vessels which took this freight down to Gisborne for transshipment. In December of 1929, soon after the wharf opening, the Bencruachan, a ship chartered to Geo. H. Scales, was the first overseas ship to load at Tolaga Bay. Despite the resistance from the Conference Lines, who believed there were too many "overseas" ports in New Zealand and were trying to restrict overseas shipping to major ports, over the next decade Tolaga Bay was served by Scales charter vessels Bencruachan, Benmohr, Benreoch, Benlawers, Benledi, Benarty and Anglo Canadian. However, even as the Tolaga Bay wharf opened, improved roading and motor vehicles had begun to compete with coastal shipping, especially on short hauls. It was ironic that much of the cargo that passed over the wharf was road-making material, used to construct the road through to Gisborne, thus providing an alternate means of transport. In May 1929 ratepayers who were sending their wool overland to Gisborne were written to by the Harbour Board, saying that the loss of revenue to the wharf had resulted in a rates increase. The onset of the Depression greatly reduced the amount of cargo going through the outports generally. One hundred and thirty-two vessels worked Tolaga Bay in 1936, but by 1939 only 88 called. Trade was further reduced by the war which centralised shipping control and this was not necessarily reversed quickly after the war. During the war period a phone line was carried to the end of the wharf, Borer was found in the cargo shed; TBHB resolved to buy a new dumping plant (wool press) engine - a 17 h.p. Ruston horizontal diesel; a concrete foundation was built under the pumps for the dump; the lean-to floor, presumably the railway lean-to, was levelled and concreted; and there was ongoing concern about the deterioration of the ferroconcrete of the wharf. Additions to the shed were discussed at Board meetings in 1941-42, priced and apparently completed. Kirks of Gisborne won the tender (£695) and subsequently gave an estimate (£48) for "the erection of an upstairs office and boardroom." The latter contract indicates that the addition was the weatherboard-clad western lean-to. In August 1942 the floor of the new addition was concreted at a cost of £94/17/6. In August 1943 it was resolved by the Board to make further additions "to run the full length of the existing building." Kirks' tender of £972 - a substantial sum - indicates that these additions were probably both the northern lean-to and an extended (in width) southern lean-to.

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