It was more up to date than is often provided in cities and towns.
R. S. (Richard Sumner) James came to Matamata in 1907 from the Karangahake Gorge where he had been for some time. No stranger to the court system - convicted and fined for selling unstamped and underweight loaves in 1901. He had suffered loss in a fire, as so many did in this period, in 1898, but recovered swiftly.
In Matamata he started out well. A wooden shop and house were built with a bakery building behind. By 1909 it was well established as a tearooms. A wedding reception was held in a marquee for George Edward HEWITT and Frances Alice BRASSINGTON. Where upwards of 50 guests were catered for by Mr R.S.James “it was more up to date than is often provided in cities and towns” and in 1910 the increasing population necessitated the installation of a modern dough mixing plant.
Many of the business men & women in Matamata at this time also had small farms, and Richard Sumner James may have been one of them. But I stress, this has not been confirmed. Certainly an R.S. James is selling stock and a farm throughout the second decade of the 20th century.
Newspaper articles are not always flattering. As in the case of this one, where he is alleged to have misrepresented the quality of a cow at his clearing sale in 1920.
In 1917 R.S. James sold his bakery business, which to this date are just R.S. James Tea Rooms, to Arthur Stewart, from Paeroa, and subsequently moved to Te Puke where he continued to farm. At least until the marriage of his daughter Rewa in 1922.
