Early Settlers Remember ______________________Early Memories by W J Collins The origin of the name seems to have been lost in the distant past. Literally, it means “Paddle of the Tainui” and one story we were told was that a paddle from this famous canoe was held there for many years. The Maoris told us that once upon a time most of the families now living on the Hoe-o-Tainui valley occupied land along the Piako River. Their story of the reason for the move to Hoe-o-Tainui went as follows: - Sometime during the nineteenth century, a large area of swampland, to the east of the Piako and south of the present settlement of Tahuna, was developed by the Europeans and named the Waitoa Estate. The land was drained and the main outlet drain, known as the Whakahora, carried a large quantity of swamp water into the Piako. This caused the river water, which had previously been clear, to become discoloured. Soon afterwards one of the periodic serious epidemics that the Maoris were then prone to occurred and many lives were lost. It was probably some form of influenza and the treatment prescribed by the local Tohunga had no good results. They were then told that the sickness was caused by the swamp-water poisoning the pure river water. The only way to stop it was to move the whole population to an area where there were streams of pure water. There happened to be a few Maoris living in the Hoe-o-Tainui valley at that time and this was chosen for the new settlement. For their main kainga, they selected a ridge just to the east of, and overlooking, the Mangawhara River. The meeting house and Marae were close to where Harrison’s house now stands and a number of whares, patakas and two or three long sleeping houses extended along the ridge past where the Orr homestead is now. The name the Maoris gave their new kainga was “Wairoa” – wholesome or healthy water. This was the Hoe-o-Tainui I first knew, or, the centre of it. Some families were settled along the Waiti Stream, others about and near where Mohring Bros. farm was later to be and towards the boundary of the Maori land, i.e. the Confiscation Line. Just to the west of this boundary, on some higher ground, was a farmhouse. It was on land belonging to a Mr. Charles Pharr. On this site, Mr. Jack Laing later built his house. It must have been about six years after our settlement in Tahuna before I had occasion to visit Hoe-o-Tainui. Occasionally when looking for cows that had strayed in the hills at the back of our farm, I got a fairly distant view of the valley. We knew that Mr. Alec Orr, of the Te Mimi Estate near Morrinsville, used to graze cattle there by arrangement with the Maoris. From time to time, we were told of large tangis that were held there upon the death of important members of the tribe. It would be about 1910 when I actually visited Hoe-o-Tainui and passed through Waiora with my father on my way up the valley with a cart load of stores for the settlers in the bush-land at the head of the valley. At that time there was a Mr. McPherson farming there on the land later to belong to Mr. Blackburn. Mr. Con Fortune was living across the creek from there, managing a property belonging to Mr. Campbell, the headmaster of Morrinsville School. The track we followed passed the edge of the kainga of Waiora, along the ridge and crossed the Mangawhara for the first time, in what was, much later, Mr. Charles Stewart’s farm. It crossed the stream six times more before reaching our destination. Some time before, my father had built a hut and or a woolshed on a property near McPherson’s for a Mr. Hills of Tahuna who held a section there for a while. Also, he has built a flax mill on the flat land below Mr. Charles Phair’s house at the western side of the Hoe-o-Tainui valley. I passed through fairly regularly for a few years when taking supplies to the upper Mangawhara settlers, and to survey parties when a full survey of the Mangawhara land was being made. Also, I went up the Waiti valley into the hills overlooking Tahuna and Patetonga from time to time with stores for the settlers there. On the eastern side of the great swamp area of Hoe-o-Tainui, extending almost to Tauhei, in the area through which in the depression years of the early thirties, the road from Hoe-o-Tainui to Tauhei was formed, there were no Maoris living there at that time. However, near the headwaters of the Paranui Stream, a tributary of the Mangawhara, there had at one time been a fairly extensive area of cultivation and the remains of a number of old whares, which had been burned when the occupants abandoned the settlement. The land had become overgrown with scrub except for some patches of rough grass. We knew this place in the early days as the “Black Whares”. There was a fair amount of game there including pheasants, quail, rabbits and, often, wild duck in some ponds on the Paranui Stream. At that time, there was heavy bush along the top of the range of hills between Tahuna and Hoe-o-Tainui, and in most of the gullies on both sides of the range. Now and again, as I grew up, I used to wander over these hills with dog and gun, following old wild horse tracks down to the Black Whares area. Occasionally, I would ride part of the way, tether my horse and go on in search of game. As time went on in some very dry summers, fires swept over the hills destroying the bush bit by bit, so that game became scarce. This was about the time the “Great War” began, and I did no more of that type of shooting. For a long time, attempts had been made by land hunters, land dealers and speculators to persuade the Maoris to sell some of the fertile Hoe-o-Tainui land, but without success. From what we were told by the older Maoris, this land, that is all of the flat land, was cultivated intensively and a large quantity of wheat was grown. One man told me that when he was a boy, and that would be in the fifties and sixties of the last century, he remembered seeing the whole of the arable flat land, to use his own words, “Waving in wheat”. We were told that Sir George Grey, when he was Governor of the Colony, ”Hori Kerei” as the Maoris called him, encouraged the Maoris in this wheat growing. The wheat was transported by wagons to the Piako River, and in large canoes to the river mouth, where it was loaded onto ships to be taken to Auckland. Sometimes, it was said, the ships took it direct to Australia. There was no wheat grown there in our time however, only some oats for chaff, potatoes and kumaras. Much of the flat land was in rough grass carrying some cattle and horses. About 1912, a group of men wishing to buy land at Hoe-o-Tainui, formed a company known as the “Hoe-o-Tainui Syndicate” and began an intensive effort to persuade the Maori owners of land there to sell. It was some time before they met with any success. The leader of this syndicate was Mr. W Eddowes, a well-known land dealer of those days. At least one or two landowners agreed to sell part of their holdings, and their example soon led to others following suit. There was a good deal of traffic between Morrinsville and Hoe-o-Tainui, with motor cars, then rare on our roads, travelling back and forth taking Maoris to Law Offices and Maroon Land Court to clinch the deals. It was said that plenty of Waipirau was found useful in “oiling the works, as it were”. The end result, however, was that the syndicate was soon in possession of the greater part of the best land in the valley. Surveyors got to work dividing the land into sections of a suitable size, and members of the group each retained certain areas of land for themselves, placing the rest on the market. Mr. Eddowes retained about six hundred acres of good flat land for himself. This block of land he sold to the Mohring brothers soon after the war for about sixty-five pounds an acre – a high price in those days. Among the first settlers were the Harrison brothers, Wilfred and Edward, and Charles Gordon Stewart. Both the Harrisons and Mr. Stewart came from Canterbury and brought with them the latest in farm implements and an expert knowledge of arable farming, cattle raising and fattening, and sheep farming. Harrison’s farm covered the area of the old Maori kainga of Wairoa, with their southern boundary on the main Tahuna-Ohinewai Road, and extended across the Mangawhara River and the Mangawhara Road, later known as the “Forest Reserve Road’, and then unformed. Between this road and their western boundary, there was about 200 acres, covered by heavy scrub – kanuka and manuka. On the southern end of this, at the junction of the road with the main Tahuna-Ohinewai Road, an area of 22 acres of Crown Land had been reserved, I understand to pay survey fees owing to the Lands and Survey Department. The Harrisons offered to buy this land, but were in formed, by the department, that it was being held as an Education Reserve, but that they could lease it on a year to year basis for grazing. This they did for a few years, and after the War, when my brother Robert Herbert Collins and I purchased this 200-acre block from Edward Harrison, we took over this year to year lease of the 22 acres. Soon afterwards, however, the Crown sold this land to another Returned Soldier, Mr. Conrad Fortune, who settled there for several years. The Harrison’s farm contained a considerable area of good river flats, partly grassed, and consisted of about 500 acres in all. Adjoining it, on the north, was a block of land belonging to Mr. Alec Orr of the Te Mimi Estate, near Morrinsville, who may have been connected with the Hoe-o-Tainui Syndicate. After the war, Basil Orr settled on this Land. Mr. Charles Stewart’s property was on the eastern and northern side of Orr’s. The new settlers soon began to develop their land and stock it with sheep and cattle, but before they were able to get very far with this, World War 1 broke out. Wilfred Harrison and Charles Stewart were among the first to volunteer for service and sailed with the first troop ships to Egypt. Edward Harrison carried on for a year or two on his own. Wilfred Harrison was killed in action at the ANZAC landing on Gallipoli. Charles Stewart was invalided home minus one lung but, upon his recovery, he carried on farming his land. In 1916 Edward Harrison volunteered for service, leaving his land in the care of Mr Alec Orr for the duration of the war. In 1917, at the battle of Passchendaele, he was severely wounded, losing the use of one arm. When he was returned home, and considered himself fit enough, he took over the farm again and carried on. Basil Orr, when he was old enough, joined the Royal Flying Corps, later the RAF and saw service in the latter part of the war. Con Fortune volunteered for service and joined the NZ Tunnelling Corps in France, where he took part in the operations of that famous unit. Several young men, who had been working in the upper Mangawhara Valley with survey parties and in other jobs, enlisted in the beginning of the war. Except for two of them, Bill Kane and Vaughan Haszard, their names have slipped my memory. Both of these were killed in the war, Bill Kane at Passchendaele within a few yards of me. When I returned from three and a half years of service overseas, I found that many more settlers had arrived in Hoe-o-Tainui, and others were arriving. Mr E Eddowes sold his holding to Mohring Bros., three of a family farming in the Gordon and Manawaru district near Te Aroha. One of the three brothers was not long in the partnership owing, I believe, to ill health caused by war service. The elder of the two remaining on the farm, Leslie, had returned from service in the Mounted Rifles in Egypt and Palestine, and also, for a while, in the Imperial Camel Corps in the Sinai Desert. His younger brother, Raymond – usually known as “Raydy”, and Leslie were both hard working and experienced farmers and developed and farmed their land efficiently until Leslie’s death a few years ago. Raydy, I understand, still runs the farm. During the years between the wars they purchased an area of unimproved land on the north side of the main road to Te Hoe and Ohinewai over the Waikato County Boundary. This land they developed and farmed as well, later selling it to Discharged Service men under the Re-habilitation scheme. Other settlers I met then, or who arrived soon afterwards were my brother-in-law, Mr Rudolph Crocombe and his wife, my sister Emily who settled and lived there for a few years. Between Harrison and Stewart’s farms, with a frontage on the Tahuna Road, Mr A McHardy took over a farm. Almost opposite, on the southern side of the road, Mr Harvey Clothier farmed a fairly large area of land, which he sold later to Mr Bert Elliot. West of Clothier’s farm, extending to the Mangawhara River and including a good deal of swamp land as well as the southern end of the Waiora ridge, was a large property belonging, if my memory serves me rightly, to a Mr Moncton. A Mr Joe Slater managed this for a while. Not long afterwards, this land was purchased by Mr S Austen Carr, a prominent Auckland merchant, who with various managers, developed and farmed it for many years. On the ridge, not far from the homestead of this farm as it was then, there is an old Maori burial ground. After the Second World War, the farm was sold for Soldier Settlement and divided into smaller farms. Between Austen Carr’s and the Mohring brothers’ farms was a large area of land stretching from the main Tahuna-Ohinewai Road southwards almost to Tauhei. It included a good deal of swamp and some rolling hill country in the vicinity of the Tahuna Quarry. Auckland merchants, Mr James Robertson and Mr Spedding purchased this land. A house was built on the main road and the property was named the “Tainui Estate”. At first, two young men, sons of the owners, lived on and managed the property, but apparently this arrangement was not satisfactory. Mr Turnbull and his wife and family of two daughters and one invalid son, who lived there for some years, replaced them. To the west of Mohring Bros. farm, and near the County Boundary, two soldier-settlers, Mr Nigel Reeves and Mr J Miller, settled on farms. Across the boundary, which is also the old “Confiscation Line”, Mr Charles Pharr had gone, and an area of land there was owned by the Twining family of Pokeno and Te Hoe. Later, Mr Jack Laing who still farms there purchased the property on which Mr Pharr had lived. He built a house on the high ground near the site of Mr Pharr’s home. Soon after, Mr Edward Harrison returned from the war and settled on his farm. He felt that the area was too large for him to manage on his own, handicapped as he was by his wound. Therefore, he decided to sell the 208 acres of partly improved land to the west of Mangawhara Road. He knew that I was looking for that sort of land, and offered to give me the first refusal of the purchase. Mr brother, Herbert, was on his way home from oversees and, on his arrival, we discussed the matter of buying the land and farming it in partnership. He agreed and, eventually, we did so with assistance from the State Advances under the “Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act”, taking over on the first of January 1920. Farming the land under the name of “Collins Brothers,” we built a cowshed and a house, and improved the land, sowing more grass and crops to increase the carrying capacity. We bought our stock of dairy cows at rather high prices during a temporary post-war boom, and then got caught in the inevitable post-war slump, as were many others at the time, when prices for farm produce fell. I had married, in January 1921, Miss Nancy Molineux whom I had met and become engaged to in 1919 while in England on leave after the Armistice. It had been decided that we should wait a year after my return home and, if we were both of the same minds, Nancy would come to New Zealand and stay with my family at Tahuna until the wedding, which is what was eventually done. Herbert felt that, owing to the fall in farm income, the prospects of farming were not bright. He was offered a job in a general store at Tahuna, which he decided to accept for a time. Before long he also decided to get married. It was agreed between us that I should run the farm for three years and then we would decide what was to be done about the partnership. The three years went by and by that time my brother Herbert had decided that his prospects were better in store keeping than on the farm. He therefore informed me that he wished to end the partnership. Before doing anything further in the matter, I travelled up to Auckland and discussed the position with the Commissioner of Crown Lands, under whose jurisdiction we were. He was sympathetic and advised me to carry on with the farm. To do this, he suggested that I should take over my brother’s share including all liabilities to the Crown. After some discussion with Herbert about this and other details connected with the settlement of all private commitments, it was agreed between us that I should follow the advice of the Commissioner. This was done eventually, and the farm became my own subject, of course, to the State Advances mortgages. In the meantime, quite soon after the war, early settlers had married and began to raise families. Edward Harrison married my cousin, Miss Lucy White of Tahuna. Charles Stewart married another cousin, Miss Rebecca Salvias from Auckland originally, although her family was living at Tahuna at the time. Basil Orr married Miss O’Brien of Morrinsville. New Soldier Settlers took up Crown Land sections on the Mangawhara River upper reaches. Mr James McVeigh settled on a hill-country bush section next to MrBlackburn’s property on the north side. Opposite Mr Blackburn’s, on the western side of the road, a fairly large area of bush-covered hill-country was taken over by Mr Sid Griffiths. Mr Tom Neale was next down the Mangawhara on the edge of the heavy bush, on the eastern side of the road. Next to Tom Neale was Mr Bert Kelly, the next below his section was Mr Joe Davies and then Mr Jack Welham. Two of these settlers, Mr Joe Davies and Mr Bert Kelly, were married. Tom Neale had a sister housekeeping for him. The others were bachelors. Three sections of Maori land, covered Ake Ake, then existed between Welham’s property and Charlie Stewart’s farm. A prominent Maori, named Koinaki and part of his family occupied the land next to Stewart’s. Soon afterwards, a Mr James Tooke and his wife Mary – nee Smith, another cousin of mine, purchased the section above Koinaki. On the western side of the road, next to the farm belonging to my brother and me, a family named Buckley purchased a farm. A fairly elderly couple with two adult sons, Benjamin and William, and a daughter named Dorothy. The Buckleys also had a hill-country farm on the western side of Hapuakohe Range in the Mangapiko Valley, a branch of the Matahura, on which they lived and farmed for some years. James Tooke did not live on his section for more than a year or two, and some time after he had left it, Mr William Buckley bought it and settled there with his wife Muriel, second daughter of Mr Blackburn. The small area on my southern boundary, 22 acres in all, between my farm and the main Tahuna-Ohinewai Road, was taken over by Mr Con Fortune who, with his wife Pahi and daughter Rene, lived there for some years. Con cleared the land, sowed it down in rough grass and let the grazing of it occasionally. About 1932, he sold it to Mr W Moss who, with his wife, settled there for several years and milked a few cows. They were an elderly couple from Napier, more or less refugees from the earthquake in Hawkes Bay, who wished to live a quiet life in the country away from the earthquake district. He was a retired blacksmith and an expert welder, and from time to time, carried out various welding jobs in a farm smithy on Mohring Bros. property. To go back to the earlier days, the story of the first telephone line should now be told. The lack of this amenity was a sore point with the early settlers. The nearest Telephone Bureau was at Tahuna and requests had been made for some time to the Post & Telegraph Dept. for a party line to connect us with that settlement. We were told that, owing to a post-war shortage of all necessary materials, this would be impossible for a few years. Finally, at a meeting of some of us, it was agreed that we should inform the Department that we were able and willing to provide the materials for the actual line and to erect it ourselves. One or two of our number knew where we could obtain the wire and also the insulators. The posts and poles could be cut out of the bush in the Mangawhara Valley, and the line erected by means of settler “working bees.” There were six of us in the original group planning to build the party telephone line, counting my brother and me as one member. The others were Messrs. Edward Harrison, Charles Stewart, Basil Orr, Percy Robertson and Rudolph Crocombe. Later on, a Mr A McHardy and Mr Harvey Clothier joined our number. Percy Robertson had an uncle in a responsible position in the Auckland Central Post Office, and it was agreed that he and I should go to Auckland and discuss the matter with him. This we did, and the final outcome of our interview was that we were assured that, if we erected the line ourselves, on its completion the Department would supply and install the telephones, so we set to work immediately. We cut out and trimmed the poles in the bush and carted them to their required positions. In the ground, we placed solid totara fencing posts, for greater durability, and wired the poles firmly to them. The insulators were fitted into place, the wire run out and attached to them. All this took some time, of course, but it was eventually completed, the telephone installed, and we had our telephone communication with Tahuna, thus ending our former sense of isolation. Our telephone was at the end of the line, and it became rather too popular with other settlers farther away, including some of the local Maori farmers. We had frequent callers wishing to phone through to Tahuna and Morrinsville. So often did this happen that the Postmaster in Morrinsville complained to us about it, telling us that we seemed to be running an illegal telephone bureau. We therefore, had to discourage as many would-be users of the phone as we could. The party telephone line lasted for several years until, in fact, as exchange was built at Tahuna and a regular line erected by the Post and Telegraph Department. Soon after the Great War, as young children in the district grew towards school age, the settlers naturally wished to have a school built, and approached the Education Department on the matter. A number of Maori children were also ready for school, and Tahuna was too far for most of them. Before lone the settlers’ hopes were realised, a school was built and opened in 1925, the first teacher being Miss Parker, now Mrs Reid. The story of the school from then onwards, I shall leave to others who are probably more familiar with the details of its later development. My son, Ross, began his schooling there in 1930. In the thirties, I served on the School Committee for a while. Also, at one stage, we boarded one of the assistant teachers, Miss Bauman. I have concentrated on the earliest days in my history of Hoe-o-Tainui because my family considered that my earliest memories might go further back than most.
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