The European in Hoe-o-Tainui ________________ It would be reasonable to deduce from the rapidity with which the valley was taken over in 1912, that Europeans in the district would be there for purposes not connected with settling. A trading post was in existence at Tahuna in the 1850’s. John Grant Johnson, son of Dr John Johnson – Colonial Surgeon in Auckland, was one of the traders of the second decade. The company found itself obliged to pay the flax sellers with trade goods before the fibre was delivered, and then to travel from one post to another, exhorting the workers to have it ready in time for the trader’s rendezvous with a certain ship at a specified port. J G Johnson’s chief trading station is marked on a map of 1852 as Mr. Johnson’s at Tahuna, on a triangle formed by the Piako River and the Waikareke Stream. From the reports of grain and other produce being traded from the valley, one would expect itinerant traders would have been the main European contact with the area. Wild horses roamed the hills behind Tahuna just after the turn of the century and Indian Army agents employed he local Maori population to round up those of them that could be captured to be transported to India for use as pack horses on the North West Frontier. In 1905 – 6 the Public Works Department let a contract for road formation and building of the many culverts required to give access to Tahuna from Morrinsville. The timber was shipped up the Piako River by scow from Auckland or Thames. A road had been surveyed from the main road along the northern side of the Tahuna village block to Hoe-o-Tainui. Before this, the access consisted of 1 mile of metalled road out of Morrinsville followed by six miles of clay road that led through two sheep and cattle stations – Mr. Alec Orr’s Te Mimi Estate and Bell’s Mangateparu Estate. The route then followed the Maori wagon tracks to the Piako River where it followed along the riverbank that had been raised up by silt deposited by floods over many years. At Tahuna the track swung over a low saddle along tracks that had been made by Maori wagons and konakis. A survey map, dated 1905 and headed “For sub-division of land under the Land Transfer Act”, shows Hoe-o-Tainui North, No 4 Block, surveyed off. This is the block of land at the junction of the Tainui Road and main Tahuna-Ohinewai Road and owned, until recently, by Southey Brothers. This area was surveyed for Pore Pomai Te Whetuiti and others. Around 1907 – 8, a flax mill was established by Mr. Tennent at the western end of Hoe-o-Tainui near a site where Messers Pullman and Plummer established a more extensive mill in the 1920’s – the remains of which can still be seen on Mr. T Miedema’s farm. The story of the European settlement really starts with the formation of the land syndicate and purchase around 1912 of land from the Maoris. The first to purchase land from the syndicate were the two South Island brothers, Edward and Wilfred Harrison and Charles Stewart. The Harrison farm covered the area of the old kainga of Wairoa and Charles Stewart purchased land further along the route to Tahuna bordering the area of land retained by Waiti Maori. Mr. Edward Harrison arrived in Morrinsville in 1913 the night that the Nottingham Castle Hotel was burnt down. The only other settlement of that time that I have definite record of is a block of land up the Mangawhara owned by D R F Campbell of Morrinsville – a former teacher at Tahuna School, and Mr. N McPherson. The Tahuna Store at that time used to make deliveries to this block of land. Supplies were taken by horse and cart from Tahuna as far up the Mangawhara as possible, fording the stream in seven places, then off-loading the supplies onto pack horses to follow a bridle path through heavy bush to finally make the delivery. The service given by these early storekeepers, and their importance to the early settlers, cannot be overestimated as we look, with regret, at the passing of the old type country store. At the declaration of war in 1914, Wilfred Harrison and Charles Stewart were among the first to volunteer while Edward Harrison carried on the farming the best that he could. Wilfred Harrison was killed at the ANZAC landing and Charles Stewart was invalided home suffering from war wounds. On recovery, he went on farming his land. In 1916, Edward Harrison volunteered for service leaving his land in the care of Alec Orr who had, in the meantime, purchased a block of land adjoining the Harrison’s. In 1917, Edward Harrison was wounded in Passchendaele. He lost the use of one arm. In the meantime, Mr. Twining and his son Dudley, record show that they moved in during 1915, took up land at the flax mill end of Hoe-o-Tainui. Mr. Dudley Twining, reminiscing about these times, says that those were the days of “do-it-yourself”. When his father made application for a telephone, the application was granted so long as he arranged the construction of the line from Te Hoe to Hoe-o-Tainui. He and Dudley constructed the line and the district was connected, by telephone, to the outside world as early as 1916. Mr. Basil Orr’s connection to the area goes back to 1915 – he saw service overseas as a pilot in the RAF Coming from Auckland at the age of 18, Mr. R G Crocombe took up land in 1916. A Mr. Sam Pharr took up an area of land next to Twining’s block. After the First World War, soldiers returning from overseas purchased further land. Descendants of these soldiers are farming the land to this day. Names that come to mind are Reeves, Laing, Mohring, Robinson, Kelly, Dickie, Buckley, Clothier and McHardy, plus others who are no longer represented in the area. It was this influx that prompted the residents to negotiate for the establishment of the school. Mr. H M Clothier, in 1924, was delegated to meet Mr. Dunlop from the Education Department. He picked him up by horse and gig from Tahuna and drove out to the district. Mr. Dunlop had his doubts as to whether the population warranted a school, The remainder of the story of European settlement will be told in the following chapter where we have been fortunate in that settlers of the very early days have been prepared to write their personal memories of the district and the people from those times. The other two activities that should be mentioned here are gum digging and timber milling. A great deal of Kauri gum was dug up in the district and most farmers had their own gum spear to locate this once valuable export commodity. Mr. Tom Headley’s grandfather, W Headley, established a timber mill at the end of the Waiti Road in the 1930’s and a large amount of timber was felled in the bush at the top of Waiti Road. The logs were dragged from were felled by donkey engines and long wire ropes out of the bush, across gullies and down to a loading ramp where they were loaded onto trucks and taken to the mill where they were sawn into timber. The mill was powered by an old traction engine, which remained a landmark for many years, after the mill was burnt down. Electric power was reticulated into the district during the mid 1920’s. This marked the end of the pioneering era and the start of the development of the district into being, not just a remote, isolated country district but a modern up-to-date area with modern communications, household amenities and farming equipment. The area had an increasing output and a variety of primary produce and it had become within easy travelling distance from towns and cities, with all that they had to offer. In the 1930’s tractors started to make their appearance thus heralding the end of the era when horses were the main source of energy for farming activities. The Second World War saw many of the sons of the district serve overseas. Many laid down their young lives for the freedom that we all now enjoy. Rehabilitation schemes for settling returned soldiers saw the division of farms that were large enough to be subdivided into economic units. A new influx of settlers added to the character of the district. Hoe-o-Tainui is an area, which keeps changing with families moving in and out. Yet it always retains a unique character – maybe because of those characters who first settled here leaving behind them a legacy of general co-operation in all things that are of benefit to the district as a whole. G R Crocombe.
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