HUTT VALLEY NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 208, 30 May 1936, Page 15

HUTT VALLEY NEWS

AFTER SIXTY YEARS Mr. H. J. Poole Recalls Armed Constabulary Days TAUPO AND TARANAKI One of the fast-diminishing band of those who served in the Armed Constabulary is Mr. 11. J. Poole, of Lower Hutt, now SI years of age. who joined this force of bush fighters and road-makers in May, 1874. "It’s just 62 years since I joined up in Wellington,'’ said Mr. Poole 4 pushing away the letter he had been writing, to talk to “The Dominion.” "About a month later ,we left, for Taupo, under Captain Marshall, father of the late Captain H. T. Marshall. There were 50 of "us, with a native contingent of 50 under Captain Priest.'® Taupo was then tin isolated outpost, except for the weekly coaches from Tauranga and Napier, which met there and

exchanged passengers and mails.. Later, when tiie trouble with Te Whili broke out, a"large proportion of the strength at the Taupo post were sent to Opunake, Taranaki, under Major Goring. Mr. Poole, whose number in the corps was 411, remembers that “the Government of those days was pretty miserable” because it made him a sergeant without pay. One of those in his tent was W. Malone, later to become LieutenantColonel “Billy” Malone and to be killed on Gallipoli. He recalls, too, that after they had built the redoubt at Manaia, Te Whitt sent along a cartload of potatoes, peaches, geese and duck. Mr. Poole was also engaged on the building of the road between Manaia and Opuuake, and with a surveyor and six men lie cut the line of the Opnuake-New Plymouth road right through the heavy flax. In 1880 Mr. Poole left the Armed Constabulary to go Home to see his father, who was- ill, but who died betorc his arrival. Two other members, Weir and Donovan, who left and went home to Scotland, ran out of money and turned bushrangers . In the cud Weir shot himself and Donovan was sent to prison for some years. “The Armed Constabulary was a fine body of men,” Mr. Poole said, “and if I were young again, with the same opportunities, 1 would join them, as I did before.” NEW RIVER BRIDGE Tests For Foundations Preparations for tests to determine the strength of the foundations for the new highway bridge to cross the Hutt River a short distance north of the present Stiverstrcam railway bridge are now in hand. Samples of the soil are to be taken from depths of 30 (to 50 feet, and after the tests have been completed by the Public Works Department tenders will probably be called for the construction of the bridge. Work along the western Hutt Road, which is being carried on by about 150 men, has advanced to about a quarter of a mile from the bridge site, but little more will be done here until the rivetlias been diverted into what is now the railway gravel pit. A start on the improvement of the Haywards-Pahautanui Road has also beeu made, and two years will be spent in widening the corners and making the road of a standard width of 24 feet. Mr Buehan has offered the Government the use of his land free of cost, so that the road could be diverted for the first mile, thus making for improved alignment of the road. This has not yet been finally considered. BUILDINGS TAKEN OVER Jackson Street Widening Steadily the work of widening Jackson Street, Petone, goes on, and not the least difficult part is that of arranging terms with the property owners. Negotiations for the setting back of the brick premises of Messrs. R. W. Short and Co. have been completed, and this will be the start on the block between School’s Lane and Richmond Street. Stellin’s building, between Nelson Street and Scholl’s Lane, and Manning’s building, at the corner of Sydney Street, have been taken over by tile borough council under the Public Works Act, and the same procedure is at present being followed to bring another building into the scheme. NEW TRAFFIC WARNING New warning signs on the Hutt Road, near the Onslow Rond junction, were erected by the Wellington Automobile Association yesterday. A special effort is being made to warn motorists of the danger existing at this ooint, both by the Highways Board and the associaton, for one runs over the word "slow” twice at this point on every trip into the city, and now the new notice is crowned with another warning: Slow.