Otorohanga 30 Years Ago

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3931, 26 July 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

Otorohanga 30 Years Ago

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT. (Specially Written by Susan E. Dassler.) When my husband and I left Hawke’s Bay to take up a section at Hor.ikiwi, fourteen miles from Otorohanga, we tried to approach it from Pirongia, via the Ngutunui Bridge, but found our way blocked by the Moakurarua stream, to say nothing of the hill known as Moko-o-tipi. We were told to go to Otorohanga, and we would find an access from the Honikiwi Road. So we travelled by train to Otorohanga—a very different Otorohanga from the thriving town of to-day. This was in 1906, and the Main Trunk railway line was finished only as far south as Taumarunui, so of course we had to travel by boat from Hawke’s Bay to Auckland, and then by train to Otorohanga. The railway station, if it could be so called, was then on the eastern side of the line. There was no stationmaster, and Mr Westbury, foreman of a gang of plate-layers, used to keep an eye on goods sent or received. The mail was delivered at the station, and was in charge of Miss Wilkinson, a daughter of Judge Wilkinson. There was no traffic bridge over the Waipa on each side of the town. On the Honikiwi Road one had to ford the river, and on the Otewa side there was a wooden, bridge built by Ellis and Burnand, and carrying the tram lines from their timber mill. This was an uncertain-looking structure, but served its purpose. There were no streets, in the usual sense of the word, but two roads, one parallel with the railway, and one at right angles to it, intersecting each other. These are now known as Tuhoro and MJaniapoto Streets, the latter being the main street. In those days there were only two shops owned by Europeans—one had just been built by Green and Colebrook, and is now occupied by the Farmers' Trading Company, and the other was owned by the late Mr C. Johnson. On the Bank of New Zealand corner was a small shop and dwelling known as “Solomon’s Corner,” and the opposite corner was occupied hy Mr Hannah Isaac, who also had a shop. On the fourth corner stood Ormsby’s two-storeyed boarding house. When this was built I do not know, but even in those days it appeared to be cld and worm-eaten. It has now been demolished. There were only two buildings of any importance in Maniapoto Stree:, the Methodist Church, used by all denominations, and large stables. Maniapoto Street dwindled off into tracks and paths that meandered through the manuka and gorse down towards the old school, which was near the Waipa, where the bridge now spans it on the Honikiwi Road. The only hall was the one known as Turner’s Hall, recently demolished too. There was neither chemist nor doctor, and no resident clergyman. Ellis and Burnand’s large sawmill was almost in the town, and was responsible for employing most of the white population.

Horses, Maoris and dogs were plentiful in the streets, and pigs were not unknown.

One day in January, 1907, I had ridden in from Honikiwi, and was caught in Otorohanga by the big flood of that date. The Waipa was in hign flood, a,nd rose till it entered the school and the schoolmaster’s residence. The schoolmaster, Mr Lowe, was away on holiday, and friends got into the house and lifted his piano on to a table. The river rose rapidly till it almost broke through by the old factory, and several townspeople stood sentinel all night, ready to give the alarm if it should break through. Many people had their household goods on the roof. Wlhen the waters receded, many small boys (and others not so small) had a harvest, as several large pools were full of trout which had been trapped. It was shortly after this that Otorohanga began to move, and a post office was established in a building opposite where Farmers’ Buildings now stand, and not long afterwards

the present post office was built—about 191 V, I think.

When Mr William Goodfellow opened the first factory in the Waikato to accept home-separated cream, it proved a boon to many settlers on out-back farms. My husband used to take our cream about twelve miles along a muddy road in a gig, and it was railed from Otorohanga to Hamilton three days a week. Otorohanga has never looked back, ‘but has marched steadily forward. In 1924 a District High School was established, the first pupils, about 25 in number, taking their lessons in the old Methodist Church, under Mr J. Lincoln Smith.

Otorohanga is now a progressive little town, with a solid butterfat backing, and one of the most up-to-date butter factories in the Dominion. Its annual sports gathering attracts many thousands of visitors every Easter Monday.