FIRST TELEPHONIST

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1931, Page 7

FIRST TELEPHONIST

CONSTABLE'S APPOINTMENT. EARLY DAYS AT WOODVILLE. Telephones were regarded as wonders of science, and switchboards suggested the front of a totalisator in the days when Mr. J. Motley, who is now a resident of Tc Aroha, was appointed the first telephonist in the North Island, to take charge of the telephone exchange at Woodville on June 23, 1881 —four months before Auckland had telephone facilities. ' Mr. Motley was also police constable, clerk of the court, and clerk of the Pahiatua Licensing Committee, postmaster, and secretary of the local Oddfellows Lodge. He remarked, apropos of his multiplicity of duties, that the Government of those days was in just as serious a financial position as the Government of to-day, and so the local constable was made the general factotum of the district. Transport was in its infancy, and tne Woodville of those days was an isolated place. There was no railway to link up with the Wellington district, and the nearest police stations were at Makatoke and Palmerston North. Virgin forest covered much of the surrounding country, and Woodville was the centre of what was known as the Forty Mile Bush. Only’ four years previously settlement; had been commenced by immigrants from Home Sir. Motley describes them as a fine class of English labourers, each of whom was allotted a block of 100 acres of bush land at £1 an acre, with ample time to pay, provided certain improvements were made each year. Before the axe of the pioneer the bush disappeared. Woodville grew from a settlement into a township, and around the homes that the settlers had carved out for themselves and their families were developed some of the most prosperous pastoral runs in the North Island. Energy and perseverance were necessary in those, days. Wherever roads were formed it was the pioneer who was called upon to do the work; and so well did they respond that by 1885 growing Woodville was linked up with the highway system, and Mr. Motley had to be relieved of his postal duties. Mr. Motley is at present district coroner at Te Aroha and a justice of the peace. He has continued his interest in the friendly society movement, and last year he was' presented with a gold medal by the Woodville. Lodge, after being a member for 50 years.