OLD PAEKAKARIKI

 by Robert Sydney Kent

 n.d.

 FOREWORD

             With the passing of the second generation of the Smith Family, so closely associated with Paekakariki* for the past seventy-five years, much of general interest to later generations of the Smiths is likely to be lost for all time. I have been asked by Mr Frank H Smith, on behalf of his daughter Miss Ruth Smith, who is keenly interested in Paekakariki history, to put on record information given me by way of my mother, the late Mrs Catherine Kent (nee Smith).

             The coaching days, the coming of the railway, the planting of the lupins, old identities, amusements and sporting events are my own experiences over the years.

             I trust this will be of some interest to Miss Ruth Smith, and to others who know and have a kindly regard for Paekakariki.

 (Sd.) R.S.K.

 * Paekakariki is referred to in this narrative in the abbreviated form of “Paekak”

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THE SMITH FAMILY

             A number of Smiths were resident in Wellington in the early eighteen-forties, and for convenience my grandparents were generally known as the “Old Smiths” on their arrival from England. They kept a general store in Molesworth Street, at the corner of Hill Street, Wellington, and the building is still standing. They adopted the name of “Old Smith” in their business, and bill heads and correspondence were so headed.

             The family consisted of

             SUSAN SMITH ( nee Churchyard) died 8.11.1877, aged 68
            JOHN SYDNEY SMITH died 10.2.1880, aged 77 and their children
            SANDERSON SMITH, born 15.4.1831, died ?
            FRANCIS WILSON SMITH, born 12.3.1836, died 15.12.1915
            ISAAC SMITH 1842-1876
            MARGARET SMITH, born 8.11.1843, died 3.12.1888
            STEPHEN HAND SMITH 1846 – 1880

            SANDERSON was drowned in the Wellington Harbour

FRANCIS farmed at Tunapo, in the Horokiwi Valley, and later at Wainui, Paekak. He married a   Miss Blackey of Horokiwi Valley. The family consisted of five sons and three daughters – John Sydney (dead), Fannie Ballinger (dead), Nora Upham, Sarah Upham (dead), William Wilson (dead), Gerald Stephen (dead), Lenard Sanderson and Harold Smith.

 ISAAC farmed in Judgeford, off the Horokiwi Valley. His wife and family of one boy and two girls are all dead. Isaac died as the result of exposure after being lost in the bush for some ten days. My mother gave me the following particulars of Isaac's life and tragic end. He was a particularly handsome man, and served in the Militia as a volunteer in the Maori War troubles.

            A surveyor came out of the bush near the present Wainui homestead and informed Isaac he had shot some wild beef at the back of the Trig Ridge. As beef was a luxury after a diet of mutton in those days Isaac proceeded into the bush, accompanied by a dog, and eventually reached the meat , but a fog coming down he became hopelessly lost, following down the Whakataki stream until further progress was barred by a steep gorge. He abandoned his load of meat, and for some days wandered endlessly. His dog returned home. Near the Trig Ridge are the headwaters of two streams, the Mangatukituki and the Whakataki. The former flows northwards and the latter to the southward. Striking the Whakataki source (without crossing the Mangatukituki headwaters) he mistook the Whakataki for the north flowing Mangatukituki, and going to the left of the south flowing stream he got further into unknown country.

             Many search parties were out, and after an absence of eight or none days a party shot a pigeon in a gully, and on going to retrieve it heard a groan and found Isaac Smith lying in a bad way and exhausted. His hands were raw with climbing up and over rocks, and clothing in rags and saturated. This party, who had little bush experience, did what they could for him. They made a litter and carried him, but got bushed themselves, and late in the day found themselves back where they found him. They made him as comfortable as they could and set off for help. Eventually they contacted a party of Boltons from Pauatahanui. These were experienced in bush lore, and came back as directed to Isaac and brought him out at Moonshine. He lived a short time but died of pneumonia. The Smith family always had a good word for the Boltons for their splendid help.

 MARGARET (Peg) married Donald Fraser of Rangitikei, a very successful farmer. They had ten children, two boys and eight girls. The surviving members are Susan Scott (widow), Agnes Guthrie (widow), Maggie Gorringe (widow), Mrs Frank Gorringe and Misses Edith and Sydney Fraser.

 STEPHEN married Miss Dowsett, afterwards Mrs Charles Tilley. Stephen lived at Whareroa on the stream near the Sandhills opposite Mackay's crossing. Stephen died young, leaving one daughter Lottie (Charlotte), a very clever girl, who died at seventeen years of brain fever, and was buried at Otaki. Mrs Stephen Smith later married Charles Tilley, a coachman on Hall & Co's coaches between Wellington and Wanganui. Mrs Stephen at that time owned the Paekak Hotel and some seventy acres of land adjoining. Mrs Tilley had one son and two daughters, the son Norman only surviving, and farming at Takapau.

 Catherine (Kate, Mrs Kent) dead, married an accountant, Robert Kent (dead), and son Robert

Sydney and daughter Kate (Mrs N.Macfarlane), living, and daughter Eda (Mrs F Needham), dead, also husband. Mrs Kent had an intimate knowledge of old Paekak from her childhood days, and spent the last thirty-five years of her life there.

 The “OLD SMITH” SHOP

             The shop  had a somewhat chequered existence as “Old “ Mr Smith was a little eccentric in his dealings. One one occasion he bought a schooner-load of goats and turned them loose on the Tinakori Hills at the back of Wellington, where they were soon caught and stolen by every boy in the settlement. He once purchased at Christmas a large crate of bedroom china and left it on the shop verandah. On New Year's Eve the wags of the town opened up this crate and hung the contents on the meat hooks outside James Gear's butcher's shop on Lambton Quay.

            In partnership with a man named Rawlinson he bought for a few pounds a tidal flat where the present Trotting Course at Petone now stands. The property was bought at auction and a title was never secured. Rawlinson had a receipt for the payment but he, being somewhat of a heavy drinker,was found drowned in a ditch near the property, and the receipt was never traced. The land  was of little value at the time of the purchase, being tidal, but as the result of heavy earthquakes was later thrown up high and dry. My mother, who saw the property after the shake said the land was strewn with dead fish. As no title could be produced the land was eventually taken up by the Riddiford family, who paid rates for a number of years and got possession accordingly. Mother was told by her father, just before his death, that the property was to be mine if a title could be proved. Nothing was done and the property, now valuable, passed into other hands.

FARMING

             The farming venture turned out better than the shop. The old location of the home was on the top of the terrace, up a graded road at the back of the present Wainui wool shed, and at Tunapo, at the top of the Horokiwi Valley, where Francis Smith took up residence, and where most of his family were born and brought up.

             When the Manawatu Railway Company approached the Government for assistance in building the line they were granted, instead of cash, large land endowments along and adjacent to the proposed line. Some of these endowments were purchased from time to time by Francis Smith, and the property eventually extended from White Pine Gully at Tunapo to the Weraroa Stream with the hill country at the back to Mackays on the north. The undulating sandhill country between the road and the sea was acquired from the Maoris.

             In passing it is of interest to know that Francis Smith and Donald Fraser (husband of Margaret Smith) both worked for a time in early youth on McMenamin's Terawhiti Station, learning farming. Terawhiti was the scene of many shipwrecks over the years, and in later years the “Penguin” disaster is remembered.

             Donald Fraser related to me the following: When out riding t Terawhiti early in the morning he came upon three men, one a nigger. They informed him they were the only survivors of a ship wrecked during the night in heavy seas. He took them to the homestead and fed them, and then directed them over the hills to Wellington. On a particularly stormy day Miss McMenamin set out to catch a horse, and on the way noticed a ship under sail very close in near the dangerous Thom's Rock. She had difficulty in catching the horse, which took a considerable time. On her way back to the homestead she was dismayed to see all trace of the ship gone. It had evidently struck and gone down. It was thought to be the “City of Melbourne”, a ship bringing diggers from Victoria and which never made port.

             Donald Fraser also told me that as a young man he went out with the whalers off Mana Island in company with James Walker, afterwards a well known farmer at Plimmerton. He said it was most exciting being fast to a whale and being towed through the water in a long boat covered with showers of spray.

 THE HILL ROAD

             The old road over the Paekak Hill was called the Military Road, and I was informed was made by soldiers and friendly Maoris to give access to the north during Maori War troubles.

            At a spot known as Maori Corner, on the Big bend, a bullock-wagon and team went to  destruction over the steep side. Near the top was a water trough for horses. Just here the gradient

 increased sharply and was the scene of many accidents in early motoring days,. The cars stalled and missed the gear change, ran backwards and sometimes over the side into the bush then standing.

Mr and Mrs Charles Tilley and child (Lottie) had a runaway here as the brakes failed in a two-horse buggy, and they were badly smashed up but not seriously hurt.

            A Jewish pedlar with his horse and van went over the side here. He spent the night up a tree as he said he was afraid of the wild animals. He came to Paekak. Hotel at daylight and I accompanied the rescue party. His stock-in-trade was scattered through the bush in all directions – clothing, soap, boots etc. His old horse was on his back all night, caught up in the harness, but not much the worse. We got him up, gathered up the scattered goods, and returned down the hill where the pedlar said “Tanks so much. Now I will go away and be sick”.

             The Big Bend at one time had a native bush and in later years was purchased by a Mr A. Clarke from Francis Smith, to preserve the bush for all time. He spent much time and money in planting the area with bulbs and trees, but sheep and vandals destroyed or stole his plantings.

             At the top of the hill on the old road to the left of the new cutting, near the tea room, was  a sloping grassed area, and here picnic reunions were held yearly. The Paekak. and Horokiwi Valley settlers met for sports and talk. The highlight was the Pauatahanui Band, of which seven members were the Brady brothers. A return visit was to Charles Gray's tennis court down the valley. This eventually was no more, through a row between Gray and a neighbour, Mulhern. Gray had a goose sitting near the court, and Mulhern was accused of taking the eggs and putting tennis balls in their place under the goose. Gray could not take a joke, and defied Mulhern or anyone else to come to his court again.

PIT SAWING

             I stayed with Jack Smith for some weeks at Tunapo before he was married. The personnel was Bill Fossit, cook and rouseabout, Horace Ames, and Jack Ames, cadet.

            At that time rebuilding of the wool shed and other buildings was contemplated The rough timber was all pit sawn from a bush on the west side of the road just south of Tunapo. The sawyers, in pairs, were Fossit and H.Ames, Jack Smith and J.Ames. To speed up the work Jack instituted a system of races through the log. Jack sharpened the saws after a few cuts and always had the latest sharpened for himself and J. Ames. Needless to say they always won and Fossit and his mate could not account for it.

COACHING DAYS

             Before the construction of the Manawatu Railway coaches owned by Hall & Co. ran from Wellington to Wanganui. The coaches entered on to the beach on the site of the present hall and went along the beach to Foxton and thence inland.

             Among other locations, changes of horses were made at Porirua and Paekak. The site of the latter stables were opposite the present hotel near the tea rooms. Camerons were in charge of the stables. The Camerons were a rough crowd. Mrs Cameron, a half-caste, had two big barefooted sons, and they were outlaws.

            The down coach made Paekak. after dark for the night, and Mrs Emily Smith (afterwards Mrs Tilley) often sent me to place the lantern on the  post at the turn-in (Andrews's tennis court now) so they would not miss the point in the dark.

             Once, on the Wellington bound coach we passed the north bound near Paremata with wheel on fire through faulty lubrication. We changed coaches and took the damaged coach back to Wellington.

            The coaches on the beach had to cross the Waikanae and Otaki Rivers, and at spring tide the passengers went over in boats as the water came into the coach floor  The coach was ferried over the Manawatu river at Foxton. At the Foxton ferry the horses once backed the coach off the punt near the river bank and Marjorie Fraser, then a baby drifted away in the river. She was wrapped in blankets and these kept her afloat until rescued by a boat.

             A tidal wave following a sharp earthquake shock once ran up the beach and nearly upset the coach; the passengers were wet to the knees, and covered with sand and broken shells. The same wave nearly drowned my mother and two sisters who were sitting on a log on the beach. The log began to roll and float, but they got clear and came back wet through, and their hair full of sand.

             Mr Charles Tilley, Melbourne Jack and Archie Hall were some of the drivers I remember. At the time of the earthquake I was at the hotel in bed with the measles and the family and others were put in bed with me in relays to get the epidemic over, but I was a poor carrier and gave negative results.

             In the coaching days cattle for the Gear Meat Company, Petone, were driven from the Manawatu along the beach and over the hill road. They camped overnight in a large holding paddock extending from the present hall along what is now Ames Street, to the creek south of Paekak. In the morning they would string out for a mile or more on the hill road. The drovers, three in number, often came in off the beach with fresh fish tied around the horses' necks. Once they passed mother and me on the beach with a nasty tempered bull in the mob. We kept well away, and shortly after the bull charged a drover, killing his horse and badly goring the rider. The bull had to be shot.

THE COMING OF THE RAILWAY

             Mother and I went with the Tilleys in a dray full of straw, drawn by “Punch,” a white horse of Charles Tilleys' to visit the Lynch family who lived some three miles north of Paekak. at “Emerald Glen”, at the end of a blind road. On the way we passed a Maori Pa, with some one hundred natives, just north of the present railway crossing. Old Mr Lynch, a soldier of the regiment, brought from England to fight the Maoris, was given a land grant after the war. I can just remember him taking us to a small hill overlooking the swamps and pointing out where the railway was to go.

             Later the railway construction approached Paekak. from the south, but was held up by heavy tunnelling. The line was laid south to the tunnels from Paekak. and along above the rocks to below the tunnels. Passengers were  [led] down steps from the tunnel level to the lower beach level, and luggage and goods were lowered on an inclined track by rope attached to a railway engine moving backwards and forwards on the high level. The temporary train ran as far as the coaches waiting at Paekak.

             I had an engine driver friend, McLachlan, and went for many trips on the ballast engine with him when working on the swamps to the north. The railway was eventually opened to Longburn, connecting with the Government Railway there. The goods engine from Paekak. ,running north, burnt matai (black pine) firewood obtained from the vicinity of Levin. They threw a shower of sparks but there was nothing to damage.

             Shortly after the opening of the line bricks fell from a tunnel arch, and my friend, McLachlan, lost an eye. The tunnel was then abandoned and a deviation made around it.

             The highlight of the railway was the provision of the first dining cars in New Zealand, and these were very popular. The engines came from Baldwin Co.,of America, and were handsome in appearance, with green paint, and smoke stacks finished with heavy brass lip and high brass steam domes. They were fitted with a large bell in addition to the whistle. These bells were removed and were in great demand for schools and churches.

             An old Maori woman (Mrs Aparahama) met the through trains with strawberries in flax baskets in the summer. She walked up and down the station calling “Trawperi, one herina” (one shilling). If she had any left when the bell went for the train's departure she would call “Trawperi, one hikapena” (sixpence). Between trains my sister Eda saw her putting on “a new look” by placing the strawberries in her mouth. I cannot vouch for this.

 SPORT – SHOOTING

             With the bush on the hills coming down close to the flat land, shooting was popular, and full bags the rule. In the bush pigeon and kaka, pigs and goats, and in open country quail and pheasants were plentiful.

             The whare at Wainui contained an arms rack of single and double breech loaders, one muzzle loader and two or three rifles of various types. One particular single barrel with Martini-Henry action was known as “the gas pipe”, being thick and heavy with a kick like a donkey.

             During the shooting season weekend parties went into the bush for pigeon and kaka. Friday evenings were given over to cartridge filling and the casting of lead bullets for pigs and goats, and the whare was a hive of industry. Once a huia, now extinct, was shot and stuffed at Wainui.

             Ernest Upham held two shooting records; once he fired at a pigeon, missed it and brought down an unfortunate kaka who was somewhere in the line of fire. He once shot several quail in one shot. They were standing along a fallen log. The previous record was five quail at one shot.

             One organised Easter shooting party had a particularly poor trip. They left in fine weather for back of Wainui Trig. Rain came on during the night. Horace Ames (who generally did the wrong thing) a member of the party, feeling cold and wet, climbed out of the tent to get the fire going again. The only dry wood was a small standing dead tree. He felled this and forgot the quarter of mutton for the camp suspended from the tree. Later the camp was in an uproar. The pig dogs and others came into the tent fighting over the remains of the camp meat supply. Amid cries of “Guards, turn out!” the party scrambled out of the tent and, the rain continuing, struck camp and returned in a bad way, soaked to the skin, and did not fire a shot.

             In the shooting season parties of railway employees were sometimes benighted in the bush over the weekend, having little or no bush knowledge. On Money [Monday?] mornings  trains blew their engine whistles from the old school house to as far as Paraparaumu. Mr. Jack Smith often gave his services to long overdue shooting parties, and his knowledge of the country and bushcraft was exceptional.

 HORSE-RACING

             The only local horse race was between a horse owned by Charles Slight and one owned by a take-down stranger. The race was for  2 pounds and held on the beach. Ian Smith rode Slight's horse and won easily. All adjourned to the Hotel, and after much talk a further race for 10 pounds was arranged. This time the stranger won easily, having run a bye in the first race, in keeping with present-day practice.

BOAT-RACE

             James Ames and I bought a small boat in Wellington and railed it to Paekak. We called it the “Dolly Varden”. Another boat arrived about this time, called the “Vanity Fair”. Two brothers named Meachem asked for the “Dolly Varden” to race with the “Vanity Fair”. The Meachems had some  rowing experience at Wanganui, of which we had knowledge. Their opponents were a running man and a mile walk champion (Farmsworth, a railway guard). All were railway employees. The “Vanity Fair” crew had plenty of brawn. The race was for 3 pounds with a number of side bets, in which James Ames and I took enough to help materially in payment for our boat.

            Sunday came with rough seas. Both dared the other to put off in the breakers and both upset. The next Sunday was calm, and Charles Tilley started the race from Wainui Stream by dropping a flag .All Paekak. was out. Women, men and children ran along the beach laughing and shouting encouragement. The “Dolly Varden” won by four lengths, the other crew catching “crabs” and pulling raggedly .Charles Tilley acted as judge, besides starting the race. He hurried along the beach to a flag opposite Slight's home, the finishing point. Part of this boat (Dolly Varden) is set on end at my Paekak. cottage and used as a summerhouse.

 FISHING

             In helping to pull in a net with Thomson, Clarke, Saunders and others, we were wildly excited to find a large shark, some nine feet long, wound up in the net. Thomson got it by the tail to get it further up the beach. It gave a flick of its tail and sent him spinning on his back. The shark was jumping about, snapping its jaws at nothing in particular, and Thomson in his fright could not get up as he kept slipping in the sand. Dormers arrived with an axe and despatched it. This was at 10.30 am on a Sunday morning.

            The sections at Paekak. Were just on the market advertising safe bathing etc and the complete absence of sharks. If our shark became known sections would be at a discount. It was hurriedly decided to get rid of it before prospective buyers arrived on the 11 am train and came on the beach to inspect sections. The shark was cut in pieces and we all carried up chunks and buried them in Dormer's garden.

             A most successful line fishing off the beach for schnapper was made by Len Smith and me. The sea was fine and calm for line throwing beyond the breakers, but we had no bait. Len remembered having buried an old hen some days previously, and this we dug up. This novel bait was rushed by the schnapper. We got five beauties that evening and some more in the morning before the bait gave out.

             When I was some ten years old I rushed with others to the top of the sand hills to see seven whales which were passing and blowing outside the breakers. At one time a whaling station operated from Kapiti Island, and some of the old whalers frequented Paekak. after it was abandoned. Names I remember  were Jenkins, Tom Roach (half-caste), Flugent and Dutch Charlie. Mr Ossian Lynch told me he visited the whaling station on Kapiti as a boy and he remembered a Customs Officer being stationed there as the whalers smuggled in tobacco, rum etc.

TENNIS CLUB

             The first tennis court was a piece of paddock along Ames Street beyond the present hall. It was particularly rough and so uneven that Arthur Ames fell and broke a leg when playing. The court was used by the Ames family, who lived just beyond.

             I was Secretary of the first tennis club on the site of the present courts. Old members were the Wainui boys, Charles Tilley, Florrie Andrews (a niece of Tilley), the Ames family, the railway employees. We played Horokiwi Valley and hotel visitors. We took a team to Porirua Mental Hospital. It was most embarrassing playing, as the inmates surrounded the court and made faces and caustic remarks at our efforts. Later in the day some sailors arrived with a football and we were left to ourselves, the inmate finding our game too slow.

 CRICKET CLUB

             A cricket club played on an asphalt pitch opposite the old school. Some members were W.W.Smith, L.S.Smith, G.S.Smith, the Blackey brothers, Fred Mair  (an eighteen stone wicket keeper), “Brama” Whiterod (fast bowler), Mackay brothers, Charles Slight and myself (spin bowler). We played teams from Wellington and Pauatahanui. The latter team also had an outsize wicket keeper in eighteen stone Ned Bolton.

             The Blackey brothers were very excitable, and when batting together ran up and down the pitch shouting at one another. One of the brothers had an impediment in his speech, and this added to the fun. Charles Slight made the record hit for seven runs. The ball lodged in some thistles, and Slight ran five runs, and being exhausted crawled two more, before the ball was located and thrown in.

            Our team went to play Porirua Mental Hospital against inmates and warders. Two of the latter were keen contenders for the best batting club average, and the lunies did their best to get them run out. They would tap the ball and start off running, screaming with laughter, the warder at the other end scampering to safety.

 FOOTBALL CLUB

             Our football team was a motley crowd, no two jerseys being alike, and some played in shirts and others in singlets. We had no club colours. Prominent forwards were Big Henry (the Maori) who played in bare feet, the opposition endeavouring to tread on his feet in the scrums; Arthur Mackay, a rugged forward, W.W.Smith, H.Ames and James Ames. Our best backs were Dick Fair (half) and L.S.Smith (wing three quarter). I usually played full back and took the kicks at goal. Old opponents were Johnsonville and Waikanae, the latter mostly Maoris. They set out in one game to cripple Len Smith, our best scoring man, and broke his collarbone. Arthur Mackay was then deputed to even things up, which he did to all and sundry, and a battered Maori team was glad when it was all over.

GOLF CLUB

             I started a golf club with the help of J.S.Smith. Big Henry (the Maori) was engaged to spade out the “cutty” rushes, and made a good job of it. The club became very popular and the course improved out of all knowledge. The first “pavilion” was a condemned railway cottage from the Quarry, which was bought for a few pounds and placed on a knoll opposite the old school. The first location proposed for this course was Mackay's Terrace.

            To sweeten up Arthur Mackay and get him interested in golf I borrowed a set of right-handed clubs for him. He brought them back in a week or so and he was far from impressed. He said the clubs ” had a funny twist”. I did not know he was left-handed. So Mackay's Terrace was a washout.

             Among other teams we played a mixed team from the Municipal Links near Island Bay. I played a semi-professional named Whitehead. That day I did a hole in one yet lost the hole. Playing a short blind hole, my ball pitched well up but out of line. We looked for it amongst thistles and gave it up as lost. Whitehead played out on three and found my ball in the hole, but claimed the hole as I had given up my ball as lost! Later in the day we overtook Mrs Will Smith and a Mrs Ryan having a ding dong scrap over a ball out of bounds. They asked my advice. I told Mrs Ryan to go back from where she stood. I must have smiled at her defiant attitude, for she ran up to me and shook her club in my face saying :If you don't take that grin off your face you will get this over the head”. Whitehead and I made off.

             Shortly after this Whitehead and their top player, Dunlop, came out to Paekak. to play Len Smith and me. Late in the afternoon Whitehead wanted to play for money. This was foreign to Len and me. However he was insistent, and we started another round. With local knowledge, and plenty of luck Len and I could not go wrong, and so we took all their small change, leaving them with only a return railway ticket to get home.

 THE PLANTING OF THE LUPIN

             Charles Slight leased the hotel and paddock from Mrs Tilley and under a clause in the lease he was to receive some 200 pounds if he could find some means of holding the drift sand then  encroaching from the sand dunes. He later went away to South Africa, and on his return, and again taking up the lease, he planted yellow lupin seed he had gathered at Durban, and also a rank growing creeper, not unlike ivy.

             The lupin seed thrown on the sand germinated and flourished. We used to collect the seed pods and spread them over the sand dunes near the creek south of Paekak. This was the start of lupins for sand-holding in New Zealand. Seed was later sent from Paekak. to New Brighton, Canterbury, and has spread throughout the Dominion. The creeper is found growing rank on fences and hedges in the district, and is called “Charlie Slight”. I understand he got some remuneration under the terms of his lease.

OLD IDENTITIES

            Charles Slight was a retired policeman, from Taranaki. He leased the Paekak. Hotel from Mrs. Tilley on two occasions. He was a great character and given to flights of oratory. At the back of the old hotel was a large pond extending from the present hall to the croquet green. In this Slight dredged up a skull, and to make it more realistic he drove an old tomahawk into it and hung it in the hotel bar.

             Though elderly he left with a late draft for the Boer War. Charlie had some harrowing experiences to relate on his return, having had numerous horses shot under him in pursuit of Louis Botha. He had a set narrative entitled “From Paekak. to Johannesburg and Back”. If anyone interrupted with a question during the telling he would start all over again.

             For some of his more hardy men guests at the hotel he constructed a shower at the waterfall on the hill road. A perforated bucket with a pipe in it was the arrangement. He posed as a great marksman. He often related how hotel guests hung a bottle by a string to a ngaio tree on the hill about seventy-five yards distant from the old hotel. The guests fired several shots without effect. On being invited to try a shot he broke the bottle with his first shot and then said he would endeavour to cut the string holding the neck of the bottle. To the amazement of all he did this with the second shot.

             After giving up the hotel lease he out a jerry-built place on the corner, by the present G.S.Smith Memorial Fountain. After a severe earthquake shock one evening my mother and her neighbours rushed outside and were comparing experiences in loud voices. Charlie came out of his dwelling and called out “You are like a lot of cackling hens. You should have been  in the Taranaki shake in 1882 – my place did not move an inch”. A few days later I was out at Paekak. At 9 o'clock at night another shake came along, accompanied by a terrible clatter from the direction of Slight's. Mother and I went outside to investigate.. We saw Mrs. Slight holding up a candle and Charlie going gingerly up a ladder to look at the remains of his chimney scattered over his roof. The first shake probably weakened it.

             We had an enormous cat called “Charlie”. This cat was a favourite of Mother's, and came on our roof at night in search of roosting sparrows. This was the only cat I have seen tackle a weasel. Twice I investigated a commotion in our back garden and each time found a weasel bailed up by this cat. The cat disappeared for some months. His remains were later found at the bottom of Slight's water tank.

             “Fluto” Flugent,  an old whaler full of years and yarns, lived near Bryant's house.

             “Dutch” Charlie , an old sailor who swam like a duck. He went with a party out fishing in a boat, but getting tired of it hopped over the side and swam home from a mile and a half off shore, leaving his mates in disgust.

             “Dinnie” Flynn, an old recluse who lived in a manuka shelter at a pond in the sandhills near Weraroa Stream. He came to Paekak. Once a week for stores, carrying a sugar bag on his back and a heavy manuka stick. He called regularly at the Post Office for letters, which never came. Mrs Wheeler, (the postmistress) to please the old man addressed a “Doctor Barnado” circular to Dinnie. He opened it with glee, and Mrs Wheeler explained it was asking for funds to bring up some little children. Dinnie was very indignant. He burst out “I don't know this ----. Never heard of the ------. Let the ----- who got them keep them.

            When talking to  Dinnie one day neat the butcher's shop a dog came out dragging a large beef bone. Dinnie made a smack at the dog with his stick. The dog yelped and left the bone and Dinnie put it in his sugar bag, saying to me “Go well with a head of cabbage”. He was found dead along the railway line. It was thought he had no relatives in the world. However relatives (?) soon gathered and pulled his camp to pieces in search of  savings.

             Stuart Pollen, a retired Customs official, lived where Stan Andrews resides. A nice little old man. He took up golf, but his build and age were against long hitting. He must have impressed his brother, Doctor Pollen, with his golf stories, for the doctor came out to see for himself. I accompanied them. The Doctor had brought a pair of field glasses to follow the long flights but had no use for them. Stuart was short sighted. He told me he walked along the beach, and feeling tired went and sat on a log to rest. The log (?)  turned out to be a live seal or sea lion; he went upside down with fright and the log (?) made for the water.

            He had a bamboo screen over his verandah. He had been troubled with a straying cow. In the night his wife awakened him saying she could hear the cow near the verandah. He got up, armed himself with a broom, opened the door and charged out, putting the broom handle through the screen and becoming tangled in it. The screen had been rattling in the wind, which is what had been heard by Mrs.Pollen.

             He invited Will Smith and me along from golf to try some special O.P (over proof) whisky he had got from the Customs. He suggested we try it with milk. Mrs. Pollen made up the mixture. Mine tasted fine, but Will Smith did not appear impressed. He told me later he only got pure milk and did not like to say anything.

            Charles Tilley, a great sport and entered into everything, but was not blessed with much luck. After great preparation he was one of the shooting party [taken] by boat to Kapiti Island. He was brought back in 24 hours, having been bitten on the face by a katipo spider. He was laid up for weeks.

             As a coachman with Hall & Co. he was very interested in horses. He had a racehorse named “Crawler”. He trained him by walking on the hill road, swimming and galloping on the beach. Though this may have given him stamina it did not give him speed, and it was a good loser.

             Mrs Emma Buck , an aunt of Mrs Wheeler and a descendant of a whaling family. She was born on a small island between Kapiti Island and the mainland. She told me that once when with her mother on this small island, the menfolk being absent, Te Rauparaha, a blood-thirsty old cannibal savage, called in a canoe with a few followers but did not molest them.

            Ted Harris, for many years employed at Wainui, and on retiring lived in a whare at the end of Ames Street. He had been a ship's carpenter. He was a little wizened up man with a wretched temper and hard to get on with. He had very weak eyes with red rims, in a chronic state of tears. Mrs Tilley, who was always outspoken, called him “Gravy Eye Ted”. On my first meeting with Ted at Wainui he was driving a red bullock in a sledge, on which a large box with Stephen and Len Smith peeping over the top.

 SCHOOL DAYS

             The first teacher was an elderly woman, Miss Hamilton. She stayed with the Tilleys and rode to school on a white horse. Robert Lee was the school inspector and a real martinet. Poor Miss Hamilton feared him and found him difficult to please. Examinations came around and she impressed on the few pupils to be on their best behaviour. Opposite the present engine shed was a large rock some ten feet high, on the roadside. On this the Cameron larrikins wrote in large letters “Old Bobby Les found a flea”. He saw this in the way to school and arrived in a towering rage. He failed pupils wholesale and gave the school a dreadful report. Miss Hamilton shortly after this broke down and retired.

            Later masters were Bedingfield and Cooper. The latter was keen on music and organised a glee club. I remember attending one session in which the main item was a roundelay describing the marriage of “Richard Penlake and Rebecca his wife and the merry ringing of the bells”. We all sang lustily, some imitating the bells and others breaking in with part singing – plenty of noise but little harmony.

             To augment school funds a nigger minstrel show was put on each year.. The coloured corner men were Fred Mair (comedian, a very stout engine-driver) and Joe Blackey. The programme consisted of chorus and part singing, topical jokes, and plaintive ballads. An old favourite was “On the Banks of Clyde” by Sid Smith (a railway employee), and a comic song by Mair “When she took the Poker”. Jack Smith sang in a tenor voice, “It's all over now with the Ladies”, and Len Smith applauded this vigorously, calling out “The Song of the Evening”. A dance usually followed with a fine supper, much appreciated by us small boys.

             It was the practice of visiting Anglican parsons to have tea at Wainui once a month, followed by a service in school. The parsons I remember were the Rev. Jenkins, an elderly man from Manakau, the Rev. Edwin Jones, a little young delicate man with a typical curate look. He rode down from Paraparaumu and was a very poor horseman, and known accordingly as “Jockey Jones'”. On coming out of the bush on a Sunday evening after shooting we would see the parson's gig or horse in the yard and we would creep in the back way and spruce up. Many were the subterfuges put up to dodge going to the service, but the Wainui girls and Uncle Frank would round us up and bundle us off. The services were invariably interrupted by the eviction of a dog or dogs, which followed into the church. Sometimes the dogs protested loudly as they were pulled out by the scruff of the neck, knowing they were in for a final kick. On one occasion the decorum of proceedings was upset, for during an unexpected lull in the service a voice was heard “What will you take for the roan mare?”

 ODDS AND  ENDS

             The bush was cleared further and further back into the hills. After a burn of the fallen bush cape gooseberries came up in abundance in rough places where sheep did not penetrate. Quantities could be had for the picking.

             Bathing in the sea was unheard of in the early days. The fear of sharks, katipo spiders and back-wash was instilled into us. The younger folk dammed the creek to make a bathing pool. One day most of our clothes were stolen when we were bathing. A tramp was blamed, but they were not recovered. The Ames girls and their mother made search while we hid and shivered in our birthday suits.

             There were ten railway cottages at Paekak. and two private houses for many years. Other buildings were the Old Hotel and Cameron's Stables and a shop owned by Greville, where the  present hotel stands. A long gabled-end building, put up later for railway construction workmen. A house at the back of the stables was owned by Adams, a constant visitor from Wellington. The other house was  near the creek south of Paekak. and was owned by Maurice Ames, a foreman carpenter with the Railway Company, where he brought up a large family. This house was later occupied by Len Smith when he married. A fairly early house was erected by George Robertson, and this was followed by the subdivision of the land from the present hall to the creek, and erection of Tilley's large home. About this time the hotel and seventy acres of land were sold to a syndicate who roaded the property and disposed of sections outside the hotel limits. This subdivision extended as far north as Sir Charles Norwood's property.

             The sandhills opposite and west to the road passing the bowling green were drifting sand dunes without a vestige of growth until the coming of the lpin. The Kember brothers, their sister and I had a sand slide where my present cottage stands, and we amused ourselves bringing down great slides of sand into the pond where the Post Office stands. A whale boat used for fighting [?] was kept on the pond.

            The old [two] storey[ hotel which stood just south of the present croquet green was burnt down after the syndicate bought it. The fire took place in the early hours of the morning. There were some hurried escapes. Mrs Manson, a friend of my mother's from Palmerston North, told me she lost some jewellery, but had some compensation in a good laugh at one escape. This was before the days of pyjamas for men's night wear. A belated fugitive from the top floor, having escape cut off, decided to slide down a water pipe. This he managed successfully, but in the descent his shirt rucked up under his armpits, to the roars of the onlookers.

             Plimmerton was always the spoilt darling of the Manawatu Railway Company. Three directors – Kirkcaldie, Plimmer and Kennedy Macdonald – held large weekend homes there. Shortly after the opening of the railway the directors put on a picnic train to Plimmerton for their friends. The engine driver was James Fulton (engineer to the Company), James Marchbanks (mechanical engineer to the Company), fireman, and William Hannay (company manager) as guard. Through bad staff work they met the Palmerston North train head on at Paremata. No damage was done but such a public outcry took place that Fulton resigned. He took up private practice and became a very prominent consulting engineer. Marchbanks and Hannay weathered the storm, the former becoming engineer and the latter managing director.

             An annual event was the railway picnic held alternately at Paraparaumu and Waikanae. On a Sunday crowded trains came from the north and south bringing railway employees and settlers along the railway. Side shows and sports were provided. The outstanding events were the tug-of-war and the two mile walk. There was keen rivalry amongst the natives, locomotive men, traffic staffs etc who had a host of followers. The two mile walk was always exciting. The contestants walked in a motley of costumes – shorts, long pants, and some in pink woollen underpants. Being summertime the day was usually hot and the trainers of the contestants followed alongside their charges with bottles of water, which they sprinkled over their favourites. There was always a distinct partisan element, and the shouts of encouragement were deafening.

             One side show was a coconut shy. Three posts were placed some fifteen years [sic.yards] from a rope at the throwing end. On each post was a coconut. The throwing sticks were of heavy manuka wood about eighteen inches long. This drew a large crowd, and a young lad named Campion and I were disappointed in not getting a good view of the proceedings from the end. We took up a position slightly down the side, with disastrous results to me. A burly fellow, slightly the worse for drink, took up three sticks, and the next thing I knew I was coming to on the ground with a crowd milling around. I had taken the heavy stick on the chest and got winded. Ever after it was a standing joke that I had been taken for Aunt Sally, and to this day if I do anything out of the ordinary the coconut shy stick is blamed for my shortcomings.

             Perhaps some of the ramblings in this narrative can be justly traced to the stick and I trust the reader will make allowance accordingly.

 (Sd) R.S.K

 Typescript from original August 2010

(ed. Barry Williams)

Also held in the Turnbull Library (Tapuhi)