Les Boisen - 1905

EARLY SETTLERS; Compiled form the letters of Les Boisen, 1981

Early Days in Ohura and Tokirima.

My father, Peter Boisen, took up a section by ballot in Tokirima. He felled an acre of bush and erected a large double tent, which was to be our home for two years. My mother, sister and myself came form Auckland to Ongarue about 1905. (The Main Trunk Railway was not completed until 1908). I was four years old, my sister one year. We embarked on Tom Moore’s coach and four horses, arriving that evening at Ohura, staying at Hope’s Boarding house which I think was on the rise opposite where Kallil’s Garage now is. It must have been summer for the road was dusty. In winter the mud over the whole area was unbelievable.

Moore had a black and tan collie dog named Speed which galloped in front of the coach for the entire journey. W e were so captivated with Speed that Mr Moore generously presented him to us and Speed gave us much pleasure for many years.

I remember riding in front of saddle on my father’s horse through bush tracks on ridges. How my mother and sister travelled, I do not know as my Mother had never been on a horse.

The road apparently ended at Carlyon’s corner, and later a six foot track was constructed, emerging on top of Tokirima hill.

I remember:

There was excitement when word came through that the wagons were coming. This meant that bullock drivers Jack Dean, Austin Frawley or Ted Pawson had left Ongarue with the winter supplies. The wagons had to be off the road from about 1st May to October, and this was the last chance to stock heavy items for the winter months. Our order sometimes from Smeaton’s in Auckland included 3 or 4 one hundred weight sacks of flour, 3 x 70 pound bags of sugar, 6 x 7 pound tins of golden syrup (known as ‘bullocky’s joy’ or ‘cockies delight’) 15 pounds of tea, etc.

Their journey from Ongarue took several days, with 14 bullocks in a team.

In 1910, going outside at night to gaze in wonder at Halley’s Comet, due to visit again in 1986.

1912, the sinking of the ‘Titanic’.

1914, outbreak of World War One.

Our house was on a hill and we had a magnificent view of the three mountains with Ngaurahoe in violent eruption.

In summer time huge clouds of smoke from dozens of bush fires, some many miles away. Maraekowhai Station felled about one thousand acres a year.

An event in our young lives was an occasional trip to Auckland to see ‘Granny’ and aunts and uncles. In the earlier days this meant crossing the Ohura river on a ‘cage’ on wire rope and pulleys, swimming the horses across and so on to Aukopae, to board Hatrick’s river boat “Waiiti’ or ‘Ongarue’ and so to Taumarunui. If we were lucky we went to the ‘pictures’. These shows were held in a large hall which I think was known as the “Theatre Royal”. The projecting machine was in the centre of the hall, and was hand cranked for the entire two hours. It was then over to the railway waiting room to sit around a coal fire until a little after midnight when the Wellington express roared in.

Later a suspension bridge was built over the Ohura which eased the journey considerably. MacKays store was just over the bridge. Later again a new bridge was built and the suspension bridge dismantled and re-erected at the bottom of Turoto Road.