ROSEVEAR’S MILL; Compiled form the letters of Les Boisen, 1981
Compiled from the letters of Les Boisen, 1981.
Sometime in the early thirties Mr Rosevear had a sawmill on the back of Iremongers property which had to be reached through Mr Jarvis’s farm. I had a Chevrolet truck, the last of the 4 cylinder jobs, to shift this timber. Turoto road was so muddy with dairy herds daily being driven back and forth that it was impassable to motor traffic. In frustration to get started I crossed the swing bridge and went round the longer back road, coming out at Goldfinch’s farm. A year or two later I heard that this bridge was not to be used for wheeled traffic and actually had, with no traffic on it at all, tiredly collapsed into the river.
Some loads I recall with wonder. My truck had a nine foot long body, and
there were a number of 14 x 10 stringers and piles 34 foot long, of heart
matai, and weighing about a ton each. They were to go to Mr Martin’s
farm just out of Ohura town, to bridge the Ohura River. Two at a time were
loaded on, one each side of the cab sticking about 13 feet over the mudguards
and an equal distance over the back. The truck rocked gently back and forth.
It must have been an alarming site for other road users to see two large lumps
of lumber apparently floating round a sharp corner. Road rules and many other
things were much more relaxed in those days.
EARLY SETTLERS; Compiled form the letters of Les Boisen, 1981as typed by Lyn Neeson ©TCA 2002