The start of a farm in the King Country
The start of a farm in the King Country
Every Sunday Exley Roberts of Waitomo Valley Road rode his horse over to his neighbour Mr Edwards to get his bread. The 30-year-old had been in New Zealand for 18 months and his wife and child were about to join him from England.
But in early October 1907 Exley failed to collect his bread.
That afternoon his horse was seen with the bridle caught in some ti-tree stumps. It had no saddle.
It was in the same place on Monday, when a boy let it loose.
The next day Mr Wilson, surveyor, and his assistant Mr Wilkinson were working on the Waitomo Valley Road when they made the terrible discovery of a man’s body in a water hole beside a culvert.
Mr Wilson immediately sent Wilkinson to inform Constable Fraser, of Ōtorohanga, while he sought the help of Mr Cutcliff, a neighbouring settler.
Mr Cutcliff indentified the body as that of Exley Roberts, who had recently gone missing.
The scene of the incident was not that far from Exley’s house, and it appeared he had been attempting to cross the culvert during the height of a flood.
He had his oilskin and coat gathered up under his arms, as if he had been in the act of wading.
At the inquest the evidence showed that there would have been about three feet of water on the road, and difficulty would be experienced in keeping to the centre of the culvert.
The road and fence for some distance were also under water.
The jury returned a verdict of accidently drowned. A rider was added, calling the attention of the Government to the dangerous state of the crossing where Exley met his death.
The accident led to appeals for the placing of white posts on each side of every culvert, or bridge that became covered with water during a flood.
Nine months later, in June 1908, a young Englishman named William Cass Stephenson and his brother had just completed the purchase of the same farm in Waitomo Valley Road.
The 27-year-old had been in the country about a year, living at Ōtorohanga from where he now left on horseback, carrying a cart saddle strapped to his back.
An hour later William was found by Walter Turner on the Waitomo Valley Road near his new farm lying face down in the mud, dead. Medical evidence showed that William had taken a fit and had fallen, dying from suffocation.
Where Exley, who came to New Zealand to make a home for his young family, and William, who was on the verge of a new life here, were buried is unrecorded.
