Settlers first home, Otorohanga 1913
The King Country backblocks were served by only one fairly good road which led from Te Kūiti, the district’s commercial heart, out west and south to Awakino and Mokau.
There was another, fit only for horseback travel most of the year, winding west past the Waitomo Caves, and on through the Hauturu Peak, to Kawhia Harbour. Another partially formed wagon road led from Ōtorohanga northwards. These, with a few short minor roads and horse-tracks were the settlers’ highways.
The roading was shocking – awful mud-channels along which settlers had to haul their supplies, take their milk to the factory and drive their stock to far-away markets.
Most of the good land was a long way from the rail line, but the big-hearted men and women in the backblocks were full of hope for the future.
They worked away in their cow-bails and at their bush-felling and grass-seeding, living hard, self-sacrificing lives.
They looked forward to a time when the farms which they had cut out of the heart of the wilderness would make them independent for their old age and be a solid heritage for their children after them.
The installation of an electric lighting plant at Te Kūiti was completed as far as possible until an engine from England arrived.
A temporary plant was placed in position, and the current turned on for the first time but only to the business portion of the town and the street lamps.
Te Kūiti had made most exhaustive investigations before adopting electric light. The council had sent a committee to many towns in the North Island to look into the merits of various illuminants and eventually decided on electricity.
The schoolroom at Hangatiki was filled with a large and appreciative audience who listened with interest to Mr Molloy as he described photographic scenes that flashed with rapid succession on a screen.
Mr Molloy led his audience through a series of varied vistas depicting glacier and alpine scenery in Canada, street scenes from London, rural life in Ireland and Scotland, and topical scenes from Egypt, India, Burma, China, and Japan.
A number of scenes photographed by Mr Molloy in various parts of New Zealand were also shown, including the school children at their games, working in the school garden, or swimming in the river.
This caused endless amusement to the children, who were enraptured at the sight of their own familiar faces depicted before them greatly enlarged.
Farmers about two miles past Waitomo’s Ruakuri cave found another of vast extent and great beauty. It abounded in crystal formations and was traced back for a distance estimated at four and a half miles.
The approach to it included four wonderful crystal arches, so perfect that they seemed to have been made by man. It had a cathedral about 12 times the size of the enormous cathedral in the Waitomo cave. In the course of time it would be opened to the public, but for now the approach to it was very rough, and a track and steps had not yet been made to it.
