King Country logging
Comer Board had not heard the sound of wood chopping from his companion Edwin Stevenson for some 10 minutes when he went to investigate.
The two young men were working on a ridge on the Hauturu Road, Waitomo in May 1905. Edwin and his brother had leased the bush section for grazing cattle and were new settlers in the King Country, having recently arrived from Manawatu. Edwin, 23. and Comer were cutting down trees to form a cattle track when the ridge went silent. To his horror Comer found Edwin dead under a fallen tawa. It appeared he had been felling the tree which had another tree leaning against it, and as soon as the support was removed the leaning tree uprooted and fell.
The journey out to a bush camp was a rough one, Edwin having to be carried on a makeshift stretcher three miles over steep country. He was then put on a sledge and taken nine more miles into Waitomo. Heartbreakingly, his mother, who was on a visit from England, was in Waitomo when her son was brought in.
An inquest was held at Te Awamutu and a verdict of accidental death returned. Edwin was taken to Hamilton by train and was interred there, several of his mates from Waitomo being present. There were bitter complaints over the actions of the police after Edwin’s death. They had been unwilling to render the assistance which was usually expected from them.
Edwin, from Essex, England, had arrived in New Zealand aged 18 on the Gothic in 1899. His brother James followed two years later. His remaining siblings – four brothers and one sister – immigrated to Canada and America during the late 1890s.
Five years later, in 1910, Karl Johansen, 63, was working with Mr Hunt’s party felling bush on Mr Vickery’s place at Waitomo. A loose branch fell on Karl. He was stunned, but partially regained consciousness. Karl deteriorated and it was obvious to his mates that he was in a very serious condition. A stretcher was improvised, but the track was so rugged it was impossible to carry him to Mr Vickery’s house. It was decided to carry him by road into Waitomo, a distance of about six or seven miles. The roads, though, were in a dreadful condition and the task gruelling.
Dr Fullerton of Te Kūiti was telephoned for. He was attending another patient at Piopio, but was able, with the assistance of a Māori guide, to get across country quickly and arrived before the stretcher party came into view at the Waitomo accommodation house at about 8pm. Karl had weakened on the road and the doctor could give no hope.
An inquest found Karl came by his death through the limb of a tree striking him. In Karl’s’ case the value of the telephone in the back-blocks was demonstrated, for if a messenger had had to ride in and take back a doctor, he could not possibly have been in time to do even the little that was possible.
