When Rose Harding went missing in July 1905 mystery surrounded the affair.
The 50-year-old widow lived on a small farm with her family of four children at Oparure. She was said either to have gone in search of her children, who were late coming home with the cows, or gone out alone at night in search of cattle. She had not been seen or heard of since.
Search parties went out but found no trace of her. It was feared she would not be found alive, as the nights had been very cold, particularly the first night she vanished.
Rose had been married to Frederick Harding who had immigrated with his family from Bristol in 1867 when he was a child. Rose Brown, born in Worcester, arrived with family in the same year. They married in 1885 in Christchurch. Frederick was a farmer who moved about for work and their four children were born in the Taranaki and Manawatu regions.
The family arrived at Oparure around 1894 but nine years later tragedy struck when Frederick died in 1903 aged 45. Rose, with the children aged between 17 and 11, had carried on the farm.
Rose’s disappearance produced headlines such as ‘A mother lost trying to find her children’ and ‘The Waikato mystery’. The district was combed under the direction of Constable Matthews. The police dragged the river and streams in the vicinity of where it was thought she had wandered, and a large party of horsemen and footmen were organised in the surrounding districts.
Four days after her disappearance Rose’s tracks were found and it was seen that she had doubled on her route and lost her way. Two days later, a search party, headed by Constables Matthew and Fraser, again went out looking for Rose but was again unsuccessful.
Most of the searchers now thought it was hopeless. The country where her footmarks were traced was full of tomo which dropped to a great depth below the surface. It was thought she had fallen into one.
Some time after Rose went missing the children’s aunt arrived to check on the family. On discovering what had happened she sent the eldest boy to work at a lime works and took the three girls with her to Napier.
Ten months after Rose’s disappearance, in May 1906, two pig hunters in the bush at Waitepipi discovered what appeared to be her remains as well as a blue serge skirt and a cape. They came into Te Kūiti and reported the matter to Constable Matthews. He had no doubt that this was the unfortunate Rose who had been so long lost. She was buried at Te Kūiti’s old cemetery.
Questions lingered over Rose’s death – she was found above ground, so hadn’t fallen down a tomo. Perhaps she was disorientated in the dark, succumbing to a freezing cold night. Family lore says she was probably murdered, but by who and how and why are yet another mystery in the demise of Rose Harding.
