Otorohanga, circa 1910. Photo: Whites Aviation
Meghan Hawkes looks at stories which had communities buzzing in 1911.
Fingerprints of infamous prison-escapee Joseph Powelka. Creative Commons, Archives NZ
A sensation was caused at Te Kūiti when the 2am express train brought four policemen, who, accompanied by the local constable, proceeded immediately in the direction of Piopio.
Four more police arrived by the 4pm train and went the same way. The question on settlers’ lips was “is it Pawelka?” – a prisoner who had escaped from Wellington jail several days previously. Rumours swept the country – Palmerston North was the centre of such starts and alarms, but other places had also been visited by phantom Pawelkas.
He was spotted in Auckland before his ‘shadow’ reached Te Kūiti and speculation started that there was a police search in the wild Mōkau district for him. Gossip was quashed when it was stated there was nothing to justify the Te Kūiti excitement and, if it were true, a very much larger search party than that said to be at Te Kūiti would have been immediately put on the trail.
Joseph Pawelka was never found after his final prison escape in 1911.
‘Dry and Dust’ from Ōtorohanga asked of a local paper “What is the Ōtorohanga Town Board doing? Is it asleep, or what? Maniapoto Street is only that in name now. It has gone from bad to worse, and I am seriously thinking of taking to stilts to get over the ground.” He had heard that the County offered the Town Board a loan of £60, interest free, to enable them to metal the street but the Town Board looked the gift horse in the mouth and spent it on a minstrel troupe instead. Ōtorohanga talked of being a rival of Te Kūiti, but competition in mud pie making was not the sort townspeople wanted.
For the previous two years Piopio parents had been urging the Auckland Education Board to build a school at Piopio, to no avail. The committee then wrote to the Minister for Education informing him the children were presently shivering in a cold, damp marquee, destitute of any heat, which in winter was totally unfit for school purposes. Owing to the damp cold surroundings, children had contracted various maladies, reducing the average roll from 48 to 37. The teacher also suffered from chest trouble owing to the sodden state of the ground, and had recently been ill for a week, during which time the school had to be closed.
A modern ‘Dick Turpin’ in a motor car, accompanied by a lady, driving from Awakino to Te Kūiti, was bowling along at a terrific pace when he collided with Mr Jacobs’ brake. He then overtook a settler on horseback riding in the direction of Mahoenui, and with the whirr of the machine and toot of the horn the horse bolted, the rider narrowly escaping being thrown over a very steep bank. A few miles further on another horseman’s mount took fright and gave the rider a lively time for a few minutes. Still going at a madcap pace, the motorist ran into a gig containing two women. Both occupants were thrown out of the gig and the vehicle smashed to pieces. In coming round a corner, he then ran into the mail coach causing the horses to swerve and damage the coach. The driver had to return to Piopio for another vehicle to continue mail deliveries.
Both occupants of the car were soon identified, and a court case followed.
Otorohanga circa 1910. Photo: Radcliffe, Frederick George, 1863-1923 – New Zealand post card negatives. Ref- 1-2-006465-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http—natlib.govt.nz-records-22710794
