Pat.
I wanted to save that photo, and illustrate my pioneers research into this area with it, but I assumed I was giving you [the board] VERY little to work with, and as a lot of the board work appears to be specalized portrait work, at best I was hoping for a sepia illustration with some sharpened up definition. Plus only one, or two to take on the challenge.
Well Pat, I should not have, BUT my first exclamation was [XXX; 3 Capital letters, RC auto corrected] Blimey; when I saw your colouring of the drainage photos, which were just my secondary photos, explaining what that particular camp was all about.
When I got to this camp posting, I was left speachless.
I spent last night writing up about the Maori man, the Rev Hohaia Ngahiwi, who in the 1840's & 1850's was trained up by the Anglican CMS Missions to become a Teacher, then the Otawhao CMS School Principal, plus an Ordained Minister of the Anglican Faith. In 1864 he moved to the Mission at Taupiri, and the Hukanui Maori came under his pastoral care. To reach there he could travel by native canoe, though the last four kilometres, or so, was quite torturous, with many hair-pin bends. They were not bypassed until the dragline formed drainage programmes, of the 1930’s. It straight lined between headlands, regardless of legal property boundaries
That 1930's camp was situated on the WOODLANDS ESTATE land, [www.woodlands.co.nz] within whistling distance from the Homstead, established there in the late 1970's. The Estate was the largest developer of the Waikato County waste lands. Some 90,000 acres over half of which was deep peat bogs. Two Managers ran the estate before it was broken up in 1903. They encouraged regular worship by both Wesleyan and Presbyterian preachers, and with the Anglican Maori on the boundary, Hukanui became a strong Christian Community; without a pub.
I have previously pened an incident report, that fully illustrates the plight of those left with no alternative but the work camps, but as it is too large for this thread, will investigate positing it on a general discussion board. [Now done - link below]
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=783760.0Thank you for accepting my challenge.
Alan.