Mp Anguished by Epidemic Crime, Alive and Well
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part I was down and in bed for 9 days. I was in hopes of escaping but was attending to duties in the House during the day and nursing influenza patients at night. I had been up for three nights in succession and then went down. My temperature did not go Above: An official health poster of 1919 argues beyond 103, and I came through that alcoholic stimulants are the most useful without any complications, save remedy in the primary stages of the influenza for feeling very weak. However, I outbreak, and warns the public about the am glad to say that I am now back efforts of prohibitionists to ban alcohol. to normal. I had a chat to Hickey and I suggested to him that he send you along a few pars just to indicate to you the quality of his work in the meantime, until such Above: J.A. Young, Member of Parliament MP time as you were ready to engage for Waikato. ANGUISHED him definitely. I was sorry to see by the press BY and from information which has reached me from Te Awamutu EPIDEMIC that you have had a most CRIME, unfortunate and sad experience No doubt there were many letters, at Te Awamutu. It has been ALIVE AND telegrams and notes passed up and down pretty well the same everywhere. the nation as the flu epidemic ravaged cities Splendid fellows went down WELL and rural areas alike across New Zealand, right and left. People simply died leaving in its short-lived wake a trail of wholesale here in Wellington. It Crime, it seems, was as problem in the death, tragedy, the destruction of homes was not an unusual sight to see Waipā region even a century ago – but and businesses, and a national anguish two and three coffins in a hearse perhaps the level of criminal activity and that would take years to overcome. on their way to the cemetery. the crimes themselves were not quite up When I read the lists of names to today’s standards. Among the many archived documents in the Waipa Post and Waikato in the Te Awamutu Museum, there In the Waipa Post of January 4, 1918, Times of so many who I knew so is a poignant letter from the Member a small report records the numbers of well as having gone down before of Parliament for Waikato, Mr J.A. criminal offences for the previous year, the epidemic, I had to wipe a tear Young, to a prominent businessman and and compares them to crime levels of from my eyes. However, I am glad newspaper owner in Te Awamutu, Mr just before the outbreak of World War to say things are back to normal Warburton. e letter is hand-written on One in 1914. With substantial use of here, and I hope by now you have N.Z. House of Representatives letterhead major and minor headings, all in capital pretty well cleared out the dread paper in fountain-pen ink, and came as letters which was typical of the day, the thing in your districts. the epidemic was on the wane. newspaper reports: I enclose you some stuff which Wellington may be useful. 3.12.18 MAGISTRATE’S Trusting you are keeping well, COURT. ANNUAL and with kind regards, Dear Mr Warburton, SUMMARY AT It is just close on midnight and we Yours sincerely, TE AWAMUTU. are in committee on the Licensing J.A. Young. Amendment Bill and I expect CRIMINAL we will be lucky to get home by P.S. 5.12.18. We finished up OFFENCES daylight. is note, however, is to at 3.30 o’clock this morning. I INCREASE. express the hope that you have expect the session will end about escaped all serious consequences Saturday. J.A.Y. DECREASE IN of the influenza epidemic. For my CIVIL CLAIMS. Page 52 Waipā – 150 years It then says that the “annual return of Ngāti Maniapoto leaders to open up the about $250 million. e overall effect of cases” brought before the Te Awamutu King Country to railway development. the project was greatly undermined by Magistrate’s Court for 1917 “shows a the fall of the price of oil in the 1980s and very substantial increase in the criminal On 15 April 1885, Premier Robert Stout the deregulation of land transport, which prosecutions” in comparison to 1913. and Ngāti Maniapoto chiefs Wahanui removed the long-distance monopoly In fact, there were 100 criminal cases – Huatare, Taonui Hikākā and Rewi New Zealand Rail held when the cost but that was an increase of 17 compared Maniapoto ceremonially turned the first benefits report was written. with 1916, and 40 more than the year sod of the central section on the south before the war began. side of the Puniu bridge, just south of Te Awamutu. Of those 100 cases, six men were committed for trial, 90 were summarily But the sod nearly wasn’t turned on convicted, and three were dismissed. A the day. e three Ngāti Maniapoto lone woman was summarily convicted. chiefs all agreed to the turning, but the Waikatos sent two chiefs to protest “Drunkenness accounted for 30 of the against the work in the name of the prosecutions last year,” notes the report. Māori King, whose headquarters Above: e passengers who travelled on the ere had been 29 similar offences in were then at Whatiwhatihoe on the first Main Trunk train in 1908. Sir Joseph 1916, and 26 in 1914. And, the report Waipā. Long speeches followed, each Ward is centre left. continues, “last year 13 Europeans were translated into English. e only one charged with supplying liquor to natives; who remained silent was Wahanui who there were no prosecutions under this was trying to suppress his anger. At last Pirongia-Te heading in 1916, or in 1914. ere was one of the Waikato chiefs, regardless of a very fair proportion of offences of a the fact that his people were only in the Awamutu line more serious nature, one or two being of King Country by sufferance of Ngāti After the First World War, returned a revolting character.” Maniapoto, declared that the sod would servicemen in Pirongia came up with not be turned because it was Waikato’s However, civil claims had slumped in an ambitious plan to build a narrow- land! “Oh, well,” said the Premier, “if it gauged railway between Pirongia and 1917 to only 150, compared with 223 in is Waikato’s land, we have come to the 1916, and 222 in 1914. Te Awamutu. ey had observed wrong place.” en Taonui arose and narrow-gauged railways in operation in said with angry determination, “It is our Europe and wished to try the concept land; the sod shall be turned, and turned in the Waipā, linking river transport at today!” And it was done. Pirongia with rail transport on the Main e railway continued south from the Trunk Line. TE AWAMUTU Puniu River, with the line to Otorohanga e proposed network would eventually opening in March 1887, and to Te Kuiti link Kāwhia, Raglan and Frankton. Such BY RAIL in September of the same year. Since a transport system was predicted to be crossing the Puniu, the 680-kilometre cheaper and quicker than horse-drawn e concept of a main trunk railway Main Trunk Line took a further 23 years wagons over the roads of the day. between Auckland and Wellington had to be completed. e first Wellington- been talked about for some years before Auckland train, a “Parliament Special” On 29 April 1920, Pirongia gathered to construction began in the late 1870s. ferrying politicians north to meet the celebrate the launch of the project. With But progress came to a standstill at Te United States Navy’s visiting Great White flags and bunting decorating the centre Awamutu after the local station opened Fleet, passed through Te Awamutu on 7 of town, the crowd listened to speeches on 1 July 1880, as Te Rohe Potae (the August 1908, taking over 20 hours to by Bert Fear, Chairman of the Railway King Country) was then off-limits to complete the journey. e line would not League, and J.A. Young, Member of Europeans. For some years the completed be officially opened until 6 November of Parliament, who congratulated the line was called the Auckland and Te the same year. people for their enthusiasm and offered Awamutu Railway. e new Te Awamutu support. e plan included the building station contained a public vestibule, e 411-kilometre section of the Main of a station on public land in Franklin waiting rooms, and an office. It also had a Trunk Line between Palmerston North Street, about where the Historic Visitor long passenger platform and goods shed. and Hamilton, including the section Centre is today. e stationmaster was assisted by a junior through the Waipā, was electrified and porter and a guard, and two “gangers” opened for use in June 1988. It was one of However, the scheme did not prosper. resided in Te Awamutu. Muldoon’s National Government’s ink ere was local disagreement about the Big energy development projects. An exact route the line would take, and After seriously considering alternative overall cost in excess of $100 million had support waned as the country’s economic routes to Wellington, the Government been projected, with some 40% being for woes worsened, as well as road transport finally reached a vital agreement with new locomotives, but the final cost was becoming more mechanised. Waipā – 150 years Page 53 Below: e Auckland and Te Awamutu e great Carbine, the first New Zealand Middy pulled him up and kept the lead Railway timetable, dated 1 July 1880.