The Dream: Journey: Despair: Survival: Hardwork: Togetherness:

SURVIVAL

“ Could they but speak, the hills round Puhoi would tell us today of groans, despair and agony, of back-breaking physical labour, of tragedy and sadness, of tears of sorrow, of incredible endurance, near starvation and bravery on the part of …. (the Bohemians) … ”

(Part of a Homily read in 1993 at the 130 th Anniversary of the first landing.)

The Maoris  
English explorer, Captain James Cook made three discovery journeys to New Zealand between 1769 and 1774 and his remarkable journals record that the Maoris were “of a Brave, Noble, Open and benevolent diposition …..”

Early plate entitled
'Group of New Zealanders'
When the first Bohemians left their homeland in 1863, they knew virtually nothing about the natives apart from what little they had gathered from Michael KRIPPNER as he was extolling the virtues of the wonderful country that lay ahead.

Maori wahine (woman)
The local Nga-Whetu tribe, whose village site was at Te Muri on the coast near the Puhoi River mouth, was subordinate to other tribes and probably never had a population in excess of 100. In pre-European and early colonial days, warriors in war canoes from the powerful Nga-Puhi in the north would stop over at undefended Te Muri and at other small scattered coastal Maori villages on their way southwards to challenge other tribes, particularly those in the Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Rotorua regions.
After battle they would then return later on their way back north again. These unwelcome visits had to be put up with and appeased as there was not the strength to oppose them. The Puhoi natives fear of them increased further as the Nga-Puhi were among the first Maoris to acquire quantities of firearms.

Hongi Hika
Nga-Puhi's Paramount Chief
Nga-Whetu’s chief, Te Hemara TAUHIA, who was one of the signatories to the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, was particularly astute and quickly realised that the English way of looking at property ownership suited his purposes better than did the ‘law of the musket’, so he enthusiastically embraced the arrival of settlers. Further there were large virtually uninhabited tracts of primeval forests and hills particularly inland which he claimed as tribal land and began selling blocks off. The first such sale was of Waiwera to Englishman Robert GRAHAM for :-
‘26 blankets, 4 spades, 4 double barrelled guns, 1 piece of print,
1 cask tobacco, 1 bag shot, 4 cartridge boxes, 3 casks powder,
2 boxes precussion caps, 2 cloth caps, 5 shirts, 1 coat, 1 pair trousers,
1 cloak and 16 pounds in cash.’

Subsequently, as all purchases of land from the Maoris had to be through the Crown (to guard against exploitation), this sale was investigated but was ratified as being fair by the ‘Old Lands Claims’ Commissioner in the Auckland court.

Te Hemara TAUHIA, in conjunction with others listed on the land sales documents, followed on by selling Wainui in 1854 for 800 pounds sterling and then the very same day disposed of the large 14,000 acre (5,600 Ha) Kourawhero and Ahuroa blocks of land just north of Puhoi. The 800 pounds sterling per block paid by the Crown was a princely sum for the 20 or so Maoris who benefited. It was even said that Te Hemara sold land further north to the Government that the Crown thought it had already been bought!!

His extraordinary early grasp of English and Commerce shows in the following letter about the proposed route of original Great North Rd between Auckland and the Bay of Islands (which passed through Puhoi). This was written in his own firm hand 4 years prior to the arrival of the first Bohemians.

“April 8th !859
His Honor the Superintendent Auckland
Friend Do you hearken. This is my word. The road to the Bay of Islands has been taken in the wrong direction. It has been taken over my land, and over the place where my dead lie buried. I therefore say, let the road be taken in another direction so as to leave my burial place untouched by the road, for it has been taken right through the centre of my burial ground. Had you written to me it would have been put right, as it is, do you consent to what I say in this letter which I now send to you, to the persons who have the laying out of the road, as that road is wrong. Do you pay me for that road now, I mean for the road only, the land on each side is still mine, the road only is to be yours.
I wish you to pay for that road soon. Enough. It is ended.”

(Original letter held in the NZ National Archives.)

Te Hemara became a Christian, warned his people of the evils of liquor and continued to cement his usefulness to the Authorities. He saw the presence of settlers as protection and the opportunity to trade. By that stage no other tribe had imposed on them for over a decade so it was little wonder that he and the tribe welcomed the Puhoi Bohemians, paddled them up the river to the Puhoi landing site on arrival and followed with food and early assistance all of which was very much needed and which was gratefully accepted.

By Maori canoe

In the following years Te Hemara reaching his heyday, prospered, built himself several fine dwellings and even owned a number of ships. He was a great orator who quickly learnt good English, and standing 6 feet tall (1.85 m) made an impressive figure particularly when wearing his bowler hat and a dark suit. Many believe that his wife Miriama remained childless and without any obvious succession, the small tribe gradually went into decline.

Te Hemara died in 1891 a shadow of his former self and was buried on a ridge overlooking the Kaipara Harbour.

Te Hemara's grave
In 1893 the remainder of the tribe abandoned Te Muri entirely and scattered, some going over to Kaipara Harbour on the other coast. By 1900 it was observed that there were no Maoris to be seen in the area. Te Hemara’s express direction to his people had been that there be no intimacy between the races and there were no Puhoi intermarriages. Finally the last of the Te Muri Maori land was sold to Joseph SCHISCHKA, one of the Bohemians.

 

The Surveyors
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The Auckland Waste Lands Act formed the background which led to the formation of the Special Settlements Schemes whereby groups of immigrants who paid their own passages were issued on arrival with a Land Order equating to 40 acres of land for each adult and 20 acres for each child over 5 years of age.. Parcels of land at Puhoi were then allocated to them on this basis and provided the land was then occupied and improved over the next five years, these orders were converted into free land grants. A few never occupied the land and others pulled out before the 5 years was up to go down to Ohaupo in the Waikato. Some of the settlers were able to buy such additional land or take on alternative blocks.

The Land Purchase Dept and the Provincial Waste Lands Dept were responsible for the implementation of the scheme and each had their own survey staff. However they soon became overwhelmed and a report of the time stated that 2000 new immigrants had arrived in the Province in the preceding 4 months and 5 more ships were on the way. Private contract surveyors were engaged to cope with this influx and their field work was supervised by one of the 3 District Surveyors. Although a permanent grid of coordinates based on triangulation from high point trig stations had been agreed, this had not been fully implemented beyond the Auckland Isthmus and a few other areas. With the need to make provision for the pending arrivals, an interim base line was set up somewhere near Puhoi using a compass derived meridian and from this the rest of the early Puhoi surveys would have been referenced. Some years later this datum would have been brought into line with the National System but the outcome did not affect the settlers.

As elsewhere in the Province, a tentative plan would have been drawn up in the Dept’s Auckland offices showing a proposed network of roads and boundaries to cater for a variety of lot sizes. The width of roads was set at 1 chain. This concept plan would then have been handed out for the contract surveyors appointed to carry out the ground surveys. Adjustments would undoubtedly have been needed as the work progressed and the true alignment of the river and other natural features became known.

Imperial miles, feet and inches measurements were unworkable for surveying so the chain was the unit of length and this was subdivided into 100 links. Land areas were expressed in acres. 1 acre is comprised of 10 square chains (just over 0.4 Ha) Being a decimal system, logarithm tables (devised in the 17th century) could then be used for the required complex calculations. One chain equated 66 feet (just over 20 metres). Measurements taken on a slope are converted to the horizontal and likewise survey and land title areas are based on a flat plane.


Gunters chain.

Troughton & Simms theodolite
Axes, slashers, plumb bobs, aneroid barometers, levels for measuring inclines, compasses, marker poles and jumper bars for pegging were essential items of a surveyor’s kit. Steel chaining bands up to 5 chains long wound onto hand held brass reels soon took over from the awkward Gunters chain.

The Puhoi Surveyors were hard at work prior to the arrival of the first settlers. Their first task had been to clear a track to provide sight paths for a survey traverse. This was mainly down the centre of each planned road but could be to one side if an obstacle was encountered or another alignment was more open.. Property corners could then be established as offsets from traverses so clearing along the actual boundaries was not necessary. Totara (used by the Maoris for much of their carvings) was the preferred timber for traverse and boundary pegs as it was ground durable, easy to work and identifying numbers could be carved onto the faces.

It is unlikely that immigrants had any influence on the actual allocations. The larger allotments were given to the bigger families and in some cases parcels of land needed to be adjusted afterwards to correspond with the required family entitlements.

Once the settlers had arrived and were ready to take up their land, the surveyors would have been able to take them up through the bush along the narrow cleared survey lines and then point out their particular frontage markers. These survey lines were later widened to improve the access between neighbours and the village. There was obviously little incentive to begin any sort of clearance along side boundaries but Surveyors magnetic compass bearings would have indicated the general direction. With so much to be done it is unlikely that the Surveyors actually pegged the rear boundaries other than near the village until afterwards by which stage some of the bush would have been cleared on both sides of the boundaries ready for sowing grass and the introduction of farm and working animals which called for boundary fencing.

The original concept plans showed rather more roads than were needed so many of these were never formed. These were later absorbed into adjacent blocks but a few still remain the property of the Crown as ‘Paper Roads’.

The early Puhoi surveyors were a tough and reliable breed of young men who were well versed in bushcraft and who knew how to get along with the local Maoris. It was clearly in their interest to pass this knowledge on to the new settlers. Had the community faltered and abandoned Puhoi in favour of joining the other Bohemian community started on easier land at Ohaupo in the Waikato south of Auckland, as some wanted to do, these surveyors could well have not been paid for past efforts and future work would dry up.

Surveying was an ongoing activity in Puhoi as preparations then had to be made for the arrival of further groups of Bohemians and as more land opened up. Not surprisingly the Community as a whole got on very well with them and some of the Puhoi men helped the survey teams. Hans KRIPPNER (a brother of Captain Martin KRIPPNER who was responsible for encouraging the Bohemians to come to Puhoi in the first place) is shown on some of the early survey plans as being one of the Surveyors.

Survey Gang c.1890.

(John WENZLICK middle right with beard and Martin TOLHOPF front 2nd from right with slasher in hand and axe over his shoulder).

 

  
Arrival of the Second Group (almost 3 years later).
Back in Bohemia in 1864 a few letters arrived from New Zealand posted over 6 months previously which created widespread interest among those who had stayed behind. These conveyed the news that most people were well, everyone was hard at work and would have talked about the warming up of the weather and the friendliness of the Maoris. Not wishing to worry parents, family and friends, there was apparently not a whisper about the hardships and the strife that they were in.

On the strength of these reassuring letters and hearing that 40 acres land grants per adult were still available, Lorenz SCHISCHKA and Johann WENZLICK both living in Littitz linked up with two brothers Johann and Joseph WECH from Lischen and with their families and several singles formed a group of 31.

The tattered ‘ Liverpool’ ticket of Lorenz and Rosalie SCHISCHKA .and their 7 children which cost them 98 pounds.

This means that for just this one family the entire journey in 2006 terms cost the equivalent of NZ$ 24,000 (US$15,000 or UK 8,500 pounds). Bearing in mind the low annual average workman’s wage, this explains why so many who wanted to come were unable to raise the fare)
The ‘Liverpool’ left Gravesend on 8th November 1865 and took a similar route to that of the ‘War Spirit’. There were several outbreaks aboard with 17 cases of typhoid fever and 2 of typhus which together claimed 4 lives. Although the Puhoi group were not directly affected, all passengers were put into quarantine on arrival in Auckland and confined to whares (huts) alongside the Albert military barracks (now part of Albert Park). so were not allowed to proceed immediately. Lorenz SCHISCHKA, as the leader, was told of the precarious state of the Puhoi settlement and was urged to take the group down to Ohaupo south of Hamilton rather than to Puhoi. Keeping that largely to himself as he did not want to alarm the others, he went to Ohaupo leaving the rest still in the whares. Once there he met up with Captain Martin KRIPPNER who had to the detriment of Puhoi persuaded some of the Puhoi young men to join him in forming a Militia Company. Although heavy scrub covered, the land looked reasonably good so Lorenz contracted to buy 50 acres (20 Ha) leaving a deposit of 5 pounds. When he got back and told the others what he had done, they would not have anything to do with it and insisted that they all go on up to Puhoi as originally intended. When Lorenz tried to back out of the purchase, he was thrown into a debtors prison which further delayed them. The owner of the land however soon tired of having to support him in prison and he was released 3 weeks later on forfeiture of the deposit.

After these frustrating delays, they were finally taken by punt to the landing site where the disheveled original arrivals were waiting. A family diary recorded that those on the shore called out to the new- comers “what has brought you to this terrible place” and his answer was “Your letters”.

Nevertheless the fresh injection revitalised the struggling community and gave them a much needed boost.

Scratching out a living.

The first settlers had been dumped in a wilderness vastly different from what they had expected, so naturally felt despondent and let down. Having paid their fares from Bohemia very little money was left. Worryingly there were no opportunities for employment and clearly it was going to be many years before logging could provide an income.

Initially firewood was the sole trading commodity but their market Auckland had closer sources so the return was low especially after the boat and others had taken their cut. It took a lot of effort for little gain but they had no choice but to take what little was on offer.

They then tried their hand at converting wood into charcoal using the age old method of firing wood up to carbonizing temperatures before sealing off the stack with earth and clay to exclude most of the air. The residual baked clay packed down well when spread on muddy tracks and pathways so was invaluable too as there were no other available source of pebbles or broken stone. Soon there were charcoal preparation burners smouldering along the Puhoi river bank and also on some of the farms. In summer after the main trees had been felled and extracted, it was necessary to burn off the remaining tree heads, branches and stumps to clear the land before grassing and some additional charcoal could be gathered ready for the next ship that could take it down to Auckland for use in fires, forges and in furnaces. Being relatively light a big sack could be carried on the back by men making the long trek to Auckland.

Splitting cross sawn short lengths of kauri into small roofing shingles by hand soon became a major activity and it was generally the job of the women and older children to tie them up with divided supplejack vines, or sometimes flax, into bundles of 50s or 100s with a few extra added to avoid any argument over the count. Most Auckland colonial houses of the time were constructed of wood with floors well off the ground so durable foundation posts were needed and Puhoi’s totara or puriri was ideal for this purpose. There was a similar requirement for railway sleepers. Once Paul STRAKA had built a 10 ton punt, he was kept busy transporting the bundles to the river mouth for transfer onto the small steamers heading for the Auckland market. Often he had to wait for days as shipping movements were erratic.

Traditionally the Maoris used bark from the tanekaha tree, which is high in tannins, for rich reddish brown colouring. The Auckland tanning works found it to be effective and sought additional sources which presented Puhoi with another possibility so sections of the bark were stripped from the tree using a small adze and then pounded into smaller tanning chips.


Closeup of trunk


Tanekaha tree
 

New Zealand bush
Captain Martin KRIPPNER, never a successful farmer, was constantly on the lookout for opportunities and had made contact with a Chinese merchant Chew Chong who had set up an enterprising and expanding export market for edible ‘Wood Ear’ fungus. This was considered a great delicacy in China but was not really to the taste of either the local Maoris or the Bohemians. This fungus grew on dead and decaying trees and was present in the untouched bush but was easier to gather in the aftermath of the initial bush clearances.
'Wood Ear' fungus

This developed into a significant activity for those not involved with the heavier work and became a valuable source of funds in the period before the mainstay timber trade took effect. Apparently at times most verandahs and many undercover spaces in Puhoi were strewn with fungus laid out to dry. This well organized export trade continued for a long time afterwards with Taranaki and Puhoi remaining the chief sources. At one time this fungus was dubbed “Taranaki Wool”.

Without the money to buy proper candles, kauri gum was burnt at night to provide a glimmer of light in the shanties. Only small pockets of good quality kauri gum (similar to amber) were dug up in the district and it never achieved the importance of the gum fields further north. Kauri gum is the fossilized resin from buried and fallen kauri trees and considerable quantities were exported from northern New Zealand for use in high quality varnishes, paints and linoleums. Unblemished pieces were sometimes polished as gifts or for displays.

Hillsides after several burns.

Most of the cleared land was steep and was grassed by simply broadcasting seed onto the rough undisturbed surface between the stumps, the wood ashes left after cleanup providing a good seed bed. With the arrival of the first horses, the rather limited flatter areas of land were ploughed for wheat, oats, maize, millet and potato cropping. Chickens multiplied rapidly but with few available scraps it was almost impossible to stop hens drifting into the bush until sufficient feed could be spared to entice them back in the evening so that they laid their eggs in nests that could be found. When the opportunity arose, eggs went down to Auckland along with the charcoal and receipts from both were spent on key items to bring back. Being such a long tramp, the two way journey could seldom be covered in the same day and, lacking money for overnight accommodation, it was frequently necessary to sleep on a bed of ferns in the bush on the way home.

By 1870 there were several hundred head of cattle which provided them with meat, hides and bullocks for coupling together to move logs and for general haulage. An increasing number of families possessed a treasured house cow which gave them milk, cheese and butter and others who could not afford one made do with a nanny goat. Any dairy products or vegetables that could be spared were taken down to the city to sell but Auckland was too distant for this to be done on a regular basis. Sheep did reasonably well and the lambs from the few initial breeding ewes were passed to other families so flocks built up quite quickly. By sheer hard work and determination, in the space of barely a decade the overall situation in Puhoi had improved greatly, sturdy slab and batten shanties were being built and the spartan diet became a thing of the past. Fruit trees mainly peaches, pears, figs, quinces, plums and apples were established and each family had a big well tended vegetable garden (It is fortunate that they did not have to contend with present day fungus diseases, blights, insect pests and exotic weeds as these had yet to spread).

However once self sufficiency had been achieved, there was little incentive for those farming in Puhoi to expand herd and flock numbers further as, until roads were improved and the railway was pushed northwards to Ahuroa in 1909, there was no practical way of transporting out a significant number of animals. Consequently over those establishment years, until there were linking roads with the outside, livestock contributed very little in the way of external income, a point that is not immediately apparent.

 

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