Band of Hope pledge card
Rebellious young men behaving badly – and a community which would not take no for an answer. Meghan Hawkes looks back on the news from 1900.
A monthly meeting of Te Awamutu’s Band of Hope – a non-denominational movement whose members pledged to abstain from drinking alcohol – drew a fairly large gathering and an interesting and instructive programme was gone through.
After musical items Miss Nellie Rogers, a graceful little lady, recited very nicely then a few new pledges were taken. These meetings had become firmly established in the town and were much appreciated. Unfortunately, one or two young men did not know how to properly behave themselves and at times were a nuisance to the respectable audience.
“I could name one or two whose conduct was at times discreditable,” warned the local newspaper correspondent, “but refrain from doing so on this occasion in the hope that ‘a wink may be as good as a nod,’ and that they may see the error of their way.”
At Te Rore a shower of ice deposited phenomenal hailstones in the shape of boots, pipes, pig’s heads, hen’s eggs, stars and marbles. The hail was preceded by several claps of thunder, some of them so strong that the iron rattled loudly on house roofs. One piece of hail was 2 ½ inches in length, and 2 inches wide. Twelve pieces picked up weighed a quarter of a pound. The newspaper correspondent observed that “My memory will carry me back nearly 50 years, but I remember nothing to compare with this of which I write.”
The amount of promiscuous shooting that was taking place around Kihikihi, particularly during two weeks when Constable Carroll was absent, suggested at times that the town was besieged by the Boers. Mere schoolboys were roaming about the vacant lots and back roads of the township with guns, and it was a common thing for a loud report or series of reports to take place quite close to one of the main streets. In many cases the offenders were not boys, but men who were expected to show a better example.
Mr Edgecumbe, Government surveyor, had a miraculous escape from death. He and his two assistants were camped out near a bush, the weather at the time being very unsettled. During the night a gale set in, and a huge rata tree crashed down across the side of the tent.
The assistants escaped unhurt but Mr Edgecumbe was struck on the thigh by a large branch. The thigh was badly injured and Mr Edgecumbe was laid up for three days before being taken to his family in Te Awamutu, where he recovered.
An application from the settlers at Te Tahi, Pirongia East, for a school in their district was refused by the Board of Education on account of there not being a sufficient number of children there of school age. Undeterred, they determined to build a schoolhouse themselves.
Mr Miller would supply the timber and a site for the building. Mr Aubin Ahier would do the work, and Mr Yeates would convey the timber to the site, and between them a schoolhouse would be built.
There were 12 prospective scholars, and a teacher, they hoped, would be granted to them who would board with the parents of the children alternately.
Band of Hope pledge card
