A Snip in Time – Meghan Hawkes
A circus within a circus had Ōhaupō residents agog when it put on an unforgettable performance after the main show.
The circus comprised 13 people and had been put together just the week before.
It promoted itself as Tew and Webb’s famous circus of buck jumpers, wire walkers, acrobats, and clowns.
Tew and Webb had drawn up a proper partnership agreement for their circus venture, but they were not a happy family.
The afternoon the circus arrived at Ōhaupō there was a general feeling of ill-will towards the ringmaster.
Webb considered that Mrs Tew was doing too much “bossing”. Mrs Tew thought Webb was too sulky and bad tempered.
The show did not start that night until nearly a quarter to nine as the male staff was in a state of revolt against the overbearing Mrs Tew, and Webb would not enter the ring.
The impatient crowd whistled and cat-called. After the show the residents of the peaceful little township of Ōhaupō had scarcely climbed into their beds when their ears were assailed by upraised voices, yells and profanity coming from the direction of the circus.
The performance was audible half a mile away and kept up till about two in the morning.
One hundred tons of butter was manufactured at Te Awamutu’s dairy factory in one week – the first time in the season that this quantity of butter had been made.
The previous week 98 tons had been reached. On the London market this weekly output was worth about £17,000 to £17,500. Continued mild weather was hoped for to ensure this standard for several more weeks.
After putting his wife on the evening train to Thames, Mr Dyer, farm employee, returned home to Kihikihi. On arriving there he heard a crash and as he walked around his house, he saw the dining room lit up.
Thinking neighbours had called he opened the back door and was met by dense smoke.
The walls and ceiling of the kitchen were ablaze. Racing through to the sitting room he found his three-year-old daughter wandering about dazed. Shouting to the rest of the occupants, he rushed out with the child and then returned to rescue the others.
Mr Dyers’s father, aged 82, heard his shouts, and jumped from bed. The doorknob came away in his hand, and he could not open the door.
He threw a handbag through a window smashing it and then scrambled out.
All those in the house – three of Mr Dyer’s children, four orphaned nephews and nieces, and his father escaped unharmed, but only in night attire.
Kihikihi had no water supply, and the neighbours could only stand by, helpless.
