with ten to each battery, was sent
vibrating down the valley and could be
heard plainly at all hours in the Lower
Township, over two miles away.”
THE TOWN MATURES
After a few years, metal roads
replaced the muddy tracks, and the
social life of the townships improved
with its ‘splendid type of men and
women’ with little crime. Lines of
buses or buggies served the area. A
new school was built, along with a
modern post office, a well stocked
public library, and two churches near
the school (a Catholic church and the
Undemoninational Church).
Kuaotunu had its own brass band,
formed in 1893 by Samuel Carlyon,
and even a band building! A rifle club
had many keen members and a 1000
yard range on the Simpson property off
Cemetery Road. Horse races were held
by the Kuaotunu Jockey Club, run in a
track around the sand dunes.
The town sported a billiard parlour
run by Charlie McNeish, a Maori who
also ran the barber shop. His leg had
been ampuated below the knee, so he
tottered around on a pegleg. McNeish,
self taught, was known for quoting
Shakespeare and Bobbie Burns and for
his dramatic drunken ‘sprees’. Once he
passed out next to an old puriri tree,
and awoke hours later to find
his pegleg nailed to the trunk!
And he could also be a town
hero (see story page 23).
Right is a political cartoon of
McNeish from New Zealand
Observer.
Below: Ships
would have made a
flat beach landing
with scows or
used small boats
and horsedrawn
transfer wagons to
get ashore
.
KUAOTUNU
TOWN & M I N E S
Kuaotunu Hotel
Royal Hotel
Red Mercury Battery
Waitaia Battery
Try Fluke
Battery
Kapai-Vt.
Battery
Great Mercury Battery
Churches
School
Library
School
of Mines
Simpson’s Stables
Black Jack
Road
Dr.
Barnes
IRISH TOWN
Fire Brigade
Commercial Hotel
Cemetery &
Rifle Range
To Mercury Bay
South
Pacific
Ocean
A
Pumpkin Flat Road
B
E
D
C
A
View of Kuaotunu lower-
township from bay
B
Kuaotunu Hotel
C
Earliest Kuaotunu store,
then post office
D
Undenominational Church
in mid-townshi
p
E
Try Fluke Mine & Battery in
upper-township
