Meghan Hawkes recalls some of the stories making news Waipā in 1915.
The coronation of Te Awamutu’s carnival queen, Mrs W H Grace.
Te Awamutu’s Queen Carnival – a fundraising event – eclipsed any former social function held in the district.
Mrs W H Grace, the Kihikihi candidate, was elected Queen. The coronation robes were procured from Auckland and the Queen was attended by a large band of costumed maids of honour and pages. The coronation ceremony over, the Queen conferred honours on some citizens while a mock court was held for others where several alleged miscreants were called to account to the ‘glorious, pious, and immortal’ judge of the carnival for their various misdeeds. Fitting restitution was to be “extracted from their recesses”.
The court was a big item in the evening’s amusement providing a great deal of wholesome humour. Celebrations concluded few days later by the holding of the monster carnival. A procession set out from the Mangahoe Bridge and featured a royal carriage and numerous patriotic exhibits. Business firms were represented, the band, scouts and Territorials were present, as well as grotesque figures and those in comic outfits. At the carnival grounds (Mr Bockett’s paddock) there were plenty of attractions, and nobody spent a dull moment.
Ōhaupō had only existed as a town district for about a month when its Town Board set to work to utilise the powers vested in it. Schemes were in hand for improving the main road through the town, constructing footpaths, and putting in effective drainage. It was quite a new sight for residents to see teams of horses and gangs of men at work on the road. The Public Health Inspector, reporting on the sanitary condition of the township, observed that the brine from the pickling tubs was allowed to run into the water tables onto the road. This was not in itself dangerous but was likely to become offensive and should be discontinued. The stables at the Loan and Mercantile Agency yards would soon need attention or alteration, and the present urinal should be either discontinued or made to discharge on to some other place other than the public street.
The ‘Pirongia Pickles’, a company of performers, went on tour to Te Pahu and gave a concert in aid of the Wounded Soldiers’ Fund. The weather was perfect and as a result there was a full house, and the various items were well received. Also at Pirongia a meeting of the Library Committee was held where new books were opened up and catalogued. Some of the latest books had been acquired, and members looked forward to the winter evenings with an entrancing book and cosy fire with pleasure.
