Page 13 - J G Book

the great majority providing delicacies for the table. The Otakeho River, which runs
through Auroa on its way from Mt. Egmont slopes to the sea, was stocked with trout,
which did remarkably well at about this time, and the fish caught in this locality
provided another welcome change in the diet of the pioneers for many years…..
“Otakeho….originally the area was covered with flax, toitoi, fern and toot, in contrast
with the heavily bushed area of Auroa, which is situated some four miles nearer the
mountain reserve. Where the people of Auroa and other immediate localities were
forced to carve their homes out of the virgin forest, the pioneers of Otakeho were
faced with another problem, one which did not call for so much manual labour as
bush felling perhaps, but one which called for some ingenuity in draining the land,
and ridding it of the roots of the plants referred to.”
Centennial History of Hawera and the Waimate Plains by C. J. Roberts.

In the period when James George was farming in the Auroa/Otakeho/Kaponga areas,
there were numerous newspaper reports from the Waimate Road Board.
A selection here gives the general idea:

In 1896 James George was registered on the Kaponga electoral roll

4/11/16 graemekenyon@hotmail.com 9