EARLY OPOTIKI

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 277, 18 July 1932, Page 6

EARLY OPOTIKI

GOOD OLD DAYS RECOLLECTION OF STILLS 0 AND CURRENCY PROBLEMS MR. MOODY iINTERYIEWED Mr. George Moody reaently . gave a 'Morning Post" rei.'resentative some reminiscences of his early days in Opotiki. Mr. Moody has the distinction of oeing the third male white child to be born in Opotiki. He was born in a small t.vo-roomed wooden building which fsed to stand 011 the site 0. Mr Moe ly's present residence in Main Street. In the early days, says Mr. Moody, the north end of the present township was used as a race course and shooting range, wh le the opposite end where the cemetery is now situated was mostly fern and serub gradually merging into bush. Hereabouts were situated extensive peach groves. ° The boarding house now known as Devonshire House was then the Commanding Officer's residence and the neutral portion of it is probably the oldest existing building in Opotiki. It is passed by thousands of tourists annually, but it is doubtful if any of them even so much as glanee at it as they go by, for there is nothing to indicate that it was once of great importance. Mr. Moody's mother and father possessed two cows in the early days, and these were, it is believad imported from Napier, whence they went to Tauranga by boat and so by road to Opotiki .They were the only milk cows in the settlpment. Ten Pound Note Mrs Moody used to sell the milk and butter to the officers and men in the militia. There was very little money in the whole settlement, the chief piece of currency being a solitary £10 note. This note came into Mrs Moody's possession three times, she being the only person able to change it on these occasions. The chief method of exchange was by barter and it is interesting to note that the --present Mr Moody's father oought the block of land on which Rosgard's Buildings now stand for two tons of potatoes. Mr. Moody senior also had one of the first wheeled vehicles in the settlement, as he imported two dray wheels and built a dray for himself. Illicit Still The farm of 350 acres now owned by Mr. George Moody on the Otara Road was then part of a block of' heavy bush country. This is interesting in that there was an illicit still run by a man called Ivihi King on this block. The spring from which the water was obtained for the making of the whisky is still flowing as freely as it did then, and is quite near to what is now the main road. Mr. Moody thinks that the iljicit still may have had some influence on the purchase of the property by his father in those old days as it was then a most profitable industry although the whisky was sold at only 5/- or 6/- per bottle. The Waioeka River used to run where the monument now stands and Mr George Moody as a boy, bathed in a backwater on the site now occupied by the Bank of Australasia. The first Presbyterian Church was on the site now occupied by the Loan and Mercantile Buildings and the first Presbyterian Minister was the Rev. John Gow, father of the present Hon. J. B. Gow. The Roman Catholic Church was then a large native whare situated in the same place as the present church. the services being conducted by travelling missionary priests — Fathers Norris and Grains. The Church of England was of course held in the same building as at present. It was surrounded by a very strong redoubt into which the settlers retreated for safety when there was an alarm. The first clergyman that Mr. Moody remembers here were the Rev. Martin and Coulter and they eaimed a living by teaching in night school.