Timber logging in the Horseshoe Bush

The image above is taken from the magnificent book "Kauri Cameraman" featuring the photography of Tudor Washington Collins 1898- 1970. This book records the early days of kauri logging in New Zealand. This scene above of a bullock team hauling logs would be typical of the activities of Charles Hardy and his helpers in the Horseshoe Bush. In an advertisement in the New Zealand Herald of 14 April 1881 Charles Hardy was seeking 3 or 4 good bullock teams to haul "junk" - junk is the small trees or cuttings etc left behind from the felling of the large trees.

If we apply a bit of imagination to the scene the small boy could be Frederick Hardy as a 10 year old and his brother Charles who was 7 years older might be amongst the men working the bullock team. In their adult years both Fred and Charles were active in competitive woodchopping and Charles worked as a bullock team driver for a period of time.

An account of the activities of timber millers in the Auckland Upper Harbour area states that from around 1882 Charles Hardy commenced felling timber on a large scale. The method was by using bullocks to drag the logs to the river (the Rangitopuni) to await the winter floods. Thereafter they would pass to the Riverhead Bridge, be formed into rafts and towed by steamer or launch to the Auckland timber yards. The scene below is on the Puhoi River but the process at Riverhead would have been similar.

Charles' use of the Rangitopuni resulted in a number of objections on the grounds of damage to bridges and adjoining properties. In December of 1875 Charles wrote to the Editor of the Herald newspaper as follows:

Sir, - In view of the approaching election, if the candidates would give their views respecting the floatage of timber, it would be interesting to many. It is well known that the timber trade is one of the most important industries of this province. It is also well known that there are large extents of forest, the timber of which can only be profitably brought to market by using those outlets which nature has so liberally provided, and which run like a network over the face of the province, - I mean the various creeks, tidal and otherwise. Many persons have purchased bushes and gone to heavy expense in providing necessary plant, under the firm conviction that what one might claim as a natural right, strengthened by the custom of the country from its earliest settlement, viz., the right to use those great highways of a rugged and for roads impracticable country, would be secured to them without question or demur. - I am, &c.,

Charles Hardy,

Dairy Flat.

Charles was subject to a court action brought against him in August 1877 in which he was accused of causing damage to the property of a neighbour James Inglis. Damages were awarded against Charles although he defended himself on the basis that the Rangitopuni had been used for timber floatage for many years, that the land could have been taken away by the "freshes" of water as well as the damage from logs, and the damages sought were excessive given the quality of the riparian surface involved.

In June 1885 Charles was granted a floatage licence for his use of the Rangitopuni, under the Timber Floating Act, 1884.