The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 3 (July 1, 1932)

The Early Days

The Early Days.

Looking through some reminiscences of a pioneer colonist, the late Mr. John Collier, who formerly lived at Wainui-omata, near the source of Wellington's water supply, one noted mention of the dramatic era of raids and alarms when Wellington town nightly feared an attack by Rangihaeata's warriors. That was in 1846, the year of the war in the Hutt Valley. Collier was then living at John-sonville, where the railway now goes over the hills in rear of the Capital City. Collier was one of the settlers engaged on military duty, and in sawing planks to build a small stockade, as a shelter for the women and children in the event of attack. While the timber was being got ready and the refuge place put up, his wife and two children camped in the shelter of the bush at night. “I used to go in the daytime,” he said, “and look out the best place I could find, and when about half dark my wife would take a child in each arm while I carried the bed and a couple of blankets, and the three would coil up together under a tree. I had to caution her not to let the little ones cry during the night for fear of any Maoris being about.”

Look out from your train window as you go through pretty Johnsonville now and give a thought to the past, when the bush was at once a place of peril and a shelter, and when any moment the night silence might be split by a volley from a lurking band of Maori musketeers.