It was expensive to develop this land, especially if there were several layers of large logs and stumps. Henry Reynolds, the first manager of the Woodlands Estate, was one man who was very aware of saving on unnecessary labour costs. Being mechanically minded he arranged for the swamp water to be channelled, to turn a wheel which provided motive power for different kinds of work on the Estate. Through hard work and determination, approximately 27,000 acres of swamp at Woodlands had been drained and reclaimed as farmland by 1902. As time went by it became apparent that drainage could not be achieved by individuals alone, so the idea of Drainage Boards, in certain areas, came into being. Peat problems encountered by the pioneers ranged from buried trees obstructing drains; peat fires creeping through the swamp land; low lying land getting flooded by new drains above; to drains being blocked and overflowing in heavy rain. Swampland farming was not an easy task. Cultivating the land was often a matter of trial and error. Before any ploughing was done the horses feet were “bagged�. Three or four sacks were tied around the animals legs to prevent them from sinking into the bog.
Vaughan Jones using his Spinner Drain Digger, on Phyll Ryall’s farm
Stumping in peat country was one of the hardest tasks men and horses encountered in the pioneering history of New Zealand. As the peat consolidated, more and more huge trunks were exposed. Where possible they were removed and split for fencing or burned when they had dried sufficiently.
Diagram of peat dome formed over basin of the pumice and sand, typical formation of the Komakorau swamp area. Lagg = stream eg. Tauhei stream