A War Time Tragedy at Pukerua Bay

A War Time tragedy at Pukerua Bay

By Ashley Blair

On 15 May 1942 Arthur Collin rode his motorcycle to the Nurses’ Home at Wellington Public Hospital where he picked up his sister Marie. This was about 4:30 in the afternoon. They were heading off to Linton Military Camp on Arthur’s 1936 3½ horsepower B.S.A.* Arthur, a very experienced motorcyclist, had his pack on the tank and Marie had hers on her back. Just after they left the Nurses’ Home the rear tyre punctured but they managed to get to Oates’ motorcycle shop in Farish Street, now part of Victoria Street

The tyre repair took till about 6pm and before they rode off Arthur lit the acetylene headlight on the B.S.A. Although fiddly to use, acetylene headlights threw a very bright light. They travelled at a steady 25 miles per hour and at the Paremata Bridge Marie, who was watching the road ahead, saw a tank trap beside the road. Arthur commented, “We don’t want to meet any more of those – we’ll keep on the white line.” In May 1942 the Battle of the Coral Sea had just been won but New Zealand still faced imminent threat of Japanese invasion. There were two types of tank trap at Paremata Bridge: large concrete prisms and bent sections of railway iron set into the ground.

Unbeknown to Arthur and his sister a completely different type of tank trap had recently been constructed just north of Pukerua Bay. This was the most northerly defence of what was known as the Wellington Fortress Area. Officially known as an type-E Road Block, but popularly called a tank trap, the one at Pukerua Bay consisted of three massive concrete blocks six feet high, five feet wide and twelve feet long with grooves in the side. When the invasion was imminent sections of railway iron were to be dropped into the grooves to slow down any Japanese advance towards Wellington. Two of the concrete blocks were at the side of the road: the third was right in the centre of the highway. The only warnings of this major obstruction were three standards with white reflectors immediately in front of the block. Since December 1941 Pukerua Bay had been part of the Headlight Restriction Area and all vehicles travelling at night were required to have their lights on dip.

Just before 7 pm the B.S.A. struck the left side of the centre concrete block and Arthur Collin was killed instantly. The first person on the scene was Palmerston North veterinarian James Hill-Motion who found Arthur and his sister lying on the road and the motorcycle still upright but with the damaged headlight and the front wheel pushed into an oblong shape. Hill-Motion could find no pulse on Arthur and described him as, “Cold and white.” The next two people to arrive were sent by Hill-Motion to get help at Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay. The NCO in charge of the Home Guard at Pukerua Bay turned up and sometime later Constable Walter Peters arrived from Paekakariki. Marie was taken to Wellington Public Hospital by Wellington Free Ambulance. James Hill-Motion stayed at the scene until Arthur’s body was taken to Paekakariki at about 8 pm.

Albert Collin, Arthur’s father, identified the body. Dr Paterson of Paraparaumu examined the body and found severe fractures of the skull, extensive brain laceration, the lower jaw fractured and there were wounds in the scalp. He said that extensive laceration of the brain was the cause of death.

The next day Constable Peters and Albert Collin visited the scene of the accident and took extensive measurements. Albert Collin, a civil engineer, made a very detailed drawing with a plan view, side elevation, and north facing elevation of the centre block of the tank trap compete with detailed annotation. He even included the impact point of his son’s head six and a half inches from the edge of the block and four feet four inches above the surface of the road. Of the reflectors he wrote:

All standards too high, intended only for side of road use & no allowance for camber. White reflectors do not signify “danger” only guidance. All standards loose in the ground & could be lifted. No standard was in alignment for its intended purpose ie:- illumination of the reflectors. Condition of reflectors – old, dirty, broken, battered, useless.

Albert Collin also drew a remarkable three quarter view looking from seaward towards the cliff showing the tank trap and the B.S.A. motorcycle a moment before impact.

At the inquest on13 July 1942 Coroner George Harper found: 

1. That the central block of the tank trap, in the collision with which the deceased met his death, constitutes a serious obstruction to traffic in the main highway north of Pukerua Bay. It is situated approximately in the centre of the roadway.

2. That the sole warning device provided consists of standards fitted with reflectors which standards are placed at a distance of approximately two feet from the base of the centre and side blocks of the tank trap.

3. That in the circumstances the centre block of the tank trap is a source of danger to motorists approaching the tank trap during the hours of darkness.

He went on to recommend that both the Hutt County Council and the Military consider the provision of lighting or illuminated signs near the tank trap to ensure reasonable warning be given at night to motorists approaching from either direction. Such safeguards, he said, should “be kept in operation except in times of actual war emergency.”

By the time of Arthur Collin’s inquest there had been another accident involving the Pukerua Bay tank trap. On 28 May at about 6 pm an International truck heading south was extensively damaged after hitting the central block. The driver suffered only minor abrasions and the truck, freed after ten minutes, was able to be driven back to Paekakariki. After this accident two red hurricane lamps were placed on the block but only until the damaged reflectors were replaced.

By early 1943 there was no longer any fear of invasion and the Headlight Restriction was lifted. In September that year Army HQ sent out a circular ordering removal of emergency defence works, particularly those which posed a danger to the public. The Pukerua Bay block nearest the cliff was never removed and is there still, the only tank trap remaining in New Zealand on a main road. When you pass it remember Arthur Merrifield Collin, the victim of a device designed to keep the Japanese out of New Zealand.

*B.S.A. catalogues for 1936 list three 3½ horsepower road models: the Model R 4 3.48 h.p. O.H.V. De Luxe, the Standard Model R 17 3.48 h.p. O.H.V.  and the Model R 20 3.48 h.p. O.H.V. New Blue Star but it is unclear from Albert’s stylised drawings which model Arthur owned.