MAUNGATAPERE’S EARL HISTORY

Northern Advocate, 30 March 1937, Page 4

MAUNGATAPERE’S EARL HISTORY

Although Maungatapere nas earned repute as a great dairying district, it would not have occupied such a prominent position on the map. . to-day were it not for its athletic club. It is a recognised fact that such a sports organisation is well able to stimulate progress and advance the welfare of a district, and the great patronage the club received yesterday in the celebration of its silver jubilee must go a long way towards establishing the claim that Easter Monday in Northland has come to be known as “Maungatapere Monday.” , ' Now that the athletic club has functioned for 25 years and staged a wonderful jubilee effort, a short history of the district will be read with interest.

It is believed that the district did not at any time carry any considerable Maori population, those living there being a branch of the powerful Ngapuhi tribe. They were said to be natives of a very fine type. First White Man. The first white man to reach Maungatapere was Henry Walton, of Halifax, Yorkshire, ■Who came by way of the Kaipara in the year 1847.-He was hospitably received by the Maoris, and subsequently married the niece of Tirarau Kukupa, the paramount chief. Through her he acquired a block ofjJr more than a thousand acres, and began the romantic pioneering effort v , that can be only lightly touched upon here. Joined by his brother Charles, he built a homestead now owned by Mr.H. W. Ellis. Golfers in the district will remember this as “Garden Place.” Joseph Land was early associated with them as farm manager. In any account of the district, a place l of honour must be found for the Hawken family, members of which have, closely, continuously and worthily identified themselves with the settlement and development of Maungatapere for a period of more than seventy years. In 1863 Charles Hawken settled on land near the Walton homestead, where he lived for many years and then removed to Maunu, where he died recently at the venerable age | of 96. His brother,' William, who had settled at Whau Valley in. 1859, came here in 1872 to the farm where the sports were held yesterday. ‘ Hale and Hearty at 88. At the age of 88 he is hale and hearty, in the full possession of all k his faculties, well able to entertain you with yarns of the pioneering day's, or to forcibly discuss present-day politics. All sports clubs in the district are deeply indebted to his son, Mr. W. H. Hawken, the worthy patron of the Maungatapere Athletic Club, who has generously placed the grounds at the disposal of all sports bodies. The first wooden house in the district was built by Henry Walton, with 1 plaited nikau partitions. The next was that of Charles Hawken, which aroused the curiosity of the Maoris, who wondered what kind of a bride this was who needed a wooden house to live in. Tlie first school was opened at the Hawken residence on February 1, 1879, under F. H. Blair. There were 15 children, all members of. the Hawken and Roose families. The following year James Thornton took charge of the school. A large and what was then an up-to-date school was later erected on the Dargaville road at the foot of the mountain. Thii was found to be not central enough, and the settlers performed the formidable task of hauling it across country in two sections, a distance of two miles, by a team of 30 bullocks, to its present ideal site. The new and up-to-date dairy factory was completed a few»months ago. Cream is collected, from a. wide area from 300 suppliers, and the estimated output for the current season is 1200 .J lons of butter. The manager is Mr. ■ J. Stevenson, the secretary Mr. J. s Horrell, and Mr. Leslie Reynolds fs chairman of directors.