MORRINSVILLE—A GREAT DAIRYING DISTRICT.

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21199, 23 August 1940, Page 17 (Supplement)

MORRINSVILLE — A GREAT DAIRYING DISTRICT.

GROWTH OF MORRINSVILLE

JT IS a far cry from the time, in 1873, when Mr John Turnbull, a sturdy pioneer, took his family into the wilderness of titree and scrub to undertake the management of an estate of 38,000 acres, but that journey, occupying over a week from Hamilton, saw the first serious settlement of the Morrinsville district. Prior to that the only cultivation had been carried on by the Maoris, who had been taught by the missionaries to grow wheat and make flour and bread. It was four years later that Samuel and Thomas Morrin, those enterprising and far-seeing pioneers from whom the district has taken its name, started the intensive farming, which in so short a time has converted the district from a wilderness into the flourishing pastures of today. For many years the progress of the district was held up by transport difficulties, and in more than one instance it would have taken little more hardship to break the determined resolve of the hardy settlers.. Better access to the rich farming lands of the Morrinsville district was gained when work began in 1880 on the construction of the railway line to Rotorua, by the Thames Valley Railway Company. However, in this connection, also, difficulties arose, but when the Government took over the line the increased population due to the railway works meant further expansion for Morrinsville and the district that surrounds it. Since then Morrinsville has not looked back. One of the most profitable avenues of farming is the raising of fat lambs for the Home trade, and Morrinsville supplies a large quota of the heavy consignments which leave the Waikato each year for Great Britain. As an outcome, the town has established a reputation as one of the Dominion’s major clearing centres for store sheep. Each season huge droves make their way from East Coast stations to the Morrinsville saleyards, while thousands more arrive by train from Taneatua, after having been shipped from Poverty Bay via Tauranga. Yardings of up to 20,000 breeding ewes at a single sale area by no means uncommon, and the town is the gathering place for buyers from all over the Waikato. A thriving shopping centre, the town caters admirably for sporting and social activities, in which respects it has grown to some importance in the Waikato. Among its footballers it numbers All Blacks, members of its cricket teams have represented the province, and it has earned an enviable reputation on the polo field.