This small settlement, which is in the Paraekaretu Riding of the Rangitikei County, and in the Electoral District of the same name, has a population of seventy-one. It is a flag station thirteen miles from Marton Junction and three miles from Hunterville, the altitude being 733 feet above sea-level.

Silverhope Public School, which was opened in 1886, is held in a, wooden building, having a playground of about an acre of land attached. There are forty-five pupils on the roll, the average attendance being thirty-eight.

Mr. Patrick Henry Roache, who is in charge of the Silverhope School, was born in the Rangitikei District, where also he was educated. He holds an E4 certificate under the Wanganui Education Board. As an athlete, Mr. Roache has ever taken an active part in all sports, more particularly in football. He has often played in representative matches, and holds two medals, gained respectively at Patea, in 1893, and at Hunterville, three years later.

McLean, Alexander, Farmer, Silverhope. Born in 1834, at Gairloch, Rosshire, Scotland, Mr. McLean spent his early years, first in farming and later “before the mast.” He arrived in Wellington in 1864, and was engaged soon after as a shepherd by Mr. C. Campion, of Lower Rangitikei. The West Coast goldfields proved too strong an attraction, however, and he threw up shepherding for gold-digging. His efforts in this direction were not rewarded with success, and he returned to Rangitikei, but soon left for Auckland, where he spent six years in contracting. Rangitikei was his loadstone, and he finally settled at Silverhope, and now possesses a fine freehold farm within a quarter of a mile of the Silverhope Railway Station. Mr. McLean married Miss McKenzie of Rosshire, and has four sons and six daughters.

Rangitikei River