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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. Samuel Yates

Mr. Samuel Yates, who acquired the Parengarenga property in 1863, was born in 1829, in London, where his father was a well-known solicitor. The subject of this sketch was educated in Liverpool and Paris, and on the completion of his studies, at the request of a number of his relatives who lived in New Zealand, came to this Colony by the ship ‘Monarch,” in 1852, and started a general store business in Mongonui in 1853, which he carried on for ten years. The business was afterwards bought by Mr. R. M. Houston, M. H. R. Mr. Yates went to Parengarenga in 1862 with the idea of stopping there for six months, but he remained there till he died in September, 1900, lamented by all who knew him. His widow now owns thousands of acres of land, and practically has a monopoly of the gum trade in the immediate district. She carries on a large general store and in the sorting establishment employs five hands. There are about 300 diggers on the fields, including Austrians, other Europeans, and natives, and the entire output, amounting to about 400 tons annually, passes through Mrs. Yates’ hands, her principle being to take delivery on the field. The gum is chiefly of the better class, there being very little poor stuff. The opinion is that the fields will not be worked out for thirty, possibly a hundred years. The homestead, which was erected in 1863 and completed about ten years ago, consists of a fine one-storey building,
The Late Mr. S. Yates.

The Late Mr. S. Yates.

page 609 45 feet by 18, with eleven rooms, three small residences occupied by employees, stables, outhouses, and a boarding-house belonging to the property. There are forty acres of excellent paddocks adjoining the houses. Butchering is done on the premises for the accommodation of the whole establishment. Mr. Yates was a gentleman of culture, and a thorough French scholar, and took great interest in art societies. He was personally acquainted with the late Emperor Louis Napoleon, and saw him a prisoner in 1814. The Emperor presented Mr. Yates with his autograph, which his family still possesses. In 1887 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the Stout-Vogel Government.