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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Maungatawhiri Valley

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Maungatawhiri Valley.

Maungatawhiri Valley is situated forty-eight miles south from Auckland, and is eight miles from the Pokeno railway station beyond Pokeno Valley. It is in Manukau County, and is included in the Maungatawhiri road district. The district is not only very pretty, but very fertile, and is chiefly a centre for the dairy industry. There is a post office and a public school in the district.

The Maungatawhiri Road Board governs a district which was originally part of the Pukekohe road district, from which it was cut off about 1875. It is bounded by the East Pukekohe road district on the north and west, the Waikato river on the south, the Mercer road district on the south east, and by the Maungatawhiri creek and Great South Road on the east. It embraces ten miles of the Great South Road, including the celebrated hills known as Razorback and Pokeno. Members for 1900; Messrs F. G. Austin, chairman, E. H. Mackay, J. G. Rutherford, S. S. Smith, and A. Batty.

Mr. William Knowles Cornthwaite, Clerk and Treasurer of the Maungatawhiri Road Board, was born at Brookhouse, Lancashire, England, in 1842. He was one of the Bombay settlers, who arrived in 1865, and he opened the first hotel in Mercer as its manager. Afterwards he held a similar position at the Delta Hotel, Ngaruawahia. Mr. Cornthwaite was married, in 1865, to a daughter of Mr. R. Worden, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and has nine sons and five daughters. His eldest son was the first European born in Mercer.

The Maungatawhiri Valley Post Office has been conducted at the public school for many years. The three mail days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the local teacher, Mr. Howard J. Ellis, acts as postmaster.

Maungatawhiri Valley Public School, which was established in 1875, has accommodation for forty children, and contains one class room and a porch. There are thirty-two names on the roll, and the average attendance is thirty. The schoolmaster's residence, of four rooms, is situated at the back of the school. Mr. Howard J. Ellis, the Headmaster, holds a [gap — reason: illegible]l certificate, and was appointed to the position in 1898.

The Maungatawhiri Valley Creamery, which is worked by the New Zealand Dairy Association, was established in 1895. The building is situated just off the main road up the valley, and on the banks of the Maungatawhiri creek. It is built of wood and iron, and an Alpha separator, capable of treating 400 gallons of milk per hour, is driven by a four-horse power Tangye engine. The building is the property of the suppliers, who number fourteen, and supply about 600 gallons daily.

Mr. Charles Walter Vinson, Manager of the Maungatawhiri Valley Creamery, was born in Kent, England, in 1870. He was educated partly in his native county, and partly in New Zealand, and arrived in Auckland by the ship “Sydenham,” in 1881. After gaining a general experience of country life, Mr. Vinson joined the Dairy Association, and became manager at Maungatawhiri in 1895.

Appleby, William, Farmer, Maungatawhiri Valley. Mr. Appleby, who was for some years a member of the Maungatawhiri Road Board, and also served on the school committee, was born in 1843, at Belper, Derbyshire, England. He came to Australia in 1854, and for a short time engaged in gold mining at Ballarat. In the following year he settled in the East Tamaki district, where he found employment for about ten years. After living for five or six years in Drury, Mr. Appleby commenced farming at Razorback. He purchased land in the Maungatawhiri Valley in 1876, and has since increased his holding to 400 acres. Mr. Appleby was married, in 1863, and has nine sons and four daughters.

“Cloverlea,” Maungatawhiri Valley. This property is owned by Mrs Maragaret E. Motion, widow of the late Mr. W. Motion. It consists of 180 acres, nearly all improved, and is utilised as a sheep and dairy farm.

Mr. William Motion was born in West Kilbryde, Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1848. He was brought up to agriculture, and engaged in farming in Ayrshire for some years. In 1882 he arrived in New Zealand, and settled in Pokeno, where he purchased a farm of 155 acres, known as “Ferndale,” on which he resided until his death in 1893. He was a member of the Maungatawhiri Road Board and school committee for several years, and also served for some time on the Auckland Board of Education. Mr. Motion was married, in 1872, to a daughter of Mr. W. Dunlop, of Ayrshire, and has two daughters and three sons.