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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Lichfield

Lichfield.

Lichfield is the name of a fine estate, and is the headquarters of the Thames Valley Land Company, proprietors of the large property once widely known as Paterere. It is situated on the main road from Putaruru to Taupo. There are very few property owners in the district.

The Lichfield Post And Telephone Office, which is conducted at the public school, was established in 1885. It is connected by telephone with all stations between Rotorua and Morrinsville, and mails are received and despatched each week.

Miss Isabella F. R. Kells, Postmistress and Telephonist, and Teacher in charge of the Public School, was born at Pakuranga, near Auckland. She was educated partly at Panmure and partly at Onehunga, and entered the service of the Auckland Board of Education as an assistant in 1878. Miss Kells was stationed at Panmure for eleven years, and has had charge of Lichfield school since 1898.

Miss I. F. R. Kells.Hanna, photo.

Miss I. F. R. Kells.
Hanna, photo.

The Lichfield Public School, which stands on a portion of the Lichfield station, was established in 1886. It is a wooden building, and has accommodation for thirty pupils. There are eighteen names on the roll, and the average attendance is fifteen.

The Lichfield Public Library, which was established in 1888, is lodged in the public school building. It contains 850 volumes, including a considerable number of page 797 recent works, and is a great boon to the somewhat scattered settlers of the district. Mr. Thomas Freeman, who has been chairman of the committee, acts also as secretary and librarian.

Freeman, Thomas, Farmer and Carrier, the “Moorlands,” Lichfield. Mr. Freeman was born at Reedness, near Goole, Yorkshire, England, in 1849, and was brought up to country work on his father's farm. He came to Auckland in 1889 by the ship “British Empire,” and settled near Cambridge, and, two years later, he was for a few months on the Te Aroha goldfield. When the constabulary had completed the road from Oxford to Rotorua, Mr. Freeman started a team and was the first to drive a waggon through to Rotorua; and subsequently he became the pioneer of a line of waggons from Taupo to Lichfield, a distance of fifty-four miles. Since the railway line was removed between Putararu and Lichfield, Mr. Freeman has had to deliver and receive goods at the former station. He has been a settler in the Lichfield district since 1886, and bought the Moorlands property—567 acres of freehold—in 1896. Mr. Freeman runs 250 sheep, twenty head of cattle and fourteen horses on his property, and has two five-horse teams regularly plying on the road. He has been a member of the Lichfield school committee for many years, and its chairman for five years. Mr. Freeman was married, in 1886, to a daughter of Mr. T. B. Ward, of Ruapuke, near Raglan, and has one adopted daughter. He is referred to in another article in connection with the Lichfield public library.

Mr. T. Freeman's Residence.

Mr. T. Freeman's Residence.

Lichfield Station, the property of the New Zealand Thames Valley Company, consists of 165,000 acres, and is under the management of the Assets Realisation Board. About 60,000 acres of the estate are in bush. The property is about forty miles by twenty-two miles in extent, and is worked as a sheep and cattle station.

Mr. Mark Harrison, Manager of the Lichfield Station, is referred to in another article as a member of the Piako County Council.