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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Makaraka

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Makaraka.

Makaraka is a small village about three miles and a half west of Gisborne on the main road, which at this settlement branches to the right and to the left. The road to the right leads to Ormond, Te Karaka, and Opotiki, while that to the left affords communication to Nuhaka Hot Springs, Wairoa, and Napier. Makaraka has a large hotel, a store and post office, a blacksmith's shop and other business premises. There is daily communication with Gisborne by coach. The settlement is in the Poverty Bay road district and in Cook county. Makaraka is remarkable for the natural gas which comes from artesian wells along with the water, and the gas is utilised by several of the settlers for lighting and cooking purposes.

The Makaraka Post Office And Telephone Bureau is conducted at the store of Mr. William Dixon. A daily mail is received and despatched; the post office has been in existence for a considerable number of years.

Kia Ora Dairy Factory (Thomas McGregor, proprietor), Makaraka. This factory was started in a temporary building in the early part of 1899, and the present premises were completed in November of that year. The factory is substantially constructed of brick, and is fitted with the most approved appliances for the expeditious and efficient production of butter. The plant is driven by a twelve-horse-power boiler, attached to an eight-horse-power Tangye engine. Two 400-gallon De Laval separators are installed, and a thirty bottle steam turbine tester, which is about the largest to be obtained, and on the latest principle. The factory is supplied also with a circular butter worker, a churn capable of manipulating 800lbs at a time, and a Humble and Malcolm freezing machine, and with one of Anderson and Co.'s cream vats, capable of holding 300 gallons, a Dobson's steam hoist, and a Sahoe cream elevator for lifting the cream. The condenser, the chilling chamber, and the freezing chamber are the other main items of the plant. The utmost cleanliness, an important factor, is observed, and the factory is so compact and well arranged that it is a model of its kind. Mr. McGregor has established two skimming stations, one at Patutahi and one at Gisborne. In each of these he has a 400-gallon De Laval separator. At his factory he obtains milk from the farms within a radius of five miles, and cream is brought to him from a distance of twelve miles. The Kia Ora butter is praised very highly, and some Taranaki dairymen describe it as of full, rich flavour, probably fuller and richer than their own. Other high encomiums have been passed on Mr. McGregor's manufactures, and the best test is in the large sale that he maintains. The Kia Ora has by far the largest local sale, and besides the export out of the Colony, quantities are sent to Auckland. Messrs Bennet and Sherratt are the Gisborne wholesale agents, distributing throughout the district to storekeepers. In the English market Kia Ora butter brings a high price, and several letters have been sent to the Colony in praise of its excellent qualities.

Mr. Thomas McGregor, Proprietor of the Kia Ora Dairy Factory, was born in Canterbury in 1860. He was educated and brought up to country pursuits in his native place, and afterwards engaged in farming for ten years at Stratford, Taranaki. Mr. McGregor removed to Poverty Bay in 1899, in order to enter into the dairy business. He owns the two acres of land on which the factory is erected, and resides at the Matoaki block, where he has a further area of ten acres and three-quarters. While in Taranaki Mr. McGregor was a director of the Ngaire Co-operative Dairy Factory from its inauguration. He was married, in 1880, to a daughter of Mr. H. McIntosh, of Rangiora, and has four sons and five daughters.

Cox, photo.Mr. T. McGregor.

Cox, photo.
Mr. T. McGregor.

Mr. Major Hooper Clark, Factory Manager of the Kia Ora Dairy Factory, was born at Hokitika, Westland, in 1877. He was educated at Midhurst, Taranaki, where he had about four years' experience in a sawmill, and in 1894 he joined the staff of the Midhurst Dairy Factory as a junior. For two years he occupied the position of assistant buttermaker at that factory, and left to take up the position of manager at Makaraka factory. Mr. Clark assisted in the opening of the factory, and fitted up the entire plant, excepting the freezing machine, which has from the first been under his management.

Browne, photo.Mr. M. H. Clark

Browne, photo.
Mr. M. H. Clark

The Roseland Hotel (William Currie and Maurice Hogan, proprietors), Makaraka. This well-known hotel was established about 1875, and the present house was built in 1890. It is of wood and iron, and has two stories, with a balcony on two sides, and contains eighteen rooms, ten of which are bedrooms, page 1004 besides three sitting rooms behind, and a fine dining room, with accommodation for thirty guests. The hotel is a favourite resor with racing people, and there is stabling accommodation for about thirty horses. The Poverty Bay Turf Club has a racecourse on the property, and two meetings are held annually—one in October and one in January. Periodical cattle sales are also held at Makaraka. The Roseland Hotel is lighted by means of a natural gas, which is one of the marvels of the district. This gas rises with the water from an artesian bore, and is caught in a gasholder, from which it is laid on throughout the hotel. It is not only used for lighting purposes, but also for heating water for the bath. There is a very large supply, much more than can be used in the hotel, and the gas blows to waste all day long.

Mr. William Currie, who is the second son of Mr. W. Currie, of Waiuku, is one of the proprietors of the Roseland Hotel, and was born in Auckland in 1854. He was educated in Auckland and at Waiuku, where he was engaged in farming for some years. Mr. Currie joined the police force, in which he was a mounted trooper for about ten years, and served in carrying despatches on the East Coast. In 1879 he settled down at Ormond as a hotelkeeper, and removed to Makaraka in 1888. He takes an interest in local affairs, principally at election times, and is a member of the Poverty Bay Club. He was married, in 1883, to a daughter of Mr. S. Roe, of Ormond, and has three daughters and one son.

Browne, photo.Mr. W. Currie.

Browne, photo.
Mr. W. Currie.

Mr. Maurice Hogan, one of the Proprietors of the Roseland Hotel, Makaraka, was born in County Limerick, Ireland, in 1852. He was educated at Mitchelston, County Cork, and was brought up to country life by his father. Mr. Hogan came to Auckland in 1874 by the ship “Dorette.” The first four years of his life in the colony were spent partly in mining and partly in bush work. He settled in Poverty Bay in 1878, and entered into partnership with Mr. Currie in the proprietorship of the Chandos Hotel at Ormond in 1881, and held the business till the end of the lease. The partners bought the freehold of the Roseland Hotel, Makaraka, where Mr. Hogan now resides. He was for several years a member of the Ormond Road Board, and he is a member of the Poverty Bay Turf Club and of the Gisborne and Tolago Bay Racing Clubs.

Mr. M. Hogan.

Mr. M. Hogan.

Bryant, Robert Eason, Farmer, “Waikanae,” Makaraka. Mr. Bryant was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1850, and was brought up as a contractor in connection with the construction of railroads and waterworks. Having obtained excellent testimonials in connection with such works, he came to Napier, in 1882, by the ship “British King,” and took contracts at Waipawa. He subsequently leased Mr. Burke's butter factory at Bushmere, and worked it for three years. In 1897 Mr. Bryant leased the Waikanae property, which is 316 acres in extent. He has sunk an artesian well to the depth of 187 feet, and it yields 36,000 gallons of water per day. On observing that there was gas on the surface of the water, Mr. Bryant conducted experiments, and was the first to use it by laying it on to his house for lighting and cooking purposes, at a cost of £125. Mr. Bryant has a dairy and small butter factory on his property, and is a large manufacturer of bacon and ham. He oreeds a great many pigs on his estate, and is also a producer of dairy-fed pork. The produce of his farm is disposed of by Mrs Bryant at her shop in Gladstone Road, Gisborne. Mr. Bryant was married, in 1870, to a daughter of Mr. R. Rawlins, of Sutton, England.

Mr. Peter Macfarlane, sometime of Makaraka, Poverty Bay, was born in 1821, in Forfarshire, Scotland, and was the eldest son of Mr. Peter Macfarlane, dancing-master. He followed the calling of his father up to the time of his settlement in Poverty Bay. In 1849 he left Scotland in the ship “Ramilies,” bound for Adelaide, South Australia, and after being in the Australian Colonies for nearly five years he came to Auckland, New Zealand, about 1855. He remained in Auckland for twelve months, but then moved to Nelson, and subsequently resided in Dunedin, and at Moeraki, in Otago. He followed his profession for six years, both in Nelson and Otago. About eighteen months prior to the massacre of Major Biggs by Te Kooti, Mr. Macfarlane and his wife arrived in Poverty Bay, where they engaged in dairy farming. During the Te Kooti raid, the settlers were not allowed to remain at their homesteads at night, and Mr. and Mrs Macfarlane were compelled to cross the Turanganui river every day, and seek the shelter of the Great Redoubt, built by the forces for the protection of the colonists. Before leaving Scotland Mr. Macfarlane married Miss Christina McBain, of Inverness, and they had a family of seven children. Mr. Macfarlane died in October, 1899.