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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts]

Arahura

Arahura.

Arahura is situated on the Greymouth-Hokitika line of railway, and is twenty miles from Greymouth, and five from Hokitika. It is in the Arahura riding of the county of Westland, and in the electorate and provincial district of Westland. Arahura was at one time known as Harcourt's Ferry. It is four miles from Stafford, and is served by the post office there. At the census of 1901, no special return was made of the population.

The Arahura Road School is situated about three miles from Hokitika, and was erected in the year 1878. A second class-room was added in 1891. There are sixty children on the roll, with an average attendance of about fifty. The annual examinations of the school have been very satisfactory.

Mr. John James Henderson , the Headmaster, took charge of the school in 1887, and is assisted by Mrs Henderson, who had been associated with the school for several years previously. Born in Dublin, and educated at the Normal Training College, Dublin, Mr. Henderson was engaged in teaching in various model schools in Ireland before emigrating to New Zealand by the ship “Ruapehu,” in 1886. He was for twelve months at Wangaehu school, near Wanganui, before being appointed to the Arahura road school. Mr. Henderson is secretary of the Westland branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute. He married a daughter of Mrs Olive, of Hokitika, and has one son and two daughters.

Arahura Dairy Factory Company, Limited , Arahura. This company was established in August, 1905, with a capital of £2000, in £1 shares. The factory is strongly built on a concrete foundation, and stands on elevated page 535 ground. It contains a separator room, twenty-four feet by sixteen feet; a butter room, twenty feet by twenty feet; a freezing chamber, ten feet by eight feet; an engine room sixteen feet by twelve feet; and a boiler house fourteen feet by ten feet. The studs are thirteen feet in height. The plant includes an engine by Brown and May; a Niven and Company boiler; a British Linde freezer, a De Laval separator of 440 capacity, a Leicester pasteuriser, a Topliss butter worker, churns, and printer, three Gould pumps, an Olsen and Davidson skim milk weigher, and a McGowan steam hoist.

Mr. John Cameron , Manager of the Arahura Dairy Factory, was born in Dunedin in the year 1878. He was educated at Stirling, and was brought up to farming. In 1898, Mr. Cameron started work in the Stirling factory, under Mr. W. Sawers, and, later on, acted as an assistant at Edendale to Mr. James Sawers, a well known dairy expert. In 1902, he was placed in charge of the Matueka Dairy Factory, and in 1903 he took charge of the Stirling Dairy Factory during the illness of Mr. W. Sawers. In 1904 Mr. Cameron took charge of the Waimana Dairy Factory, Bay of Plenty, for the Assets Realisation Board, prior to his present appointment.

Mr. John Lawrence Smith , sometime a farmer at Arahura, was born in For- farshire, Scotland, in the year 1840, and went to Victoria, Australia, by the ship “Shalimahr” in 1860. On the discoverv of gold in New Zealand in 1861 he sailedl in the ship “Ocean Chief” for Otago, and was amongst the first to leave Dunedin for Gabriel's Gully. After being on the diggings for some time, he started storekeeping in Munro's Gully, and was successful. Early in 1865, he left for the West Coast, where he followed the diggings for some time, and finally, in 1867, took up a dairy farm at Arahura. He devoted much time to the formation of the Westland Agricultural and Pastoral Association in 1893, and was elected its first president. He was also a member of the Westland Education Board.