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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Waipuku

Waipuku.

Waipuku is a small settlement situated twenty-four miles south by rail from New Plymouth, halfway between Inglewood and Stratford, and is in the county of Stratford, and in the Huiroa survey district of the Taranaki land district. A short branch line of railway to Manganui is (1900) being constructed in order to open up the district, which was originally covered with virgin bush. Waipuku has a creamery and a post office, situated near the corner of Rutland and Croydon roads. There is a public school at Tariki, about two miles distant. The railway station, the highest in Taranaki, stands 1125 feet above sea level. The main south road, known as the Mountain road, runs through the settlement.

The Waipuku Post Office is conducted at the homestead of Mr. F. Bell. It was opened in 1894, and receives and distributes a daily mail, but no mail is despatched from the office.

Mr. Frederick Bell, Postmaster at Waipuku, is a native of Lincolnshire, England. He became a colonist of New Zealand in 1876, and after working at his trade as a blacksmith for twenty-one years in New Plymouth, he settled at Waipuku in the year 1897.

The Waipuku Creamery is one of the skimming stations of the Midhurst Dairy Factory Company. It stands at the junction of the Rutland and Croyden roads, on a half-acre section. The building is of wood and iron, and the plant includes a six horse-power steam engine, and a number six Baillie separator, capable of treating 880 gallons per hour. During the season of 1906 there were twenty suppliers, and up to 1400 gallons of milk were delivered daily.

Mr. Robert Milne was appointed Manager of the Waipuku Creamery in the year 1905. He was born in 1875 in Wanganui, and was educated at the Wanganui Boys' High School. Mr. Milne was brought up to country life, and afterwards gained eight years' experience at the Moa Dairy Factory in Inglewood, where he had charge, for part of the time, of the separators and engine. He was subsequently manager of the Skinner Road Creamery for one year before he took up his duties at Waipuku. In 1898 Mr. Milne married a daughter of Mr. H. F. Goff, of Woodville, and has one daughter.