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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 3 (July 2, 1928)

Military Settlements of Waikato

Military Settlements of Waikato.

Like every other town in the central Waikato country, it is an old military settlement, dating back to 1864. Each township from here to Kihikihi and Cambridge, on the old frontier-line grew up around a central redoubt, a rallying-place in case of alarm. There were frequent alarms and threatened raids in the more southern townships such as Alexandra (now Pirongia) and Kihikihi, and some of the settlers’ families took refuge in the redoubts until the state of tension was over.

The forces which first settled Hamilton and other districts in the great area of land confiscated from the defeated Maoris consisted of three regiments of military settlers recruited in New Zealand and Australia and called the Waikato Militia. Each man was allocated a free section of farming land and a town section. Privates were given 50 acres of rural land and a town acre, and other ranks in proportion; captains received 300 acres and field officers 400 acres. It was the Fourth Regiment of Waikato Militia that founded Hamilton. The place was originally a Maori village called Kirikiriroa, page 41 meaning a long stretch of gravel (at the riverside).

The first company of the settlers who established a permanent garrison here numbered 118 men of the Fourth, under Captain William Steele. They landed here from the colonial gunboat “Rangiriri” on 24th August, 1864. The first camp was on the eastern bank of the Waikato, near where the eastern end of the present traffic bridge is. The other regiments allotted Waikato land were the Second, who were settled at Alexandra, on the Waipa River, and at Kihikihi; the Third, who founded the town of Cambridge. The First were sent to Tauranga. Jackson's and Von Tempsky's Forest Rangers were also given land in the Waipa country. In all, the Government introduced about three thousand military settlers and their families into this conquered Waikato-Waipa region, and that was the nucleus of civilisation in the rich, well-tended, and beautiful Central Waikato country of to-day. The town that grew up on both sides of the river was named in memory of Captain Hamilton, of H.M.S. “Esk,” who was killed in the assault of the Gate Pa, Tauranga, on the 29th April, 1864.

Striking due southward now, the rails cross the long levels of the Rukuhia (literally, “Diving”),
A Canoe Parade on the Waikato River at Ngaruawahia.

A Canoe Parade on the Waikato River at Ngaruawahia.

once a vast quaking marsh with numerous small lagoons, haunt of wild-fowl and eels. When the line was constructed in the “eighties” the engineers had a most troublesome problem to solve in the Rukuhia. Enormous quantities of ballasting material were poured into the swamp in order to obtain a firm foundation for the rails, but the huge bog swallowed everything up and asked for more. It was believed a great subterranean lake existed beneath the surface of peat. Many months were occupied in satisfying the demand of this seemingly bottomless marsh for gravel and shingle.