Descriptions of Ormondville & District (pt. 1)

Home Page - Bed & Breakfast - Souvenirs 

Ormondville - Makotuku - Norsewood - Matamau

 

Extracts from The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6 (Christchurch, 1908).

ORMONDVILLE is a rising township in the center of a dairying and grazing district, sixty-six miles by rail southwest from Napier, in the county of Waipawa. In 1876 a special settlement, comprising 2,600 acres was made, and later on other similar Government subdivisions were effected. Ormondville was named after the Hon. J.D. Ormond, M.L.C., who at one time owned large estates in the district. The country is very broken, and is rugged and mountainous. A deep gorge traverses the district north of the township, and is spanned by a large steel railway bridge. Sawmilling was at one time carried on near the township, but dairyfarming is now the principal industry, and sheep and cattle grazing is also carried on. Ormondville has a courthouse, a public school, two churches, a public library, one hotel, a public hall, various places of business, and a sports ground. The business of the post and telegraph office is conducted at the railway station. Ormondville, owing to its high altitude, is a favourite summer resort.

THE ORMONDVILLE TOWN BOARD has jurisdiction over a narrow area extending along the railway line from Ormondville to Makotuku, and embracing the two townships. The population of the Ormondville Town District is 413, and that of the outlying district, 775. A general rate of 2d in the £ is levied on the unimproved value, and this produces an annual revenue of about £70. The Board are trustees of the cemetery, which is situated outside the town area. The offices of the Board are situated in Ormondville, and meetings are held monthly. Mr Job Packer is chairman of the Board.

Mr JOB PACKER, Chairman of the Ormondville Town Board, was born in Gloucestershire, England, in the year 1845, and was brought up in the plastering trade. He came to New Zealand in 1872, and landed at Napier. For a few years he worked at pit-sawing and timber milling, and in 1876 took up his present farm of 103 acres at Ormondville., which he since successfully conducted. Mr Packer has been a member of the Ormondville Town Board for several years, is also a member of the library committee and cemetery board, and a member of the local lodge of Oddfellows. He was a member of the school committee for about fourteen years. Mr Packer is married, and has five sons and five daughters. (Photo published also)

Mr MATTHIAS JOSEPH SKINNER, member of the Ormondville Town Board, was born in London, England, in the year 1856. He received his education there, and at fourteen years of age went to a brother in Ontario, Canada, with whom he learned the bakery trade. Returning to England soon afterwards, he came to New Zealand, whence he went to Melbourne, where he remained for a year, and then came back to the Colony. He worked at Napier for about eighteen months, and in 1877 settled in Ormondville. Mr Skinner has for many years been a member of the school committee, and is a past grand of the Independent Order of Oddfellows. He is married and has five daughters and four sons. (Photo below)

Mr ROBERT READ GROOM J.P., was Chairman of the Ormondville Town Board from its inception in 1886 until 1898, and has been a Justice of the Peace since the former year. He is chairman also of the Domain Board and of the Cemetery Board, and is a member of the Hawkes Bay Land Board. Mr Groom was born in Dartford, Kent, England, in the year1846, and was educated in his native place and at the Church of England School in London. He subsequently served an apprenticeship to the milling trade with an uncle, and in 1874 came to New Zealand, by the ship ‘Winchester’. Landing at Napier, he went inland to Waipawa, where he remained until 1876, when he settled at Ormondville, and started one of the first stores there. Mr Groom is also chairman of the Library Committee, and for many years has been chairman of the Ormondville School Committee. He is a Freemason and a trustee of the Oddfellows, in which society he has passed through all the chairs. For a number of years he was a member of the Waipawa County Council, and has taken the greatest interest in public matters generally. He married a daughter of the late Mr Charles Beale, of London, and has six children. (Photo published also)

Mr JOHN CHARLES DAVIS, formerly a member of the Ormondville Town Board, represented the Makotuku Riding, and was for some time a member of the local school committee. Mr Davis was also the popular host of the Makotuku Hotel. He was born and educated in Auckland, where he learned the blacksmith’s trade, and on the completion of his apprenticeship, left for Taradale, where for three years he worked for Mr Robertson, and was for some time with Mr Lawton. Mr Davis commenced business on his own account first is Taradale, and in 1889 removed to Makotuku. He married a daughter of the late Mr W. Burton, of Taradale, and has two sons and two daughters. (Photo published also)

Mr WILLIAM SHUKER, formerly a member of the Ormondville Town Board, is a native of Shropshire, England, where he was born in 1845. Educated in Sheffield, he was apprenticed to the butchering trade, and came to this Colony in 1864, by the ship ‘Portland’. Landing at Auckland at the time of the Maori war, Mr Shuker joined Major Jackson’s Forest Rangers, and afterwards served on the West Coast under the gallant Von Tempsky. He received the New Zealand war medal, and a grant of land at Rangiaowhia. Mr Shuker visited various parts of Australia, and, returning to New Zealand, settled in Ormondville in 1882. He married the second daughter of Mr James Beard, of Marton, and has two daughters and one son. (Photo published also)

THE ALPHA DAIRY FACTORY, at Ormondville, is situated about one mile from the township, on the Norsewood Road, and was established in the year 1899 by the present proprietor, Mr Niels Nikoliason. Originally the factory had only a capacity of 300 gallons, and the plant was driven by a one-horse power portable engine; but from time to time it has been enlarged, and is now a fine building on concrete foundations, and contains an up-to-date plant, which is driven by an eight horse-power stationary engine. There are twenty-six suppliers, three persons are employed, and in the summer months the output amounts to 550lbs. of butter per day. Of this amount about 1,000lbs. a week are sold locally, under the brand “Alpha”, and the balance is sent to the English markets, bearing the brand “N.N. 735”; in both cases the highest market prices are realised.

Mr NIELS NIKOLIASON, proprietor of the Alpha Dairy Factory, was born in Denmark, on the 8th of January 1863, and came to New Zealand at the age of twelve years. He was afterwards employed for several years in bush work, chiefly in connection with sawmills, and afterwards settled at Ormondville. Mr Nikoliason subsequently turned his attention to dairy farming. His property consists of 600 acres, in two blocks, on which he depastures 1,200 sheep, 120 head of cattle, and a dairy herd of sixty cows. Mr Nikoliason has been a member of the Ormondville School Committee for about ten years, four years of which he was chairman, and is a member of the Hawkes Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society, and the National Dairy Association. He is married and has two sons and three daughters. (Photo published also)

SUGDEN, ARTHUR, General Storekeeper, Ormondville. Mr Sugden took over his present business in March, 1906, having previously conducted it since 1902, in partnership with his father, under the style of Messrs Sugden and Son. The building is a substantial one with a commodious billiard room at the rear. A large stock of general merchandise is kept, and a good trade is done in the surrounding district. Mr Sugden also conducts a large boarding house in conjunction with his business. He was born at Ross, Westland, in 1868, and was educated at Hokitika. He was afterwards employed for some years in the butchery trade on the West Coast, in Christchurch, and in Auckland, and then removed to Hawkes Bay. For four years Mr Sugden conducted the Beaconsfield Hotel, at Makotuku, and for three years subsequently was engaged in dairy farming at Norsewood, before taking up his present business.

Other local towns mentioned in the Cyclopedia:

MAKOTUKU is situated sixty-eight miles south by rail from Napier, in the county of Waipawa, and is the centre of a dairyfarming and sawmilling district. Brick-making, sheep, and cattle farming are also carried on. Makotuku has a church, a public school, a public hall, two hotels, a creamery, and various places of business. The post, telegraph, and money order office is conducted at the railway station. The roads in the district.

"BLAIRGOWRIE" (C.C. Smith proprietor), Makotuku. This property was acquired by the present proprietor in the year 1897. It lies between the Mangatewainui river and the Mangatewaiti river, and comprises 1,485 acres of first-class undulating country. Most of the heavy bush has been felled, and the land cleared, and the property is altogether in an advanced state of improvement. The winter flock comprises 2,800 sheep, but in the summer months about 4,500 are carried, and 200 head of cattle. There is a fine modern residence, and efficient out-buildings have been built on the property.

MR CHARLES COWPER SMITH, J.P., proprietor of "Blairgowrie," is the eldest son of the Hon. W.C. Smith. He was born at Waipukurau, on the 16th of January, 1875, and was educated at public schools, and at Wanganui College, where he won the bronze medal presented by the Royal Humane Society of Australasia. He then turned his attention to farming, and was for three years on Messrs Williamson Brothers' station and Waituna West, in the Rangitikei district, and then found employment successively on Mr Sydney Johnston's estate at Takapau, and Mr S. Franklin's sheep-station at Weber, before acquiring his present property. Mr Smith is a member of the local branch of the Farmers' Union, and he has been Chairman of the Makotuku School committee for two years. In 1898 he married Miss Brabazon and has three sons. (Photo published also)

NORSEWOOD is a prosperous dairyfarming settlement, seventy miles south-west from Napier, in the county of Waipawa, and is situated between the Ruahine Ranges and Ormondville, the nearest railway town, from which it is four miles distant. It is an old Scandinavian and Danish settlement, and was founded many years ago. At one time sawmilling was largely carried on in the district, but the bush has now almost entirely disappeared, and dairyfarming and grazing are the principal industries. The land is excellent, the roads in the district are good, and game is abundant in the neighbourhood. Norsewood has a large and prosperous co-operative dairy factory, with several creameries, a post, telegraph and money order office, a public school, a public library, a town hall, several churches, two hotels, and various places of business. There is a daily coach service with Ormondville. (Note: Then follows the biographies of a number of Norsewood people.)

Matamau is not mentioned.