Woodville : genesis of a bush frontier community, 1874-1887 : the process of settlement and organisation on a New Zealand frontier : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University

a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and

private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without

the permission of the Author.

The process of scttlencnt and organisation

.::in a

Now

Zo2-lancl

frontier

.

A thesis

presented in

pe.rtial fulfilocnt

of

tho rcquirencnts for the D

egree of

Master

of Arts in

History at Massey Untvcrsity

by

RAYMOND JOSEPH SHAFFER

Massey University

1973

PREFACE

The object of this i·:ork is summarised in its title: genesis of a bush frontier comr:unHy. Each compon3nt of the title does not merely represent a r:ord, but a concept. "Genesis ¹¹ denotes notions of birth and gror;th, and in th:i.s context it is applied to the

processes and interaction involved in the transition from frontier in 1874 to establishment in 1887. Although "Bush" contains the obvious gE:ographical connot.:>tions associ:.:.ted i7ith th2 Seventy-Mile Bush, during the course of the study i t also assum(:.S an ideological meaning, (iepicting the t;v1)e of settler, his tasks, ~~oals and

aspi:;:.-ations. l'he concept "frontier", \'/l!ich is dealt in detail elsewhere, 1 implies a meaning of pl ace, ~rocess and time.

"Community" in this context points to the process of communiLy formation, containir:;~ the eGsential prereql~isites of belonginc t.o a ci.istinctive communi cy, ·:1i th r2g-ul·u·ised pattcrlls of inte.c".ction, a recoc:i:i seci sy3 "er.; of authori '::,r, and a !J~ared net of mu <;ual

t . 2

ext,ec-;;a ions.

This i3 ;:.. social ::i:::;tory in i.!1e hr.oa:lest s.,nse: th•·

sociolo;_;ical im:,lic-.. t:.oi:s of colTl.!nunit,y :;:co-::Lll 2:re set vrithir! a poli1,ical, ecor1or1jc, o•.,JminjsLra',i^1.1e, leg:~l q:~,! cultural context, provicling the st:.i.dy ·1:ith a suitable frame·.-:ork it1" order to rea:::;sc11ble the conum..rnitJ^1S hi.::;tory. In bri8f, Lhis e .f'a;) aitempts to analyse the dynamics and mec'.1anics of the compl.Jx pa!. terns, processes and interaction involved j n il1e settlement of a rmsh frontier community, tracin_s its development fror'1 infancy through to late adolescence and early maturity.

Such a study prest-nt:3 hypothetical, methodological-conceptual and contextual demands. The hypothetical requirements entail a

1. See 1-4 belon.

2. 1'!.R. Burch J!:, "The Hature of Community" in John Forster, (ed.), Social Process in Nerr Zealand (Auckland, 1969), 85.

more precise definition of the concept "frontier" from the American to the New Zee,land situation. fl research exercise of this nature provides an opportunity to test several working hypothesis suggested in Oliver's lecture Tm1ards a New History?3 (1969) and Coleman's article "The New Zealand Frontier and the Turner Thesis" (1955), 4 centred on the nature, character, process ancl timing of the New Zealand frontier, 11a.king conparisons with ove:rs<::as frontiers. The metholodological-conceptual demands involve the ap}lication of sociological conceptual analysis and geographical methodology to a historical problem, providing a wider basis to study the dynamic evolution of a bush frontier community within an individual, local, regional and national framework as nell as reducing the risks of overgeneralisation, particularly concerning definition of the concepts "settler" and "frontier". 5

Contextual demands are also evident on various levels. fl part from making useful COEi)srisons ,.,i th extra-Nen Zealanrl history, this essay provides a solid local base upon which to formulate

genen:lisations concerning New Zealand history as a whole, especially in the field of state-frontier interaction. Associated with this is the study's relevance to the evolution of bush frontier communities. Before Arnold's pioneering work, secondary source material on bush settlement rras confined to a few articles by Franklin, Heerdegen and Petersen. 6 Arnold h;J.s now made substantial provision for a suitable

3, ~i.H. Oliver, Tomuds a Ne"\7 History? (Hacken Lecture, 1969) (Dunedin, 197·1 •

4. Peter J. Coleman, "The New Zealand Frontier and the Turner Thesis", in Pacific Historical Review, yol.24 ( 1958), 221-37. 5. See 1~4 and 65 below.

6. See Rollo D. Arnold, "The Opening of the Great Bush, 1869-1881:

.A Social History of Bush Settlements of Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Wellington" (Ph.D. thesis, Victoria University, 1971);

S.IL Franklin7 "The Village in the Bush", in Forster, Social Process, 102-43 i Richard G. Heerdegen, "Land for the Landless", .in New Zealand Geographer, Vol.23 (llpril, 1967)i 34-49;

G.C. Petersen, "Pioneering the North Island Bush", in R.H.

Watters (ed.), Land and Society in New Zealand (i'lellington, 1965), 66-79.

base from which to study bush settlement. But at the local level secondary source material is limited to anniversary booklets: no comprehensive secondary source on ¹7oodville exists. This research exercise attempts to fill a marked void in the story of bush

settlement,7 complementing the \70rks of Arnold, Heerdegen and Gordon.8

But research in t11is c:1.rea ·:ras not all plain sailing: problems concerned with methodology arose directly out of the mi,ture of the demands and source materials. First, the nature of dem2.nds posed certain difficulties concerning organisation, sel :ctivity, continuity and control of material. A social history, by its very nature, covers a broad spectrum, and this created the danger oi' treating the material in a superficial manner.

A

good example of this was the handlin&, of the profusion of voluntary associations. Selectivity was rigidly enforced by choosing only a few examples to illustrate a central theme.

One of the major sp8cific problems concerned the definition of rfoodville's boundaries. l~rontier borders a:LE: marked by great confusion and c:unbigui ty. Provincial demarcations are simple:

Woodville being at the south-western most e:tremity of Hawke's Bay

7. As evidenced by the noticeable lack of references and blatant inaccuracies concerning Woodville in secondary accounts. See Errol Braithwaite, The Companion Guide to the North Island of New Zealand (Auckland5 1970), 280:

Woodville was established by Scandinavian immigrants, sturdy Danes and Swedes who passed through 1he Seventy- · Mile Bush from the north-east • • . • You can almost trace their passage to the east of ;.foodville on the farm mail boxes! names like Svensen, Anderson, Sorenson ..• Obviously Braithwaite is confusing '.loodville with the Dannevirke

cultural periphery; c.f .8-10 below. See also A.H.

McLintock (ed.) An Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington, 1966) Vol.3, 682; which claims "The first settlers arrived from

Southern Hawke' s Bay in 1862. By 1870 a township had emerged on an old route between the Manavratu and Hawke's Bay districts". c.f.11-12 below.

8. L(eslie). G(eoffrey) Gordon, "Immigration into Hawke's Bay, 1858-1876" (M.A. Thesis, Victoria University, 1965).

borders the ~ellington provicincial district. On the local level hm78ver, the fluctuating nature of ·.-ioodville' s boundaries makes political delimitation difficult. Boundary changes occurred v;hen 1:"iood-v-ille was constitu.ted a Highvray :District in 1878, a Town District

in 1884, and a Borough ir.. 1887. But these lines vrere greatly

complicated by the competing attempts to ~tabilise boundaries behreen local goverru:ient bodies and the ')c.-:..ipawa County Council. Apart from further )Oli ti cal demo,rcations, such EcS electoral boundaries,

rloodville -_·1as also a Licensing District e.11d a Resident Magistrate District. On top of this several indefinr..!.ble bounrtaries existed. Concentri c zones of front ier activity, external business and social affiliations, the influence of sta;te a~~encies, the natural cent·.ce of gravity at Napier, trade and communication patterns, ond the

penetration of a small farmer ideology _provided added Qillbiguity, The most efficient -rn,y to delimit -.food ville' s boundaries nas through a map and accompanyin;~; appendix displaying the physical features

which delimit '.food.ville as s. compact r0gic~1 (:i?itrure 1 and Appendix 11),

'I'he use of sociol o[;'ical concepts r:c.,y p:c0;s·mt IH'OlJlems of under- and over-conceptualisat:'con of ideas. Provision has been made, either in the; toxt or footnotes, to pr,·wide an accurate application and defin-Ltion of the concepts u::>ed.

The nature of the source rnateri~ls also presented }roblems. Because of the death of ccrly inhabi ta:1ts it r;as difficul t to provide an a1..:curate account oftho origins and movements of the original settl ers, thus forcing t he researcher to speculate. The available information ··:ras sr:atter2d in four separate localities (in order of importance): Wellingt on, Napi er, '.foodville and Palmerston North, with the bulk of tLe mat erial being located at r.7ellington.

ii.part from problems of distance, the source material vras unbalanced, Between 1874 and 1883 the information was very patchy and required an eclectic synthesis of external nevrnpaper correspondents' reports, archival material, memoirs and maps. But from 1883 the ~oodville

Examiner supplied an overabundance of material: a balance had to be achieved, The compilation of statistical information also posed difficulties. Before 1891, statistical breakdown of

information in official publications was limited to population, sheep returns, court records and school attendance. In some

instances the 1891 Census, although outside the bounds of the study, was used to provide an impression to offset partially this

limitation,

But the researcher cannot underestimate the utility of the existing sources. Ncnspapers, particularly the Uoodville Examiner, supplemented. by the Hawke' s Bay Herald, The He-.: Zealru1d Hail and the

·,faiparra Hail, providecl a valuable resourcC). In the \7oodville Examiner, local advertisements were important in supplying

informa,tion on local and outside business interests, the type of and relative demand for various services and 13oods, price indices,

indicators of pace, relative \"/ealth and institutional grQ\7th of the community, 12,nd sales, official announcenents, entertaimncmts and meetings. Apart from the 2di torials (which were inportant

refl0ctions as ·:rell as creators of local opinion), ;:sossip and correspondence colurinG; the newspaper also provided reports on el ection speeches, road bo8.rd meetings

anu

^!:'esident ma,::;istr;::,te court sittin_gs. The supplenentary nt:!nsp2,pers often served ;:~s a balance to the '."ioodville E~an1iner, p2rticularly concerning the controversy over the siting of the ·::oodvillo railway station in 1885.

Official sources \'1ere very helpful to confirm and resolve conflicting nev1Spaper :ceports.

House of Representatives, Statistics of the Colony of New Zealand, The Hawke' s Bay Gazettes, and

JJ:i.e

New Zealand Gazettes_, through

persistent cross-referencing, provided valuable information concerning the impact and interaction of the state on the frontier.

material and memoirs played the role of t:;ap-fillers.

Archival

Secondary source material, although linited, nas useful in building up a framework of the study. Oliver's lecture on Towards a New History? and his Challenge and Resuonse,9 helped to formulate

9.

W.H. Oliver and Jane I.!. Thomson, Challenge and Response, a study of the development of the Gisborne and East Coast Region.

( Gisborne, 1971).

a working hypothesis as rrell as providing a suitable methodologi cal substructure. This base nas largely 2.ssistod by two American works, Boor st in ¹ s 'l'he Americans: 2 The National Experience and

Billington's America's Frontier Herita.ge. ¹

°

For the provision of a contextual base ₁ J1rnold ¹s₁ Franklin's a.11d Gordon's i·.rorks were the greatest assets.

Acknowl ed,c;ern8nt s

I wish to extend ny sincere thanks to the following individuals and institutions who so willingly p::'.'ovided ~ssistance in the

rc;search of thi s essay: Mr R.:D. Arnold, of the Education :JepartBent at Victoria University and especially _ r L.G. Gordon of Papakurua High School, for valuable reference su[;gestions; ttc P .J. Gibbons of Waikato University for his valuable verbal contributions

concerning extra-Nen Zealand refcrencos 9 net~10clology and analysis;

Professor G. S. Fraser of the Sociology JeL:ic.rtuent at l'~assey

University for his c;.ssistance in clarifyin6· the conc0ptual analysis in the initial draft, ':1ho also reminded me th2.t the bridge between history and socioloe;y, although not inpasso.ble, for a (Jerson with a meagre sociological background Fas not an c;~1s,y one to cross; the

staff of the Alexander 'l'u:cnbull, General J1sscmbl,y, Massey University and Palr:i.erston North Librarios, as Vlell as those peopl e who assi sted associated 1·1i th National ..'1rchi ves 9 the ':'lood-rille Pioneer M:useum, the Woodville County Council and the HE~uke ¹ s Bay l1rt Gallery and Musewn; Mr J. Jamieson of ¹.7oodville and Mr J. Munro, Jhrector of the Hawkc's Bay Art Gallery e.nd Museun1, for their valuable assistance with the photographs reproduced in this thesis; lastly Professor YI .H. Oliver, my supervisor for the time and patience he put into the painstaking reading of the essay drafts.

10. Daniel J. Boorstin, The Ameri cans Volume T~o The National Experience (

? 1969) ,

and Ray Allerl"Billington, America's Frontier Heritage (New York₉

19 66).

PREFACE

LIST

OF T/1BLES

LIST

OF FIGURES

LIST

OF PLATES

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION

General Hypothesis

The concepts 'front ier' and

'

establishment' Organisat ion

CH:lPl'ER

I

THE FRONTIER I. The Physical Setting II. The

O

pening

III. Small

Fa:~Tl

Associations IV. Pattern of Settlement

CFMTER II INTERACTION AND I

NTEGR1\TION

PART I: THE STATE

Land Sett lement Local Reaction

The Utilisation of state agencies PART II: INST ANT COHIVITJNITY

(a) Local officiP.l organisations

(

b) Social Institutions and V

oluntary

associations

(c)

Macro

-micro agents of

identity

(d)

Bush- farmer ideology and social

stratification (e)

( f)

Economic momentllill and spatial organisation

Frontier momentum

Concl

usion

CHAPTZR III ESTABLISHMENT: 1887

APPENDIX A

SOURCES

Definition of Woodville' s Highway

Dis

trict, Town

District

and

Licen

sing

District

boundaries

page

i

vii viii

ix x

1

6

23

62 70

71

T11BLE II

TliBLE III

TABLE IV

TABLE VI

TABLE VII

TABLE VIII

TABLE IX

TABLE X

TABLE XI

LIST OF Ti\BLES

PoJulation a.ncl Sex Structure 1878 and 1881

The lip)lication of Land LGgislation on the llooc~villG Frontier between

1874-1887

:J.esident l:IagistratG Court Convictions 1883-1887

The amount of State and Local Government expenditure 1877-1887

lmctlysis of Street N2.Bos in -.7ooc1ville Borough

Sheep returns and size of flocks by various ovmers 1879-1887

Popul~tion, Jwellings and uste~ble

Properties 1877-1887

School Attendance 1879-1885

l1ge-Sex Structure 1891,

%

of total population

UoodvillG Riding's Poimlation Jensity and SGX Structure 1886

Numerical Strength of the predo~inant

religious organisations 1891

Pe.ge

21

26

37

39

55

59

60

60

66

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 3

FIGURE

4

FIGURE

5

FIGURE 6

FIGURE

7

FIGURE 8

LIST OF FIGURES

Woodville's Physical Components

Blocks available for Special Settlement 1872

Proposed Special Settlements 1872

Woodville Survey District 1085

Tormship of Woodville 187

4

Woodville Small Farm Association ·1s76

1rhe School as an example of a social system

Diagre.rnatic represent.~tion of Vfoodville¹s spatially organised hinterland, composed of integrated-

symbiotic components

following page

7

9

9

11

12

13

42

PLATE 1

PLAT E 2

PL.ATE 3

PL.ATE 4

PLATE 5

PL.ATE 6

PL.ATE 7

PLATE 8

PLATE 9

PLATE

10

LIS'I1 OF PL.ATES

Corner of tfde'.ln and Vogel Streets c.1872.

Punt over the Nanawatu in the Upper Gor3e c.1871-2.

Gorge Village c.1876

Woodville c.1878.

An Early Stock Sale.

Woodville during the early 1880¹s,

Co;nmercial Nucleus 1. 1886

Conrnercial Nucleus 2. 1886

Features of Establishment: The Kunoroa periphery 1887.

Features of Establishment: A settler's homestead c.1886.

following page

8

11

11

11

56

57

57

il.JHlt

HB

HBC

HBG

HEH

NZG

NZM

NZS p·i

1:1E adv.

'";tM

TABLE OF LBBl"IBVIATIONS

A₁;\1endices to JoL1rnal of th2 House of heprssentatives

Ifawke' s I3P..y J1rchives (held at "National

; .. rchi vos, ~-.-ellinGton)

Hmvke' s Be.,y Provincial Council's Votes ancl Proccc-dings

Hawke's B8.y Provincial G8.zettes

Hawke' s Bay Heral cl

!·Tew Z'28.land Gazette

Nm1 Zealend Nail

Statistics of the Colonx__s:J Neu Zealand

ParliE!Dentary Jebates

·:rood ville Examiner ( adverhsements)

lfaipawa Mail