The town that never was
By VICKI PRICE - Taranaki Daily News
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Despite planning and a strong will, Makaka still hasn't grown into a town. Nevertheless, it is a community that has endured for a hundred years.
On a patch of land south of the mountain, between Stratford and Opunake, lies an invisible town. The sections are all marked out on paper into residential lots, but the land remains in pasture.
There was once a school, a sawmill and a road that grew from a muddy horse track through towering forest to the tar-sealed road we know today as the Opunake Road. The drive for more land for incoming European settlers (and the government's wish to make inroads into the lands held by Parihaka farther around the coast on the rich Waimate Plains) saw the land surveyed with haste by W.H. Skinner, J. Bird, C. Finnerty and F. Joseph in the late 1870s.
By 1892, progress had clearly been made and the Hawera Star's travelling correspondent wrote: "Nobody expects that Makaka will emulate the growth of Melbourne or Manaia, but she may yet leave her mark in the history of the world. The fate of Pompeii may be in store for her and the remains of her future inhabitants may have the distinguished honour of being dug up a century or two hence in the 21st century. Everything comes to those who wait."
The one-horse- wide track, originally named Hursthouse Line, was undulating and often wet, but the 1892 writer did wonder why this land of excellent quality wasn't being taken up, especially with government land being so scarce at the time. Blocks of 30 acres had recently been available for 30 shillings an acre.
The reason was that the next road down, running between Eltham and Opunake, was a lot easier to traverse. The original plan had been for Hurtshouse Line to become the main road for trade between Stratford and Opunake and Makaka village was mapped out as an intended central point on the route. But the 15-foot-wide track crossed many rivers and wound up and down through gullies and hills. Its many bridges were built from fern trees and saplings. The Eltham Road was on flatter ground and the bush was much less dense.
After the turmoil was over at Parihaka, the government allocated less money to the now-named Opunake Road and instead spent more on the Eltham Road between 1882 and 1884 than any other road in the province. Consequently, it was along the better road that land sold and was developed. The Opunake Road, passing through the intended town of Makaka, remained not much more than a one-pack horse track.
Another correspondent in 1906 again wrote in the Hawera Star about the high hopes held for progress in the Makaka area. It was known for its rich soils - and potatoes, carrots and oats were grown there, the latter harvested from George Mann's property "could not be excelled in any part of the country", the writer enthused.
"When the Stratford-Opunake [road] is completed right through, the Makaka township may come into greater prominence and as there is a fine timber mill right in the vicinity, it would be easy to have a building boom there. If someone would only discover the gold that is said to exist in that locality, we would have a Ballarat in less than a couple of years. These things have happened before."
The real gold to be found in Makaka was the people, however. The men who worked at the local Parkes and Brooker sawmill petitioned the government for a school and land was bought for the purpose by the Wanganui Education Board in 1888, along with several others around the mountain. The Makaka school was opened in 1909, possibly on the heels of a household school that had been operating in the meantime. Eighteen children turned up on the first day of school, including seven girls from the Geary family: Rachel, Julia, Edith, Ellen, Gerty, Maggie and Rita, dressed in their best clothes. The children's first teacher was Fred Davie, who had had just two days of observational teaching experience before taking the post.
The 450-square-foot building sat on 10 acres and began with two desks and a fireplace - nothing else. Without a teacher's residence, each new teacher would have to board with neighbouring families for many years until the long-awaited house was finally supplied by the government in 1957. Not surprisingly, replacement teachers were hard to come by at Makaka.
Bush fires were a danger to the school and local farms suffered from several blazes. Ralph Voullaire, when he was in his 80s, recalled his father's dousing the flames on one of his haystacks with milk, emptying the cans he was taking to the factory. The Voullaire family farmed on nearby Rowan Road and without a cowshed, would milk their cows standing in the paddock - not an easy job in a cold and wet South Taranaki sou'easter, especially when a cow moved from her sheltering position.
The school had its own gardens, which the children attended to each week. Makaka held sports games with neighbouring schools and each year, the children would be taken on a picnic - usually to Dawson Falls, Opunake Beach, or Ngaere Gardens. In 1930, a generous teacher closed the school for the whole day in order to take the children to Dawson Falls to experience a two-inch snowfall. Many of the children had never been in the snow before and the teacher taught them the fun of a snow fight.
Makaka was a school with much self-pride. It won the Tisch Shield for the best-kept schoolgrounds in the whole province in its size category in 1930 and again in 1951.
As the region plunged into and emerged from the Great Depression, the 1930s saw several advancements in the Makaka region: the Junior Red Cross was formed, tractors were introduced, the first Guy Fawkes celebrations were held, the telephone system was introduced and Post Office accounts were opened by the schoolchildren.
Being near the edge of the mountain's ring plain meant the district saw a lot of rain and February 2, 1936, is a date many families remember for a great flood. On that day, 7.95 inches fell, followed by 3 inches the day after. The approaches of the Makaka Bridge were washed away and the Punehu River dramatically changed course and washed away the whey tanks and bailey house from the Taungatara dairy factory.
Once the floodwaters abated, Makaka residents were able to salvage as much timber as they could from where it had ended up at Te Kiri. They used it to build the region a hall that still stands. Some of the timber had had years of wax dripping on it from when it had lined the floor of the cheese curing room in the Taungatara factory and this made it an excellent dance floor.
Electricity came to the school at the beginning of 1950. In these years, the roll rose to 40 students. Euchre card parties and fancy dress balls were popular ways for money to be raised for improvements to the school. The school's 50th jubilee was celebrated in 1959 and it continued to educate new generations until the declining rural population saw its roll dwindle to nine in 1973. It was the death knell.
The sawmill and school moved on, but the hall and pool remain, as does another important rural organisation: The Makaka Country Women's Institute was formed in 1960 and is still going strong. The lower road between Eltham and Opunake grew to become the main route and Makaka never had a chance to grow. Despite that, the town that never was retains a strong sense of community, which was celebrated 100 years from its founding by residents last weekend, many of them descended from the families that first settled there.
References:
Stumps to Strainers - A Centennial History of Makaka & Riverlea, by Marlene Williamson.
* Did this story bring back memories or would you like to get in touch about another Taranaki story? You can write c/- Features editor Deborah Sloan, 49 Currie St, PO Box 444, New Plymouth 4340, or ring the newspaper on 759-0800 ext 8705#, or email tnlfeatures@tnl.co.nz.
