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1 THE LAND STORY – CROFTON/NGAIO METHODIST PRESBYTERIAN AND UNION CHURCHES The Crofton/Ngaio Methodist, Presbyterian and Union land story covers the earliest aspects of Maori history of the area, the initial sales to the Company, and a brief resume of subsequent occupants, purchasers, titles and building in order to answer the key questions posed by the Connexion. The story of the groups who planned and used the churches is told fully in First a church... the continuing story of Ngaio Methodist, Presbyterian and Union Churches by Elaine E Bolitho, published December 2004 by the Ngaio Union Church. Ngaio Union’s parish boundaries also include the former Cashmere Methodist Community Centre (111 Cashmere Avenue, ) demolished in 2001. The story of this property, and its regeneration as the Cochran Hall at the Cashmere Avenue School is told in the Cashmere Land Story, and in The Vision Restored, published by Ngaio Union Church in May 2003. Ngaio Union, as the legal successor to the proceeds held in trust from the Cashmere land sale, was granted funding for approved capital work on the Ngaio Union property, thus ensuring that in 2005 all buildings were fully compliant. Contents Key Questions asked in Our Land Story The successive tangata whenua of Te -a-Tara Tracing the division of the land, the titles and the owners (A) Methodist (B) Presbyterian Copies of Certificates of Title References

NGAIO UNION CHURCH Ngaio Union Church July 2004 2 KEY QUESTIONS ASKED IN OUR LAND STORY Information Leaflet No 46, November 1991

How was the land originally obtained from the Maori people? Was the land purchased? In September 1839, Colonel , on behalf of the , purchased the whole area of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the Harbour) and the surrounding ranges for goods worth £400. This was known as the Port Nicholson purchase. Translators Dicky Barrett and Ngati were engaged to explain the deed of sale and the New Zealand Company’s land reserve system, whereby Maori would be granted one tenth of the land. Actually it was a case of one Maori section allocated for every ten settler sections — an eleventh. The sale was negotiated with Te Ati Awa chiefs, Te Wharepouri (who had been living at since 1836) and Te Puni (living at Petone), who saw the sale as a means of establishing the bounds of the recently migrated Te Ati Awa and people. (For more detail about the earlier Maori activities in the area see the supplementary information in pages 6- 8 concerning the successive tangata whenua of Te Whanganui-a-Tara.) The

ALEXANDER TURBULL LIBRARY PUBL —001 1-02-1 New Zealand Company’s proposal that The Maori chief Te Wharepouri. every “tenth” section would be set aside for Maori use gave rise to the term Wellington Tenths. Did the purchase have tribal consent? The majority of the previous Te Whanganui-a-Tara occupants — Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga (who may have intermarried with earlier Ngati Ira residents) — migrated to the Chatham Islands on board the Rodney. “In terms of traditional tenure, Ngati Mutunga had established an unchallenged right to large areas of the harbour, and this right they had formally transferred to Taranaki and Te Ati Awa in November 1835.” (Ballara p 30) 3 In 1835 Ngati Mutunga, by panui (announcement), made over their lands from Petone to Ngauranga (north east side) to their Te Ati Awa kinsman Te Matangi (later baptised Rawiri) and to his son Te Manihera Te Toru. These two cousins of Te Puni and Te Wharepouri had been living with Ngati Mutunga since 1832. When Wakefield moved on to Cloudy Bay, in the Marlborough Sounds, he was told that the land he had bought did not belong to the Te Ati Awa chiefs to sell, but that it belonged to Ngati Toa. He then negotiated a sale with Ngati Toa chiefs, including Te Rauparaha for a much wider area, but still including Te Whanganui-a-Tara. The Kapiti deed was supported by a second deed executed by Te Ati Awa in Queen Charlotte Sound on 8 November 1839. Both conveyed 20 million acres of land between the same extreme boundaries, centred on Cook Strait. In 1839, when the New Zealand Company first arrived in Port Nicholson, a remnant of Ngati Tama, who had not migrated to the Chatham Islands, were still living in a very damp pa at the mouth of the Stream. Led by Te Kaeaea (Sparrow Hawk) — a huge, impressively tattooed man — they had travelled south from North Taranaki with Te Ati Awa in 1832. Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata gave the Ngati Tama people a hard time and ridiculed their leader by giving him the nickname Taringa Kuri (Old Dog’s Ear). In warm valleys inland from their pa, Ngati Tama were growing wheat, potatoes, maize and kumara — crops which would later help feed the growing settler population. Ngati Tama people would also build houses for settlers, sell firewood to them and, for sixpence, carry one across the Upstream along the track known today as Old Road, in a bush clearing, lay a potato ground in the area of today’s Trelissick Crescent in Ngaio.

ONSLOW HISTORICAL SOCIETY REED BOOKS Te Kaeaea, also known as Taringa Kuri outside his sleeping house at the Kaiwharawhara Pa — painting by GF Angas. 4 Te Kaeaea — who had a warlike reputation — agreed to sell land, including the inland gardens, but feared Maori would lose mana by doing so. Using the name Taringa Kuri he signed the on board ship in the harbour on 29 April 1840. By this time a number of chiefs were repudiating the sale made by Te Wharepouri and Te Puni. How does the purchase stand in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi? The initial purchases were completed prior to the Treaty which embodies, in clause 2, a preemptive ruling concerning land sales. Backing this was Governor Hobson’s Land Titles Proclamation stating that the Queen would only acknowledge land titles derived from Crown Grants and that in future it would be illegal for Europeans to buy land directly from Maori. It further declared that a commission would look into all purchases made prior to annexation. In April 1840 the Treaty was brought to Wellington by the Rev Henry Williams, who had helped with the Treaty drafting. The day before Williams arrived, the New Zealand Company’s provisional constitution and ratification for the Wellington settlement was published in the first local edition of NEVILLE GILMORE the New Zealand Gazette (18 April Wellington signatories to the Trealy of Waitangi 1840). Colonel Wakefield initially include Taringa Kuri — seventh on the list. deterred Maori from signing the 5 Treaty, being concerned about the independence of his settlement. However, after Henry Williams agreed to give up his claim to 60 acres in the capital in return for one acre for him, and one for his assistant Reihana Rewiti (Richard Davis), Wakefield relented — possibly to be seen in a better light and retain the land claimed by the Company. Thirty-one rangatira, including Te Wharepouri of Ngauranga, Te Puni of Petone and Taringa Kuri of Kaiwharawhara, signed the Treaty on board ship in the harbour. Governor Hobson, concerned over the independence of Wellington and by the New Zealand Company’s claims, arrived in Wellington in August 1841 with the Chief Protector of Aborigines (George Clarke) to sort out local land grievances. Subsequently a Commission was set up in Britain to deal with the New Zealand Company’s claims. Land Commissioner William Spain ruled that the Company’s original purchase(s) were invalid, and allowed much smaller areas — 111,000 acres at Wellington, including the land around the harbour, and 50,000 at New Plymouth. Maori were to retain their pa, cultivations and burial grounds and be granted reserves. However rather than returning disputed urban land to Maori, the focus turned to compensation, paid to occupants of the , Pipitea, Tiakiwai Kumototo, and Kaiwharawhara pa. The road from Wellington through Kaiwharawhara to Porirua was in use by June 1841, and the Kaiwharawhara area was highly desirable to settlers, having road and sea access, as well as water power for industries such as flour-milling and tanning. The New Zealand Company continued to resist settlement of the reserves issue, but this was finally clarified by the 1847 McCleverty awards. Most Maori settlements were around the harbour, and close to streams. The McCleverty Awards returned to Ngati Tama a small amount of their original land at the mouth of the Kaiwharawhara Stream. In 1885 four owners (Hon Paengahuru of Opunake, Amira Matoroirangi of Parikhake, Komene Paipa of Naiuakaiho and Matui Te Ire) leased 1 rood 19 perches of land to John Newton for 21 years at ten pounds per annum. He established the Caledonian Soap Works there, and sought to freehold the land. A Crown Grant for the land was finally made to Ngati Tama on 13 October 1893. Six months later the restrictions on alienation were removed and in November 1894 Newton was granted freehold title to 37.6 perches (CT 75/274). One of the Maori owners insisted on being paid in gold. Earlier, when their land near Trelissick Park became part of the Trelissick farm for Captain Edward Daniell (Ngaio’s first NZ Company settler), Ngati Tama received allocations of reserve land further inland. For instance they chose the Ngatoto Reserve, (Section 4A 72 acres 1 rood 23 perches). Later they sold this to farmer James Nairn who held early Presbyterian services in his farmhouse. Later again the farm became todays Nairnville Park. (See Maori Sites of Te Whanganui-aTara M52 and Onslow Historian Vol 4 No 1) 6 Was the land confiscated? No, as indicated above, Taringa Kuri signed the Treaty of Waitangi, and received some compensation, 1 rood 19 perches of Kaiwharawhara pa site back from a McCleverty award, and alternative lands to compensate for the potato gardens, including the one which became Trelissick Farm and later Trelissick Park. Was the Methodist Church involved in the original transaction? No. It was negotiated by Colonel William Wakefield for the New Zealand Company with chiefs Te Puni and Te Wharepouri. They and Taringa Kuri signed the Treaty of Waitangi in Wellington. When did the Church become involved and with whom? The story of Wesleyan church involvement with the tangata whenua is well documented in The Wesleyan Maori Mission in Te Upoko o te I/ca by John H Roberts. Briefly, on 7 June 1839 the first missionary party arrived in Whanganui-a-Tara — the . The party included The Revs Hobbs and Bumby, Minarapa Rangihatuake, Reihana Rewiti and some twenty Taranaki Maori. Six days later, after conducting some services and meeting with Maori around the harbour, land was set aside for a mission and a church. Bumby and Hobbs departed two days after that, leaving the teachers to continue the work among Maori people. Reihana Reweti (also known as Richard Davis) was CMS trained and went to work for the Anglicans after the Rev Henry Williams arrived in 1840 with the Treaty for signing. As settlers increased, more Methodist clergy arrived. From 1844 the Revs Watkin and Ironside ministered to both Maori and Pakeha, in “all the villages around Port Nicholson from Te Aro, Pipitea, Kaiwarra-warra, Ngauranga, Petone and away to Waiwhetu at the mouth of the Hutt River... at Porirua, Te Mana and along the coast to Waikanae and southward and eastward to Wairarapa. . .and along the track over the hills from Kaiwarra and Ngauranga.”(Chambers, p152 quoting Ironside’s Reminiscences). Methodist settler services were held at Kaiwarra (as they called it) from 1870, and for settlers in Crofton (Ngaio) from 1896, with John Holmes, a principal in W Hirst and Company’s Tannery at Kaiwarra, having been involved in both these ventures. He also donated the land for the first Crofton Methodist Church. Both churches were within the Wesley Wellington Circuit, which covered Wellington, Kapiti Coast, the Huff Valley and Wairarapa — an area later making up the Wellington Methodist District.

7 Is the land still being used for the purpose for which it was originally granted, gifted, or purchased? The land on the corner of Kenya Street and Crofton Road, gifted by John Holmes, is still being used as a church site. The original 1904 Crofton Methodist church was demolished in 1978. Ngaio Union then built a new church on the same site, linking with the adjacent 1962 Youth Hall, on land earlier also owned by John Holmes. A steep Crofton Road site he gave for a parsonage was sold in 1952 to fund the purchase of an existing house at 18 Orari Street. This, in turn, was sold after Union. Another section adjacent to the church was purchased ready for extending the new church, but was sold when not needed. The Onslow Baptist Church bought the former Ngaio Presbyterian Church and hail site in 1977. Proceeds from these sales facilitated building the new Ngaio Union Church, opened in February 1979. From Union (1971) the Presbyterian manse at 44 Ottawa Road has been retained, as this was a near-new home, purpose built to replace the earlier manse at 14 Chelmsford Street. In 2005 it was leased, as the current minister lived in his own home at Chartwell.

8 THE SUCCESSIVE TANGATA WHENUA OF TE WHANGANUI- A-TARA 1.1 Whanganui-a-Tara (the harbour and its surrounding coastline), and Cook Strait were traditionally regarded as highways. The land around the harbour — Poneke or Port Nicholson - was invaded by potentially hostile forces at least six times between 1819 and 1836. The background to these movements lay in pressure on land resources further north, with clashes between tribes from Kawhia and Waikato being the catalyst for Kawhia tribes migrating to Taranaki about 1821. They were followed there by Waikato people seeking utu, and the Taranaki tribes were then drawn into the turmoil. These wars culminated in the battle of Motonui about 1822. Waikato were defeated but this only served to ensure their return to redress the balance. Before they could do so the Kawhia tribes migrated to the Kapiti coast, accompanied by some of their Taranaki hosts. Other Taranaki people, especially those from the north, most exposed to retaliation by Waikato, were to follow. It was these people who were to occupy Wllington Harbour, with migrants replacing the tangata whenua, and then achieving that status. (Ballara p 11) 1.2 Before 1800, for a number of generations, Ngati Ira people, whose earliest known ancestors in New Zealand lived on the East Coast, inhabited Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Descendants of Ira-turoto, they intermarried as they moved south via Southern Hawkes Bay and Palliser Bay on the way to Te Whanganui-a-Tara. During the first two decades of the 19th century the west side of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Thorndon to Ngauranga) was deserted, while Ngati Ira settled along the eastern shores from Waiwhetu to Turakirae, and also from Pukerua Bay south to Te Rawhiti on the Cape Terawhiti coast. 1.3 Invaders from Northland, Waikato, Kawhia and Taranaki, arriving from 1819 onwards told Europeans that all the tangata whenua descent groups of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa were rNgati Kahungunu’, with those people in turn giving a similar ‘blanket’ identity to all people from the Taranaki region calling them ‘Ngati Awa’ or ‘Te Ati Awa’. The early war parties in 1819 and 1821 did not drive Ngati Ira away, but did weaken the tangata whenua descent groups. 1.4 After the Waikato defeat at Motonui in 1822, Te Rauparaha took his Ngati Toa people south, via Waitara, where his brother’s actions caused bitter enmity between Ngati Toa and Muoupoko. Te Rauparaha moved to Kapiti Island for safety. In 1824 tangata whenua tribes living in areas from Wanganui to the South Island combined to try to expel Te Rauparaha and his allies, but the latter won a decisive victory at the Waiorua battle. The Land Court

9 subsequently debated the status of Ngati Ira who were allowed to continue living in the area. 1.5 In 1824 Te Rauparaha welcomed parties of Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama from Taranaki. Their settlements included Tiakiwai near the northern end of present day Tinakori Road and from Te Aro to Kaiwharawhara where they lived peaceably, while Ngati Ira continued peacefully on the eastern side of the harbour. On the west coast, Te Rauparaha settled Ngati Mutanga at Waikanae and Ngati Tama at Ohariu. The latter group tried to establish a foothold in other areas, but were driven back to Ohariu by Te Rauparaha, By the late 1 820s relationships in the harbour area deteriorated and Ngati Ira, after a series of short sharp clashes, withdrew from Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Porirua. 1.6 About this time Ngati Raukawa, a Tainui tribe from Waikato, migrated to the Kapiti Coast. The presence of these former enemies would contribute to the eventual departure of the majority of Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga to the Chatham Islands. Further migrations of Te Ati Awa people took place and they began to assume proprietorship of the harbour. Te Ati Awa were in competition with Ngati Raukawa. Rights were not clearly defined, as mana over the land and the people, recently acquired through conquest, was open to challenge. With the permission of chief Ngatata-I-te-rangi, Te Ati Awa supporters from Paukena, Waitara and some Ngati Ruanui, settled between Te Aro and Waitangi streams (Taranaki Street to Kent and Cambridge Terraces — Basin Reserve was a swamp called Waitangi) when the previous occupants Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama were about to seek refuge in the Chatham Islands. 1.7 Confirming and extending Ngatata-I-te-Rangi’s 1834 gift to Te Hanataua, lands from Waitangi and Te Aro to Ngauranga (southwest side) were made over to Ngati Haumia and Ngati Tupaia of Taranaki. (Ngati Tupaia took over land given to a party of Ngati Ruanui who had later returned to Taranaki.) The various gifts of land were acknowledged by presenting greenstone to Pomare and Te Poki, chiefs of Ngati Mutunga. 1.8 With one contingent of 500 on their way to the Chatham Islands on the Rodney and a second group waiting to go, Te Wharepouri and the Ngamotu division of Te Ati Awa (erhaps 3 00-400 people in all) migrated by canoe to Te Whanganui-a-Tara and met on Matiu (Somes Island) with the chiefs of Ngati Mutunga. In 1835 the latter, by panui (announcement), made over their lands from Pito-one to Ngauranga to their Te Ati Awa kinsman Te Matangi, later baptised Rawiri (David), and to his son Te Manihera Te Toni. These two

10 cousins of Te Puni and Te Wharepouri had been living with Ngati Mutunga since 1832. 1.9 When Te Wharepouri, Te Puni and their people were invited to take up residence at Pito-one, the harbour was largely deserted, but for Te Matangi and his father with a few other people — perhaps 20 — a small community of Ngati Tama with Taringa Kuri at Kaiwharawhara, and some Taranaki people at Te Aro and Waitangi. 1.10 Te Manihera Te Toru and Te Wharepouri drove Ngati Haumia from Ngauranga, with Te Wharepouri taking up the Hutt side of Ngauranga, and Te Manihera and his father settling initially on the Wellington side — later on the Hutt side. Te Wharepouri refused to listen to any protest, claiming that land had been granted by panui. Ngati Haumia restricted their activities to Te Aro and its environs. In terms of Maori customary tenure, this withdrawal was recognition of the legitimacy of Te Manihera Te Toni’s actions. From 1836 Ngauranga was Te Wharepouri’s permanent home. Ngatata-I-te-rangi was living at Kumototo pa. Te Matehou hapu under Te Ropiha settled at Pipitea. 1.11 This was the situation when the New Zealand Company ship Tory arrived in 1839. “Ngati Mutung&s claim to Whanganui-a-Tara had been legitimated by several years of unchallenged occupation, although they had abandoned their lands, they were a people with mana intact when they did so; the abandonment was unforced. In terms of traditional tenure, Ngati Mutunga had established an unchallenged right to large areas of the harbour, and this right they had formally transferred to Taranaki and Te Ati Awa in November 1835.” (Ballara p 30) Te Wharepouri of Ngauranga and Taringa Kuri of Kaiwharawhara were among the signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi in Port Nicholson on 29 April 1840. 1.12 After two decades of attrition and dislocation, new ways of resolving conflict came with the Christian message of ceasing warfare and making peace with former enemies. Formal Maori peace arrangements concerning Port Nicholson began in 1840. Wairarapa was returned to its tangata whenua who abandoned any claims to the west coast, including Te Whanganui-a-Tara. From a Maori perspective, Te Wharepouri and Te Puni were, by selling, establishing the bounds of Te Ati Awa and Taranaki claims. 1.13 The New Zealand Company continued to resist settlement of the reserves issue, but this was finally clarified by the 1847 McCleverty awards. Most Maori settlements were around the harbour, and close to streams — land also prized by the settlers. (See reference above to the McCleverty award, at Kaiwharawhara, compensation and alternative lands given to Ngati Tama.)

11 TRACING THE TITLES, LAND DIVISION AND OWNERS (A) The Methodist land The earliest New Zealand Company land grant in what was then called Upper Kaiwarra was to Captain Edward Daniel!, formerly of Trelissick, Cornwall. His 100 country acres were sections 4 and 5 in the Kaiwarra District — Crown Grant 425. Sawmillers Daniell allowed four sawmillers — Joseph Hurley, Benjamin Lowndes, Thomas Parry and Joseph Torr to lease part of the land and by March 1843 their timber was on sale. Their sawmill on the Korimako Stream, directly opposite

the present Nga io Union Church was visited by EJ Wakefield, who described the scene in Adventure in New Zealand. “In the bottom of a thickly wooded valley, only accessible over a steep ridge, a natural fall in the narrow rocky gully of the stream afforded great facilities for erecting a dam. A platform and rough shed extended from side to side of the gully over the dam-head; the wheel and machinery were working underneath; and two or three circular saws were kept in constant employment. The open sides of the workshop displayed this curious work of art in the midst of nature’s wildest scenery.. .Two or three long-huts under ONSLOW HISTORICAL SOCIETY the forest sent up their curl of smoke; Captain Edward Daniel!, Ngaio‘s first settler. while the neat housewives, with their flaxen-haired children, stood at the doors to receive with joyful pride the praises bestowed by visitors on the untiring industry of their husbands.” (Wakefield, EJ, Adventure in New Zealand, pp 257-8.) Edward Daniell Captain Daniell began farming in 1843, staying until 1846. Most of the land remained in Daniell family ownership and was leased for farming, apart from a few small areas which were sold. In 1922 about 20 acres of his daughter Juliette’s share became part of Trelissick Park.

12

ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY a-109-033 Kaiwarra sawmillers at work, as painted by SC Brees. William Fox In 1848 the Hon William Fox bought 14 acres of Trelissick’s cleared Section 5 land for £100 — and duly proceeded to have a home built on it. He named this Crofton and gradually the area took on this name. On 16 February 1858 Fox received the Crown Grant for his land, which ran about 10 chains along the Korimako Stream and about 16 chains uphill towards what is now Perth Street. When it was found that the house was built on land outside this purchase, Captain Daniell generously arranged a no-cost exchange whereby Fox surrendered two acres of Section 5 (approximately between the future LINZ FROM CT 48/115 IN 1888 Perth Street and the top of Imlay Map of Fox’s land, bordered by the Korimako Stream showing today’s Crofton Road (then called Crescent) and received a two-acre Sawmillers Road and later Old Kaiwarra Road) and wedge in adjoining Section 4, the replacement wedge of Section 4 land. including the site of the house which he wanted to sell. 13

ONSLOW HISTORICAL SOCIETY/NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM Crofton College pupils circa 1867. Land to the left of where the boys are standing would become the church site, gjfted by John Holmes. Early Presbyterian and Methodist services were held in the kitchen of Crofton House, the large building right of centre. Crofton College In 1862 Fox sold his property to Bishop Abraham. He ran an Anglican boys’ boarding school there, selling it to the Rev Harry Woodford St Hill in 1865. The school operated until 1875 when Wellington College, with its easier access, was the one taken over by the state system. Thus Wellington did not continue to have an Anglican boys’ school. The Crofton property remained in St Hill family ownership and was leased to various families, before being transferred on 18 July 1881 to Dr William George Kemp and Leonard Stowe. They sold it on to Norman Berry, a brickmaker of Mangaroa, on 12 September 1881. (CT 25/86 Transfer 6931) Wilson Littlejohn At a January 1885 mortgagee sale, Wilson Littlejohn, a successful watchmaker and jeweller, bought the ‘Fox’ land — Transfer 10154 registered on CT 25/86 (see pp 19- 20). CT 38/155 was then issued. In 1888, part was registered as CT 4 8/72 when 14 transferred to Miss Jeannie Imlay, the Daniell descendant who inherited most of Kaiwarra Section 5 and other Daniell land. CT 48/115 was issued for Littlejohn’s remaining 11 acres 1 rood 15 perches. As a good Presbyterian, he started church services in the kitchen of his’ home. When the Onslow Borough Council was formed in 1890, he became the first Mayor. Wilson Littlejohn added further land to his first purchase, then had fresh plans drawn up and sold off sections to number of owners. They included Alfred Holmes, whose father John Holmes bought Crofton House and its adjoining land on 9 August 1895. John Holmes John Holmes, tanner, and his first wife Henrietta started Sunday School classes in their home at Kaiwarra in the 1860s, and were involved in starting the Methodist church there in 1870. At Crofton, the Methodist services started in 1896 by Alfred and Lucy Jolly quickly outgrew the Jolly home. Although there were only 18 homes in Crofton when the Jolly family arrived, the population steadily increased, for the Wellington-Manawatu railway line had its first station at Crofton, making it a desirable place for commuters to live. The growing number of members was invited by John and Mary Holmes to meet in their big kitchen at Crofton House. John Holmes gifted the pine-tree-bordered corner of his property — now corner of Crofton Road and Kenya Street, but then corner of Sawmill Road (later called Old Kaiwarra Road) and Daniell Road — as the site for a Methodist Church. Transfer on 1 March 1902 from CT 116/165 (shown on pp 2 1-22) resulted in CT 117/106 being issued for Lot 1, DP 1216, sections 4 and 5 in the Kaiwarra District, 16.4 perches — see page 23. (Two sections are involved as the site straddles a point where the extra land which Daniel! exchanged with Fox in 1858 was added to Fox’s grant, to give Fox the land on which Crofton House was built.) The Crofton Methodist Trust was established, the trustees registered on 11 February 1902 being: John Holmes, tanner of Crofton Arthur Newbold, accountant of Crofton Christopher Aplin, farmer of Crofton Francis Eagles, tanner of Crofton Arthur Hay Gibson, farmer of Crofton Peter Joseph, carter of Kaiwarra William James Letcher, carpenter of Kaiwarra James Gardner, butcher of Kaiwarra

15 The first church The Crofton Methodist Church — the first church in the growing suburb — had its foundation stone laid by Mrs Mary Holmes on 1 September 1904.

NGAIO UNION CHURCH The foundation stone of the Ngaio Methodist Church bears the imprints of pennies ground in by generations of Sunday school children. After the stone laying ceremony Alfred Jolly observed, “Crofton had reversed the old order of settlement, where they had first a public house, next a blacksmith’s shop, and then a church. Here they had the church, the blacksmith might appear later, but he hoped they would never see the public house.” (The Outlook 8 October 1904 pp 32-33) Builders Wackrow and Skinner completed the 40 feet x 20 feet building in good time for the 11 December 1904 opening. The following year Sunday school was underway on the site, and the first wedding was conducted on 29 March NGAIO UNION CHURCH The earliest known picture of the 1904 Methodist church. 1905.

16 Parsonages John Holmes envisaged Crofton growing to the point where it would need its own resident married minister. In 1909 he offered the section adjoining the church and facing Daniell Road (Lot 3 DP 1216) for a parsonage for the sum of £100 (half its market price). Alternatively he was prepared to donate a section further up Sawmill Road, free of charge. The trustees chose the second option. On 2 November 1909 they received title to 23.7 perches of steep land at what would become 18 Crofton Road. Title to this had been granted to John Holmes as part of CT 79/156 (Transfer 32063) on 16 November 1898. Earlier it had been owned by John Thomas Hawthorne from 9 August 1895, mortgaged to Wilson Littlejohn, and then on 12 November 1896 sold to John William ?Wood who also held it with a series of mortgages. This block of land (just over an acre) also included Holmes Street which was dedicated on 6 July 1908. Part of it provided early access from Sawmill Road to Crofton House. Holmes Street was renamed Orari Street when Onslow Borough amalgamated with the in 1919.

NGAIO UNION CHURCH Ngaio Methodist parsonage at 18 Orari Street. “Transfer 73632 produced 2 November 1909 at 12.30 pm John Holmes to Henry Brenton-Rule, Arthur Newbold, Arthur Henry Gibson, Christopher Aplin the younger, James Caidwell Gardner, Joseph Letcher, Joseph George Harkness and the said John Holmes of Lot 24 Plan 2052. [signed] C of T 186/214”. In this case although trustees were listed, the Methodist Model deed was not referred to. This was however remedied on CT 186/214, which continued in 2004 to list the current owners of the property. 17 Generations of Bible class boys kept the pine trees, gorse and grass trimmed on the section and the Ladies’ Guild endeavoured by arranging bazaars and other events to raise money for building a parsonage on the section. From time to time the Quarterly Meeting and Trust noted the need, the progress of the Parsonage Fund and sought to cost building a suitable house. By the 1950s provision of a parsonage was becoming increasingly urgent, and the option of buying an existing property appeared a quicker solution than building. No 18 Crofton Road was therefore sold for £550 towards the cost of buying No 18 Orari Street. This £4450 property had also been Holmes land earlier — in fact it was earlier part of the same block and CT as the gifted parsonage section! Like most Holmes land, it was subdivided it various ways. After John Holmes’ death, ownership under CT 116/165 of lot 11, DP 2052, part of Section 4, Kaiwarra District (25.6 perches) was transferred by CT 316/224 to Robert James Steptoe on 6 October 1924. After a number of intermediate transactions, Transfer 358746 on 3 March 1953 moved ownership from Francis Battersby to: “William Henry Clark, schoolmaster Einar Ragnvald Lynneberg, clerk Frederick Johnson, accountant Percy Cutforth, retired Arthur Edgar Rowe Johns, civil servant Maurice Frederick Clark, insurance clerk Thomas Martin Stephens, accountant Keith Falconer, accountant, Alfred Ellis, retired Derek Tayler, departmental manager Frederick Charles Hickling, stock cutter Ashley John Hawke, engineer Stanley Jack Baker, company manager, all of Ngaio as Trustees under the provisions of “the Methodist Model Deed of New Zealand 1887.” Ministers who lived in the parsonage with their wives and families were: the Revs David Besant (1953), Reg Grice (1954-56), Ivo Raynor (1957-62), George Thompson (1953-60) and Harry Toothill 1971. When the Methodist and Presbyterian churches united to form Ngaio Union Church in December 1971, the minister and people chose the Presbyterian manse as the future ministerial residence, and sold 18 Orari Street for $17,000. This money was used to buy another site formerly owned by John Holmes and then from 1909 by his son Ernest Stanley (Stan) Holmes — No 6 Crofton Road, alongside the church. (CT 186/88, Lot 2, DP 1216, 23.5 perches). 18 The trustees named in transfer 959683 on 14 February 1973 were: Thomas Martin Stephens, accountant Frederick Charles Hickling, stock cutter Victor Herbert Cresswell, signwriter John Bettany, mechanical engineer Leo Robert Gibbs, public accountant Richard Hugh Laing, fitter and turner Oliver Charles Langdon Cundall, civil engineer Frederick John Brooker, school inspector Wouter Lodewijk Pilaar, engineer Robert Foster Purvis, Electrical engineer Jacobus Johannes Van Den Berg, lead hand (builder) Anthony John Warrington, soil conservator Arthur Edward James Williment, architect George Frederick Briggs, secretary — all of Ngaio This purchase was to provide extra land, if needed for rebuilding the little 1904 church. Meantime 6 Crofton Road was rented out to the Stepping Stones organisation, and then to Bible class leaders. After the new church was opened in 1979, without encroaching on 6 Crofton Road, that property was sold for $27,500 to reduce church debt — but not without considerable hassles and dealing with 22 committees! Hall Although the 1904 church had Sunday school rooms added in 1921 and Bible class rooms in 1927, the facilities were very crowded and ministers, members and officers had dreams of a big youth hall. After the parsonage was bought, and following a successful Wells’ stewardship campaign in 1958, plans were made to bring the dream to reality. The adjacent lot 3 — in 1909 offered as a parsonage site for £100 — was built on. The owner, Edward Baker sold his property to the church on 23 April 1959 for £3350. (CT 32 1/10, Lot 3 DP 1216, section 5 Kaiwarra District, 23 perches) see p 24. This house at 5 Kenya Street provided extra rooms for meetings, but plans for a hall showed the need for a little more land to meet building, fire, health and safety requirements. Therefore to provide extra land between the hail and the boundary, a strip measuring 2.52 perches (part of CT 297/229, Lot 7 DP 2052, part section 5 Kaiwarra District) was purchased from Kenya Street neighbour William Terence Lark on 13 November 1961. After the house at 5 Kenya Street was sold for removal, the hall was duly built. It was opened on 16 December 1962. 19 As two titles for the hail land (25.52 perches) were somewhat unwieldy, these were amalgamated into one title CT 984/60 and registered 12 November 1961 to the following trustees named under the Methodist Model Deed: Einar Ragnvald Lynneberg Maurice Frederick Clark Frederick Charles Hickling Edward Parker Canavan James Harray Richards Nolan Norman Junior Watson Allan Ronald De Vries Thomas Martin Stephens Derek Tayler Stanley Jack Baker John Graham Campbell Victor Herbert Cresswell John Bettany Thomas Oliver Kennedy all of Ngaio

BRIAN CLARK The new U-shaped 1962 hall alongside the 1904 church. church roof When the Methodist system of land ownership changed from the Model Deed, trustees were phased out, and ownership of church property was transferred to the Board of Administration of the Methodist Church of New Zealand. At Ngaio this took place in 1980. 20 The original title to the church (CT WN 117/106) is still the current title. The loan on mortgage 271196.1 over the church property to the Wellington Savings Bank registered on 31.1.1979 has been repaid but title security documents are still held by Westpac (the legal successor to Wellington Savings Bank). This arrangement — approved by the Board of Administration — would enable the mortgage provisions to be reactivated, should a further loan be needed at a future date, without incurring the legal costs entailed in discharging one mortgage and taking out another. By 2005 all loans raised on church properties had been repaid, and all loan liabilities discharged. As the mortgages over the hail and manse titles were also discharged, these properties were unencumbered. The church title, while still formally encumbered, was, in substance, unencumbered in May 2005.

21 (B) The Presbyterian properties Ngaio Presbyterians began meeting in the Ngaio RSA Hall on 19 November 1944. They were then part of the Khandallah Presbyterian Parish and made steady progress in membership and programmes, opening their Ottawa Road church in April 1948. They bought the land for this church — with sufficient to also allow for a future tennis court and/or hall — from Mrs Violet Green for £600. Aplin land This land — 1 rood 0.16 perches CT368/155 was part of section 6, with a different history from that of the Methodist land, which had all been part of John Holmes holdings. The first Ngaio Presbyterian Church land was part of the Aplin farm on Sections 5, 6 and 9 in the Kaiwarra District to which Christopher Aplin was given title on 12 November 1904 by CT 115/36. After a series of transfers — mainly involving land dedicated for public roads, new CT 175/222 was issued 6 July 1908, covering 33 acres 1 rood 8.4 perches. The total land area was again reduced by transfers until CT 304/18, issued on 12 July 1923, showed many subdivided sections (see page 29). This is the first plan on which the Presbyterian site can be identified. Transfer No 180680 on 22 December 1926 to Walter John Aplin relates to the site and led to CT 368/155.

KEN KREE The centre of Ngaio – the School (top) and Post Office (centre front) border the Presbyterian Church. The roof of Macleod Hall shows above the church. 22 On 16 December 1940 Walter Aplin transferred 1 rood 7.16 perches, part of Section 6 to Violet Greer of Wellington, married woman (255304), and she in turn sold the land to Ngaio Presbyterians on 22 November 1946 and had ownership transferred (297326) to the Presbyterian Church Property Trustees. The land borders Ngaio School, and 3.09 perches were transferred to the Education Department by transfer 374133 on 13 July 1954. New titles, new properties CT 616/84 (13 July 1954) showed the new configuration with the Education Board’s little corner section appearing as part of B Plan 148. The Ngaio Presbyterians needed a hall for their youth activities and Macleod Hall was built, then opened on 23 May 1959. The first manse In the meantime a manse had been needed to house the minister, when the Ngaio Presbyterian Church became a parish in its own right in 1954. On 29 January 1955 they took possession of 14 Chelmsford Street Ngaio and started preparing it for the first resident minister, the Very Rev James Baird. The Certificate of Title for this property, bought from Mrs Dorothy Gibson (transfer 380519 dated 7 February 1955) was CT 372/187, covering 35.72 perches (903 square metres), Part Lot 23, DP 2166, Section 7 Kaiwarra District.

MAUREEN ROXBURGH The first manse at 14 Chelmsford Street, Ngaio. 23 This land in Section 7 was first granted to Edmund Storr Halswell by the New Zealand Company. They appointed him as Commissioner of Native Reserves and Protector of the Aborigines, and he arrived in the Lady Nugent on 17 March 1841. Tn May he was appointed a Magistrate and in February 1842 Judge of the County Court. In 1845 he was an officer of the Militia for the Te Aro District but left New Zealand shortly afterwards. Judge Halswell lived in the Brooklyn area, not on his Crofton Land, or on another Crown Grant of 109 acres at Tawa. After his death in 1874 (aged 83) the ownership passed to Hugh Beauchamp Halswell in London. Some of the Section 7 Crofton/Ngaio land was used for farming by John Chew. Halswell’s Crown Grant dated 1 September 1880 related to the whole of Section 7. When part of the land was subdivided for housing, the proposed new street was named Halswell Street, but this was later renamed Chelmsford Street. Title was conveyed to Hugh Beauchamp Halswell on 13 March 1908 and mortgaged to Charles Hayward Izard, Solicitor. (Just prior to this, while Izard had been in England he purchased Halswell’s Tawa land.) In due course the remaining 17 acres 1 rood 27.2 perches of Kaiwarra Section 7 was inherited by Dr William Allan Chapple. He applied to have the land brought under the provisions of the Land Transfer Act on 2 December 1908 and CT 180/276 was issued on 19 January 1909 (see pp 25-26). Chapple continued to sell off sections on DP 2166 and the Presbyterian manse site was included in the balance of land under CT 295/161 issued 20 July 1922 over 5 acres 2 roods 39.5 perches. Part of Lot 23 was taken, on 11 September 1923, for Railway use and the balance of Lot 23 (35.72 perches) was transferred to Florence Jessie Short on 14 April 1927 when CT 372/187 was issued (see p 27). This title went to Benjamin Short, retired, as administrator on 18 November 1952 and was immediately transferred to Albert Henry Walter Samuel Gibson, accountant and his wife Dorothy. In 1954 the title went to the widowed Mrs Gibson as survivor via transmission 54380. She was kindly disposed towards selling her house to the Presbyterians, and it was duly vested in the Presbyterian Church Property Trustees, after the manner of Presbyterian Church property ownership. After James Baird, the next ministers to occupy the manse were the Rev Dr Maurice Andrew, and the Rev Ken Cree. Both had growing young families, and a small house with the laundry in the kitchen was really not suitable. Planning for a new manse The church looked at several options, and after lengthy negotiations, land adjacent to Macleod Hall and the Church was purchased from the NZ Post and Telegraph Department on 13 June 1967 — CT F4/260 — 13.6 perches, being part of Sections 18 and 19 Kaiwharawhara District, and being also Lots 1 and 2 on DP 27710. This land was situated behind the newly built Ngaio Post Office at 42 Ottawa Road.

24 This purchase made it desirable to hold the adjoining church, hail and manse land under one title. Thus CTs 616/84 and F4/260 were superseded by CT F4/5 15 on 22 June 1967 (see p 30). The new description was “1 rood 17.67 perches more or less situate in the City of Wellington being part Sections 6, 18 and 19, Kaiwharawhara District and being also Lots 1 and 2 on Deposited Plan 27710 and part of the land in Plan B 148.” The new manse, built on the former P and T section, was opened on 16 September 1966, the same day as the sale of the old manse was arranged to Guy and Erlys Natusch (transfer 688739 on 31 October 1966). The Cree family moved in to 44 Ottawa Road, staying until August 1971. Their departure was a catalyst for union between Presbyterians and Methodists.

KEN CREE The second Ngaio Presbyterian manse on opening day. After union When union took place on December 1971, the interim arrangements for church services and Christian education were for the pre-school children to have Sunday School and creche at Macleod Hall simultaneously with the morning services in the Ottawa Road church. The older children met in the Kenya Street hall, and evening services were in the Kenya Street church. The ideal was to amalgamate all work on one site and, as the Kenya Street site less steep, it was decided to build a new church there, linked to the existing youth hall. On 25 October 1977 the former Presbyterian church and Macleod Hall were sold to 25 the Onsiow Baptist Church for $57,000 and this money helped fund the new Ngaio Union Church opened 1979. Thus, of the former Presbyterian properties, the Union Church in 2005 retains only the manse, the land on which it stands and the driveway to it from Ottawa Road. The titles were once again subdivided in 1977 and the current Certificate of Title for the manse — now known as the church house — is WN18C/786 (0.05 hectare, Lot 2, DP 48213) and it is held, unencumbered, in the name of The Presbyterian Church Property Trustees.

26 COPIES OF CERTIFICATES OF TITLE Copies of the following Certificates of Title appear on the following pages. Methodist CT 25/86 — Crofton land at the time of transfer from Berry to Littlejohn. This is the earliest title available showing the land earlier granted by the Crown to William Fox in Sections 4 and 5, part of which would include future Methodist church, hail and parsonage properties. CT 116/65 — Holmes title. John Holmes followed Littlejohn’s example of buying, amalgamating and subdividing land. Key locations on this map correspond to superimposed letters as follows: A. Daniel! Road/Kenya Street B. Sawmill/O!d Kaiwarra/Crofton Road C. Site of Methodist and Union Churches D. Site of Methodist/Union Ha!! E. 6 Crofton Road F. Crofton House G. Ho!mes/Orari Street (Note: Some Ngaio Street names changed in common usage — for example Sawmill Road became Old Kaiwarra Road. Then in 1919 when Onsiow Borough amalgamated with the Wellington City Council others were formally changed to avoid duplication of city street names, hence Holmes Street became Orari Street and Daniell Road became Kenya Street.) CT 117/106 — Title of first Methodist church site as prepared in 1902 when John Holmes gifted the land to the Crofton Methodist Trust. This faded document is still the title to the Union church site. CT 984/60 — Hall title amalgamating Lot 3 and the strip bought from Lark. Presbyterian Chapple’s application to have Halswell’s Crown Grant of land in Section 7 brought under the Land Transfer Act. CT 372/187 — first Presbyterian manse site at 14 Chelmsford Street. (Note that the plan shows the original street name — ‘Ha1swell after the first owner.) CT 304118 — earliest plan where the site of Presbyterian Church hall and manse can be idemificd on Aplin farmland. CT F41515 — Presbyterian church, hall and manse site. (Title is now to only the manse WN1ZCflS6—O.05 hectare, Lot 2, DP 48213) 27

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39 REFERENCES Books and pamphlets Adkin, G Leslie, The Great Harbour of Tara, Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd, Christchurch, 1959 Belich, James, ‘The Governors and the Maori’ in The Oxford Illustrated History of New Zealand, Ed. Sinclair K, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, etc, 1996 Boast, Richard, ‘The Alienation of Lands in the Wellington Region’ in Discovering Your Land Story, addresses given 10 June 1990 Bolitho, Elaine E, First a Church... the continuing story of Ngaio Methodist, Presbyterian and Union Churches, Ngaio Union Church, Wellington, 2004 Bremner, Julie, Wellington ‘s Northern Suburbs, 1840-1918, Millwood Press for Onslow Historical Society, Wellington, 1983 Carman, Arthur H, Tawa Flat and the 1840-19 70, revised edition, Arthur H Carman, Tawa, 1970 Chambers, WA, Samuel Ironside in New Zealand 1839-1858, Ray Richards, Auckland, in association with the Wesley Historical Society of New Zealand, 1982 Hamer, David and Nicholls, Roberta (eds), The Making of Wellington, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1990, particularly ‘Te Whanganui-a-Tara: phases of Maori occupation of Wellington Harbour c. 1800- 1840’, by Angela Ballara (pp 9-34) “A Difficult and Complicated Question: ‘The New Zealand Company’s Wellington, Port Nicholson, Claim” by Rosemarie Tonk (pp 3 5-59) McGill, David, The Pioneers of Port Nicholson, Reed Publishing, Wellington, 1984 Olsson, AL, Methodism in Wellington 1839 to 1989, Wellington District Synod of the Methodist Church of New Zealand, 1989 Roberts, John H, The Wesleyan Maori Mission in Te Upoka o Te Ika, Methodist Publishing, Christchurch, 1992, and ‘How the Land was Lost’ in Discovering Your Land Story, addresses given 10 June 1990

40 Wakefield, EJ, Adventure in New Zealand, abridgement edited by Joan Stevens, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, Auckland etc, 1955 Ward, Louis, Early Wellington, Whitcombe and Tombs, Auckland etc, 1928 -- Nga Tupuna o Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington City Council, 2001 -- Nga Waahi Taonga o Te Whanganui-a-Tara - Maori Sites Inventory, Wellington City Council, undated The Cyclopedia Company Limited, The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Volume 1, Wellington District, Wellington, 1897 Periodicals NZ Gazette and Wellington Spectator, issues 22/12/1841 and 18/9/1844 Onslow Historian, selected volumes 1970-2004 Reports Minutes and Yearbook of Methodist Conference, selected volumes 1900-2002 Other Sources Gilmore, N, Research officer Wellington Tenths Trust, address to Ngaio Union Church 28 April 2002, commemorating 162 years since Treaty of Waitangi was signed in Wellington harbour 28 April 1840 LINZ — copies of Certificates of Title Minutes of Ngaio Union Church Parish Council, 1971-2004 Minutes of Johnsonville-Ngaio Methodist Quarterly Meeting, 1902-1950 Minutes of Ngaio Methodist Church Quarterly Meeting, 7/10/1968-13/10/1971 1945-1961 Stephens Tom, handwritten notes on Ngaio Methodist and Union property matters

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