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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Hikurangi

Hikurangi.

Hikurangi, in Whangarei County, is rapidly coming to the front as a coal producing district. It is connected by rail with Whaugarei, from which it is fourteen miles distant, and 109 miles from Auckland. There are some very interesting spots in the locality. Hikurangi, which has a population of about 400 persons, has a combined postal and railway office, a post office savings bank and a telephone service.

The Hikurangi School shows a steady increase in the number of its pupils, and of late years the attendance has nearly doubled itself. Mr. J. Wooller is the teacher.

Mr. Joseph Wooller, Headmaster of the Hikurangi Public School, was born in Auckland in 1866, was educated at Auckland schools and finished at the University, where he gained the gold medal presented by Professor Posnett for oratory in 1888. After completing his education he was employed in the Education Board office in Auckland for six years. He has been assistant-master in several of the town schools, headmaster at the school at Mahurangi Heads and was appointed to his present position in 1895, when there was an attendance of about fifty pupils, now increased to over 120. Mr. Wooller is worshipful master of the Masonic Lodge “Star of the North.” He has represented Auckland in five football matches, in all of which his side was victorious. Mr. Wooller is married and has one son.

Mr. J. Wooller.

Mr. J. Wooller.

Hikurangi Coal Company. This company owns the largest mine in the district, covering 800 acres of freehold and 150 acres leasehold. The coal is semibituminous and of the same geological age as the Greymouth and Westport coal. The mine is equal to a production of 500 tons per day, but the present output averages 600 or 700 tons per week. There are three openings; one is on the level of the outcrop, the second is worked by a self-acting incline, and the third is a dip, from which the coal is hauled by a twenty horse-power steam engine. The main drive is fully half a mile long, and is under a cover varying from page 561 thirty to fifty feet thick, while the seam of coal varies from seven to sixteen feet thick and is free from bands. The mine is entirely self-drained, and employs forty men, the output last year being 30,000 tons.

Mr. Thomas Pearson Moody. C.E., M.E. etc., General Manager of the Hikurangi Coal Company, was born at Killingworth, Westmoor, Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1841, and served his apprenticeship to the profession of a civil and mining engineer at Crawshay's mines in South Wales. He is a life member of the Geologists' Association of London, a member of the Geological Society of Australasia, the New Zealand Institute, the South Wales Institute of Civil, Mining, and Mechanical Engineers, New Zealand Institute of Mining Engineers, and of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers. Mr. Moody was chief superintendent in 1872 of Mr. W. B. Tooth's Clifton station, Darling Downs, Queensland, of 100,000 acres freehold and 200,000 leasehold land, carrying 220,000 merino sheep and 8000 head of cattle, besides a large meat preserving establishment. He was general manager for the Hon. R. Towns' South Queensland estates, including sawmill, meat-preserving works and steamers on the Brisbane river, and in 1878, he was manager of the Waratah Coal Company, Newcastle, N.S.W. and engineer-in-cheif of the Australian Railway Company. Mr. Moody was manager of the Bay of Islands Coal Company for eighteen years. He has been connected with the management of coal and gold mines for over thirty-three years, and has never lost a man by accident, a record almost unique in the history of mining in the Colonies. He is a pioneer of the industry, and one who fills a worthy place in the history of colonial enterprise.

Howie, Robert. General Storekeeper, Hikurangi. Mr. Howie was born in Barnard Castle, Durham, in 1846 and is a son of Mr. John Howie of Kilmarnock. Ayrshire, who was a descendant of one of three brothers of the name of Huet belonging to the Albigenses in the South of France, who were compelled by religious persecution to seek refuge in Scotland. The family has resided in Lochgoin, parish of Fenwick, between Glasgow and Kilmarnock, for about 700 years. Mr. J. Howie was an active Chartist, which fact ultimately caused him to leave his district. Mr. Robert Howie came to New Zealand in 1880, landing in Otago and after a visit to the Old Country he went coal mining at Kawakawa till 1893, when he commenced his present business. His store is a wooden building at the north end of the township and is well stocked with groceries, boots and shoes, hardware, crockery, saddlery, and general furnishing. He supplies the coal mines in the district and, also, has a magazine at Hikurangi for the safe storage of powder and dynamite.

Mr. Howie's Store.

Mr. Howie's Store.

Carter, William, Settler, Hikurangi. Mr. Carter was born in Devonshire, England, and is the fourth son of the late Mr. Richard Carter. He came to New Zealand in 1863 and after being a number of years in Auckland went to the Thames goldfields in one of the early “rushes,” After a few years' experience of goldmining he moved to Hikurangi in 1870 and entered into farming pursuits, Cultivating 700 or 800 acres of land in Whangarie County. Mr. Carter, in
Mr. W. Carter.

Mr. W. Carter.

page 562 addition has established a butchery in Hikurangi. He was elected to the Whangarei County Council, of which body he is still a member. He is also chairman of the Hikurangi Road Board and School Committee, and chairman of the North Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. He was for some years president of the Whangarci Farmers' Club.

Mr. Donald MacLeod was born at Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, in 1838, was educated ton in Nova Scotia, in 1838. was educated there and came to New Zealand in 1860, landing in Auckland. He soon afterwards moved to Whangarei, and took up his present holding at Hikurangi in 1863, since which time he has given his fullest attention to its cultivation. Mr. MacLeod is an ex-chairman of the road board, has been member of the school committee for many years, was a member of the county council from 1878 to 1881, has been a Justice of the Peace since 1888, and is past master of the Masonic Lodge, “Star of the North,” E.C. Mr. MacLeod was instrumental in developing the Hikurangi coal mines and in 1890, in conjunction with two others, had the first contract to deliver local coal. He holds a considerable interest in the West Bryen Coal Mine.

Mr. D. MacLeod.

Mr. D. MacLeod.

Mr. John Williams, Old Colonist, sometime of Helena Bay, near Hikurangi. Mr. Williams had a property of 857 acres of freehold land purchased from Mr. Greenway in 1885, and grazed sheep and cattle of a remarkably healthy stamp. A large portion of the property is covered with valuable puriri and kauri timber. A fine eight-roomed dwelling with nice gardens and orchard constitute the substantial homestead, the grounds being tastefully laid out, with oranges and lemons growing abundantly. Mr. Williams was born in Somersetshire in 1833, educated at St. Edmund's College, Donai, France, and had spent some fifty years of his life at farming. His family have dwelt for generations in Somersetshire. He came to New Zealand in 1881 by the ship “Warwick,” landing at Auckland, where he resided for three years before settling at Helena Bay, in 1895, Mr. Williams was seized with a paralytic stroke, which somewhat incapacitated him from active work, and he died in January, 1899. He was married to a daughter of the late Mr. J. B. Toovey, manager of Friar's Bank, Wolverhampton, for over forty years, and had two sons and two daughters.