HOPKIRK'S WHAKAKĪ FLAXMILL - AT TŪHARA - 3rd SEPTEMBER 1889

The history and details of the Whakakī flax mill industry are thin on the ground, photographs even rarer.

Earliest reference to flaxmilling at Whakaki is from 1870 when Brown & Turley brought the fly-wheel and boiler up from Port Ahuriri where it had stood on the wharf awhile. "So those interested, and, knowing localities, wonder how on earth, literally, such a weight could be conveyed to Whakaki over the notoriously soft beach and equally famous swamp. I would answer, a few planks, 38 bullocks, and no end of perseverance." The flaxmill was built for George Burton who had 8,175 acres of leasehold on Hereheretau. George died in 1880, he was chairman of the Wairoa County Council. Cuff's also had a flaxmill at Whakaki at the same time. John Hunter Brown took over the lease from George Burton in 1878.

In September 1889, at the time of this visit of Scottish Prof. Robert Wallace in writing his book on agriculture in New Zealand, the Whakakī flaxmill at Tūhara was owned by Hopkirk Bros. As to whom were they, the father, a recent widower, emigrated from Roxburghshire, Scotland to Wellington in 1873, bringing his young children - being five sons and a daughter.

The Hopkirk Bros were J. & A. Hopkirk, and they were based in the Manawatu. It was another brother, Robert (Bob) Home Hopkirk, who was living at Tūhara and managing the mill. Bob was 10 when he arrived in N.Z., and had done his time as a joiner and cabinet maker then ‘established himself’ (1888) at the Hopkirk Bros flaxmill beside the Wai-o-hine river, near Greytown.

In 1889 they expanded their operations to establish at Tūhara, and in 1891 they purchased the Soho Hemp-mill at the Shannon Ferry, on the side of the Manawatu River.

So, it was in July 1889 that Hopkirk Bros shipped a 7-ton flax mill engine from Napier, and as it was loaded onto a punt at Wairoa's lower wharf, the punt took on water and the whole lot sank. A diver was fetched on the next boat from Napier, and he arranged a chain sling and a temporary derrick was built at the end of the wharf. All went well and it was raised and loaded again onto the punt.

The punt was taken down river into the arm of the river that headed towards Kihitu. There it was off-loaded, and dragged along the beach to Whakakī lagoon, floated across the water, and off-loaded again and over land to the Tūhara flaxmill site, the Wairoa side of Iwitea.

For those wondering about ‘why not the road?’ there was no road until 1892, and even as late as the winter (August) of 1911, a bullock teamster hauling pile driving gear for the construction of the Nūhaka bridge, took three days to cover the 6-miles from Wairoa to Tūhara.

On the first few days of September 1889 when the party accompanying Prof Robert Wallace from Edinburgh visited - according to the few details I’ve been able to find - Hopkirk Bros had only been in operation for 2-months using the building built for George Burton in 1870.

It also was 1889 that the Tiniroto flaxmill’s operations began (powered by a 16’ overshot water-wheel - equivalent to 20 hp), and another in Tolaga Bay.

I don’t have access to details about the boundaries of the land John Hunter Brown occupied, however, it seems likely that the flaxmill was located on the ‘Whakakī Station’. And although he had been involved in cutting drains through swamp land to convert to pasture, Brown had a continued interest in the well-being of the flax and in May 1906 the paper reports on him having sourced seed from Waihua and planting out 100s of acres of flax.

In the book written by Prof. Wallace, he notes that “The right to cut the flax is contracted for by the mill owner at the rate of 30/- per ton of royalty paid for the finished produce. Sent to Britain for the making of rope and twine, it fetched £20 to £27 per ton.

In my next Post to do with the Tūhara flaxmill, I’ll explain to you how fibre produced by tangata whenua from the same leaves was fetching between £70 to £100 per ton.

By the way, this building was burnt to the ground on Sunday 13th February 1890 with the loss of 14 tons of flax and all machinery except the steam engine, but up and running again within weeks.

Hopkirk Bros were succeeded by 1893 in the ownership of the flaxmill by Bowron & Butcher (Bowron Bros being prominent wool buyers from Christchurch with offices as well in London, Napier and Gisborne a flaxmill at Omahu, near Hastings, and a butcher shop in Wairoa). In September 1902 the flaxmill was in the ownership of Bourke, who had wool-scouring operations in Clive, Greenmeadows, Gisborne and flaxmills in the Manawatu and Thames-Piako and who later established the flaxmill at Te Uhi.