Hokowhitu’s richly contested plot of land
Section 262 went through several owners and doomed projects before being home to a teachers’ training college, and eventually housing.
When members of Rangitāne sold land at Hokowhitu to the Crown in 1892-93, it was surveyed into sections as a new suburb of Palmerston North.
But there was no rush to take up these sections, as the land was known to be flood-prone.
Stopbanks and groynes were gradually being constructed, but they were discontinuous and defended only the very weakest points, such as Fitzroy Bend.
Formany years the area was used for various outdoor amenities, such as a golf course, a polo ground and a rifle range.
An exception to the generally cautious attitude was Joseph Heatley, a contractor and later a councillor, who had a house moved in 1926 from high-and-dry Ihaka St to what was then a distinctly damp site near the river, today’s Heatley Ave.
The Nannestad family had built the residence we now know as Caccia Birch House back in the early 1890s, but the site they chose was comparatively elevated, looking southwards over Hokowhitu Lagoon and the low-lying land beyond.
Most low-lying of all was Section 262, which extended from what is now the riverside end of Jickell St eastwards to the golf course, with the lagoon to its north and the Manawatū River to its south.
It was purchased in 1919 by members of the De Cleene family, who used it at various times for market gardening, poultry raising and cattle and sheep grazing.
In 1939, council decided to mark the centennial of the Treaty of Waitangi by constructing a ‘‘scenic drive’’ with views of the lagoon, the river and Te Motu o Poutoa (Anzac Bluffs). To this end council moved to purchase Section 262.
Their offer was declined by the owners, brothers John Baptist De Cleene, a contractor, and Robert Jules De Cleene, a labourer and part-time bookmaker. Council replied by invoking the Public Works Act.
On 18 July 1940, with the centennial year almost halfway gone, council duly acquired an area of four acres, two roods and 30.9 perches from Section 262. In total
Let’s take a moment to do some Imperial arithmetic:
1 acre = 4 roods.
40 perches = 1 rood.
16 roods + 2 roods + 3⁄ roods = 183⁄ 4 4 roods, more or less.
Converting to standard metrics, 1 rood = 1012 square metres.
183⁄ roods = 18,975sqm or roughly 4 1.9ha.
Cr Heatley spoke proudly of the ‘‘new scenic drive’’ that council could now construct.
Other parties, notably the De Cleenes, were less happy. They felt that the development jeopardised not just Section 262 but other nearby land in which they had an interest.
The Wellington Acclimatisation Society protested that running the drive past the lagoon would inhibit game birds from breeding.
The society definitely underestimated the birds, which proved to be quite untroubled by any human developments in the area.
With the drive still unbuilt and the Centennial over, nature threw in an obstacle of its own, in the form of the 1941 flood. Section 262 was reduced to a lowlying island, while the lagoon regained its status as an arm of the river.
Work on the drive was eventually completed in 1943. The same year council took the balance of Section 262, amounting to 22 acres 4.3 perches (8.9ha), to make room for amotor camp and recreation ground.
The vision was of campers swimming in the river while their tents and caravans lay in pleasant shade afforded by the stands of kānuka.
A catch with this vision was that the De Cleenes continued to graze stock on the property and generally behave as if they still owned it.
In the Manawatū Standard of February 8, 1945 they were offering ‘‘one quiet cow’’ for sale from this land.
On November 8, 1945, they brought a claim against council to the Compensation Court, contending that for many years they had had a vision of their own, namely to subdivide Section 262 for housing.
In compensation they wanted £4000, plus damages of £775 plus interest at £5 per cent per annum. The court thought their case had merit and awarded them £4225. In addition, council had to pay substantial costs and fees.
Whatever accountancy spin you might put on it, council had acquired Section 262 very expensively. They needed to be seen to be doing something with it.
Fortunately for the political optics, they were already constructing their postwar transit camp on the site.
Over the following 14 years a long series of returned service people, tradespeople and labourers found accommodation at this transit camp, some for just a few months, some for several years.
The promise was still that the land would eventually be converted to amotor camp.
Meanwhile, however, the government was increasing the number of teachers’ colleges.
Pāmutana put up its hand to host a college. When it became apparent the government would seal the deal in exchange for some land, council offered the site of the transit camp. The government happily accepted the offer.
After the transfer of the land in 1960, the new Palmerston North Teachers’ College began to acquire its permanent buildings.
Complete with a tower block in brutalist style, these structures looked to be as permanent as the transit camp, with its flimsy Army huts, had been temporary.
Now suitably accommodated, the College built up a vibrant culture and added to the life of the city.
But by the 1990s a different culture, that of mergers and takeovers, was dawning in the world of tertiary education. Transferred to Massey’s Turitea campus, the College no longer had a campus to call its own.
For some 20 years after that the former college campus continued to be used by Massey, Defence and other organisations.
But now, in one of the ironies of history, the vision of the De Cleenes is finally being realised. A good chunk of the original Section 262 is being repurposed to increase the city’s supply of housing.
Also ever on the increase, seemingly unruffled by all the developments engineered by their human neighbours, is the game bird population on the lagoon.