British society takes root downunder

HISTORY

the landed gentry of England in many cases, were allotted larger blocks of land than private soldiers. Many of these upper-class settlers were entrepreneurs with access to money from England to finance the development of their properties.

Private soldiers, on the other hand, who had mostly come from the working classes, were allotted smaller and harder blocks of land to develop.

Without access to finance, many eked out a miserable existence and others sold out to their former officers and the settlement looked to be jeopardy again.

When the situation was finally explained to the government in Wellington, Governor George Bowen approved a new development policy, which would fund roads and other public works designed to make the establishment of farms and towns much easier for the settlers.

One of the most important of these government-funded public works was the development of a railway, designed eventually to link Auckland and Wellington. It would take many years to build, would employ thousands of people and would reduce the reliance on dangerous and expensive coastal shipping. It was a far-sighted, if expensive, project. But to the settlers of Waikato, and Hamilton in particular, it was a deciding factor in remaining on the demanding farms.

As the railway got closer to Waikato, more families moved to the area, attracted by well-paid and permanent jobs. Some lived in the transient work camps that followed the progress of the railway slowly southward, while others took up permanent positions as station masters and railyard staff. Their wages were an additional boost to the economy.

Loans were made available for those with land to develop and others sold land for the railway corridor, and within a short time, confidence in the economy increased rapidly. Men who had bought out their neighbours and amassed large land holdings needed labourers to dig drains, build fences, fell timber and take care of the livestock.

Families from Auckland were encouraged to move to Waikato to take up these newly established jobs. Wages paid to the new workforce flowed into the local economy and a number of new businesses were established to provide the raw materials for farm development and soon a mini-boom was under way.

Those who had borrowed money – often very large sums – were confident their new farming operations, designed initially to provide produce for the growing Auckland community, would be profitable enough to meet repayments.

Much of this new money had been raised in Britain from banks and private lending institutions, keen to make profits from the new colony.

However, when the Glasgow Bank collapsed a few years later, the money flow stopped and the boom was over a few months later.

Loans were called in and a number of newly established businesses in Hamilton folded as customers could not pay their bills.

It was the first of many financial depressions to reach across the world to impact on the New Zealand economy over the next century and a half.

Hamilton, however, was here to stay and those settlers who had not been sold up went back to their subsistence farming and waited for things to improve.

These times were often called the sugar-bag or flour-bag years, when the only material available for clothes was the fine hessian of sugar bags or the linen of flour bags, sewn at home on a treadle machine. They are part of Waikato folklore, remembered now with a nostalgic pride that was not felt at the time.