authorised by section 3 of the Te Aroha Township Act 1882. The school reserve was held by the Auckland District Board of Education until 1954, when it was transferred to the South Auckland Board. During the 1950s, a school for younger children operated there, but in 1960 the classrooms were moved to the school site three blocks to the north where a school for older children had been established in the 1920s. In 1964, about half an acre of the old Church Street site was re-gazetted for pre-school education and is still in use as a kindergarten. The balance of the area was vested in Te Aroha Borough for municipal purposes. This vesting was revoked in 1970 and the area is now in use as a retirement home.⁵⁴ The Government buildings reserve presumably remained Crown land, but we have no information on its subsequent use.

The Lipsey family also provided sites of half an acre each for the Anglican and Methodist churches, but we have no information on whether land later occupied by other denominations were gifts or sales. These were private transactions and did not involve the Crown. In 1886, in a statement supporting the issue of a title to the Anglican Church, the Lipseys set out their reasons for donating reserves. Ema Mokena Lipsey said that, in consultation with warden of the goldfields Kenrick, they had set apart certain sections for church purposes, for a school and for Government public buildings’. She also stated that it was for ‘the benefit of my children that I should give these reserves for these purposes’. George Lipsey stated, ‘All these reserves I consider have fixed the township where it now is upon the property of my children and my wife and have made it certain that the property will always be a valuable one’.⁵⁵

Exactly how the decision was made on where to locate the Te Aroha goldfield township has not been recorded. In 1872, Mackay had recommended the Crown purchase of the Ruakaka block (415 acres), a separate block within the Te Aroha block, as a likely site for a township for the goldfields. This block had been awarded by the Native Land Court in 1869 to four Ngati Haua owners but had been omitted from the rehearing of Te Aroha block in 1871. Mackay noted that it was ‘occupied and cultivated by some of the Ngatimaru of Shortland [Thames], who hold it antagonistically to the Grantees’. In 1877, it was still occupied by Ngati Rahiri ‘and it would be impossible to put the certificated native owners in possession without resort to force’.⁵⁶ This effectively prevented development of a township at Ruakaka.

In February 1880, the Crown purchase of Manawaru reserve (161 acres), south of Te Aroha, from the four owners – Keepa Te Wharau, Piniha Marutuahu, Te Karauna Hou, and Aihe Pepene – was completed, for a payment of £1000. The same month, Reha Aperahama

54.L Priest, Te Aroha Primary and District High School, 1881-1981 (Te Aroha: Te Aroha Primary and District High School Centenary Committee, 1981) (doc GI, p 41)

55.Statements of Ema Mokena Lipsey and George Lipsey, 5 August 1886, MA-MLP13/27 (doc GI, PP43-44)

56.Document A10, pt 3, pp 249-251