Cultural Significance

Cultural Significance or Value: The Weraroa State Farm is within an important ancestral landscape that has significance for iwi and hapu of Muaupoko, Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Toa and Ngati Apa. The Weraroa State Farm was part of a Government purchase that created contention within the iwi who were contesting subdivision and purchase of their lands in the late nineteenth century. The Muaupoko leader at the time, Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui, was an important political figure responsible for the reinstatement of Muaupoko lands under the contentious Maori Land Court system and negotiated the sale of land to the Government for the establishment of the Levin Township. The name of the State Farm has a special cultural connection to the large clearing named Weraroa that touched the northern boundary of the State Farm and the site of initial construction. Social Significance or Value: Child Welfare institutions like Kohitere have a chequered past that does not always sit comfortably in the landscape of New Zealand history. However, this site serves as an important reminder of state social experimentation and training that was unique in a New Zealand context. The site has important social significance relating to the variety of experiences that were shared by those living and working in Kohitere as well as the wider Levin community who had interaction with the boys and staff.

Historic Significance

Historical Significance or Value The purchase of the State Farm Block was in itself an important historic event. It involved political figures such as John McKenzie, Minister of Lands and Agriculture, and the Premier Richard Seddon who defended the controversial purchase that resulted in the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry and the passing of the Horowhenua Block Act 1896. The purchase was validated by this Act and the Weraroa State Farm was characterised as a benefit to the community. The Weraroa State Farm has immense historic value as the site of the first State Farm where the socialist ideals of co-operative work schemes for the unemployed conceived by William Pember Reeves, Minister of Labour and Edward Tregear, Secretary of Labour, were tested. These historically significant men had set up the farm in response to the ‘long depression’. The ‘humanitarian experiment’ was hailed as a success, if not for its political capital, then for its economic viability. The Weraroa Experimental Farm period was an important time with the development of the Fields and Experimental Farms Division of the Department of Agriculture and the movement of its headquarters to the renamed Central Development Farm. A number of historically important public servants involved in the Department were associated with the farm and its development, including John Brown and Alfred Hyde Cockayne. It was during this time that the religious conscientious objectors were sent to the farm for working out their military service. This history provides another interesting moment in the military mobilisation of New Zealanders during World War One and the treatment of those that refused to fight. Political and economic pressures forced the closure of the experimental farm and saw part reserved for education, beginning another phase of state experimentation in the education and rehabilitation of wayward youth. The historic values relate to what would become Kohitere, a Boys’ Training Farm. Under the supervision of Charles Peek - an important educationalist and Superintendent of the Child Welfare Branch of the Education Department, the institutional buildings were developed and constructed. Kohitere has historic values as the largest boys’ welfare home in New Zealand and with changes in social policy it also became the National Training Centre for Social Workers.

Detail Of Assessed Criteria

(b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history: The Weraroa State Farm provides an important example and backdrop to the processes and pressures that led to Maori land being subdivided, the effects of individual title and Government acquisition of land. In the case of the State Farm it was legislation that validated the purchase and title to the land and a number of important historic figures including John McKenzie, Richard Seddon, Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui and Walter Buller, were players in the affair. The implementation of the State Farm ‘experiment’ is an important part of New Zealand’s reaction and adaptation to social and economic forces that had led to unemployment and destitution of those on the margins of the workforce. Policies developed by the Labour Department, under the leadership of Edward Tregear and William Pember Reeves, were supported by the Liberal Government and these programmes would be a precursor to future shifts in policy that included the provision of worker’s housing. Under the control of the Agriculture Department the farm was integrated into its experimental farm programme and became an important policy development and research site under the direction of John Brown in the early part of the twentieth century. The farm also provided a site for the religious conscientious objectors’ camp during World War I. The Weraroa State Farm was retained as a reserve set aside for the health, education and training of children and was utilised as the site of the Boys’ Training Centre (renamed Kohitere). Under the leadership of Charles Peek and the control of the Child Welfare Branch of the Education Department, Kohitere became the largest boys’ welfare home in New Zealand and was an important place for the implementation of the Education Department and later the Social Welfare Department’s policies and provision for the care and correction of recidivist youth. The focus on having skilled professionals working at Kohitere saw the creation of the National Training Centre for social workers, which was located at Kohitere. (e) The community association with, or public esteem for the place: The Boys’ Training Farm had been operating in the Levin district for a number of years prior to its move to the Weraroa State Farm site. While absconding and negative perceptions were the experience of some, the boys participated in local events and shows and were part of the community. The facility provided employment and recreational opportunities for the local community. The filming at Kohitere for Mike Walker’s films provided insight into the experiences of the staff and boys that lived there for a wider New Zealand audience. The history of this site forms a chapter in Anthony Dreaver’s book, Levin: The Making of a Town (2006) and various articles by the Horowhenua Historical Society and local newspapers over the years shows the public interest and knowledge in a place that forms an integral part of Levin’s history and development. (f) The potential of the place for public education: The Weraroa State Farm is an important historic place that is representative of a number of political, economic and social forces that were operating from the 1880s into the 1980s. The site has the ability to tell stories relating to early settlement and occupation by Maori, tribal warfare, conquest and contest. It serves as a site that embodies Labour Department policy in the late nineteenth century and Agriculture Department development in the twentieth century. The buildings that remain from this period provide an opportunity for education relating to farm building construction by the Public Works Department and state funded agricultural development. The Weraroa State Farm provided provision for religious conscientious objectors during World War I and is an important place to tell the story of those that refused to participate in military combat. The State Farm also provided the site for the construction of New Zealand’s largest boys’ welfare home; a place that tells the story of the New Zealand experience of training, education and rehabilitation for wayward youth. The policies of the Education Department and later the Welfare Department were played out at the site, which were ultimately unsuccessful for a number of its residents. (i) The importance of identifying historic places known to date from early periods of New Zealand settlement: The Horowhenua was settled relatively late by Europeans. It was not until the 1880s that the Government purchased the block that would become the Levin Township and the construction of the Wellington-Manawatu Railway provided transport to the area. The State Farm purchase and title was secured under the Horowhenua Block Act 1896 and settlement of that land proceeded in earnest. (j) The importance of identifying rare types of historic places: The Weraroa State Farm is a unique place that remained under government control through its various phases for nearly a century. It represents a fascinating microcosm of nineteenth and twentieth century public policy as it was implemented for the benefit of the unemployed and destitute through to the instruction and rehabilitation of young men. (k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural complex or historical and cultural landscape: The Weraroa State Farm is located within an ancestral landscape that is of significance to the iwi of Muaupoko, Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Toa. The State Farm is positioned between the important dune lakes of the Horowhenua which have been sites of occupation, settlement, fortification and contest. The State Farm is linked in its inception and history to sites like the Kimberly Centre which have shared histories around their use and the effects of shifting government policy on their viability. Summary of Significance or Values: This place was assessed against, and found to qualify under the following criteria: b, e, f, I, j, and k. Conclusion: It is considered that this place qualifies as a Category I historic place. The Weraroa State Farm has outstanding historic importance as the first State Farm in New Zealand and is unique for its association with a number of government departments for training and experimentation purposes for nearly one hundred years. These themes run through the history of the place and are linked by the few buildings that remain extant and intact on the site. The Weraroa State Farm is a special place that tells some important stories about the development of New Zealand as a settler society; land acquisition by the Government and subsequent use of that land for state training and experimentation. The farm’s association with a large number of important New Zealanders - in various spheres including politics, education; law, the public service and Maoridom, add to its significant heritage value.

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