Content note: Weraroa State Farm (Former) is the subject of an Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry report called ‘Cauldron of Violence: Hokio Beach School and Kohitere Boys’ Training Centre’ (June 2024). Further information is available on the Abuse in Care Royal Commission website.
The Weraroa State Farm, Levin, is located within a significant historic and cultural landscape that encompasses hundreds of years of occupation and settlement in the fertile coastal lands of the Horowhenua Region. The Farm is situated between the important dune lakes of Papaitonga (originally called Waiwiri) and Horowhenua which hold significant cultural value for a number of iwi and hapu of Muaupoko, Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Toa and Ngati Apa.
Northern tribes led by Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata migrated south and resulted in conflicts that led to the loss of life and land of Muaupoko groups. The land wars of the 1860s and the Maori Land Court processes gave Muaupoko the ability to influence court proceedings and have some of their traditional lands restored. Title to the Horowhenua Block was put into the name of the Muaupoko leader Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui who held the land in trust for the Muaupoko people.
Internal and external pressures led to the subdivision of the Horowhenua Block into 14 blocks and title allocated to individuals, the most important, Block 11 was held by Te Keepa and the son of a rival, Warena Hunia. Internal disputes and long, expensive court action resulted in the Minister of Lands, John McKenzie, controversially purchasing a 1,500 acre block for a State Farm. A long legal battle by Te Keepa and his lawyer, Walter Buller, led to a Commission of Inquiry and the Horowhenua Block Act 1896 which entrenched the Crown purchase.
Approximately 800 acres was carved out for the establishment of the State Farm on heavily forested land whose northern boundary included part of the Weraroa clearing. So began a long history of government experimentation and training schemes on the land by various government departments from the 1894 to 1989.
The Department of Labour under the leadership of William Pember Reeves as Minister and its Secretary, Edward Tregear, started the first State Farm at Levin. It was to be a model and an experiment in the ability of the government to find solutions and relief for the problems of unemployment that plagued the country during the 1880s ‘long depression’. The unemployed and their families worked on the farm and the area grew into a small village settlement. However, by 1900 the experiment had run its course and government policy and public opinion had shifted regarding such an expensive enterprise.
The Department of Agriculture stepped in and acquired the site as one of its experimental farms. During World War One the Defence Department placed religious conscientious objectors on the Weraroa Experimental Farm to work out their military service. Changes in the Department saw the Director, John Brown, move head office to Levin and rename the site the Central Development Farm - a name that lives on in the form of the road that bisects the original farm. The fortunes of the farm waxed and waned until the advisory services of the Department were developed and enhanced under the directorship of Alfred Hyde Cockayne.
By 1929 economic and political pressure saw the Farm subdivided into farming blocks with an area reserved for educational purposes. With the decision that the Massey Agricultural College would be built at Palmerston North the reserve land reverted to grazing.
The outbreak of World War Two saw the forced move of the Weraroa Boys’ Training Farm on Kimberly Road, Levin, to the reserve land. The Boy’s Training Centre was to become New Zealand’s largest boys’ welfare institution, and it utilised the philosophies of training and education for the correction of wayward youth. Under the direction of Charles Peek the facilities at the Boys’ Training Centre were established with the boys and teachers constructing many of the buildings on site. In the late 1960s the Centre was renamed Kohitere.
Absconding, abuse claims and the complexity of social problems that were being displayed at Kohitere led to changes in the nature of the institution including the construction of a security block. Societal shifts saw child welfare move from the auspices of the Department of Education to that of Social Welfare. In 1972 Kohitere became a National Training Centre for social workers and many staff and trainees were living at the centre over this period. Government policy would once again intervene and Kohitere closed in 1989. For a period the facilities were used by the community but in more contemporary times various concessioners have utilised the buildings for farming and other businesses.
The Weraroa State Farm has outstanding historic significance for its association with many important historic figures in New Zealand history and significant government departments and their policies that were played out there. The extant buildings form an important historic link to state experimentation, training, and institutional care in its various forms for nearly one hundred years. Hundreds of New Zealanders laboured, worked, trained and lived on the Weraroa State Farm and their shared experiences form part of the important social history of this unique place.
The Weraroa State Farm, Levin, is located within a significant historic and cultural landscape that encompasses hundreds of years of occupation and settlement in the fertile coastal lands of the Horowhenua Region. The Farm is situated between the important dune lakes of Papaitonga (originally called Waiwiri) and Horowhenua which hold significant cultural value for a number of iwi and hapu of Muaupoko, Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Toa and Ngati Apa.
Northern tribes led by Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata migrated south and resulted in conflicts that led to the loss of life and land of Muaupoko groups. The land wars of the 1860s and the Maori Land Court processes gave Muaupoko the ability to influence court proceedings and have some of their traditional lands restored. Title to the Horowhenua Block was put into the name of the Muaupoko leader Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui who held the land in trust for the Muaupoko people.
Internal and external pressures led to the subdivision of the Horowhenua Block into 14 blocks and title allocated to individuals, the most important, Block 11 was held by Te Keepa and the son of a rival, Warena Hunia. Internal disputes and long, expensive court action resulted in the Minister of Lands, John McKenzie, controversially purchasing a 1,500 acre block for a State Farm. A long legal battle by Te Keepa and his lawyer, Walter Buller, led to a Commission of Inquiry and the Horowhenua Block Act 1896 which entrenched the Crown purchase.
Approximately 800 acres was carved out for the establishment of the State Farm on heavily forested land whose northern boundary included part of the Weraroa clearing. So began a long history of government experimentation and training schemes on the land by various government departments from the 1894 to 1989.
The Department of Labour under the leadership of William Pember Reeves as Minister and its Secretary, Edward Tregear, started the first State Farm at Levin. It was to be a model and an experiment in the ability of the government to find solutions and relief for the problems of unemployment that plagued the country during the 1880s ‘long depression’. The unemployed and their families worked on the farm and the area grew into a small village settlement. However, by 1900 the experiment had run its course and government policy and public opinion had shifted regarding such an expensive enterprise.
The Department of Agriculture stepped in and acquired the site as one of its experimental farms. During World War One the Defence Department placed religious conscientious objectors on the Weraroa Experimental Farm to work out their military service. Changes in the Department saw the Director, John Brown, move head office to Levin and rename the site the Central Development Farm - a name that lives on in the form of the road that bisects the original farm. The fortunes of the farm waxed and waned until the advisory services of the Department were developed and enhanced under the directorship of Alfred Hyde Cockayne.
By 1929 economic and political pressure saw the Farm subdivided into farming blocks with an area reserved for educational purposes. With the decision that the Massey Agricultural College would be built at Palmerston North the reserve land reverted to grazing.
The outbreak of World War Two saw the forced move of the Weraroa Boys’ Training Farm on Kimberly Road, Levin, to the reserve land. The Boy’s Training Centre was to become New Zealand’s largest boys’ welfare institution, and it utilised the philosophies of training and education for the correction of wayward youth. Under the direction of Charles Peek the facilities at the Boys’ Training Centre were established with the boys and teachers constructing many of the buildings on site. In the late 1960s the Centre was renamed Kohitere.
Absconding, abuse claims and the complexity of social problems that were being displayed at Kohitere led to changes in the nature of the institution including the construction of a security block. Societal shifts saw child welfare move from the auspices of the Department of Education to that of Social Welfare. In 1972 Kohitere became a National Training Centre for social workers and many staff and trainees were living at the centre over this period. Government policy would once again intervene and Kohitere closed in 1989. For a period the facilities were used by the community but in more contemporary times various concessioners have utilised the buildings for farming and other businesses.
The Weraroa State Farm has outstanding historic significance for its association with many important historic figures in New Zealand history and significant government departments and their policies that were played out there. The extant buildings form an important historic link to state experimentation, training, and institutional care in its various forms for nearly one hundred years. Hundreds of New Zealanders laboured, worked, trained and lived on the Weraroa State Farm and their shared experiences form part of the important social history of this unique place.
