Know your town

The John Martin Snr story,

John Martin Snr was born in Maghera County Londonderry in 1822. He was one of a family of thirteen Martins who arrive din New Zealand on the good ship ‘Lady Nugent’ in 1841.

John Martin married Marion Baird in 1847, they had ten children: Marion, Arthur, Sarah, John, Jessie, Edward, Albert, William, Elizabeth and Robert. With a partner, James Chapman Smith he had a run’ (farm) between Milton and Evan’s flat in Otago. They made a considerable amount of money supplying mutton to the Gold Rush diggers.

Moving north in 1869 John purchased Otaraia Station from A Gillies. Ten years later he made a second purchase, Huangarua from George Waterhouse MP for eighty five thousand pounds ( 2015 = $13,816,824) . John lived in Wellington where he had other business interests, however when he entertained it was at Otaraia.
Three sons managed the properties, Edward at Otaraia at first then Arthur. John and William managed Huangarua to start with then when divided Puruatanga became John’s and Huangarua William’s.

Thinking ahead John could see the advantage of a service town being established on his property which was on higher ground with good drainage, above the flood prone surrounding area. This along with a bridge over the Ruamahanga river to replace the Waihenga Ferry and even eventually a possible railway link to Featherston.
His town would service the flat lands of the Wharekaka plains which were ‘good for the plough’ and copped wheat, oats, and hay for the horses. The one problem settlers encountered were the strong winds, papers of the day record crops being destroyed by gales.

The town was surveyed (as described in the August chapter) and the auction held in 1879. However bidding was described as ‘spiritless’ and John Martin instructed the auctioneer to stop proceedings, which caused discontent among prospective buyers who had travelled distances to attend. A year later an advertisement appeared for town properties ‘for terms and conditions apply John Martin Jnr. Puruatanga’.

In 1880 a race meeting was held on the John’s Wharekaka Block under the auspices of the ‘Waihenga Jockey Club’. This was highly successful with between four and five hundred people attending , which was great publicity for the area.

It was not until 22nd June 1882 that John Martin officially filed his plans for Martinborough. However the town’s growth was very slow. John died at Wellington in 1892 so did not see his dream of a service town growing into existence. (even by the 1896 census the population was on seventy one).

Mate Higginson