Know your town

The first churches

The first church in Waihenga , First Church, was opened on 1st June 1871. Then on 5th May 1875 a second church was opened at Burnside. In June a year later the Presbyterian congregation gathered for a tea meeting. A brave move it was damp and cold, the Burnside families McMaster, Sinclair and Hume, assisted by Waihenga families did the cooking boiling water on an open fire in the adjacent paddock. Around seventy attended, filling the little church to overflowing, positive comments such as ‘it was a banquet’ are recorded.

The purpose of the meeting was to raise money to pay off the eighty pounds debt (2016 = $9,014) and secondly to call for a second as the Wairarapa was proving to be too large for the Rev. McKee working out of Masterton.

The Rev. Paterson opened the meeting commenting that the tracks and roads were little better than when he had visited five years previously. The meeting was then chaired by Hon. Geo Waterhouse of Huangarua Station. He referred to the church as ‘ away out in a paddock , alone and seedy and in need of painting and inside lining’ and so made a contribution of twenty pounds towards the project. He remarked that although not a Presbyterian himself as these were the first two churches in the district they deserved his support. The Waihenga Church also served as the school until the first purpose built school was built.

The tea meeting gathered fifty pounds and by the end of the month the debt had been paid off. At Hon Waterhouse’s urging a committee was formed to better work together. These consisted of Messers D McMaster, J Hume, D Sinclair, A Gillies W and J McLeods an H Cameron. The committee called on a Probationer, J Lindsay, to serve Martinborough and Lower Valley plus Greytown and Featherston.

This necessitated the building of a Manse and Glebe which were the next big occasion when opened in 1876 along with the Probationer, James Lindsay, being ordained a full Minister of the Presbyterian Church.

The large area to be covered made for a huge workload for the Minister. On a Sunday he ride to Burnisde for an 11 am Service then back to Martinborough for a 3 pm Service then over to Featherston for a 7pm Service. A similar tome table was held for Greytown, Kaiwaiwai and Morrison’s Bush the next day.

Understandably the Ministers didn’t stay long, the Rev Lindsay was replaced by the Rev Johnston- Walker in 1878 and then by a Rev John Walker. However the roads di gradually get improvements with planks over water and metal spread on some roads. Some Roads became good enough for buggies although one Minister was thrown from his buggy when it hit something unseen in a water course. On non arrival for the Service his congregation went searching for him and found him wet and cold at Dry River.

The Hon Waterhouse had also urged the people to put a fence around the cemetery to keep the stock off. Last year a frame for two climbing Harris roses was erected at the historic Dublin Street cemetery. One for descendants of the Harris Family and One for the McLeod Family. The registered Heritage ‘Harris Rose’ came to NZ as a cutting with the family which landed at Petone in 1840. It was first planted at Taita with cuttings then coming to Lower Valley and thence other parts of New Zealand.