The Breakup of the Woodlands Estate

Regardless of their hard work and enterprise, the big landowners faced bankruptcy by the 1890s. Their huge loans, the cost of development, coupled with low returns for their produce, saw the Bank of New Zealand foreclose on hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land which lay in various stages of development. By 1898 an amendment to the Lands for Settlement Act had been passed to break up the large estates of the Waikato into smaller blocks.

"He panehe toki, ka tu te tangitangi kai".
A little stone adze will fell large trees. Ultimately the cleared land will produce quantities of food.
(Reed's Maori Proverbs).
Scotsman's Valley was earlier known as Whyte's Valley after J. B. Whyte who bought 7163 acres for One pound per acre in October 1876.  This land was in Scotsman's Valley and the Tahuroa Road area, being part Tahuroa number one plus Tahuroa 3 and 4 blocks.

ALL the needs of the district, whether personal or for the farm, came by train and it was a friend indeed, a haven for many a bird-nest or a childish love affair...'1

School Buildings