story

"We're going to town. We're going to town," chanted Margaret as she danced round the kitchen, "Muver, aren't you 'cited?"
"Of course she isn't, stupid," chimed in brother Richard before Mrs. Martin could say anything, "Mother goes to town every week."
"But this is dif'rent." protested Margaret.
"Of course it's different," her mother answered, "very different."

But next summer was better, and  one morning in early Autumn,  Henry Reynolds said,"Let's go and see what Josiah Firth is doing at Matamata. The 'New Zea1and Herald' says he has imported a machine from California to reap his wheat.  We'll take John Primrose with us because he has developed a real flair for machines."

The kerosene lamp on the table hissed gently, its soft light sparkling on the lovely blue of the glass shade, and gleaming on the polished woodwork in the beautiful room. Mrs. Reynolds glanced at her husband. He seemed very subdued tonight. For a change, they had dined alone; usually there were visitors, business associates of her husband's or just friends, and when the maid had removed the dishes, Mrs. Reynolds carefully selected the right shade of silk for her tapestry and moved over to the fireplace.

"We'll need to hurry and get our houses built this summer," Sergeant Knox said to Private Hastie. "We have been alloted timber from the Puketaha mill, but we can only use Bush Road when it has been very dry."

"Hey Nathan," called John Hastie, "here's a present from the Kirikiriroa Road Board"-and he threw an envelope on the rough table in the mess-room of the barracks of the 4th Waikato regiment.
"My Goodness. Look at this assessment, exclaimed Nathan Rumney. "It's far too much. They've valued my land at two pounds an acre, and the rates are 1/2 pence in the Pound. I can't even get out there to live until something more has been done to the road. However, I guess they haven't any money to do any work until someone does pay their rates."

By 1862 there was discontent in the Maori villages of the Waikato. The young men were bored.
They were discarding the ancient Maori rituals which, based on necessity, were carefully designed to keep everyone busy, realizing his own essential place in the life of the community.

A group of young Maori men were carrying bundles of flax down the track from the pa to the canoes tied to a tall kahiakatea tree on the sand of the Komakorau Stream. The old chief came down.
"Whatever are you doing?" he asked.
"We are going to take this flax to Auckland to sell to the Pakeha," answered one of the boys.
The chief looked at the stuff in the canoe.
"But this is rubbish," he said, "It wasn't cut with the proper ceremonies. It isn't dressed properly. It's rubbish!" he repeated.

In 1886 the Pukekura Butter  Factory, the first in the Waikato, was opened. The skimming station at Matangi supplied cream to this factory until the butter factory at Newstead was established in 1888, when supply changed there.
1894 saw the purchase of a Cheese Factory site adjacent to the railway line at Matangi by the New Zealand Packing Company. This was followed in 1900 by the opening of a Butter Factory at Matangi by the New Zealand Dairy Association (N.Z.D.A.), Mr Arthur Furze was a prime mover behind this development.

THE depression years of the thirties were a grim time for many Eureka folk. However, the relief work schemes started by the Waikato County Council set in train the development of much of the country.

A CHALLENGING scene confronted Eureka's pioneer farmers as they settled in the community at the turn of the century.