Farming

At the conclusion of the land wars in the 1860’s Captain James McPherson was given 300 acres of land previously confiscated from Tainui by the government and granted to soldiers as an enticement to stay.

His property stretched from what is now Te Ara Hou to the Waikato River. It was bounded on the North side by the track taken by local iwi into Te Au o Waikato (Piako District), now Morrinsville Road, and on the East by the Mangaonua Stream to where it enters the river.

The land was farmed for a century before being gradually subdivided.