27 Weraroa Road, Levin
This house has been so extensively altered that it has no resemblance to when it was first built. This story is of former occupants of the original house.
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This house has been so extensively altered that it has no resemblance to when it was first built. This story is of former occupants of the original house.
It has been suggested that it was built by the Prouse family for a daughter, Mrs Charles Nation. If so, this would place the building of it during the 1900-1910 decade, if not before.
Mr Henry and Mrs Kit Taylor bought the house and the five acres of land in 1919 when they were married. They established a poultry farm on the land which ran down to the east side of the present showgrounds and is now intersected by Worcester St.
Then the house had five main rooms with the bathroom outside in a shed, probably near the outside washhouse with its copper boiler. No need to guess where the lavatory was. An inside bathroom was built later.
The poultry farm running up to 2000 birds was of the style of the time. The poultry were housed in sheds with roosting rails and straw litter on the floors. During the day the birds ran free in six feet high nettinged large runs.
At first, chicks were hatched in a kerosene incubator and later in an electric one. Replacements for the farm were hatched. A big trade was developed in day-old chicks sold with foster mothering broody hens, over the whole Horowhenua district. Most people had a few fowls in their backyards then.
Three cows were milked, the milk being sent to the Dairy Factory. Later the cream was home separated. Then there were a large number of these “billycan suppliers” as there were hundreds of small blocks of land in the borough and surroundings. The incubator house was where Mrs Taylor’s flat is in Worcester St now.
The family of three children, Henry, Doris and Jim were brought up in the house as well as Mrs Taylor’s brother, Bill Wisnofski, for a long period of his young life.
Mr Taylor’s health deteriorated because of his war service and in 1936 he ceased running the poultry farm. The family lived in the house until 1968. They had sold two sections on the frontage. Mr Keith Davies bought the remainder of the block in 1954 subdividing it in to house sections, forming Worcester St with Mrs Taylor retaining the house property No.29 until 1968.
I wish to thank Mr and Mrs Opie, Mr and Mrs Waugh, Mr Alec Challies and Mrs Taylor for help in research.
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I just found an inscription in an old The Girl's Own Annual that Grace Nation will have given to her younger sister Phyllis. It was for a Christmas 1905 present - and it is signed "Grace Nation, 'Te Ngaio', Levin", indicating that Grace was living there at that time...
On the Green
Weraroa Farm, Levin
MR. H. HUDSON, Motor Body Builder, Weraroa-Levi...
Nick Wallingford
said Charles and Grace Nation
Putting two and two together - this solves my question about where did "Te Ngaio" go?
I've put two photos on this site which now appear to be early photos of this house - not easy to recognise in the 'original' form!
http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/image_files/0000/0008/2907/1907_Te_Ngaio_on_Weraroa_Road_Levin_small_sq.jpg
http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/image_files/0000/0008/2912/Te_Ngaio_on_Weraroa_Road_Levin.jpg
These photos came down through Christobel "Cuffie" Nation Tunnington, the daughter of Charles and Grace Nation, and are almost certain to be this house. One of the photos is labeled 1907 which fits to the right timeframe.
Charles and Grace were married in Levin in a big wedding in 1902. "Cuffie" was born in 1912. Both Charles and Grace died relatively young in the 1920s.
I'm pleased to know where the house was, even if it doesn't look like it did in these 100 year old photos!
Tags: Nation, Prouse, Te Ngaio, Weraroa