Community Contributed

Pioneers of Foxton : Book Five.

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T17:00:51+00:00
The "pioneers" featured in this booklet all lived in the twentieth century, most of them in the memory of older folk of the community. While most were relatively unimportant people, they were "leading lights" in many local businesses and affairs.

This probably would have been a period of consolidation in the district. We did see the construction of many flood controls, sealing of roads, construction of the water tower and water reticulation, new bridges, the opening of the woolpack factory but we also lost our river port due to flood control works, then our railway, then the flax industry collapsed.

Foxton is now almost a "backwater" although we are trying to promote it as a tourist town with our windmill, murals and museums as well as our beach and bird sanctuary.

Accurate information is now impossible to obtain from family members apart from bare facts.

Click to read about the following pioneers:


Mark Edwin Perreau

The Petersen Family

Walter Edward Barber

Alexander Speirs


William Hamer

George Otho Barber and son George Easton Barber

James Chrystall and son John

Harold Henry Podmore

Abraham King