Detail of the Poroutawhao Flour Mill at the Horowhenua Vintage Car Club. Close-up of some of the wooden gear teeth on the gear wheel. The wooden teeth of the gears were all handmade.The black metal parts are the salvaged pieces of the original 1850's mill.
The original mill was built by the Roman Catholic Missionary Fr. Jean Baptise Comte in 1850, for Ngāti Huia. Surviving pieces of the original Poroutawhao Flour Mill located on the northern side of Paeroa Road, were salvaged by the late J.O. Stewart in the early 1980s. The pieces were donated to the Horowhenua Vintage Car Club in 2008, to restore and house. The restoration was completed in 2013 and opened by Mrs. Gae Stewart on 26 January 2014. Images were taken for the 'Timber, Flax, Flour: The History of Mills in the Horowhenua' exhibition, August 2022 at Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-pō Gallery Space.
