Manawatu rail: Foxton Traditional Cache

Welcome aboard the Foxton-Palmerston tram service to Palmerston! Start of the line! Next stop Motuiti Pa.

Te Awahou was bought from the Ngati Raukawa for £2,500. First settled in 1842 and renamed Foxton in the 1860s, it is one of the first organised settlements in New Zealand. All the towns in the country were on harbours, all contact with the rest of the country was via ship. Because of this Julius Vogel, the Colonial Treasurer in 1869, realised that the towns would not be able to raise the funding themselves to improve transportation and proposed £10M of overseas borrowing over 10 years. The Immigration and Public Works Act of 1870 followed.

The Manawatu area was purchased from the Rangitane for £12,000, and a town was conceived to be established in Papioea, a clearing in a large dense forest, as the centre of a timber district. Indeed, the Manawatu was considered one of the best timbered regions of the country. A tramway was also proposed at the same time (in 1865) in order to get the timber to the wharves at Foxton. At the time there were just three other railways in New Zealand, one horse drawn, the other two steam, one of which was on wooden rails, all in the South Island.

By 1866 a crude, muddy, swampy road existed between the tent town of Papioea and Nga Whakarau (at the Himitangi/Opiki turnoff) and Stewart, the surveyor, proposed that this road be upgraded and a shallow draft paddle steamer operate on the Manawatu River between Nga Whakarau and Foxton to provide the remaining link. This didn't happen, so although the subdivided land sold, settlement was slow due to the difficulty of access. The issue of transport became such a problem that the Provincial Secretary A.W.F. Halcombe himself came to investigate. Although a proposed tramline to Nga Whakarau was cheap at under £1000, and cheaper than upgrading the road, it was still too much for the government coffers.

However Vogel's Act of 1870 changed things, and in 1871 a tramline from the newly renamed Palmerston township was started. It was completed in 1873 and reached not just to Nga Whakarau, but all the way into Foxton's Main Street. This was proposed to be a steam line, but the steam engine bought for the job proved to slow, and the wooden rails and stone foundation insufficient for the weight of the engine, so it was never put into full service, although it was used to assist with the construction of the line.

By 1880 there was growing dissatisfaction with the rail line being in the middle of Main Street, especially when cars full of stock were left there overnight. So in 1881 the wharf was rebuilt with a bit on infill into the river, and the rail yards and station moved to the wharfside.

Much of the Manawatu was swampland, with very large forest and flax fields. After the deforestation of the Manawatu in the late 1880s, Foxton, as well as being a port town, became very much a flax town. Flax was made into hemp which was exported for making into rope. However the deforested swamp lands made the area prone to flooding (see other caches in this series). In 1942 Palmerston North developed the Lower Manawatu Flood Control Scheme, and built a series of stop banks, flood gates and a major spillway for the Manawatu River. However an unexpected flood cut through the spillway and the entire river ended up being diverted permanently 3km south of Foxton. By this time shipping was almost nonexistant anyway, due to problems with keeping a clear sealine to the port.

Flax

Foxton Main Street 1877.
Ihakara Gardens will be this side of the fence, the Memorial to Fallen Soldiers on the grass beyond.
The station juts out into the street at the far end of the rail.


Foxton Wharf, 190?

Now Foxton has a small tidal arm, overgrown with water plants. The lack of shipping killed the need for a railway. The line gave up completely in 1959 and nearly all evidence has since been removed. The rail yard is now a park, with only one original wharf building left, now used for indoor bowls. At the waypoint you can see a replica of the Palmerston, the steam engine bought for the wooden tramline, outside the Foxton Museum. You are looking for a 200ml camo pottle. FTF gets to FTF a new TB. Happy hunting!

Some evidence remains - Property boundaries in Google Maps showing the railway's curved right-of-way.