Visit New Zealand

- By Diana Tijoriwalla

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• Indians in NZ
• The Howick Historical Village
• School Levels
• The Treaty of Waitangi.
• Maori Cooking
• Anzac Day 25th April
• Auckland Regional Parks
• Tongariro National Park
• The Buried Village (Rotorua)
• Auckland's Islands
• Paradise Valley Springs (Rotorua)
• MOTAT
• The Polynesian Spa
• Rules for Teachers
• Daffodil Day
• The Waitakere Ranges
• Western Springs Tramway
• Auckland Museum
• New Zealand's Pride
• The Tuatara
• Maungakiekie
• Secondary Schools
• Sir Edmund Hillary
• Halloween
• Auckland Zoo

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The Howick Historical Village

The Howick Historical Village displays both Maori & early European history. The buildings have been laid out to present the early period of colonisation of Auckland. Howick, on which the village is based, was the largest of the fencible settlements. ‘Fencible’ comes from the word ‘defencible’, meaning ‘capable of defence’. These soldier-settlements, called the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps, had served in the wars for Britain in the 1830s & 1840s & had retired on a pension. They were offered a new life in New Zealand, a free passage with their families, & a cottage with an acre of land to become theirs after a seven year term, in return for certain military duties including compulsory Sunday church parade.
More than 3 months in the ship, 2500 men, women & children arrived in Auckland. In all, 10 ships brought the ‘Fencible’ to Auckland. During the 19th century, ‘Fencible’ were sent to New Zealand, Australia, Canada & the Falkland Islands as settlers for defence purposes.
In Auckland, the privates were settled in double-unit cottages, sergeants in single-unit cottages & officers received a fine homestead with 50 acres of land. You can see examples of such settlements in the village. For the first 7 yrs, the ‘Fencible’ were under Military control & land was set aside for the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church & the parsonages. Church provided the first school & the ‘Fencible’ colonization was considered as a successful immigration scheme.
After their seven year term of service, most took up the Government’s offer of 10 acres for 2 guineas an acre & became successful farmers. They built sod cottages as a temporary accommodation. Some left for the goldfields’, others took up the Government’s offer of 40 acres of uncleared land in South Auckland, in exchange for their Fencible cottage & acre of land. Many of their descendants still live in the area today.
Something special about the place: Every cottage had a well, which was 30 feet deep & were brick lined. There were safety measures when you operate the well. You can see the Grindstone, Lye Dropper, Mushroom darner, Bread oven, Toilet also called as ‘ thunderbox’ & a village notice board. They used newspaper as wallpaper & made beer in a very traditional way. They had bars, a court house, school, church & a hand pump to pump the water out of the ground. You can see a rabbit hutch in many places. Rabbits were introduced to New Zealand in 1838 from Britain for food & sports. Meat was scarce in the village. A white flag was raised in the village, when meat was available. Drains were made from bottles & people grew pumpkin, gooseberries, potatoes, pre-European kumaras, Hue Maori gourd, taro & many more. Some of them are grown even today!
Ngamapu, the village letter carrier in 1850, was paid one pound a week for taking the letters twice a week on Wednesday & Saturday & returning on Thursday & Monday.

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