Hulke's Mill, Wanganui, New Zealand 🌍

Wanganui (#nz37)

The machinery for this large mill was sourced from England by William Hulke, and was originally destined for a site in Wanganui Wellington Independent, 12 April 1845

Mills. - There can be now no doubt that after another crop the settlers of Cook's Straits will produce sufficient grain not only with which to feed the settlements, but also to supply the whaling and other coast stations which make a steady, extensive and profitable demand upon this settlement for flour. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the means of rendering the grain into flour should keep pace with the demand as it arises; and we are happy in being able to report that such will now unquestionably be the case. The following list of mills already erected and in progress, will be satisfactory to the well wishers of the colony.
Messrs, Simmons and Hoggard have a flour mill driven by wind, and Mr. Catchpool a timber and flour mill which is worked by steam. Both these mills are on Te Aro flat. Messrs. Molesworth and Ludlam have nearly completed a very fine windmill, which is situated near the bridge, on the Hutt. Messrs. Schultze and Mathieson are throwing a dam across the Kai Warra valley - distant about one mile from Thorndon flat - where they purpose immediately erecting a flour mill. The water power they will have, will be very considerable, and will lead to the Kai Warra valley becoming an important village. We have no doubt that these gentlemen, in a few years, will find they have one of the most valuable properties in New Zealand, yielding a steady and most profitable return, Mr. Hulke is arranging for the erection of a flour mill at Wanganui, with wind power. It will be on a larger scale than Messrs, Molesworth and Ludlam's. The machinery is coming from England, and will embrace all the modern improvements. A flour mill, turned by water, is being erected by a Company at Nelson - and we believe that New Plymouth has a flour mill, or soon will have one. Six flour mills, and probably seven, are either erected or in progress of being built in Cook's Straits, which is a satisfactory guarantee to the farmer that his wheat will not be depreciated in price by having to be sent an unreasonable distance to convert it into flour, and to the settler that the days are numbered when we shall cease to depend upon external aid for the due supply of the necessaries of life.

That report suggests that the mill had not yet been built, yet his obituary Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 258, 24 October 1908 states that it was destroyed that same year:

In the latter part of 1842 he went again to Wanganui, and there erected a flourmill — windmill, with machinery he had imported from England. This mill was destroyed by the natives in 1845 and in 1847 Mr. Hulke visited New Plymouth and decided to remove the machinery to this town, where he established a mill in Queen-street, using a water-wheel for power. This was called the Union mill, and stands now in the occupation of the Crown Dairy Company.

However, a report in Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Issue 245, 14 Nov 1846 supposedly the year after the apparent destruction mentions the ship that the machinery was delivered on was the, Ralph Bernal which only reached New Zealand in 1846!

New Flour Mill. - We believe there is every probability that a very complete windmill for grinding grain will be erected forthwith in the Waimea. The spot selected is a section in the rear of Mr. Otterson's farm, Waimea East, and is well chosen for its central position and accessibility. The machinery was lately brought out in the Ralph Bernal for the purpose of being erected at Wanganui, where preparations had been made for it, but as it would have been madness to put up the mill there at the present time, and there being a prospect that the settlement will have to be abandoned, the proprietor, Mr. Hulke, intends immediately removing to Nelson. We hope Mr. Hulke's fellow-settlers at Wanganui will be able to make arrangements to follow him here.

The situation changed again Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 130, 9 January 1847

WANGANUI.
[From our Correspondent]
31st. December, 1846.
Mr. Hulk has returned from Nelson where he had meant to establish his flour mill. The recent happy events here made him try back, and accordingly he has now settled to erect it at a creek two miles above the town. This situation is more eligible than the hill top he formerly selected, as the drag up would always have proved a wearisome objection.

Perhaps that phrase "preparations had been made for it" is telling, suggesting that a mill building without the machinery was all that was built and then destroyed the previous year. Despite the hopes of the inhabitants of Nelson, in 1847 the machinery ended up not in their province, but in a watermill in New Plymouth. As recalled later in Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13793, 27 October 1908:

In 1847, at the invitation of Mr Flight and other Taranaki settlers, Mr Hulke visited New Plymouth, and after conferring with its people decided to bring on the machinery of his flour mill standing at Wanganui, which had been at a standstill for some time on account of the Maori troubles.

Associated people

• William King Hulke