Pipiriki, New Zealand 🌍

Pipiriki (#nz1010)

G-02 REPORTS FROM OFFICERS IN NATIVE DISTRICTS., Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1 January 1874

In re Maori mills, I would here mention that machinery, at a cost of £200, has arrived from Glasgow for the Pipiriki mill, and that the Natives are engaged in cutting fresh timber (totara) for a new mill house, to comport with the iron machinery, which is far too good to put into the old mill. By next year I hope to be able to report the completion of this mill, and its being in full operation. Some of the absent Natives are about returning to Pipiriki to assist in putting up this mill, and I believe it will be a means of attracting thither again the scattered remnant of a once powerful tribe on the Whanganui River. Pipiriki, a place already noted in the past, will, I trust, ere long again assume its importance as the most flourishing and advantageously situated settlement on the river.
Owing to the high price of iron, there has been a delay in the operations connected with the mills at Karatia and Koriniti; but so soon as the necessary funds are raised (a portion having already been subscribed) steps will be taken to complete them, when there will be four flour-mills on the Whanganui River.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9227, 24 September 1880

Native Flour Mill.— Two large canoes came down the river on Tuesday, for the purpose of conveying the millstones and machinery of the old flour mill at Putiki up to Pipiriki, where a new mill is in course of erection. The machinery has lately received a thorough, overhaul at Mr Murray's foundry, and a party of millwrights will go with the plant to set it up.

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 56, 6 March 1940

WASHED AWAY
FAMOUS OLD MILL
THE FLOOD AT PIPIRIKI
(By Telegraph—Press Association.)
WANGANUI, March 5. Reports drifting in from the cut-off back country show that the historic old flourmill at Pipiriki, familiar to thousands of tourists, was washed away by the recent floods.
The mill, which was built by Sir George Grey for the Maoris, stood on the bank of the Kaukore Stream near where it joins the Wanganui River below Pipiriki. Driven by a waterwheel, it was for many years used for grinding flour, and was the largest mill on the Wanganui River. The floor was normally about 30 feet above river level but during a heavy flood years ago it was submerged and the mill fell into neglect. Later it was repaired and used for many years as an electricity generating station for Pipiriki House. The plant was later removed and the mill continued idle for nearly 20 years, remaining as one of the sights of the Wanganui River for tourists.

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