Place:Foxton, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand

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source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Foxton is a town in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand - on the lower west coast of the North Island, in the Horowhenua district, southwest of Palmerston North and just north of Levin. The town is located close to the banks of the Manawatu River. It is situated on State Highway 1, roughly in the middle between Tongariro National Park and Wellington.

The slightly smaller coastal settlement of Foxton Beach is considered part of Foxton, and is located to the west, on the Tasman Sea coastline.

The population was as of

Foxton has preserved its heritage - both Maori and Pakeha - through its parks, heritage buildings and four museums. The Manawatu River Loop and estuary creates an environment that features walkways and Ramsar wetlands with 93 species of birds.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Foxton was named after Sir William Fox, and has a history of flax stripping, which was used to make wool packs, matting and rope. Other industries associated with the town have included clothing manufacturing and sawmilling. The town is known for producing the soda drink Foxton Fizz, although the products are now made in Putāruru.

Early on, Foxton became a thriving regional centre, and with that status came a newspaper - the Manawatu Herald (est. in 1878).

It was only with the advent of the Palmerston North-Wellington railway that Palmerston North began to overtake it as the most important centre in the Manawatu. The central government had originally proposed that Foxton was to be on the route of the main line from Wellington to Auckland via Palmerston North, and a tramway linking Foxton and Palmerston North was upgraded into the Foxton Branch railway in the 1870s. However, due to government delays in extending the line further south, a group of Wellingtonian businessmen established the Wellington and Manawatu Railway (WMR), which announced in February 1881 that the "West Coast" line would run to Longburn, bypassing Foxton. This was a shorter and more direct route to Napier and Auckland, and avoided "unproductive country".

When this line opened in 1886, Foxton's status as a port slipped, and this position deteriorated further when the WMR was incorporated into the government's national rail network in 1908. The branch railway closed in 1959, leaving only road access to the town.

The mycologist Kathleen Curtis (1892–1994) was born in Foxton.

Flax booms

The local Flax Stripper Museum tells the history of the once thriving flax industry, and claims Foxton as the Flax Capital of New Zealand.

NZ Flax (Phormium tenax) played a major role in Foxton's development; indeed Foxton, rather than being a "gold town" or "coal town" was indisputably a "flax town", sending their product overseas to be used worldwide as a substitute for manila.

The first traders at Paiaka and Shannon traded mostly for flax from the Maori, which was sent to Sydney.^[1] The first of the flax booms began in 1869, lasting for four years during which 22,000 tonnes of fibre passed through Foxton's port. The late 1880s saw a short-lived flax boom that briefly allowed Foxton to once again grow and function as a bustling port.^[2]

A third flax boom, begun in 1898, was the most lasting and saw another increase in shipping, with over 10 steamers making regular visits. In 1903 the Moutoa Estate was developed as the main supply of flax.^[2] By 1908 problems with river silting and bar strandings meant that coastal shipping was avoiding Foxton. By 1916 there were only two ships coming into the port^[2] but in that year 97,000 bales of flax were shipped out from Foxton.^[3]

The Whirokino Cut

Deforestation of the inland Manawatu District in the late nineteenth century meant increased flooding and led to the creation of stopbanks, floodgates, and the Whirokino Cut.^[2] Completed in 1943 as part of the Lower Manawatu Flood Control Scheme, it was intended as a spillway but an unexpected flood broke through the upper end and diverted the river down the spillway, cutting off the Foxton loop of the river and causing great outcry at the time. The Ministry of Works said this was unintentional, but some residents felt it was done purposefully. The Foxton Loop now only has a tidal flow and is not connected to the river at its top end, the upper end of the Loop having silted up during a flood in 1953.

Though the Whirokino Cut is sometimes claimed as the reason Foxton failed to operate as a port, the dangerous bar and persistent silting were already providing problems and by the time the Cut was in place most shipping was already avoiding Foxton – it had already ceased to function as a port as early as 1942.^[2]

What always has remained though, is Foxton's unique natural environment. The nearby Foxton Beach offers wetlands of international significance with godwits and multiple species of other rare birdlife, and a beach with plenty of surf, swimmers and fishermen and women.

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