Joseph Masters, a Wellington barrel-maker and self-appointed
spokesperson for the Wellington working men, met with the
Governor, Sir George Grey, and asked that about 25,000 acres
in the Wairarapa be set aside specifically for small farm
settlement, to enable working class people to purchase land.
Grey promised that if suitable land could be found in the
Wairarapa, and Maori owners were willing to sell, the Government
would buy the land and make it available at a reduced price
for small farm settlement. Land was found and chief Te Retimana
Te Korou and others agreed to sell some of their land to
make a town.
As it turned out,
no single area of 25,000 acres was available so the Small
Farms Settlement
Association Committee accepted
the land in two separate blocks – a decision which
ended plans for a single large town and resulted in the establishment
of Masterton and Greytown.
Each town comprised 100 acres laid out in one-acre allotments.
These were surrounded by 100 suburban sections of 40 acres
each, and rural sections of up to 100 acres. Each purchaser
of a 40-acre suburban section was entitled to a one-acre
town section.
By the end of the 1850s, unsold land plus a 20-acre town
block in each town, and some abandoned allotments remained.
The rules of the Association required that this land be put
up for auction and the proceeds applied for the benefit of
the town, but the Masterton land would not sell - not even
for two pounds an acre!
Charles Carter, as trustee for the
Small Farms Settlement Association, leased the land and
then set up a trust in 1867
to handle the income from it. However, this did not meet
the needs of the settlers and dissension arose among the
Committee over the trusteeship of the Association’s
funds and property.
Originally a single trust dealt with the affairs of both
Greytown and Masterton but in 1871 an Act of Parliament legally
separated the settlements with each being given its own Board
of Trustees.
Following this, the Wellington Provincial Council passed
the Masterton Trust Act. This Act provided for the election
of six trustees by the people of Masterton to control the
Masterton Trust Lands.
Through these Acts of Parliament,
the ownership and control of the trust lands was restored
to the people of Masterton
and the Lands Trust Masterton, as it is known today,
was established. Except for some amendments broadening the
interpretation, the Trust’s objectives have remained
unchanged to this day.
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