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Rob Finlay is a well-known member of PDHS, having served 11 years as our secretary. He is continuing as a member of the Society committee and also as Editor of the ‘Sentinel’. 

Kirikiri is the name of the shallow valley between the old village of Papakura on the Great South Road, and Pukekiwiriki/ Red Hill, a shallow valley which is now the residential and industrial area of Papakura East. It was, at different times, the home of two significant communities. The first was Te Aakitai Waiohua, inheritors of centuries of Maaori association with the land, with their paa at Pukekooiwiriki, village and cultivations around it and the forests and fernland which fed them. Te Aakitai welcomed the first Pakeha settlers in the 1840s and sold a lot of land around Te Kirikiri but maps of 1860 show the valley and adjacent areas of the Hunuas as 'Native land'. Three years after that, as a result of the Waikato War, Kirikiri was confiscated, and the chief Ihaka Takaanini, (regarded as a friend by local settlers), his father and two children died in custody. Part of the land was then, in 1865, set up as a new settlement under the Waikato Immigration Scheme (at the same time as Pukekohe, Bombay, Tuakau, Ramarama, Patumahoe, Otau near Clevedon, etc). The settlers were mainly Scots and Presbyterians, who had migrated on two ships from Glasgow, Viola and Resolute, forming a distinct community. Their story began with desperate poverty along with a very high mortality and hardship, but was transformed for many into a more prosperous future. Kirikiri became something like the 'smiling farm' community many had hoped for and some of the families were still living in the identifiable rural district as late as the 1960s when the first factories appeared. Again, the theme of love and loss comes into play. This time, it was council rates that put an end to the old community. But their legacy remains. Most of us know some descendants and some of their families made a big impact on their adopted country. Kirikiri should not be forgotten.