The heavily forested Akatarawa Valley and surrounding hills were extensively logged from the latter part of the nineteenth century and eventually up to the 1960s when Arthur Clouston was the last sawmill operator.

A post office to service the settlers, mill operators and their workers was opened at Akatarawa on 20 April 1898.

The names and dates of the Postmasters¹ were

Postmaster	Start	Postmaster	Start
E L Ingpen	20 Apr 1898	L G Schonfelder	23 Oct 1911
Mrs M Salmons	1 Feb 1900	M R Varnham	9 Jun 1914
W A Jones	1 Sep 1900	C E Byant	4 Apr 1918
A Wackrow (Farmer)	1 Jul 1901	Mrs M Thorby	13 Sep 1919
T J Prier (Farmer)	1 Sep 1901	Miss E M Thorby	2 Jun 1922
A T Childs (Settler)	1 Jan 1903	Mrs L Rhodes	21 May 1923
J H Bear Jnr	17 Feb 1910	W J Tripe	7 Sep 1923
Mrs E Bear	1 Jul 1911	Mrs E M Johnston	25 Jan 1924

The post office would have been conducted from the postmaster’s homes or perhaps from a sawmill office.

A separate Telephone Office² operated from 7 October 1910 to 11 September 1912 by Mr W Wilson. The hours of operation being – 12.30p to 1p and 4.30p to 5p from 16 August 1911.

The Post Office & Telephone Office closed on 1 February 1925.

A Telephone Office then opened from 21 May 1927. The names and dates of the Telephone Operators were

Telephone Operator	Start	Telephone Operator	Start
Mrs M J Atkin	21 May 1927	H Johnston	15 Jan 1936
Mrs E I Nation	15 May 1928	C J P Knight	11 May 1938
Mrs M Wiltshire	1 Apr 1932	R C Southee	17 Feb 1939
		E B S Shaw	1 Jun 1940

The Telephone Office closed from 14 December 1938 to 17 February 1939 and from 6 December 1939 to 1 June 1940 before permanently closing on 1 November 1941.

The mail service from Upper Hutt was provided by a contract held by J Salmons to provide a twice-weekly service from Upper Hutt. As early as 1908 a part rural delivery mail service operated at Akatarawa every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The mails closed at Akatarawa at 8am and at Upper Hutt at 2.15pm with arrival at Akatarawa scheduled for 7pm.

In 1913 the delivery was once again twice weekly and L Schonfelder held the contract at £50 per annum. Two different postmarks³ are recorded being used at Akatarawa, with the first from 9 Jan 1901 – 17 Sep 1903 and the second from Mar 1919 – 30 Jun 1922

Are there more envelopes and postcards that were mailed from Akatarawa waiting to be discovered to record further dates of usage?

1. Source – Archive NZ – Post Office Record Cards listing the names and dates of Postmasters –
2. Source – Archive NZ – Post Office Record Card listing the name of the Telephone Operator   https://collections.archives.govt.nz/en/web/arena/search#/?q=R26272278
3. Postmarks and dates of usage recorded by Ray Randle & Graham Robertson

A “thank you” to Andrew McNiven for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

11/10/25