Comley Green, just north of Waihou Village.
A question about an old house near Waihou Village leads Te Aroha Museum volunteer Geoff Clark to discover more about the man who built it.
An inquiry to the Te Aroha Museum was: “What do you know about that nice old house just out of the Waihou Village heading north”?
We knew it was called “Comley Green” and the Reids used to own it.
A quick search on the Papers Past website revealed that it was a substantial 12-room house, built in 1911 by Mr N.A.. Larney who had just returned from Auckland and had purchased the 63 acres about 1 km along the Ngutumanga Road.
So, who was Nichol Ashton Larney?
The newspapers had plenty of references to him and it transpires that he was a man of considerable means and intelligence.
He used to own 4500 acres on either side of the road from Waitoa to Morrinsville.
The Te Kahia Estate of 1500 acres on the north side had a railway station at each end — Waitoa and Tatua O’Hawa.
The Lauriston Estate on the southern side of the road stretched between Waitoa and the Allen Estate just east of Morrinsville.
When he sold up in 1907, Larney moved to Auckland but it didn’t suit him so he returned to Comley Green in 1911.
Larney died on June 11, 1915, aged 73.
His wife, Margaret, died on June 3, 1918, aged 76, and they are both buried in the Te Aroha Cemetery with a substantial headstone.
Nichol Ashton Larney was born in Edinburgh in 1842 and, as a youth, took up farming which inspired him to learn all he could about the soil and animals.
In 1861 he went to America and served four years in the United States Engineers Army Corps on the Federal side.
After the war, he returned to Scotland to further his education including veterinarian training.
In 1875 he arrived in New Zealand on the ship “British Empire” and was employed by R and A McLean, who were famous stock breeders.
After service in the Bay of Plenty, he took over management of a farm property at Ohaupo and in 1883 he moved to Waitoa and took charge of the stock on the Waitoa Estate then owned by the Auckland Agricultural Company.
He later purchased 300 acres at Tatua, eventually increasing his holding to 3000 acres, calling it Lauriston Estate.
Larney was also famous for his invention of drenches for animal parasites.
His “Larney’s Anthelmintic Company” was first seen in advertisements in July 1886, and his new drench was extensively advertised all over the North Island and as far south as Temuka in South Canterbury.
Numerous “testimonials” were written at the time by sheep farmers who attested to its efficacy.
In 1892, it was made in Te Aroha before the company moved to Auckland.
In January 1897 he formed the Live-stock Remedy Company and patented his new remedy called Sonjet.
He was such a prominent person in the Piako District that his photo was included in the Diamond Jubilee of the Piako County 1877–1937 alongside other prominent pioneers in the development of the Piako County.
The Te Aroha Museum has a display of Larney in its revamped Farming Section.