Monavale Homestead - 1910 - 2010

Channing often left for North America to pick up the best Holstein Friesians and Romney Marsh sheep that he could find. He travelled with a stock handler. The beginning herd acquired there was 17 heifers and one bull.

They were bought back to New Zealand by the handler on the old S.S Makura. He bought and raised stock for conformity to improve and sell the stock, not for beef.

He started exhibiting very soon, in Cambridge, Hamilton, and Auckland, then later in the U.S and Mexico City. His stock won scores of ribbons, medals, plates, and cups. He made a name for himself and was able to sell to South Africa, South America, Mexico and the U.S.

Some of the finest cattle and sheep in the world was coming from the Waikato Valley.

Channing surrounded all the properties with 7 or 9 high wire fences some with barbed wire. The wooden fence posts were 15 feet apart, and the low wires were put close together so that young lambs could not get through.

Each farm area was divided into ‘paddocks’, which are small fields or pastures. The paddocks were 10, 15, 20, 40 or even 100 acres each. They had a big crew working on all this. They also had to sow much of the land in the particular grasses that they wanted.

Neither Channing or Billie had been raised on a farm, so they had a relatively fresh concept for the area.

They wanted a farm centered on the development, testing, improvement and exhibition of Holstein Friesan cattle and Romney Marsh sheep.

It was not a typical farm, much closer to a modern, government experimental farm, with everything tested and recorded, and it’s purpose was to make money by developing the best stock.

Channing was continually working on better show animals, and higher milk and buttermilk production.

Channing did not return to his law practice. Although he had not been raised to be a farmer, he had been exposed to agriculture by a father who was constantly breeding birds and flowers to perfection.

He leaped in and voraciously read animal husbandry books. He decided to farm in a way that would now be called ‘scientific’ using proven methods to produce superior animals.

Channing’s father Frank picked up much of the land previously around the estate that had long been cleared and was excellent for farming.

They assembled 1000 acres around the old homestead that had mostly been planted in English grasses. A mile away they picked up 700 acres for young stock to graze. Six miles away they had 500 acres from other Buckland properties which they used for pasture for growing steers.

There were shade trees near the house, and creeks and gullies full of the big New Zealand ferns and flowering bushes. There were also several acres of fruit trees.

Even though the majority of the home was made out of Kauri, the floor in the main hall was made from dark red Matai wood.

The staircase was made of Kauri. Every third baluster is 8in wide, and has a design scrolled in the middle of it which appears to be a very old Maori design.

The plumbing, electrical fixtures, kitchen equipment and other hardware were all imported from America to get the most modern available then.

When Channing retuned home to Cambridge, he hired another architect A.B. Herrold, who had designed the famous Town Hall, built under his father Frank Buckland’s Mayor ship in 1909.

Herrold designed a similar home for Channing and Billie to the one in the U.S but smaller.

Monavale was built primarily of Kauri wood. The trees then were about ten feet in diameter, and 60 to 80 feet tall, with no branches except at the top. The wood was very clean grained and some of the planks were up to 18 inches wide.

Channing and Billie built a new home with all the modern conveniences, mostly imported from the U.S.A.

Channing travelled to Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, to visit Theodore Roosevelt and was taken by the design of Teddy’s (Theodore) home, Sagamore (which is now a State Park).

Teddy allowed Channing to hire the same architect, and to use the same design to build his new Homestead at Monavale in Cambridge New Zealand.

In 1910 Channing and Billie left their small house in Cambridge and bought the Monavale property which had an old farm house on it.

“Billie told a story about getting rid of the old farmhouse to build the new one.

Evidently Channing went onto the old, empty house, and ripped wallpaper loose on the walls. He then started to set fire to the paper, but the dry old house almost exploded, and he barley made it out the door with his life.”

After Elizabeth Jane had died Frank moved in with Channing and Billie at Monavale Homestead.

'Now granddad Frank could pursue unfettered his hobby of many years.

Channing built him a fairly large greenhouse, and tilled him ten acres of good soil to propagate all varieties of plants and Frank's best known success was the development of the King Alfred daffodil.'