The sign under the Kahikitea tree provides some insight to the lives of the early settlers. The following is the text from that sign. It is noteworthy that a very considerable number of impoverished immigrants had still to pay their boat fares by 1892, and probably many never did.

The settlement plan shown here indicates the names of the first settlers to take up land in the district.

The numbers alongside each name show the section drawn in the ballot held in this (Te Whiti) clearing on September 24th 1872.

The settlers came from Scandinavia, most were Norwegian. They came in two boats, Hovding and Ballarat, both arriving in Napier on the same day - September 15th.

The men were married but their wives and children had been left behind in Napier and travelled down a few weeks later when the men had had a little time to prepare for them.

All of the sections available in the ballot were covered in dense bush quite unlike the the coniferous forests of their home countries.

Tools were primitive and in short supply. The early spring weather was harsh and as the families were also expected to begin paying their debt to the New Zealand Government, by working up to four days a week, progress in developing their own land was heartbreakingly slow.

The new settlers owed: £7 per adult (boat fare); £5 per child (boat fare); £1 per person (fare from Napier); £1 per acre for the land. The Government paid 5 shillings per day for work on the roads and railway.