At the time the Treaty of Waitangi.

In 1840 four tribes dominated - Ngāti Te Ata, Ngāti Tamaoho, Ngāti Tipa and Ngāti Paoa. No definite boundaries between the tribes existed but Ngāti Te Ata were situated roughly in the Waiuku area while Ngaati Tamaoho claimed the central area from Patumahoe-Drury area to Pokeno and Mangatangi. Ngāti Tipa occupied the south bank of the Waikato and the Ngāti Paoa were over on the Thames Coast. In the early nineteenth century Ngapuhi from north of Auckland, armed with muskets and led by Hongi Hika, had a devastating impact on the local tribes who scattered to escape the invaders before regrouping to resist later raids.

First Europeans

Captain James Cook and his crew made landfall near Whakatiwai on Wednesday 22 November 1769. He recorded in his log that he “went in the pinnace over to the western shore but found there neither inhabitants or anything else worthy of note.” Samuel Marsden was the next known European contact arriving at Whakatiwai on 16 January 1815. At the large pa of Te Houpa he was surprised to find fat hogs and plantations of potatoes. Marsden made a gift of wheat seed to Te Houpa.

Traders first appeared on the West Coast in the 1830’s buying flax, and settlers began to arrive in the 1850’s taking up land between Waiuku and Hunua. Waiuku grew to become a busy port at the Manukau end of the harbour en route to the Waikato River. From the 1840’s on canoes, laden with produce to feed the population of Auckland, used the portage making it the main route to and from the growing city. Missionaries and explorers traveled the same way into the ‘interior’. There was also much traffic through the Hauraki Gulf. There were plans in the 1870’s, revived several times in subsequent decades, for a canal to link the Waikato River and the Manukau harbour. They were finally laid to rest in the early twentieth century when the railway line from Auckland linked Hamilton.

Times of Conflict

During the 1860’s Franklin was in the front line of the Land Wars as imperial troops battled into the Waikato to seize Maori land. Pukekohe East Church was turned into a stockade to repel Maori attacks. Soldiers from the Alexandra Redoubt at Tuakau were involved in an engagement at Camerontown where no fewer than two Victoria Crosses and six Distinguished Conduct medals were won. The main impact of the war on Franklin was along the route of the Great South Road and in and around the Hunua Ranges from whence groups of Kingites sallied out to attack supply convoys and isolated settlements. It was not until a string of redoubts was constructed from Pokeno (Queen’s Redoubt) to Miranda and the main group of Kingites, the Koheriki, were ambushed by Jackson’s Forest Rangers in the Hunua Ranges that the war moved from the Franklin area. After the wars large tracts of land in Franklin, mainly from Pollok south to Mairoa, around Pukekohe and Tuakau, in the Pokeno - Mangatawhiri area and the western half of the Hunua Ranges were confiscated by the Government and sold to European settlers.

Rapid Settlement

From the end of the Land Wars, those blocks of land either confiscated or purchased from Maori, were rapidly settled by European farmers. The area between the western edge of the Hunua ranges and the west coast was virtually all in farms by 1880 and the success of farming in this area was assured when the railway line was extended from Drury south to Mercer in 1875. This provided a ready means to transport bulky items like animals, farm produce, fertilizer and timber in and out of the area.

More slowly settled were the interior of the Hunua Ranges and the land south of the Waikato River. Both areas were somewhat steep and difficult to access. The Onewhero/Pukekawa district did not begin to flourish until a bridge was built across the Waikato River at Tuakau in 1900. Apart from very steep and inaccessible land, almost all remaining parts of the district were in farmland by the time of the First World War.

Since the 1960’s some of the steeper and poorer parts of the district, especially in the Hunua’s and Klondyke Road area, have been planted in Pinus radiata.

What's in the name?

Franklin’s name may originate with Lady Jane Franklin, wife of Arctic explorer and Governor of Tasmania, Sir John Franklin. Lady Franklin explored the region in the 1840’s. The name Franklin was first taken by the electorate in 1860 and by the county council formed some 50 years later, at the same time as the Pukekohe Borough.