New Zealand State Highway 52
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| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by Central Hawke's Bay District Council, Tararua District Council, Masterton District Council | ||||
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| North end: |
 at Waipukurau
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| South end: |
at Masterton
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| Location | ||||
| Primary destinations: |
Porangahau, Weber, Pongaroa | |||
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State Highway 52 is a former state highway now reclassified Route 52. It runs from Waipukurau, Central Hawkes Bay, to Masterton in the Wairarapa through Porangahau on the east coast and the Weber and Pongaroa hill country on the lower eastern side of the North Island.
Route 52 runs south through southern Hawkes Bay and the Tararua District to the Wairarapa passing through the coastal side of the one-time very dense forest of the Seventy Mile Bush, known at its southern end as the Forty Mile Bush.
The 26 miles of road was approved by Provincial Council in April 1859 and constructed over the next year but, five years later, passage was still difficult.
By 1864 a road reached Wainui — renamed Herbertville in 1889 — though bridges still had to be made. A separate Weber Road Board was established in 1890, an offshoot of the Porangahau Road Board.
Sections in the settlement of Pongaroa were offered for sale in March 1895. Roadwork ceased for the winter in June 1895 with 2½ miles of road formed. By the end of May the Minister of Lands had ordered signs banning bullocks from working between Falls creek and Pongaroa stream, between 1 June and 1 November. Some account follows of the battle to make this section of the road.
John O'Meara successfully campaigned for the Pahiatua seat in the 1896 general election. Part of his platform was that land should be roaded before new settlers were obliged to live on that land to keep their title. At an election meeting in Woodville he claimed to have never before seen such a place as the road between Pongaroa and Weber. Nineteen (pack)horses had been lost on that road that winter. In January it was announced roadworks at Pongaroa would recommence around the end of the month. Six parties of "co-operative labourers" duly began forming the road between Makuri and Pongaroa before the month was out.
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Wikipedia