How the people of Palmerston North helped build Massey 99 years ago

Massey University Archivist Louis Changuion will use photographs, documents, maps and other archival materials to explore the relationship between the city and university that began even before Massey Agricultural College opened.

In the 1920s, Palmerston North’s civic leaders campaigned to bring an agricultural college to the city, seeing it as important to Palmerston North’s future. Their efforts were successful. Massey Agricultural College was established in 1927 and opened to students in 1928. Almost a century later, the university has become an integral part of the city, while Palmerston North itself has grown and evolved alongside the institution.

“Palmerston North was proactive in securing and developing tertiary education. Massey did not simply happen to be located there,” he says.

In 1926, Palmerston North ratepayers agreed to Borough Council purchasing the McHardy property, on the condition that the Government also acquired the neighbouring Batchelar Estate for the proposed agricultural college.

The decision was part of a wider campaign by local politicians, civic leaders and business interests to promote Palmerston North as the ideal location.

Among those advocating for the college was City Mayor F.D. Nathan, who saw the development of higher education and agricultural research as important to the city’s future. The effort helped secure the site on which Massey Agricultural College would open two years later.

The significance of what the city had helped achieve was reflected at the College’s foundation stone ceremony in December 1929.

Chair of the College Council Sir George Fowlds said at the time, “the hope is that the institution would help make Palmerston North the Oxford or Cambridge of New Zealand.”

The College was initially a relatively small agricultural institution on the outskirts of the city. However, over decades it grew into a well-established university and its relationship with Palmerston North changed with it.

The university’s growth meant changes for the city too, from housing and transport to community facilities and planning.

One of the clearest examples can be found in the archives.

In 1971, Palmerston North’s Town Planning Office produced a report titled Public Transport and the Massey University Complex. The report examined where students lived and considered how public transport could better serve the growing university community, including student fare concessions.

For Mr Changuion, this sort of material shows that the relationship between Massey and Palmerston North was never simply about the university occupying land within the city.

“The city shaped Massey and Massey shaped the city,” he says.

The relationship can also be seen in the way Massey has become embedded in the life of Palmerston North.

Students have graduated at city venues, staff and researchers have contributed to local organisations and projects, and generations of Palmerston North residents have had connections with the university as students, employees, researchers, supporters and members of the wider community.

The physical relationship is visible too.

Archival photographs show the Massey campus at different points in its history, from the opening of Massey Agricultural College in 1928 to aerial views of the campus decades later. A photograph of a 2024 graduation at The Regent on Broadway offers a more recent reminder of the university’s connection with the city centre.

Together, the images tell a story of change. The agricultural college that Palmerston North worked so hard to secure became a university that now extends well beyond its original agricultural focus, while remaining firmly connected to the city where it began.

That history is particularly relevant as Massey prepares to mark its centenary in 2027.

Louis will present at the Palmerston North City Library on Friday 18 September at 12pm.