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Feilding 20 km north-west of Palmerston North, Feilding had a 2013 urban area population of 14,826. The town was laid out in 1874, the first township on the Manchester block developed by the London-based Emigrant and Colonist’s Aid Corporation. It was sited in a natural clearing boundaried by the Kiwitea, Makino and Oroua Streams (probably a clearning due to ongoing flooding) and named after Colonel William Feilding. A director of the corporation, he had come to New Zealand and bought the land. Streets were named after other corporation personnel or New Zealand political figures.
Feilding’s population reached 4,500 by 1921. It had the most important saleyards in the lower North Island: 42,000 sheep were yarded there as early as 1902.
The establishment of Feilding Agricultural High School (1921) by Harry Tolley (1868-1931) and New Zealand’s first Young Farmers’ Club (1927) marked the importance of farming in the community. But the 1920s to 1940s were uncertain years both for dairying and hill-country sheep farming. The town thrived again after the Second World War, and at one point the freezing works employed 2,500 people – about half the labour force.
Recent times The freezing works have declined, but the town provides other rural-related employment. The twice-weekly stock sales are a feature of Feilding life. Many rural businesses once sited on Rangitīkei Street in Palmerston North now have their offices in Feilding. Conversely, many Feilding residents work in Palmerston North.
Two historic meeting houses, Manaiahu and Kauwhata, are at Aorangi and Te Arakura, a few kilometres south of Feilding. Both belong to Ngāti Kauwhata and have close links to Ngāti Raukawa.
The Manfeild car racing track attracts crowds on race days, while the town has many farm retirees from ‘up country’. Its centre has a deserved reputation for being one of the most well-tended and attractive in the lower North Island. The reserve at Mt Lees, with gardens and bush tracks developed over 70 years, is a popular spot.
After the settlement of Palmerston North, the European settlement of the Manchester Block round Feilding was the result of a private emigration scheme set up by a group of upper class English philanthropists and investors, which was headed by the Duke of Manchester. They named the company they formed in 1869 the Emigrants' and Colonists' Aid Corporation. An agreement to buy land was signed in Wellington on behalf of the Corporation by one of its directors, Colonel William Feilding, during a visit made for this purpose in 1871. The Settler was the Wellington Provincial Council and there were 'strings' attached to the sale. The Corporation must settle 2000 emigrants on the land within a certain time, the New Zealand Government agreed to pay for the passage of the emigrants and would provide work for the men for a year after arrival.
Feilding was selected as the site of the first settlement to be established within the 106,000 acre block and at the beginning of 1874, on January 22, the first group of emigrants who had sailed to New Zealand on the SS Duke of Edinburgh arrived at the swamp and sandfly ridden clearing between three streams that was to be their new hometown.
The ships that brought to New Zealand emigrants selected by the Emigrants' and Colonists' Aid Corporation for settlement on the Manchester Block (MB) left England were: 1874: Duke of Edinburgh (31 MB settlers). Salisbury (72 MB Settlers), Ocean Mail (122 MB settlers), Mongol (13 MB settlers), Woodlark (83 MB Settlers), Golden Sea (70 MB settlers), La Hogue (76 MB settlers), Waikato (25 MB Settlers), Euterpe (118 MB settlers), Douglas (142 MB settlers), Star of India (55 MB settlers), Howrah (29 MB settlers). 1875 Carnatic (94 MB settlers), Berar (51 MB settlers), Hindostan, Collingwood, Himalyaya, Waipa 1876: Waimea, Howrah, Fitz Reuter, Leicester. 1877: Hurunui, Rakaia, Loch Dee, Northampton, Wennington, City of Madras, Waimate, Wairoa, Hurunui 1878: Gainsborough, Waikato, Abeona 1897: Stad Haarlem, Rakaia, Arethusa These ships also carried passengers who had paid for their own fares and who settled along side the emigrants selected by the Emigrants' and Colonists' Aid Corporation, namely in Newbury, Halcombe, Ashhurst, Bunnythorpe. Therefore likewise, not all the original Feilding area settlers were on the ships that the Manchester Block officals bought passages on, some were already in NZ having sailed on earlier ships and moving inland.