had been cut out and replanted. Larger areas further south were planted in 1924 for future milling and to provide the raw material for pulp and paper manufacture. The town of Putāruru was surveyed in 1905 and on 18 December an area of 50,987 acres (206 km2), which had been acquired from the Thames Valley Land Co. by the Crown and included town allotments in Putāruru and Lichfield, was opened by ballot. The history of the local timber industry is preserved in the New Zealand Timber Museum. Much of the land in the Putāruru district suffered from a cobalt deficiency, which made farming practically impossible, but since 1935 measures have been taken to restore fertility, and farming has expanded. Putāruru was created a town district in 1926, and on 1 July 1947 it was constituted a borough. Railways Putāruru railway station was near the junction of Arapuni and Princes Streets, north of the junction of the Kinleith Branch with the now mothballed Rotorua Branch. The Thames Valley and Rotorua Railway line reached Oxford (Tīrau) on 8 March 1886 and Putāruru and Lichfield, further south-east, on Monday 21 June 1886. New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) took over the line on 1 April 1886. In August 1886 the station had a by shelter shed, three cottages, a by goods shed and an incomplete station master's house. Putāruru was still a flag station in 1890, when the daily train took about 3 hours to cover the between Putāruru and Frankton (Hamilton). In March 1887 the contract for the Putāruru-Ngātira section of the line to Rotorua was let to Daniel Fallon, work had begun by April 1887 and the whole branch opened on 8 December 1894. Putāruru was then served by the Rotorua Express. About that time station was rebuilt and extended to about long. It had a refreshment room and a bookstall and, from 1907, the railway yard had a turntable and handled much livestock, as well as timber. The refreshment room, run by the hotel until 1919, burnt down in 1925 and was replaced by a room to the south of the main building, which closed in 1968. In the 1920s a Railway Board investigated the feasibility of a line of about to Arapuni and Te Awamutu. The station closed to passengers on 12 November 1968 and freight on 10 December 2002, though it was served by the Geyserland Express from 1991