19th century James Runciman, a Scottish-born captain in the
Waikato War, took over the 1517 acres at Newstead in the mid-1860s, establishing the Marsh Meadows farm. He travelled to the United States in 1882 to investigate cheese-making and briefly established a cheese-making factory, but closed it due to financial difficulties. He also experimented with
sugar beet. Runciman donated 20 acres to establish Marsh Meadows School, which opened in 1890. It later became Newstead School.
Bank of New Zealand appointed John Graham, a native of
County Tyrone, Ireland, as the manager of the
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company's Woodside pastoral property in 1886. By 1902, it had between 2000 and 3000 sheep.
Henry Reynolds purchased 1600 acres of land in Newstead in 1886, establishing the Newstead Estate. He set up the first creamery on his farm in 1890.
20th century By 1902 the settlement had a post office and was connected to the
rail network. The first telephone line to Newstead was from the Woodlands Estate at
Gordonton, where Reynolds had previously lived and worked. The road is still called Telephone Road. after being killed in preventable workplace accident during service in the
War in Afghanistan. The burial was attended by family members and dignitaries, including
Sam Lotu-Iiga. A new reception and lounge facility was proposed for the cemetery in 2015 but the plan was scrapped. As of 2017, the cemetery was busy seven days a week and was considering extending operations to 10 hours a day. It is projected to face rising demand until at least 2045. New CCTV security cameras were installed at the cemetery in 2019, in an attempt to stop burnouts and vandalism. It followed several cases of threatening, aggressive and anti-social behaviour. ==Education==