All profits from the farm were to go towards running of the boys’ home, which would be set up for agricultural education. But Nicholls might have had inkling the plan for his land was too ambitious, because clause 6F of his will offered an alternative.

It said that if the trustees had any trouble establishing the boys’ home, the land should continue to be farmed, with the net income used for “the education maintenance or benefit of such particular boys born or living in the Provincial District of Taranaki”. The will continued on to say that if the trustees saw fit they could extend the education benefits to boys living anywhere in New Zealand.

A first codicil, or alteration to the will, was made on 12 May 1953, giving the housekeeper, Charlotte Jane Aiken, his motor car and caravan, plus the proceeds of his £500 life insurance policy.

A second codicil was added on 16 August 1954. It gave his accountant and advisory trustee, Ray Henderson, the right to make the first offer to buy the Nicholls’ house in Liardet St, New Plymouth.

This home was where Eleanor Nicholls moved to after the death of her husband in late 1954. The offer to Ray Henderson had strict rules. It could only happen after Mrs Nicholls had died, and he had two months to take up the offer. After that it would lapse and the property would be sold on the open market.

Mr Henderson didn’t buy the New Plymouth home. But he did continue in his role of advisory trustee, along with Andrew Hastie. Eleanor Nicholls died in 1958.

During those early days, the trustees were forced to be quite frugal in their scholarships handouts.  “When I first started out we used to have quite serious arguments with the chairman of the Anglican Boys Home Society, which was based in Masterton,” Donald says.

The chairman was lawyer Henry Major, who was adamant that the scholarship recipients not be given too much. “He used to growl at us if we wanted to give more than $100 per student. We did occasionally sneak the odd one a bit over that.”

As the farm finances improved, more money was able to be awarded.

One of the recipients was a boy who biked from Masterton to Flock House in Bulls for his interview to get into the agricultural school, which is now defunct. “We paid his whole amount – $6000,” Donald says. The trust received a letter of thanks from that young man after he’d finished his course.

In 2008, the scholarships are much higher, with $3000 per year given to a veterinarian student, $1500 per year to a degree student and $500 to an agriculture ITO student.

“Until we opened it up to girls, we were struggling to get sufficient applicants to get rid of our annual money available.”

From 1998 to 2003, the trust recorded a cash surplus of $668,891, while the total grants made for the same period were $174,950.

In 1962, Andrew Hastie interviewed sharemilkers for the South Rd farm. “He came and told me he’d employed a Dutchman and I queried why. He said he was the only one who had money to be able to buy all the Nicholls’ cows,” Donald says.

The man’s name was Theodorus Cornelis Verbeet, better known as Vern Verbeet. “The family sharemilked for the Royce Nicholls Trust for 40 years.”

Vern’s son, Peter, took over, but he died at age 53 of a heart attack. He was replaced by son Chris, who was the sharemilker until 2004. When Vern Verbeet was employed by the trust, he was milking 60 Friesian cows on the small farm.

In 1970, the new advisory trustees bought the adjoining farm – another 33 hectares – from the estate of Claude Nicholls’ brother, Herbert (Bert). The brothers originally bought the farm in 1908, and split it between them.

Herbert’s grandson, Ian Nicholls, explains: “They decided who would have which half by tossing a coin. The farm was split as it was so that they both had fresh water running through their properties (Taikatu Stream).”

Before that, the brothers lived on the family farm at Whenuakura, 5km from Patea. The 1970 move to buy Herbert’s land, meant the farm and herd both doubled in size.

A new house and herringbone cowshed, water supply and subdivision followed the purchase, and the backhouse was sold for removal. It now sits on the site where the old Otakeho Hotel burnt down.