A new tender was accepted for Paekakariki Railway Refreshment Rooms on 21 December 1909, being one Walter Freeman, Caterer of Wellington. Freeman had an excellent reputation amongst travellers on the former Wellington Manawatu Railway Company dining cars. Freeman's terms for the lease of the Paekakariki Railway Refreshment Rooms were 450 pounds per annum until 31 March 1912. Unfortunately however, Freeman suffered the same fate as did Hartshorn, with his guarantor also failing to produce the first six months rental in advance.
The lease was terminated without Freeman ever taking up occupancy of the rooms Freeman also pleaded for extra time and produced a letter from Parliament stating that he had found financial backing. The General Manager of Railways could not be swayed. Freeman's excellent record with the Wellington Manawatu Railway Company was never taken into account. Furthermore, Freeman also held the lease of Palmerston North Railway Refreshment Rooms during the late 1890's.
As a matter of interest, at that time, it appears as though employees of NZR itself who were previously transferred from the Wellington Manawatu Railway Company were also treated indifferently by the department, with many being given a low seniority status on the D3 (list of staff) and others not receiving promotion when they were entitled to such. The railway unions soon took this up for employees.
NZR was now in a position where it was forced to take a look at the situation at Paekakariki. New Refreshment rooms in a still uncompleted station, built at cost, with no one to lease them to.
One of the Tenderers had been Mrs FJ McHarie, who at the time leased the Otaki Railway Refreshment Rooms, but her tender for the Paekakariki Rooms was considered far too low.
Mr JF Thomson leased the Kaitoke Railway Refreshment Rooms. He was considered to have supplied excellent service at Kaitoke and NZR had never received complaints from travelling members of the public. NZR approached Mr Thomson and offered him the lease of Paekakariki Railway Refreshment Rooms, as well as continuing his tenancy at Kaitoke. After the approach by railways he accepted the lease of the Paekakariki Rooms at the rate of 355 pounds per annum. The tenure of the lease ran from 12 January 1910 to 31 March 1912. Once necessary alterations were made to the rooms (the station was still being completed), Paekakariki Railway Refreshment Rooms finally opened for the first train on 31 January 1910, along with the rest of the new station. The opening of the rooms was advertised in the Penny Guide.
Despite alterations being made, Mr Thomson found the kitchen to be too small for both cooking and storage and further storerooms were added later that year (1910). The costs which were duly incorporated into his lease.
Demand steadily grew and by 1919 all of Thomson crockery was stored in the goods shed, to the complaint of the railway staff. Additional store rooms can still be seen today, as obviously added on part, at the south end of the railway station.
Thomson successfully ran both the Kaitoke and the Paekakariki Railway Refreshment rooms until 1927.
On 18 January 1927, NZR served formal notice of termination on both of Thomson's leases with the intention of taking over the successful business of running these successful rooms themselves. NZR finally took full control of the rooms on April 3 1927, using their own crockery. Thus was an end of an era of the private leasing of the old railway refreshment rooms at Paekakariki.
Railway Refreshment rooms all over the country were being gradually taken over and refurbished by NZR since the termination of the dining cars on the main routes. The first rooms to be taken over were Mercer, Frankton Junction, Marton Junction and Oamaru during July 1917. Other station rooms gradually followed from there.