The formation of a Town
Patea is the third largest town in the province of South Taranaki. The Patea River flows through the town from the north-east and into the South Taranaki Bight. In the 2013 census, the population was 1,098 people, in 1961 there were 1,991 people living in the town.
When the first Europeans arrived the principal Maori villages were across the river at Hukatere, Otautu, Tihoi and Wai-o-Turi and north of Patea, they had a fishing village at Whitikau, Kakaramea (invaded in mid 1860's and became Cameron's Redoubt), Otoia - inland of Kakaramea, Manawapou above Manutahi Beach and another large settlement at Whakamara. The missionaries; William Hough, and then Thomas Skinner were stationed at Patea from 1844 to 1848, but there was no other European settlement until the mid 1860's when the British Troops made Patea their base between New Plymouth and Whanganui. Ngati Ruanui assisted the Northern Tribes when the Land Wars started in the early 1860's and were declared rebels in 1864 when they refused to lay down their arms. The Land Wars soon moved to South Taranaki and continued until 1869, the final battle at Otautu in March 1869.
By the 1870's the present town site was surveyed and named Carlyle. The Taranaki Provincial Council paid a salary to the Patea River Ferry Keeper (Alfred Wood) who had the essential job of getting travellers over the Patea River until the first bridge was built in 1874. European Settlement resumed under the care of a Resident Magistrate, James Booth, appointed by the Central Government, and in March 1870 town sections were auctioned. The proceeds of the sale were to pay for streets, a wharf and other improvements. On 8 May 1872, the Taranaki Provincial Council resolved "That the portion of the Patea District known as the Town of Carlyle, situated on the west bank of the Patea River...bounded towards the north by Stafford and Durham Streets, towards the east by the Patea River, towards the south by Essex Street, towards the south-west by Taranaki Road and towards the west by Devon Street be proclaimed a Town..." After a determined effort by town leaders, finally in 1873 Patea was allowed two representitaves on the Taranaki Provincial Council; Felix McGuire and Hector Stephen Peacock. George Francis Sherwood became the third Patea representitive in 1874.
Carlyle Town Board & Patea West Road Board
As Patea developed into a commercial, industrial and administrative centre, demands for some better form of control arose and on 27 March 1874, 37 Carlyle residents petitioned the Taranaki Provincial Council for the establishment of a Town Board. This was granted and at a meeting on 23 August 1875 the following 7 men were elected members of the inaugeral 'Carlyle Town Board': Messrs George F Sherwood (Chairman) John Milroy, William Williams, Felix O'S McCarthy, James Southby, James Rhodes, Samuel Taplin. Roading construction through the newly cleared land was a pressing issue and on 26 July 1875 the 'Patea West Road Board' elected its first committee of: Edwin R Morgan (Chairman), George William Gane, Richard England McRae, Peter Wilson, Andrew Hunter, Edmund M Honeyfield, James D F Christie, James Southby, Hector S Peacock.
County Council & Harbour Board
In 1876 the Provincial Councils were abolished and on the 18 December 1876 the first Patea County Council was elected: Messrs George F Sherwood (Chairman), Hector S Peacock, Henry Williamson, Andrew Hunter, Samuel Taplin, William Dale jnr, Edwin R Morgan, Edmund M Honeyfield. (the district was known as 'Otoia Riding' included Carlyle, Whenuakura, Kakaramea and Manutahi). In March 1877 The Patea Harbour Board was formed, the first committee comprised of several familliar names: George F Sherwood (Chairman), Charles Allen Wray, Henry Williamson, W Wilson, John Milroy, William Williams, Edwin R Morgan. At this time Patea's population had almost reached 650.
Patea Borough Council
By 1881 the town had virtually reached its peak as the chief town, port and industrial centre of Taranaki. The achievement of Borough status sealed the towns success. The name 'Carlyle' had never really been fully accepted and the Borough adopted the name 'Patea'. The Patea Borough Council was gazetted on 10 October 1881 (and operated until the South Taranaki District Council was formed in 1989). The Carlyle Town Board of 7 members ceased to exist and a new Mayor and committee of 10 Borough Councillors was elected: George F Sherwood (Mayor) Samuel Taplin, John Milroy, Patrick Mahony, Robert Albert Adams, William Aitchinson, William Dixon, John Gibson, William Howitt, Alexander Black. None of these men received any remuneration for their services to the Council, infact almost 80 years were to pass before a salary was given to Council members.
Shipping
The Patea Steam Shipping Company was also formed in 1878. The Company’s first steamer was the 79 ton, 83 feet long, steamer ‘Patea’ which arrived in Patea in February 1879, and served the township for many years. ‘Patea’ carried 20 passengers and offered them an overnight service to Wellington, returning the next evening. Her arrivals & departures were always treated as occasions by the settlers. Special Christmas excursions to the Marlborough Sounds were advertised at £4 a ticket. It also owned 'Waverley' and 'Whakatu', before it wound up in 1886. The South Taranaki Shipping Company was formed in 1912, by the West Coast Refridgeration Company and several sunscribing local Dairy Companies to export their Cheese and Butter. Its fleet of its first four vessels were: 'Hawera', 'Kapuni', 'Mana' and 'Kiripaka'. Other ships followed, until the Port closed in 1959.
Industry
In August 1883 what was to become a major industry in Patea for almost a century, the Freezing Works, began production as a Canning Factory. The Patea Dairy Factory opened in 1894, in the same area as The Works. The Patea Chamber of Commerce was foundered in 1885, but was stagnant until 1897, when it undertook the lead in having a Dairy Grading Works set up beside the River. The key to this was the Port which was improved by the stablising of the entrance channel. The West Coast Refrigeration Company (The Cool Stores) was begun in 1901 as a co-operative concern owned by subscribing Dairy Companies throughout South Taranaki.
Infustructure
The Patea Powerstation was the first Council owned electrical plant in New Zealand when it opened on Saturday 19 April 1902, Other towns around New Zealand had started on privately owned schemes, although Kakaramea farmer James Ball offered a ten-year term loan of the whole amount of the project of £2500 at 4.5%, which was gratefully accepted by the Patea Borough Council. Lighting Patea by electricity was first minuted at a Council meeting in July 1882. but the idea didn’t take momentum until 6 November 1899.
The Power Station is situated north of the town, on the cliff at the end of Powerhouse Road. Water was derived from the Kaikura Stream on the Honeyfield farm, and a dam was constructed to conserve the supply. It was connected to Payne’s Flour Mill Dam, behind the Kakaramea Dairy Factory, which the Council bought for extra water storage at the time the scheme was being constructed. The Mill was leased to Mr Buckthought, a Foxton flax miller, until the end of 1905, after which it was used to control the flow of water to the hydro. The architect for the building was Climie and Fairhall, Hawera. Builder W M Aitchison of Patea, with Turnbull and Jones supplying the required machinery for the Electric Lighting Works for Patea. Locker & Dickson of Patea commenced the concrete work and building of the dam of about four acres in extent in September 1901. The internationally renowned Captain Alban J. Roberts was the first engineer. He resigned in 1904, and went on to invent remotely operated robots and machines.
There is a good fall for the water, which drove a Brown-Bouverie generator and Escher Weiss turbine. The current was led into the town, where it is transformed at various places to 100 volts. In 1906 there were 100 consumers of electricity. The pill box on the cliff side housed the generator plant, and the tower was the surge chamber to allow the flow of water to the turbine to be turned off.
Transmission to Patea, a distance of three miles, was by a single-phase line at a voltage of 3,000 volts, distribution at 110 volts single phase. The station was at first for lighting only from dusk until about midnight and in the winter starting at 6.30am for 2 hours. But later the plant was run on Monday afternoons to enable housewives to do ironing. Consumers had the choice of either being charged by meters or per installed point, with the former option being preferred.
In 1918 a 65 horsepower suction gas motor was installed in York Street as part of the town water reticulation scheme. This supplied electricity to operate the pumps but could not be synchronised with the hydro, although the hydropower could be used to operate the pumps. This motor could supply the needs of the town when for any reason the hydro was closed down. The concrete building that housed this machine is still standing on York Street.
When the dam walls broke on Tuesday 26 November 1920 the attendants’ hut, above the powerhouse was swept into the sea along with its two occupants, Mr Mitchell and McDonald, they were fortunate to miraculously survive. The powerhouse and machinery was largely undamaged. but the Council decided to rebuild it. Around this time water rights had been obtained to the Mangaroa Stream and work was in hand to add this water supply to the system. The idea was dropped when the decision was made to build a new powerhouse and install higher-powered machinery. Charles F Pulley, the contractor who had just finished the sea wall at Patea, was hired to demolish the old plant, cut a new terrace nearly 5m lower on the cliff, construct the new concrete Powerhouse and install the new plant. The tunnel on an angle through the cliff, for the engineers to access the building from the flat paddock above was also built by Charles Pulley at this time, a big improvement from the ladders down the cliff. A new cottage for the electrical engineer was also constructed. The dam burst could have been disastrous for a town by now dependent on its electric light. Fortunately, the backup power of a suction engine for the towns sewage system, enabled the supply to resume while the dam was rebuilt. The sides of the dam were also built up higher. Power supply was extended to Kakaramea at this time. Alton and other outlying districts didn’t connect to electricity till 1933. In 1923 the Powerplant made a profit of £4.
In 1927 a Ruston Hornby Diesel Electric engine was installed, which could be run in parallel with the hydro or separately when required. The Patea Mail reports on 12 Aug 1927 of the Mayor Mr Peter PS Finlayson and several Patea Borough Councillors visiting the Powerhouse. They were very impressed with the cleanliness and order of the buildings and machinery. Mr Roy Kinnaird was the electrical engineer at that time and it is thought he was living on site in the cottage that was rebuilt after the 1920 wash-out. His wife provided afternoon tea for the tour party that day. She was presumably living there too, and I’m sure she provided a neat and cosy atmosphere in that remote cottage for all who visited. Melbourne & Olive Fairweather were one of the last to live in the cottage, by the late 1950’s no one lived on the job and the cottage was probably demolished.
At the meeting of the Council on 8 July 1952 the engineer reported that the hydro generator had burned out. He recommended that no further repairs be carried out. At the meeting on 13 January 1959 it was reported that the Borough Power enterprise had been sold to the South Taranaki Electric Power Board for £15,000. It ceased generating power, was stripped of most of its machinery and abandoned to the elements.
Some info from article by David Bruce for The Daily News 19 July 2003
A new Town Hall was built in 1912. There were 28 two storey buildings in Patea by this time, and it had had 10 Hotels open its doors over the years. WWI took away a generation of Patea men for the years leading up to the 1920's, returning most, but not all of them. The early 1930's bought the hard years of economic depression, but a generous bequeath from Mr Hunter Shaw gave the town a new Library & Plunket Rooms, as well as the Childrens Ward at the Patea Hospital. The monumental Turi's 'Aotea Waka' statue was unvielled on 2 August 1933, and the new Patea Court House was opened that same year.
Many other important parts of our town, and numerous people have come and gone ....leaving memories, stories, fragments of a time of innovation, risk, prosperity and recession. Keeping the stories alive is vital, it reminds us where we have come from, and ensures that we don't forget the fascinating history that happened on the ground we walk on every day.
Patea is the third largest town in the province of South Taranaki. The Patea River flows through the town from the north-east and into the South Taranaki Bight. In the 2013 census, the population was 1,098 people, in 1961 there were 1,991 people living in the town.
When the first Europeans arrived the principal Maori villages were across the river at Hukatere, Otautu, Tihoi and Wai-o-Turi and north of Patea, they had a fishing village at Whitikau, Kakaramea (invaded in mid 1860's and became Cameron's Redoubt), Otoia - inland of Kakaramea, Manawapou above Manutahi Beach and another large settlement at Whakamara. The missionaries; William Hough, and then Thomas Skinner were stationed at Patea from 1844 to 1848, but there was no other European settlement until the mid 1860's when the British Troops made Patea their base between New Plymouth and Whanganui. Ngati Ruanui assisted the Northern Tribes when the Land Wars started in the early 1860's and were declared rebels in 1864 when they refused to lay down their arms. The Land Wars soon moved to South Taranaki and continued until 1869, the final battle at Otautu in March 1869.
By the 1870's the present town site was surveyed and named Carlyle. The Taranaki Provincial Council paid a salary to the Patea River Ferry Keeper (Alfred Wood) who had the essential job of getting travellers over the Patea River until the first bridge was built in 1874. European Settlement resumed under the care of a Resident Magistrate, James Booth, appointed by the Central Government, and in March 1870 town sections were auctioned. The proceeds of the sale were to pay for streets, a wharf and other improvements. On 8 May 1872, the Taranaki Provincial Council resolved "That the portion of the Patea District known as the Town of Carlyle, situated on the west bank of the Patea River...bounded towards the north by Stafford and Durham Streets, towards the east by the Patea River, towards the south by Essex Street, towards the south-west by Taranaki Road and towards the west by Devon Street be proclaimed a Town..." After a determined effort by town leaders, finally in 1873 Patea was allowed two representitaves on the Taranaki Provincial Council; Felix McGuire and Hector Stephen Peacock. George Francis Sherwood became the third Patea representitive in 1874.
Carlyle Town Board & Patea West Road Board
As Patea developed into a commercial, industrial and administrative centre, demands for some better form of control arose and on 27 March 1874, 37 Carlyle residents petitioned the Taranaki Provincial Council for the establishment of a Town Board. This was granted and at a meeting on 23 August 1875 the following 7 men were elected members of the inaugeral 'Carlyle Town Board': Messrs George F Sherwood (Chairman) John Milroy, William Williams, Felix O'S McCarthy, James Southby, James Rhodes, Samuel Taplin. Roading construction through the newly cleared land was a pressing issue and on 26 July 1875 the 'Patea West Road Board' elected its first committee of: Edwin R Morgan (Chairman), George William Gane, Richard England McRae, Peter Wilson, Andrew Hunter, Edmund M Honeyfield, James D F Christie, James Southby, Hector S Peacock.
County Council & Harbour Board
In 1876 the Provincial Councils were abolished and on the 18 December 1876 the first Patea County Council was elected: Messrs George F Sherwood (Chairman), Hector S Peacock, Henry Williamson, Andrew Hunter, Samuel Taplin, William Dale jnr, Edwin R Morgan, Edmund M Honeyfield. (the district was known as 'Otoia Riding' included Carlyle, Whenuakura, Kakaramea and Manutahi). In March 1877 The Patea Harbour Board was formed, the first committee comprised of several familliar names: George F Sherwood (Chairman), Charles Allen Wray, Henry Williamson, W Wilson, John Milroy, William Williams, Edwin R Morgan. At this time Patea's population had almost reached 650.
Patea Borough Council
By 1881 the town had virtually reached its peak as the chief town, port and industrial centre of Taranaki. The achievement of Borough status sealed the towns success. The name 'Carlyle' had never really been fully accepted and the Borough adopted the name 'Patea'. The Patea Borough Council was gazetted on 10 October 1881 (and operated until the South Taranaki District Council was formed in 1989). The Carlyle Town Board of 7 members ceased to exist and a new Mayor and committee of 10 Borough Councillors was elected: George F Sherwood (Mayor) Samuel Taplin, John Milroy, Patrick Mahony, Robert Albert Adams, William Aitchinson, William Dixon, John Gibson, William Howitt, Alexander Black. None of these men received any remuneration for their services to the Council, infact almost 80 years were to pass before a salary was given to Council members.
Shipping
The Patea Steam Shipping Company was also formed in 1878. The Company’s first steamer was the 79 ton, 83 feet long, steamer ‘Patea’ which arrived in Patea in February 1879, and served the township for many years. ‘Patea’ carried 20 passengers and offered them an overnight service to Wellington, returning the next evening. Her arrivals & departures were always treated as occasions by the settlers. Special Christmas excursions to the Marlborough Sounds were advertised at £4 a ticket. It also owned 'Waverley' and 'Whakatu', before it wound up in 1886. The South Taranaki Shipping Company was formed in 1912, by the West Coast Refridgeration Company and several sunscribing local Dairy Companies to export their Cheese and Butter. Its fleet of its first four vessels were: 'Hawera', 'Kapuni', 'Mana' and 'Kiripaka'. Other ships followed, until the Port closed in 1959.
Industry
In August 1883 what was to become a major industry in Patea for almost a century, the Freezing Works, began production as a Canning Factory. The Patea Dairy Factory opened in 1894, in the same area as The Works. The Patea Chamber of Commerce was foundered in 1885, but was stagnant until 1897, when it undertook the lead in having a Dairy Grading Works set up beside the River. The key to this was the Port which was improved by the stablising of the entrance channel. The West Coast Refrigeration Company (The Cool Stores) was begun in 1901 as a co-operative concern owned by subscribing Dairy Companies throughout South Taranaki.
Infustructure
The Patea Powerstation was the first Council owned electrical plant in New Zealand when it opened on Saturday 19 April 1902, Other towns around New Zealand had started on privately owned schemes, although Kakaramea farmer James Ball offered a ten-year term loan of the whole amount of the project of £2500 at 4.5%, which was gratefully accepted by the Patea Borough Council. Lighting Patea by electricity was first minuted at a Council meeting in July 1882. but the idea didn’t take momentum until 6 November 1899.
The Power Station is situated north of the town, on the cliff at the end of Powerhouse Road. Water was derived from the Kaikura Stream on the Honeyfield farm, and a dam was constructed to conserve the supply. It was connected to Payne’s Flour Mill Dam, behind the Kakaramea Dairy Factory, which the Council bought for extra water storage at the time the scheme was being constructed. The Mill was leased to Mr Buckthought, a Foxton flax miller, until the end of 1905, after which it was used to control the flow of water to the hydro. The architect for the building was Climie and Fairhall, Hawera. Builder W M Aitchison of Patea, with Turnbull and Jones supplying the required machinery for the Electric Lighting Works for Patea. Locker & Dickson of Patea commenced the concrete work and building of the dam of about four acres in extent in September 1901. The internationally renowned Captain Alban J. Roberts was the first engineer. He resigned in 1904, and went on to invent remotely operated robots and machines.
There is a good fall for the water, which drove a Brown-Bouverie generator and Escher Weiss turbine. The current was led into the town, where it is transformed at various places to 100 volts. In 1906 there were 100 consumers of electricity. The pill box on the cliff side housed the generator plant, and the tower was the surge chamber to allow the flow of water to the turbine to be turned off.
Transmission to Patea, a distance of three miles, was by a single-phase line at a voltage of 3,000 volts, distribution at 110 volts single phase. The station was at first for lighting only from dusk until about midnight and in the winter starting at 6.30am for 2 hours. But later the plant was run on Monday afternoons to enable housewives to do ironing. Consumers had the choice of either being charged by meters or per installed point, with the former option being preferred.
In 1918 a 65 horsepower suction gas motor was installed in York Street as part of the town water reticulation scheme. This supplied electricity to operate the pumps but could not be synchronised with the hydro, although the hydropower could be used to operate the pumps. This motor could supply the needs of the town when for any reason the hydro was closed down. The concrete building that housed this machine is still standing on York Street.
When the dam walls broke on Tuesday 26 November 1920 the attendants’ hut, above the powerhouse was swept into the sea along with its two occupants, Mr Mitchell and McDonald, they were fortunate to miraculously survive. The powerhouse and machinery was largely undamaged. but the Council decided to rebuild it. Around this time water rights had been obtained to the Mangaroa Stream and work was in hand to add this water supply to the system. The idea was dropped when the decision was made to build a new powerhouse and install higher-powered machinery. Charles F Pulley, the contractor who had just finished the sea wall at Patea, was hired to demolish the old plant, cut a new terrace nearly 5m lower on the cliff, construct the new concrete Powerhouse and install the new plant. The tunnel on an angle through the cliff, for the engineers to access the building from the flat paddock above was also built by Charles Pulley at this time, a big improvement from the ladders down the cliff. A new cottage for the electrical engineer was also constructed. The dam burst could have been disastrous for a town by now dependent on its electric light. Fortunately, the backup power of a suction engine for the towns sewage system, enabled the supply to resume while the dam was rebuilt. The sides of the dam were also built up higher. Power supply was extended to Kakaramea at this time. Alton and other outlying districts didn’t connect to electricity till 1933. In 1923 the Powerplant made a profit of £4.
In 1927 a Ruston Hornby Diesel Electric engine was installed, which could be run in parallel with the hydro or separately when required. The Patea Mail reports on 12 Aug 1927 of the Mayor Mr Peter PS Finlayson and several Patea Borough Councillors visiting the Powerhouse. They were very impressed with the cleanliness and order of the buildings and machinery. Mr Roy Kinnaird was the electrical engineer at that time and it is thought he was living on site in the cottage that was rebuilt after the 1920 wash-out. His wife provided afternoon tea for the tour party that day. She was presumably living there too, and I’m sure she provided a neat and cosy atmosphere in that remote cottage for all who visited. Melbourne & Olive Fairweather were one of the last to live in the cottage, by the late 1950’s no one lived on the job and the cottage was probably demolished.
At the meeting of the Council on 8 July 1952 the engineer reported that the hydro generator had burned out. He recommended that no further repairs be carried out. At the meeting on 13 January 1959 it was reported that the Borough Power enterprise had been sold to the South Taranaki Electric Power Board for £15,000. It ceased generating power, was stripped of most of its machinery and abandoned to the elements.
Some info from article by David Bruce for The Daily News 19 July 2003
A new Town Hall was built in 1912. There were 28 two storey buildings in Patea by this time, and it had had 10 Hotels open its doors over the years. WWI took away a generation of Patea men for the years leading up to the 1920's, returning most, but not all of them. The early 1930's bought the hard years of economic depression, but a generous bequeath from Mr Hunter Shaw gave the town a new Library & Plunket Rooms, as well as the Childrens Ward at the Patea Hospital. The monumental Turi's 'Aotea Waka' statue was unvielled on 2 August 1933, and the new Patea Court House was opened that same year.
Many other important parts of our town, and numerous people have come and gone ....leaving memories, stories, fragments of a time of innovation, risk, prosperity and recession. Keeping the stories alive is vital, it reminds us where we have come from, and ensures that we don't forget the fascinating history that happened on the ground we walk on every day.
William Williams
Charles A Wray
Felix McGuire
Early Maori
Only from a plane are there still discernible, to a keen-eyed airman, traces of that great highway of Maoridom.... |
Early Pakeha
Rev John Skevington had established a Wesleyan Methodist Mission Station at Heretoa on the Waimate Plains... |
Mayors of Patea
Patea had 20 Mayors from when the Patea Borough Council was established in 1881, until the South Taranaki District Council.... |
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Hospital
The first Hospital in Patea was operated by the military on the beach between 1865 & 67.... |
Cemeteries
Burials started at The Patea Cemetery on Scotland Street around 1869. But before that a cemetery was across the River.... |
Churches
The first Church to be built in Patea was a Catholic Chapel around 1870 .... |
Freezing Works
The West Coast Meat & Produce Export Company started production in August 1883. The intention was to freeze meat... |
Shipping
This story of Patea’s Port come from the treasure of a book written by Ian Church in 1977 – Little Ships of Patea… |
Railway
For something that has been pushed aside in favour of other means of transport…the Railway was a hard fought for... |
War Memorials
Ten War Memorials or Roll of Honours from Patea and surrounding districts are listed here.... |
