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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 1 (April 1, 1936.)

Gisborne's — Glowing — Future— — The — Golden Road Through — Paradise to Te Puia

Gisborne's
Glowing
Future—
The
Golden Road Through
Paradise to Te Puia.

Captain Cook was a great navigator and he leads the world in the number of names he allotted to new and hitherto undiscovered places. I wish he could return to New Zealand to correct his most ludicrous mistake; the title he gave to “Poverty Bay.” It ranks as one of the greatest blunders in history, making the little error of Columbus in thinking that San Salvador was one of the Indies, quite excusable and negligible in comparison. He could have done better with “Bountiful Bay,” “Golconda Gulf,” “Riches Reach,” or “Croesus Coast.” My trip to this land of golden richness was one perpetual succession of pleasant surprises which would have been brightened if I could have heard a recantation by the ghost of that greatest of British sailormen. I am afraid that I went up there with many misconceptions that I held in common with tens of thousands of New Zealanders, and in this article I shall try to put readers “wise.”

The winding route to Gisborne from Napier is interesting, but, like many works written by esteemed authors, it remains long. The service cars are the last word in luxury, and there are bonny townships along the route. Wairoa, with its river frontage, is a foreshadowing of what will later be seen in the Poverty Bay Capital, for the utmost decorative use has been made of the big river, and its banks are green with sloping lawns, and bright with shrubs and flowers. Here and there on the journey one spies the complete and incomplete skeletons of lofty railway bridges which one day may be crossed by swift trains. I am always fascinated by the ways of service car drivers. Every sight is familiar, and half the children that scatter as the horn sounds, call out “G'Day Bill,” and Bill seems to be gifted with television or some similar form of sight which sees round corners. There is a camaraderie between the passengers and the officials of the Hawke's Bay Motor Company which we noticed at Napier. Perhaps this is due to the fact that all the seats in these road palaces are so comfortable that there is little to choose between pews.

The arrival at Gisborne was in the early hours, but the supper at the Gisborne Hotel was excellent, and in the morning when we woke, the sun was shining on a pleasant prospect. My friend of the camera and I met on the spacious verandah in pyjamas and decided to take some pictures immediately. We had been warned about Gisborne hospitality and thought it wiser to get to work immediately. This subsequently proved to be wise politics. I have heard it said that everyone returning from this friendly, lavishly hospitable little city, requires time to recover.

The town itself is a model of planning. The streets are broad, the buildings solidly impressive, and there is an air of spaciousness lacking in many of otherwise beautiful provincial capitals. The most skilful use has been made of the river frontages. The bridges are handsome ferro-concrete structures, and the splendid banks are planted with ornamental shrubs and trees, and in the magical manner of
Gisborne from surrounding hills.

Gisborne from surrounding hills.

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(Rly. Publicity photo.) The creeper-clad exterior of the Gisborne High School.

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
The creeper-clad exterior of the Gisborne High School.

New Zealand growth, are beautified with smooth descending lawns that might be a thousand years old.

I am always first anxious to see what a town has in the way of beaches and sunbathing facilities. I often feel inclined to grade them on their possessions of these advantages. The Waikanae Beach is reminiscent of Caroline Bay at Timaru. It is sheltered by the harbour mole, is within a minute or two of the city streets, and has up-to-date appointments, and safe water. It is crowded “merry and bright,” and without fault or blemish. After the swim, we went up the Kaiti Hill to look at the view, taking the truly magnificent Whare-runanga on the way. Our picture shows a little of its glories. Its size is in keeping with the pleasant thought that it symbolizes the sweeping away of the tragic memories of this settlement. Here in Poverty Bay there was more than a fair share of the sad misunderstandings and bloodstained quarrels between Maori and pakeha. To-day both races use this glorious hall for a host of social purposes.

I shall not waste readers’ time with a description of the amenities of the city. It has good cinema theatres, a good legitimate theatre, golf links, cricket grounds and other playing fields in profusion, splendid official buildings, and the usual comforts of deep dramage, telephone system, paved streets, and hundreds of large and luxurious homes. To my everlasting delight, and I make no excuse for stressing its importance, I found that Gisborne beaches were free of one of my tribal enemies as a sun-bather. There is not a sandfly in the district and the sales of citronella are wretched. The stores and warehouses are most impressive. It is a commonplace of this distinctive feature of New Zealand development that its provincial capitals have business establishments that rival those of the four larger centres. I take the local drapery business of Pettie's Ltd. as an example. From small beginnings it is now a modern store with a floor space of 20,000 feet, and 2,500 feet of show windows. We show its Parisian modernity in our picture, and add that many a Gisborne girl visitor to London has bought a frock to find that its twin has raced her home to this modern emporium. The business to-day is celebrating its jubilee, and has a half century of history, of enterprise, courage and steady progress. Gisborne is one of those places where no one grows old, and there is a good example in the senior partner here, Mr. Toneycliffe who joined in 1908. He had then retired for some time from a large Christchurch business, but was (and is) the kind of man whose doctor ordered him “back to work” as the only way of recruiting his health.

European critics, accustomed to dismiss us as a nation of utilitarian folk running the “Empire's Dairy Farm” should have a peep at Adams’ book shop. The range of books would surprise them, and no tourist need go without his accustomed weekly. Cities of a million in older lands lack the equal of this commodious emporium. However, many of these advantages are shared by other places.

Gisborne has its own distinctive set of golden gifts. We went through Hexton and climbed another gentle hill to look over the famous “Flats.” Here is a vast area of old world beauty and symmetry. Trees are everywhere, ringing the paddocks, or sheltering neat homesteads. It might be an English wooded county except that the graceful second growth totaras and the innumerable fields of maize give it an exotic effect. Pumpkins grow here that need no enlarging for Cinderella's coach. Onions, turnips and other root crops grow to prodigious sizes that would make anyone of their millions a prizewinner at agricultural shows in other parts of the world. I pause here to say that a railway brought to this area of extravagant and prodigal fertility would be working overtime at once, in getting the goods away. In the meantime there is glut and waste.

On the circling hills there seem to be countless sheep, and so thickly crowded are they on the lavish grass that in the distance the paddocks look like lawns studded with white sauntering daisies.

Next day brought me the greatest surprise of all. I had been out to the
(Rly. Publicity photo.) A typical example of a Gisborne garden and home.

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
A typical example of a Gisborne garden and home.

page 12 page 13
The wonderfully situated Whare-runanga on Kaiti Slopes.

The wonderfully situated Whare-runanga on Kaiti Slopes.

surf beach at Wainui and looked at the cricket match played under ideal conditions at Tatapouri beach with golden sands and sunlit seas to distract the man at square leg. On the way back to the hotel, mine host said that we would go to Te Puia. I asked “How far is it?” “Due north about sixty-five miles.”

Now I am a well-travelled New Zealander. I have been in most out-of-the-way spots of this wonderland of ours. And I replied, “Well, remember that I can only spare one day.” Like thousands of you who read this article, I visioned the country north of Gisborne as a mountainous, remote, inaccessible country, remaining, however, good for sheep, inhabited by doughty heroes who did not mind being out in the “Never Never.” It is all wrong. I did not see an acre in that whole day's journey that one could not ride over on a Shetland pony; much of the country is ploughable and all through it are green and level stretches. The settlers have left the bush in the gullies and lower slopes for shelter, giving the changing scene a woodland and parklike loveliness. The road is mostly paved and where it is not, it is smooth and perfect macadam. The panorama for the whole journey is one of sheer visual magic. It is as changeable as the summer sea, but always vividly beautiful. Every few miles there is a delectable little bay with a yellowsanded beach, and there is no dearth of excellent wayside inns. I state with conviction that in all the long years of pleasurable journeys and of sylvan sight-seeing that I have experienced in the Dominion, this day on the East Coast Road was the red-haired girl of them all. The Te Puia Hotel was another surprise. Here is a modern spa, luxuriously appointed, and in the most romantic surroundings. Interesting and marvellously pretty walks are in every direction. There is a large concrete swimming pool of regulation size fed from the mineral springs, and a plunge into its champagne-like water had exactly the same effect upon us as if we had used the real article as a beverage. The medicinal value of these hot springs have been known from time immemorial. Here you can see the springs, as it were, in their natural home, and it took a stout heart to erect this palatial resort from the very beginnings; but the task is finished. There are, of course, many bath houses of varying temperatures and strengths. Here also, by the way, you can trace natural gas vents to their native lairs. The hotel (and the large hospital standing nearby) run their lighting and cooking stoves with this gas from the earth caverns. It burns with a bright, clean flame and leaves no trace of deposit. Down below lies Waipiro Bay, a lovely beach now rather side-tracked. Once more there was evidence of Poverty Bay's richness of soil in the crop of onions in the hotel kitchen garden.

We ran home to Gisborne in just under two hours which included time to certify to the speed and courtesy of service of two kindly brethren in shirt sleeves. My friend of the camera had an agitated passage. At every bend, at every sudden sea vista, at every sweep of green hill crowned with handsome homesteads, he wanted to take another picture. However, we were finally in sight of the enormous block of buildings in which the “Bay's” wealth is largely minted. The Gisborne Farmers’ Refrigerating Company is a monument to the commonsense of amalgamation and business planning, and here actually are freezing works with touches of beauty in gardens and approaches. It is a model of arrangement and efficiency, and deserves the pride in it which is felt by the whole district.

I made my third entry into the Pacific as I found that Gisborne was having its evening swim. I must not forget the exceedingly graceful pile of buildings which house the High School, and the two racecourses, one of which has the best “plough” I have seen in New Zealand. Poverty Bay has always been famous as the home of the thoroughbred horse, particularly of what the Irish call “leppers.” Steeplechase champions have come from there in plenty; but it will not end at that. Cattle and sheep, as well as horses, grow to special virility and size in this paradisal climate and upon this opulent pasture.

One of these days (if the railway goes through) Poverty Bay will export to the world at large thoroughbred stock of every description. Favoured
(Rly. Publicity photo.) Te Puia, showing pool and gardens and hotel (Lake Waipiro in background).

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Te Puia, showing pool and gardens and hotel (Lake Waipiro in background).

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Showing the care of the Native Bush. (Rly. Publicity photo.)

Showing the care of the Native Bush. (Rly. Publicity photo.)

Gisborne is the gateway to a wonderland. It is definitely and inescapably the town with the greatest future prospects in a dominion which is rich with promise in every direction. Its isolation is a fact that will disappear, and when that hindrance is cleared, “nothing can stop it.”

The return journey saw a stop-over at Morere, another fairyland of mineral springs and natural bush. Here also are bath houses, and a concrete swimming pool, ornamental gardens, and hundreds of acres of scenic bushland. The Morere Hotel is a modernly appointed place, popular and of long standing reputation. I do rather wonder that any Gisborne townsman ever goes away. The wealth of attractions available to him is enormous, even to this last particular in having ideal spas on either side.

Morere is surrounded by the most delightful private park which needs to be wandered if one is to learn the real delights of the New Zealand bush. In its little by-ways are small green islands of mystery which tempt one to explore and bring back days of boyhood. Across the long flat there is Waikokopu harbour with its promising rail-head, and nearby, of course, there is another glorious beach.

One of the remarkable features of the configuration of all this country from far North to its lower boundary, is the regular occurrence of rich level areas. It is little wonder that our intelligent predecessors, the Maori pioneers, settled in this part of their new domain, for growing food was not a problem at all in this land of fabulously fertile soil and everlasting sunshine, alleviated by soft rains.

There is a feeling of history in all this scene, and history has a way of repeating itself.

It is curious that the later years of New Zealand development have seen the pakeha experts crowding to the places that were first favoured by the first voyagers from Hawaiki. Circumstances like the discovery of gold and coal in our early times attracted rushes of settlers, and forced the growth of districts to the disadvantage of places far more golden in their natural riches of air and sky and soil. It is a latter day that has made the pakeha realise that the real treasures of our lovely country are in its other gifts, and nowhere are they more marvellous than in this part of the Dominion.

Saying “Good-bye” to Gisborne was a difficult task. Its distinguishing characteristic is a hospitality that is redolent of the spacious days of old-time New Zealand. It would seem that these owners of lovely homes, these members of friendly clubs, the newspaper men, the business associations, and the whole community, are engaged in a gracious conspiracy to make that spectacular blunder of Captain Cook look more and more absurd to any visitor.

Gisborne's glowing future is no dream vision. It is a commonsense statement of fact.

(Rly. Publicity photo.) Gisborne's Popular Beaches. (1) Waikane Beach, showing appointments; (2) Wainui Beach—ideal for surfing.

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Gisborne's Popular Beaches. (1) Waikane Beach, showing appointments;
(2) Wainui Beach—ideal for surfing.

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