New Zealand - Ruatoria - Looking south, the view in the photograph shows the highest mountain on the East Coast, Mt. Hikurangi, in the background. The river is the Waiapu. #603205 - The original shop, bunk house and cook house in the township of Tuparoa were destroyed by fire on two occasions between 1907 and 1913. Commerce was moved inland 5 miles to the area known as The Crossroads, northeast of the present town sitting on the area of the first river plain where it drops to the present river plain where the roads went north-south and to the east. (There was a race course on land alongside the Waiapu River below The Crossroads but that was abandoned by the end of the second world war). The Crossroads too was destroyed by fire during the first world war and in 1920 the first general store and accommodation was erected by William Hayes Owen Johnston (1890-1960) on what is now Tuparoa Road. (The shop has been dismantled after his death in 1960) He is buried with his third wife in the cemetery at Mahora on the Tuparoa road just before the junction with the side road to Reparoa. (His first and second wives were of the Gerrard family of Tuparoa and are buried in the cemetery at the top of the hill on the northern side of the creek which separated the old Tuparoa settlement). - From about 1925 onwards, Ruatoria began to replace Tuparoa as the main urban centre of the East Coast district of New Zealand. The transition to Ruatoria from Tuparoa was brought about by the increased reliability of State Highway 35, which at that time ran via the main street of Ruatoria. Tuparoa was disadvantaged by unreliable road access and a lack of all weather harbour. - The Rotokautuku Bridge, connecting Ruatoria to the northern side of Waiapu River, was built in 1964. - In the 1980s, Ruatoria was briefly notorious for an outbreak of arson attacks in the town, during a period of severe economic downturn. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruatoria) - Whites Pictorial Reference of New Zealand: Representative Airviews of New Zealand Cities and Boroughs - Whites Pictorial Reference has been produced to tell a new story - a modern story. Aerial photography has been utilised to show where New Zealanders live and the countryside from which comes their wealth. Most important, it also illustrates most vividly the Dominion's growing cities and towns, but perhaps more to the point it shows that there is still plenty of room for further development... Author: White Leo (compiled) Click the link provided at the top to purchase the book through the MAD on New Zealand Shop - Supporting New Zealand Authors and Artists