Photography - Historical |
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New Zealand - Stratford South - Taranaki, Great image, lone car and carts - 1921 dated - Real Photo Post Card Format - Frank Duncan Photographer #277138 - Stratford (Māori: Whakaahurangi) is the only town in Stratford District, and the seat of the Taranaki Region, in New Zealand's North Island. It lies beneath the eastern slopes of Mount Taranaki/Egmont, approximately halfway between New Plymouth and Hawera, near the geographic centre of the Taranaki Region. The town has a population of 5,740, making it the 47th largest urban area in New Zealand, and the fourth largest in Taranaki (behind New Plymouth, Hawera and Waitara). - The Māori name for Stratford is Whakaahurangi, meaning to look to the sky. The name is taken from a story of the Ngati Ruanui chieftainess/Puhi Ariki named Ruapu-tahanga who, fleed her husband Whatihua from Waikato, she travelled the track known as Te ara tapu o Ruaputahanga which stretches from Urenui down through Tariki, and ends near Patea). Here she stopped at the side of the Kahouri river near a fresh water spring. It is said she sat distraught and cried into the spring, naming it Te Puna Roimata o Ruaputahanga The spring of Ruaputahangas tears hear camped overnight 3 km east of the current town. Being a clear night, Ruaputahanga lay contemplating the stars when slumber overtook her. Withdrawing in respect, her followers observed that their chieftainess slept "with her face to the sky". The site continued to be used as a camping place for Māori, the track she followed linking the south Taranaki tribes to those in north Taranaki, and further north to Kawhia. Each traveling party would recollect the story of Ruapu-tahanga sleeping with her face to the sky. The name is fitting, given the exposure of the area to a broad horizon on the face of the mountain’s ring plain. - There is no record of Māori settlement in the vicinity of Stratford. Before British settlement the area was covered in dense forest and swamp. The Vogel schemes of the 1870s provided the necessary impetus to lead to the construction of a railway line south of New Plymouth, and the creation of road access at the same time, to open up access to the rich soils under the mountain. - In 1876, Taranaki Waste Lands Board assistant surveyor Edwin Stanley Brookes, Jnr. cut a meridian line from Waitara to the site of Stratford, and oversaw the subdivision of a block between the Manganui River and the Patea River. The surveying of a new site for a town on the banks of the Patea River was authorised on 11 June 1877, and the northern half of the town (above the Patea River) was laid out by William Skinner in July. More lots were laid out by Peter Cheal in 1879, and in 1880 Skinner was directed to survey the southern half of the town. - On 3 December 1877, the name Stratford-upon-Patea was adopted, on the motion of William Crompton of the Taranaki Waste Lands Board. The supposed similarity of the Patea River to the River Avon in England led to the adoption of this name, and Crompton was known to have a literary turn of mind. There was a trend at the time to name towns after the birthplace of prominent British men. The William Shakespeare 'connection' led to the naming of 67 streets after Shakespearian characters from 27 of his plays. - Today New Zealand's only glockenspiel clock tower plays the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet three times a day. The spoken words are provided via external loudspeakers - there is no carillon (multiple bells) as would be more typical for glockenspiels in towers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wi)