New Zealand - Patea - Staff posing outside of the Patea Paper Office. - 7/2/1903 - Daroux Photographer - Originally published in "The New Zealand Graphic" #337057 Patea - Patea is the third-largest town in South Taranaki, New Zealand. - It is on the western bank of the Patea River. The Patea River flows through the town from the north-east and into the South Taranaki Bight. - Patea, called Carlyle or Carlyle Beach for a time by European settlers, was originally nearer the Patea River mouth than the present town. During the New Zealand land wars Patea was an important military settlement. - Patea became a market town when hostilities ended. The first of the sections on the present town site were sold in 1870. A local shipping company was established in 1872, and harbour improvements began. The Marton-New Plymouth railway line via Patea was completed in March 1885. The Carlyle Town Board, created about 1877 to administer town affairs, was succeeded by a borough council constituted on 13 October 1881 under the name Patea. - In the 1920s Patea was the largest cheese exporting port in the world. The Grader Cool Store received cheese for grading from all over South Taranaki and as far south as Oroua Downs near Himatangi. After grading it was loaded into coastal ships at the grader wharf for transport to Wellington where it was transhipped into overseas ships for export. The port closed in July 1959.