New Zealand - Petone - Somes Island and Wharf - Aldersley photo - Photo postcard format Petone - Petone is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington Region. - The name, from the Māori Pito-one, means "end of the sand beach". - Petone was first settled by Europeans in 1840, making it one of the oldest settlements in the Wellington Region. It became a borough in 1888. - For much of the 20th century, Petone was a thriving, largely working-class town and the location of several large industrial sites, including two car assembly plants, a meat processing plant, a wool processing plant, a tobacco processing plant, a soap factory and a toothpaste factory. - The majority of these closed in the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in gradual economic decline. - Petone Borough amalgamated with Lower Hutt as a result of the local government reform in 1989. (Reference; Wikipedia)