Greytown (New Zealand)
| Greytown | ||
| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 41 ° 5 ′ S , 175 ° 27 ′ E | |
| Region ISO | NZ-WGN | |
| Country |
 New Zealand
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| region | Wellington | |
| District | South Wairarapa District | |
| Ward | Greytown Ward | |
| Local foundation | 1854 | |
| Residents | 2 199 (2013) | |
| height | 56 m | |
| Post Code | 5712 | |
| Telephone code | +64 (0) 6 | |
| UN / LOCODE | NZ GRT | |
| website | greytown.co.nz/home.html | |
| Photography of the place | ||
 Main street in Greytown |
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Greytown is a place in the South Wairarapa District of the Wellington regionon the North Island of New Zealand . The place claims to be the first inland planned city in New Zealand.
Origin of name
The place was named after Sir George Edward Gray , the 4th governor of New Zealand and Prime Minister of the country from 1877 to 1879 .
geography
Greytown is located right between the two towns of Carterton and Featherton , which are 8 km northeast and 12 km southwest. The Waiohine River flows north of the center of the village and can occasionally cause flooding. To the west of the place are the Tararua Range and to the south-east of the Ruamahanga River , in whose plain the place is located.
history
Greytown was the first planned settlement of the Wellington Provincial Government under the Small Farms Association's Settlement Scheme to bring settlers inland using inexpensive farmland. The Greytown and Masterton settlements have in principle been an expression of the dream of ordinary settlers that working-class families could own their own land. The Small Farms Association was developed with this in mind, based on the New Zealand Company's settlement concept. The association persuaded the government to make two blocks of land available for this settlement concept. The first block was on the Waipoua River and the second in the area that was then called by the Māori Kuratawhiti and is now called Greytown .
Six settlers were the first to leave Wellington and arrived on March 27, 1854. They began building the city, which was named after Governor Sir George Edward Gray , and others followed shortly afterwards. One of the six was Thomas Kempton , who 30 years later was to write down his memories of the founding time and today is an important contemporary witness document.
Around 340 acres (1 acre ≈ 4047 m²) of land were available for founding the city, 1 acre of land in the city for each settler family, 40 acres of land as suburbs and up to 100 acres of farmland outside. The price for 1 acre in the city was £ 1 , 10 shillings was the same amount of farmland.
The founding years of the settlement were tough. But the earthquake in the Wairarapa in 1855 did not bother the settlers. The frequent flooding that hit the place showed that the location so close to the river was not favorable. In addition, the transport costs of goods to Wellington, 80 km away, were very high and the settlers were economically disadvantaged.
To get the floods under control, immigrants who came to New Zealand under Julius Vogel's immigration program were used to build a canal to divert the floods of the Waiohine River . The canal was never finished, but the river found a new course. In 1972, the railway engineers criticized the risk of flooding. The railway line, inaugurated in 1880, finally passed the center of the city 5 km to the west.
In 1867 Greytown got a Road Board , which was responsible for road construction. In 1874 the formation of a town board followed and in 1878 the place was named a borough . In 1874 the city was proud to be the largest city in the interior of New Zealand with 479 inhabitants. But the isolation and remoteness slowed growth. In the 1896 census , Greytown already had 1,127 inhabitants, but more than 50 years later, in 1951 only a little more were counted with 1258 inhabitants and in 1961 the number of inhabitants was 300 more.
Greytown gained importance again through the First World War . Since measles had broken out in one of the largest troop training camps of the New Zealand Army , in Trentham Camp in Upper Hutt , which was not far away, units were transferred to Greytown for the period from September 1916 to November 1918 . Of the patriotic in the war -attracting young men of the city, after the declaration of war of England against Germany wanted thrilled the British homeland succor, came 117 not go back. The antipathy after the end of the war against everything that was German or sounded German was so great in Greytown that all names that somehow sounded German were changed, including street names. This even led to Vogel Street , so named in honor of New Zealand Prime Minister Julius Vogel , being renamed McMaster Street .
Also Greytown was from the Wairarapa -Erdbeben 1942 hit significantly. The few houses or facades made of brick suffered serious damage. But most of the wooden houses held up.
population
In the 2013 census, the town had 2,199 inhabitants, 6.5% more than in the 2006 census.
economy
From the beginning, the area in and around Greytown was characterized by farming, which produced agricultural products, dairy products and meat. From 1899 fruit growing was added through the first fruit plantation. To date, nothing has changed in this situation.
Infrastructure
Road traffic
The New Zealand State Highway 2 , which divides the place in two halves, runs through Greytown . It connects Greytown with the metropolitan area around Wellington in the southwest and with the east coast around Hastings and Napier .
Rail transport
The railway connection of the Wairarapa Line , which also runs through the town, connects Greytown with the economic centers in the southwest and northeast as well as via State Highway 1 .
See also
literature
- Cris Slater, Ian F. Grant : The Look of Greytown, New Zealand's first planned inland town, 1854-2004 . Wairarapa Archive , Masterton 2004, ISBN 0-9582053-7-X (English).
Web links
- Historical Greytown today . Greytown Community Heritage Trust, archived from the original onMay 13, 2010; accessed on August 15, 2014(English, original website no longer available).
- Greytown - Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand - (accessed March 6, 2010)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 2013 Census QuickStats about a place: Greytown . Statistics New Zealand , accessed June 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Topo250 maps . Land Information New Zealand , accessed June 7, 2017 .