These little-town blues
Small towns are facing some tough choices to keep the lights on and the water running. Libby Wilson, Debbie Jamieson and Joanne Carroll investigate.
There simply aren’t enough people to justify a particular service, so one of the inevitable things is that the communities are going to see services withdraw. Paul Spoonley
Deep in the rolling hills of the King Country, John Farnham loves his small-town life. He shares Ohura, 50km west of Taumarunui, with just 130 other souls and loves meeting a few of them for a beer at the local cossie club.
But the walk home afterwards is fraught – there are potholes on Kereru Rd that he can’t see in the dark.
Ruapehu District Council says there’s simply not enough residents on Farnham’s road to warrant putting a streetlight outside his house, especially when they are struggling to simply keep the water coming out of his taps.
With New Zealand’s rural hinterland set to continue haemorrhaging people to the cities in coming decades, the combination of declining ratepayer bases and rising infrastructure costs is a looming spectre in small communities across the country.
Water supplies and sewerage connections could be on the chopping block.
‘‘Some communities are already saying, ‘Our water supply is up for renewal. It’s going to cost X to develop a water supply, it’s actually cheaper to put tanks in all of those houses so they collect rainwater’,’’ Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule says.
And septic tanks might be more cost-effective for sewerage in a small community miles from anywhere.
Population growth across most of New Zealand is forecast to stop – or reverse – by 2043, according to a Maxim Institute report.
That swathe of the country is home to about a quarter of the population, but covers most of its land area – 44 territorial authorities out of 67. Think pretty much anywhere outside the main centres and their immediate surrounds and the tourist magnet of Queenstown.
Councils need to accept that and get planning, the report adds.
Small-town population decline is a global phenomenon and Local Government NZ made the issue a top priority two years ago, says Yule.
‘‘At its worst, in some parts of New Zealand the population will decline to the point where infrastructure upgrades will be unaffordable because there will be not enough people left to afford to fund them. Yet they still need the basics of stormwater, sewerage and water supplies.’’
Long term, the rating-based funding system won’t be sustainable, adds Yule.
‘‘This is never going to be easy. As a nation, we really need to decide at some point whether in fact the centre and the more populous areas should be funding the declining rural areas.’’
Yule thinks attracting wealth generators is key, and he points to Rocket Lab’s launch base in Wairoa.
It’s generated significant excitement and shows there are ways to buck the trend if you have the right people.
But many places are feeling the pinch – including Ohura.
Its old water plant and pipes would cost about $2 million to replace. They date from the 1950s, when Ohura was a thriving place with coal mines and a busy railway siding.
Things have changed. The local school now has about seven pupils and you can buy a two-bedroom house on two sections for $67,300.
The cosmopolitan club remains, and is planning a pig hunt in July. Tourism brushes by with Forgotten World Adventures Rail Carts stopping in on their Stratford-Taumarunui journey.
In a 2014 referendum, Ohura residents rejected shifting to rainwater tanks.
Now they pay extra rates to keep their water system going, but need a long-term solution.
Farnham moved to the town in late 2009, after discovering it online. Like most others there, he loves the place, but not the high cost of living.
Farnham’s rates bill is about $3000 a year – he has no sewerage connection and no kerbside rubbish collection.
The 66-year-old is in an ongoing battle with the council about a streetlight to shine over the potholed road.
He says streetlights are council’s core business and should be a right.
Fellow Ohura resident Harry Hessell, 75, keeps his costs down so he can stay in the community he loves.
The retired restorer moved from New Plymouth two years ago, to get away from city life.
He’s installed solar panelling and his past two bills were only $18, he says.
His two-bedroom,100-year-old railway house cost under $20,000 because the rates were killing the previous owner.
‘‘When I came to town I had people from this town bring trucks and trailers free of charge to shift me here,’’ Hessell says.
‘‘It’s the community spirit we love.’’
Ruapehu District Mayor Don Cameron doesn’t expect the district population to bounce back to its 1960s peak in the mid 600s.
He doesn’t like it when people talk about zombie towns either but he concurs with the Maxim Institute findings.
Soon, Ruapehu will need consent for three wastewater and two water plants.
‘‘Each one of those could be at least $1m. For nine-and-a-half thousand ratepayers, that’s a huge amount to find.’’
But there’s plenty going on in the district.
There are upcoming Treaty settlements, farming, a tourism project, town beautification and a Taumarunui social sector trial, where central government and local agencies cooperate on community initiatives.
The council has been paying down debt, working with the Government developing the region, and teaming up with neighbours in the Horizons Regional Council area for long term planning on economic and social fronts.
A couple hundred kilometres south, is an example of a small town that has managed to thrive in challenging times.
Shannon, nestled between Levin and Palmerston North, had a population of about 1240 people at the last census, and is familiar pitstop for drivers in the lower North Island.
‘‘I’ve never seen the town so buoyant,’’ Horowhenua District Councillor for the area Ross Campbell says.
He’s in his 70s and remembers Shannon as a manufacturing hub, before factories started closing.
Now it boasts cafes, a wildlife park, and a range of , community organisations, plus the new Kapiti Expressway is bringing more traffic.
‘‘It’s the locals that really are the strength of this town,’’ says Campbell. ‘‘They anchor themselves down and go through the rough times and enjoy the good times.’’
Campbell and his wife Janette set up Owlcatraz Native Bird and Wildlife Park in Shannon 20 years ago.
Some thought they were mad, Janette says, but Shannon’s central location prompted more businesses to follow them.
Volunteers now run a museum and visitor centre in the old railway station, every day – an initiative of the Shannon Progressive Association, for which Janette is secretary.
In 2007, entrepreneur Suzie Johnson purchased a derelict building and opened her business ‘‘Shanfransisco’’ selling homemade jewellery and art.
She now has 12 businesses across New Zealand under the Oosh brand, and is typical of the can-do attitudes to be found around town.
But small places often reach a tipping point, Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley says.
‘‘There simply aren’t enough people to justify a particular service, so one of the inevitable things is that the communities are going to see services withdraw.’’
The struggle could be to retain a school or a doctor’s surgery.
Richie McCaw’s hometown of Kurow, northwest of Oamaru, is a fairly typical example – it has shut four schools and kept one.
They’re the kind of topics politicians often don’t want to talk about, Spoonley says, but we have to manage this in a smart way.
Maxim Institute researcher Julian Wood compares it to an advancing tidal wave.
‘‘The early warning system is sounding. Do we try and get our boat facing headlong to this wave or do we just keep floundering about and in the end it will hit us broadside?’’
Getting into debt with projects aimed to change everything isn’t advisable – ‘‘You don’t want to be borrowing money on a future that doesn’t exist’’.
His paper lays it out: hospitals, schools, and community services such as libraries face an uncertain future if economic and population decline take hold.
Central government uses population-based funding formulas and they’re getting better, but small towns may find they get less money when they have fewer people, he adds.
Some of New Zealand’s smaller areas are growing.
Queenstown has a population of about 20,000 and council is stretched to keep up with growth.
‘‘There’s a hell of a lot to do and it’s a real challenge to race to catch up to where we think we should be, let alone get ahead of the curve,’’ Queenstown Lakes District Council chief executive Mike Theelen says.
‘‘I’d rather have this problem than be worrying about whether the school is going to close.’’
Queenstown and Wanaka are experiencing sustained growth rather than the past boom and bust cycle, he says.
Things are on the up: population, employment rates, traffic, building and resource consent numbers.
Tourists have a huge impact and the council would like a visitor levy to help with infrastructure costs.
‘‘Some parts of the community like the way Queenstown is today but that’s not realistic,’’ Theelen says.
‘‘We need to ensure that rather than resisting growth we need to recognise it’s here to stay but make sure we channel it and accommodate in a way to deliver a high quality urban environment.’’
Waimangaroa – a small town near the abandoned Denniston coal mine on the West Coast – is at the other end of the scale.
The locals call it ‘‘Waimang’’ and it used to have a school, shop, pub and rugby team.
The town’s only shop has just closed.
Miners used to munch on Lonely Planet-endorsed pies from Coalface Food Stop, but owner Raewyn Fern has just closed it after 10 years in business.
The Buller District has lost more than 1000 jobs since 2013 – including in the coal mining industry, after the closure of Westport’s Holcim cement works and Reefton’s OceanaGold mine, and knock-on job losses in rail and shipping.
The area needs more tourists and passing trade to survive, Fern says.
‘‘We won’t get tourists until we get a road put in through from Northern Buller to Golden Bay. Tourists don’t want to drive back the way they came, they want a loop.’’
Buller mayor Garry Howard has been lobbying the Government to investigate a road through the Kahurangi National Park.
He’s also doing his best to reverse the downturn, helping with an economic stimulus fund and a ‘‘Move to Westport’’ campaign.
The population forecasts in the Maxim Institute paper are for 30 years from now, but it’s not hard to see that some of our smallest places already face tough choices.