A new stirring of south vs north

TVNZ must irritate the hell out of South Taranakians by ignoring their community in the nightly weather readings.

Someone needs to alert that pleasant Dan fella to the fact Mt Taranaki has such a big influence on the province’s climate that forecasts for New Plymouth are mostly useless to those in South Taranaki (and probably coastal, central and inland Taranaki, as well).

Whanganui’s forecast might be more help, but why not include Ha¯ wera, which has a bigger population than a number of centres on TV One’s weather map?

Even more important than the weather, if that’s possible, is a growing feeling among southern dwellers that they deserve greater recognition than they get as an adjunct to the aspirations of the north.

Some New Plymouth people imagine they are at the centre of a province that is firmly bound to their city’s feelings of regional pride.

But those living south of Inglewood must feel a little tired of being taken for granted.

Such sentiments have always existed, no doubt, and I sensed how strong they were a couple of years ago when I wrote a book about the Taranaki hospice movement.

Now there’s a renewed separatist mood over what to do about Yarrow Stadium (named after a South Taranaki baker).

A candidate for the Ha¯ wera mayoralty says he would pull South Taranaki out of the rebuild proposal altogether and confine spending to their own region.

Meantime, a Ha¯ wera horse racing figure proposes New Plymouth racecourse land for a new stadium and refocusing racing and training on Ha¯ wera and Stratford.

Whatever might happen with those ideas, they’re a reminder to those in the north who don’t get out much that they ought to take a trip south, and one that doesn’t merely have Wellington as its destination.

They’ll see that aside from the paddocks looking browner this time of year, South Taranakians enjoy an abundance of natural and cultural riches rivalling anything in the north.

Take the museums. Along with Nigel Ogle’s renowned displays at Ta¯ whiti near Normanby, there’s a treasure to be found in Pa¯ tea, a town at risk of being merely driven through.

It’s Aotea Utanganui–Museum of South Taranaki, which – with significant funding from the South Taranaki District Council and others – has slowly developed since the late 1960s into a substantial repository of historical artefacts.

Built on the town’s main street (seaward side) and free to enter, the museum has land and military records, books, files on local personalities, something called the Elmore-Timms collection of photographs and negatives, the

Ha¯ wera Star’s original newspapers and negatives, and around 10,000 photographs.

According to the museum’s website, the original collection was gathered by South Taranaki collectors, historians and iwi, and includes military, social, geographical, agrarian, civil and historical information, enhanced over the years by donations of archives from the district.

The library includes titles by Thomas Gudgeon (Whanganui soldier and military historian who wrote a seminal work on the New Zealand Land Wars), James Cowan (early 20th century historian) and Reverend Thomas Hammond (clergyman and historian of the late 19th century).

There are also instruction manuals and parts books for agricultural machinery, electrical and fire equipment, early telephone directories, family histories, government legislation, and collectors’ books from the 1700s.

Equally important is the museum’s modern environment, which helps its management secure significant international exhibitions, like the current Rarely Seen: Photographs of the Extraordinary, a National Geographic magazine collection of 50 photographs that opened earlier this month, its first showing New Zealand.

In case you’re confused, this is a different exhibition from the magazine’s 50 greatest photos show that first appeared at Upper Hutt’s Expressions Arts and Entertainment Centre in 2015 and later at Puke Ariki.

Museum director Cameron Curd is enthusiastic about plans to extend the museum with a hall to display its agricultural exhibits, as well as build a separate workshop and store for more fragile items in the collection.

Curd has been overseeing the Pa¯ tea museum’s impressive expansion for the past eight years, having gone south from Puke Ariki.

He has strong local support, judging by comments made to me during the morning tea (with spectacular scones) that followed the photo exhibition opening.

Puke Ariki’s manager left his job recently and there’s now an acting manager, with NPDC mute on who will get the role.

South Taranakians won’t thank me for saying so, but the northern museum would do well to consider Curd… if he’s interested in leaving the splendid south.