Taranaki Daily News

Word on the street: McGiven Drive

- – Contribute­d by the Taranaki Research Centre I Te Pua Wānanga o Taranaki at Puke Ariki.

Unfortunat­ely, Archie also enjoyed a drink. In 1901 his wife successful­ly had a prohibitio­n order granted against him.

McGiven Drive is a semi-rural road near the boundary of Frankleigh Park and Ridgewood, running off Ridgewood Drive. It was formed in the late 1970s and is named after the McGiven family who once farmed in the area.

Archibald (Archie) McGiven was born in Scotland around 1854. He married Margaret Binnie in 1876 and soon after they set off for New Zealand. One of his first jobs here was to help with the constructi­on of a breakwater, the first step in the long-awaited plan for a port for New Plymouth.

Archie had a short but colourful life. He was a highly skilled diver whose talent was recognised widely, working both locally and around the country. In 1897 the Postal Department called on his services when the steamer Tasmania sank off the coast of the Māhia Peninsula. McGiven reported that the mail was unrecovera­ble, as was jewellery merchant Isadore Rothschild’s suitcase full of precious gems that also went down with the ship. Only half of the jewellery was later recovered by marine archaeolog­ist Kelly Tarlton in the 1970s.

Unfortunat­ely, Archie also enjoyed a drink. In 1901 his wife successful­ly had a prohibitio­n order granted against him. Little more than a year later he was killed when he fell attempting to board a train. Despite the incident occurring near the Breakwater Tavern at 10pm, an inquest noted that ‘‘the evidence showed that McGiven was perfectly sober when seen shortly before the accident’’. He left behind his wife and six children.

One of these children, John (Shorty) McGiven, would later end up farming on Veale Rd. He married Lottie Salway from Bell Block in 1911 and the couple had four children. John died at his home on Veale Rd in 1948 and was buried at Te Hēnui cemetery.

His farm was later sold and eventually subdivided, with the McGiven name being celebrated in the naming of one of the roads in the developmen­t.

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