Zealand Towns Research Articles

Local benevolent property development entrepreneurs in small town regeneration

Derived from a wider study of place-based economic, social, cultural and environmental regeneration initiatives in small regional New Zealand towns, and reflecting on international research that emphasises the importance of long-term collaborative effort, effective governance and locally-based leadership in regional regeneration, this paper examines the ways locally-based benevolent property development entrepreneurs are attempting to contribute to their regional town-centres. The experience of towns in mid and South Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand, where national and global commercial property developers are reluctant to invest, are used as case studies. We discuss how property-led town-centre regeneration in small regional towns in New Zealand such as these may best be characterised. This work is then used to outline a policy agenda that would help local government and allied stakeholders to engage more effectively and cooperatively with local property developers. This work has relevance for an international audience interested in the town-centre regeneration challenges faced by the residents and local governments of small regional towns in neo-liberal polities.

Does land use affect pathogen presence in New Zealand drinking water supplies?

Four microbes (Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp.) were monitored in 16 waterways that supply public drinking water for 13 New Zealand towns and cities. Over 500 samples were collected from the abstraction point at each study site every three months between 2009 and 2019. The waterways represent a range from small to large, free flowing to reservoir impoundments, draining catchments of entirely native vegetation to those dominated by pastoral agriculture. We used machine learning algorithms to explore the relative contribution of land use, catchment geology, vegetation, topography, and water quality characteristics of the catchment to determining the abundance and/or presence of each microbe. Sites on rivers draining predominantly agricultural catchments, the Waikato River, Oroua River and Waiorohi Stream had all four microbes present, often in high numbers, throughout the sampling interval. Other sites, such as the Hutt River and Big Huia Creek in Wellington which drain catchments of native vegetation, never had pathogenic microbes detected, or unsafe levels of E. coli. Boosted Regression Tree models could predict abundances and presence/absence of all four microbes with good precision using a wide range of potential environmental predictors covering land use, geology, vegetation, topography, and nutrient concentrations. Models were more accurate for protozoa than bacteria but did not differ markedly in their ability to predict abundance or presence/absence. Environmental drivers of microbe abundance or presence/absence also differed depending on whether the microbe was protozoan or bacterial. Protozoa were more prevalent in waterways with lower water quality, higher numbers of ruminants in the catchment, and in September and December. Bacteria were more abundant with higher rainfall, saturated soils, and catchments with greater than 35% of the land in agriculture. Although modern water treatment protocols will usually remove many pathogens from drinking water, several recent outbreaks of waterborne disease due to treatment failures, have highlighted the need to manage water supplies on multiple fronts. This research has identified potential catchment level variables, and thresholds, that could be better managed to reduce the potential for pathogens to enter drinking water supplies.

Using Distributed Air Sampling to Distinguish Spatial Contributions of Woodsmoke from Other Particulate Sources in a Medium-Sized City

During winter nights, woodsmoke from home heating may be a substantial source of air pollution in smaller cities and towns. In New Zealand towns with relatively little background air pollution, and substantial reliance on woodburning, we have the unique opportunity to examine spatial variance in woodburning-related pollution, and to disentangle its contribution from that of other sources (i.e., diesel). Few studies to date have been able to isolate spatial patterns in exposures during daytime and nighttime, nor to do so using woodsmoke-specific tracers (e.g., levoglucosan), to separate its contribution from that of other sources (e.g., diesel).We captured seven-day integrated samples of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and elemental and organic tracers of woodsmoke and diesel emissions, during daytime and nighttime hours, across one city, over three weeks in early winter. At a subset of sites, we also sampled during hypothesized “peak” evening woodburning hours, to differentiate emissions during active residential woodburning, vs. overnight smoldering.Concentrations of PM2.5 were, on average, twice as high during nighttime than daytime. Much greater differences were observed, however, in woodsmoke-related tracers (e.g., levoglucosan, potassium) and indicators of treated- or painted-wood burning (e.g., arsenic, lead). Only nitrogen dioxide (NO2), calcium, iron, and manganese (common tracers of vehicular emissions) were higher during daytime. Levoglucosan and most PAHs were higher during “active” woodburning, vs. overnight smoldering.Our time-stratified spatial sampling approach detected substantial variability across the study area, and established a strong contribution of woodsmoke to nighttime PM2.5. Daytime vs. nighttime differences were greater than differences observed across sites. Traffic, especially diesel, contributed substantially to daytime NO2 and localized gradients in non-woodsmoke-related constituents.

“On the road: on the boards” – Irish plays and travelling theatre companies in colonial New Zealand, 1880–1895

Irish culture came to many New Zealand towns as plays performed by travelling theatre companies. Between 1880 and the advent of the “picture show men”, there were regular visits to circuits such as “Gisborne, Napier, Palmerston, Wanganui, Hawera, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch and all the more important towns southwards to Invercargill” by companies such as The Pollard Opera Company and The Greenwood Family. Some were highly professional, such as the Brough Boucicault Company, which only toured the major towns; others were more of the “fit-up” type, such as the Burford-Clinton Company, which featured Grattan Riggs. Touring was customary and could prove lucrative. Frank Norton, who was with the Dobson-Kennedy Company, once described New Zealand as a “country consisting of 51 towns and 43 theatre companies”. This article will assess the Irish contribution to Colonial life made by travelling theatre companies’ performance of Irish plays as evidenced by programmes, circuits, seasons and production values reported in the New Zealand newspapers of the day. It will argue that Irish plays performed the significant cultural and political functions of dramatising the uneasy tension between institutional power and individual potential that characterised the colonial condition in which New Zealand audiences found themselves.

Place, health, and community attachment: Is community capacity associated with self-rated health at the individual level?

Community-level interventions dominate contemporary public health responses to health inequalities as a lack of political will has discouraged action at a structural level. Health promoters commonly leverage community capacity to achieve programme goals, yet the health implications of low community capacity are unknown. In this study, we analyse perceptions of community capacity at the individual-level to explore how place-based understandings of identity and connectedness are associated with self-rated health. We examine associations between individual community capacity, self-rated health and income using a cross-sectional survey that was disseminated to 303 residents of four small (populations 1500–2000) New Zealand towns. Evidence indicating a relationship between individual community capacity and self-reported health was unconvincing once the effects of income were incorporated. That is, people who rated their community's capacity higher did not have better self-rated health. Much stronger evidence supported the relationship between income and both higher individual community capacity and higher self-rated health. We conclude that individual community capacity may mediate the positive association between income and health, however, overall we find no evidence suggesting that intervening to enhance individual community capacity is likely to improve health outcomes.

Eighty years of urban development in New Zealand: impacts of economic and natural factors

We analyse impacts of economic and other factors on long-run urban growth in New Zealand. Growing cities must have preferred attributes (such as natural characteristics, social amenities and transport infrastructures) relative to other cities. We outline a theoretical model that includes distance-related effects on individual utility and thence population location. We test the model over 1926 to 2006 across 56 New Zealand towns using instruments dating from 1880 to deal with potential endogeneity. Three factors – land-use capability, sunshine hours and proximity to Auckland – are found to influence settlements’ long-run population growth. In addition, the proportion of population that is Māori is negatively correlated with population growth over the second half of the sample period. Supplementary evidence suggests that this variable relates to the importance of human capital for the growth of settlements over recent decades.

Infrastructure's Long-Lived Impact on Urban Development: Theory and Empirics

We analyse impacts that infrastructure provision and other factors have on long run urban growth. Reflecting spatial equilibrium insights, growing cities have preferred attributes relative to other cities. These attributes may include natural characteristics, social amenities and transport infrastructure that have productive and/or amenity value. We outline a theoretical model that includes distance-related effects on individual utility and thence population location, and we test this model using historical data covering 1926 to 2006 across 56 New Zealand towns. Instruments dating back to 1880 are used to deal with potential endogeneity issues, and we use spatial-econometrics techniques to test for spatial spillovers between cities. Our analysis shows that four dominant factors have impacted positively on urban growth, especially since 1966: nearby land-use capability, human capital, sunshine hours and proximity to the country’s dominant city, Auckland.

A New Zealand Urban Population Database

This paper documents a comprehensive database for the populations of 60 New Zealand towns and cities (henceforth “towns”). Populations are provided for every tenth year from 1926 through to 2006. New Zealand towns have experienced very different growth rates over this period. Economic geography theories posit that people migrate to (and from) places according to a few key factors. In order to analyse the determinants of urban growth empirically, we need a comprehensive database of urban populations over time, as provided here.

Becoming Urban: New Zealand towns in the 1850s

During the 1850s the first inland towns were founded at Greytown and Masterton. They signalled a new direction in Pākehā settlement, a movement from coastal edge port "cities" to secondary towns in the (North Island) interior. It was from these centres that colonisation proceeded apace. These new towns followed the pattern of New Zealand urbanism established in the 1840s: low-density development with houses and buildings scattered over a wide domain. Could they then really be called towns? Architecturally, the built environment of all towns might be best described as utilitarian and frontier-like. But the decade is notable for the first expressions of a grander, civic architecture, best shown in the construction of public buildings, some of which are examined here. Were these New Zealand's first urban buildings?

Using Occupation to Navigate Cultural Spaces: Indian Immigrant Women Settling in New Zealand

Indian immigrant women settling in New Zealand encounter new environments and occupational situations. How they navigate these situations either facilitates and enhances the experience of being in a new environment or challenges the process of settling and becoming part of New Zealand society. This study describes the significance of engagement in occupation as central to the settlement process. In-depth interviews and participant observations were used to gather information from 25 Indian immigrant women living in New Zealand towns and cities, regarding their experiences of occupation in a new environment. A grounded theory methodology guided by symbolic interactionism and occupational science was employed. Data were analysed using dimensional analysis, resulting in a substantive grounded theory, Navigating Cultural Spaces. This dynamic process describes how Indian immigrant women interweave aspects of the New Zealand and Indian cultures into everyday occupations as they create a place for themselves and their families in a new country.

The M8.8 Chile earthquake, 27 February 2010

The largest earthquake of 2010 by magnitude (MW8.8), and the subject of this article, struck south-central Chile in the early hours of 27 February 2010. The earthquake was a “mega-thrust” event, involving the rupture of a section of the Nazca-South American plate boundary, where the Nazca plate dips at a shallow angle beneath the Pacific margin of South America.
 Understanding this event and its effects, including tsunami is of particular significance to urban centres that share close proximity to “subduction zones”. These include Seattle, Vancouver, Tokyo and Wellington, together with smaller New Zealand towns of the eastern North Island and upper South Island. The tectonic setting of south-central Chile has similarities to the East Coast of the North Island, and the modern built environment of Chile shares attributes with New Zealand. However, New Zealand has not experienced a large subduction earthquake in the North Island region in at least 200 years, so an understanding of the Chile event and its impact is important for bench-marking of local practices and building resilience.
 This report summarises the observations of the NZSEE/EQC teams, supplemented by media updates on the Chilean reconstruction experience one year after the earthquake.

Crossing the roads: urban diagonals in New Zealand and the nineteenth century Anglo-colonial world

Diagonal street orientations in urban Europe were cut through the crust of the ancient city by popes, monarchs and governments to create a network of voided lines and points which injected the city with new levels of functionality and legibility for a particular regime. In the Anglo-Colonial New World, the grid was the dominant plan form with diagonals emerging only occasionally, as gestures of projected urban grandeur, geometric whimsy or vigorous boosterism. Despite inauspicious beginnings in Auckland in 1841, diagonal planning became a feature of a number of New Zealand's cities and towns. The research methodology privileges the autonomy of visual language as a critical component of the economy of knowledge1 and focuses on primary archival graphic material from the Alexander Turnbull Library, and the National Archives in Wellington. The paper surveys the development of diagonal plans across settlements in late nineteenth century New Zealand and, with reference to examples in the USA, identifies the typologies of, and motivations behind, diagonal planning in this context.

Travel, tourism and booster literature: New Zealand's cities and towns at the turn of the twentieth century

New Zealand historiography focusing on tourism has tended to favour the rural over the urban. This paper argues that cities and towns were also the focus of much publicity for promoting migration and tourism to the country. As evidence it examines a generally overlooked historical source, booster texts. It suggests that such sources should be considered a genre of travel writing on the basis that they are targeted specifically at voyagers.

Early Twentieth Century Town Planning Improvements in New Zealand

The first decades of the twentieth century were critical for an introduction of town planning views in New Zealand. This was the time when the country was moving in a natural progression from solving the basic problems of establishing new settlements, through extensive infrastructural works (construction of roads and railroads; introduction of electricity and tramways, etc), to the point of early re-evaluations and criticisms of the achieved results. Concurrently the British town planning concepts were, for the first time, discussed among New Zealand architectural professionals and other interested parties as the New Zealand cities and towns were actively being constructed with new and improved infrastructure. This period provided ample opportunity to set up models that could influence future urban developments.
 This paper will discuss the professional town planning developments in relation to the broader context of urban improvements of the same period. It will explore the concepts that underpinned the developments and evaluate the lasting effects they have had on the development of New Zealand towns and cities.

CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS

Historical public health concerns about the transmission of communicable disease through drinking water have returned to prominence since the emergence of new organisms, such as Cryptosporidium parvum, which initially eluded twentieth century water treatment procedures. Rates of cryptosporidiosis are high in New Zealand by international standards. Collation of national data on communicable disease and drinking water quality has shown that residents of small communities do not enjoy the same quality of drinking-water as their counterparts in major urban centres, and they also experience higher reported rates of cryptosporidiosis. Drinking water quality is associated with socio-economic deprivation at small area level. Aspects of our freshwater ecology, and the ubiquitous use of surface water drinking supplies, may contribute to high rates of disease. Individual level data are important to further our understanding of the relationship between people, drinking water supplies, and patterns of disease transmission in the community. Therefore, we sought to identify risk factors for exposure to cryptosporidiosis among blood donors in New Zealand, and test those donors for serological evidence of exposure to Cryptosporidium parvum. Methods Cross-sectional anonymous self-completed questionnaire survey of blood donors in two small New Zealand towns, and serological investigation of antibodies to Cryptosporidium parvum. Results Ninetynine percent of eligible donors agreed to participate. Exposure to possible risk factors was common and included drinking unboiled tap water, contact with preschool children, contact with household and farm animals, travel to other urban and rural areas within New Zealand, swimming in public pools or fresh water, and travel overseas. One fifth of respondents in community A reported high risk occupations which involved exposure to young children, farm animals, hospital inpatients, or bio-specimens. Community B had a drinking water supply with an unsatisfactory public health grading. Almost one third of respondents reported illness with diarrhoea and/or vomiting in the previous year; only 12% of these participants sought medical attention for the illness and only 7% had stool samples taken. Seroprevalence was the same in the two communities, even when controlling for different exposure to risk factors. Over 60 per cent of participants showed antibodies to either the 17-kDa (63.9%; 95%CI 58.6–69.2) or 27-kDa (64.2%; 95%CI 59–69.4) Cryptosporidium parvum antigen groups. Half the participants had antibodies to both antigen groups (49.5%; 95%CI 44–55). Conclusion Poor drinking water quality in New Zealand is associated with high rates of cryptosporidiosis, and with small area socio-economic deprivation. At an individual level New Zealanders are exposed to multiple risk factors for infection with Cryptosporidium parvum. The high rates of seropositivity suggest a degree of immunity in the adult population, which may not be shared by children who are more susceptible to symptomatic infection. Improvement of drinking water quality remains an issue of social equity with the potential to reduce disproportionate burdens of disease.

Under curfew and under siege? Legal geographies of young people

Against a backdrop of widespread panic about children's safety and the unruliness of teenagers, efforts to remove young people from public space are becoming increasingly pervasive. Public space is being constructed as adult space through legal mechanisms such as curfews, which seek to curtail young people's spatial freedoms and contain them within their homes. Ostensibly motivated by a desire to reduce youth crime and victimisation, curfews reflect a contemporary preoccupation with achieving social control through the control of space. This is certainly the case in the US – the Western nation where juvenile curfews are most prevalent, despite rhetoric about the `fundamental' nature of individual freedoms. In this paper, critical discussion of the American situation provides a backdrop for considering curfews recently imposed in Paeroa and Te Kuiti, two New Zealand towns. It is contended that these curfews were as much about enforcing a particular notion of `parental responsibility' as controlling young people themselves. We conclude that a discourse of rights provides a particularly strong foundation for arguing against curfews.

Community issues and resident opinions of tourism

This paper examines how a sample of residents of ten New Zealand towns perceives the effect of tourism on their communities. Local opinions and perceptions of tourism were used to segment the sample into four distinct opinion groups using cluster analysis. It was found that those least in favor rated community-oriented issues to be of greater importance than did other residents. Furthermore, importance of local issues to respondents was found to be more useful in interpreting opinion groups than were demographic variables. Thus, researchers interested in investigating antecedents of resident perceptions of tourism need to focus more on personal values (and related constructs) and less on demographic factors.

Damage in the Westport area

(a) The area concerned in this report is the coastal strip from the Buller River northwards to Maramea. The main town in the area is Westport which is a Borough with 1300 dwelling houses. Many of the buildings go back to the early 1900’s and fewer new houses and commercial buildings have been built in latter years than in most New Zealand towns of a similar age.
 (b) Within the last 40 years Westport has suffered three earthquakes which have caused considerable damage to buildings - Buller 1929 - Westport 1962 - Inangahua 1968. The latter two earthquakes occurred after the introduction of the Earthquake & War Damage Act. From the 1962 earthquake more than 1500 claims were received from the district while in 1968 more than 2200 claims were registered. Probably within the Borough of Westport the number of claims from both the shocks was about the same. However in the 1968 shock there were many more claims from the townships further north of Westport - Waimangaroa, Granity, Hector, Nikau, Denniston, Seddonville and Karamea.

The Concentration and Dispersion of Manufacturing in New Zealand

T;-' nWO opposing tendencies, towards concentration and towards dispersion, are shown by the spatial arrangement of manufacturing in New Zealand. Though over 100,000 factory workers are employed in the five main centers of population the remaining 56,000 gain a livelihood in factories scattered throughout the length and breadth of the country.1 This paper introduces a map of manufacturing in the Dominion, and analyzes the pattern so revealed by examining in turn the factors affecting the distribution of material oriented, market oriented, and relatively footloose industries. One of the greatest problems involved in a geographical study of manufacturing in New Zealand is the lack of detailed statistical data. While employment figures are available for each town of 1000 or more population,2 the smallest areas for which statistics of gross and net production, cost of materials used, and amount of wages and salaries are published regularly are the 25 employment districts shown in Figure 1. In practice the analysis of the geography of manufacturing by these districts has proved reasonably satisfactory; each district contains only one main urban area and, in most cases, the activities of the area tend to be focused on this town. Given the availability of certain data, a further consideration is the most suitable way, or ways, of using this to describe cartographically the contemporary distribution of manufacturing. Single criterion maps have already been published3 showing the number I useful information about various aspects of manufacturing in New Zealand may be found in the following references: J. L. Hewland, Manufacturing in New Zealand, New Zealand Geogr., Vol. 2, No. 1. April 1946, pp. 1-16; J. K. Bewley, Changes in the Pattern of Industrial Productioni in New Zealand from 1938-1954, Proc. of First Geography Conference, Auckland, 1955, pp. 43-51; G. C. Billing, The Industrial Pattern and New Zealand's Future, Econ. Journ., Vol. 68, March 1957, pp. 65-73; N. E. Dalmer, Industry-Its Development and Importance in New Zealanid, and W. B. Sutch, Our Changing I industries: Reasons Why, both in New Zealand Inventory and Prospect, Wellingtoni Branch, New Zealand Geographical Society, 1.956; and G. J. R. Linge, The Location of Manufacturing in New Zealand, New Zealand Geogr., Vol. 13, No. 1, April 1.957, pp. 1-18. Among duplicated papers should be mentioned: W. B. Sutch, The Next Two Decades of Manufacturing in New Zealand, read to A.N.Z.A.A.S. Conference, Dunedin, 1957; idem, Recent Developments in New Zealand Maniufacturinig, read to Auckland Branch, New Zealand Geographical Society, 1958; and G. J. R. Linge, Some Measures of the Location of Manufacturing in New Zealand, read to the New Zealand Statistical Association, Wellington, 1957. All statistics in this paper are for 1956 (or production year 1955-1956) and were derived from the Report on Industrial Production, annual, Wellington; New Zealand Official YearBook, annual, Wellington; and from unpublished returns of the Department of Labour and Employment. 2 Analyzed by L. L. Pownall: The Functions of New Zealan-d Towns, Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 43, 1953, pp. 332-350. 3G. J. R. Linge: The Location of Manufacturing in New Zealand, New Zealand Geogr., Vol. 13, No. 1, April, 1957, pp. 8-10.

SURFACE GROWTH OF NEW ZEALAND TOWNS*

New Zealand GeographerVolume 13, Issue 2 p. 99-116 SURFACE GROWTH OF NEW ZEALAND TOWNS* L. L. POWNALL, Search for more papers by this author L. L. POWNALL, Search for more papers by this author First published: October 1957 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-7939.1957.tb01404.xCitations: 5 † *The field work and archival research on which this paper is based was made possible by the Research Grants Committee of the University of New Zealand to whom acknowledgement is made. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume13, Issue2October 1957Pages 99-116 RelatedInformation