TAURANGA: A GARDEN CITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

TAURANGA: A GARDEN CITY

BY n. W. Wtß.

Tauranga, the tinely-situated town on the Bay of Plenty, is a natural garden city. That is to say, the site was chosen and the streets laid out before ever a word had been heard about garden cities and garden suburbs. And, probably, the most remarkable feature about the place and its planning is that both agree with the best modern ideas of what a clsan, picturesque, and healthy town should be. That remark alludes more particularly to the original laying out of Tauranga. An intelligent and energetic community — and, generally speaking, a well-to-do one —was first required to put the finishing touches to the garden city. Within quite recent years gasworks have been erected, an abundant water-supply has been introduced, and, at the moment of writing, an extensive system of drainage is rapidlv progressing towards completion. When these and other public works have been finished the Bay of Plenty town will be accepted as about as perfect an example of a natural garden city as it is possiDle to find in New Zealand or anywhere else. The history of the founding, the rise, and progress of the bay town is an extremely interesting and instructive one. But to that history only the briefest allusion is necessary on this present occasion. In the early days the Bay of Plenty Maoris —or sections of them were troublesome as all the world knows. British forces gathered at Tauranga, and what must have beeu a fairly strong encampment was established on the higher ground at what is now the north end of the town, an area which commands the two estuaries between which Tauranga stands and at the same time provides an uninterrupted view of the approach from the Pacific, that by the wide channel at the base of high, bare, and solitary Manganui. It was the soldiers, or ex-soldiers, of those days who made the immense number of streets, or avenues, which, some day, are to be lined with buildings and full of busy crowds. From the northern extremity of the borough to its southern is a distance of about three miles, while from east to west the width varies from under half a mile at the north, to. probably, two miles at the south. These distances are only approximate ; we are to-day keeping clear ot figures. With the exception of the two roads which provide entrance and exit by land, all the streets are laid out in straight lines, all are about a hundred feet" wide, all are grass-covered, and the majority are lined with oaks, elms, and other umbrageous trees. That is what the writer terms the garden city proper. But even the most placid, sylvan retreat must have its business part, and TaurangJ. has its own active, often crowded, place for buying and selling, its public halls—in short, all the manifold tstablishments for the provision of what Lave been termed " the elements of cm lisation."

The Strand is the principal business street, and for many years to it the shops, stores, and hotels were almost entirely confined. But now what architects would term palatial establishments are to be found in its neighbourhood and are rapidly extending southwards up Davenport Road and along Cameron Road. The Strand has the harbour and wharves on one side, and, on the other, a line of compact blocks of buildings. Viewed from the harbour, say from an incoming steamer, the place presents a somewhat Eastern appearance. Most of the buildings are of wood, and are painted .in various tints of whites and yellows, so that, though the styles of architecture be_ many and difficult to define, the Tauranga Strand is not without an air of uniformity arid* let it be added, of solidity, as of. prosperity- It is an agreeable area this, the business portion of the town. But it is only an adjunct to the garden city, an indispensable adjunct, of course, all will willingly and cheerfully admit. It belongs to the early days, and it requires to be thinned out, to be rendered less crowded, before it can be included within the area of the garden city proper. Even that change will come in time when population spreads more thickly to the serene south, where the orchards, the high hawthorn Hedges, and quiet homesteads are, set amid trees and. flowers and bees and all things lovely and delectable. From the Strand and its surrounding streets the ground rises rapidly, and it is on this plateau-like region that the visitor will find the garden city. Aloft is the big domain, with its lawn tennis courts, croquet and bowling greens, and divisions for football and cricket. There are also certain public reserves practically open to the public, and the old redoubt, with its moat, earthworks, and antique ordnance. Everywhere are the cottage and villa residences, everyone within its garden, amidst flowers and greenery, Some stand out on smooth green lawns; others are half concealed by masses of blossom-bearing trees . The beautiful silver-leaf tree flourishes amazingly well in Tauranga, almost as well as it does in the suburbs of Auckland. This tree, or bush, grows on the slopes of Table Mountain in Soath Africa, and the good people of Cape Town hrmly believe that nowhere else in the world will it take root. It is a strange delusion, for the Tauranga silver-trees could give the Table Mountaineers many points and beat them easily, both as regards size of tree and luxuriance of foliage. There are several strikingly beautiful flower gardens and tastefully laid-out grounds. The orchards are not so numerous as they might be; but everywhere are vines, and apple, peach, lemon, and orange trees. Tauranga occupies the whole of one of these miniature peninsulas which here reach out, preen and Umbrageous, into the blue, calm waters of the Pacific Owing to the sweeping curve of the Waimapu channel it is almost entirely surrounded by invigorating, health-giving salt-water. The residents have ever with them the ozone-carrying winds and waves from the great ocean, whese hoars© boom may be heard outside, especially when the breezes freshen and the gale begins to howl. Though the Pacific does at times set its own title at defiance, peace invariably rules supreme. Very quiet and seemingly slow is the inward flow of the tide, almost imperceptibly the immense volume of water spreads over the broad belts of yellow sand. When the tide turns very stately is the outward movement. and the picture it presents is one that will recall to many Tennyson's impressive lines in " Crossing the Bar •

Tnn fll'n' 1 ( a tide j 8 mOVI ,, seems asleep, Too full or sound and foam, When that which drew from out the bound leßß de«p Turns again home. "Sleepy hollow'" may be an epithet applied by some to the town by the' Bay of Plenty. But that matters little. Quiet it may be; sleepy it is not. Critics should remember what Mr. A. C. Benson says in a reomt essay, namly : " I would implore them to believe that a quiet life is not necessarily a dull life, and that, if they will abstain for a little from dependence upon excitement, they will find their lives flooded by a new kind of quality, which heightens perceDtion and increases joy. ' In a sense, unfortunately, soon the taunt of "sleepy hollow" will fail in applicability. Already the whistle of the locomotive can be heard from the neighbourhood of the mount, and, before long, quiet Tauranga will have its railway, railway station, trains, and all the other appurtenances of present-day civilsation. It 18 getting pretty modern as it is. .Nearly a dozen motors and taxis are now plying successfully, ready to convey passengers round the town m something less than no time, or away to the geysers, hot springs, and boiling lakes of Kotorua at the minimum cost and the maximum of u speed- This is the march of progress but there are those who will always look back with pleasure to the quiet pre-taxi, pre-rail«vay days. All the same, Tauranga, let us hope, will always remain what it is to-day, the premier garden city of Auckland province.