description
is an urban area and district on
the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
Like several New Zealand centres, it was officially
designated a city until administrative reorganisation in
1989, and is now run by a District Council. Despite
this, it is still regarded as a city by most New
Zealanders.
Wanganui is located on the South Taranaki Bight, close
to the mouth of the Whanganui River. It is 200
kilometres north of Wellington and 75 kilometres
northwest of Palmerston North, at the junction of State
Highways 3 and 4. Most of the town lies on the river's
northwestern bank, although some suburbs are located on
the opposite side of the river.
It enjoys a temperate climate, with slightly above the
national average sunshine (2100 hours per annum), and
about 900 mm of annual rainfall. Frosts in winter are
uncommon, but not rare.
It is administered by Wanganui District Council. The
current mayor is Michael Laws.
The Watt Fountain in Victoria Avenue, the old Post
Office building is in the background
Victoria Avenue, Wanganui's main street.
History
The area around the mouth of the Whanganui was a major
site of pre-European Māori settlement. When the city of
Wellington was established it became an important centre
for trade. With the increased number of British settlers
arriving in the country, it became a logical site for
the establishment of a new town.
The early years of the new town were problematic.
Purchase of land from the local tribes had been
haphazard and irregular, and as such many Māori were
angered with the influx of Pākehā onto land that they
still claimed. It was not until the town had been
established for eight years that agreements were finally
reached between the colonials and local tribes, and some
resentment continued (and still filters through to the
present day).
Wanganui grew rapidly after this time, with land being
cleared for pasture. The town was a major military
centre during the Land Wars of the 1860s, although local
Māori at Putiki Pā remained friendly to the town's
settlers.
Perhaps the city's biggest scandal happened in 1920,
when the Mayor, Charles Mackay, shot and wounded a young
poet, D'Arcy Cresswell, who had been blackmailing him
over his homosexuality. Mackay served seven years in
prison and his name was effaced from the city, while
Cresswell (himself homosexual) was praised as a
"wholesome-minded young man".
It has also been suggested that during the 1970s
Wanganui gained a reputation as the 'swingers capital of
New Zealand'. Although difficult to substantiate it was
local myth that if you were interested in swapping your
spouse for the evening then playing squash was the
activity for you.
The Whanganui River catchment is seen as a sacred area
to Māori, and the Wanganui region is still seen as a
focal point for any resentment over land ownership. In
1995, Moutoa Gardens in Wanganui, known to local Māori
as Pakaitore, were occupied for 79 days in a mainly
peaceful protest by the Whanganui iwi over land claims.
Wanganui was the site of the New Zealand Police Law
Enforcement System (LES) from 1976 to 1995. An early
Sperry mainframe computer based intelligence and data
management system, it was known colloquially as the "Wanganui
Computer". The data centre housing the LES was subject
to New Zealand's highest profile suicide bombing in 1982
when anarchist Neil Roberts detonated a gelignite bomb
in the entry foyer. Roberts was the only casualty of the
bombing.
The name
whāngā nui means big bay or big harbour.
The first name of the European settlement was Petre,
after Lord Petre, an important officer of the New
Zealand Company. It was changed to Wanganui in 1852.
Wanganui or Whanganui?
In the local accent, Māori say wh as w followed by a
glottal stop, and the name as something like "W'anganui",
hard to reproduce by non-locals. Until recently it was
generally written as "Wanganui" and pronounced with a w
by non-speakers of Māori and a wh by those Māori
speakers from other areas who knew its derivation.
Following an article about the river by David Young in
the New Zealand Geographic magazine that used "Whanganui"
throughout, in accord with the wishes of the local iwi,
the spelling of the river's name reverted to Whanganui
in 1991. The region's name is now sometimes also spelt "Whanganui",
but the city has kept the spelling "Wanganui".
As a result, many people from outside the area now take
pains to pronounce the river and the region as "Whanganui"
and the city as "Wanganui", though the variant spellings
do not reflect any difference in the underlying name.
A non-binding referendum was held in 2006, where 82%
voted for Wanganui without an 'h'. Turnout was 55.4% |
