Whanganui

Whanganui, also spelt Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whanganui is the 19th most-populous urban area in New Zealand and the second-most-populous in Manawatū-Whanganui, with a population of as of .

Toponymy

The first name of the settlement was Petre (pronounced Peter), named after Lord Petre, an officer of the New Zealand Company, but it was never popular and was officially dropped in 1854. Whanga nui is a Māori language phrase meaning "big bay" or "big harbour".

Controversy over Wanganui/Whanganui spelling

In the local dialect, Māori pronounce the wh in Whanganui as , a voiced labial–velar approximant combined with a glottal stop, but to non-locals the name sounds like "Wanganui" and is hard to reproduce.

In 1991, the New Zealand Geographic Board considered demands from some local Māori to change the name of the river to Whanganui. The Wanganui District Council opposed the change. Letters of both support and opposition were received during this time. After some deliberation, the Board decided to change the spelling of the river's name from Wanganui to Whanganui.

A non-binding referendum was held in Wanganui in 2006, where 82% voted to retain the city's name Wanganui without an 'h'. Turnout was 55.4%. Despite the clear results, the spelling of the name continued to be surrounded by controversy.

Iwi group Te Rūnanga o Tupoho applied to the New Zealand Geographic Board to change the city's name to Whanganui in February 2009, and in late March the Board found there were grounds for the change. Public submissions on the proposal were relatively equal, with a slim majority in favour of keeping the status quo. Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws spoke strongly against the proposed change. Voter turnout was 61%, the highest in a Wanganui referendum, reflecting the widespread controversy. Despite the referendum results, the Geographic Board recommended to the Minister that the name should be spelt Whanganui. with Wanganui being acceptable as an alternative official name.

On 17 November 2015 Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) announced that Wanganui District would be renamed to Whanganui District. In September 2019, the region that Whanganui District Council is part of was renamed from Manawatu-Wanganui to Manawatū-Whanganui.

History

Māori settlement

left|thumb|Pūtiki pā on the [[Whanganui River in 1850]]

The area around the mouth of the Whanganui river was a major site of pre-European Māori settlement. The pā named Pūtiki (a contraction of Pūtikiwharanui) was and is home to the Ngāti Tupoho hapū of the iwi Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi. It took its name from the legendary explorer Tamatea Pōkai Whenua, who sent a servant ashore to find flax for tying up his topknot (pūtiki).

In the 1820s, coastal tribes in the area assaulted the Kapiti Island stronghold of Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha. Te Rauparaha retaliated in 1830, sacking Pūtiki and slaughtering the inhabitants.

European settlement

The first European traders arrived in 1831, followed in 1840 by missionaries Octavius Hadfield and Henry Williams who collected signatures for the Treaty of Waitangi. The Revd Richard Taylor joined the CMS mission station in 1843. The Revd Mason drowned on 5 January 1843 while crossing the Turakina River. By 1844 the brick church built by Mason was inadequate to meet the needs of the congregation, and it had been damaged in an earthquake. A new church was built under the supervision of Taylor, with the timber supplied by each pā on the river in proportion to its size and number of Christians.

thumb|[[Te Mamaku|Hēmi Tōpine Te Mamaku (c. 1790 – 1887), a Māori chief in the Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi iwi.]]

After the New Zealand Company had settled Wellington it looked for other suitable places for settlers. William Wakefield, younger brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, negotiated the sale of 40,000 acres in 1840, and a town named Petre – after Lord Petre, one of the directors of the New Zealand Company – was established four kilometres from the river mouth. By 1850, Te Mamaku was receiving Christian instruction from Revd Taylor.

thumb|left|View of Whanganui, New Zealand, 1847, [[John Alexander Gilfillan, watercolour]]

The name of the city was officially changed to Wanganui on 20 January 1854. The early years of the new city were problematic. Purchase of land from the local tribes had been haphazard and irregular, and as such, many Māori were angered by 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).

alt=|thumb|The Watt Fountain in Victoria Avenue. The former Post Office building is in the background.

Wanganui grew rapidly after this time, with land being cleared for pasture. The town was a major military centre during the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s, although local Māori at Pūtiki led by Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui remained friendly to settlers. In 1871, a town bridge was built, followed six years later by a railway bridge at Aramoho.

20th century

In 1920, the mayor, Charles Mackay, shot and wounded a young poet, Walter D'Arcy Cresswell, who had been blackmailing him over his homosexuality. Mackay served seven years in prison and his name was erased from the town's civic monuments, while Cresswell, despite also being homosexual, was praised as a "wholesome-minded young man". Mackay's name was restored to the foundation stone of the Sarjeant Gallery in 1985.

The Whanganui River catchment is seen as a sacred area to Māori, and the Whanganui 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.

On 18 November 1982, a suicide bomber attacked the facility housing the National Law Enforcement System. The attacker, a "punk rock" anarchist named Neil Roberts, was the only person killed, and the computer system was undamaged.

Geography

Whanganui is on the South Taranaki Bight, close to the mouth of the Whanganui River. It is north of Wellington and northwest of Palmerston North, at the junction of State Highways 3 and 4. Most of the city lies on the river's northwestern bank, because of the greater extent of flat land. The river is crossed by five bridges: Cobham Bridge, City Bridge, Dublin Street Bridge, Aramoho Railway Bridge (rail and pedestrians only), and a cycle bridge at Upokongaro which was opened in 2020.

Both Mount Ruapehu and Mount Taranaki can be seen from Durie Hill and other vantage points around the city.

Suburbs and localities

The suburbs within Whanganui include (clockwise from central Watt Fountain):

• Northeast: Whanganui East, Bastia Hill, Aramoho
• East: Durie Hill
• South: Pūtiki
• West: Gonville, Castlecliff, Tawhero
• Northwest: Springvale St Johns Hill, Otamatea

Climate

Whanganui enjoys a temperate climate, with slightly above the national average sunshine (2100 hours per annum), and about of annual rainfall. Several light frosts are normally experienced in winter. The river is prone to flooding after heavy rain in the catchment, and in June 2015 record flooding occurred with 100 households evacuated. Whanganui's climate is particularly moderate. In 2012, the Federated Farmers Whanganui president, Brian Doughty, said the district's temperate climate meant any type of farming was viable.

Demographics

Stats New Zealand describes Whanganui as a large urban area which covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km².