Sunday 9 March 2014

TINAKORI ROAD HISTORY


TINAKORI ROAD was once a grand thoroughfare, home to some of New Zealand's most distinguished politicians, writers, poets and artists.

Surprisingly, the street is not named after an affluent colonist. Instead, its name derives from a dispute between Maori road workers and their employers. It is said a quarrel began when labourers were not given a free meal as part of their pay for completing the road, even though it was customary for employers to do so. The street subsequently acquired the name Tinakori Rd, a mixture of Maori and Pidgin English, which loosely translates to "no dinner road". 

Te Ahumairangi Hill (formerly known as Tinakori Hill) is a hill running for 38 hectares through the Town Belt of Wellignton.. It was renamed Te Ahumairangi Hill as part of the Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o te Ika) Claims Settlement Act 2009

Originally, the whole ridgeline was called Te Ahumairangi. During early European settlement, a road was built along the base of the ridge, and according to tradition, the Māori labourers had to work through their meal breaks. In Maori, tina is a transliteration of "dinner" and kahore means "none". The complaint became the name of both the road and the hill, and was Anglicised to Tinakore and eventually Tinakori.

NZ Politician Charles Wilson was appointed in 1901 as first chief librarian of the parliamentary library, Wilson took measures to fireproof the library as the "tinder dry" Parliamentary Buildings were next door.  On 11 December 1907 Parliament Building burned down,  the library collection survived the fire.  Wilson was friends with banker Harold Beauchamp and for this reason, Beauchamp's daughter Kathleen (also known as author Katherine Mansfield) was allowed to use the parliamentary library   Mansfield was born at 25 Tinakori Rd now one of the most visited sites in Wellington. 

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