Tuatapere when it was as its nickname declared: the Hole in the Bush.
The meaning and origin of the name Tuatapere is unclear.
The name for the town first appears in 1903 when the new post and telegraph office opened in the settlement which had begun as a ferry reserve.
Tuatapere Island, also called Mānuka Island or Ryan’s Island, was the existing name for a tract of land on the western side of the river, north of the domain and separated from it by a channel.
It could be that this name was applied to the town because it was a convenient local Māori placename.
Tuatapere was amongst place names given by Horomona Patu in 1894 to Percy Smith who was the Surveyor General and Secretary for lands and mines.
Smith was also an ethnologist with a keen interest in Māori history and culture.
Southland’s chief surveyor John Hay had written to the Post and Telegraph Department suggesting the name Tuatapere which was in keeping with the policy of giving Māori names to new settlements.
It replaced the usual name of Drummond’s Ferry or flippantly, ‘’The Hole on the Bush’’, for at the time it was a clearing in dense forest.
There is another reference to it as Waiwanganui meaning heavenly water.
Of the various suggested interpretations: Tua tapere is translated as ‘‘pout of the lips’’, perhaps a reference to the unpleasant taste of the water, ‘’a small island’’, a ‘’meeting place’’, a ‘’sacred ceremony’’ or ‘’Land beyond the ridge’’.
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* Shifting sand – a big-time project for Stead St
* When the Puni was a frozen playground
A memorable figure
One of Southland’s more interesting pioneers was Wyald Stark, keeper of the Governor Grey Hotel in Avenal.
Stark was born in Florida, where his mother was probably a slave and his father a plantation owner.
He had been a goldminer in Victoria and arrived in Invercargill in the 1860s.
He was very tall and strong and was noted for his benevolence and courage.
Noted as a ‘’man of colour’’ in his obituary, he must have stood out in the largely white community of Invercargill.
Stark died in 1910 and he is buried in the Waikiwi Cemetery.
One of his sons, Doug, known as ‘Starkie’, is the subject of Robin Hyde’s novels Passport to Hell and Nor the Years Condemn.
Although fiction, the Starkie books are based on his experiences in World War 1 and later, and are regarded as a significant contribution to New Zealand’s social history.
Swimming carnivals
Southland swimming carnivals were much more varied in the past.
The New Year event in the Makarewa River in 1915 included the following events: 50 yards boys’, 40 yards novice, graceful dive, flatty race, 240 yards cup, 50 yards old buffers, 50 yards ladies, spar-boxing on the greasy pole, 300 yards breaststroke, 50 yards backstroke, high dive, long dive, sheep guessing and duck race.
The sheep, incidentally, weighed 133 ½ pounds.
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