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The Papa Tākaro o Jim Belich | Jim Belich Playground is a welcome addition to our community. It is directly cross from Wakefield Park at the entrance to Island Bay.
It was formally named in late 2019 for a previous Mayor of Wellington Sir James Belich some of whose grandchildren grew up in Island Bay. His daughter Angela is still a resident and until recently a granddaughter and great granddaughters were also residents. His mayoralty was noted for his advocacy of stopping the constant and deliberate flow of sewage into our southern bays. He was also a children’s advocate as a long-serving chair of UNICEF and chair of the International Year of the Child. The Council and his family agreed that a playground was a very fitting way to remember him. He died in 2015.
Sir Jim Belich speaking at a mayoral eventPhoto via The Dominion Post
A big turnout of Belich family members were at the opening by the Mayor Andy Foster including Lady (Valerie) Belich, his daughters Angela (of Eden St), Evana and Jamie (historian Professor James Belich, who spoke to the Society last year).
MP Paul Eagle, former Mayors Justin Lester and Celia Wade-Brown and Councillors Fleur Fitzsimmons and Laurie Foon were also there along with Ngāi Tara kaumatua Ray Ahipene-Mercer who worked with Sir James on the Clean Water campaign.
Jim Belich’s great grand-daughters, Edith and Honor, recent Derwent St residents, unveiled the sign:
The playground is not far from where the Island Bay Presbyterian Church has opened its grounds to people looking for a place to pray or play, developing a small garden on the southern side of the church.
It’s named the Nordmeyer Garden in memory of church members Frances and Arnold Nordmeyer. Sir Arnold Nordmeyer was a member of the first Labour Government and later the long-serving MP for this area. He was a Presbyterian minister, serving for 10 years in Kurow, North Otago before his political career.
Arnold Nordmeyer was the chair of the 1935 government’s caucus committee that ‘recommended a scheme for a means-tested pension of 30 shillings per week at 60 years of age (more generous than first contemplated) and, at 65, universal superannuation with no means test, beginning at £10 per year (a Nordmeyer suggestion). It also provided for universal medical benefits including hospital treatment, maternity benefits and general practitioner consultations, all to be financed from taxation. At Nordmeyer’s suggestion, the two schemes – health and pensions – were combined in one measure. The recommendations were incorporated in the Social Security Act 1938, which became one of the main issues in that year’s election campaign’.
Nordmeyer Garden at Island Bay Presbyterian Church
Arnold Nordmeyer, and Mrs Nordmeyer, at his investiture as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) 1970 Wellington. ATL Dominion Post EP/1970/4292/13a-F
As Minister of Health he introduced benefits for hospital outpatients, pharmaceutical prescriptions, X-ray diagnosis and dental treatment.
As Minister of Finance he took the blame for the so-called ‘black budget’ in 1958, introducing increased taxes on ‘luxuries’ like alcohol and tobacco. He became the first New Zealand-born leader of the Labour Party in 1965 and held the position until Norman Kirk took over in 1967. He was the second leader of the Labour Party to make his home in Island Bay; earlier the first Labour leader, Alfred Hindmarsh, had lived in Derwent St. And former leader Andrew Little lives here still. Nordmeyer’s successor as Labour leader, Norman Kirk, died at the Home of Compassion in 1975.
He was knighted in 1975 and in 1987 became a foundation member of the highest-ranked New Zealand honor, the Order of New Zealand. He died in 1989. Lady Nordmeyer died in 2006. She was born Frances Maria Kernahan. They married in 1931 in Oamaru on 28 October 1931. In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lady Nordmeyer was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for community service. The couple had two children, Alan and Alison. Alison married Labour MP for Napier and one-time Island Bay resident Jim Edwards.
Sir Arnold Nordmeyer’s contribution to New Zealand is documented in Mary Logan’s book Nordy - Arnold Nordmeyer: A Political Biography. Mary Logan was an Island Bay resident, a neighbour of the Nordmeyers and a member of the Historical Society.
Elsewhere in this edition of Southern Bays it is mentioned that Francis de Sales, the eponymous saint of our local Catholic church and school, is also the patron saint of journalists. Some considered Sir Arnold to have filled a similar role as the architect, as an independent arbitrator, of ‘Nordmeyer relativity’ which linked newspaper journalists’ pay movements to those of the metal trades award. Broadcasting journalists in turn linked to their newspaper comrades. Like many other journalists of his generation the author has reason to be thankful!
The Nordmeyer Garden and Te Papa Tākaro o Jim Belich join Shorland and Wakefield parks as places with commemorative names in our area.
According to City Council records Shorland Park was named posthumously after John Olive Shorland JP who had been an active member of the Island Bay community.
From 1917 to 1921 he had been a Wellington City Councillor, and he later served as Deputy Chairman of the Island Bay Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Committee, involved in the development of the War Memorial Band Rotunda. After retiring, he built playground equipment in the park.
In November 1950 the Island Bay Progressive Association proposed the name ‘Shorland Park’, and in October 1951 the Council agreed. John Shorland was a bicycle retailer and once held the title of New Zealand long-distance cycling champion.
He is shown (left) in Cycling Magazine 1897, which said he had covered the 231 miles from Christchurch to Dunedin in 22 hours and 13 minutes.
Wakefield Park on Island Bay’s northern border with Berhampore was first called ‘The Duppa Street Park, for the street at its northern end. The street is named for George Duppa, an early New Zealand Company settler and artist who later returned with his fortune to England.
He was described by one biographer as a man with a “self-confident, crudely selfish, unscrupulous, and at times parsimonious manner [which] finally led to the material success he sought; but it never endeared him to his fellow colonists”.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
At a time when there was controversy over a proposal to change the name of Newtown Park to Wakefield Park it was decided in 1912 to give the Wakefield name to the Duppa Street Park, presumably reflecting an enduring lack of affection for Mr Duppa. (photo right). Cr Albert Hindmarsh, resident of Derwent St and others opposed the Wakefield name proposing instead ‘Island Bay Park’ but they were defeated. Edward Gibbon Wakefield (Left) was the theoretician behind the New Zealand Company Settlement of New Zealand, ideas he developed while in prison for abducting and marrying a teenage heiress.
Mr Duppa
Nelson Museum/22332
Nelson Museum/22332
Photo via: Stuart center (USC)
The other places in our area named for people are Houghton Bay and places named for religious figures: the churches St Hilda’s, St Sava’s, Erskine Chapel (and formerly College), St Francis de Sales church and school and the Suzanne Aubert Heritage Centre at the Home of Compassion.
Houghton Bay, on Wellington’s south coast, was named after Captain Robert Houghton, a master mariner and the first signal man at the signal station on Mount Albert. He died in 1846, seven years after his arrival on the ship Aurora. His name is misspelt as ‘Haughton’ and even ‘Hawtrey’ in some documents and publications – and on the Island Bay Band rotunda!
Erskine College was named for Janet Erskine Stuart who became Superior of Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1900.
She visited every community in the Society throughout the world and came to Island Bay in 1914 shortly before her death.
The name ‘Erskine’ was applied to the College formerly known as ‘Sacred Heart’ to distinguish it from the college of the same name established in Lower Hutt.
The Church of St Sava on The Parade is named for St Sava (1174-1236) was the first archbishop of Serbia.
He was born a prince and became a monk.
He is credited with the establishment of Serbian law and the initiation of Serbian literature.
The church itself was the original Roman Catholic church in Island Bay, and its hall was the original Catholic School, then on the grounds of Erskine. The Church celebrated 50 years of Serbian Orthodox use in 2019. It is the oldest Church in the Southern Bays, built in 1906.
The Suzanne Aubert Heritage Centre at the Home of Compassion is named for The Venerable Suzanne Aubert. The public are welcome.
She was the founder of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion and Island Bay’s most famous resident. She is widely expected to become New Zealand’s first saint.
She is the subject of a major autobiography by Jessie Munro who as also published an extensive collection of Suzanne Aubert’s correspondence. An extract is on page 45.
St Francis de Sales church and school are named for Francis de Sales (1567–1622), a Bishop of Geneva.
He is the patron Saint, named by the Pope in 1923, of journalists and writers.
A large number of his pithy aphorisms are still quoted today:
“Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.”
“Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue.”
The Church of Saint Hilda was named for the famous and powerful Abbess Hilda of Whitby (614-680), apparently because of the likeness seen by early parishioners between Island Bay and Whitby. (England, not Porirua!)
The image on the left is a representation of St Hilda at Whitby.
Whitby was home to the mariner Captain James Cook for whom Te Moana o Raukawa was named following his sail-by visit to the waters off Island Bay in 1769.
She is known by the writings of the Venerable Bede, the first great historian of the English, and venerated as a patron saint of historians and those charged with historical preservation, education and scholarship.
Few Māori placenames in our area are those of people.
Despite records of his visit, no places been directly named for the explorer Kupe are known. There are many such places around Te Whanganui a Tara, Wellington harbour. Pariwhero, Red Rocks, are said to owe their colouring to an injury Kupe received or to the blood of his daughters who ritually cut themselves in the belief Kupe had died.
Author Leslie Adkin gives Te Ranga-a-Hiwi as the name for the ridge extending from Point Jerningham all the way to the coast at Island Bay. He says it was named for Hiwi, a son of Hinekiri, a chieftainess of Ngati-Hinewai of Te Akatarewa.
The mouth of the Ōwhiro stream is called Te Hapua-o-Rongomai (The pool of Rongomai). Rongomai is an Atua (sometimes translated loosely as ‘god’ associated with meteors.
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