The New Plymouth Borough Council issued a building permit to the Ngāmotu Foreshore Improvement Society for a 'pavilion' on 18 November 1916 with the estimated cost put at £1,750. The Taranaki Herald had earlier (3 November) reported that a tender for the construction had been accepted from Boon Bros.
The Ngāmotu Palladium tea rooms were opened on 1 January 1917. Snacks and cold drinks were sold and bath-house facilities were available for the price of three pence for adults and one penny for children. Season tickets cost five shillings. The building hosted numerous dances and birthday parties over the decades until it was demolished in 1969.
The site is now home to the New Plymouth Yacht Club, whose clubrooms were moved from further west along the beach after their original building was destroyed by a tornado in March 1957.
Related items:
Taranaki SO7292 Sheet 1 (1933), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)
Taranaki DP8434 Sheet 1 (1958), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)
Open from Boxing Day (Taranaki Herald 23 December 1916)
Fun on the Sands: The seaside picnics (Taranaki Herald 2 January 1917)
First ocean liner berths at the Breakwater (Taranaki Herald 21 March 1917)
Ngamotu Palladium: A successful concert (Taranaki Herald 27 December 1918)
Ngāmotu Beach, New Year's Day 1939, Teeds &Co. (Puke Ariki collection PHO2014-0373)
Place of happy memories to close (Daily News 28 July 1966)
The golden days of Ngāmotu Beach (Taranaki Herald 25 January 1969)
Dredgings helped make Ngāmotu Beach (Taranaki Herald 1 February 1969)
End of Ngamotu era (Taranaki Herald 30 June 1969)
Then and now Ngāmotu Beach 75 years apart (Taranaki Daily News 31 May 2014)
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