Eltham Road

Most early settlers in Taranaki considered that the best roads possible were necessary for encouraging economic growth. Along the Eltham Road, some thought there were other factors just as important.

Settlers in the vicinity couldn’t deny they were fortunate. Surveyors, confident Eltham Road would be the major road serving the Waimate Plains, asked for it to be cleared to a width of two chains, double the usual amount. The favoured status of the road was made clear in a Survey Department report in the mid-1880s, when it was noted that in the three years previously, more money had been spent on Eltham Road than any other road in Taranaki.

There were good reasons for this. Eltham Road was relatively straight and crossed flat land, cutting through the heart of bush country. Thought to be prime pastoral land, early settlers were in a rush to buy and begin clearing the bush. When a port at Opunake was proposed, it became the most direct route to the town of Eltham and eastern Taranaki beyond.  By 1894 the road was metalled.

However, that same year, a newspaper correspondent argued persuasively that in fact the most significant limit on economic output in the area was too many bachelors.

Estimating there were sixty or seventy in the Eltham Road area, he said only one or two of them were dairy farmers. With the financial returns from dairying twice that of dry stock, the region was losing many thousands of pounds income. If the bachelors were married, he said, they would instead earn their living off the land by dairying.

It’s not known what he thought of a plan in the early 1900s to build an electric tramway between Eltham and Opunake, along the Eltham Road. In 1907 a Wellington engineer was asked to produce a report and estimate costs. He predicted a profit.

Would the tramway have helped encourage more, young, single, women to travel into the area? Locals never found out. Although discussions on the scheme continued into the following year, they eventually ended, ironically, in arguments over who should pay for what in the report.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.