Harkness Rice Way (Ōakura)

Harkness Rice Way leads to a small subdivision off Plymouth Road in Ōakura. It is named in honour of Private Harkness Henry Rice who was killed in action on 12 October 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Harkness Rice was born in Ōamaru on 2 June 1879, the son of John and Emily Rice. At the time of his enlistment with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1916 he was working as a clerk for the Customs Department in Dunedin.

According to his war record held at Archives New Zealand he left New Zealand as part of the Otago Regiment in February 1917, arriving in England in early May. Only five months later he was one of over 800 New Zealand soldiers killed in the attack on Bellevue Spur, described as probably the darkest day in New Zealand’s history.

When it came time to name this right-of-way in Ōakura in 2017, it was decided to mark the centenary of this battle by naming it after someone with a connection to the local area. While Harkness had not actually lived in Taranaki, his father, John Henry Rice had moved to Taranaki in the early 1900s. He was a teacher, working first in Whangamonona and then Stratford, before retiring to live in Ōakura.

As part of the process to name the roadway after Harkness Rice, it was necessary to obtain approval from his closest living relative. As he was unmarried and an only child, it proved a difficult task. Eventually a great-nephew was found living in Auckland. He was contacted and quickly gave his blessing to the choice, adding that his mother was born in Taranaki and she also would have been very pleased with the decision.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.