Ocean View Parade

At first glance, it would seem that this carriageway is aptly named. Indeed, it is named for the fact that it affords both a great view of the ocean at Ngāmotu and an ability to promenade along its shore.

However, this belies the machinations that took place in 1948 to choose the name. Four alternatives were put before the New Plymouth Borough Council from its works committee on 16 February.

The Historical Society wanted William Bryan Place for fairly obvious reasons.

The Ngāmotu Beach Committee was plumping for Roper Avenue. The town clerk, Mr. F.T. Bellringer, was keen to cement our historic links with Plymouth and call it Barbican Parade, Barbican being the inner harbour at Plymouth, where the founder vessels departed for New Plymouth.

A Mr. A.A. Bennett had put forward Ocean View Parade.

Not to be left out, the mayor, Mr E.R.C. Gilmour, was suggesting it be called The Landing Parade, but that didn't get into the final selection. Neither did any of the alternatives Mr Fred Butler had proposed as president of the Historical Society.

Obviously we know the result, but it is interesting to see that street names by this time were becoming more focused on the local.

Names that located us as a far-flung colony didn't have as much appeal as they once would have.

So who was A.A. Bennett?

He was in fact Alfred Augustus Bennett, a solicitor whose address is given as 1A Ngāmotu Road in the 1949 Electoral Roll. It seems a local voice was beginning to assert itself on the New Plymouth landscape.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.