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27-588: The road followed the route of a Māori track which was not suitable for wheeled vehicles. In the early 1840s "it was usually easier to pile up the timber and burn it" than to transport logs out; at Boxhill in Khandallah the atrocious road condition could require eight or ten bullocks to pull carts through. William Mein Smith and the New Zealand Company cleared bush alongside the track and widened it in 1841, allowing

54-776: A new road to the Halfway from the Anglican Church to Mr Drake's farm; this became Middleton Road. A road up the Ngauranga Gorge from Ngauranga to Johnsonville was opened in 1858; it joined Johnsonville Road at Fraser Avenue. The section of the Old Porirua Road from Khandallah was renamed Fraser Avenue after the Prime Minister Peter Fraser by the Johnsonville Town Board on 6 November 1941. McCoy's Stockade

81-486: A politician); Lieut. L. R. Elliott & Lieut Chas E. Leigh (99th Regt.); Lieut Thos R. McCoy (65th Regt.) and Ensign Fredk. D. Middleton (58th Regt.). The Old Porirua Road above the Ngaio Gorge is now a local road. The lower level Ngaio Gorge Road built in 1902 which is now the main access to Ngaio was upgraded in the 1920s to take motor traffic. The road is now called Cockayne Road, and goes to Box Hill; where it joined

108-473: Is a suburb of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington , in the lower North Island . Situated on the western bank of Wellington Harbour , it lies to the north of the centre of the city. The name comes from the Māori language ngā ūranga , meaning "the landing place (for canoes)". The Ngauranga Railway Station was known as "Ngahauranga" when it opened in 1874. It is lightly populated, and for statistical purposes

135-532: Is divided into Ngauranga East and Ngauranga West by Statistics New Zealand . At the 2001 New Zealand census , Ngauranga West registered a population of zero, while Ngauranga East had a population of 39. This represented an increase of 18.2% or 6 people since the previous census in 1996. The low population is due to Ngauranga's rugged terrain. It includes the Ngauranga Gorge , through which State Highway 1 passes on its route out of Wellington to Porirua and

162-421: Is now Tinakori Hill, Wellington, driving some of the first cattle round the rocky coastline. He was involved in operating a farming venture near Wellington at Terawhiti until 1846. They were among the first half dozen settlers in the valley. There he and Louisa raised their five children. He also carried on surveying and was a local magistrate and politician. He also had close dealings with local Māori, and his image

189-605: Is preserved in one of 13 pou whakairo (carved perimeter posts) that guard the Papawai marae, near Greytown, due to his close association with chief Hamuera Tamahau Mahupuku - so close that the chief adopted the child of one of Captain Mein Smith's descendants. Smith was a member of the General Legislative Council from 1851 until it was replaced by the later Legislative Council on 28 September 1853. He then represented

216-517: The peninsula on foot, visiting whalers and Māori alike. Later he surveyed a number of other parts of the lower North Island , including some townships in Wairarapa ( Featherston and Masterton in particular), the coastline as far north as Castlepoint , and the Taratahi plain. He also spent time in the 1850s seeking a better route through the mountains to Wellington. He left his first home under what

243-609: The 1920s, and Burma Road to Johnsonville (superseding the Fraser Avenue section of the Old Porirua Road) was completed in 1936. Through Johnsonville the road went to the left of St John's Anglican (or Hawtrey) Church and down the "steep pinch" of Bassett Road from the intersection with Clifford Road, and having a grade so steep that it was called "Russell’s Folly". A horse-drawn wagon carrying two muzzle-loading cannon from Fort Paremata to Wellington rolled off "Russell's Folly" into

270-616: The 58th and 99th Regiments under Captain Andrew Russell , assisted by Maori labourers. They were paid 2s (shillings) or 2s 6d per day; or 2s for the chief in charge and 1s for labourers. This employment was "very popular". The road from Jackson's Ferry at the south head of Porirua Harbour to the Hawtrey Church was seven miles and four chains (11.3 km) long and cost little more than £700 per mile. The upgrading opened in December 1847 but

297-461: The Bridle Track which goes down to north of Kaiwharawhara. The section from Box Hill to Johnsonville was built by Government surveyor Thomas Henry Fitzgerald as no road contractors would accept the risk. Civilians used bill hooks, mauls, mattocks, picks and crowbars for the one and a quarter miles (2.0 km) at a cost of £721. Access to Khandallah was improved by construction of Onslow Road in

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324-687: The Company. His name survives today however only indirectly, in Mein Street, Wellington. His other contributions included helping to form the first library, designing the first light at the entrance to the harbour, exploring the route to Porirua and the Kāpiti Coast , and founding the Horticultural Society. Though getting on the wrong side of Colonel Wakefield, the Company's Principal Agent, and being dismissed as Surveyor General from early 1842, when he

351-754: The Porirua Basin. They destroyed bridges, felled trees on the track and posted warning notices. In late 1845 the government reinforced the two companies of soldiers in Wellington with six hundred more troops. A show of force in the Hutt Valley ended with Ngāti Toa given £2000 (in instalments) for the disputed land at Porirua. After the "Maori scare" of 1845-46 Governor Grey had the road from Jackson's Ferry or Fort Elliott in Porirua and The Barracks at Paremata to Wellington upgraded to fifteen feet (4.6 metres) wide by soldiers of

378-639: The Wairarapa electorate on the Wellington Provincial Council from 1858 (when he defeated Charles Borlase ) to 1865. Smith produced water colours and sketches of early Wellington and Wairarapa, many of which are held by Wellington's Alexander Turnbull Library . He died in Greytown in the Wairarapa in 1869 after a lengthy illness, at his and Revan's home "Brierly" at Woodside. Louisa had died there two years earlier. Ngauranga Ngauranga

405-833: The deep mud and fallen trees and the totara flats. A road perfectly smooth and almost level enabled me to proceed as comfortably by moonlight as in broad daylight Stockades were erected along the road in the 1840s: Clifford's Stockade in Johnsonville; Middleton's Stockade near the Half Way in Johnsonville; McCoy's Stockade and Leigh's Stockade in Tawa and Fort Elliott in Porirua. There were also sentry boxes or posts on Mount Misery (Khandallah) "the coldest sentry box in town", and possibly Sentry Hill and Boxhill. They were named after officers in charge: ; Militia Captain Charles Clifford (later

432-543: The sale of sections along it from June. In February 1843 the company widened it to six feet (1.8 metres) and cleared bush to ten feet (3.0 metres) either side. Labourers got 14 shillings a week, and skilled carpenters and bricklayers £4; accommodation was not provided and most used tents. Settlement stopped at The Halfway (now Glenside ) north of Johnsonville because the Ngāti Toa under Te Rauparaha and his nephew Te Rangihaeata questioned Colonel Wakefield ’s land purchases in

459-586: The swamp below, from whence they were retrieved in the 1920s. The cannon stood in Alex Moore Park for years; eventually the New Zealand Army sent one to the Waiouru Army Museum and the other to Trentham Camp. On 20 October 1850 a meeting at The Halfway complained about the steep and dangerous roads up Kaiwarra Hill and "Russell’s Folly" from Johnsonville to The Halfway. Tenders were called in 1854 for

486-701: The west coast. To the east, State Highway 2 runs wedged between hills and Wellington Harbour on its route from Wellington to the Hutt Valley , Wairarapa , and beyond. Alongside State Highway 2 is the Hutt Valley Line portion of the Wairarapa Line railway , which includes a station in Ngauranga served by frequent commuter trains. The North Island Main Trunk railway also passes through Ngauranga, via two tunnels of

513-625: Was a key figure in the settlement of Wellington , New Zealand. As the Surveyor General for Edward Wakefield 's New Zealand Company at Port Nicholson from 1840 to 1843, he and his team surveyed the town of Wellington, after finding the land on the Petone foreshore unsuitable, laying out the town belt and other features and making provision for the much debated "tenth" share of the land for local Māori . Born in 1798 in Cape Town , South Africa , he

540-464: Was at the junction with the Takapu Valley road and Leigh's Stockade was at the junction with Oxford Street in Tawa, at the southern end and about where Mexted's Service Station is. The route of the Old Porirua Road through Tawa is now marked by bronze plaques in the footpath. The original route via Oxford Street was superseded by the present main road through the shopping centre when an obstructing bluff

567-686: Was built, though it was never used by coaches. Started about 1858 and completed in the mid-1860s, workers on the road for six shillings a day included James Bryant and his sons. Previously a road running through what is now Raroa Park and along Elliot Street to a saddle above Johnsonville Park and dropping steeply to Ohariu Valley was proposed. It was the first road registered (Class I) by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust . William Mein Smith William Mein Smith (also known as Kapene Mete ; 1798 – 3 January 1869)

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594-564: Was not completed until the end of 1848, well after any hostilities. Tyrone Power an Army officer said that in 1846 the road was a forest path, so bad and unpractical that all supplies had to be sent around by sea (to the Army at Porirua) but he wrote in 1847 that The road that used to be so bad and dangerous is now nearly a pleasant ride, and in the course of a month will be open all the way through for carriages and carts . Bishop Selwyn wrote in 1848: What an agreeable change from former journeys through

621-741: Was raised in Devon and the Scottish Borders , serving in the Royal Artillery from 1814 in Ireland and then Canada . There he met his wife, Louisa Bargrave Wallace, who was born in Canada in 1802 as the first child of then First Lieutenant, later General, Peter Margetson Wallace of the Royal Artillery and his partner, later wife, Louisa Turmaine. They married at Kingston, Ontario in 1828 and his next posting

648-570: Was removed. Tawa was called "Tawa Flat" until 1959. Fort Elliott at Porirua was originally on the flat near the Porirua Stream estuary where the Porirua railway station is now, but was moved to a bluff over the road after flooding in 1846, The garrison comprised 2 officers and 60 men in October 1846. The Old Coach Road was the main road from Johnsonville to Ohariu Valley until 1908 when Ironside Road

675-815: Was replaced without warning by Samuel Charles Brees , he was commissioned to sail down the East Coast of the South Island in September 1842 was directed to map the harbours on the South Island's east coast to help locate another site for settlement by the New Zealand Company. He was thus an early visitor to what is now Christchurch , Akaroa , Port Chalmers and Bluff . He still had the opportunity to visit and name Quail Island in Lyttelton Harbour , after crossing

702-475: Was the residence of William Mein Smith while he lived in Wellington. He was instrumental in the Wellington colony's early administration, the setting out of the town (including reservation of one tenth for Māori owners), and country acres, and later oversaw work in the Manawatū and Wanganui . He was gazetted as a magistrate. He also served on the short-lived (and controversial) Wellington Town Council established by

729-647: Was to Gibraltar , including being part of a diplomatic visit to Marrakech in 1829–30, followed by appointment to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich where he taught as Master of Line Drawing, before being approached to assist Wakefield's New Zealand Company in 1839. He and his team of surveyors sailed to New Zealand on the New Zealand Company barque Cuba , arriving on 3 January 1840 in the harbour of Port Nicholson ( Te Whanganui-a-Tara ). His wife and older children arrived two months later. Town Acre 646, between Tinakori & Grant Roads, later 125 Grant Road,

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