Community Development is about working together to improve the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of communities through processes that encourage people’s involvement in local decision-making and action.

The Council wishes to work more closely with its communities to identify their needs and concerns and work in partnership to support community initiatives and projects. This is a long-term commitment by the Council. The first stage is the preparation of a Community Development Plan, which provides a profile of the Coast and its surrounding rural communities as they are today. This profile will identify issues affecting these communities, and put forward a series of projects and actions designed to address these issues.

How we did it…

The Opunake and Coast Community Development Planning Process

Planning commenced in April 2002 when a series of public workshops were held in Opunake, Pihama, Rahotu, Te Kiri and Warea. These workshops identified a wide range of issues and opportunities, which, if addressed or developed would enhance the well-being of the Coast community.

The South Taranaki District Council began surveying various groups and organisations on the Coast. We asked schools, health professionals, emergency services and community groups about the services they provided and issues affecting our community.

In conjunction with the Opunake Business Association we surveyed coastal businesses to identify issues of concern and what the business community believed should be done to assist economic growth on the Coast.

Public workshops were held in December 2002 to discuss social issues affecting our lives on the coast and the provision of community facilities.

The suggestions made during this consultation period were developed into projects and included in the Plan and in August 2003 the Draft Community Development Plan was released for public consultation. On the 28 August 2003 a public workshop was held where residents were invited to prioritise these projects.

From the identified projects and the priority they were given, we were able to identify Community Outcomes, which will achieve our goal of improving the Social, Economic, Environmental and Cultural well-being of the Opunake and Coast Community.

How the Council Will Use Your Community Development Plan

The Community Development Plans will assist the Council with long-term planning. We will be able to plan and budget to complete projects which have been identified for action by the Council or which will be undertaken independently but will require some Council funding. Projects that emerge as having district-wide impact will be included in the Council’s Long Term Community Plan.

These outcomes will now provide a guide to assist the Council to establish priorities and policy, and identify areas where the Council should develop partnerships with neighbouring Councils, Central Government and other agencies to ensure the needs of the Opunake and Coast Community are met.

Monitoring Our Progress

The projects identified in this plan reflect the community outcomes and while not all of the projects will be completed with council involvement, they will provide a basis for the community to monitor the council’s progress towards meeting your needs.

Where to from here…

Projects will be developed in more detail, funding sources will be identified, and responsibility for individual projects will be agreed.

Projects have been allocated to year 1, 2 or 3 depending on the priority rating allocated by the workshop participants. Completion dates are dependent on available funding, community support, and the resolution of any issues raised during development and consultation.

Some projects may be completed by Council, some by Council in partnership with the community and others may be undertaken by community groups with little or no Council involvement.

The Community Development Plan is designed to be a working document. It will be reviewed annually as projects are completed, and new issues and projects, which are in line with the Community Outcomes may be added, and priorities reviewed at this time.

Explanation of Plan Layout

Topic Heading - Who We Are

A snapshot of the Coast today and how the needs of the community are currently met. This section was compiled prior to the workshops, with some additions and changes as further information was provided by residents and new statistical data became available.

What you thought…

A summary of the communities views and comments compiled during the consultation period. Information has been gathered through workshops, surveys or with groups or individuals directly involved with the areas being discussed.

Projects

6. A list of relevant projects identified by the community during the workshops.

Please note that many of these projects are still in the planning stages and will not commence until consultation with the community and any affected parties has been completed.

Each project has a code, which relates to the project summary included at the back of the plan.

Community Outcomes

The Outcomes reflect the key issues and projects identified throughout the Plan.

These are recorded at the end of the following sections:

Our Community and Culture

Caring for our Community

Our Environment

Our Economy

The Outcomes are summarised on Page 91.

OUR PLACE

Our History

The canoe Okoki, along with two others, landed at Nga motu (New Plymouth) some 200 years before Kupe arrived in Aotearoa. This early arrival date seems to be able to be confirmed by the discovery of moa hunter remains that could be as old as 1,000 years at Umuroa near Opua Road, Opunake.

Around the year 1350AD, some 600 years after Taitawaru’s landing, the canoe, Kurahaupo, was nearly wrecked at the Kermadecs. Most of the crew were later brought on to Aotearoa by the larger Aotea canoe, which belonged to Ngāti Ruanui but a few men remained to repair Kurahaupo and complete the journey. During a storm, the navigator, Pi, sighted the shore and an attempt was made to land. Its commander, Po, and his people landed at Waitangi after Kurahaupo became wrecked on the rocks. Later Kurahaupo was repaired and came south to Taranaki.

When the Europeans arrived in Aotearoa, the iwi of Taranaki had occupied its coast for a millennium or more, clearing land closest to the coast for cultivation and leaving the interior bush largely intact. For some decades before European contact, there had been intermittent war with iwi from north Auckland and Waikato. The European supply of muskets to the north during the 1820s and 30s upset the balance of power between these tribes, making inter-tribal wars almost annual events and leading to a southern migration in search of guns and goods. In spite of this imbalance in firepower, the Taranaki tribes fought and defeated the invading Waikato warriors who were well equipped with muskets in 1833, at Te Namu Pa. Wiremu Kingi had the one and only Taranaki musket and accounted for nearly a quarter of all Waikato casualties. From this he earned the name Matakatea or “clear eyed” and later became a major negotiator in land deals between Māori and the settlers.

Tension was evident in Taranaki from the arrival of the first settlers in 1841. Māori, angered by settler occupations beyond New Plymouth, disrupted surveys and relocated settlers closer to New Plymouth. Although Māori were in the majority and well supplied with newly acquired arms from the Cook Strait, they did not resort to violence, seeing the new settlers as valuable for trade.

Settler demand for coastal land and Māori resistance to its sale led to the government devising some ‘irregular’ methods of acquiring the land it saw as necessary for settlement. The Land Claims Commission took the view that those who were absent from their land had abandoned all right to it, even though, in Māori law, every part of the country was spoken for, whether occupied or not. The commission also considered that those who were taken captive had lost their land rights through conquest. The government also sought to acquire land through purchase but avoided public tribal hui and instead negotiated with only some members of hapū. Advance payments, secret payments and instalments and sealed sale arrangements that few were aware of. These tactics served to sour relations between Māori, the government and the settlers and in 1854, a hui was held in the great house of Taiporehenui, at Manawapou. Here hapū from central and south Taranaki gathered and resolved to not sell any more land between Okurukuru and Kai Iwi.

After 19 years of tension, the Taranaki Wars began, sparked by the Crown’s attempted acquisition of the Pekapeka block at Waitara. Relations in the south, with the purchase of the Waitotara block, were also at breaking point. The first war began when the Governor’s troops attacked Te Kohia Pa, at Waitara. Māori reprisals were felt in the area south of New Plymouth and settlers moved into the town to take refuge. Just as Māori attacked settlers and burned their homes, the military attacked Māori villages and productive farms, leaving defended pa untouched. The bombardment of Warea village and the destruction of its stores, stock and crops was a case in point. Warring in the north ceased after a peace was negotiated and although not party to the peace terms, the hapū of central Taranaki abided by its terms.

In 1862, the General Assembly passed the Native Lands Act, abolishing the tradition of communal tenure and allowing land to be sold without tribal consent and control. It was also during this negotiated peace, in 1863, that British troops moved to occupy Omata and Tataraimaka, trespassing on Māori land as they did so. One month later, a military escort was ambushed at Oakura and nine soldiers killed, leading to the first of the Taranaki land confiscations by the government.

The Taranaki Military Settlers were recruited from the Victorian and Otago goldfields and fought alongside the Imperial troops of the 57^th regiment and the local settler militia in a series of search and destroy missions south of Oakura, giving new impetus to the ‘scorched earth’ practice of laying waste Māori villages and cultivations in the area. Colonel Warre extended his military outposts south, establishing posts at Warea and Opunake in 1865 and finally opening up the old coastal track between Whanganui and New Plymouth. After General Chute completed his subjugation of the province in 1866, he worked his way around the coast and in a campaign of five weeks, destroyed seven fortified pa and 21 kainga inflicting heavy casualties on the loyal as well as the hostile. It was now assumed that the confiscated land of South Taranaki could be occupied by military settlers, but this was not yet to be.

The final phase of the Taranaki Wars is named after Titokowaru, its chief protagonist, leader and prophet of Ngā Ruahine. His onslaught on the settlements of South Taranaki was so successful that Whanganui was threatened and fears were held for the settlers as far south as Wellington. While the wars ended in 1869, Māori resistance was not finished. This had not been helped by the government’s confiscation of 1,199,622 acres of Taranaki land during 1865 under the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863, which aimed to establish ‘ a sufficient number of settlers able to protect themselves and preserve the peace’. Governor Grey also conceived of the idea of land confiscation as a way of weakening Māori independence as well as paying for the Māori Wars. The legality of this confiscation was debated and in 1880 the West Coast Commission described two large areas, which it said had been ‘restored to natives’: the Stoney River block and the Opunake block. There is no record that either of these blocks of land were ever restored.

It has been said that Wi Kingi Matakatea gave one square mile of land to build Opunake but Wiremu may have only intended a small area of land near the redoubt to be used by the recently arrived Pākehā. Records show that it is not clear that an agreement for the township was even reached. It is clear that, at a meeting in 1867, Māori protested the building of the town, which they suspected could become a military settlement like Warea. When they threatened to burn down any buildings put there, they were told that land would be taken in compensation and no further threats were made.

Bryce, a politician, was the flame set to a powder keg that should have sparked a Māori uprising.

This would have allowed further land confiscation, but, on this occasion, he met a new form of opposition at a place called Parihaka, where two great leaders had emerged with a different approach to opposing land loss. Te Whiti and Tohu taught passive resistance some sixty years before Mahatma Ghandi used the same process on the British in India.

Land could only be of real value for Pākehā settlement and farming if serviceable roads linked the area to ports and towns. Roading plans on the Coast were slowed as survey pegs were removed and fences around crops reinstated as soon as the roading gangs tore them down to make the new road. Settlers also had their fields ploughed by Māori who, in their mind, were simply exercising the right to their customary land and bringing to attention the need for negotiations to commence. When provoked Māori did not retaliate so the normal excuses of Māori insurrection and war, often used by Pakeha for land confiscation, were forestalled.

Parihaka became a rallying point for Māori of many tribes. The followers of Te Whiti and Tohu were hard working and peaceful. The village provided food for all, the elders kept law and order, and the people were more orderly than the troops that were to come.

In November 1881 troops invaded Parihaka, but found no resistance. Although ordered to keep well away, various newspaper reporters came to see the attack on the peaceful village and were able to give a more accurate account of events than that written by the commanding officer of the invading forces. Te Whiti and Tohu were exiled to the South Island for their crime of peacefully protecting the land that was theirs. Fortunately, a report from Britain harshly criticising the treatment of Māori came soon after their incarceration, which led the governor to proclaim an amnesty and the pair were released. Land was surveyed off for farms and roads while they were away.

The West Coast Commission was established in 1879 to investigate the numerous complaints of broken promises. It included Sir William Fox, Sir Francis Dillon Bell and Hone Mohi Tawhai, although the latter resigned when it became apparent that his fellow commissioners were not impartial. The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act of 1880 enabled the Governor to settle every claim arising from every past award or promise made. Unfortunately the new Act, passed in 1881, prescribed management and administration of these Māori reserves by the Public Trustee, who could lease them to Europeans.

The second West Coast Commission, established in 1880, did not provide reserves in accordance with the first commission’s report. The Parihaka Reserve was decreased from 58,000 acres, as promised, down to 20,000 acres, with no land on the coast. In the case of the Stoney River block and the Opunake block, both were reduced by seven miles from the summit of Mount Taranaki and the Opunake block had a further part excised for the Opunake township. However, the most damaging action of the second commission was the drafting of a new act for the administration of the reserves by the Public Trustee so that most of the reserves would be leased to Europeans on perpetual terms: ‘The leasing was “the most unkindest cut of all”, for it ensured that the fact of dispossession would be personally conveyed to the children of every succeeding generation’ (The Taranaki Report: Waitangi Tribunal Report, 1996). Ownership and management of areas of Coast land is still under contention and a settlement process, conducted by the Waitangi Tribunal, is currently underway.

In 1846, a mission station was set up by the German Lutheran missionary, Reverend JC Riemenschneider, at the Warea kainga on the south bank at the mouth of the Teikaparaua River. Colonel H.J Warre of the 57th regiment established the first Pākehā settlements of Opunake and Warea. On 28 April 1865, the Colonel and two boatloads of soldiers from the SS Wanganui landed in Opunake Bay and set up camp on the cliff top near the present site of the power station surge chamber, where a redoubt was later established. For many years, however, there were only sporadic influxes of European immigrants to the Clearing, as Opunake was known.

In 1867, Nelson Carrington made the first survey of Opunake, and in 1870 a Post and Telegraph Station was established at Opunake. In these early days, no roads connected Opunake to either New Plymouth or Hawera. Opunake Beach (meaning Prow of a Canoe) was used as a small port. When the road to New Plymouth was completed in 1881, the journey took six hours in a stagecoach. It now takes about 50 minutes in a car.

The Opunake Town District was established on 6 May 1882 and from this time the town began to grow and flourish. It was a hard pioneering life, with the clearing of forests and swamps a daunting prospect. Milling flax from the swamps soon presented itself as a means to generate income, and by 1869, two flax mills were built. The area also gained sustenance from the export of timber, fungus, butter and cheese.

Coastal shipping was Opunake’s main economic link to the rest of New Zealand and the world. Ships would call into Opunake Bay and, from August 1881, an Opunake lighter company unloaded them. A jetty was built in 1891 and, once the old piles were replaced with copper sheathed totara piles, it served the community well. Later an ill-fated Harbour Scheme was launched that required the demolition of the jetty. The harbour never really got going and the dream of the town becoming a major port gradually faded. Instead the town grew as a service place for the local farming community, maintaining its size as smaller towns such as Pihama, Rahotu and Pungarehu lost shops and businesses.

OUR COMMUNITY AND CULTURE

European settlement began in 1865 and had a huge impact on the original Māori inhabitants. Later, the development and growth of the dairy industry was a key factor in the growth of coastal communities and in their decline, which followed the gradual closure of factories due to centralisation.

While the population fluctuations, following those of the dairy industry, appear to have stabilised, the impact of lifestyle changes and the increasing demand for coastal properties have yet to be established.

Who we are

The people of the Coast are of diverse origins. Some can trace their ancestry back seven hundred years or more to the first canoes, others to the first European settlement, which began some 140 years ago. Now, as New Zealanders become more mobile, an increasing number of new residents, who have no ancestors here at all but are simply attracted by the lifestyle of the Coast, are making their homes here. While the full effect of this growing trend on our traditionally close-knit communities has yet to be felt, one thing is clear: Both old and new residents seem to love the coast, the lifestyle, the “can do” attitude and the rich culture of the area.

Statistics can tell us a lot and Census figures have been used extensively in this plan. The area covered in this plan, the Coast, consists of three Census area units: the Opunake urban area, Kahui, which includes the rural areas from Pihama to Puniho and Rahotu, which covers the Rahotu township and surrounding rural area.

Population

The “Usually Resident” population of the Coast has fallen by close to 10%, from 5,121 to 4,614, in the ten years since 1991, which is of great concern to residents of the Coast. The rate of decline is similar across all three census areas. The population figures provided in the graph below have been separated into the three coastal area census units. The population decline in the rural areas may be attributable to the large number of farm amalgamations that have taken place in the last decade.

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Age

Not only is population falling but the average age is rising. In 2001, 10% of the population were over 65 years of age, up from 8.7% in 1996 but still lower than the South Taranaki average of 12.5%.

At the other end of the age scale, 27.5% of the population of Opunake and the Coast are under 15 years of age, which is a little higher than the South Taranaki District figure of 25.5% and significantly higher than the New Zealand wide figure of 22.7%. Nevertheless, the number and percentage of young people has dropped since 1996 from 1,452 or 29.5% of the population to 1,281 in 2001.

In the adult population, there is a drop in numbers in the 20-30 year age group, which only forms 11.4% of the population. As seen in the rest of the district, this is the age group that leave the area to explore opportunities for education and employment.

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Youth

There is a drop in youth population numbers throughout the whole age range over the census periods.

Youth Population	Under 5	Under 10	Under 15	Under 20
1991	537	531	522	423
1996	441	525	558	474
2001	405	423	351	351
Population Fall	24.58%	20.34%	32.76%	17.02%

Fewer children are being born to Coast parents each census period, culminating in a 24.58% drop in the number of pre-schoolers over the ten years from 1991. This can be partly explained by the corresponding drop of 24.3% in the number of 20 to 39 year olds living on the Coast; the very age group most likely to have children.

Not only is there an ongoing trend of decreasing numbers in each youth age category but there is also a decline in numbers within each particular group. By tracing a group diagonally down the above table the population changes can be traced at each census. For example of the 537 under five year olds living on the Coast in 1991, only 351 were still living here (as under 15 year olds) in 2001, a drop of 34.6% within that group.

While the beach, surfing and lifestyle are an attraction for young adults, the limited local opportunities for education and employment mean many young achievers must move away. Others often have that typical kiwi desire to spread their wings and see more of the world.

Scouts/Brownies/Pippins

Scouting seems to be reviving on the Coast. Although Scouts, Cubs and the Opunake Girl Guides are all in recess at present, Brownies with 16 members and Pippins with 14 are going strong and have eight adult volunteer helpers. Planning is also underway for new cub and scout groups. The present leaders have observed that their members like being part of an active group that helps them develop confidence and a sense of identity.

Coastal Kids and Rangitahi

As with other rural towns nationwide, concerns about youth behaviour have been an-ongoing problem for Coast residents. Petty crime and vandalism is a problem, particularly in the beach area over the summer holiday period. The lack of organised activities for young people was identified as a factor in these problems and, in December 2002, a group of concerned local residents formed “Coastal Kids and Rangatahi” to help provide for the needs of Opunake’s youth. A drop-in centre has been created at the Opunake Town Hall where young people can meet and play games several times a week. Dances are also organised occasionally by the group.

What you said…	Projects
It would be great if there were more places for young people to go and more activities, like dances, for them to participate in, rather than drinking. This might also encourage families and young people to stay on the Coast. While Coastal Kids and Rangitahi report excellent participation in their drop in centre and dances, the venue is not satisfactory. The hall is shared with other users meaning availability is not guaranteed and all equipment must be stored away between uses. This means participants are unable to create a club atmosphere. A dedicated venue would also foster a sense of ownership and encourage young people to contribute to its development.	1. Investigate the feasibility of setting up a Youth Centre.
It has been suggested that the library could set up a youth space with couches, music and a coffee machine, where young people could meet and do their homework and research.	2. Investigate the feasibility of setting up a youth area in the library and involve young people in the decision- making for the project.
A forum is needed where young people can be included in decision-making relating to the facilities they want or the activities in which they will be involved. This way they can contribute to the community, and achieve things for themselves.	55. Involve young people in decision-making and community events.
Scout groups need more leaders to accommodate more children while ensuring the correct adult to child ratio. However, new leaders often lack confidence and need training, which takes more resources and places an even heavier burden on the few mature leaders.	See Project 59. Capacity Building.

Seniors

There has been a 26.2% increase in the number of seniors, aged 65 years and over, at a time when the overall population of the Coast has declined 10%.

Source: Statistics New Zealand

A closer look at the three census area units reveals an interesting but not surprising phenomenon. In the rural areas of Rahotu and Kahui, the percentage of the population who are over 65 years of age is 8% and 5.8% respectively, while the urban Opunake area has 18.2% of its population in this age group.

The community is concerned about the ageing population and how it will change their town.
Health service concerns mean that many older people prefer to retire to New Plymouth or other larger centres to be closer to the hospital and other medical services. Rural residents are also more likely to move from the Coast on retirement because they generally have more capital than their urban counterparts, which widens their options for retirement relocation. It is possible that as prices in traditional retirement destinations increase, this trend may change and the Coast may even attract active retirees from other northern centres.

Household Composition

The number of two-parent families has declined markedly from 753, in 1991, to 570 in 2001. The number of couple-only households has increased from 383 to 414 during the same time. The number of one-parent families has remained relatively stable during the ten years from 1991 to 2001 but there has been a 22% increase in the number of people living alone in Opunake and the Coast in the last five years.

Source: Statistics New Zealand

The community would like to attract more young families to the Coast but this is a challenge due to limited job opportunities and extra-curricular activities for young people and, recently, bad publicity arising from the Ministry of Education plans to close coastal schools.

What you said…

Projects

Comments from residents participating in workshops held around the Coast in 2002 showed that the decreasing population, especially among the young and families was a major concern. The rising average age of the population was not seen as a good trend for the area. A number of suggestions were made to encourage population growth including:

· Attracting other ethnic groups to increase the population and encourage cultural diversity.

· Promoting the area as a lifestyle choice, even if residents continued to travel to work in the larger centres.

· Any population growth should be slow and sustainable.

· Developing new subdivisions and lifestyle blocks to attract people to live in Opunake and along the Coast. Any developments of this type must be considerate of the character of the Coast.

35. Investigate ways to attract new residents to the area and also retain the existing population including:

· Promotion of the lifestyle of the Coast, the facilities available and business opportunities;

· Investigating the feasibility of establishing new subdivisions and lifestyle blocks on the Coast in a planned way that ensures the lifestyle and environments are preserved.

See project 20. Subdivision Strategy.

The rising average age of the population was another concern for workshop participants, with the resulting need to provide related infrastructure such as health services.

56. Monitor the growth and needs of the senior population and advocate for facilities and services to meet these needs.

Ethnicity

In the 2001 Census, residents could be counted in up to six ethnic groups and some indicated that they belonged to more than one ethnic group so the total number of responses was greater than the total population resident. This means that accurate comparisons cannot be made with previous Census years. However, by far the greatest number of residents in Opunake and the Coast are European, with Māori the next largest group. These two groups make up 97% of the area’s population.

There is considerable difference in the ethnic composition of the three census area units that make up the Coast. In Opunake, Maori make up 29.5% of the population and there are small numbers of Pacific Islanders and Asian people present.

Māori make up 27.4% of the population in Rahotu, but in Kahui this drops to only 15.7%, which is lower than the South Taranaki average figure of 19.8% and more comparable with the New Zealand-wide figure of 14.7%. Taranaki is the Coast iwi with local marae at Puniho, Parihaka, Rahotu and Opunake.

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Opunake is a Decile 9 Community – what does this mean?

Decile ratings are an indicator of the level of deprivation experienced in communities. The scale is from 1 to 10, with a decile 10 community being the most deprived. This decile rating is the reverse of that used for schools, where 1 represents the greatest deprivation.

The decile rating or index of deprivation is calculated from data compiled during the census of population and dwellings and based on the following criteria, listed in order of decreasing importance.

Deprivation Type

Income People aged 18-59 years receiving a means-tested benefit.

Employment People aged 18-59 years who are unemployed.

Income People living in households with an *equivalised income below the income threshold.

Communication People with no access to a telephone.

Transport People with no access to a car.

Support People aged less than 60 years living in a single-parent family.

Qualifications People aged 18-59 years without any qualifications.

Owned Home People not living in their own home.

Living space People living in households above the equivalised* bedroom occupancy threshold.

· Equivalisation refers to methods used to take household composition into account when comparing income and living space. For example it is a way of being able to compare the standard of living of a single person with an income of $40,000 to a household consisting of 2 adults and three children with an income of $40,000. The deprivation level method recognises that communities can be materially wealthy but socially poor, and vice versa.

Source: NZDep2001: Index of Deprivation.

Decile ratings can be important to certain groups when applying for government funding in that higher decile rating areas have access to a greater range of assistance. Opunake, with its level nine decile rating is better placed to take advantage of more government grants than Rahotu or Kahui. The community is concerned, however, about the town’s low decile rating.

Recreation and Community Activities

Sports

The Coast has many sporting groups, too numerous to mention individually. Many are facing dwindling membership as the population falls and ages. The community has noticed that people are generally less willing join sports clubs. This may, in part, be due to the growth in home entertainment, Sky TV, computer games and the Internet. Greater mobility is also impacting communities, with people prepared to travel further afield for entertainment, cultural events and social activities. The effects of shift work and extended work hours have also been noted by some clubs.

The exceptions to this trend of falling memberships are Coastal Rugby and the water sports clubs. These include boating, diving, fishing and swimming clubs all of which are strong with growing club memberships, as the Coast begins to firmly establish its niche as an aquatic paradise.

Cape Egmont Boat Club

The Cape Egmont Boat Club, at Bayly Road Pungarehu, has 160 paid-up memberships but some of these are families bringing the total membership to between 250 and 280. Membership numbers have grown steadily over the last ten years, partly because of the club’s free annual boat safety inspection. The club is planning to replace the existing children’s play equipment, which is in poor condition and badly sited.

The club has also been instrumental in forming the Lighthouse Museum Trust, which is constructing a replica lighthouse beside their clubhouse.

Lighthouse Museum Trust

Maritime Safety upgraded the Cape Egmont lighthouse in 2000, replacing the 150 year old Friesnal light. A group made up of Boat Club members and local residents formed the Lighthouse Museum Trust, to carry out a plan to keep the old prismatic light operational in the Cape Egmont area and make it accessible to the public. The replica lighthouse is being constructed beside the Cape Egmont Boat Club rooms and the original plan has grown to include a memorial to Lord Rutherford, the father of modern nuclear physics, who once lived in the area.

Opunake Boat and Underwater Club

The Opunake Boat and Underwater Club has 65 boat-owning members and 25 diving members. As with the Cape Egmont Boat Club most memberships are for families, so the full number of individuals involved is around 300 and membership is stable. There are monthly committee meetings but no formal social activities because club members are not interested.

The club has a new boat shed at Middleton’s Bay in Opunake and owns two tractors and a $25,000 dive compressor, which allows air tanks to be filled locally. All boating and diving activities take place within 15km of Opunake.

Opunake Surfcasting & Angling Club

Twelve years after formation, this club has its highest ever membership of 60 and a committee of ten. Ideally the club would love to have a jetty near the old breakwater for fishing in Opunake Bay and more trout released into Opunake Lake.

Opunake Board Riders Club

A small club of 20 members meet monthly at the Opunake Surf Life Saving Clubrooms. Members are involved with local and international surfing competitions and are interested in preserving the natural environment as far as possible.

Opunake Swimming Club

Based at the Opunake indoor heated baths this club has just over 260 swimming members, involving more than 140 families from Okato to Manaia, and claims to be the biggest swimming club in Taranaki. The club provides lessons and coaching, from water confidence for four year olds through to full competition training. It has 35 junior members, aged eight to 17, who race regularly. Parents provide a lot of support for the club. The club is looking into the possibility of getting an Olympic Coach from Eastern Europe but this relies on the coach getting at least 30 hours work a week.

Bowls

There are both indoor and outdoor bowling clubs around the coast. The Opunake Indoor Club is down in membership to about 12 and other clubs, both indoor and outdoor, report even fewer members.

While some sporting codes on the Coast have amalgamated onto one site, the bowling clubs of the Coast continue to maintain individual sites in each of the rural communities of Rahotu, Pihama and Warea. While this has some benefits the downside is the high cost to smaller clubs of keeping greens up to standard.

There are two outdoor bowling clubs in Opunake, which use the same greens and clubrooms: the ladies club has 43 members and the men’s has 27. Membership of both clubs has dropped since 1986, when the men’s club had 90 members and the ladies had a similar number. As with other Coastal bowling clubs, the lower membership numbers are straining finances.

Cricket

There are two cricket clubs on the Coast. The Pihama Club is a social club of 20 with great skill and flair, which finished 2^nd in the second division in the 2002/03 season. This is a rural club playing on an artificial wicket at Pihama School with players involved as much as milking allows. Every two years they play against Auroa at Pihama and this year there were over 300 spectators enjoying the game, the hospitality tents and hangi. The closure of the Pihama School at the end of 2003 makes the continued use of their present pitch site uncertain.

Opunake Cricket Club has 22 members, including some juniors. Like many clubs, membership is becoming a bigger and bigger struggle. Two years ago there were two full premier Opunake teams and one junior team but it seems likely that only two teams, both a grade lower than Premier may play next year. This may mean that the club will not need to use the recreation ground and can use the school’s grounds instead.

Golf

The three golf clubs of the Coast, Opunake, Pungarehu and Tumahu, offer a wide range of challenges to golfers.

On Namu Road, the Opunake Golf Course has an 18-hole course with mown fairways. The club has 200 members and employs one full-time grounds man. Club management is concerned about its $100,000 debt but is currently draining and levelling 20 acres of club land, which it plans to lease out to create new income. The club has identified a need to attract more visitors but better promotion and improved facilities, including the sealing of the car park, will be required to achieve this.

Pungarehu Golf Club says it does receive a satisfactory number of visitors and believes this is because of its location on Surf Highway 45. The course has small, steep hills and plenty of sheep, which is something very different for overseas golfers or local townies and is an added attraction. The club has 100 members. General improvements to buildings are regularly undertaken and the club has been working with the Taranaki Regional Council on a riparian planting scheme along the riverbank between the 11^th and 14^th holes.

Tumahu is a nine-hole golf course situated on the Upper Puniho Road, two kilometres down from Wiremu Road. The club has 120 members, including juniors. The recently enlarged clubhouse now caters for functions and seems to be replacing the ageing Tumahu Hall as a community venue.

Netball

The Rahotu, Arahi, Club Hotel, Parihaka, Coastal Cobras, and High School netball clubs are all part of the Opunake Satellite, which is organised and managed by Netball Taranaki. The three levels, Seniors, Year 7 & 8 and the “Future Ferns” are holding very similar player numbers to previous years with approximately 100 at each level.

One change noted over the last three to four years is that many senior players can only play every second Saturday due to extended work hours. The loss of seniors moving away for job or training opportunities is an ongoing and understandable phenomenon.

Rugby

In 1995, the senior Opunake, Rahotu and Pungarehu Rugby clubs combined with Okato to create the Coastal Rugby Club and became incorporated in 1997. The club, centred at the Rahotu Domain, is the largest on the coast having grown from 180 members in 1995 to a record of 445 today and a total of 500 morning and afternoon rugby players. Although membership numbers are up, player numbers are not, with losses of players in their late teens through to early twenties moving away to attend university or to work.

The growing membership is putting pressure on existing facilities and the club often needs to have a marquee at functions to cater for numbers. They are currently planning to build a gymnasium because the current gymnasium area was not designed for modern training equipment.

The club actively and financially supports rugby at both Okato and Opunake High School (which runs three rugby teams) and financially supports morning grade rugby from Okato to Manaia.

Oaonui Small Bore Rifle Club

A 22-calibre shooting range is sited under the stage at Oaonui Hall. The club has eight members but is working to attract more. The junior membership includes children and high school students, from 8 to 21 year olds. The club provides gun training in a safe environment and meets with other clubs at New Plymouth, Inglewood, Eltham and Hawera. Club members attend North-South Island competitions as well as local and provincial level events.

Tennis

There are tennis clubs at Pihama, Warea and Opunake. Membership of the Pihama Tennis Club fluctuates as teenagers move away from the area. This club has three women’s teams, three junior teams and one combined Manaia-Pihama team. Opunake Tennis Club has sold its courts and plans to centre its activities at the new Events Centre where two courts are being prepared.

Tae Kwon Do

Run by the local police sergeant, this club meets twice weekly in the Opunake Town Hall. About 18 children attend and numbers are stable.

Cultural Activities

Opunake Players

This strong and vibrant group has 40 members and puts on up to three full productions of New Zealand or overseas plays, musicals and reviews each year in their own theatre in Layard Street. They are exceptionally well supported by the town and district. In 2001, they won the one act play competition for the Taranaki area and went on to compete in the North Island finals in Napier where they were selected for the National finals.

Egmont Community Arts Council

The Egmont Community Arts Council is made up of fourteen representatives appointed from the community. In 2002 the group revived the Taranaki Arts Review, which was held over the Easter break. The event drew over 200 exhibits and considerably more viewers. The Easter 2003 review was a success, although it did attract fewer entries. During 2002 and 2003, the Arts Council received administrative support from the Council, but under Council’s new policy, this help will no longer be available and its absence will place additional strain upon an already stretched committee.

The group currently receives funding from Creative Communities but the group must apply each funding round rather than having their own allocated funds, which restricts flexibility.

Coastal Singers

This choir of 30 members perform throughout Taranaki, either on their own, or with other choirs. Their music covers a wide range of styles because they often provide music for other groups such as the Opunake Players, the local old folks and the Opunake Friendship Club. Last year they were invited to sing in concert with St Mary’s Church Choir in New Plymouth and Hawera and produced a Christmas programme for Probus in New Plymouth. The Coastal Singers host an annual dinner show in the high school hall in October each year, which is a looked forward to as a local event of some note.

Opunake Embroiderers Guild

The Opunake Embroiderers Guild has 30 members who come from Awatuna to Rahotu and meet at the old Service Centre each week. Membership numbers are stable.

Country Women’s Institutes

There are two active Country Women’s Institutes (CWI’s) on the Coast: the Pihama CWI which has 22 members and the Te Kiri CWI. The Pihama CWI promotes and manages a fundraising walk for the Cancer Society every April annually and usually raises over $2,000. They also run a programme to maintain gardens within their community including the school cenotaph, the Lizzie Bell cemetery and, when necessary, the private gardens of the elderly and disabled. The Opunake Country Women’s Institute is in recess at present, although seven members still meet informally.

What you said…

Projects

You said that isolation makes Opunake more community-minded and you would like it to maintain and build on its strong community spirit. You were particularly interested in initiating more family-oriented events that would involve the whole community.

You also suggested undertaking research to discover why people are not going out.

57. Support and initiate
family-orientated events that involve the whole community.

You are concerned that clubs are getting smaller and even disappearing because their members are ageing and young people are leaving the area. This puts additional stress on the remaining members. You suggested that groups could amalgamate and pool resources.

Refer to Project 59. Capacity Building.

Community and Recreation Facilities

Council Facilities

Opunake Town Hall

The Opunake Town Hall, in Domett Street, was built in 1937 and designed by Thos Bates from New Plymouth. It is the only Council owned and operated hall in the Egmont Area.

The Friendship Club, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, the Darts Club and Country Music group regularly use the hall. It has an average of 26 bookings each month and the small income, is used to offset running costs. It is used for 21^st birthday parties, wedding receptions, some public meetings and also as a drop in centre and venue for youth dances over the summer holiday period.

Operating Costs for 2001/02

Costs	($10,400.24)
Income	$ 2,848.00
Net Operating Cost	($ 7,552.24)

Opunake Community Centre

The Opunake Community Centre, in Napier Road, was built in 1957, extended in 1989 and used as the Opunake Service Centre until 2002. Today, the Egmont Plains Community Development Advisor, Budget Advisory Service, Citizens Advice Bureau use offices and three spaces are rented out to a visiting accountant and a lawyer. The Community Centre is also used for Community Board Meetings and between 25 and 30 community group meetings each month.

Opunake Library Plus

The Library was constructed in 1986, beginning the stone theme that has since continued throughout Opunake. In June 2002, the Opunake Library became a Library Plus, part of a new initiative by the Council, and now offers all the Council services that were available at the Service Centre. Hours have also been extended to 8.00 am to 5.00 pm each weekday and from 9.00 am to noon every Saturday morning.

Opunake Library has issued around 40,000 items each year for the previous two financial years but this year has seen a dramatic increase in borrowing, with numbers up to 44,255 by 31 March 2003. Special programmes are held for children each school holidays and other groups use the library front window to display their activities or artistic talent. The library also offers Tot Time sessions every Tuesday from 10.30 am to 11.00 am where pre-schoolers can come and enjoy stories, songs and activities.

The library is spacious, well lit and welcoming. One feature of the library is the old town clock sited close to the service counter. Mr Len Pentelow restored this old electric master clock to full working order and it is hoped that the slave clocks can be reconnected as part of the Urban Upgrade programme.

In the early 1980s, a group of thirteen residents formed the “Friends of the Library” to help the Egmont County Council set up and run the new library. At that time there was only one paid librarian and volunteers undertook a lot of the work. The friends continue their involvement supplying morning tea and biscuits to the town’s seniors every Friday.

Opunake Beach Camp

The Opunake Beach Camp is sited on the beachfront beneath pohutukawa-covered cliffs in an area that was once a flax-filled swamp. Safe, sandy and well-patrolled, Opunake Beach is arguably the best beach in Taranaki and attracts many tourists and holidaymakers.

The beachfront reserve and the campground are both owned by the Crown and managed by the Council. The campground has a capacity of 90 caravan sites, some of which are reticulated with sewage and power and 15 tent sites. It also offers seven on-site caravans and two tourist flats. Buildings include a communal cookhouse, ablution facilities, a dwelling occupied by the lessee and a shop. Last year the fire service water lines within the camp were improved.

The camp and facilities are offered for lease every three years with the successful tenderer aiming to run the camp at a profit. The current lease expires in September 2003.

Public Toilets

Opunake has public toilets at the lake, cemetery, Napier Street, the beach, Middleton Bay and at the Recreation Ground. The Council helps to maintain five other toilet facilities on the Coast. Three of these, at Kina Road, Paora Road and Stent Road, are voluntarily cleaned and managed by local people, with Council paying for cleaning materials and consumables. The fourth was installed, under agreement, at the Cape Egmont Boat Club in Bayly Road, when clubrooms were extended. In this case, the Boat Club maintains the facilities but the Council pays for consumables.

Toilet facilities were opened in Rahotu in early 2003 due to increasing numbers of travellers requesting the use of toilet facilities at commercial premises. An arrangement was made with the Egmont Christian Camp. The Council has re-fitted the camp toilet and it is now open for public use.

Housing for the Elderly

The Council owns two blocks of flats in Opunake. The older block, at 8 King Street, comprises of three bed-sits and two one-bedroom flats. There are six newer flats, built in 1984, at 23 King Street, which are all one-bedroom units. The two larger units at the front are suitable for couples. Demand is higher for the new flats and if vacant, empty flats may be rented to eligible beneficiaries.

Old Depot Buildings

The Council uses part of the Transfer Station site as a collection point for items too large or not suitable for the large green mobile garbage bins and K