1969: Rotary Park

July 5, 2023

By AHNZ

Explore New Zealand towns while paying attention to who is responsible for the infrastructure and you’ll quickly realise it’s not the government we must thank. Playgrounds, fountains, clocks, picnic tables, shelters, and all sorts of valuable amenities were created by free people voluntarily donating their time and money without threat of force. Lions, Jaycees, and New Zealand’s various Rotary Clubs are some of the greatest forces for this good including the Rotary club of Tauranga (est.  19/3/1945.)

Rotary Park, Tauranga, is of course one of their achievements. It overlooks Rangataua Bay on Maungatapu Peninsula. Over the years 1969 -1972 Rotary cleared and landscaped the area. They added facilities there and playgrounds. Today there are toilets, a boatramp, campground, a BBQ, and the playground. Local Government, you can be sure, came along after these facts and took over control. Unlike the politicians our institutions like Rotary don’t tend to crow about their many achievements so the work they do is not so well known.

Well, in this case at least, the thanks is in the name: Rotary Park. Right?

“Acknowledge our History: Pupils take duel park name proposal to council”

Unfortunately, in a case of stolen valor, Rotary Park is to be stripped of its name in favour of a new Maori bi-lingual name. The article entitled Acknowledge our History: Pupils take duel park name proposal to council appeared in February 2023 and has since been changed to Tauranga park Rotary Park to be given dual name recognising Māori heritage after kids’ campaign. Ref. NZ Herald

Understand there never was any such thing as Opupu Park. It was Rotary who put ideas into action with fundraising and 4 years of volunteeir work. Opupu is the name of the seabed and shoreline that includes the park but much more besides.

So whose bright idea was it to erase, or at least side-line, Rotary’s gift to the world by re-naming it Opupu – Rotary Park? According to the Herald it is due to (stunning and brave trailblazing etc.) school children who spontaneously organised a political campaign and a bicultural name change between games of hopscotch and learning how to spell. Does that seem likely?

“…principal Tane Bennett said: “It’s a beginning of how we can shape and add value to our communities.” All 560 children at the school know the park as Ōpūpū and questioned why the sign didn’t reflect the name, he said.”

“Deputy principal Teraania Ormsby-Teki said elders and hapū leaders had attempted to get the name Ōpūpū recognised in the past. ”It takes the kids to move it, that’s a memorable part for me today. It’s all part and parcel of the unified effort.”” – NZ Herald (2023)

“AGAIN, students misled. Ōpūpū Beach off Rotary Park would possibly be more accurate? The park did not exist therefore the children have been misled! Just as with Yatten Park. The name ”Ōpūpū ‘ refers to the pre-Europeans name of the foreshore, seabed adjacent which the ‘Rotary Park’ is located! The Park’ was an initiative of Rotary and the name acknowledges this with defined boundaries. I have NO issue with reference to Ōpūpū as the location of ‘Rotary Park’, nor the provision of local history. I hope Council will include the history as it relates to Rotary and its contribution.” – Murray Guy, Tauranga City Residents, Ratepayers – Warts and all, Facebook (10 February, 2023)

“Children from the Maungatapu School often visit Rotary Park. Here a group under the head teacher, Mr DJ. Young, is engaged in a natural science study.” – Bay of Plenty Times (26 February, 1977)

“The new gateway at Rotay Park, Maungatapu, takes shape as Rotary members and master bricklayers bend to work this morning…already has changing sheds, toilets, picnic tables and a revolving barbecue while many trees have been planted around the boundaries of the seven acre section…Erosion around the foreshore has necessitated a retaining wall…one of the “pet” projects of the club…” – Bay of Plenty Times (2 Ocotober, 1971)

AHNZ:  I’ve seen that the park has recently been stripped of it’s ‘Rotary’ name and I wanted to learn the history so I can record it.

Rotary Club President:  Yes. Times are a changing!

Some credit ought to go to their principal and his deputy too for allowing this activism during school hours while in no way putting any of the kids up to it. Eh? Eh? No. There is no way school children initiated this political change. Their teachers put them up to it!

Ask yourself why Principal Tane Bennett’s learners “know the park as Ōpūpū” except that it’s what his school has told them to call it whenever they visit! If any of them really “questioned why the sign didn’t reflect the name,” as is claimed, it’s because this was a set up. They could, and probably did, phrase the question as “Why do you teachers call Rotary Park by the name Opupu?” Or, “What are you trying to achieve, my teacher, and why are you dragging us kids into your political agenda?”

Te Kura o Maungatapu principal Tane Bennett said: “It’s a beginning of how we can shape and add value to our communities.” What he may be hinting at is that these things begin with duel names. It is claimed that a monocultural name is wrong. But the following step is to get rid of the New Zealand English name entirely and make it Maori; The ‘great evil’ of monoculturalism forgotten. Ref. 1985: Placing Mt Egmont in the Shade

Generations of classes at these local schools have been able to enjoy and learn at Rotary Park thanks to the hard work of Tauranga Rotary Club. Yet the current crop of children, or, rather, their instructors, have repaid that gift most ungraciously. The same injustice is being served on all of New Zealand’s ancestors as their names and honors are redacted and replaced by Politically Correct ones that are frequently contrived on the spot because they have a nice Diversity ring to them. Consider Maxwell, Kavenagh, von Tempsky, Havelock North, Hawera High School, and Shag River. Imagine (and this isn’t a remote analogy at all) inheriting a robust and landscaped home from your loving grandparents as they passed away complete with facilities. Now imagine taking that gift but making a public statement of ingratitude repudiating it and telling the world that you don’t owe your beautiful home to those who made it for you but to a third party who had nothing to do with it. This is the new Aotearoa New Zealand culture that doesn’t even stop short of contradicting the name of the entire country! Ref. 1647: New Zealand

Sad to see this happening all over New Zealand. Would like to think the locals, especially Tauranga Rotarians, would not capitulate to this tokenism. I tried to get the Tauranga Rotary Club President riled up but all she would say was ‘the times are changing’.

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Image ref. aucklandisite.com

Ref. Rotary Club of Tauranga Celebrates 50 years of Community Service (1995)

Ref. Thanks to Club President Sue Boyne for writing back to AHNZ with facts about the park (March 2023)

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