No, we haven’t got the wrong town! The first part of Wainui Road was originally known as Green Street. This ran from Bow Street along to the creek adjacent to Stewart Street, and incorporated a short and wide area, known as ‘The Green’.
There were no buildings between the Town Hall and the ‘Green’ and the area was the venue for annual shows and sports meetings (there were even some tennis courts there!). It was also a convenient market place, with local Māori coming over from Kopua to sell vegetables, fruit and fish.
So it seems that this street was so named because of the purpose it served as a gathering place (although not as picturesque as the similarly named areas in the quaint English villages that the settlers would have been familiar with).
Or perhaps it was named after Mr F.W Green, who was the first owner and Editor of the Raglan County Chronicle (from 1903, for 10 years)? He certainly deserved some accolades for starting a good paper that fulfilled the community’s needs for communication in the days of no radio or telephones. Having a road named after him would have been a fitting memorial to his initiative!
