Te Puke is situated some 5 miles inland from the Bay of Plenty coast on level to gently undulating land. Within 2–3 miles the land rises on the south-west and south to steep hills (locally called Papamoa Range) fringing the central volcanic plateau. Te Puke is 17 miles south-east by road from Tauranga (14 miles by rail) and 36 ½ miles north-east by road from Rotorua. Mount Maunganui, 14 miles north-west, is the nearest main port.

Farming activities of the district are dairying, sheep raising, and fat-lamb production. Fruitgrowing is important and citrus and various subtropical fruits, together with apples and pears, predominate. There are extensive State forests, mainly Pinus radiata (q.v.), near Pongakawa (15 ½ miles south-east), and logging and sawmilling are carried on. Te Puke provides servicing and distributing functions for a large district. Town industries include sawmilling, timber dressing, and joinery; general and dairy engineering; and the manufacture of butter.

Te Puke is considered to have been founded in 1880 when George Vesey Stewart bought 16,000 acres there from the Government. Stewart sold the land to prospective settlers in Northern Ireland at £3 per acre. By 1881 most of the immigrants were settled on their land. Gold-bearing ore was discovered in 1895 at Muirs Reef, about 8 miles south of Te Puke, and mining followed intermittently for more than 30 years. Owing to various setbacks, good results were obtained only during 1919 and 1923, and in 1928 all underground operations ceased. The town grew as a result of the development of farming. It became a town district in 1913 and in 1935 borough status was attained

In his New Zealand WarsJames Cowan described events which took place at Paengaroa and Te Puke during the Tauranga bush campaign of 1867–70. Later writers and historians (as, for example, J. C. Andersen and G. C. Petersen in The Mair Family (1956)), have assumed, erroneously, that those localities were identical with the present-day places of the same name. The places described by Cowan (who is believed by some to have been under the same misapprehension) were located in wild forest country behind Tauranga, near the old Maori track to Rotorua. The present Paengaroa and Te Puke, at the time of the events mentioned, were still under-developed and unsettled localities in Arawa territory.

The name Te Puke means, literally, “the hill”.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,461; 1956 census, 1,925; 1961 census, 2,299.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

The New Zealand Table Tennis Association is affiliated to the International Table Tennis Federation and is eligible to compete in the World Championships. In 1963, at the 27th World Championships, held in Prague, an unofficial New Zealand women's team earned fourth place in its section. New Zealanders abroad have taken part in overseas championships on many occasions and three players – J. S. Crossley (1950), G. A. J. Frew (1954), and A. R. Tomlinson (1963) – have won the Scottish Men's Singles Championship.

New Zealand teams compete regularly in the Australian Open and in the New South Wales Championships, and representative teams visit at two-year intervals. On 16 September 1963 the first international women's contest between Australia and New Zealand was played at Sydney when Australia won by four matches to one.

Since the war the New Zealand association has arranged visits by famous overseas players. Among these may be mentioned Szabados and Anderson, Barna and Bergman (1948); Haegenaur and Leach (1952); the popular Rowe twins (1953); the Japanese world champions Tanaka and Ogimura (1957); and the Japanese women's team – Matsuzaki and Yamaizumi (1960).

National Championships

The New Zealand National Table Tennis Championships have been held annually since 1934, except for an interval (1941–44) during the Second World War. The championships include the following events: Men's and Women's Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. Within this framework there are also championship divisions for boys and girls (under 18 years), junior boys and junior girls (under 16 years), and senior men and women (25 to 45 years), and veteran men and women (40 years of age and over). In addition, since 1953, the Arthur Meachen Memorial Cup has been awarded to the association whose players win the most points in the final events at the national championships. Since 1940 there has been a New Zealand Associations' Teams Championship competition in which men's teams compete for the Kean Shield, while the women's teams compete for the Herbert G. Teagle Memorial Challenge Shield. Since 1950 the Victor Barna Cup has been awarded annually in recognition of those qualities by which, in addition to technical skill, the prestige and reputation of table tennis are established. The cup is awarded to the association whose team competing in the annual teams championship satisfies the Barna Cup Judging Committee that it excels in the qualities of table etiquette, sportsmanship, appearance, and punctuality.

The following are the winners of the principal table tennis national championship events:

The New Zealand Table Tennis Association fosters and controls the game in New Zealand. It lays down uniform rules for the control and organisation of the game, encourages inter-association contests, organises the annual national championships, promotes visits by overseas players, and arranges overseas tours.

In 1964 the association comprised 28 affiliated regional associations including 698 clubs representing an estimated 13,998 players. The Canterbury association showed the largest membership with 264 teams taking part in winter interclub competitions and 91 teams in the summer interclub competition. Otago (198 teams), Wellington (193 teams), and Auckland (132 teams) are the next largest associations; while South Canterbury, Hamilton, Franklin, North Taranaki, and Hutt Valley each have more than 70 teams in regular competitions.

Although the game of table tennis was evolved in the 1890s, when it was known variously as indoor tennis, gossima, and ping pong, it did not attract a wide following until the 1920s. The New Zealand Table Tennis Association was formed in 1933 and the first national championships were held in 1934.

The highlight of the senior tennis season in New Zealand is the national championships competition which has been held annually since 1886, except during the First and Second World Wars. The following are the title winners since the New Zealand Senior Championships were first played.

Men's Championship's Singles

Men's Championship Doubles

Ladies' Championships Singles

Ladies' Championships Doubles

Mixed Doubles Championships

Australia – New Zealand Entry

New Zealand's participation in the world championship Davis Cup competitions dates from 1905 when, following consultations between the Australian and New Zealand Associations, it was decided that the two associations should enter a joint Australasian team. This Australasian team met with some outstanding successes mainly because of the presence of N. E. Brookes (Australia) and Anthony Wilding. The arrangement continued until 1922 when New Zealand entered as a separate nation.

The following are the results of matches in which New Zealand had a representative in the Australasian Team:

New Zealand's Separate Entry

Having decided to discontinue its association with the Australian Association, the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association in 1923 was granted affiliation to the International Lawn Tennis Federation and thereby became eligible to enter the Davis Cup Competition in its own right. The following are the results of its entries from that date:

OVERSEAS TOURS

Over a long period of years the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association has sent men's and women's teams to Australia and has received many return visits. In addition, overseas countries have been invited regularly to send teams to New Zealand. The following are the results of all test matches played against overseas teams since 1909.

The control of tennis in New Zealand is vested in the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Council which has its headquarters in Wellington. The Council consists of officers of the Association and delegates appointed to represent the various district associations, delegate representation being based on the numerical strength of the respective districts. The Council meets three times a year at Wellington and legislates for the game. At the annual meeting, held in August in each year, it elects a Management Committee of seven members to which it delegates its administrative duties. This body controls tennis in New Zealand, though policy matters are referred to the Council. Because the Association's headquarters are in Wellington, the members of the Management Committee are usually elected from those delegates who reside near the city.

The New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association, which is the national body controlling the sport in New Zealand, was formed at a meeting held in Hastings in December 1886. Shortly after its inauguration, the New Zealand Association became affiliated with the Lawn Tennis Association (England) but it did not seek affiliation with the International Lawn Tennis Federation until 1923. The New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association consists of district associations with clearly defined geographical boundaries. Within the districts are sub-associations and local tennis clubs. These district associations, which are affiliated to the national body, control their own activities subject to any requirements which may, from time to time, be legislated for by the national body. Since the inception of the Association the game of tennis has made great progress in New Zealand. In 1908 there were nine district associations affiliated with a total registered membership of 6,832. In 1965 there were 21 district associations with a registered membership of 39,637.

Temuka is situated on the southern part of the Canterbury Plain near the junction of the Temuka and Opihi Rivers. The surrounding country consists of flat alluvial plain, except in the north-west, where rolling to hilly land rises gradually to the Four Peaks Range. The main highway between Christchurch and Timaru and the South Island Main Trunk railway pass through the town. Timaru, the nearest city and main port, is 11 miles south by road or rail, and Ashburton is 36 miles north-east.

On the higher country to the north-west, sheep raising is the principal primary industry. The district served by Temuka comprises good agricultural land where intensive sheep farming, dairying, mixed farming, cash cropping, and market gardening are important activities. Dairy factories producing cheese are located at Orton (13 miles north-east), Clandeboye (8 miles north-east) and Milford (4 miles south-east). At Winchester (4 miles north) there is a flourmill, a woolscouring works, a sawmill, a seed-cleaning plant, and a concrete products factory. Temuka is a servicing and distributing centre for its large district, but has also several important industries. These include the manufacture of wheaten flour and stock foods, insulators and pottery, knitwear and woollen textiles, and concrete products. Sawn and dressed timber and scoured wool are also produced. There are large stockyards in the town.

Temuka is believed to have come into existence because of its proximity to convenient fords on the Temuka and Opihi Rivers, crossing places on the main north-south route in early times. The site is identical with the original Maori settlement called Arowhenua. Other villages, now deserted by Maoris, were located between this place and the mouth of the Opihi River. At Orakipaoa (3 miles south-east) evidence of former occupation is still to be seen in the vestiges of an old Maori fortification. Temuka is considered to have been founded in 1853 when the first European settler, William Hornbrook, established a camp on the site. A Government town was later laid out east of the present railway line and took the name of the pa, Arowhenua. The Maoris removed to the present day site of Arowhenua Pa, about a mile south of the town. About 1863 Samuel Hewlings, a surveyor, bought an area north and west of the present Main South Road adjacent to the Government town of Arowhenua and laid out a town which he called Wallingford after his Berkshire birthplace. Wallingford – which eventually became the principal business part of Temuka – and Arowhenua were later created town districts. By 1866 the name Temuka came into more general use as a collective name for Wallingford and Arowhenua, and the latter came to be identified with the new Maori pa. The name Temuka, transferred to the town from the nearby river, is stated to be properly Te Umu Kaha, meaning “the strong oven,” and in all likelihood is associated with the many Maori ovens found in this locality. In 1899 the town districts of Wallingford and Arowhenua were amalgamated and constituted the borough of Temuka.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 2,212; 1956 census, 2,254; 1961 census, 2,430.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.