Edwin Stanley Brookes arrived in Taranaki in 1875 to take up the position of assistant surveyor for the provincial Council. He spent 10 years surveying settlements from Inglewood to Hāwera and the Waimate Plains. Brookes' father, also named Edwin Stanley Brookes, founded the Albertland Special Settlement at Kaipara. Brookes junior returned home to Albertland in 1885, but his name lives on in Brookes Road on the outskirts of Stratford.
While here, Brookes noticed what he thought of as "Old New Zealand" passing away, so he documented life at the time in his 1892 book Frontier Life Taranaki New Zealand. There is a copy held in Te Pua Wānanga o Taranaki, The Taranaki Research Centre, at Puke Ariki. Brookes offers a gentle take on survey life, observing the mountain, the bush and the community around him.
Brookes noticed how camp life affected his team, compared with fast-paced city life of the late 1800s: "Nature, slowly but surely, unlocks their hearts to the natural beauties around them; for the least educated see the gradually unfolding intricacies that they have never dreamt of before, as they gaze upon the graceful development of the frond of the tree fern from the first ornamental curves of its young shoots to its lengthened, drooping arch; or the giant trunk of a king of the forest, or bold cliff". He even contemplates what the loss of forest on the mountain might mean for the climate in the future.
Brookes and his wife Jane Litchfield lived in a large eight-bedroom house overlooking the Waiwhakaiho River. When Jane died in 1885, Edwin returned to Albertland with their six children. He later married Sarah Hine and they were both buried in Auckland's Minniesdale church ground.
Brookes Street in Inglewood is also named after Edwin Stanley Brookes.
[Brookes Terrace in Waitara is named for Lieutenant Charles F Brooke, 40th Regiment].
This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.
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