Skinner Street

Skinner Street is named after the pioneering Skinner family. Thomas Kingwell Skinner, who emigrated on the Oriental from Devon, England, to Taranaki in 1841, was the father of surveyor William Henry Skinner.

Widely regarded as founder of the Taranaki Museum, forerunner of Puke Ariki, William was born in New Plymouth in 1857. He was educated at private schools before embarking on a lengthy career as a surveyor, civil servant, historian, and Polynesian scholar.

William began his survey cadetship in 1872 under the supervision of Taranaki's chief surveyor, Thomas Humphries. In 1876 William was appointed assistant surveyor, and surveyed much of Taranaki's bush-clad terrain.

He collected and recorded information on Māori traditions and culture. In 1892 he became a foundation member of the Polynesian Society, formed to preserve the cultural remains of a "dying Māori race" and to provide a context for Pākehā scholars to discuss Māori/ Polynesian culture. He also contributed to and edited its journal. After his death in New Plymouth in 1946, the Taranaki Herald reported he was known to Māori as "Our kaumatua, Wirimu Kina".

William turned to office work in 1892 because of failing health and went on to become land transfer draughtsman, chief draughtsman and inspecting surveyor for Taranaki. In the 1890s he made detailed harbour surveys, particularly the movement of sand inside and outside the breakwater. From 1911, he was successively Commissioner of Crown Lands, chief surveyor of Marlborough, Hawke's Bay, and Canterbury. He retired to New Plymouth in 1919, recording his experiences in the 1946 publication, Reminiscences of a Taranaki surveyor.

He also published Taranaki eighty years ago (1923), Pioneer medical men of Taranaki (1933) and The establishment of the New Plymouth settlement (1940). He was chairman of the New Plymouth Public Library and New Plymouth (later Taranaki) Museum. He obtained pieces for its Māori collection and developed the early settlers' collection, donating sketches and original papers relating to Taranaki's early European settlement. He was also closely involved with St Mary's Church.

William Skinner loved Taranaki and chaired Egmont National Park Board's north committee. As Taranaki Scenery Preservation Society president, he successfully called for the preservation of scenic and historical sites like Marsland Hill, Western Park, Kawaroa Park, Meeting of the Waters, Koru and Pukerangiora Pā, and the Everett Road, Ōnaero, Okoki and Mount Messenger reserves.

Skinner Road, inland of Stratford is also named after W. H. Skinner.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related plans:

Skinner Street DP5530, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Skinner Street DP8015, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)