Remembered for?

We asked different people what they thought Tiniroto would be remembered for in the future:

"The poplar trees will always be significant to Tiniroto. You come over the hill either way and see the straight lines of poplar trees. People always say 'Wow, I wonder why there are all of these trees in a straight line?'. These trees are coming to an end but they came from one tree that was bought in, cuttings were taken and they were planted as fences because the people couldn't afford fencing material. Another thing is the people that live here, everyone has always been treated as equals and it doesn't matter what background you come from." Mr Cameron.

Famous people such as Shane 'the Mountain Warrior' Cameron have also helped put Tiniroto on the map with his boxing career and his pride in coming from the Tiniroto area. Shane makes a point of regularly dropping into the school when he is home and checking he can still run faster than the Tiniroto kids!

“The fact that way back, over 100 years ago Tiniroto was mostly in bush, bushmen used to come out,burn the bush, sow seed and then turn it into farmland. It will be remembered for what the bushmen did way back in the early days.” Mr Kent.

What have been the biggest changes since you have lived in Tiniroto Mr Kent?

The good road made a huge difference. When they put in the road from Wairoa to Tiniroto and on down to Gisborne it meant we got a mail service and freight service. Traffic today is also a big change – there is so much more of it. Metal trucks come in and metal the gravel roads etc. In early days, the Ruakaka Road used to be all clay and just a track. In patches there were springs where water ran over the road. You used to have to cut manuka branches, tie it together in fascines and lie it down to drive over.

Electricity coming also made a big change to life in Tiniroto.