owners illustrates conflicting ideas about the type of access that the public should have to coastal areas of land. However, at no stage was consideration given to which form of access or control local Maori would have preferred.

Promoting, Developing and Managing the Domain - 1950s Onwards

During the 1950s there was general recognition that Bowentown could be further developed as a holiday destination. At Bowentown, as with the rest of the Bay of Plenty, there was extensive work being done on improving road access which resulted in increased numbers of holiday makers to the area. The board actively engaged in promoting and developing the domain’s economic and recreational potential. This view was expressed by the Chairman of the Katikati Domain Board, H. Cooper, who stated the ‘varied attractions and the need to develop it so as to serve a greater population for many years to come.’⁹¹

The board got revenue to finance the domain’s development from government sources as well their own revenue earning ventures, such as cattle grazing, pine tree planting and sand extraction. The board was encouraged by the Crown Lands Department:

The Board has received an offer from a Mr. J. Ryan of Waitakaruru to lease the grazing of Bowentown Heads at an annual rental of £100. The Board recommended that this be accepted. The Board was informed that this office was not in accord with the leasing of the area at this figure and suggested the whole area should be re-examined and schemed to give a suitable area for picnic grounds in the two bays, an area for camping and approximately 50 acres of workable ground for development either by lease or by the Board into a grazing area.⁹²

This would have been an opportunity for the Crown Lands Department, had it so desired, to press for the 50 acres of development land to be leased by (or for) Roretana and his people in response to their appeals for more land in this area.

At the time, the board’s plans were referred to as ‘modernising’ the domain so that it would be a ‘credit to this productive and beautiful district, and afford recreation to the local residents as well as being attractive to tourists.’⁹³ A development plan for the domain was drawn up. It involved four stages;

1. The construction of roads through the sand dunes and the domain.

2. The digging of a bore and the construction of a water tank and pump site.

3. The building of a caretaker’s residence.

4. The clearing of potential farm land and the building of a permanent camping ground between Anzac Bay and the Ocean Beach.⁹⁴

During the late 1950s the cost of this development programme began to be a burden to the board. The board sought further financial assistance from the Tauranga County Council. Although the council was not the local body controlling the Bowentown

⁹¹ Secretary Katikati Domain Board to Commissioner of Crown Lands, 5 November 1956, Katikati Domain Records, WBoPDC

⁹² Commissioner of Crown Lands to the Director-General of Lands, 12 April 1954, LS 3/2/40

⁹³ Waihi Gazette, 29 July 1954

⁹⁴ Katikati Domain Board Development Plan for Bowentown Reserve, November 1956, Katikati Domain Records, WBoPDC