Conceived in 1962, the gestation period lasted for more than five years, and as the infant grew it became beloved and reviled by about equal proportions of the community. But it spite (or perhaps because) of this, it thrived and became a talking point in the country's art world. In 1962 Wilfred Watts, an accountant, was asked by the city council to administer a gift to the city by Mrs Monica Brewster of $112,000 for the establishment of an art gallery. She stipulated that it be called the Govett-Brewster gallery in memory of her husband. Dr Rex Brewster, and her own family, early settlers in New Plymouth. Her maternal grandfather was Sir Harry Atkinson, four times Prime Minister of New Zealand, and her paternal grandfather Archdeacon Henry Govett. When Mrs Brewster died in 1973 she bequeathed a further $50,000 under the Monica Brewster Trust, the income from which was to be used for art purchases. On receipt of the first bequest a steering committee was set up, but no steps were taken to acquire a gallery for several years. At the instigation ofJohn Mathews, director of Fitzroy Engineering, and Michael Smither, a young artist who even then was acquiring national repute, the steering committee bought the old Regent Theatre and an additional area to the north. John Maynard, a young Australian, was appointed director, and he and a New Plymouth architect, Terry Boon, transformed the theatre shell into an attractive gallery which was opened in 1970. Almost immediately there was trouble: the policy of focussing on 'modern' art started an outcry, the echoes of which were still being heard a decade later: Why should ratepayers' money be frittered away on 'nonsense'? asked the traditionalists. In fact, purchases were made from trust money, and only salaries and maintenance were met by the ratepayers (the city council had loaned $100,000 for this purpose). Controversy escalated, and the city council formed a cultural commit- tee, with Dr Peter Allen as chairman, as the overriding authority in the administration of the gallery, the library and the museum. However, argument continued. Many citizens felt that a widening of horizons by a professionally-run gallery, with a variety of exhibits of modern work by local, national and international artists, was essential. Others made no bones about the fact that they looked on the gallery exhibits as a load of old rubbish. The clearest demonstration of this was the appearance of a signpost outside the gallery in 1977: 'Govett- Brewster Art Gallery; Lunatic Asylum, Home for Mentally Disturbed Artists'. By 1977 the atmosphere had cooled a little and when Len Lye's dramatic steel sculptures were exhibited, the popularity of the gallery took an impressive step forward. The acquisition of two kinetic sculptures and the loan of another by this internationally famous expatriate was a tremendously important step.
Lye, born in Christchurch, was a pioneer film-maker, artist and sculptor who had lived in New York since the 1940s. His philosophy of returning his life's work to the country of his birth led to his donating his collection to New Zealand, to be housed in the Govett-Brewster Gallery. He died in New York in 1980. Among the various exhibits which have caused heated arguments were paintings by Toss Woollaston, Billy Apple, Colin McCahon and Rei Hamon. (McCahon's Northland Panels was turned down when it was offered for $200 in 1959; it was turned down at $400 in 1973 by the National Gallery which subsequently bought it for $25,000.) Not all exhibits at the gallery were of contemporary works. There were many travelling exhibitions of traditional art covering a wide period of history. An important exhibition in 1970, 'Painting in Taranaki', mounted by director Ron O'Reilly (who retired in 1979) features pictures by early artists, all of whom had worked for a time in New Plymouth. These included Charles Heaphy, Edwin Harris, James Crowe Richmond, John Gully, William Strutt, the Hamar family, the Arden family, Sir William Fox and Stephenson Percy Smith, most which were loaned by various city galleries and the Taranaki Museum. The Govett-Brewster Gallery has done much to bring the public's attention to contemporary New Plymouth artists' work. Paintings, prints and sculptures by professionals Michael Smither, Don Driver, Bernard Aris, Colyn Nicholls and others have attracted wide local and national appeal. In addition the gallery has displayed children's art and Indonesian and Mexican SCUlpture; there have been lunchtime lectures, concerts and films. The gallery has also exhibited the work of the New Zealand Society of Potters, including that of New Plymouth members Jane Capon, Nicholas Brandon, Fran Conquest and Lynne and Mike Spencer. Soon after World War Two Laurie Mills and Rae Renaud were producing pots on an electric wheel and kiln and the craft's popularity spread. The New Plymouth Potters' Group was formed in 1967 but there were problems in finding suitable premises. In 1972, after two years of negotiation with the city council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, the group was granted a lease on the historic Te Henui Vicarage in Courtenay Street. With help from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, the Taranaki Savings Bank and the council, wheels, kilns and other equipment were obtained and the vicarage was used as a gallery for display of members' work. A measure of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery's influence has been the growth of the Friends of the Gallery-from 90 in 1973 to more than 500 in 1980. For more than 30 years the New Plymouth Society of Arts had been in search of a permanent home, and when the Govett-Brewster Gallery was opened it could have been excused for thinking it had found one. Founded in 1933 by a group of interested amateur artists and craftsmen under the presidency of Harry Bacon, the group met and exhibited in Bacon's Building in Devon Street as the North Taranaki Arts and Crafts Society.
In 1940 it moved into an old building in Ariki Street near where Richmond Cottage now stands. When the old building was demolished and the museum and library was completed, the society, renamed the North Taranaki Society of Arts, used a wing in the museum designed specially for art display. The space was eventually needed for museum display, and the society was once more without exhibition space. Their hopes lay in the new gallery, and when Maynard insisted that it was to be a professional gallery there was bitter protest. During the following years the society exhibited in the main studios of the radio station and in Purser's furniture shop. The society fought the gallery committee for several years. Eventu- ally in 1971 a compromise was reached. One exhibition a year, the Taranaki Review, was to be devoted to works by Taranaki artists, selected by professionals. This was welcomed by leisure artists, and the impetus provided an improvement in their standard of work. In the first year, out of nearly 300 works submitted, 49 were selected; in the 1978 Review 180 exhibits were chosen from a similar number of entries. But the society continued to search for a permanent home and in January 1977 it leased a building in Brougham Street, renamed itself the Taranaki Society of Arts and held continuing exhibits.
The pursuit of happiness in New Plymouth has not been confined to indoor entertainment. Ever since Carrington planned his green belt, the town's administrators and townsmen's efforts have created recreational areas, parks and reserves, until, hectare for hectare, the city now possesses open areas which few New Zealand cities of comparable size can match. Marsland Hill is the city's oldest and most famous reserve. Originally it was a Maori pa; it once served as a military stronghold (Civil Defence headquarters are on the lower western slope, and the flat top has memorials to the Maori Wars, and the Boer War). Over the years mature trees have softened the bare shape of the fortress, and the flat summit is an area of well-kept grassland where a carillon (the gift of George Kibby erected in 1971) plays, with varied reactions from the citizenry. Two areas which were originally marked for cattle markets have been turned into recreational areas. Kawaroa Park was largely neglected until the seaside esplanade and swimming baths were built in 1904 and attracted swimmers and promenaders. Today it is the site of a children's playground, tennis and squash courts and modern swimming and diving pools. The road, which began life as a track to the band rotunda in 1902, was formed in 1912 as a memorial to Mayor Tisch, a prominent beautification supporter, and the park was officially opened by Mayor Browne in 1913. As a result of a dedicated beach improvement society, the East End Reserve was one of the town's major attractions in the 1920s, boasting a two-storey pavilion and a fine swimming beach. Erosion has robbed it of much of its appeal. Another seaside area which, until the 1960s, attracted thousands of people was Ngamotu Beach, with its miniature railway, large pavilion, yacht and power boat headquarters, picnic grounds and holiday homes. The extension of the harbour meant the loss of the greater part of this park, but there is still a small area of beach and grass and safe swimming between the two breakwaters. Pari tutu Centennial Park was a 36 hectare gift to the town from the New Plymouth Harbours Board, and it marks the centennial of European settlement in Taranaki in 1841. It was established by the Pari tutu Central Park Act of 1938 and was opened in a gala atmosphere in 1941. Huatoki, Western Park, Te Mete, Central Park, Lynmouth Park, Barrett Domain and other recreational areas have all been developed by citizens until handed over to the city council which, in 1980 administered about 500 hectares of parks and reserves in and near the city. But it is Pukekura Park, the adjoining Bowl of Brooklands and Brooklands itself which is the jewel of the city's outdoor recreation system. The last act of the Provincial Council in 1875 was to pass an ordinance making over to trustees' about 90 acres of land adjoining the town of New Plymouth for the purpose of a Botanical Garden and Public Recreation Grounds'. 16 The ordinance proved to be ultra vires, and central government passed the Taranaki Botanical Gardens Act, 1876, validating the defunct Provincial Council ordinance. On May 29, 1876, Superintendent Carrington (who had 38 years previously designed the controversial green belt) opened Pukekura Park (the name taken from the stream which meanders through the area). Four trees were planted on the previously waste land by Carrington's daughter-a British oak on the eastern side; a New Zealand puriri on the north side; a Norfolk pine on the west side and a pinus insignus on the south. 'His Honour and Miss Carrington were loudly cheered and Mr Townsend's Band played the National Anthem before a large crowd.
. Since that time the whole area has been developed and planted with thousands of trees and shrubs, paths laid, lakes formed (in 1877), a band rotunda built, a playing ground laid out, where cricket, athletics, rugby league, military and civic celebrations have been held, and fountains, a waterfall, a pavilion and a tea kiosk built. Among the prominent citizens who did much to develop the area were R. Bayly, the first secretary of the Pukekura Trust Board, who designed the original layout, and J. T. Davis, who spent many years tending the trees, shrubs and grass. Davis was 'a bit of a sport'!" who had always supported Bayly's design for a bridge across the upper end of the lake. In 1886 he drew a horse, The Poet, in a sweepstake on the Auckland Cup.