Plymouths around the world

New Zealand

Devonport

Devonport (pop. 18,000) is part of North Shore City, Auckland, on the North Island of New Zealand, and is almost entirely surrounded by the sea. Maori settlements in the area date from the mid-fourteenth century, whilst European colonisers moved in during the mid-nineteenth century.

• Extensive information, including a history, about Devonport, New Zealand
• Devonport Branch Library: North Shore Libraries

New Plymouth

From 6 February 1840 until September of that year, more than 500 Maori and 200 Pakeha Chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, effectively consenting to New Zealand becoming a British colony. In anticipation of the treaty, the Plymouth Company of New Zealand was formed at a public meeting held in Plymouth, England, on 25 January 1840, to enable people from Devon and Cornwall to set up a colony in New Zealand. The first ship to leave Plymouth, "William Bryan", sailed on 19 November 1840 with 148 passengers led by George Cutfield, a former naval architect in Devonport Dockyard, landing at a bay in Taranaki on the west coast of North Island on 31 March 1841.

Over the next two years a further five ships, "Amelia Thompson", "Oriental", "Timandra", "Blenheim" and "Essex" made the same journey, whilst the "Brougham" delivered immigrants from Wellington. Although the Plymouth Company merged with the New Zealand Company of London in 1842, the community that grew up in the bay was named New Plymouth, and the main thoroughfare was, and remains, Devon Street. Today, New Plymouth is a thriving port with a population of 49,500. New Plymouth District has a population of 77,000, whilst 103,000 live in Taranaki Province.

• Extensive information about New Plymouth, New Zealand
• Interactive aerial photograph of New Plymouth and Taranaki Province
• New Plymouth District Libraries