A break-up of the family

OPINION: As a young reporter, it was my first brush with Taranaki royalty. Looking back now, it was possibly a fascinating glimpse at the beginning of the end of a wonderful love affair involving a family dynasty and the small town that would feed and revel in its greatest achievements.

Before amalgamation in 1989 created just three district councils, there were smaller seats of power dotted around Taranaki, each entrusted with looking after the interests of the region's smaller towns and rural centres.

One of those was the Manaia Town Council. And one of its councillors was Melva Yarrow.

She wasn't the boss, but as a new reporter in the area at my first Manaia meeting, it was clear who was in charge.

The councillors discussed the usual things: roads, rates, rubbish. But the thing I remember was Mrs Yarrow's indignation as she brought to everyone's respectful attention the biggest blight on this small corner of South Taranaki.

Among the many beautifully manicured and cared-for frontages in this delightful, much-loved rural community was one ruined by a couple of unsightly car bodies.

Mrs Yarrow was disgusted and affronted; she wanted something done.

This ugly monument was spoiling the entrance to the town.

Her town.

That's how it has been for more years than many would care to remember.

For so long the aspirations and indignation of both Manaia and the Yarrow family and business have been intertwined, inseparable, symbiotic.

But it is possibly enlightening that just three years after Mrs Yarrow's personal crusade for the quiet decency of her small town, the council was swallowed by a bigger organisation with bigger interests.

Twenty years on, it is clear that Yarrows the Bakers and the family that has always been associated with the company have outgrown Manaia, that they have interests and concerns beyond the unsightly car bodies at the entrance to the picturesque town.

That intimate connection with the community has been unravelling for a while and may be severed entirely if there is any truth to rumours that this is not the end to restructuring and redundancies.

If that is true, and we hope it is not, then Manaia might be starting down the path trodden by the likes of Waitara and Patea, small towns whose biggest employers became chess pieces lost in a larger game of rationalisation and economies of scale.

That is a game few can win, least of all Manaia and the wider Taranaki district.

- © Fairfax NZ News