A history of Patea's old hotels

AUTHOR: Laraine Sole signs a copy of her book, The Early Hotels of Old Patea. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

Last Saturday, Patea Museum was packed with people eager to witness the launch of Laraine Sole's latest book, The Early Hotels of Old Patea.

Laraine, a Waverley resident, has published a number of local history books about Whanganui and some of the surrounding area.

This latest work was published with the assistance of the Patea Historical Society, which funded the printing.
Jacq Dwyer, president of the society, welcomed everyone to the launch.
"I know we all have something in common and that is the love of our town and the love of history," she said. Jacq acknowledged dignitaries and people of note who attended.
"I want to thank Laraine, our star of the day, who has put together in the last year, which is an incredibly short time, this book, which is just a treasure trove of stories and talks about the 10 hotels in Patea. I find it amazing that we had 10 hotels."
Jacq, along with Graeme Prince, helped Laraine with proofreading.

Graeme Prince gave a short speech and thanked the staff at the Patea Museum for making the facilities available, before handing over to Laraine.

"I'm touched that so many people share my passion for history," Laraine began. "I think this is typical of Patea. When something happens here people get behind it."

Last year she spoke at the Patea Historical Society AGM, having recently completed a book on Whanganui's hotels. She suggested to Jacq that a similar book on Patea's hotels would be a short book, but Jacq replied that Patea had had five hotels. Laraine's curiosity got the better of her and some research uncovered the fact that Patea had 10 hotels in its history - as well as two breweries - and a book was born.

"Every day I found something amazing and new," says Laraine. It started with the military and John Casey's Shamrock Hotel at the beach, then extended to the Royal and Patea hotels, followed by the town hotels - The Australasian, Albion, Central, Carlyle, Masonic, Railway and Second Patea. The history of each hotel and its people are documented in readable form, with lots of Patea characters to give the book colour. The photographs alone are a treat.

The Early Hotels of Old Patea sells for $30 and is available from Patea Museum (Utanganui Aotea Museum of South Taranaki), H&A Print or Laraine on 027 8156110.