Market town in transition: a study of industrial growth in Levin

Abstract

In 1955 it was possible to describe Levin as a market town, the two defining characteristics being its function, to provide services to the surrounding agricultural population, and its sphere of influence, local.

Up to the 1950s, the description 'market town' could also have been accurately applied to almost every non suburban borough in the North Island of New Zealand.

The colonisation process and the intensive farming pattern which emerged, resulted in a settlement pattern of relatively numerous, dispersed , small towns and villages, associated with a system of regional, or secondary urban areas, formerly provincial centres. These regional centres have usually occupied strategic points on the main trunk line. Their growth has been stimulated where they are ports (New Plymouth, Wanganui, Napier, and more recently Whangarei) or centres of productive tributary areas (Palmerston North and Hamilton).