Viewpoint – Honouring Gordon Coates

This year marks a momentous chapter for Kaipara and the wider Northland region when four significant events converge.

Firstly, the centenary celebration of Gordon Coates becoming Prime Minister – the first New Zealand-born citizen to lead the country; secondly, the announcement by NZ Transport Agency of a transformative proposal, a four-lane highway linking Warkworth to Whangārei; thirdly, Kaipara District Council will notify its Proposed District Plan on April 28 opening up significant areas of new commercial and industrial zoned land, along with complementary residential and rural lifestyle zoned land; and fourthly, the annual Anzac commemorations, where we honored those who served and sacrificed for our nation.

These four events invite reflection not just on our past, but on how we honour it.

At the junction of State Highways 1 and the turnoff to Maungaturoto, a granite memorial quietly commemorates Gordon Coates. The bronze plaque fittingly reads:

Joseph Gordon Coates
1878 – 1943
Prime Minister of New Zealand
1925 – 1928
Farmer- Soldier – Statesman.
He was indeed a man.

Born in Matakohe and raised in the north, Coates was more than a Prime Minister. He was a soldier, a farmer, and a tireless advocate for rural communities. He served with distinction in the World War I, earning the Military Cross and Bar on the Western Front. His wartime service forged deep bonds with fellow leaders such as Sir Āpirana Ngata – bonds that would shape policy for a generation. Their partnership was one of the most remarkable in New Zealand political history. Ngata, a towering figure in Māori leadership, and Coates, a staunch Reform Party member and Minister of Public Works, found common ground in their post-war vision: to support returned soldiers, especially Māori, through land development and community rehabilitation.

Today, as bulldozers prepare to carve a safer, more resilient route through the Brynderwyn Hills, we have a unique opportunity to honour that legacy. Let us name this new highway the Gordon Coates Highway.

Why Coates? Because he understood the transformative power of connection. For him, roads, railways and bridges weren’t just projects – they were promises. Promises of opportunity, and prosperity. This is just as relevant today especially for the remote and rural communities he knew so well. His leadership was grounded in lived experience: farming the land, serving in the trenches, and walking the halls of Parliament.

Standing atop the Brynderwyn Hills, with sweeping views that extend across the landscape he once championed, it feels only right that this new proposed motorway and gateway to the north bear his name. It would be a worthy tribute.