Exit the Whangara Pub

There were plenty of customers at the Whangara Hotel on a recent Saturday morning, but they weren't there to buy a beer. They had some instead to bid at an auction of hotel's chattels, another of the final death-blows which soon will make the Whangara "pub" only a memory.

Advertised as the "Sale at the Pub With No Beer", the occasion drew a large crowd, and at the end of the day, everything had been sold except the beer cooling plant.

The hotel lost its licence at a recent sitting of the Gisborne Licencing Committee.

Crowds gathered early for auction

Brian Sherriff, of Barwicks, found ready market for odds and ends

Even the clothesline was sold

Originally the hotel was situated at Pakarae, on the coast, where it was a much-needed stop in the days of coaching when the route lay along the beaches. But when the road was constructed inland, the hotel was moved to its present site, and added to. Difficulties over the tenure of the site, and the expense involved in bringing the building up to required standards, led to the lapsing of the licence.

Young John Skurr takes a shot at "Photo News" with the beer nozzle. Sad to say, it had no "ammo".

Familiar landmark which greeted north-bound travellers from Waiomoko Bridge will soon be only a memory

Previous article Issue contents Next article

The Gisborne Photo News

No 82 : April 20, 1961

Exit the Whangara Pub