1950 |
1-Feb |
Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School opens |
| 1-Feb |
St Mary's Primary school opens |
| 1-Feb |
St James' primary school opens |
| 1-Apr |
City boundaries extended to include Milson and Kelvin Grove |
1951 |
|
Population 30,531 |
| |
Work begins on the new water treatment plant and water mains |
| |
Boundary Road renamed Tremaine Avenue in honour of Geoffrey Tremaine City Mayor from 1947-1956 |
| October |
City Council raises a loan of £267,000 for improvements to water supply after a previous attempt was rejected by residents |
1952 |
|
Brigadier General Leslie Wilton Andrew, VC, DSO and commanding officer of the Central Military District retires (born in Ashhurst) |
| 15-22 March |
City celebrates 75th Jubilee |
| 19-Oct |
Memorial Park War Memorial obelisk officially unveiled by Sir Howard Kippenberger |
| November |
A further £267,000 loan is raised to complete the water supply improvements, the addition is required due to increasing costs and increases in the project scope – the dam is now to be 30m in height |
1953 |
|
The large hangar and workshop of the National Airways Corporations (NAC) situated at Milson Airport is destroyed by fire, subsequently NAC moves their engineering headquarters to Christchurch |
| |
Roslyn Primary school opens |
| 27-29 January |
Major Flood of the Manawatu River, Hokowhitu and Awapuni under water, the largest since 1902 |
| 1-Apr |
City boundaries extended to include Awapuni |
| September |
Construction of the new 30m Turitea water supply dam begins (the Upper Turitea Dam) the Council's engineers department perform the work |
| November |
New Water Treatment Plant opened and new 525mm water main is in place |
1954 |
|
Philip Oscar Selwyn Skoglund elected as MP for Palmerston North |
| 7-8 January |
Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh visit Palmerston North, they stayed overnight in the Grand Hotel and attended a Civic Dinner in the ROSSCO building tea rooms |
| 3-Dec |
Memorial Park officially opened as a war memorial for World War Two, previously known as Fitzroy Park |
1955 |
|
Freyberg High School opens |
| 19-Mar |
Refurbished Opera House opens |
| 19-Oct |
Loan of £65,400 for airport development approved by ratepayers |
1956 |
|
Population 35632 |
| |
William Blair Tennent elected Mayor |
| |
PDC Department Store on The Square purchased by Consumers' Co-operative Society (Manawatu) Ltd |
| |
Queen Elizabeth College (QEC) opens, this School evolved from the former Technical School in Princess Street in 1906 |
| |
Central School on Featherston Street becomes Central Normal School |
| 23-Mar |
Palmerston North Teachers' Training College opens in Princess Street in the old Technical School Buildings |
| |
At the suggestion of Blair Tennent the YWCA takes over Willowbank to provide a hostel for female students at the new Teachers College |
| 9-10 November |
First International Agricultural Aviation Show held at Palmerston North Airport |
1957 |
|
Takaro Primary School opens |
| |
Ross Intermediate School opens |
| |
Sealed Runway and new terminal building completed at Palmerston North Airport |
| 20-Mar |
Clock Tower in The Square completed and informally presented to the City, the Tower was made possible by a £10,000 donation from local businessman Arthur Hopwood and contains the clock and chimes originally on the Post Office Tower |
| August |
New 30m dam at Turitea is completed for the City's water supply; it is still in use today, the dam stores 1.68 million m 3 of water |
1958 |
|
Awapuni Primary School opens |
| |
Winchester Primary School opens |
| 6-Feb |
Queen Mother visits Palmerston North |
1959 |
|
Gilbert Murray Rennie elected Mayor |
| 18-May |
City Council gifts land at Hokowhitu to Crown for university purposes, now site of Massey University College of Education-Hokowhitu Campus |
| 18-Jul |
Old railway line between Foxton and Palmerston North is closed |
| 27-Jul |
Milson Railway deviation officially opened on the northern side of the City |