Talk:Tapawera

Geographic Centre / Gravitational Centre
"Gravitational Centre" is not the correct term. It is not even used in the reference given. "Geographic Centre" (or perhaps "Geographical") appears to be the accepted terminology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_centre

Please also read the newspaper clipping about the 1962 calculations by Dr Ian Reilly: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1giLDfmjydEA8HMARufmWodgdSZ1zbI9D/view

Nelson City council confirmed to me in early 2019 that the information on their website was sourced from a 27 June 1962 newspaper article, and then I eventually obtained a copy of that article from GNS who had a clipping in their library. That also uses "Geographic Centre".

You will see that Dr Ian Reilly gave error margins of 5 minutes of arc for the positions he calculated. That equates approximately to a potential error in the north/south direction of over 9km. Furthermore it turns out that his estimated error was on the low side, and the position is actually about 20 km south of what he calculated.

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/38916-centre-of-the-mainland/&do=findComment&comment=464562

I've personally calculated the positions in various ways, using several different datasets and different methods, and there really isn't any doubt. These more accurate results mean Tapawera is roughly 30 km north of the more accurately calculated position, and also means St Arnaud is quite a bit closer than Tapawera. -- SeeNoEvil (talk) 21:51, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the research effort - it's much appreciated ! --BushelCandle (talk) 13:56, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

Appropriate NZ English descriptive term for Tapawera is not "hamlet"
I see that User:BushelCandle recently changed the description of Tapawera from "small town" to "hamlet". "Hamlet" is not commonly used in NZ English to describe places in NZ. I am a New Zealander and in my opinion other terms such as "small town", "township", "rural settlement", or even "village" would be much more likely to be used by locals.

For one example, here's one site where those in Tapawera refer to their home as a "small town":

https://www.tapawera.org.nz/about-tapawera#!

Therefore I am going to change "hamlet" back to "small town". -- SeeNoEvil (talk) 11:33, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
 * New Zealand English tend to be closer to British and Irish English than the US variety (although I do concede that the direction of change is towards the US flavour). "Hamlet" is by no means unknown in the New Zealand variety of English as the descriptor of a small, concentrated settlement.
 * (eg: http://www.cycletour.org.nz/rides/south/motueka-to-murchison.html and https://www.mindat.org/loc-297829.html and https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=308817) but perhaps we could compromise on "village" ? (If you've been to Tapawera, it's no more a "small town" than Puponga or Stanleybrook are...) --BushelCandle (talk) 13:56, 27 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Tapawera apparently has a population of around 400. I haven't driven through it recently but I had a look via Google Earth and street view. I do also see some other NZ web pages referring to Tapawera as a village, but you will see that it is also listed on List of towns in New Zealand and a Google search will lead you to many other places in New Zealand that are of a similar size to Tapawera, or even smaller, also described on WP as "is a small town".


 * Here's just the beginning of a list of other such places:


 * * Ross, New Zealand
 * * Waiau, Canterbury
 * * Sanson, New Zealand
 * * National Park, New_Zealand
 * * Riversdale, New Zealand
 * * Haast, New Zealand
 * * Fox Glacier, New Zealand
 * * Kurow


 * What notion or definition of "town" do you want to see upheld in articles about places in NZ?


 * SeeNoEvil (talk) 06:49, 30 August 2019 (UTC)