BOPDHB History Whakatāne Hospital History Book | Page 19

Mr L Buddle’s home on the corner of Landing Road and King Street. Photo: Whakatāne District
Museum & Gallery (912)

Even by the middle of 1917 it was clear that the Board’s arrangements with the Mission Hospital were
of a temporary nature and that it would have to establish a much larger Public Hospital in the near
future. Several persons wrote offering sites for a hospital at Whakatāne. The Chairman inspected
most of these sites and tended to favour one on Soutar Bros. farm about two miles from Whakatāne,
on the flat. A meeting in Whakatāne expressed satisfaction with the Soutar Bros. site but, strangely, a
Tāneatua meeting considered Limbrick’s site on the hill above the town better suited for the purpose.

Ken Soutar ploughing a paddock on land to the south of Whakatāne. Photo: Whakatāne District
Museum & Gallery (13325)

Reverend James Soutar moved from Ōpōtiki to Whakatāne where he was the first
Minister at St George’s Church in Domain Road after it had been dedicated in 1892.
Like other pioneer clergymen of the day he purchased a farm ‘to augment his small
stipend’ in order to support his family. He and his family resided at the Old Mill
Farm (now usually referred to as Black’s Farm, located on Tāneatua Valley Road just
past the Water Treatment Station on the river side of the road). Earlier this was the

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