Symonds Street

Newton
The former Orange Hall, a well-known Newton landmark.
Basic information
Local authority	Auckland Council
Population	1,176 (2006)
Surrounds
North	Freemans Bay
Northeast	Auckland CBD
East	Auckland CBD, Grafton
Southeast	Eden Terrace
South	Mount Eden
Southwest	Arch Hill, Kingsland
West	Arch Hill
Northwest	Ponsonby

Newton is a small suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand, under the local governance of the Auckland Council. It had a population of 1,176 in the 2006 census.

Since the construction of the Central Motorway Junction in 1965–75, Newton has been divided into two parts, and as a result, lost much of its size and coherence. The northern part is centred on Karangahape Road, and the southern part on Newton Road and upper Symonds Street. Both Karangahape and Newton Roads intersect with Symonds Street to the east. Newton Road joins the Great North/Ponsonby and Karangahape Road intersection to the west.

At the southern end of Symonds Street are the Symonds Street Shops. Here Upper Symonds Street has two major intersections with other arterial roads: Newton Road and Khyber Pass Road, and Mt Eden Road and New North Road.

Symonds Street is named after Captain William Cornwallis Symonds (1810–41), an officer of the 96th Regiment of Foot of the British Army. He came to New Zealand in the early 1830s as agent of the Waitemata and Manukau Land Company and was instrumental in the founding of Auckland and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. He was one of Governor William Hobson's closest and most effective officials and was one of the first six Police Magistrates in New Zealand as well as Chief Magistrate of Auckland and Deputy Surveyor of New Zealand. During 1841 Symonds accompanied the naturalist Ernst Dieffenbach in his survey of the North Island. Capt Symonds died on 23 November 1841 in a boating accident on the Manukau Harbour. Following his death his brother John Jermyn Symonds continued to live in the colony; Symonds Street in Onehunga is named after John Jermyn Symonds.