Early street lights in New Zealand were first installed in major cities in the 1860s with Christchurch recording having 152 gas lamps throughout the city.[1] With the shift to electric lights cities moved away from gas lamps and on to the incandescent lamps with the towns of Wellington (1889) and Reefton (1888) becoming the first cities in the southern hemisphere to have electric street lights.[2][3] Other towns soon followed suit with the town of Brightwater adding five and Richmond adding ten street lights in 1911.[4][5] During the mid 20th century a move towards fluorescent lamps was taken up.[1] Pressing into the 21st century New Zealand likemuch of the industrialised world has been expanding the installation of LED lights, and have seen large savings.[6][7][8][9] In modern times communities in New Zealand have turned their street lights off for multiple reasons including to save energy[10] and to help protect local wildlife in particular the Westland petrel as well as reduce light pollution.[11][12][13]
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edit- ^ a b Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "Street lighting". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ "Electricity comes to Reefton". Inangahua Herald. 6 September 1888.
- ^ Isaacs, Nigel (17 January 2014). "Lamp commemorating electric lighting". Dominion Post. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
- ^ "Robert Ellis and Brightwater's electricity". www.theprow.org.nz. 12 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
- ^ "Death of Mr Robert Ellis". Nelson Evening Mail. 5 March 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ Perry, Emma (9 June 2020). "Replacement of street lights in full swing again". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ Jefferies, Joanna (2015). "Shine on". Architecture Now. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ "LED street lighting". Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ "Smart streetlights save Christchurch ratepayers $1.5m". Smart Cities World. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ "Dunedin turns off street lights to save power". NZ Herald. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ "New Zealand village turns off street lights to stop birds crash-landing on to roads". The Guardian. 22 December 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ Dunn, Jordon (3 June 2022). "Metro News: This small town is troubled by street lights". METRONEWS. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ Gibson, Jacqui (2 February 2022). "Saving the night sky: New Zealand's craziest experiment yet?". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 25 September 2022.