 Aratapu is today a small settlement on the west bank of the Wairoa River, a short distance downstream from Dargaville, but back then economically as important as Dargaville if not ahead.His father became a newspaper proprietor but was blind for the last ten years of his life, and Arthur Stallworthy took over the running of the "Wairoa Bell and Northern Advertiser".After his father's death in November 1923, Arthur Stallworthy inherited the newspaper, which he sold soon after.