Waimiha

Waimiha is a rural community in the Ruapehu District and Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island.

It is located south of Te Kuiti and Benneydale, and north of Taumarunui and Ongarue.

History

Māori have lived in Waimiha for centuries, hunting birds from the forested hills.[1]

The local Waimiha Marae is a tribal meeting ground of the Ngāti Maniapoto hapū of Te Ihingarangi.[2] It includes Te Ihingarangi meeting house.

Waimiha developed after the railway opened in 1901, which was followed by sawmillers and farmers.[3] Crown land in the area was prepared for settlement in the 1910s.[4] By the 1920s there were general stores, boarding houses, stables, a post office, butchery and cinema.[3]

In the late 1920s, under a government policy introduced by Āpirana Ngata, some Māori land owners received funds to convert their land into farmland. By the 1930s, 150 hectares (370 acres) of Māori land at Waimihia had been converted. Some of this land was later sold off or consolidated into larger farms.[5][6]

The Waimiha farm scheme was one of the Māori land blocks in the country to be successfully converted to farmland. Local Farmers' Union president Ngaronui Jones, who oversaw the conversion, also developed a farm on his own ancestral land.[7]

Endean’s mill, New Zealand’s only surviving native timber sawmill, operated in the area between 1927 and 1996.[8] The complete remnants of the mill are no longer usable.[9] However, it remains on display as an open air museum,[10] and has featured in photography exhibitions.[11] Twenty-eight other abandoned sawmill sites have also been identified in the valley.[1] Milling peaked in the 1940s.[3]

The Waimiha Railway Station, extremely narrow Poro-o-Tarao railway tunnel and Picture Palace hall were landmarks in the town when the township was a stop on the North Island Main Trunk line, from the 1900s to the 1980s. Alfred Hamish Reed was recorded spending a night sleeping at the railway station in 1960.[12]

The post office closed in 1988 and the last shop in 1991. In the 1990s Carter Holt Harvey replaced livestock farms with pine plantations.[3]

Events

Waimiha is a stop on the New Zealand motorcycle racing circuit,[13][14] and has featured in the course for the New Zealand Rally Championship.[15]

Ruapehu District Council hold periodic community meetings at Waimiha for residents to raise concerns.[16]

Education

A 3-roomed school and teacher's house was built in 1912.[17] Waimihia School closed in 2005, after projected roll numbers dropped below the numbers required to teach literacy and numeracy.[18]

See also

References
  1. Waimiha People of Character. New Zealand: Waimiha Sports Club. 2003. ISBN 9780473247836.
  2. "Te Kāhui Māngai directory". tkm.govt.nz. Te Puni Kōkiri.
  3. "4. – King Country places". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  4. Fraser, M (30 November 1912). The Official New Zealand Yearbook 1912. Wellington: New Zealand Registrar-General's Office.
  5. Pollock, Kerryn. "Farming, forestry and mining". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
  6. Pollock, Kerryn. "Making hay at Waimiha, 1940s". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
  7. Stevenson, Joy (1972). "Ngaronui Jones". Te Ao Hou. 70: 4.
  8. Pollock, Kerryn. "Endean's mill: sawmill building, 2011". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
  9. "Broken down Endean's Mill survives complete". New Zealand Logger. April 2007. p. 44.
  10. Easther, Elizabeth (11 July 2014). "Best things to see and do in Waikato's Benneydale". New Zealand Media and Entertainment. The New Zealand Herald.
  11. Kamm, Rebecca. "Beautiful ruins". The Wireless. Radio New Zealand.
  12. Hutchins, Graham (August 2014). Stop the Train! I Want to Get On: Rediscovering New Zealand Railway Journeys. Exisle Publishing. pp. 121–123.
  13. "Motorcycling: Bay teen Bryn Codd opens national series in style". New Zealand Media and Entertainment. Hawke's Bay Today. 24 July 2018.
  14. "Whanganui rider Seth Reardon wins Central Cross-country Series opener". New Zealand Media and Entertainment. Whanganui Chronicle. 14 November 2018.
  15. McKay, Ross (23 October 2012). "Targa lead now a three-way fight". Stuff. Taranaki Daily News.
  16. "Ruapehu District Council assures community roads well-managed despite challenges". New Zealand Media and Entertainment. Whanganui Chronicle. 14 October 2018.
  17. "Stations" (PDF). NZR Rolling Stock Lists. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  18. Akuhata, Karla (2 March 2012). "Waikato classrooms sitting idle". Stuff. Waikato Times.

External links
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.