Kaihu ( mi, Kaihū) is a locality and settlement in Northland, New Zealand. The Kaihu River runs through the Kaihu Valley into the Wairoa River near Dargaville, approximately 32 km south east. State Highway 12 runs along the valley and passes through Kaihu settlement.

Aranga Aranga is a municipality in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain in the province of A Coruña with an area of 120.49 km² (46.52 mi²), population of 2,181 inhabitants (INE, 2008). It is situated in the comarca of Betanzos Bet ...

is about 10 km north west. The Kaihu Forest is to the east and the Marlborough Forest is to the north. The New Zealand

Ministry for Culture and Heritage The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...

gives a translation of "eating secretly" for ''Kaihu''. The local hapu are

Te Roroa Te Roroa is a Māori iwi from the region between the Kaipara Harbour and the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. They are part of the Ngāti Whātua confederation of tribes. In the early 19th century Te Roroa fought a series of wars wit ...

of the Ngāti Whātua iwi.

History and culture

Ngāti Awa Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...

originally occupied the area, but were evicted and replaced by Ngāti Whātua around 1640 CE. In 1806 during the Musket Wars, battles were fought between Ngāti Whātua and Ngā Puhi over a pa near Kaihu, and a further raid occurred in 1825. Samuel Polack may have been the first European to visit Kaihu, in 1832. John Whiteley described Kaihu as "the principal village of Kaipara" in 1834 and recommended it as a suitable place for a mission to be built. Several Europeans tried to purchase land at Kaihu before a deadline on land purchases set for 14 January 1840 by Sir George Gipps. An attempt to purchase 18,000 acres (7300 ha) by James Salter and others in March 1839 was disallowed. Thomas Spencer purchased 400 acres (160 ha) of land in Kaihu in September 1839. Settlement of Kaihu ATLIB 220922

A railway line to service the kauri industry was built from Dargaville along the valley to Kaihu in about 1883, and extended to Donnellys Crossing in 1921 (becoming known as the

Donnellys Crossing Section The Donnellys Crossing Section (later the Donnellys Crossing Branch), also known as the Kaihu Valley Railway or Kaihu Branch, was a railway line in Northland, New Zealand. Initially an isolated line of , it became a branch line when the Darga ...

). As the roads improved, the line became uneconomic, and it was closed on 18 July 1959. A town grew up, initially called Opanake, but by the end of the century called Kaihu. In the 1890s, with both the timber and gum-digging trades expanding, and a road built from Dargaville, the population of the town increased from 200 to 500. A sawmill was established in Kaihu about 1898 for kauri and

totara ''Podocarpus totara'' (; from the Maori-language ; the spelling "totara" is also common in English) is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane and ...

, with a capacity of 3 million feet per annum, although this capacity may never have been fully utilised. Two large floods occurred around the turn of the century, one of which destroyed a large part of the mill. The mill closed in 1915, which caused the population of the town to halve. Several Ngāti Whātua marae are located in the Kaihu area. Waikaraka Marae and Whakarongo meeting house are affiliated with

. Ahikiwi Marae and Te Aranga Mai o te Whakapono meeting house are affiliated with the

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

of Ngāti Hinga. Taita Marae and Kia Mahara Koutou meeting house are affiliated with the hapū of

Ngāti Torehina Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

. Tama te Uaua Marae and Tama te Uaua meeting house are also a meeting place for local Ngāti Whātua.

Notable people

William Sage Rapson William Sage Rapson (14 August 1912 – 25 June 1999) was a New Zealand and South African chemist. His initial career was in organic chemistry but he moved into inorganic chemistry with particular emphasis on gold. His research interests ranged f ...

, chemist

Education

Kaihu Valley School is a coeducational full primary (years 1–8) school with a decile rating of 2 and a roll of 24. A native school first opened at Kaihu in 1887, but was replaced by a government school in 1897. The current school celebrated its centenary in 2004. Maropiu District High School, to the south of Kaihu, closed in 1973.

References

{{reflist Kaipara District Populated places in the Northland Region