Matangi ( mi, Mātangi) is a settlement in the

Waikato District Waikato District is a territorial authority of New Zealand, in the northern part of Waikato region, North Island. Waikato District is administered by the Waikato District Council, with headquarters in Ngāruawāhia. The district is centred to ...

on the eastern border of

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. It is surrounded by many lifestyle blocks, but the village centre has Matangi School (opened 1910, with 141 students and 6 teachers), a garage,

Four Square Four square is a team sport played among two teams with two players each on a square court divided into four quadrants: A, B, C, and D (usually numbers 3, 4, 2, and 1, respectively, depending on the court.) The square that a player gets to bef ...

, takeaway and café, Matangi Hall, St David’s church and Matangi recreation reserve.

Demographics

Matangi had these census results:

Geology

The area lies on Matangi soils, formed on the edge of the Komakorau Bog and the Waikato's alluvial plains of sands and gravels.

History

New Glaxo factory at Matangi AWNS-19191120-38-1

The natural vegetation would have been mostly have been a mixed bush of

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 a ...

, matai,

rimu ''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps. The Māori name ''rimu'' comes from the Polynesian ...

kahikatea ''Dacrycarpus dacrydioides'', commonly known as kahikatea (from Māori) and white pine, is a coniferous tree endemic to New Zealand. A podocarp, it is New Zealand's tallest tree, gaining heights of 60 m and a life span of 600 years. It was fi ...

, titoki, tawa, and rewarewa. Virtually nothing remains of it. Te Iti o Hauā marae, of Ngāti Haua, Ngāti Paretekawa and Ngāti Ngutu, is east of Matangi on Tauwhare Rd. These original owners lost most of their land to

confiscation Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, ...

or sales following the 1860s

New Zealand wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the ...

. In 1884, the

Cambridge branch The Cambridge Branch (officially named the Hautapu Branch since 2011) is a rural railway line in the Waikato, New Zealand. The line stretched from Ruakura Junction for 19.27 km to the town of Cambridge. It had five stations along its leng ...

opened with a station at

Tamahere Tamahere is a locality (located on a semi-rural ward that bears the same name) within Waikato District, New Zealand; on the outskirts of Hamilton. The majority of the Ward is zoned as Country Living, with a minimum lot size of 0.5ha. The la ...

, renamed Matangi in 1906. A creamery opened in 1885, then cheese factories and, in 1917, they amalgamated to form the New Zealand Dairy Association Group. Further amalgamation followed and in 1919 New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd opened its new dairy factory to produce dried milk for

Glaxo GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the tent ...

. At the time it was the largest in the country, able to deal with a day. It was an early customer of the Central Waikato Electric Power Board in 1921, when 12 local households were also connected. From 1919 until its closure in 1987, the Matangi dairy factory also produced milk powder, condensed milk and cheese. Since the mid 2000s the factory has become the centre of a history precinct, with historic buildings moved in to form a square beside it. Further rail sidings were added, along with a stationmaster and maintenance crews. In 1902, the first Matangi post office opened and in 1906, a telegram service was added, the school in 1910, bulk stores, marshalling yards and a community hall followed. After closure of the dairy factory, the post office and telephone exchange also closed. More recently, relaxation of subdivision rules have changed Matangi from a rural community to an area of rural residential development for Hamilton commuters.

Marae

The local

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

, Te Iti a Hauā Marae or Tauwhare Marae, is a meeting place of the

Ngāti Hauā Ngāti Hauā is a Māori people, Māori iwi of the eastern Waikato of New Zealand. It is part of the Tainui confederation. Its traditional area includes Matamata, Cambridge, New Zealand, Cambridge, Maungakawa, the Horotiu district along the Wai ...

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 op ...

of Ngāti Te Oro, Ngāti Te Rangitaupi, Ngāti Waenganui and Ngāti Werewere, and is affiliated with

Waikato Tainui Waikato Tainui, Waikato or Tainui is a group of Māori ''iwi'' based in Waikato Region, in the western central region of New Zealand's North Island. It is part of the larger Tainui confederation of Polynesian settlers who arrived to New Zealand ...

. It includes the Hauā meeting house. In October 2020, the Government committed $734,311 from the

Provincial Growth Fund Shane Geoffrey Jones (born 3 September 1959) is a New Zealand politician. He served as a New Zealand First list MP from 2017 to 2020 and was previously a Labour list MP from 2005 to 2014. Jones was a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Gove ...

to upgrade the marae and 4 other Ngāti Hauā marae, creating 7 jobs.

Education

Matangi School is a co-educational state primary school, with a roll of as of .

References

External links

1:50,000 mapMatangi picture on Google Maps street scene
{{Geographic Location , title = Neighbouring areas , Northwest =

, North =

Eureka, New Zealand Eureka is a rural settlement in the Waikato District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located on State Highway 26, and is surrounded by dairy farmland on a flat plain. There are various explanations for the name. One ...

, Northeast =

Tauwhare Tauwhare is a small rural community in the Waikato District on the outskirts of Hamilton. The Waitakaruru Arboretum and Sculpture Park is located here. There is a Community Committee and a Memorial Hall. The 1902 Cyclopedia of New Zealand ...

, West = Riverlea , Centre = Matangi , East = Pukemoremore , South = ''

Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...

'' , Southeast =

Hautapu Hautapu is a township in the Waipa District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, located just north of Cambridge across State Highway 1. The area was identified as the Hautapu Parish on a militia farm map published in 1864 durin ...

, Southwest =

Waikato District Populated places in Waikato