Middlemarch is a small town in the

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

region of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It lies at the foot of the

Rock and Pillar Range The Rock and Pillar Range of high hills is located in the Maniototo, an area of inland Otago, New Zealand. They are surrounded by the Taieri River, which has its source in the range, flowing out across the scroll plain at Paerau, before almost do ...

of hills in the broad Strath-Taieri valley, through which flows the middle reaches of the

Taieri River The Taieri River is the fourth-longest river in New Zealand and is in Otago in the South Island. Rising in the Lammerlaw Range, it initially flows north, then east around the Rock and Pillar range before turning southeast, reaching the sea sou ...

. Since local government reorganisation in the late 1980s, Middlemarch and much of the Strath-Taieri has been administered as part of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

city, the centre of which lies some 80 km to the southeast. Middlemarch is part of the Taieri electorate (formerly known as Dunedin South), and is currently represented in parliament by

Ingrid Leary Ingrid Marieke Leary (born ) is a New Zealand politician. In 2020 she was elected as a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the Labour Party. Early life and career Leary completed secondary schooling at Macleans College in ...

. Middlemarch has reticulated sewerage but no reticulated water supply. A description of 1903, that " e summer seasons are warm, but not enervating, and the winters cold, but dry" is still true today. It is a crucial service town for the local farming community, the

terminus Terminus may refer to: * Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination * Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination Geography *Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...

of the

Taieri Gorge Railway Dunedin Railways (formerly the Taieri Gorge Railway) is the trading name of Dunedin Railways Limited, an operator of a railway line and tourist trains based at Dunedin Railway Station in the South Island of New Zealand. The company is a council- ...

, and the start of the

Otago Central Rail Trail The Otago Central Rail Trail is a 150-kilometre walking, cycling and horse riding track in the South Island of New Zealand. A pioneering project for New Zealand, the successful rail trail joined the New Zealand Cycle Trail umbrella organisation i ...

. Several suggestions exist about how the township was named. One is that Mrs Alice Humphreys (née Hawdon, 1848–1934), whose husband

Edward Wingfield Humphreys Edward Wingfield Humphreys (1841 – April 1892) was a New Zealand member of parliament representing Christchurch North from 1889 to 1890. He was also a farmer in Otago, and his extended family included a number of political figures. Early li ...

owned and had surveyed for sale sections in this new township, named the town in 1876 after

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...

's novel ''

Middlemarch ''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by the English author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. It first appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midland town, ...

: A Study of Provincial Life''. Another is that the name is from the now obsolete English term "march" meaning a boundary - in this case a middle area between two rivers. As with many places in and close to the

Maniototo The Maniototo Plain, usually simply known as The Maniototo, is an elevated inland region in Otago, New Zealand. The region roughly surrounds the upper reaches of the Taieri River and the Manuherikia River. It is bounded by the Kakanui Range to t ...

area, its name may have been influenced by the

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

ancestry of early surveyor

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand. He lived the last 2 ...

(there is a Middle March region in Northumberland, centred on the town of Otterburn).

Demographics

Middlemarch is described by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement. It covers . It is part of the much larger Strath Taieri statistical area. Middlemarch had a population of 153 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, a decrease of 3 people (-1.9%) since the 2013 census, and a decrease of 12 people (-7.3%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 66 households. There were 81 males and 72 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.12 males per female. The median age was 50.2 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 21 people (13.7%) aged under 15 years, 18 (11.8%) aged 15 to 29, 90 (58.8%) aged 30 to 64, and 30 (19.6%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 96.1% European/Pākehā and 21.6% Māori (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Although some people objected to giving their religion, 62.7% had no religion and 31.4% were Christian. Of those at least 15 years old, 12 (9.1%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 30 (22.7%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $25,200, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 51 (38.6%) people were employed full-time, 21 (15.9%) were part-time, and 6 (4.5%) were unemployed.

Education

Strath Taieri School is a co-educational state full primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of students as of . The school opened in 1880, and was initially a high school. It became a full primary in 1975.

References

External links

The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, Te Ara, information on Middlemarch on its pages about Strath Taieri and Maniototo.

The official Middlemarch website.
{{Dunedin Geography of Dunedin Populated places in Otago

Demographics

Education

References

Further reading

External links