Waimiha is a rural community in the
Ruapehu District
Ruapehu District is a territorial authority in the centre of New Zealand's North Island.
It has an area of 6,734 square kilometers and the district's population in was .
Features
The district is landlocked, and contains the western half of the ...
and
Manawatū-Whanganui
Manawatū-Whanganui (; spelled Manawatu-Wanganui prior to 2019) is a region in the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand, whose main population centres are the cities of Palmerston North and Whanganui. It is administered by the Manawat ...
region of New Zealand's
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
.
It is located south of
Te Kuiti and
Benneydale
Maniaiti / Benneydale is a small town in the Waitomo District. It is on State Highway 30, approximately southeast of Te Kuiti.
History
Coal township
Coal was discovered in the area in 1931, and a mine was built at the town's present locat ...
, and north of
Taumarunui
Taumarunui is a small town in the King Country of the central North Island of New Zealand. It is on an alluvial plain set within rugged terrain on the upper reaches of the Whanganui River, 65 km south of Te Kuiti and 55 km west of ...
and
Ongarue.
History
Māori have lived in Waimiha for centuries, hunting birds from the forested hills.
The local Waimiha Marae is a tribal meeting ground of the
Ngāti Maniapoto
Ngāti Maniapoto is an iwi (tribe) based in the Waikato-Waitomo region of New Zealand's North Island. It is part of the Tainui confederation, the members of which trace their whakapapa (genealogy) back to people who arrived in New Zealand on 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
Te Ihingarangi.
It includes Te Ihingarangi meeting house.
Waimiha developed after the railway opened in 1901, which was followed by sawmillers and farmers.
Crown land in the area was prepared for settlement in the 1910s.
By the 1920s there were general stores, boarding houses, stables, a post office, butchery and cinema.
In the late 1920s, under a government policy introduced by
Āpirana Ngata
Sir Āpirana Turupa Ngata (3 July 1874 – 14 July 1950) was a prominent New Zealand statesman. He has often been described as the foremost Māori politician to have served in Parliament in the mid-20th century, and is also known for his work ...
, some Māori land owners received funds to convert their land into farmland. By the 1930s, of Māori land at Waimihia had been converted. Some of this land was later sold off or consolidated into larger farms.
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.
Endean’s mill,
New Zealand’s only surviving native timber sawmill, operated in the area between 1927 and 1996.
The complete remnants of the mill are no longer usable.
However, it remains on display as an open air museum,
and has featured in photography exhibitions.
Twenty-eight other abandoned sawmill sites have also been identified in the valley.
Milling peaked in the 1940s.
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
The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...
line, from the 1900s to the 1980s.
Alfred Hamish Reed
Sir Alfred Hamish Reed (30 December 1875 – 15 January 1975), generally known as A.H. Reed, was a New Zealand publisher, author and entrepreneur.
Early life
Alfred Hamish Reed was born at Hayes, Middlesex, in England on 30 December 1875, the ...
was recorded spending a night sleeping at the railway station in 1960.
The post office closed in 1988 and the last shop in 1991. In the 1990s
Carter Holt Harvey
__NOTOC__
Carter Holt Harvey Limited is a privately-owned New Zealand-based company controlled by Rank Group Limited, the corporate vehicle of the country's richest man, Graeme Hart. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, the company has three main div ...
replaced livestock farms with pine plantations.
Events
Waimiha is a stop on the New Zealand motorcycle racing circuit,
and has featured in the course for the
New Zealand Rally Championship.
Ruapehu District Council
Ruapehu District Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Ruapehu) is the territorial authority for the Ruapehu District of New Zealand.
The council consists of the mayor of Ruapehu
The Mayor of Ruapehu officiates over the Ruapehu District of New Z ...
hold periodic community meetings at Waimiha for residents to raise concerns.
Education
A 3-roomed school and teacher's house was built in 1912.
Waimihia School closed in 2005, after projected roll numbers dropped below the numbers required to teach literacy and numeracy.
See also
*
Waimiha Sawmilling Company Limited v Waione Timber Company
References
External links
Photo of closed school in 2016{{coord, 38.616393, S, 175.315506, E, region:NZ_type:city(200), display=title
Populated places in Manawatū-Whanganui
Ruapehu District