Te Mata is a small settlement from
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 ...
and from
Raglan.
Demographics
Te Mata is in an SA1 statistical area which extends from Te Mata to Pakoka Landing and covers .
The SA1 area is part of the larger
Te Uku statistical area.
The SA1 area had a population of 186 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 ...
, an increase of 51 people (37.8%) since the
2013 census, and an increase of 87 people (87.9%) 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 57 households, comprising 87 males and 99 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.88 males per female. The median age was 33.8 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 60 people (32.3%) aged under 15 years, 21 (11.3%) aged 15 to 29, 87 (46.8%) aged 30 to 64, and 15 (8.1%) aged 65 or older.
Ethnicities were 91.9% European/
Pākehā
Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non- Māori New Z ...
, 17.7%
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
, 3.2%
Pacific peoples, 1.6%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, and 1.6% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.
Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 67.7% had no religion, 19.4% were
Christian, 1.6% had
Māori religious beliefs and 1.6% had other religions.
Of those at least 15 years old, 24 (19.0%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 21 (16.7%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $36,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. 18 people (14.3%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 72 (57.1%) people were employed full-time, 21 (16.7%) were part-time, and 6 (4.8%) were unemployed.
Geology
The village lies in the Te Mata Stream valley, which is the main tributary of the
Opotoru River
The Opotoru River is a river of the Waikato Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows north, reaching the Raglan Harbour southwest of the town of Raglan. There is no regular monitoring of pollution, but (31.2%) of the river has been fenc ...
. Nearly all the rocks in the area are volcanic, the exception being chert (see History), though it is not marked on the geological map.
The village is on
Okete Volcanics, on a flat area on formed by volcanic damming, with
Karioi
Karioi or Mount Karioi is a 2.4 million year old extinct stratovolcano SW of Raglan in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It was the earliest of the line of 6 calcalkalic volcanoes, the largest of which is Mount Pirongia (the oth ...
Volcanics on the higher land immediately to the west. Some
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
ic
scoria
Scoria is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock that was ejected from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains or clasts.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) '' ...
includes
iron oxide bands with up to 51.74% iron content.
History
Te Mata was part of the
rohe
The Māori people of New Zealand use the word ''rohe'' to describe the territory or boundaries of '' iwi'' (tribes), although some divide their rohe into several ''takiwā''.
The areas shown on the map (right) are indicative only, and some iw ...
of
Ngāti Māhanga. Until the early twentieth century the area was largely covered in
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 ...
bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
. The archaeology map shows only one site near the present village, the great bulk of sites being near the coast. However, that one site, just north of the village, was of importance for its
chert
Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a ...
and the origin of the name, Te Mata, which translates as chert, flint or obsidian. Chert tools from the area have been identified at 18 sites from
Manukau South Head to
Awakino.
European settlement began in the 1850s. The
Raglan County history said, "On 22 March 1851, eighteen chiefs of Ngati-Mahanga and Ngati-Hourua, headed by
William Naylor, sold to Queen Victoria for the sum of £400'' (modern equivalent about $50,000)", '' of country bordering on the southern shores of the harbour. The western boundary of the Whaingaroa Block, as it came to be known, began at Putoetoe (the point on which the town of Raglan now stands) and followed the
Opotoru Stream inland. Leaving that stream at its junction with the Hutewai, the line ran south beyond Te Mata to a point "marked by a hole dug by the side of the path to Aotea. Here it turned north-eastward to run (again in a straight line) for eight miles through dense forest to meet the
Waitetuna River, the last few miles of which formed the eastern boundary."
An 1855 traveller through Pukerangi ( north of Te Mata) wrote, "We found some English settlers in the open spaces, formerly cleared by the natives, as we walked through the forest: one family of the name of McArthur, another Phillips from Bath, another Day. All seemed pleased with the land, which, though small in quantity, was very good in quality. We stopped half-an-hour after sunset at one of these "saltus," called Mata, where Rota and our lads had proceeded; and pitched our tent in a beautiful spot, where I expect to see, in five years' time, a fair population, and perhaps a Church."
However, settlement wasn't that fast; ''Raglan Old Settlers'', 1940 booklet said, "As nearly as can be ascertained the first settlers in Te Mata were the Hutchisons, Kinnairds and Barretts; about 1857 it is believed they came. Following them came Rollos, J. Mitchell, Bunting, Stebbins, Sherlocks and Wilsons. They had their homes in close proximity in the centre of the district. A narrow track through standing bush formed their outlet to the Raglan township." A store was opened in 1896, Te Mata Co-op. Dairy Co. started in 1902,. Te Mata Hall and a new school were built in 1905.
[R. T. VERNON: Te Mata - Te Hutewai the Early Days - 1972 A. O. RICE LTD]
A 1915 guide said, "''Te Mata is a small township in Raglan County, 25 miles from Frankton by coach, and about nine miles south of Raglan, on the Raglan-Kawhia Road. It is chiefly a farming and grazing district''."
Transport
Te Mata is south of
SH23, on the road which continues south to a junction with
SH31, near
Kawhia
Kawhia Harbour (Maori: ''Kāwhia'') is one of three large natural inlets in the Tasman Sea coast of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located to the south of Raglan Harbour, Ruapuke and Aotea Harbour, 40 kilometres southw ...
. It is
sealed from SH23 to Phillips Rd, south of Te Mata, as is Ruapuke Rd. Otherwise, most roads are
gravel, the transport system having developed slowly.
Roads
When the land was bought in 1855, the Commissioner wrote, "The land is of good quality, having a Native track leading through it from the harbour, capable of forming a road by deviating slightly inland." Those tracks were later supplemented by settlers' tracks, but it wasn't until the formation of Raglan Town (1868) and Karioi (1870)
Highways Boards that road building was paid for by local rates.
After the
Immigration and Public Works Act of 1870, government also contributed.
Waimaori Rd, now a little used gravel road, was first to be started. An 1864 track ran from Waitomotomo to Waimaori, extended about 1882 by settlers Ward and Jackson as a bullock road from the bridge at Waimaori and later extended up Waimaori Hill to the top of the coastal hills and down Mill Hill to Ruapuke Beach.
The state of transport in 1871 is illustrated by a description of the Saunders family arrival. It says they took a boat from Raglan to Bridle Creek, then a
bullock dray to Kauroa,
pack horses to Te Mata and then had to widen the track to Te Hutewai to get their packs through.
At its 2 January 1872 meeting, the Karioi Board decided to call for tenders to form the Te Mata-Raglan road in the worst places.
On 14 November 1870 the Board decided the bridge (possibly built in the late 1850s) over the Opotoru on the Raglan-Aotea road (Maungatawhiri Rd) was nearly worn out and that a bridge was needed for the new Aotea-Waitetuna road (Kauroa Rd), about upstream; now the only bridge. The Board was anxious to make one bridge serve both roads, but 2 were built. On 14 August 1872 it was decided to build a new bridge of puriri. The present 1960s bridge is concrete.
By 1880 Te Mata Rd was described as "a more than ordinarily good road", with the bush "felled for some distance on either hand" and "several well cultivated farms".
By 1884 of the road to
Kawhia
Kawhia Harbour (Maori: ''Kāwhia'') is one of three large natural inlets in the Tasman Sea coast of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located to the south of Raglan Harbour, Ruapuke and Aotea Harbour, 40 kilometres southw ...
had been completed to
Pakoka.
Public Works
Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...
Estimates were then made to extend the road over Pakoka Bridge in 1884, 1897, 1902, 1910,
1912, 1913, 1914, and 1918.
Buses
Te Mata now only has school buses, but once had public services. From March 1922 a two and a half hour, Pakoka Landing to
Frankton, via Te Mata, "Silver Trail", bus service started, with a motor launch connection to
Kawhia
Kawhia Harbour (Maori: ''Kāwhia'') is one of three large natural inlets in the Tasman Sea coast of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located to the south of Raglan Harbour, Ruapuke and Aotea Harbour, 40 kilometres southw ...
on Fridays. Problems with rough roads and tides caused it to fail. In 1938 a Western Highways bus ran from Kawhia to Auckland via Makomako, Te Mata,
Waingaro
Waingaro is a rural community in the Waikato District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, on the banks of the Waingaro River, where it is fed by a hot spring.
Demographics
Waingaro is in an SA1 statistical area which covers . ...
and
Tuakau
Tuakau ( mi, Tūākau) is a town in the Waikato region at the foot of Bombay hills, formerly part of the Franklin district until 2010, when it became part of Waikato District in the North Island of New Zealand.
The town serves to support local ...
and back the next day. In 1946 Brosnan Motors started a daily run, leaving Kawhia at 5.45am, arriving at Auckland at 1pm, returning at 2 pm. and back at Kawhia about 9.30pm. In 1950 Brosnan Motors sold the Raglan-Kawhia run to Norman Rankin, who ended it in 1952. Brosnan Motors sold the Raglan-Auckland run to Pavlovich Motors in 1971 but Jim continues to run the local school buses. The first bus used on the Auckland-Kawhia run was a 7-seater
Studebaker. Then a 10-seater
Dodge used by Norman Collett later gave way to a 14-seater
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it pro ...
. As the roads improved 18 and 21-seater
Diamond T
The Diamond T Company was an American automobile and truck manufacturer. They produced commercial and military trucks.
History
The Diamond T Motor Car Company was founded in Chicago in 1905 by C. A. Tilt. Reportedly, the company name was creat ...
buses took over. Now 40-seaters run from Raglan to Auckland. Pavlovich ended the Raglan-Auckland service in 1976.
[R T Vernon: Raglan]
In the early years of motor buses, some Hamilton-Raglan buses ran via Te Mata, but were replaced by a mail van. From 1 October 1950 until after 1983, Robertsons had a 9am bus to Raglan, which left mail at Te Uku en route. Rural mail was sorted in Raglan and this service travelled to Te Mata via Maungatawhiri, and then through Kauroa, on to Aramiro and back to Raglan via Okete, returning to Hamilton at 3pm.
Churches
All Saints Anglican Church was designed by Thomas Cray and cost £800, mainly raised by Te Mata Ladies Guild. It was dedicated by the
Bishop of Waikato
The Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki is one of the thirteen dioceses and ''hui amorangi'' (Maori bishoprics) of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The diocese covers the area from the Waikato to the area surrounding Mou ...
in 1928.
It was sold in 2013, though had been privately owned before that. The Catholic Church of the Holy Redeemer in Te Mata was built of
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 ...
and cost £600 to build. It was opened on 10 March 1935 by
Bishop Liston.
Dairies
![Te Mata dairy factory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Te_Mata_dairy_factory.jpg)
] About 1899 Mr. W. J. Smith built a butter factory, just south of Te Mata. In 1903 he sold the Te Mata Creamery for £600 and a Co-op Butter Factory was created, with 16 suppliers producing about 17 tons of butter a year. In 1911 it amalgamated with Kauroa and the Te Mata Factory closed.
Sawmills
The only mill at Te Mata was Fleming's who built a mill a short way up the Ruapuke road in 1903. They cut the timber for the 1905 Te Mata hall.
There was also George Saunders' mill at Te Hutewai built about 1908 and powered by a water wheel, fed from a dam which is still there. Raglan Sawmilling Co was formed about 1919.
Their Te Hutewai mill burnt down in 1928.
Saleyards
Kauroa
Cattle Market Ground, saleyards, north of Te Mata, were first used on 21 January 1914, replacing sheep and cattle yards further north.
Local farmers formed Kauroa Saleyards Society in 1977, when the yards were threatened with closure,
and continue to hold sales.
Shops
The nearest shop is now at Te Uku, but in the past there were several others. Mr W. Duffus had a store at Motakotako on Phillips Rd by 1874. By 1880 it was owned by
Mr J. W. Ellis. From the 1890s to the early 1920s Mr and Mrs Given ran a store and Post Office at Ruapuke. It closed in 1938, when
Rural Delivery
Rural delivery service refers to services for the delivery of mail to rural areas.
In many countries, rural mail delivery follows different rules and practices from that in urban areas. For example, in some areas rural delivery may require homeow ...
started from Te Mata.
P. H. Watkins opened a store in 1896 and moved to a larger, more central store in 1902. A hat and frock shop opened in the old store, Scott's saddlery and Cornes' plumbing shops were at the junction of the Te Mata and Ruapuke Roads, Wally Thomson had a blacksmiths and, in the 1920s, there were 2 butchers, each with a slaughterhouse.
Telephone
About 1880 the first telephone line to connect Kawhia with Hamilton came via Waitetuna, Kauroa and Te Mata. In 1914 the Te Mata Telephone Association was joined by 40 settlers linked to the exchange at the local store operated 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but with a 24-hour service for local calls. It went into liquidation in 1927
when the new post office, lines and exchange were built with 64 subscribers. The old lines had small insulators,
galvanised
Galvanization or galvanizing ( also spelled galvanisation or galvanising) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which the parts are submerged ...
wire, cheap poles and a
single wire earth system.
The exchange was automated in 1970.
Education
Te Mata School (Raglan), a state full primary (years 1-8) school, had, , a
decile rating of 1 and a roll of 81. The school opened in 1877, built from prefabricated immigrants cottages, which had been shipped to Raglan in 1874, and later hauled to Te Mata by John Galvan's bullock team. The present school was built in 1905. New classrooms were built in 1961 and the 1905 building re-modelled. In 1964 the old school house was replaced with one from Te Hutewai school. School baths were built in the 50s, and a filtration plant added in 1969.
Former MP,
Katherine O'Regan
Katherine Victoria O'Regan (née Newton, 24 May 1946 – 2 May 2018) was a New Zealand politician. She was a member of parliament from 1984 to 1999, representing the National Party. She served as a minister for the National Government for six ...
, was at the school from 1951 to 1958.
Schools formerly existed at Kauroa (1907
until amalgamated with Raglan 1941),
Makomako (1926-after 1973), Pakihi (1935-1960-ish), Pakoka (1915–19), Raorao (1844 - 1904, or 1907),
Ruapuke
Ruapuke is a small farming community (predominantly sheep and cattle farmers) in the Waikato region on the slopes of Karioi, between Raglan and Kawhia in New Zealand.
History
The introduction to 'Ruapuke' says, "The greater part of the R ...
and Te Hutewai (1924-1958).
Pupils now travel by school bus to Te Mata
or Raglan.
References
External links
1:50,000 mapGoogle street scene photo*Te Mata new
Facebookpage
*National Library 1910 photo
http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23203351 Te Mata main street and Public Hall]
public hallgeneral storehttp://natlib.govt.nz/records/2283736
http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23172486]
streamlooking southTe Mata Rd and bridgeTe Mata schoolhttp://natlib.govt.nz/records/23091631]
Takapaunui Riverhttp://natlib.govt.nz/records/22726677]
riverpondNicholson's BridgePrice's BridgeBlack BridgeRed Bridgeroad junctiondairy factoryhttp://natlib.govt.nz/records/23229661] an
World War 2 Home Guard Mounted Rifles
*Auckland Weekly News photos 190
1928 [http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aucklandcity.govt.nz%2Fdbtw-wpd%2FHeritageImages%2Findex.htm&AC=QBE_QUERY&TN=heritageimages&QF0=ID&NP=2&MR=5&RF=HIORecordSearch&QI0=%3D%224-6060%22 All Saints church]
*Auckland Star phot
1927 new Post Office
{{Waikato District
Populated places in Waikato
Waikato District