Ōkato

Ōkato is a small town in rural Taranaki, New Zealand. It is situated about 25 minutes drive around the coast from New Plymouth on State Highway 45. Oakura is 12 km to the north-east, and Warea is 9 km to the south-west. The place offers popular rocky surfing spots around coastal beaches. The town was established as a military settlement in the 1860s.

The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of Kato" for . While "Kato" was probably a personal name, an alternative translation is "place of full tide/tsunami". In July 2020, the name of the locality was officially gazetted as Ōkato by the New Zealand Geographic Board.

Ōkato has all the elements of a New Zealand rural community with sporting facilities (rugby grounds, bowling club, squash courts, tennis courts and swimming pool), Coastal Taranaki School, a police station, and a volunteer fire brigade.

Ōkato was also notable as the home of Okato Cheese which was manufactured by the Okato Co-operative Dairy Company. This manufacturing site closed some years after merging with Egmont Co-operative Dairy. Activities in the Ōkato area include the Stony River walkway, which has a number of locations for photographing Mt Taranaki.

The rural community of Puniho is located just south of Ōkato.

Demographics

Ōkato is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and covers . It is part of the wider Kaitake statistical area, which covers .

The population of Ōkato was 606 in the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 45 (8.0%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 75 (14.1%) since the 2006 census. There were 291 males and 315 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.92 males per female. Ethnicities were 558 people (92.1%) European/Pākehā, 144 (23.8%) Māori, 6 (1.0%) Pacific peoples, and 3 (0.5%) Asian (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Of the total population, 159 people (26.2%) were under 15 years old, 93 (15.3%) were 15–29, 273 (45.%) were 30–64, and 81 (13.4%) were over 65.

Kaitake

Kaitake had a population of 1,932 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 300 people (18.4%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 378 people (24.3%) since the 2006 census. There were 687 households. There were 966 males and 972 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.99 males per female. The median age was 39.5 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 471 people (24.4%) aged under 15 years, 270 (14.0%) aged 15 to 29, 969 (50.2%) aged 30 to 64, and 225 (11.6%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 94.7% European/Pākehā, 13.8% Māori, 0.8% Pacific peoples, 1.6% Asian, and 1.6% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).

The proportion of people born overseas was 16.0%, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people objected to giving their religion, 57.1% had no religion, 31.8% were Christian, 0.6% were Buddhist and 2.3% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 312 (21.4%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 234 (16.0%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $34,600, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 771 (52.8%) people were employed full-time, 291 (19.9%) were part-time, and 51 (3.5%) were unemployed.

Education

Coastal Taranaki School is a coeducational composite (years 1-13) school with a roll of as of The school was formed in 2005 from the merger of Newall School, Okato Primary School, Okato College and Warea School. It was initially called Okato Area School but changed its name.

Notable people

* Dale Copeland, artist

References

Further reading

General historical works

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Arts and literature

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Business history

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Churches

Anglican

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Methodist

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Maori

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New Zealand wars

* The diaries of the local farmer Alexander Cassie are held at Access to them is restricted, but they contain the reminiscences of veterans of the New Zealand Wars and the Parihaka incident. See

People

* The diaries of the local farmer Alexander Cassie are held at Access to them is restricted, but they contain childhood reminiscences and incidents from the 1910s. See
* The papers of the local historian and farmer Marc Voullaire are held at . This collection contains research carried out on the Taranaki dairy industry, the missionary station of ''Johann Riemenschneider'' (and other matters), and can be seen at

Schools

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Populated places in Taranaki
New Plymouth District