House of Te Ua Whaka, at Manakau ATLIB 249971

Manakau is a settlement in the

Horowhenua District Horowhenua District is a territorial authority district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, administered by Horowhenua District Council. Located north of Wellington and Kapiti, it stretches from slightly north of the town of ...

, at the boundary of the

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 ...

and Wellington regions 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 lies 8 km north of Otaki and 12 km south of Levin, and is connected to both via State Highway 1, which skirts Manakau's western edge. The township 5 km inland from the coast of the Tasman Sea. In 1886, Manakau became the first place to have a railway station on the newly completed Wellington-Manawatu railway line.McKinnon, M.
Horowhenua
" ''Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand'', 21 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2018. The line is now part of the North Island Main Trunk line, but the station itself has long been closed. Industries in the area include horticulture, and there are several plant nurseries in or close to the township. The name ''Manakau'' comes from the Māori words ''mana'' (prestige, authority) and ''kau'' (alone, sole). The name refers to an invasion of the district by notable tribal leader Te Rauparaha, who subdued the area on the strength of his prestige alone, with the local residents putting up no resistance.Reed, A.W. (1975). ''Place names of New Zealand''. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed. p. 243 The streets are named after Māori members of Parliament.

Marae

Manakau has two marae, affiliated with local hapū from the Ngāti Raukawa iwi. Tūkorehe Marae and its meeting house of the same name are affiliated with the hapū of Ngāti Tūkorehe; Wehi Wehi Marae and its meeting house of the same name are affiliated with the hapū of

Ngāti Wehi Wehi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as " tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...

. In October 2020, the Government committed $482,108 from the Provincial Growth Fund to Ngāti Tūkorehe to upgrade its Tūkorehe Marae, creating 17.5 positions.

Demographics

Manakau is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and covers . It is part of the wider Ōhau-Manakau statistical area, which covers . The population of Manakau was 420 in 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 87 (26.1%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 81 (23.9%) since the 2006 census. There were 204 males and 219 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.93 males per female. Ethnicities were 363 people (86.4%) European/Pākehā, 78 (18.6%) Māori, 9 (2.1%) Pacific peoples, and 18 (4.3%) Asian (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Of the total population, 66 people (15.7%) were under 15 years old, 48 (11.4%) were 15–29, 186 (44.3%) were 30–64, and 120 (28.6%) were over 65.

Education

Manakau School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of .

References

External links

* {{Horowhenua District Populated places in Manawatū-Whanganui Horowhenua District