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| How Kaikohe looked in the 1940's
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Kaikohe was peopled by Ngapuhi moving
eastward from Hokianga Harbour along an old Maori track linking east and
west. It is the home land of Hone Heke Pokai, the
chief involved in the wars in the north.
Originally a Maori village called Opango,
Kaikohe has been called the very centre of the great Ngapuhi Tribe. In the 19th century,
the village was raided by a rival tribe and fugitives subsisted among the
Kohekohe groves on Tokareireia (Kaikohe Hill) After the incident, the village
became known as Kaikohekohe which was later shortened to Kaikohe.
Following the
flagstaff incident at Russell, Hone Heke retired
inland
to Lake Omapere where he built a Pa called Te Kahika, as he was
anticipating an attack by British troops. This was the site of the first
battle in May 1845, from which the British troops retired unsuccessful, as they
also did from the second battle at Ohaeawai.
The district was the scene of fighting
during the New Zealand Land Wars and some battle sites can be seen nearby. St Michael's Church was built on the pa site where the Battle
of Ohaeawai was fought.
Fallen English solders are buried in the grounds of this historic
Church in Ohaeawai on the State Highway approach to Kaikohe.
To
the north of Kaikohe towards Lake Omapere, on
the left of the road, is the dome-shaped hill Mount Putahi, a sacred burial place
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The war chief, Hone Heke settled in Kaikohe
after fighting ceased, and died here in 1850. His nephew Hone Heke, MP for
Northern Maori, also lived in Kaikohe. In April 1911 a monument to him was
unveiled on Kaikohe Hill by Sir Turi Carroll, then acting Prime Minister, and at a
dawn ceremony on the 1st January 2000 a Time Capsule was buried on
this hill for the descendants of the Kaikohe People.
In the 1840's
Rawiri Taiwhanga, who is credited with being
the first Maori commercial farmer, ran a dairy herd on the outskirts of the
present Kaikohe and regularly sold butter to ships and settlers in the Bay of
Islands.
To the west of Kaikohe is the
Aperahama Church which was built in 1837, and was visited by Samuel Marsden on his last
voyage to New Zealand. The
present building was erected in 1884. I n 1845 the Reverend
Richard Davis, the first European settler, was sent to establish a mission in
Kaikohe. Much later Presbyterian, Catholic,
Baptist, Ratana, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventists, Brethren and
other religious groups followed.
In the 1880s Europeans lured by the trade in
Kauri gum soon established the town of Kaikohe in the centre of the mid-north
gum fields. By 1890
eight European families were living in Kaikohe. Businesses were established and
by 1892 there was a blacksmith's shop, wheelwright, storekeeper,
saddler, photographer, auctioneer and boot and shoe maker. Kaikohe soon became the commercial centre
for the gum trade. G F Dickeson and George Patterson had gum stores trading
goods for gum, and the latter in 1894 built the Kaikohe Hotel.
The Rev. Richard Davis established a school
at Kaikohe in the 1840s; a native school existed from 1872. In 1894 the first European school
was established.
When more land was opened up for settlement
after 1911 the town grew rapidly.
The railway from the south was extended to Kaikohe in 1914 which led to
further development of surrounding farm lands.
Electric power arrived in 1939.
In 1914
Kaikohe became a riding of the Bay of Islands
County Council. It was g azetted a
town district in 1919
and remained dependent on the Bay of Islands County Council. In 1927 Kaikohe became an independent town
district. In 1947 Kaikohe became
a Borough and in 1990 local government amalgamation took place with the headquarters
for the Far North District being sited in Kaikohe.
The Airport was opened in 1947, the year
Kaikohe was gazetted a Borough.
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| View from Monument Hill and the Hone Heke
Memorial | Hirini Taiwhanga of Kaikohe and Hone Heke
were both members of Parliament for Northern Maori. It was Hone Heke, MP, who
organised meetings with Maori to discuss the opening up of the central Kaikohe
lands for settlement. This
was the beginning of farming in the area and the growth of Kaikohe as a service
centre and later a Government Departments centre for the mid north.
Northland College, the first Agricultural
and Technical School in NZ, opened in 1947. It was established in the American Army
Hospital buildings which had been erected during the war and remained
unused. The Intermediate School was
opened in 1969.
Kindergartens, Kohanga Reo, Kura Kaupapa, Christian Schools and many
training establishments are presently operating
On the western side of Lake Omapere is
the town of Okaihau (the wind eater) which was established as a European township
in 1862 when a group of Canadian settlers arrived and began clearing the land
for farming.
Two kilometres to the west lies Pakinga Pa,
the home Pa of the Ngapuhi tribe's warrior chief, Hongi Hika.
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