Māhoenui

Māhoenui
Village
Coordinates: 38°34′36″S 174°50′37″E / 38.57667°S 174.84361°E / -38.57667; 174.84361
Country	New Zealand
Region	Waikato region
Territorial authority	Waitomo District
Electorate	Taranaki-King Country
Population  (2018 census)
• Territorial	78
Time zone	UTC+12 (NZST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+13 (NZDT)

Māhoenui is a small community in the western North Island of New Zealand, on the Awakino River, near Piopio and Te Kūiti.

History

The Croall family lived on the Awakino River in the 1920s and 1930s, eventually having to leave the land as uneconomic to survive by traditional farming methods. Charles Croall, sr., relocated to Hamilton, setting up a construction business (Croall Construction) to build houses en-masse for the government. These subdivisions became known as 'State house areas' and were typically inhabited by lower socio-economic communities. Large numbers of those houses have been sold to private buyers, both individually and in bulk.

Lewis Robert Ridling (commonly known as Bob) and his wife Margaret Marina Ridling née Jackson along with their 5 sons and 3 daughters cleared the land by hand of scrub and bush in this area. The Ridlings worked their Māhoenui farm from the 1920s onward after Bob Ridling won the land in a returned veterans ballot after returning wounded from Gallipoli, Turkey from World War I. Many ex servicemen simply walked off the land due to the difficulty of turning it into viable farm land. The Moss's were also well known in the area as Mr Moss was the local school teacher in the 1930s.

Māhoenui is in meshblocks 1016005, 1016101-2, and 1016203-4, which had a population of 78 people in the 2018 census.^[1]

Education

Until 2005, Māhoenui had a small primary school, with a roll of six children in 2004. In 2005, the school closed down due to lack of students, with the property now privately owned.

Geography

Māhoenui is located in the King Country approx 50 kilometres (31 mi) inland from the west coast of the North Island, the topography is hilly to mountainous, with small alluvial areas near the streams and river.

Economics

The primary activity is sheep farming, with beef and dairy farming to a lesser degree.

References

External links

• Map of Māhoenui area
• Croall and Moss Family memorial site
• Mahoenui School
• Map and demographic data source for New Zealand

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This page was last edited on 22 January 2024, at 15:14