Manawatū-Whanganui

In the Māori language, the name Manawatū is a compound word that originates from an old Māori waiata (song). The waiata "Ka tatū e hine ko Manawatū" describes the search by an early ancestor, Haunui-a-Nanaia, for his wife, during which he named various waterways in the district, and says that his heart (manawa) settled or momentarily stopped (tatū) when he saw the Manawatu River.[5]

Whanga nui is a phrase meaning "big bay"[6] or "big harbour". The first name of the European settlement at Whanganui was Petre (pronounced Peter), after Lord Petre, an officer of the New Zealand Company, but the name was never popular and was officially changed to "Wanganui" in 1854.[7] In the local dialect, Māori pronounce the wh in Whanganui as [ˀw], a voiced labial–velar approximant combined with a glottal stop,[8] but to non-locals the name sounds like "Wanganui" and is hard to reproduce.

In 1991 the New Zealand Geographic Board considered demands from some local Māori to change the name of the river to Whanganui.[9] After widespread controversy for many years, in September 2019 the New Zealand Geographic Board announced that from 18 October 2019 the name of the Manawatu-Wanganui region, and the regional council, would incorporate both the letter "h" and a macron, becoming "Manawatū-Whanganui".[5] This became the official spelling of the name on 18 October, although the Manawatū-Whanganui Regional Council would continue to use the trading name of Horizons Regional Council.[10]

See: Controversy over Wanganui/Whanganui spelling.

The region covers all or part of ten territorial authority areas. Parts of five of these are covered by five other regions of New Zealand, the most of any region. In descending order of land area the territorial authority districts are Ruapehu, the major parts of Tararua District and Rangitikei, Manawatū, Whanganui, Horowhenua, and small parts of Stratford, Waitomo, and Taupō.[11] The largest city is Palmerston North, with a population of 85,300 (June 2012 estimate). It is the only territorial authority in the region to be administered by a city council.

The governing body of the regional council consists of 12 councillors from 6 constituencies across the region, elected by the public; from the north: Ruapehu (1 councillor), Whanganui (2), Manawatū-Rangitikei (2), Palmerston North (4), Horowhenua (2), Tararua District (1). It sits in Palmerston North. It has the responsibility for managing natural and physical resources, providing flood protection and monitoring environmental problems and fresh air, clean water, productive land and natural eco-systems. It is also responsible for public transport.

The region is dominated and defined by two significant river catchments, the Whanganui and the Manawatu. The Whanganui River, in the northwest, is the longest navigable river in New Zealand. The river was extremely important to early Māori as it was the southern link in a chain of waterways that spanned almost two-thirds of the North Island. It was one of the chief areas of Māori settlement with its easily fortified cliffs and ample food supplies. Legends emphasise the importance of the river and it remains sacred to Whanganui iwi. Māori along the coast and lowland plains grew kumara and other crops. The Manawatū River runs across the centre of the region, from rolling hill country in the east to the fertile Manawatū Plains in the west. The main city of Palmerston North is located on these plains, and is an important service city for the southern North Island as a whole. This river is unusual, in that it passes from hill country to plains through a gorge cut into much higher country, an indication that the hills have risen since the river formed.

To the southeast, a further, more sparsely populated area of the Tararua District lies between the sources of the Manawatū River near Norsewood and the Pacific coast. This area, often historically connected with both the Hawke's Bay Region to the north and the Wairarapa to the south, was historically simply known as Bush, a name which still survives in some businesses and organisations, most notably the Wairarapa Bush Rugby Football Union.

The two river catchments have very different natures. While the open Manawatu Plains became more densely settled by Europeans, inland Ruapehu, Rangitikei, and Whanganui remained more Māori-dominated, remote and independent, and is still heavily forested. As late as the 1950s the Whanganui River remained a river of mystery. Since then exploitation of the river's commercial potential has opened up the area, often causing friction with local Māori, who have long-standing grievances. Manawatū-Whanganui as a whole is one of the most important pastoral areas in New Zealand, its status recognised when the government opened the Massey Agricultural College in the 1920s.

Much of Manawatu-Wanganui was fertile and bush-covered when Europeans arrived and developed the area as a source of timber. Saw milling and flax milling dominated the 19th century, followed by an influx of sheep farmers who exploited the newly cleared ground. Deforestation, burn-offs of timber and scrub and large scale drainage combined with overgrazing, resulted in considerable environmental degradation. In the early 1900s authorities realised that careful management was needed to maintain this important agricultural area.

Manawatū-Whanganui Region covers 22,220.67 km² (8,579.45 sq mi)[1] and had an estimated population of 258,200 as of June 2022,[2] with a population density of 12 people per km².

Manawatū-Whanganui Region had a population of 238,797 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 16,125 people (7.2%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 16,374 people (7.4%) since the 2006 census. There were 90,408 households. There were 117,123 males and 121,671 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.96 males per female. The median age was 39.4 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 47,763 people (20.0%) aged under 15 years, 46,650 (19.5%) aged 15 to 29, 101,337 (42.4%) aged 30 to 64, and 43,044 (18.0%) aged 65 or older.

Of those at least 15 years old, 30,936 (16.2%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 42,693 (22.3%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $27,200, compared with $31,800 nationally. 22,557 people (11.8%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 88,254 (46.2%) people were employed full-time, 27,990 (14.7%) were part-time, and 8,580 (4.5%) were unemployed.[14]

Population density in Manawatū-Whanganui at the 2006 census

• Pre-1769 Approximately 3% of Māori lived in the Whanganui Basin and 8% on the Taranaki coast. Coastal Māori garden and gather food but life for Māori further inland is more difficult, relying on hunting and gathering.
• 1820–40 Ngāti Toa and Te Atiawa iwi displace local iwi from their lands.
• 1830 Te Rauparaha (Ngati Toa) lay siege to Pūtiki Pā in retaliation for an attack on Kapiti Island, sacking the pā and killing its inhabitants.
• 1831 European traders arrive in the Whanganui area, led by Joe Rowe, supposedly a dealer in preserved heads (moko mokai). A dispute with local Māori leads to the death of three of his party and his own head is cut off and preserved.
• 1840 Jerningham Wakefield (Edward Gibbon Wakefield's son) purchases 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land, under dubious circumstances, for the New Zealand Company, including the town site for Petre (later to be Wanganui). The first European settlers start arriving in Petre.
• 1842 The first organised European settlers in Horowhenua arrive at Paiaka.
• 1847 In July the "Battle of St John's Wood" occurs when 400 Māori clash with an equal force of British Regulars.
• 1848 The Crown purchases Wanganui, 80,000 acres (320 km²), 8,000 acres (32 km²) of which are supposed to be set aside as a reserve.
• 1855 Paiaka settlers move closer to the coast at "Foxton", which becomes a port handling flax, timber and agricultural produce.
• 1856 The Wanganui Chronicle is first published.
• 1860s Scandinavians settle in the Tararua District, later founding Eketahuna, Dannevirke, and Norsewood.
• 1865 A battle ensues between the Hau Hau adherents (who were largely upper Whanganui Māori), who want to expel the Pākehā at Wanganui, and the Māori of the lower river.
• 1866 Palmerston North (Te Papai-oea) is founded. It is surrounded by forests, with the Manawatu River serving as its only link with the port of Foxton and the outside world.
• 1870s The bush is gradually felled and the Manawatu opened up for European farms and settlement. Former Danish Prime Minister, Bishop Ditlev Gothard Monrad, organises a settlement of Danes near Awapuni.
• 1871 The first sawmill is established at Palmerston North.
• 1872 Wanganui becomes a borough.
• 1875 The Manawatu Times is published for the first time at Palmerston North.
• 1876 A railway opens between Foxton and Palmerston North via Longburn, later named the Foxton Branch. Wellington Province abolished.
• 1877 Palmerston North becomes a borough.
• 1878 A railway line opens between Palmerston North and Wanganui. The first portion later became part of the North Island Main Trunk railway, between Aramoho and Wanganui the Wanganui Branch, and the rest part of the Marton–New Plymouth Line.
• 1884 The Sanson Tramway, built and operated by the Manawatu County Council, opens to Sanson, New Zealand from the Foxton Branch at Himatangi.
• 1885 Mother Mary Joseph Aubert starts her community of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion at Jerusalem, founding a home for Māori orphans, the elderly and infirm. The private Castleciff Railway opens between Wanganui and Castlecliff.
• 1886 The Wellington and Manawatu Railway opens between Wellington and Longburn railway (later the North Island Main Trunk), superseding the Foxton link and ensuring Palmerston North's growth.
• 1889 Levin is founded because of the construction of Wellington & Manawatu Railway
• 1908 The North Island Main Trunk reaches Taumarunui and thence Auckland, opening up the inland districts for development.
• 1906 Levin becomes a borough.
• 1924 Wanganui becomes a city.
• 1925 Mangahao power station near Shannon is completed; electricity supply is established to Palmerston North, Levin, Feilding, Dannevirke and Pahiatua.[16]
• 1926 Electricity supply from Mangahao to Wanganui completed.[17]
• 1930 Palmerston North becomes a city.
• 1934 A major earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale strikes near Pahiatua and causes widespread damage from Porangahau to Castlepoint.[18]
• 1939 Ohakea Air Force Station commences operations.
• 1945 The Sanson Tramway closes.
• 1953 New Zealand's worst rail disaster occurs at Tangiwai on the North Island Main Trunk, as the railway bridge collapses because of a lahar flow from the crater lake on Mount Ruapehu. A train with Christmas holiday-makers plunges into the flood, killing 151 people.
• 1956 The private railway between Wanganui and Castlecliff is purchased by the government and incorporated into the national railway network as the Castlecliff Branch.
• 1959 The Foxton Branch railway closes.
• 1963 Massey University is formed by a merger of a branch of Victoria University (at Palmerston North) with Massey Agricultural College.
• 1970 Famous New Zealand poet James K. Baxter sets up a commune at Jerusalem.
• 1991 In formal recognition of its original name the government renames the Wanganui River the Whanganui River.
• 1995 Occupation of Moutoa Gardens (Wanganui) in protest at the slowness of the Waitangi Tribunal claim settlement process and loss of control of the Whanganui River.
• 1995–96 A series of small eruptions occurs on Mt Ruapehu, throwing ash over a wide area.
• 2004 Sustained heavy rain in February caused the region's worst flooding in over 100 years.[19]
• 2015 Wanganui district, and therefore the urban area of Wanganui, is renamed Whanganui by the NZ Geographic Board.[20]

The subnational gross domestic product (GDP) of Manawatū-Whanganui was estimated at NZ$11.60 billion in the year to March 2019, 3.8% of New Zealand's national GDP. The regional GDP per capita was estimated at $46,764 in the same period. In the year to March 2018, primary industries contributed $1.26 billion (11.5%) to the regional GDP, goods-producing industries contributed $2.01 billion (18.3%), service industries contributed $6.76 billion (61.6%), and taxes and duties contributed $942 million (8.6%).[21]

Agriculture dominates the economy. A higher than average proportion of businesses were engaged in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries, 6.3% compared with 4.4% nationally. Businesses engaged in retail trade were dominant numerically. In 1997 there were 2,300 businesses, employing a total of 10,380 full-time equivalents (FTEs). The percentage of businesses engaged in manufacturing was slightly higher than the national average and manufacturing employed the greatest number of people (12,830 FTEs).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manawatū-Whanganui Region.

• Horizons Regional Council official website
• Destination Manawatū