The Waikato River
& its catchment
The Waikato River and its region has been populated for at least the past 700 to 800 years. The
river provided physical and spiritual sustenance for large populations of Maaori living along its
catchment. Throughout that time it was a source of food, including eels, fsh and plants. It was also
an important waka route.
A well-known saying about the Waikato River uses taniwha as a metaphor for chiefs: ‘Waikato
taniwha rau, he piko he taniwha, he piko he taniwha’. (Waikato of a hundred chiefs, on every bend a
chief). This saying attributes the power and prestige of the Waikato tribes to that of the river.
With the arrival of European settlers in the 1840s and 1850s the Waikato River was the main
access route inland for traders and missionaries.
During this time the increasing number of Maaori land sales to the new arrivals was causing
concern amongst tribal leadership. In 1858 a number of Maaori chiefs of iwi including Ngati
Maniapoto, Ngati Tuwharetoa and Raukawa placed their tribal lands under the mana of
Waikato-Tainui chief, Pootatau Te Wherowhero, as a guarantee against their sale to the colonial
government. Pootatau was proclaimed King of the tribal grouping at his Ngaaruawaahia marae
that year. This marked the formation of the Kingitanga movement
However the passage of the New Zealand Settlements Act in 1863 authorised the confscation
of land (raupatu) belonging to any tribe who were judged to have rebelled against the Queen’s
authority.
The European settlement of Hamilton, which had long been the Maaori settlement of Kirikiriroa,
was formally established on 24 August 1864, when Captain William Steele came of the gunboat
Rangiriri and established the frst military redoubt.
In the wars that followed, some 4,869 sq km of Maaori land was confscated. While some of that
land was later returned to Maaori, the land area fnally confscated totalled 3,596 sq km.
After the land wars, European settlers cleared and developed the land. From the 1880s dairy
farming was the main agricultural activity in Waipa and Waikato areas. Small towns grew near
dairy factories. The Waikato River and its tributaries were used for transport and Hamilton, on the
Waikato River, became a busy centre of economic activity.
The last hundred years have seen sweeping changes to the region’s landscapes and where people
have settled, used and created resources.
In the early 20th century, most of the hill country was developed for farming. After World War II
more service towns and industries thrived, and small settlements grew around the hydroelectric
dam constructions along the Waikato River.
Native timber was logged north and west of Lake Taupo. Pinus radiata planted in the 1920s and
1930s started today’s extensive plantation forestry industry. Tokoroa’s population more than
doubled in the ten years between 1961 and 1971 as people moved to jobs created by the demand
for wood products. Many new arrivals were Maaori, as jobs and Government housing policies
encouraged Maaori to move to towns and cities.
Government incentives during this period promoted sheep and cattle farming and bush clearing,
so more land was put into farms and forestry. Much of this was marginal land and could only
be farmed with the use of fertiliser. In the 1970s economic recession, changing markets and
automated production of industries meant less employment in the coal and timber industries. The
number of people living in Huntly and Tokoroa fell.
In the 1980s, New Zealand’s economy was restructured. This meant many industries were
deregulated or no longer run by the government. During this time farming subsidies were
removed and, as a result, farming had to become more efcient which meant more intensive use
was made of the land with increased stocking rates and more application of fertilisers.
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