Taranaki
Encyclopedia : T : TA : TAR : Taranaki
Geography and people
Taranaki is situated on the west coast of the North Island, surrounding the volcanic peak. The large bays north-west and south-west of Cape Egmont are prosaically named the North Taranaki Bight and the South Taranaki Bight.
Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont—Te Maunga O Taranaki—is the dominant feature of the province, being the second-tallest mountain in the North Island. Māori legend says that Taranaki previously lived with the Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu mountains in the central North Island but fled to its current location after a battle with Tongariro.
A near-perfect cone, Taranaki last erupted in the mid-18th century. The mountain and its immediate surrounds form Egmont National Park.
Although Māori had called the mountain Taranaki for many centuries Captain James Cook re-named it Egmont after the Earl of Egmont, recently retired First Lord of the Admiralty, who had encouraged his expedition. The official name is "Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont".
The region has an area of 7258 km² and a population (2001) of 102,858. Just under half live in the city of New Plymouth, located on the northern coast. Other centres include Waitara, Inglewood, Stratford, Opunake, Eltham, Hawera, and Patea.
The region has had a strong Māori presence for centuries. The local iwi (tribes) include Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Ruanui, Taranaki, Te Ati Awa, Nga Rauru and Ngati Tama.
The way the land mass projects into the Tasman Sea with northerly, westerly and southerly exposures results in many excellent surfing and windsurfing locations, some of them considered world-class.
Brief history
Subsequent to Māori settlement in the 13th century and the off-and-on settlement of northern hemisphere whaling and sealing sailors in the early 19th century, New Plymouth first experienced organised European settlement in the early 1840s. European expansion, out from New Plymouth, was prevented by the local tribes' opposition to selling their land and, later, to a strong identification with the King Movement.
As a result of dubious land trading at Waitara there was much fighting in the New Zealand land wars of the 1860s, with thousands of British imperial troops being called in to attempt to pacify the area.
The present main highway follows the path taken by the British as they marched from Patea to New Plymouth.
Following the withdrawal of the British troops Māori resistance continued, with Titokowaru leading an uprising that achieved notable successes against the colonial forces in the south Taranaki region. Titokowaru advanced, southward, almost to Wanganui while defeating three colonial forces and causing much alarm among the settlers.
Titokowaru's vigorous military response can be contrasted with Te Whiti o Rongomai's peaceful opposition centred in Parihaka. However, Te Whiti's peaceful community was brutally suppressed by colonial troops on 5 November 1881.
The result of Māori opposition to illegal settlement of their land was a series of illegal government land confiscations. The release of a Waitangi Tribunal report on the situation led to some debate on the matter in 2002. The authors of the report compared the suppression of Taranaki Māori to the Holocaust. This controversial choice of language met general disapproval with one government minister being forced to resign for trying to defend it.
Placenames in Taranaki
The Māori language spoken in Taranaki replaces the sound of h (both on its own and in wh) with a break. (The sound used in adjacent Wanganui is similar but not identical.) Thus the famous elder Hina Okeroa was universally known as Ina. The name of the river flowing through New Plymouth, Waiwakaiho, would be written wai whakaiho (meaning "water flowing downward") in Central North Island Māori. It has been suggested that this sound be represented by a question mark, as in "Waiw?akaiho", but that has not caught on.Famous sons and daughters
- Michael Campbell - golfer
- Len Lye - artist, filmmaker Born in Christchurch, collection only housed in New Plymouth.
- Michael Smither - artist
Further reading
- J. S. Tullett (1981). The Industrious Heart: A History of New Plymouth. New Plymouth District Council
- Belich, James (1988). The New Zealand Wars. Penguin.
- Dick Scott (1998). Ask That Mountain ISBN 079000190X. Reed.
Other information
Taranaki's landscape and the mountain's supposed resemblance to Mount Fuji led it to be selected as the location for The Last Samurai, a motion picture set in 19th-century Japan. The movie starred Tom Cruise.
External links
| Regions of New Zealand |
|---|---|
| North Island: | Northland | Auckland | Waikato | Bay of Plenty | Gisbourne¹ | Hawke's Bay | Taranaki | Manawatu-Wanganui | Wellington |
| South Island: | Tasman¹ | Marlborough¹ | Nelson¹ | West Coast | Canterbury | Otago | Southland | Fiordland² |
| Unitary authority>Unitary authorities ² Informal only; not an officially-recognised entity | |
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