Rangiaowhia

Rangiaowhia
former Village
St Paul's Church (Anglican) at Rangiaowhia
Rangiaowhia
Coordinates: 38°00′52″S 175°22′36″E / 38.01444°S 175.37667°E / -38.01444; 175.37667Coordinates: 38°00′52″S 175°22′36″E / 38.01444°S 175.37667°E / -38.01444; 175.37667
Country	New Zealand
Region	Waikato Region
District	Waipa District
Elevation	60 m (200 ft)
Population (2013 census)
• Territorial	102
• Estimate (1852)	700
Time zone	NZST (UTC+12)
• Summer (DST)	NZDT (UTC+13)

Rangiaowhia (or Rangiawhia, or Rangiaohia) was, for over 20 years, a thriving village on a ridge between two streams in the Waikato region, about 4 km (2.5 mi) east of Te Awamutu. From 1841 it was the site of a very productive Māori mission station until the Invasion of the Waikato in 1864. The station served Ngati Hinetu and Ngati Apakura. Only a church remains from those days, the second oldest Waikato building.

In 1851 Rangiaowhia was described as, "About a thousand acres— soon greatly to be added to . . . under cultivation. . . A very numerous population of natives engaged in industry and agriculture. . . in a few years will be the granary of Auckland. . . The whole scene reminds one of English farms. Yellow cornfields bound the horizon ; orchards cluster round the houses. The mill, the flail, the plough, the spade, are seldom idle. . . the village bell calls to church or school. cultivating and rendering fruitful the wild wastes of their district,— accumulating guarantees for the continuance of peace, — in all ways setting an example to their countrymen . . . I sincerely trust that many Rangiaowhias,— such remarkable instances of the progress of the Maori race,— may soon be found throughout New Zealand."

In 1852 the village was described as two miles long and with a population of about 700.

An 1857 letter suggests that the area was divided between 14 hapū, who had converted their 'waste' lands to agriculture.

Immediately prior to invasion in 1864, magistrate, John Eldon Gorst, wrote, "The land around Rangiaowhia and Te Awamutu, extending to and including part of Kihikihi, belongs to natives of the great Waikato tribe. . . Besides the great villages of Rangiaowhia, Kihikihi, and Kuakotari, numerous little hamlets are dotted about the country, consisting of three or four native houses surrounded by their patches of cultivated land. Even those parts of the country which appear to be only a barren waste of heavy fern land would be found, on enquiry, to have been once under cultivation, and to be now used as a pasturage for horses, cattle, or pigs . . . Rangiaowhia, for instance, is surrounded by a fence many miles in circuit; roads are made in various directions ; bridges have been thrown over impassible swamps; and a good many mill-dams have been constructed. A considerable part of the land was covered, a generation ago, with ancient forest, which the industry of the Waikatos has cleared."