Waiapu County
| Waiapu County | |||||
| County of New Zealand | |||||
|
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| Capital | Te Puia Springs | ||||
| History | |||||
| • | Established | 1890 | |||
| • | Disestablished | 1989 | |||
| Area | |||||
| • | 1896 | 2,903.4 km2(1,121 sq mi) | |||
| • | 1956 | 2,053.9 km2(793 sq mi) | |||
| Population | |||||
| • | 1891 | 379 | |||
| • | 1896 | 447 | |||
| Density | 0.2 /km2 (0.4 /sq mi) | ||||
| • | 1927 | 5,110 | |||
| • | 1956 | 6,250 | |||
| Density | 3 /km2 (7.9 /sq mi) | ||||
| • | 1986 | 4,628 | |||
| Today part of | Gisborne Region | ||||
| Population and area data from The New Zealand Official Yearbook. | |||||
Waiapu County was one of the counties of New Zealand on the North Island.
NB: This section is derived from text in Mackay, Joseph Angus (1949). Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z, available here at the The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre.
The Waiapu County, which then included the area which became Matakaoa County, was formed in 1890. Its first council comprised: E. H. Henderson, W. Milner, A. H. Wallis, Travers, Connolly and White. At a meeting at Port Awanui on 27 December 1890 Mr. Henderson was elected chairman.
In March 1874, there were only 32 European residents on the East Coast above Uawa—9 males and 3 females in the Te Araroa district, and 13 males and 7 females in Waiapu. By 1878 the number of pakehas had risen to 109. The 1906 census showed 858 Europeans and 2,611 Maoris. Previously the native census had been taken on a tribal basis. In 1926 (exclusive of Matakaoa) the figures were: Europeans, 1,809; Maoris, 3,292; and, in 1945: Europeans, 1,641; Maoris, 4,341, plus 3 per cent. representing residents absent on war service.
The Guide to Travellers section of the Poverty Bay Almanac for 1884 contained a warning to visitors to Waiapu not to attempt to pass round headlands where there was no track. Mention is made of a track from Waipiro Bay to the hot springs at Te Puia, and of another leading to Makarika. From Tuparoa a track led to the oil springs at Rotokautuku, branching off to Wai-o-matatini. There was also a track from Port Awanui to Wai-o-matatini. In October 1884, the Poverty Bay Independent praised the development work which was being undertaken by Mr. J. N. Williams and Sir George Whitmore. "There is already a movement among the dry bones of Tawhiti," it remarked, "and, to-day, the district is alive with the voices of labourers." It added: “Smallholders could not possibly make any strides in the work of converting those wilds into pleasant and verdant pastures.”
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