North Island Main Trunk
The North Island Main Trunk is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is 682 kilometres long and passes through Paraparaumu, Palmerston North, National Park, Taumarunui, Te Kuiti and Pukekohe. Most of the NIMT is single track with frequent passing loops, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of 1,067 mm; the line is double track between Wellington and Waikanae, between Hamilton and Te Kauwhata, between Meremere and Auckland Britomart. Around 460 kilometres of the line is electrified in three separate sections: one section at 1600 V DC between Wellington and Waikanae, two sections at 25 kV AC: 412 km between Palmerston North and Te Rapa and 34 km between Papakura and Auckland Britomart; the first section of what became the NIMT opened in 1873 in Auckland. Construction at the Wellington end began in 1885; the line was completed in 1908 and was operational by 1909. It is credited for having been an economic lifeline for the young nation, for having opened up the centre of the North Island to European settlement and investment.
In the early days, a passenger journey between Wellington and Auckland could take more than 20 hours. The NIMT has been described as an "engineering miracle", with numerous engineering feats such as viaducts, tunnels and a spiral built to overcome large elevation differences with grades suitable for steam engines. Auckland's first railway was the 13 km line between Point Britomart and Onehunga via Penrose, opened in 1873, it was built by Brogdens. The section from Penrose to Onehunga is now called the Onehunga Branch; the line was continued south from Penrose into the Waikato to support the Invasion of the Waikato, a 3.5 mi tramway being built from Maungatawhiri to Meremere in 1864, though turning of the first sod of the Auckland and Drury Railway took place in 1865, a year after the last major battle. This line reached Mercer by 20 May 1875, with 29 km from Ngaruawahia being constructed by the Volunteer Engineer Militia and opened on 13 August 1877, it was extended to Frankton by December 1877, to Te Awamutu in 1880.
An economic downturn stalled construction for the next five years, Te Awamutu remained the railhead. There were protracted negotiations with local Māori, the King Country was not accessible to Europeans until 1883; the Wellington-Longburn section was constructed between 1881 and 1886 by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company. The company was acquired by the New Zealand Railways Department in 1908. From Te Awamutu it was proposed that the line be built via Taupo or via Taumarunui, the eventual route. Four options were considered before the Minister of Public Works decided on the present route in 1884, when it was realised just how difficult that route was, further surveys considered two other options in 1888. Construction of the final central section began on 15 April 1885, when paramount chief Wahanui of Ngāti Maniapoto turned the first sod outside Te Awamutu, it was 23 years before the two lines met, as the central section was difficult to survey and construct. The crossing of the North Island Volcanic Plateau with deep ravines required nine viaducts and the world-famous Raurimu Spiral.
By the beginning of 1908, there was a 39 km gap between Erua and Ohakune, with a connecting horse-drawn coach service. From Ohakune south to Waiouru the Public Works Department operated the train, as this section had not yet been handed over to the Railways Department; the gap was closed on 7 August 1908 for the first through passenger train, the 11-car Parliamentary Special carrying the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward and other parliamentarians north to see the American Great White Fleet at Auckland. But much of the new section was temporary, with some cuttings north of Taonui having vertical batters and some unballasted sections of track. Ward drove the last spike on 6 November 1908, the'Last Spike' monument is at Manganui-o-te-Ao 39°16.44′S 175°23.37′E, near Pokaka. A two-day NIMT service started on 9 November, with an overnight stop at Ohakune. On 14 February 1909 the first NIMT express left Auckland for Wellington, an overnight trip scheduled to take 19 hours 15 minutes, with a sleeping car, day cars with reclining seats, postal/parcels vans.
The dining car went on the north express from Wellington to Ohakune transferred to the southbound express, so avoiding the heavy gradients of the central section. Several sections of the line have been upgraded and deviated: In 1913 the maximum speed limit on the NIMT was raised to 45 mph, reducing the journey time by 1 hour 25 minutes Auckland-Wellington or to 17 hours and between 30 and 45 minutes. Under T. Ronayne, the Railways Department general manager from 1895 to 1913, the section south to Parnell was duplicated and improvements made to the worst gradients and tight curves between Auckland and Mercer. Under his successor E. H. Hiley the second Parnell Tunnel with two tracks and an easier gradient was completed in 1915-1916. On the Kakariki bank between Halcombe and Marton a deviation reduced the 1 in 53 grade to 1 in 70. A 1914 Act authorised spending on the Westfield Deviation, new stations at Auckland and Wellington, track doubling, grade easements from Penrose to Te Kuiti, but the war delayed most of these works for over a decade.
In 1927 automatic co
Puhinui railway station
Puhinui railway station is a station of the Auckland rail network and is located near Papatoetoe, New Zealand. Passenger services on the Eastern Line and Southern Line use the station, it has an enclosed shelter relocated from Papatoetoe station. It is accessed from Puhinui Road from both sides of the tracks via a pedestrian bridge located at the site of a former level crossing; this is the nearest public transport access to the main cemetery for South Auckland. South of this station, Eastern Line and Southern Line services diverge, the Eastern onto the Manukau Branch which terminates at Manukau; the Southern continues south via Homai toward Papakura. The station was opened on 29 June 1925 for passengers. Goods services closed on 12 May 1958. Transdev Auckland, on behalf of Auckland Transport, operates suburban services to Britomart, Manukau and Pukekohe via Puhinui; the typical weekday off-peak timetable is: 6 trains per hour to Britomart, consisting of: 3 tph via Glen Innes 3 tph via Penrose and Newmarket 3 tph to Manukau 3 tph to Papakura List of Auckland railway stations
Howick, New Zealand
Howick is an eastern suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, forming part of what is sometimes called East Auckland. Due to the numerous remaining heritage buildings and other historical remnants from its early European settlement past, it has been called "perhaps Auckland's most conscious place"; the local iwi was the Ngai Tai people of Tainui descent. They had lived there for around 300 years with pa at Te Waiarohia and Tuwakamana; the Howick and Whitford areas were part of the Fairburn claim. William Thomas Fairburn, with his wife and family, established a Church Missionary Society Mission Station at Maraetai in 1836; the local Māori insisted they buy the 40,000 acres between the Tamaki and Wairoa Rivers to prevent attack by the Ngapuhi and Waikato tribes. As an act of Christian peacemaking, Fairburn reluctantly bought the land with his life savings. In 1840, following the Treaty of Waitangi, the Government took 36,000 acres which it used for the Fencible settlements of Otahuhu and Howick and sold most of the remaining land to settlers, as well as paying Māori and returning most of the Wairoa Valley to them.
Howick itself is named after Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey as Viscount Howick, Secretary for the Colonies in the British Parliament and was responsible for the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps immigration scheme. The suburb was therefore established in 1847 as a fencible settlement, where soldiers were given land with the implied understanding that in wartime, they would be raised as units to defend it. A large amount of the early features from this time have been retained; the Māori recognised the advantages of co-operation and trade. Māori labourers built the Fencibles cottages under Royal Engineers supervision, although it was noted that the Europeans had to live in raupo huts, having been falsely promised that houses would been available for them and their families. There were about 250 Fencibles in Howick. Local Maori had been taught to write by the Fairburn LMS missionaries at Maraetai; the Fencibles and their families were poor with no capital apart from a small number of officers. About half were half Protestant.
Quite a few of the adults were illiterate. 101 Howick fencibles served with their sons in the 1860s Land Wars. Howick's links to Auckland’s pioneering and Fencible past has influenced its development and is evident in the names of many streets. Others are named for British military heroes or battles. Bleakhouse was the name given to a Fencible officer’s house built in Bleakhouse Rd for Surgeon-Captain John Bacot who became a magistrate in Howick. In the hands of the Macleans family it became the heart of the social scene in the 1850s/60s; the house gave its name to the street. Other roads such as Bacot, Fencible Drive, Montressor Place and Sale Street, plus many others have Fencible connexions, e.g. Sir Robert Sale was one of the ships. Montressor Place was named for Captain Charles Henry Montressor-Smith who arrived in Howick with the First Battalion of Fencibles in 1847, he moved to a property in neighbouring Pakuranga, where his house, known as Bell House, still stands at the end of Bell Rd next to the Howick Historical Village.
Moore St was named after General Sir John Moore, a British military hero, who lived from 1761-1809. General Moore fought against Napoleon alongside Sir David Baird for whom Baird St was named and he died at Corunna during the Peninsular War whilst serving under the Duke of Wellington. At Corunna he was attended by Dr J. Bacot, father of the Howick Fencible doctor, who lived in Bleakhouse. Moore St was part of the original Fencible village and was sub-divided into one acre allotments down to Rodney St. People will, no doubt, recognise that Wellington and Nelson Sts spring from the most famous of British war heroes, Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington and that Selwyn Rd takes its name from the first Bishop of New Zealand, George Augustus Selwyn. There are streets such as Granger Road named for John Granger, manager of the brick works, which once stood at Little Bucklands Beach near the rock outcrop where the Bucklands Beach Centre board clubrooms now stands, before moving to Whitford. Litten Rd and John Gill Rd are named after former landowner families.
An Irishman, John Gill, settled in Howick in the 1850s, his family farmed the land, now Cockle Bay and Shelly Park. Litten Road is the boundary of the one of the old Gill-Litten farms. To the north of Picton Street, the main street of Howick, is Stockade Hill. In 1863 a field work was constructed on what is now called Stockade Hill, for the purpose of defending Auckland from hostile Māoris who might advance overland from the south, or by canoes from the Firth of Thames; the ditches of the stockade can still be seen today. In the centre is a war memorial were services are held each ANZAC Day; the top of Stockade Hill provides uninterrupted views in all directions. Settlement in Howick centred around the domain, the village developed as a service centre for the prosperous farming community; the centre of Howick shifted to Picton Street, now the centre. It became popular as a retirement and seaside holiday location. In 1865 Howick became a road board district; the 1930s saw the construct
Manukau
Manukau, or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, south of Papatoetoe, north of Manurewa; the industrial and commercial suburb of Wiri lies to the south. The headquarters of Manukau City Council were in Manukau Central until the council was merged into Auckland Council in November 2010. Manukau Central should not be confused with the much larger Manukau City, the entire area administered by the city council; the Manukau Central area was part of the rural area of Wiri in the early 20th century. Its transition from farmland was driven by Manukau City Council, which formed in 1965 and purchased land there in 1966 for the development of an administrative and commercial centre; the Manukau City Centre mall, now Westfield Manukau City, opened in October 1976, the Manukau City Council administration building in 1977. Several government departments established offices in the late 1970s.
In 1983 Manukau City Council decided to rename the area Manukau Central, with the name Wiri continuing for the industrial area to the west. The name Manukau City Centre has been used for the central business district around the mall and city council building; the Rainbow's End theme park opened just south of the city centre in 1982. Vodafone Events Centre, a multi-purpose event centre, is opened in 2005 located at Manukau. Another shopping centre, Manukau Supa Centa, opened to the west of the city centre in 1998. Manukau Institute of Technology, which has its main campus at Otara, is building another campus at Manukau Central in 2014; the suburb, since November 2010, is in the Manukau ward, one of the thirteen electoral divisions of Auckland Council. Manukau is well-connected for transport; the Southwestern Motorway joins the Southern Motorway at Manukau Central. Eastern Line train services carry passengers between Manukau Railway Station and central Auckland's Britomart Transport Centre. Adjacent to the train station is the new Manukau bus station, opened in April 2018 connecting South and East Auckland.
Photographs of Manukau held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections
North Island
The North Island officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island's area is 113,729 square kilometres, it has a population of 3,749,200. Twelve main urban areas are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangarei, Hamilton, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, the capital, located at the south-west extremity of the island. About 77% of New Zealand's population lives in the North Island. Although the island has been known as the North Island for many years, in 2009 the New Zealand Geographic Board found that, along with the South Island, the North Island had no official name. After a public consultation, the board named the island North Island or Te Ika-a-Maui in October 2013. In prose, the two main islands of New Zealand are called the North Island and the South Island, with the definite articles, it is normal to use the preposition in rather than on, for example "Hamilton is in the North Island", "my mother lives in the North Island".
Maps, headings and adjectival expressions use North Island without the. According to Māori mythology, the North and South Islands of New Zealand arose through the actions of the demigod Māui. Māui and his brothers were fishing from their canoe when he caught a great fish and pulled it from the sea. While he was not looking his brothers fought over the fish and chopped it up; this great fish became the North Island and thus a Māori name for the North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui. The mountains and valleys are believed to have been formed as a result of Māui's brothers' hacking at the fish; until the early 20th Century, an alternative Māori name for the North Island was Aotearoa. In present usage, Aotearoa is a collective Māori name for New Zealand as a whole; the sub-national GDP of the North Island was estimated at US$102.863 billion in 2003, 79% of New Zealand's national GDP. The North Island is divided into two ecoregions within the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, the northern part being the Northland temperate kauri forest, the southern part being the North Island temperate forests.
The island has an extensive flora and bird population, with numerous National Parks and other protected areas. Nine local government regions cover the North Island and all its adjacent islands and territorial waters. Northland Auckland Waikato Bay of Plenty Gisborne Taranaki Manawatu-Wanganui Hawkes Bay Wellington The North Island has a larger population than the South Island, with the country's largest city and the capital, accounting for nearly half of it. There are 28 urban areas in the North Island with a population of 10,000 or more: Healthcare in the North Island is provided by fifteen District Health Boards. Organised around geographical areas of varying population sizes, they are not coterminous with the Local Government Regions. Bay of Islands Bay of Plenty Hauraki Gulf Hawke Bay Ninety Mile Beach North Taranaki Bight South Taranaki Bight Lake Taupo Waikato River Whanganui River Coromandel Peninsula Northland Peninsula Cape Palliser Cape Reinga East Cape North Cape Egmont National Park Tongariro National Park Waipoua Kauri Forest Whanganui National Park and many forest parks of New Zealand Mount Ruapehu Mount Taranaki Volcanic Plateau Waitomo Caves Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu List of islands of New Zealand Media related to North Island, New Zealand at Wikimedia Commons North Island travel guide from Wikivoyage
Ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity, is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities such as common ancestry, history, culture or nation. Ethnicity is an inherited status based on the society in which one lives. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, origin myth, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion and ritual, dressing style, art or physical appearance. Ethnic groups, derived from the same historical founder population continue to speak related languages and share a similar gene pool. By way of language shift, acculturation and religious conversion, it is sometimes possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group and become part of another. Ethnicity is used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can have the connotation of something exotic related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established; the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals.
Larger ethnic groups may be subdivided into smaller sub-groups known variously as tribes or clans, which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from the parent group. Conversely separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity and may merge into one single ethnicity. Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis; the term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos. The inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim "the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews"; the Greek term in early antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men, a band of comrades as well as a swarm or flock of animals. In Classical Greek, the term took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group" translated as "nation, people".
In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", in American English "racial, cultural or national minority group" arises in the 1930s to 1940s, serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological racism; the abstract ethnicity had been used for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character". The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. Depending on the context, used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship; the process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, a term in use in ethnological literature since about 1950. Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership, the following types of groups can be identified: Ethno-linguistic, emphasizing shared language, dialect – example: French Canadians Ethno-national, emphasizing a shared polity or sense of national identity – example: Armenians Ethno-racial, emphasizing shared physical appearance based on genetic origins – example: African Americans Ethno-regional, emphasizing a distinct local sense of belonging stemming from relative geographic isolation – example: South Islanders Ethno-religious, emphasizing shared affiliation with a particular religion, denomination or sect – example: JewsIn many cases – for instance, the sense of Jewish peoplehood – more than one aspect determines membership.
Ethnography begins in classical antiquity. The Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had developed a concept of their own "ethnicity", which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave a famous account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent, shared language shared sanctuaries and sacrifices shared customs. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a cultural universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. According to "Challenges of Measuring an Ethnic World: Science and reality", in Challenges of Measuring an Ethnic World: Science and Reality: Proceedings of the Joint Canada-United States Conference on the Measurement of Ethni
Auckland
Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest urban area in the country, with an urban population of around 1,628,900, it is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. A diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world; the Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning "Tāmaki with a hundred lovers", in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions. The Auckland urban area ranges to Waiwera in the north, Kumeu in the north-west, Runciman in the south. Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west; the surrounding hills are covered in rainforest and the landscape is dotted with dozens of dormant volcanic cones.
The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitematā Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have a harbour on each of two separate major bodies of water; the isthmus on which Auckland resides was first settled around 1350 and was valued for its rich and fertile land. The Māori population in the area is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. After a British colony was established in 1840, William Hobson Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, chose the area as his new capital, he named the area for Earl of Auckland, British First Lord of the Admiralty. It was replaced as the capital in 1865 by Wellington, but immigration to Auckland stayed strong, it has remained the country's most populous city. Today, Auckland's central business district is the major financial centre of New Zealand. Auckland is classified as a Beta + World City because of its importance in commerce, the arts, education.
The University of Auckland, established in 1883, is the largest university in New Zealand. Landmarks such as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Harbour Bridge, the Sky Tower, many museums, parks and theatres are among the city's significant tourist attractions. Auckland Airport handles around one million international passengers a month. Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world, Auckland is ranked third on the 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, making it one of the most liveable cities; the isthmus was settled by Māori circa 1350, was valued for its rich and fertile land. Many pā were created on the volcanic peaks; the Māori population in the area is estimated to have been about 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. The introduction of firearms at the end of the eighteenth century, which began in Northland, upset the balance of power and led to devastating intertribal warfare beginning in 1807, causing iwi who lacked the new weapons to seek refuge in areas less exposed to coastal raids.
As a result, the region had low numbers of Māori when European settlement of New Zealand began. On 27 January 1832, Joseph Brooks Weller, eldest of the Weller brothers of Otago and Sydney, bought land including the site of the modern city of Auckland, the North Shore, part of Rodney District for "one large cask of powder" from "Cohi Rangatira". After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in February 1840, the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, chose the area as his new capital and named it for George Eden, Earl of Auckland Viceroy of India; the land that Auckland was established on was given to the Governor by a local iwi, Ngāti Whātua, as a sign of goodwill and in the hope that the building of a city would attract commercial and political opportunities for iwi. Auckland was declared New Zealand's capital in 1841, the transfer of the administration from Russell in the Bay of Islands was completed in 1842; however in 1840 Port Nicholson was seen as a better choice for an administrative capital because of its proximity to the South Island, Wellington became the capital in 1865.
After losing its status as capital, Auckland remained the principal city of the Auckland Province until the provincial system was abolished in 1876. In response to the ongoing rebellion by Hone Heke in the mid-1840s, the government encouraged retired but fit British soldiers and their families to migrate to Auckland to form a defence line around the port settlement as garrison soldiers. By the time the first Fencibles arrived in 1848, the rebels in the north had been defeated. Outlying defensive towns were constructed to the south, stretching in a line from the port village of Onehunga in the west to Howick in the east; each of the four settlements had about 800 settlers. In the early 1860s, Auckland became a base against the Māori King Movement, the 12,000 Imperial soldiers stationed there led to a strong boost to local commerce. This, continued road building towards the south into the Waikato, enabled Pākehā influence to spread from Auckland; the city's population grew rapidly, from 1,500 in 1841 to 3,635 in 1845 to 12,423 by 1864.
The growth occurred to other mercantile-dominated cities around the port and with problems of overcrowding and pollution. Auckland's population of ex-soldiers was far greater than that of other settlements: about 50 percent of the popula
New Zealand
Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan
