Kaitaia

Kaitaia (Kaitāia) is a town in the Far North District of New Zealand, at the base of the Aupōuri Peninsula, about 160 km northwest of Whangārei. It is the last major settlement on State Highway 1. Ahipara Bay, the southern end of Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē / Ninety Mile Beach, is west. The main industries are forestry and tourism. The population is as of which makes it the second-largest town in the Far North District, after Kerikeri. The name Kaitāia means 'ample food', kai being the Māori word for food. The Muriwhenua are a group of six northern Māori iwi occupying the northernmost part of the North Island surrounding Kaitaia. The Kaitaia Mission Station was established between 1833 and 1834 after a series of visits by Church Missionary Society (CMS) representatives including Samuel Marsden, and at different times, Joseph Matthews and William Gilbert Puckey. Puckey and Matthews had married two sisters, Matilda and Mary Ann Davis respectively, (daughters of Richard Davis, a lay missioner based at Waimate North). They formed a tight band, initially living together in raupo huts, and then in houses they built. As Puckey and the sisters were fluent in Maori, (Puckey having arrived in New Zealand in 1819 with his father, William Puckey, and the Davis family in 1823), they spoke Maori when together, to help Joseph Matthews pick up the language. Both families grew and intermarried, forming the basis of the early Pākehā settler community. At one point, the Church Missionary Society decided that either Puckey or Matthews should move to a new location to the south to facilitate the spread of the word, but Nōpera Panakareao wrote a heartfelt letter to the CMS committee, pleading not to take away 'one of the two candlesticks'. In February 1841, about 500 Maori were present at a CMS service. In 1852 arguments developed between one chief and his tribe, however the impact of the missionaries meant that the old ways of settling disputes had passed. Richard Matthews, the brother of Rev.