The East Cape region derives its name from the cape at the north-eastern end of the North Island. The region is divided by the Raukumara Range and, while there are close similarities between the western and the eastern sides of the region, it is customary to include the western part with the Bay of Plenty. Hence the limits of the region are defined by the extent of the five counties: Matakaoa, Waiapu, Uawa, Waikohu, and Cook, which, together with their interior boroughs, constitute the principal basis for the collection of statistics. Gisborne (urban area population, 1961, 25,065) is the only town in the region and in 1961 it had a total population of 43,653 (1.80 per cent of the national total) of which 31.02 per cent were Maoris.
The East Cape has the reputation of including that part of New Zealand upon which Captain Cook first set foot and it was one of the regions where the impact of European civilisation was first felt with the introduction of Christianity and, later, with the settlement of Europeans (1831). But in New Zealand's history early prominence has never been a condition of ultimate importance and, in the second half of the twentieth century, the East Cape is probably the most isolated and one of the least known regions of the North Island; and though the statement must be treated with some caution, the region is socially the most problematical of all. For the area is pre-eminently a farming district, with very little industry and few alternative avenues of economic development. It has, however, a large and rapidly growing Maori population requiring in the immediate future increased opportunities for employment. The East Cape offers the social scientist a remarkable field of research; for its Maori community, having experienced the shock of a new culture, is in the process of adjusting itself to modern civilisation in a largely agricultural economy where population growth is rapid.
The principal mountain chain of the North Island is continued in the East Cape as the Huiarau Range, the highest peaks being 4,491 ft and 4,482 ft, and the Raukumara Range, the highest peak reaching 5,753 ft. These ranges separate the region from the Bay of Plenty and the Central Plateau, except for two roads which cross in the south from Wairoa via Waikaremoana and in the centre from Gisborne via the Waioeka Gorge, a route that has recently undergone considerable improvement. An alternative but poor route is around the East Cape itself to Opotiki, and it is used only by local residents and tourists. Isolation has been a very strong influence in the history of the area; only in 1942 was Gisborne linked by rail to Hawke's Bay, and the line planned between Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty was never completed. Reaching only as far as Moutohora on the eastern side of the range, it is now disused. In its time it served the timber-milling industries which attacked the heavy bush of the inland districts.
To the east and west of the main range lies a large area of hill country, composed of Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks, which is very liable to slipping. Lowlands areas are limited and confined to numerous river valleys and, especially, to coastal alluvial plains. The Poverty Bay flats around Gisborne are the largest of these plains, but further north there is a number of smaller ones located, for example, at Tolaga Bay, Ruatoria, and Te Araroa. The hill-country area is given over largely to the production of store sheep and wool and the farms are large, as is borne out by the figures for average size of holding. More intensive forms of agriculture are confined to the Poverty Bay flats around Gisborne. The production of market-garden crops, peas, sweet corn, and tomatoes has been stimulated in the post-war period by the establishment of canning and freezing works. In 1959–60, 915 acres (cf., 656 acres, 1951–52) were devoted to the production of vegetables for processing and canning and a further 640 acres were under orchards and market gardens, the production of stone and pip fruits, citrus, and subtropical fruits being the main activity. Maize, grass, and clover seeds are also important cash crops. In addition fat-lamb farming and dairying are important.
In many respects the climate of the region favours such intensive cropping, for Gisborne records a mean daily maximum temperature of 75.7° F for January, an average of 2,220 hours of sunshine, and a rainfall of 39.8 in. spread over an average of 158 days. The mean daily minimum for July is 39.5° F and, of the major meteorological stations, Gisborne has the third highest mean temperature of 57.0° F. Intense downpours are, however, common, especially when depressions are centred off the East Cape, and against them the deteriorated pastures offer no adequate protection for the easily eroded rock denuded of its native forest cover. Consequently the region is one of the worst affected by accelerated soil erosion. The frequent flooding of the Poverty Bay flats was, until recent years when flood control and soil-protection measures have become effective, but one of the more damaging and spectacular consequences of misused land.
In the higher hill country, usually above 2,500 ft, land deterioration has been quite marked. Physically the conditions favour reversion of pastures, slipping, and gullying, whilst the isolation of the areas imposes additional costs upon land improvement. This is true also of the lower hill country, but in the post-war period aerial topdressing, along with favourable wool prices, has brought about some improvement of management, though the costs of these operations have been higher, owing to the longer haulages over difficult roads. The total area topdressed in 1951 in the Gisborne Land District (which includes Opotiki County and is therefore larger than the region) was 122,473 acres. By 1960 the acreage topdressed had reached 204,604, 165,518 acres of which were within the region as defined here. Examined statistically, however, the results are not impressive and point to increasing disparities within the region — expansion occurring in the more favoured areas, stagnation or regression being the trend in the less favoured parts. The number of sheep has risen by only 3.7 per cent and the number of ewes by 10.91 per cent (one-quarter of the national rate) in the period 1951 to 1961. Matakaoa, Waiapu, and Uawa counties had less sheep in 1961 than in 1921. Only in Cook County, that is, the Poverty Bay Flats, has growth been either marked or consistent, and there it has been restricted to a 11.88-per-cent increase in the number of sheep (still below the national rate of 39.31 per cent) during the most recent period. In an endeavour to improve pasture management, more beef cattle have been carried to keep down rough growth and clear the pastures. One of the satisfactory features of East Cape farming has been the increased ratio of beef cattle per 100 sheep shorn. In Waiapu County, for instance, the ratio doubled between 1930 and 1950, from 8.7 to 16.2 per 100, and since that date all counties have shown a further, though necessarily lower rate of improvement. This development, which has received some publicity, is brought into perspective when it is realised that during the last decade the rate of increase in beef-cattle numbers has been only one-third of that obtained nationally. The region is not important for dairying; it contains approximately 2 per cent of the dairy cows in milk.
The Maoris remain considerable landowners in the East Cape, both as occupiers and as landlords. 546,000 acres of land, representing 26.6 per cent of the total, are classified as occupied by Maoris, and a further 1,285,000 acres are classified as occupied by Europeans, an undisclosed amount of this land being leased from the Maoris. As the recently published Land Tenure Map revealed, the concentration of Maori land is one of the most distinguishing features of the region. Much of the land is located in large blocks in the northern counties with a further extensive area 30 miles north-west of Gisborne. To overcome the problems associated with the multiplicity of Maori land titles — there are 6,167 individual Maori land titles in the Gisborne Land District, roughly one for every second person — it is customary to hand over the running of the farms to managers who are supervised by an annually elected committee of owners. A large number of factors, among them difficult environmental conditions, previous misuse of the land by European leaseholders owing to the absence of compensation clauses for improvement, little regard on the part of the committees of the imperatives of good entrepreneurship, all combine to produce a rather unsatisfactory level of development and attainment. In some cases, however, very good standards of farming are achieved on Maori land.
The only sizable town of the region is the city of Gisborne, which acts as the main commercial and administrative centre and contains most of the industries. Much of the port's traffic is coastal. Practically all of the inward cargo, motor spirits, coal, cement, and flour, is carried by coastal shipping; whereas half the outward cargo is moved by coastal shipping and half by overseas. In 1960 the principal exports were 7,166 tons of frozen meat, 6,061 tons of grain, 4,737 tons of wool, and 4,078 tons of butter. Over the remainder of the region the rural population is served by a number of small centres, usually located near the coast on small flat alluvial stretches; for example (population figures refer to the 1961 census), Hicks Bay (210), Te Araroa (365), Ruatoria (863), Tokomaru Bay (660), and Tolaga Bay (515). Both Tokomaru Bay and Tolaga Bay are engaged in the coastal shipping trade, and in 1960 handled respectively 1,512 and 1,339 tons of cargo, and both recorded a downward trend in cargo handled during the last quinquennium.
The most striking aspects of Gisborne's relation to the region is the demographic predominance of the urban area, which in 1961 accounted for 57.41 per cent of the total population of the region and 73.62 per cent of the region's total European population. These figures are the key to an understanding of the rather unique socio-economic structure of the region. The East Cape, in contrast to so many other New Zealand regions, still has 43 per cent of its population located in rural districts outside of the Gisborne Urban Area. Half (57 per cent) of that rural population is Maori, and this means that the land ratio of rural Europeans is roughly one person per 162 acres, and for rural Maoris it is one person per 52 acres. The structure is therefore one in which the European population is highly concentrated and urbanised, but it also acts as the dominant element in the economy of the rural areas, despite the fact that it is not in the majority. The proportion of Maoris to the total population ranges from 83.15 per cent in Matakaoa county through to 78.03 per cent in Waiapu, 57.73 in Uawa, and 45.63 in Waikohu county, and for the whole of the four northern counties, Maori population represents 67.06 per cent of the total population. The Maoris remain unurbanised and predominantly agricultural and, though there is little documentation, they live, it would seem, at a level somewhat below that of the Europeans. These contrasting structures are part of an economy characterised by slow growth or even stagnation, but accompanied by a disturbingly high rate of natural increase amongst the Maoris and a culturally disruptive flow of young Maori migrants away from the area.
During the period 1951–61 the total population of the region increased by 13.75 per cent, well below the national average of 24.50 per cent. The increase was concentrated in the Gisborne area. The European population in the four northern counties declined by 578 persons and the Maori population increased by only 146 persons. The total increase of Maori population in the region as a whole was 2,223, even though the population is reckoned to have a birthrate approaching 45 per thousand and was capable of achieving in 1961 a natural increase, that is, an excess of births over deaths, of 481. Migration therefore must be assuming significant proportions. On a rough calculation and allowing for an average natural increase of 450 Maoris per annum, the total natural increase, 1951–61, would have been of the order of 4,500. Approximately 2,300 young Maoris must therefore have migrated during this period, representing one in every five of the Maoris in existence in 1951. As a feature of development, migration is not necessarily to be condemned, so long as the conditions in the reception areas are satisfactory and so long as the young Maori migrants receive a proper vocational preparation before their departure. On both issues, the latter particularly, there is considerable doubt. The Maori leaders have not been unaware of the economic and cultural difficulties faced by their people and, following the lead of men like Sir Apirana Ngata, they have sought to improve the agronomic and institutional conditions of the community, particularly in overcoming difficulties associated with the management of fragmented holdings. Whatever success has been attained it has not been commensurate with the needs.
The Gisborne Employment District, which corresponds exactly to the limits of the region, has a very low percentage of its labour force engaged in manufacturing, only 15.27 per cent, compared with the New Zealand figure of 26.04 per cent. Of these, 36 per cent are engaged in the food, drink, and tobacco industries. During the period April 1953 to April 1961, the labour force in manufacturing grew by only 10 per cent (cf., New Zealand, 24.14 per cent) and the total labour force by only 8.27 per cent (cf., New Zealand, 18.24 per cent).
All the evidence points to the East Cape as one of the least dynamic and one of the most problematical regions of New Zealand. The slow increase in the number of ewes, the small labour force employed in manufacturing, and the migration of Europeans from the rural areas are all depressing in their implications. The absence of any marked increase in the area of land occupied and cultivated is not, however, to be regarded as an unfavourable trend. Unquestionably some land quite unsuited to farming has been exploited, and its retirement from commercial use is the only sound agronomic policy. Obviously the region contains a few highly favoured agriculture localities and it seems inevitable that during the coming decades a sharper differentiation will occur between the more favoured and the less favoured districts.
by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.
| Urban Population | |||||
| Town | 1911 | 1936 | 1951 | 1961 | 1961 Maoris |
| Gisborne | 8,196 | 13,587 | 17,302 | 21,769 | 2,525 |
| County Population | |||||
| County | 1911 | 1936 | 1951 | 1961 | 1961 Maoris |
| Matakaoa | .. | 1,833 | 1,906 | 1,827 | 1,517 |
| Waiapu | 1,734 | 6,301 | 6,251 | 5,694 | 4,370 |
| Uawa | .. | 1,727 | 1,636 | 1,725 | 1,023 |
| Waikohu | 2,963 | 3,315 | 3,403 | 3,518 | 1,603 |
| Cook | 6,420 | 7,589 | 7,878 | 9,120 | 2,504 |
| Total county | 11,117 | 20,765 | 21,074 | 21,884 | 11,017 |
| Total region | 19,313 | 34,352 | 38,376 | 43,653 | 13,542 |
| Land Occupation | ||
| County | Average Area of Holdings 1960 | Area Occupied 1960 |
| acres | acres | |
| Matakaoa | 823 | 156,371 |
| Waiapu | 972 | 431,595 |
| Uawa | 1,329 | 155,471 |
| Waikohu | 1,448 | 512,652 |
| Cook | 641 | 527,819 |
| Cows in Milk | ||||
| County | Cows in Milk | Dairy Cows in Milk per 100 Sheep Shorn 1960 | ||
| 1921–22 | 1951–52 | 1959–60 | ||
| Matakaoa | 196 | 1,779 | 931 | 0.97 |
| Waiapu | 660 | 4,610 | 3,013 | 0.78 |
| Uawa | 1,204 | 1,849 | 1,351 | 0.74 |
| Waikohu | 2,472 | 3,694 | 2,562 | 0.42 |
| Cook | 6,695 | 8,020 | 6,067 | 0.85 |
| Total | 11,227 | 19,952 | 13,924 | .. |