The Wanganui-Rangitikei region is a triangularshaped piece of territory located in the south-west part of the North Island. The base of the triangle extends from the Patea River in the west to the Rangitikei River in the east, a distance of approximately 55 miles; the apex of the triangle is located near Ohakune, the distance between base and apex being approximately 40 miles. This area corresponds roughly in extent with the four counties, Waimarino, Waitotara, Wanganui, and Rangitikei, which, together with their interior boroughs and cities, constitute the basis for the collection of statistics. Wanganui (urban area population, 1961: 35,694) is the principal centre for the region which, in 1961, had a total population of 67,235 (2·78 per cent of the national total) of which 9·66 per cent were Maoris.
In the middle part of the last century the idea of a Wanganui-Rangitikei region would have been more acceptable to geographers. For at that period Wanganui was the most important town and port for the whole of the south-western portion of the North Island. By its rail connections to the west and to the east it linked to the remainder of the colony and to the outside world a large proportion of the coastal lowlands, the lower Rangitikei, and part of the Manawatu. Furthermore, the Wanganui River provided access to the interior. The early settlement of the region was favoured by the relative ease with which the coastal scrub lands were brought into pastoral use, but extensive forests to the north delayed settlement, so that only at the turn of the century was the upper part of the Rangitikei and the Ohakune-Raetihi district finally settled, after the Main Trunk railway had been completed in 1908. Given this early start, Wanganui by 1878 was the eighth city of New Zealand. At the census of 1896, with a population of 5,936, it ranked seventh. By that time Palmerston North with 5,910 inhabitants had appeared as a strong competitor and the region of the lower Rangitikei and the northern part of the Manawatu, which had once been oriented towards Wanganui, now increasingly looked towards Palmerston North. Today the two cities are only an hour's drive apart, a factor which exerts a considerable influence on the future of Wanganui's development.
The growing influence of Palmerston North tends to enlarge the area included within the boundaries of the Manawatu; in creating regional boundaries economic influences override any similarities in physical geography. On this account the area drained by the upper reaches of the Pohangina, Oroua, Kiwitea, and the tributaries of the Rangitikei now look towards Palmerston North. In terms of physical geography, however, these areas have close affinities with the belt of hill country between the Rangitikei and Wanganui Rivers and for present purposes they have been included within the region. Contrasting with the hill country and forming the second major physical unit of the region are the broad sweep of coastal lowlands extending between Patea and Bulls. The small area around Raetihi and Ohakune requires special mention.
The Rangitikei Valley is the principal route for the majority of travellers between Auckland and Wellington, and along the route all the major features of the hill country are to be seen. The area is underlain by sedimentary rocks composed of shales, sandstones, and clays gently dipping towards the south-west. The summits of the hills are all approximately of the same altitude and the characteristic and recurrent relief of the area has been created by the down-cutting of rivers and streams on soft and relatively uniform materials which have undergone uplift. From these summits, which appear as fairly narrow, slightly serrated ridges, the land falls away to a series of higher and lower, sometimes extensive, terraces, which are utilised wherever possible by the road between Marton and Taihape and which provide the best farming land in the area. Spectacular descents occur near Porewa and Mangaweka, where the road is forced to drop from a higher to a lower terrace. In the upper reaches of the Oroua, around Apiti and Rangawahia, the dissection is more intense and the real difficulties of road construction in an area where slips so easily occur are most apparent. The hill country was originally bush covered, which made it most inaccessible, and settlements, like Taihape and the smaller villages of Hunterville, Mangaweka, and Ohingaiti, owe their origins largely to the construction of the Main Trunk railway. The area is given over principally to store sheep and cattle raising, although dairying is carried out around Rata and, surprisingly, in the vicinity of Rangawahia.
Near Utiku the main road swings away from the valley of the Rangitikei and follows the Hautapu, but before following its course the traveller has a superb view across the upper Rangitikei towards the Ruahines, which form the eastern boundary of the region. The settlement of this upper part of the Rangitikei was earlier than that of the middle part, because the land was unforested, and the graziers of Hawke's Bay spread on to the low tussock lands around Moawhango as early as the 1870s. The wool was exported at that time through Napier.
Beyond Taihape the road commences a steady climb towards the southern limit of the Central Plateau and ash deposits and volcanic boulders become more frequent in the road cuttings. The great interest of this area lies in the recency of its settlement, about 1900, so that remnants of the original bush are still to be seen at the extreme limits of some farms. In the winter months the climate is quite harsh and snowfalls are common, though the snow never lies for long. Nevertheless, skilful pasture management and the selection of suitable grass mixtures have encouraged profitable farming.
At Waiouru the main highway forks and the westward route curves around the southern slopes of Ruapehu to Ohakune and Raetihi. These are the only towns of any size in the northern part of the region. They act as servicing centres for the surrounding farming and timber-milling population, and Raetihi is fortunate in possessing a group of volcanic soils which makes it an important centre for vegetable growing. In 1960, 741 acres of market gardens were reported for Waimarino County, that is, the Raetihi-Ohakune district. Although these towns are not very old settlements, of all those at the 1956 census they had the highest percentage of people under 15 years of age (Ohakune, 42 per cent; Raetihi, 38 per cent), and their slow rates of growth in the period 1951–61 (Raetihi, 16·56 per cent; Ohakune, minus 4·84 per cent) reveal the limited economic potentialities of this isolated northern sector. Furthermore, the very high figure for average area of holding in Waimarino County, 1,142 acres, a size exceeded only in four other North Island counties, gives one some idea of the rough character of the land and the extensive type of farming pursued.
Raetihi is connected to Wanganui by a second and important route, the Parapara road, a very fine sealed road traversed by a daily bus service. The route of the Wanganui River is no longer important, except for some tourist trips and recreational purposes. The Parapara road passes through sheep-farming country and the slight but real distinctions of landscape between this area and that of the Rangitikei Valley almost defy description. Two things, however, stand out. First, terracing is far less conspicuous, though not absent, along the course of the Mangawhero River; the Raukawa Falls are quite impressive. Secondly, in contrast to the Rangitikei route, the road occasionally climbs to and, for a while, stays on the summits so that their general accordance is immediately apparent. The country consists of a large number of steep-sided ridges, displaying, in the more distant parts, virgin bush, considerable reversion, and second growth. The river valleys are deep, narrow, and winding. The lasting impression is of a terrain inhibiting to movement. It is possible to reach Raetihi and Ohakune by following country roads which take the line of the rivers Whangaehu and Turakina, but these are poor and unsealed roads used mostly by the local farming or timber-felling population. As a whole the hill country is a lightly populated district held in extensive sheep farms and, until the past decade, it has been a very inaccessible area; thus inch to the mile topographical maps (1:63360) for the area are as yet unpublished.
The coastal lowlands stretch from Patea to Bulls and extend inland for 5 to 10 miles. Between the mouths of the Rangitikei and Turakina Rivers and the Kai Iwi and Waitotara Streams especially, sanddune encroachment is marked, and in some areas tree-planting schemes have been utilised tofix them, notably in the vicinity of Lake Alice. To the west of Bulls, however, very prosperous farms have been established upon the sand-dune country. For the most part the coastal lowlands are underlain by Quaternary sediments dissected into broad, flat interfluves and wide, flat-bottomed valleys, shelving gently towards the coast where they form cliffs. Between Turakina, Marton, and Bulls the lowlands become more extensive and merge with the anticlinal “downland” areas of the Manawatu. These coastal lowlands are unquestionably one of the richest farming areas of the southern part of the North Island, a fact attested to by the large number of very fine homesteads, by the high quality of the stock, and the renown of some of the stud flocks. Their productiveness and the sharp contrast in farming conditions between the coastal zone and the hill country are borne out by the statistics for the increase in sheep and lambs shorn in the period 1951–52 to 1959–60. For the region as a whole there was a 12·52-per-cent increase in sheep shorn (well below the national level of 29·81 per cent). The number of lambs shorn increased by 76·08 per cent, which was approximately 10 per cent higher than the national rate of increase. For Rangitikei County alone the increase was 102·83 per cent compared with Waimarino County's figure of 42·24 per cent.
| Urban Population | |||||
| Town | 1911 | 1936 | 1951 | 1961 | 1961 Maoris |
| Wanganui | 14,843 | 23,178 | 27,254 | 33,316 | 1,249 |
| Marton | 1,438 | 2,737 | 3,475 | 4,319 | 293 |
| Taihape | 1,577 | 2,183 | 2,344 | 2,682 | 217 |
| Raetihi | 399 | 1,182 | 1,153 | 1,343 | 341 |
| Ohakune | 743 | 1,394 | 1,621 | 1,542 | 363 |
| Bulls | 519 | 527 | 693 | 1,217 | 42 |
| Total | 19,519 | 31,201 | 36,540 | 44,419 | 2,505 |
| County Population | |||||
| County | 1911 | 1936 | 1951 | 1961 | 1961 Maoris |
| Waitotara | 2,213 | 3,672 | 3,576 | 3,301 | 301 |
| Wanganui | 3,549 | 3,822 | 3,763 | 3,505 | 989 |
| Rangitikei | 8,523 | 10,468 | 10,480 | 13,689 | 1,995 |
| Waimarino | 3,009 | 3,173 | 3,488 | 2,321 | 709 |
| Total county | 17,294 | 21,135 | 21,307 | 22,816 | 3,994 |
| Total region | 36,813 | 52,336 | 57,847 | 67,235 | 6,499 |
| Land Occupation | ||
| County | Average Area of Holdings 1960 | Area Occupied 1960 |
| acres | acres | |
| Waitotara | 499 | 209,890 |
| Wanganui | 778 | 286,175 |
| Rangitikei | 713 | 866,527 |
| Waimarino | 1,142 | 402,003 |
| Cows in Milk | ||||
| County | Cows in Milk | Dairy Cows in Milk per 100 Sheep Shorn 1960 | ||
| 1921–22 | 1951–52 | 1959–60 | ||
| Waitotara | 6,745 | 7,183 | 5,887 | 2·18 |
| Wanganui | 4,466 | 4,722 | 4,046 | 0·82 |
| Rangitikei | 15,437 | 16,631 | 13,323 | 0·84 |
| Waimarino | 3,702 | 3,507 | 2,220 | 0·54 |
| Total | 30,050 | 32,043 | 25,476 | .. |
Wanganui remains the important regional centre for commerce and retailing, and the city council has sought to attract industry to the area. As an overseas port Wanganui is no longer significant, although the inwards coastal traffic in 1964 amounted to 90,407 tons (cement, manure, coal, and cereal products predominating). The coastal outward trade was only one-tenth of the inward figure. Marton, at the junction of the Main Trunk and the Taranaki line, has a number of factories, but it is largely a centre for the rural population, as is Bulls, which, in addition, gains some trade from the large volume of the passing motor traffic. The other settlements of the coastal areas are little more than villages – Fordell, Turakina, Kai Iwi, Waitotara, and Waverley. At Ratana Pa there is a Maori settlement composed of the adherents to the Ratana movements.
The higher than average proportions of the Maori population in the total population is a particularly significant feature of the region and one which underlines the necessity of developing industry in the district. The largest proportion of the Maori population is resident either in Wanganui City itself or in adjacent areas. A smaller group is located in the settlements of the upper Wanganui River – Pipiriki, Jerusalem, and Ranana – whilst the remainder of the Maori population is distributed throughout the area and is associated with small settlements, such as Kai Iwi and Waitotara and the boroughs of the region. The total Maori population has increased by a quarter (25·77 per cent) in the last 10 years, a figure which suggests some, but no great, out migration. The rural population increased by only 218 persons and was concentrated in the Rangitikei County. The urban areas, Wanganui especially, have garnered the increase. Though the numbers involved are small, it is nevertheless of interest to see that the Maori population of Taihape rose from 91 to 217, and of Marton from 138 to 293. In this region the young Maori appears to be going to the towns rather than leaving the district.
During the last decade the total population of the region has grown by 16·2 per cent, a rate below the national level of 24·5 per cent. Most of the growth has been concentrated in the urban areas, especially Wanganui and Marton, and the rural population has grown by only 7 per cent. Furthermore, in the period April 1953 to April 1961, the total civilian labour force has grown by only 8·16 per cent, whilst the labour force engaged in manufacturing has grown by 18·75 per cent, both rates being markedly below the equivalent national rates. With 21·50 per cent of the total civilian labour force engaged in manufacturing, the Wanganui Employment District has one of the lowest figures for the whole of the North Island. The pastoral industry contributes the major part of the region's economic wealth and, if past trends are to continue, it would seem that the lowland areas must carry the greatest burden of pastoral development.
by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.