Waharoa

Prior to colonisation, the area surrounding and including present-day Waharoa was held by Ngāti Hauā. In 1830, the Ngāti Hauā chief Te Waharoa established the Matamata pā a few kilometers north of the current settlement.

Reverend Alfred Nesbit Brown first visited the area in 1833, and founded the nearby Matamata Mission Station in 1835.[4] A year later, it was abandoned due to a war breaking out between Ngāti Hauā and neighbouring tribes. In 1841, a Catholic mission was started nearby, but by 1844 had moved to Rangiaowhia.[5]

Land in the surrounding area began to be purchased by Josiah Firth from Te Waharoa's son, Wiremu Tamihana, in 1865. Firth gradually converted the land to freehold sections. It began to be called the Matamata estate, a portion of which forms the present-day settlement of Waharoa.[5][6]

St Davids Church, Waharoa

The township of Waharoa was built in 1886 around the new railway station, Waharoa Station. Firth established a church, school, dairy factory and ¼ acre-sections.[7]

A new butter factory was built in 1921.[8] Another industry was the flax mill.[9] St Davids Presbyterian Church was dedicated on Sunday 18 October 1925. Meeting halls were built in 1916[4] and 1954.[10]

Waharoa had a station opposite Pitt St[11] on the Kinleith Branch from 8 March 1886.[12] It was rebuilt in 1923,[13] had a verandah added in 1924[14] and closed to passengers on 12 November 1968 and to freight on 29 March 1981.[12]