ABOUT HOKIANGA

The Hauora Hokianga Integrated PHO Register at April 2008 was 6,237 (6,388 at April 2007 and 6,454 at April 2006). Maori represent 73% of the population of the PHO register (an increase from 67% at April 2005). The population has a significantly higher ratio of Maori in the younger age bands (for the age group younger than 25, 85% of the population is Maori, compared to 58% for over 45 year olds). The following graph represents the populations and variations in ethnicity across the age bands.

Hauora Hokianga Integrated PHO Register April 2008

The publication "Degrees of Deprivation in New Zealand" (Crampton, Salmond, Kirkpatrick, Scarborough and Skelly) describes the Hokianga area as a "landscape of deprivation". The large majority of mesh-block areas within the Hokianga are within NZ Deprivation Indices 9 and 10, which represent the community as one of the most socio economically deprived communities in New Zealand.

The "usually resident population of Hokianga" reported by Statistics NZ for the 2006 population census was only 5,670. This represents a 12% discrepancy from the PHO register of 6,454 in April 2006. Statistics NZ and Hauora Hokianga are currently working together to investigate the cause of this discrepancy, taking into consideration the 9% census undercount demonstrated by Hauora Hokiangas Census Confirmation Project which followed the census in 2001. The unemployment rate in Hokianga at the 2001 census was 21% compared with 12% for the Far North District and 7.5% for New Zealand. The annual average income for Hokianga people was only $11,300 according to the 2001 Census, compared with $14,100 for the Far North District and $18,500 for all New Zealanders.

The 2001 census also reported that access to motor vehicles, telephones and the internet were significant lower than the Far North and New Zealand averages. 44% of the Hokianga population left school without a qualification compared to 37% for the Far North and 28% for New Zealand populations.

Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the main commercial activity of Hokianga centred on the forestry industry. The kauri industry of Northland contributed much to the economic growth of early New Zealand and supplied timber for the construction of Sydney, Auckland and Wellington. When the forest resource finally declined in the 1920s, the dairy industry became the predominant commercial activity with small scale dairy farming scattered throughout the whole of the Hokianga area. The small dairy farming unit suited the lifestyle and the predominant tribal land tenure of the area. The harbour provided a means of transport for the cream cans from the farms to the dairy factory at Motukaraka. Changes in the structure of the dairy industry contributed to the closure of the Waimamaku Cheese Factory and the Motukaraka Dairy Cooperative in the 1950s and early 1960s. The small dairy farm became unviable and along with other economic factors caused an economic decline in Hokianga from which it has not yet recovered. From 1960 onwards, many Maori moved to Auckland to take up new work opportunities in the manufacturing industry, dislocating many Maori from their turangawaewae and traditional way of life.

While the Hokianga population declined in the 1960s and early 1970s, it began to incrementally increase from the 1980s onwards as Maori began to return home when job opportunities declined in Auckland. Then, in the late 1980s, the combination of the closure of the post offices in Hokianga and the amalgamation of the Hokianga County Council into the Far North District Council had a severe impact on the vulnerable local economy. Since the early 1990s, the population slowly declined as the Auckland economy grew. In recent years, although difficult to assess due to the unreliability of the population census, there appears to be relative stability in the overall population. The Hokianga work force is now predominantly occupied in the service, construction, tourism, forestry and pastoral farming industries.

It is generally accepted that Hokianga has its best opportunities for economic development in tourism, agriculture, aquaculture and horticulture.