Huntly

Town 34 km north-west of Hamilton with a 2013 population of 6,954. Originally a Māori settlement called Rāhui Pōkeka, Huntly was a military post during the Waikato war and a Pākehā settlement afterwards. It was named after the home town of Scots settler James Henry, postmaster from 1870. Huntly expanded when commercial coal mining began. In 1874 Captain Anthony Ralph, a former Waikato militiaman who had been granted land nearby, registered the Taupiri Coal Mining Company, and Ralph’s mine opened in 1876.

Companies owned by the Ralph family dominated the industry until the 1940s. Huntly developed as a tight-knit working-class community. Many miners came from the South Island’s West Coast, and the north of England and Scotland. Local Māori also entered the industry in large numbers. Huntly miners stopped work for three months during the 1913 general strike. On 12 September 1914, 43 miners were killed in an explosion in Ralph’s mine.

Brick making began at Huntly in 1884. The dominant firm, the Huntly Brick and Fireclay Company, was established in 1911. After several name changes, it was still operating in the 2010s as Shinagawa Refractories. Many buildings in the town are made of Huntly brick, including the Masonic Lodge, St Paul’s Anglican church, and the former Huntly Hospital, and it is a widely used building material throughout the region.

At first coal was mined underground at Huntly, but in 1915 a bridge across the Waikato River gave access to more coal on the west bank, and mining settlements such as Pukemiro, Glen Afton, Rotowaro, Waikōkōwai and Renown were established. Opencast mining began west of Huntly during the Second World War, and an opencast mine also opened on the east bank of the river at Kimihia. As nearby swamps were drained Huntly also became the centre of a farming community.

Huntly thermal power station New Zealand’s largest power station, on the west bank of the Waikato River at Huntly. Its huge smoke stacks dominate the skyline. Commissioned in 1983, the station belongs to state-owned Genesis Energy. It runs on local coal and gas, and uses water from the Waikato River for cooling. Waahi pā Principal marae of Ngāti Mahuta, and traditional home of the kāhui ariki – the Kīngitanga royal family. It is at Huntly, on the west bank of the Waikato River. The present king, Tūheitia, lives nearby.