Hokonui

The term Hokonui refers to several things in New Zealand, all directly or indirectly related to the area around the Southland town of Gore:

Hokonui (New Zealand electorate)

Hokonui was a parliamentary electorate in the Southland Region of New Zealand, from 1881 to 1890.

Population centres

The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–76 election. In the six years since, New Zealand's European population had increased by 65%. In the 1881 electoral redistribution, the House of Representatives increased the number of European representatives to 91 (up from 84 since the 1875–76 election). The number of Māori electorates was held at four. The House further decided that electorates should not have more than one representative, which led to 35 new electorates being formed, including Hokonui, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries.

The electorate included the Hokonui Hills, the range of hills which rise above the Southland Plains, of which the hills mark a northern extremity.

History

The Hokonui electorate in the Southland Region of New Zealand was formed for the 1881 election. The 1881 election was contested by Henry Driver, Cuthbert Cowan and Peter Finn, who obtained 527, 431, and 121 votes, respectively. Driver was thus declared elected. Driver had previously represented the Roslyn electorate for four parliamentary terms. Cowan had represented the Wallace in 1869 following a by-election for only a few months. Peter Finn, a supporter of the previous Premier George Grey, was a barrister and solicitor from Invercargill who had previously been a politician in Victoria.

Hokonui (radio network)

Hokonui (previously known as Hokonui Gold) is an Adult Contemporary radio station that is based in Gore, New Zealand and broadcasting across Southland, South Otago, Mid Canterbury and South Taranaki. The name Hokonui comes from the Hokonui Hills which can clearly be seen in Gore and the Southland Plains.

History

The station was formerly known as 4ZG or Radio Hokonui, which broadcast on 558 AM and was operated by Radio New Zealand. 4ZG was first started in 1981 and the station was used in the evenings to broadcast the Concert Programme until 1990 when Concert FM began broadcasting on its own frequency in Southland. Overnight during the 1980s the station carried the ZM All Nighter from the 1ZM studios in Auckland. In 1992 4ZG was reduced to just 4 hours a day of programming and outside this time a simulcast of 4ZA was played. In the eyes of many this change seemed the station was dying of a slow and painful death so as a result two locals purchased the station. In 1994 4ZG became Hokonui Gold and reverted to being live and local.