Waimate District

The Waimate District is in the Canterbury Region in the South Island of New Zealand. The main town is Waimate, and there are many smaller rural communities dispersed throughout the area. Its boundary to the south is the Waitaki River, to the west Lake Benmore and to the north-east the Pareora River.

The district is administered by the Waimate District Council and regionally by the Canterbury Regional Council. John Coles, who was first elected as a councillor in 1994, was mayor from 2004 to his retirement at the 2013 local elections.

References

Coordinates: 35°18′47″S 173°53′10″E / 35.3131°S 173.8860°E / -35.3131; 173.8860

Waimate

Waimate is a town and part of the Waimate District in the South Island of New Zealand. It is 45.7 km south of Timaru in south Canterbury, 20 km north of the Waitaki River.

The population of Waimate District at the 2006 census was 7,206 people. Waimate has the fewest Maori people per district in New Zealand. It has an area of 3,582.19 square kilometres .

Waimate is well-known locally for its population of Bennett's wallabies. These marsupials were introduced from Australia and now live in the wild in the countryside surrounding the town.

History

From 1877 until 1966, Waimate was served by the Waimate Branch, a branch line railway that connected with the Main South Line some seven kilometres east in Studholme. For roughly seventy years ending in 1953, the line ran beyond Waimate to Waihao Downs. When the branch line was closed on 31 March 1966, Waimate became the first major town in New Zealand to lose its railway connection.

Geography

The Waimate District is bounded by the Waitaki River in the south, the Pareora River in the north and the Hakataramea Valley to the west. The district is a very productive agricultural area with a mix of pastoral, cropping, dairy farming, fruit and vegetable growing.

Waimate (New Zealand electorate)

Waimate was a parliamentary electorate in the Canterbury region of New Zealand from 1881 to 1893 and from 1946 to 1957. It was represented by three Members of Parliament

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 Waimate, and two electorates that had previously been abolished to be recreated. This necessitated a major disruption to existing boundaries. The area for the electorate was in its entirety from the Gladstone electorate, which continued to exist with a much reduced geographic size. The southern boundary of the electorate was the Waitaki River, and the electorate was centred on the town of Waimate.