Maungatapere, New Zealand

Maungatapere is a settlement in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 14 runs through it. Whangarei is 11 km to the east, and Tangiteroria is 18 km to the south west. A Mountain called Maungatapere (meaning meeting house by the mountain) with a summit 359 m above sea level is southwest of the settlement.The population was 1278 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 225 from 2001.Maungatapere is at the junction of State Highways 14 and 15.Maungatapere is the antipode of the city of Tangier, Morocco.HistoryThomas Elmsley bought of land in Maungatapere and northern Wairoa from Te Tirarau Kukupa in 1839, and in 1840 he and the brothers Henry and Charles Walton came with workers to establish farms in the area. Henry Walton's farm was on the slopes of Maungatapere Mountain and was called "Maungatapere Park". After the Flagstaff War, Walton employed former soldiers to build stone walls which are still a feature of the area. Henry Walton married Kohura, Te Tirarau Kukupa's niece, in 1846. After she died in childbirth, he married her sister, Pehi, but she died in a measles epidemic in 1856. Walton built a road between Maungatapere and Whangarei in 1858. He also became involved in coal mining and shipbuilding, and was one of the partners in the timber mill at Te Kopuru. Walton was one of the founding shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand. In 1863 became a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council and two years later he was elected to the Auckland Provincial Council. However, in 1867 he left New Zealand and returned to England.