Waimate North lies in the Bay of Islands County, and is 177 miles north of Auckland. It was a missionary district in the early days of the colony, is charmingly situated, and has a considerable extent of rich, productive soil, in addition to a very genial climate. The local post office receives and despatches two mails a week.

Waimate North Public School stands on ground said to be the first land in the Colony which was farmed by the early European settlers. The school contains two rooms and has accommodation for eighty scholars, and there are thirty-three on the roll. Miss E. M. Ryan, the present teacher, was formerly in charge of the Mokan school in the King Country, and was appointed to her present position in 1899.

The Rev. Richard Taylor, M.A., was born in the year 1805 at Letwell, in Yorkshire, England. He graduated at Cambridge, and after his ordination was stationed at Coveney, in the Isle of Ely. In 1829 he married Mary Caroline Fox, of Huntingdon, and in 1835 he joined the Church Missionary Society and left England for New Zealand. Upon his arrival at Sydney he was asked to take charge of a church at Liverpool, New South Wales, for a short time, and undertook the work. In 1837 he went on to New Zealand with his two sons; the rest of the family joined him during the same year. Mr. Taylor landed at the Bay of Islands, and went thence to Waimate, where he opened a school for the sons of missionaries and settlers. While stationed there he visited Tauranga and other places and took sketches of anything worthy of note. In 1842, the Rev. I. Mason, who was in charge of the church at Wanganui, was drowned in the Turakina river, and Mr. Taylor was sent by the Society to take his place. He sailed in the “Columbine” schooner, and took with him kauri timber for a mission house. On arriving at Wanganui he found that there was no church in the township, and his first work was to collect funds for one, which was shortly afterwards erected in Victoria Avenue, not far from the site of the present building. In 1859 Mr. Taylor visited England, with a view to publishing a work which he had just completed on New Zealand. He took with him Hoani Wiremu Hipango, a native chief, who was the bearer of a number of native curios as a present to the Queen. Her Majesty graciously granted them an audience, and Mr. Taylor acted as interpreter. They went to Windsor Castle at the time appointed, and the Queen came in very simply dressed in a morning gown, and Prince Albert was present in a shooting jacket. The Queen and Prince asked the chief a great many questions about his country, and the uses of the different weapons, all of which he answered with quiet dignity. After a long interview, the royal couple retired, and Hipango, turning to Mr. Taylor, asked him when the Queen was coming. On learning that it was the Queen who had just retired, he was horrified, and said he had intended to throw himself on the ground before the Queen, and kiss her feet. This friendly chief was afterwards killed by the Hauhaus, while defending the town of Wanganui against them. After his return to New Zealand Hipango was fond of telling all that had happened at his interview with the Queen. Her Majesty, he said, was very curious to know how a Maori chief used his mere or greenstone weapon of war, and, using Mr Taylor as the lay figure, Hipango showed her how a chief executed a rebellious tribesman, by seizing him by the hair with one hand and forcibly thrusting the front end of the mere into his head with the other. The demonstration was doubtless very dramatic, for Hipango used to state that the Queen started back with a little cry and exclaimed, “Oh, dear me!” The Prince Consort expressed surprise that the mere was used with a kind of push instead of with a downward stroke as with a tomahawk, and questioned To Hipango further on this point, finally remarking that it was evident the Maoris were well acquainted with the soft spots in the human head. In 1866 Mr. Taylor paid a second visit to England, to publish another work, and his son, the Rev. Basil K. Taylor, M.A., was appointed to his charge. After his return to New Zealand Mr. Taylor's health failed, and he died in the year 1873. His widow survived him many years, and died at the advanced age of eighty-three. She was much beloved by all the natives, and a great tangi was held at her grave by 400 or 500 of them. A son and daughter of Mr. Taylor's are now (June, 1901) residing in the suburbs of Auckland.

Clarke, Henry Tacy, Retired Civil Servant, Waimate North. Mr. Clarke was born at Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, in 1825 and is a son of the late Mr. George Clarke, of Waimate. He was educated at the mission school and completed his studies at King's School, Parramatta, near Sydney. In New Zealand he first began life as a farmer, and later entered the service of the Government in which he remained till 1879. After having filled several responsible appointments, he accompanied the troops as native interpreter to the attack on Ohaeawai pa on the 1st of July. 1845, where he received a gun-shot wound. Mr. Clarke was interpreter for the old Native Land Commission and afterwards a clerk in the Native Department, and was subsequently engaged with the troops. In 1860 he was appointed Resident Magistrate at Tauranga and Civil Commissioner in 1873; was afterwards transferred to Wellington in 1874, when he was promoted to be Under-Secretary of the Native Department. He was next appointed a Judge of the Native Lanus Court, and successfully conducted a special commission to adjust the land claims of the Rotorua natives. Mr. Clarke was for several years a member of the Bay of Islands County Council from which he retired in 1879 and settled down peaceably at his old home in Waimate. His farm of 450 acres is in a state of excellent cultivation, carrying a fine flock of Lincolns and a herd of Shorthorns and Hereford cattle, with which he has been very successful as an exhibitor at the local shows.

St. John's Church, Waimate, Bay of Islands. One of The Oldest In New Zealand.