Umere

Umere is a town in the Karamea area of New Zealand. Umere is a farming community on the north side of the Karamea River, upriver from the main Karamea township.

Umere Land of Promise
Locality
Umere from the Zig Zag Track, South Terrace
Etymology: chosen randomly
Umere
Coordinates: 41°15′40″S 172°10′23″E
Country	New Zealand
Region	West Coast
District	Buller District
Electorates	West Coast-Tasman Te Tai Tonga

Name

The settlement was originally named Land of Promise, in contrast with the slightly earlier settlement on the south bank of the Karamea River named Promised Land (later redubbed Arapito). The name was changed to Umere in 1912 when a post office and telephone bureau was established in the town. One account has it that the name was chosen at random from a dictionary of Māori words.

History

The original "Special Settlement" of Karamea in 1875 was on the South Terrace, which although safe from floods had infertile soil and was worthless for agriculture. Local tradition holds that the King brothers were out searching for pigs that had strayed from the Terrace to the south side of the Karamea River, and discovered the fertile flats there. Edward King, who had worked on a Sutton's Seed Farm in England, cleared a patch and sowed seeds, which showed such progress that the settlers moved down from the Terrace to this "Promised Land"—aside from the Biblical reference, the settlers had been promised a further allotment of 5 acres from the Government. The name also refers to the "irritating delay" between applying for sections on this land and the final allotment. By the early 1880s the settlement had expanded and settlers had spread across the river to new farming country, which they dubbed the Land of Promise to distinguish it from the Promised Land.

Early attempts at agriculture in the Land of Promise included the planting of hops by Robert McNabb in the late 1880s. Others followed suit, hop kilns were built, and hop production continued until the Great War, slowly being displaced by dairying. A small cheese factory set up in 1917 persisted for a few years, but most farmers eventually supplied milk to the Dairy Company butter factory. In the 1890s a flour mill operated for a few years.

As early as 1892 the Land of Promise School was hosting religious services until the Holy Trinity Vurch was opened in Karamea in 1908. Teacher Bob Tunnicliff was a stalwart of the Umere rugby team, and a Buller representative 1922–28, playing for the All Blacks in 1923. Another Umere teacher, Mildred Cawley, introduced field hockey to the district in the 1920s.

School

The first school building in the area was across the river in the Promised Land, but was destroyed by fire, and in 1884 a replacement was approved and built for £150. The Karamea School Committee complained that pupils were being drawn away from their school district, and the Land of Promise residents argued that the school should have been sited further upriver at a more convenient crossing. Pupils from Land of Promise crossed the river in canoes, and often missed a day of school when the river was impassable. In 1887 a school inspector was petitioned and £110 was allocated to a school building. The school was finished in 1889, and the first teacher, Susan Blane, appointed in 1890. The school roll varied between 19 and 22, later falling to 12–14. With declining rolls from dwindling population after WWI the school closed and from 1926 children attended Karamea School.

Biology

A species of milk-cap mushroom, Lactarius umerensis, was collected in the area in January 1968 by Ross McNabb and named after Umere.