Ngatimoti

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Ngatimoti is a small town near Motueka in New Zealand's South Island. The Māori name means "of Timothy".

The town lies on the banks of the Motueka River and has been inhabited since 1855 when the Salisbury brothers arrived in the river valley. The area is home to forestry, apple orchards and sheep and dairy farming.

[edit] History

The name for this community came from a recently-converted Māori Christian who carved his name into a tree at the corner of what is now Ngatimoti school. On 1 January 1860 the town featured the first gathering of the Brethren religious movement, at the house of a local man, James George Deck and by the 1900 census the movement had nearly 2% of the total NZ population. This created a tension between Brethren and Anglican settlers in the valley, and the Anglicans sent troops to World War I while the Brethren adopted a semi-pacifist stance. The first New Zealander to die in the conflict was from Ngatimoti. An ongoing characteristic of the community is the peaceful coexistence and respect a wide variety of lifestyles and viewpoints, including conservative farmers, hippies and communes. The town experienced major floods in 1877 and 1990, contributed to by extensive deforestation of the steep surrounding region.