Definitions for otago
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word otago
A Region in the South Island of New Zealand
Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately 32,000 square kilometres, making it the country's third largest local government region. Its population was 213,200 in the June 2013 estimate. The name "Otago" is an old southern Maori word whose North Island dialect equivalent is "Otakou", introduced to the south by Europeans in the 1840s. The exact meaning of the term is disputed, with common translations being "isolated village" and "place of red earth", the latter referring to the reddish-ochre clay which is common in the area around Dunedin. "Otago" is also the old name of the European settlement on the Otago Harbour, established by the Weller Brothers in 1831. The place later became the focus of the Otago Association, an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland, notable for its high-minded adoption of the principle that ordinary people, not the landowner, should choose the ministers. Major centres include Dunedin, Oamaru, Balclutha, Alexandra, and the major tourist centres Queenstown and Wanaka. Kaitangata in South Otago is a prominent source of coal.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
the southernmost province in the South Island, New Zealand, somewhat less in size than Scotland, is mountainous and inaccessible in the W., but in the E. consists of good arable plains, where British crops and fruits grow well; the climate is temperate; timber abounds; there are gold, coal, iron, and copper mines, manufactures of woollen goods, iron, and soap, and exports wool, gold, cereals, and hides; founded in 1848 by the Otago Association of the Free Church of Scotland, but immigration became general on the discovery of gold in 1861; education is promoted by the Government in a university and many colleges and secondary schools; the capital is Dunedin (23), the chief commercial city of New Zealand, the other principal towns being Invercargill, Port Chalmers, Oamaru, Milton, and Lawrence.
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