Rawene is a town on the south side of the Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 passes to the south. The town lies at the apex of a peninsula. A car ferry links it to Kohukohu and the northern Hokianga. History Rawene started as a timber centre, with a mill and shipyards established in the early 19th century. An attempted settlement by the first New Zealand Company in 1826 failed. Captain James Herd in 1822 had taken out the first shipment of kauri from the Hokianga in his ship Providence. In 1825 he returned as an agent for the Company, sailing the Rosanna in company with the Lambton, and 60 settlers between the two vessels. Starting at Stewart Island/Rakiura, Herd sailed up the east coast eventually rounding North Cape to enter Hokianga - his old stamping ground. Herd negotiated to buy a vast tract of land. The deal was contested but for decades Europeans referred to the town as "Herd's Point". Later it was called "Hokianga Township", and in 1884 it became "Rawene", possibly to identify the post office and telegraph. The post office had started operating by 1845 - one of eight in the country. Aperahama Taonui, chief of Te Popoto hapū, allegedly operated a school at Rawene in the mid-19th century. James Reddy Clendon, previously the United States Consul to New Zealand, settled in Rawene in 1862 and served as the local magistrate under the Native Circuit Courts Act until 1867. His house still stands and is open to the public. By 1872 Rawene had two hotels and two stores. There was a Wesleyan church, and the Roman Catholics owned a section. Von Sturmer was the Postmaster, Customs Officer and Magistrate. During the Dog Tax War of 1898 the residents of Rawene left for Kohukohu or took refuge on a steamer after the tax rebels threatened to march on the town. On 5 May 1898 120 men marched from Rawene to Waima to deal with the "rebels", but the dispute was settled without them. A small cottage hospital was built on a hill overlooking the town in 1910. A new hospital was completed in 1928. Dr George McCall Smith headed the hospital from 1914 to 1948 and developed a unique health-system for the Hokianga. Dr Smith became a practitioner of "painless childbirth" in the early 1930s, using premedication with the barbiturate Nembutal combined with Hyoscine.