In the early 1900s more people lived in the mill towns of Oruanui and Mokai than in Taupo. A mill began production at Mokai in 1903 with a rail link to Putaruru, a major engineering feat for those times. The wooden bridge over the Waikato river, constructed in 1903, was the longest wooden single span bridge in the southern hemisphere. In 1913 a church at Mokai was built and was in use until the early sixties. In the late 1920s … Continue reading Early Mass Centres