- Rai Valley
Infobox Settlement
name = Rai Valley
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name =New Zealand
subdivision_type1= Region
subdivision_name1= Marlborough
pushpin_
latd = 41
latm = 13
lats = 39
latNS = S
longd = 173
longm = 34
longs = 59
longEW = ERai Valley is a locality in Marlborough,
New Zealand . State Highway 6 runs through the area. TheRai River runs past the locality to join thePelorus River at the locality ofPelorus Bridge to the south. Nelson is 48 km to the west.Okiwi Bay is 22 km to the northeast.Canvastown is 17 km to the southeast. [cite book|title=Reed New Zealand Atlas|year=2004|id=ISBN 0-7900-0952-8|author=Peter Dowling (editor)|publisher=Reed Books|pages=map 59] [cite book|title=The Geographic Atlas of New Zealand|year=2005|id=ISBN 1-877333-20-4|author=Roger Smith, GeographX|publisher=Robbie Burton|pages=map 131]The area may have been named for the
Rangitāne chief,Rai kau moana . [cite book|title=Click - A Captured Moment - Marlborough's Early Heritage|author=Marlborough Historical Society|year=2005|isbn=0-473-10475-X|pages=p 64]The locality supports dairy farming in the area, [cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/MarlboroughRegion/LandscapePattern/en|title=Marlborough Region - Landscape Pattern|encyclopedia=
Encyclopedia of New Zealand (1966) ] with a dairy and cheese factory established in about 1909. [Marlborough Historical Society, pp 84-85]History
The Valley was one of the last areas explored by Europeans in northern Marlborough. John Tinline discovered it while looking for a route to Nelson in January 1850. [cite book|title=Marlborough - A Provincial History|editor=A. D. McIntosh|year=1940|pages=pp 116-117]
The Rai Valley was densely forested in the 19th century. A township grew up at Carluke, just to the west of Rai Valley locality, around a sawmill built by William Brownlee in 1907. About 100 people worked at the mill, and a light railway connected it to a port on the Pelorus River. [Marlborough Historical Society, pp 94, 204] [cite journal|url=http://www.peloruspeople.org.nz/havelockmuseum/index.mvc?ArticleID=2|title=Brownlee & Co. Sawmilling Industry|publisher=Bits & Pieces|issue=1|date=September 1993]
Returned servicemen took up many local farms in 1919. [Marlborough Historical Society, p 159]
Education
Rai Valley Area School is a coeducational composite (years 1-15) school with a decile rating of 6 and a roll of 94. [cite web|url=http://www.tki.org.nz/e/schools/display_school_info.php?school_id=291|title=Te Kete Ipurangi - Rai Valley Area School|publisher=Ministry of Education]Notes
External links
* [http://www.rai.school.nz Rai Valley Area School website]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
