Nightcaps
Encyclopedia
Nightcaps is a town in the Southland Region
Southland Region
Southland is New Zealand's southernmost region and is also a district within that region. It consists mainly of the southwestern portion of the South Island and Stewart Island / Rakiura...

 of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

. According to the 2001 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings
New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings
The New Zealand government department Statistics New Zealand conducts a census of population and dwellings every five years. The census scheduled for 2011 was cancelled due to circumstances surrounding the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, however, and legislation introduced to hold the next...

, its population is 339, consisting of 186 males and 153 females. This represents a decline of 13.6% or 54 people since the 1996 census. State Highway 96
New Zealand State Highway 96
State Highway 96 is a New Zealand State Highway connecting the Southland communities of Mataura, Winton, and Ohai. Starting at State Highway 1 the highway is 92 kilometers in length and runs in a general east-west direction. In Winton State Highway 96 runs concurrently with State Highway 6 for 1.6...

 passes through Nightcaps as it runs between Ohai
Ohai
Ohаi is a town in the Southland Region of New Zealand's South Island. It is located 65 kilometres northwest of Invercargill and 25 kilometres west of Winton. The 2001 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings gave its population as 399, a decline of 22.2% or 114 people since the 1996...

 and Winton
Winton, New Zealand
Winton is a town in Southland, New Zealand. It is located close to the east bank of the Oreti River, 30 kilometres north of Invercargill and 50 kilometres south of Lumsden. It is named after Thomas Winton, a local stockman who lived in the area in the 1850s...

. The town has a golf course and two primary schools that cater to students from Nightcaps, the surrounding rural area, and since the 2003 closure of its own school, Ohai.

It has a community website, designed to give information to all new and existing members of the surrounding community. TAKITIMU ONLINE

Nightcaps has a more industrial history than most Southland towns due to nearby coal deposits. A private railway was built from the terminus of the New Zealand Railways Department
New Zealand Railways Department
The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...

's Wairio Branch
Wairio Branch
The Wairio Branch, now incorporating the Ohai Industrial Line, is a branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. It opened in 1882 and is the sole remaining branch line in Southland, and one of only a few in the entire country...

 to Nightcaps to provide more efficient transport of coal; operated by the Nightcaps Coal Company, it opened not long after the state's railway reached Wairio in 1909. In 1918, a proposal was made to build another line to coal interests around Ohai, and the construction of this line was fiercely opposed by the Nightcaps Coal Company, fearing a loss of business. However, construction was approved in July 1919 with a deviation through Morley Village, considered part of Nightcaps. The first section of the line, including the part serving Morley Village, opened on 1 September 1920. Ohai was reached four years later, and in 1925, the Nightcaps Coal Company ceased to operate; they handed over their railway line to the Railways Department, who dismantled it in 1926 as the Ohai line was capable of catering for traffic from Nightcaps. The Ohai line continues to operate, primarily for the carriage of coal, and it is one of the few remaining rural branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...

s out of many that once existed throughout New Zealand. It has been part of the national rail network
Rail transport in New Zealand
Rail transport in New Zealand consists of a network of gauge railway lines in both the North and South Islands. Rail services are focused primarily on freight, particularly bulk freight, with limited passenger services on some lines...

since 1 June 1990.
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