INVERCARGILL

city, Southland local government region, South Island, New Zealand. The city lies along the Waihopai River near its confluence with the New River estuary and is the southernmost city of South Island. The surrounding area was bought from the Maoris by the New Zealand Company in 1853. Two years later the first settlers arrived at the site, then known as Kelly's Point. Its name was changed in 1857 to honour the colonizer Captain William Cargill. It was surveyed in 1859 and proclaimed a town in 1861, a borough in 1871, and a city in 1930. Most of the early settlers were Scots. Invercargill is the centre of a sheep- and dairy-farming region and has food-processing plants, woolen mills and sawmills, joineries, foundries, storage facilities, and engineering plants. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 56,059.