Pahiatua is a rural service town in the southeastern North Island of New Zealand. Pahiatua is 60 kilometres north of Masterton and 20 kilometres east of Palmerston North, and is usually regarded as being in the Wairarapa, although for local government purposes it is considered part of the Manawatu-Wanganui region.
Founded to take advantage of the Napier-Wellington railway, the bypass of the township by said railway meant the township had to grow in other ways. The surrounding area of dairy and sheep farming supports the small community of 2,600.
Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister and later Governor General of New Zealand, was born in Pahiatua.
