In my summer holiday travels I’ve found another Matheson place name; or perhaps two or three. Matheson’s Bay at Leigh, north of Auckland, is pretty well known. But just a few kilometres to the north-east, on Cape Rodney, I came across Matheson Bush Road. It turns out this is name after the bush reserve Matheson’s Bush (the Geographic Board doesn’t like apostrophes, which I presume is the reason for the slight difference in names). Just to confuse the issue, Matheson’s Bush surrounds Matheson Stream.
I’d guess that the stream and the bush, and now the modern road, are named after members of the same family that Matheson’s Bay is named after. Can anyone throw more light on this?